The Press.
London, England, 1854-08-05 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

THE WEEK.

THE war excitement appears to have sensibly cooled down since the
authoritative announcement that the great fortresses in the Baltic are
not assailable by our naval force. Our amateur strategists who had
profoundly studied charts of the Baltic and the Euxine, and were
ready to predict to a day when Cronstadt would be destroyed, and the
Crimea be occupied, are now silent, and the public are half ashamed
of their credulity in anxiously expecting from day to day intelligence
of decisive events, and in believing that the Baltic forts, built on
rotten piles, and supplied, through the rascality of contractors, with
cannon balls of painted wood instead of iron, would fall at the first
discharge of our guns. The practice of sending forth random expedi
tions is of recent-date. In former times counsel preceded action.
Attempts were made by Government to procure all available in-
formation of the strength of places to be attacked, and commanders,
by sea and land, were sent forth with some notion of the work they
bad to perform, and of the duties expected from them. But in the
present case no plan of operations seems to have been even thought
of. Our fleets and armies have been sent on from point to point with
no better instructions for their guidance than that, when they reached
this place or that, they were to see what was to be done. It is, to be
sure, in favour of this cautious mode of proceeding—of advancing
troops from Malta to Gallipoli, and from Gallipoli to Varna, and of
employing the most powerful fleets ever fitted out on reconnoitring
expeditions—that if it misses success it avoids failure ; and, were it
the object of war to avoid fighting, we might have reason to be satis
fled that we have to lament no greater disasters than the destruction
of the Tiger and the unfortunate affairs at Old Carleby and Rustchuk.
If the war, however, is ever to bo brought to a conclusion, it must be
by a bolder course of action ; and, whatever may be said in favour of
delay, it appears probable that it will tend more to the advantage of
Russia than of the allies. That " sharp, short, and decisive work "
which was anticipated from the improvement in all implements of
destruction seems little likely to be realised. The Aland Islands,
threatened as the grand point of attack in the Baltic, are inhabited by
a scanty population, miserably poor ; and, if any operations are under-
taken against Sebastopol, it is supposed they will be conducted by a
lengthened series of approaches by land.
The evacuation of Wallachia appears to have been at last decided
on by the Russian commanders, but whether the movement takes
place in concert with Austria—and is, in fact, the result of diplomatic
arrangements—or proceeds purely from military considerations, is
yet uncertain. All we see is that the retreat is systematically con-
ducted—that it is entirely undisturbed—and that the Russian com-
manders fix dates for their retirement from certain places, as if they
were acting in concert with friends rather than in the face of foes.
The 31st of July was named as the day for their evacuation of
Bucharest. It is supposed that they would concentrate on the line of
the Sereth, and their retirement from Wallachia may probably be the
signal for the occupation of that province by the Austrian army,
which would then interpose between the belligerents.
In Asia the Turks have sustained great reverses. Szum Nona, with
his army, was defeated in an engagement with the Russians, under
General ANDRONIKOFF, on the 4th of June. The Russian bulletin says
that the Turks lost eight thousand men, with three fortified camps,
their ammunition, thirteen pieces of cannon, and thirty-five flags; but
private letters from Kars state his loss to have been only one thousand
four hundred men, with two guns. Another battle, of which the
details are wanting, has been fought between the Kars army, under
ZARIF PACHA, and the Russians, under Prince BILBUTOFF, resulting
again in the defeat of the Turks. As its result the victorious army
invested Kars. Meanwhile the allied fleets have been idle, and
the troops have remained at Varna, unless a telegraphic announce
ment dated from Constantinople, July 24, is to be credited, that a
portiou of the Anglo-French force was advancing towards Bucharest.
The intelligence from the Baltic is of some moment, as showing
that an attack on Bomarsund was to be made as soon as the French
land forces joined the allied fleets. The ships left Bare Sound on
18th July, and on the 20th anchored in Led Sound, the southern-
most point of the mainland of the Aland Isles. Hence the squadrons
under the English and French admirals sailed to Bomarsund, where
they were greeted with some shot from the batteries, which fell short.
The ships did not reply, the admiral, it is said, having express orders
not to fire a shot if he could help it until joined by the troops.
The fleets were still at Led Sound on the Ist inst., and were
joined by the first division of French troops on the 31st of July.
General BARAOUAY D'HILLIERS, in the Reine Hortense, had entered the
port of Stockholm on the 29th July. He was presented to the King
of SWEDEN by the French Ambassador, and left to join the fleet on
Monday last. The telegraph from Stockholm, under date of Thursday,
reports that he had actually joined the fleet, and that the French troops
were off Aland. Intelligence of the attack may now, therefore, speedily
be looked for.

