The Press.
London, England, 1854-10-14 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

The feelings awakened by the incidents of
the battle•field should not evaporate in send
ment. We must turn our emotions into acts,
and practically fisiudnakate our sympathy for
the orphans of Ole State, the widows of the
n0.441a. .I..et us pcoljact, also, that as a duly
it lies prof} u• tp allow strong sympathy.lifir
the sufferings lf those pho sustained our
country's hones in tho day of trial. The,
hardships our soldiers have endured were
terrible. The shoisra," wrote Lord RA,
LAN, " pursued thee even to the battle-
" field," and numbers, it is to be feared, have
perished for want of medical aid. Let us,
then, think of these things while we "live at
" home at ease," and read I- f the fates of the
brave fellows whoin we all cheered a few months
since as they left our white chalk cliffs, to
carry the fame of our arms to the East, and to
show to the whole world that the strength of
Old England had not degenerated, or her
spirit been tamed by years of peace. Yes !
when the Crown appeals to the nation for the
widows and orphans of the army, let us answer
with full hands the claims of the fallen brave.
At a future time it may become a practical
question how tq devise some plan by which,
in certain departments, the sons of those who
have died for their country may have the paths
to the public service liberally opened to them.
But at present our duty lies in hushing the
sorrow of the fond ones, and in helping the
fatherless who weep for those noble soldiers who
fell in the field of fame.

THE WORKING OF " FREE SHIPS,
FREE GOODS."
THAT the Ministers are not chargeable with
the military successes of the war we showed
sufficiently last week. Its mercantile bless-
ings, we grant, arc all their own. Lord ABER-
DEEN, in his speech the other day, makes a
great point of them, and we freely allow the
claim.

The orders in Council, as finally issued,
settled the principle (or something very like it)
that " free bottoms make free goods. Bon4
fide Russian property is, of course, lawful prize ;
but " neutral " States are a sort of fumigators,
and remove the infection. Russian goods, by
passing through Prussian hands, are purified,
and pass free to England, and vice versa.
The advantages to us of the first half of
this left-handed bargain have been lately pro-
claimed in the Invalide Busse. It has been
crowing with too much truth over the fact—
one of the few favourable facts it has had to
chronicle for some months past—that Eng-
land receives as much Russian produce as
ever, only she pays a double price for it. The
trade returns for the eight months ending
September 5, in 1852, 1853, 1854, give our im-
ports of the main articles as follows :-
1852. 1853. 1854.
cwt. cwt. cwt.
Hemp 580,491 .. 563,92.5 .. 638,553
Hides (untanned) 311,710410,411
Tallow
In every respect, so far as we can discover,
our imports of essentially Russian produce
are, on the whole, larger this year than they
have ever been before. Even of corn the re-
turns stand thus
1852.

1853.

ars. qrs. qrs.
Wheat 1,6 i 9,230 .. 3,31)2.452 .. 3,072,246
Barley 413,681 .. 666,093 .. 495,217
Oats
We had been fondly dreaming that the
corn of Russia was rotting on Odessa wharves,
that its finances were desperate, and its war
carried on by the help of worthless paper
roubles. No such thing. Our exports to Russia
have been nil, except of " the precious metals."
In a word, we have been paying with gold and
lead. About the latter we shall presently have
a word to say.
We learn from au able article in our Parisian
contemporary La Presse, a day or two ago, that,
notwithstanding a new issue of paper roubles
in Russia, their value has materially risen.
The paper rouble is at par at 4 francs. Its
value had fallen to 2f. 05c. ; it is now 8.80.
It has risen in Paris from 3.20 to 3.80 within