•
The appointment of Mr. LAWLEY to the governorship of South
Auitralia has been the most important, or, at least, the most in-
teresting, subject of debate in Parliament, and has since been
the principal topic of conversation in all circles. When the appoint-
ment was first announced, the public saw in it no more than a poli-
tical arrangement, convenient to all the parties concerned, by which

SAIIIRDAY,

a young Whig M.P., notoriously addicted to the turf, had been raised
to an important colonial post, while his vacated seat for Beverley was
made safe for a son of the Prime Minister. Presently, however,
rumours got abroad that Mr. LAWLEY had gambled in °thar ways
than on the turf. Sir JOHN PAXINOTON gave notice of his intention to
bring the appointment under consideration of the House ; the Govern-
ment got alarmed; the appointment was revoked; and Sir G. GREY
made a confession anticipating the charges Sir JOHN was prepared to
make and to prove. Not only had Mr. LAWLEY in connection with
the turf incurred " heavy liabilities and debts," but he had, while
private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, engaged " iu
" extensive speculations in the funds.'
Neither the Duke of NEWCASTLE, one of whose latest acts as
Colonial Secretary it was to offer Mr. LAWLEY the appointment, nor
Sir G. GREY, who submitted his name to the Queen, nor the CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, whose confidential secretary Mr. LAWLEY
was, had the slightest suspicion of these matters until Sir JOHN
PARINGTON'S notice was given. The ignorance of Ministers on points
which it most concerns them to know has become quite astounding.
Mr. LAWLEY'S doings were the town talk long before a hint of his prac-
tices reached the ears of his official friends.
Mr. LAWLEY was treated with great tenderness on all sides, and
there was no disposition to press against him what Sir GEORGE re-
garded as the most serious imputation, that he had speculated in the
funds on his official information as the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER'S
private secretary. But how can a line be drawn between Mr. LAWLEY
private secretary and Mr. LAWLEY private gentleman? By what pro-
cess of official reasoning could this one gentleman be made into two?
How could the knowledge he received from the public papers and his
broker be separated from the knowledge he gained in his office ? If ho
speculated in the funds it must have been with the hope of winning.
Like other speculators, he must have proceeded on the best informa-
tion he could get ; and it is not to be supposed that he could have
dipped his head in a bowl of Lethe directly he ceased his official
duties. That he lost is certainly no presumption that he did not act
on the information he received from his principal, as had the CHAN
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER himself been a speculator he would have
lost too. The schemes which Mr. GLADSTONE must have supposed
would be favourably received proved failures, and, supposing that Mr.
LAWLEY did act on private information gained from his connection
with his chief, his loss would be rather more intelligible than on the
supposition that he acted merely as one of the public. Had Mr.
GLADSTONE'S schemes proved as successful as they were the reverse,
Mr. LAWLEY'S speculations, too, might have had a different result, and
he would probably never have coveted a colonial appointment.
In his zeal to serve his friend, Mr. GLADSTONE made some awk-
ward admissions. He magnified the importance of the office of his
private secretary, asserting that his duties were of an official and
departmental character, and that he had " to conduct most important
" transactions with the Board of Inland Revenue, the Customs, the
" Bank of England, and the Commissioners of the National Debt;
" and, in fact, had to discharge duties which in any other depart•
" ment of the Government would devolve upon the chief." Admitting
this to be the case, it only heightened the culpability of Mr. LAWLEY,
who, having such duties to fulfil, engaged in Stock-Exchange specula-
tions. Sir GEORGE GREY was equally indiscreet in endeavouring to
make out that connection with the turf was an excellent qualification
for colonial rule.
The Bribery Bill has passed the Lords, but in such a shape as to
afford the Government another hint that it exists only on sufferance.
It is turned into a provisional measure to last but for two years. Lord
PALMERSTON struggled hard to induce the Commons to sanction his
provisional Board of Health Bill, but so strong was the aversion enter-
tained towards the acting board that the reign of King Cholera was
preferred to that of King Chadwick. The obnoxious official is, how-
ever, to be recompensed with a pension of 1,0001. per annum, and a
new board is to be constituted with a Minister responsible to Parlia-
ment at its head.

The week has been marked by some judicial proceedings worthy
of being included in our causes celebres. Mr. CARDEN has been sen-
tenced for his attempted abduction of Miss ARBUTHNOT, amid such a
display of sympathy as a century ago was manifested by fashionable
audiences when Macheath was on the point of being led oft' to execution.
A trial is proceeding at the Kilkenny Assizes scarcely less illustrative
of Irish character, and opening scenes and incidents which throw the
inventions of romance into the shade. The point in dispute is, whether
the late Mr. HENRY BUTLER was really married to Mrs. COLEBROEE
previously to his wedding the lady who gave birth to the present Lord
MOUNTGARRETT. If such marriage took place his Lordship must be
considered illegitimate, and the title and estates will go to the plain-
tiff in this action, the son of the late Colonel BUTLER. A third case is
the court martial on Lieut. PERRY, which, whatever other result it
may have, shows the discipline of the regiment to have been
lamentably lax.
The mortal and mysterious scourge of modern times, the cholera,
has suddenly appeared in different quarters of Europe, and has spe-
cially visited the capitals of the leading belligerent Powers, St. Peters-
burg and Constantinople. The number of fatal cases is increasing in
London to such an extent as to justify the best preventive measures
which can be taken, though not to excite panic.

ESPARTERO has made a triumphal entry into Madrid, and the
Court is glad to find shelter under his protection. It is reported
that there have been violent scenes in the palace between the Queen
and her mother CHRISTINA.