SATURDAY,

the last week or tw•o, awl in London from
2s. Bd. to 3s. 2d., which is almost at par. The

explanation of this rise is, that we have im-
ported as much of Russian goods as ever we
did, and have exported gold in payment for
them. Our Money Market has been conse-
quently tightened, while we have been fur-
nishibg the principal niemie that Russia has
of prolonging the war, and have sustained the
(otherwise ba.nkrart) credit, of her inexhausti-
ble " paper.
How ell ilia has been managed is no mys-
tery, The fire at Memel has literally thrown
a glaring light upon it. Memel, a Prussian
" neutral" town, has become the entre* of -
Russia and England. When the fire, a week
ago, consumed the innumerable warehouses,
or rather sheds, that had lately sprung up
there, we are told that property to the extent
of two million sterling perished. Memel is,
in fact, or was, what Riga, Revel, and St. Peters-
burg togetherhad been; and so the wharfiugers
of Memel are moaning, not over the two mil-
lions—for the goods, once Russian, were (when
burnt) mostly English—but over the long array
of sheds, which harboured this gigantic smug-
gling trade. So far we sacrifice to this
" neutral" sort of warfare only our gold, di-
rectly, but, indirectly, the blood which that
gold enables Russia to shed. The other half
of Lord CLARENDON'S bargain, that which
allows English produce to pass to Russia
through neutral hands,—Belgian, Prussian, or
other,—has a far more detestable aspect, of
which, perhaps, we are now only beginning to
feel the absurd abomination. Hitherto it has
been a question mainly of gold : here it is one,
directly, of blood.
The St. Petersburg correspondent of the
Daily News writes as follows, under date of
September 30 :
The Prussians are driving a lucrative trade under cover
of their neutrality ; but whether lead—as the raw material
of musket bullets—may not be fairly classed in the cate-
gory of contraband of war, is a question to be answered by
the Government. This is, however, an undoubted fact,
that the Russian Government steamer Sandonier has
arrived at Bromberg, on the Vistula (in Prussian Poland),
from Warsaw, to take on board 2,800 cwt. of copper wire
for the electric telegraph between St. Petersburg and
Warsaw, and also 3,000 cwt. of lead; and further, that a
similar quantity of lead was shipped at the same place, for
the same destination, last week. Is this neutrality?
Musket balls run about fourteen to the
pound ; conical minie balls, we believe, about
twenty-four. So,. then, under this " neutra-
lity " system we are sending, or allowing to be
sent, to our enemy more than eight million
mime balls week after week.
When is this mischievous nonsense to end ?
We say nothing of the electric wires, though
their British parentage is unquestionable, and
they travel in very suspicious company. But
let them pass. Let the Czar know, as fast as
wire can tell him, that Alma is lost, his ships
sunk, and that MENSCHIKOFF is a braggart.
But do not, my Lord CLARENDON, give us the
melancholy satisfaction of knowing that the
eagle's feather has winged the bolt that lays
the eagle low; that it is our own lead that
slaughters our own men ; do not give the poor
soldier's widow the tenfold misery of feeling
that he who was her pride and life died, not
because duty called him, but because trade
shot him ; was sacrificed, not to the honour of
Old England, but to the tom-foolery of Minis-
terial " neutrality."
We shall he glad when our Ministers have
discovered that war is war, and that its face is
not less hideous for being muffled up in the
nightcap of " neutrality." Englishmen and
Frenchmen are paying, as nations, with their
money and (by thousands) with their wounds
and blood for this mischievous interference
with the natural laws of warfare.

SENT [MENTAL LEGISLATION.
WHEN Lord CRANWORTH, some fifteen months
since, introduced his plan for the abolition
of transportation, we pointed out the extreme
imprudence of abruptly abandoning a system
which upon the whole had proved beneficial
alike to the interests of this country and to
those of the unfortunate beings for whom it
was devised. We do not mean to assert that
that system was faultless, but it was decidedly

OCTOBER 14, 1854.

superior to any other with which we are
acquainted. Transportation was a punish-
ment which, on the one hand, inspired a most
salutary dread among evildoers ; and, on the
other, it afforded them the best possible
chance of retrieving their character, and their
fortune, in a sphere where they had every in-
ducement to industry and good conduct.
These double advantages our present rulers
have deliberately thrown away, in obedience
to certain crotchets of colonial reform enter-
tained by the Peelite section of the Cabinet.
The period that has elapsed is far too short to
enable us to judge of all the consequences of
this most rash proceeding, but some of the
anticipations which we expressed at the time
have been amply realised ; and we may add
that they are already sufficiently serious to
justify the intervention of the Legislature, as
the following facts may testify.
It cannot have escaped the memory of our
readers that the common law judges, we
believe without exception, were strongly
opposed to the abolition of transportation.
The present Chief Justice on various occasions
warned the Government of the consequences
that must arise from the detention of the
whole of our criminal population within the
narrow limits of the four seas, and he only
expressed the general sentiments of his
brethren upon the subject. Another judicial
authority of less distinction, but of more ex-
tensive experience in the administration of
criminal law, has now unhappily confirmed the
worst anticipations of Lord CAMPBELL. In the
columns of a daily contemporary there has
appeared a letter from Mr. Sergeant ADAMS,
detailing from personal observation the work-
ing of the present system. From it we learn
that since the abolition of transportation crime
has rapidly increased in the metropolitan dis-
tricts. so rapidly, indeed, that even our so-
called colonial reformers must be puzzled with
the results. The whole number of committals
to the Central Criminal Court, and the Mid-
dlesex Sessions, during the first eight months
of 1853 amounted to 1,923

Corresponding period in 1854
Mr. Sergeant ADAMS has also obtained the
returns for the town of Birmingham for the
same periods, and they exhibit similar results,
viz.:— _ _

In the first eight months of 1853 304
lt 19 1854

This sudden and alarming increase of crime
in our great cities may be attributed, we be-
lieve, to two causes. In the first place, the
abolition of transportation, except in cases of
the most aggravated description, has removed
the dread of a punishment of which our crimi-
nal population stood very much in awe. In
the second, the number of prisoners who are
continually issuing from our gaols, after
having either undergone their prescribed
punishments or obtained their liberty in con-
sequence of good conduct, must exercise a
baneful influence upon the morals of our great
towns. Upon this latter point an instance
cited by Mr. Sergeant ADAMS is worthy of all
attention, for, to the best of our belief, it is one
of very frequent occurrence :
Take for example (he says) a case tried about three
weeks ago at the Middlesex Sessions. The prisoner had
been from his childhood a notorious thief, and the asso
elate of thieves; he had been imprisoned for theft for
various periods before he had attained hi 3 sixteenth year,
no less than seven times in the Westminster Bridewell
alone, independent of imprisonment in other gaols. He
was then sentenced to transportation, and sent to Park-
hurst, and at the age of eighteen, all his antecedents being
known to the prison authorities, on the petition of his
parents he is sent back, with a certificate of good conduct
and 21. in his pocket, to his old haunts in the purlieus
of St. Giles, so wholly unreformed that he forthwith Te-
atimes his old trade, and is actually captured, on the second
day of his return, in the act of instructing a young lad in
the science of theft.
So much for certificates of good conduct,
and so much for the working of our new plan of
convict discipline ! Mr. Sergeant ADAMS asks,
if our reformed thieves make such use of their
experience immediately on their liberation,
what is to be expected from those who remain
deaf to the admonitions of our prison autho-
rities, both civil and spiritual, but who never-
theless must be turned loose upon society the
moment their term of punishment has ex-
pired? It is a most grave and pertinent ques-

THE PRESS.

tion, and we are glad that it has been brought
thus prominently before the public by so corn-
petent an authority.

OUR DEFENDERS AND THEIR
DETRACTORS.
Nor many weeks have elapsed since, in the
plainest words, the most cruel imputations
were flung upon " the courage " of our officers
who, at the battle of the Alma, have brilliantly
confuted their defamers. Our readers must
recollect as well as ourselves the harsh and
galling taunts made on the characters of the
officers in the expeditionary army. We shall
not sully our columns with reproducing these
unworthy imputations, yet, when we recollect
how it was insinuated that such persons were
fitted only fora life of ease at home, we cannot
but be struck with the names of those who
shed their blood so freely on the ensanguined
field of the Alma.
We have heard several persons remark on
the great number of officers connected with
either the nobility or higher gentry to be
found amongst the killed and wounded. The
men of birth and fortune did not flinch from
the perils or fatigues of the day; and even
the most wanton defamer could not now
insinuate that the officers (slandered but
a few weeks since) were inferior in soldierly
chivalry to their predecessors in the Penin-
sula, or to their present gallant comrades of
any rank or class? When bitter sneers and
cruel taunts have been published against our
"aristocratic" officers, it is worth observing
some of the names amongst the " killed and
wounded."
Lord CHEwroN, of the Fusilier Guards (son
and heir to the Earl WALDEGRAVE), was wounded
so severely as to be returned as " killed." In
the same'regiment Viscount ENNISMORE (son
and heir to the Earl of LISTOWEL) was also
severely wounded; and the brother of the Earl
Of ANNESLEY, in the same regiment, was in the
same list. The names of Colonels DALRYMPLE
and BERKELEY, Captains ASTLEY and BULWER
(cousin to Sir LITTON BULWER), amongst the
wounded of the Scots' Fusiliers, belong to our
higher social circles. So also in the staff of
the Ist and 2nd divisions we find the names of
Captain CUST (killed), and the Honourable
Colonel HERBERT, severely hurt. In the Grena-
dier and Coldstream Guards only four names
are returned, of which three belong to the
Honourable H. PERCY, and to the eminent
families of BARING and BURGOYNE. To the
casualties of the 30th the families of Lord
LONGFORD and CONOLLY Of CaStletoWil
cOntrl-
bute their names In the 55th Regiment,
Major ROSE, an officer of fortune, of Kilravock
Castle, Nairnshire, was killed, In the 95th
two of the BRAYBROOKE family were wounded,
and the familiesof POLHILL, G ERARD (of Gerard-
hall), and BOOTHBY swelled the list. The
two EDDINOTONS killed in this brave regiment
were sons of the late Captain GEORGE EDDING-
TON, formerly of the Royals.
In the 7th Regiment Lord Mimic's brother
was killed after signalising himself by deeds
of valour. Even after getting his death-wound
we read that " he drove his sword through the
" heart of the first advancing foeman, while a
" blow from his strong arm levelled another to
" the ground." And of those of his brother
officers wounded were Lord LISTOWEL'S brother,
the Honourable Captain HARE (severely) ;
Captain FITZGERALD, son of Lord WILLIAM
FITZGERALD; Captain DUDLEY PERSSE, heir to
the PERssEs of Roxborough, and a son of Lord
CaovroN. In the names of the killed in the
glorious 23rd we read those of WATKINS
WYNN, DELME RADCLIFFE, Sir WILLIAM YOUNG,
Bart. (shot while giving a cup of water to a
wounded Russian), ANSTRUTHER, BUTLER,
EVANS (of Dean-house, Oxon). Out of the
eight officers killed of that regiment five be-
longed to titled families; and of the 33rd, the
only officer killed was son to Lord WILLIAM
MONIAou. In the 2nd Rifle Brigade the Earl
of ERROL was the only officer wounded ; and
of the two artillery officers returned as killed,
one was son of Sir JOHN WALSHAM, Bart.
Amongst the coolest acts of courage shown in

963

the field we observe that the reconnoitring
of the Honourable JAMES MACDONALD (so
popular in our fashionable circles) was
specially recorded.
And are these the men against whom bitter
calumnies were published a few weeks ago, and
who were taunted as " fainthearted " ? Even
so. But they have washed out in their blood
the calumnies circulated against them, and
have established for themselves a lasting claim
to the gratitude of their country, and to honour-
able mention in the illustrious records of
British heroism.