The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENIN_G, JULY a 1855,

LINES IArABED AT FIXED RENTALS.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.--(THIS DAY.)

THE ATTACK OF THE 18th.

RAELWATes

Leasing
Compans

Closing Prices
this day.

Business
this day.

QUEEN'S BENCH.—GUILDHALL.
(Before Lord Campbell and a Special Jury.)

HENDERSON V. TIIE AUSTRALIAN ROYAL MAIL STEAM

PACKET COMPANY.

In this case, the particulars of which we gave in our
yesterday's impression, the jury returned a verdict for
the-plaintiff for 2,7501.

TOPLIS V. GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY' COMPANY.- RAILWAY

LIABILITY.

This was an action brought by the plaintiff, residing
at Eastwood, near Nottingham, to recover of the de-
fendants compensation for damages sustained in the
delay in the delivery of a pig.
Mr. Quail appeared for the plaintiff ; Mr. Knowles,
Q.C., and Mr. Unthank for the defendants.

The learned counsel, in opening the case to the jury,
said it was a rare circumstance for a special jury to be
summoned to do posthumous honours to a pig, and as the
animal had gained some notoriety in his native county,
it was necessary be should give them a succinct
account of his history. The " natives" of Nottingham
having deaied it was possible to feed a pig in
London equal to that in their own locality, the plaintiff,
who has a brother living at Notting-hill, determined to
show them it could be done, and, accordingly, sent the
pig to London for that purpose. The pig, which was act
an ordinary grunter, but a remarkable animal, increased
greatly in size under the judicious management of the
brother until it was necessary it should be slaugtered.
The pig was accordingly slaughtered, packed, and
taken to the Great Western Railway station on
Friday, the 7th April, 1854, for transmission to the
plaintiff, but, instead of arriving at its destination
the following day, as it ought to have done,
it did not arrive until five days after, when
it was in such a putrid and decomposed state that the
plaintiff was obliged to bury it. The pig weighed
31„cwt. 3 qrs. 16 lb., which, with the expenses of slaughter-
ing, packing, &e., was valued at about 131.
Evidence was given in support of the plaintiff's case.
Mr, Knowles contended the defendants were not
liable, but the Midland Railway Company, over which
the pig had to pass from Birmingham, where the delay
occurred. The Great Western Railway Company by
their notice only undertook to convey goods beyond the
limits of the company's local destination on certain con-
ditions, which they published at the back of their re-
ceiving notes, which the consigner signed and left with
the company.

Lord Campbell said the jury would have to decide
whether the defendants received the pig in the capacity
of common carriers, or under the special contract relied
on by them in their defence. If railway companies re-
ceived goods to be carried to any place mentioned in the
address, and undertook to do so they were liable for
what happened beyond the limits of their line as much
as upon it, without which railway traffic could not be
carried on. He must remark on the impropriety
of the mode adopted by railway companies in
publishing their notices at the back of the
receiving note in type so small as to be scarcely read
without the aid of a magnifying glass. The Legislature
had now properly interfered to put an end to such at-
tempts on the part of railway companies to establish
special contracts with their customers.

- The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff for the
amount claimed.

MARKET NEWS.—(THIS DAY.)
es.
CORN EXCHANGE.
The present arrivals of English wheat, coastwise and by
land carriage, have been very moderate. Fresh up to-
day they were trifling, and the show of samples was small.
However, the demand for most kinds was in a sluggish
state, but we have no change to roport in Monday's cur-
rency.
The imports of foreign wheat have been only 3,340
quarters. Good heavy qualities sold in retail quantities
at full quotations. Low parcels were dull, but not cheaper.
Floating cargoes realised former terms.
The show of barley was very small, and a good clearance
was effected, at extreme rates.
We had a moderate inquiry for malt at last week's quo-
tations.
The oat trade was firm, and prime heavy samples were
the turn higher.
English
..
1,850
,L3SI MB WEEK.
EOE.
Beans, peas, and flour sold on former terms.
ARRIVA
Wheat. Barley. Malt. Oats. Flour.
Irish .... 430
Foreign .. 3,34 ) 12,300 2,630 skS
10 1,960
(4ENERAL AVERAGE PRICES OF "BRITISH CORN
For the week ended July 5, 1855, made up from the Returns of the
Inspectors in the different Cities and Towns in England and Wales
per Imperial Quarter.
WHEAT. BARLEY. OATS. I ars. ) BEANS. I PEAS.
75s lid 34s 31 23s 81 ) 453 6d 46s 61 ( 43s 8d
THE SIX WEEKS' AVERAGE.
WHEAT. 1 BARLEY. i OATS. RTE. 1 BEANS. 1 PEAS.
76s 411 33s 9d , 28s 7d 455 7d 46s 3d , 42s 6d
QUANTITIES OF GRAIN SOLD LAST WEEK.
Wheat, 84,791 ; Barley, 8,003 ; Oats, 11,724 ; Rye. 139 ; Beans
2,970; Peas, 294 quarters.
__ METROPOLITAN CATTLE MARKET.

The supply of beasts in to-day's market was but mode-
rate. For all kinds we had a steady demand at an ad-
vance in the quotations obtained on Monday of 2d per 81bs,
and a clearance was easily effected. The best sorts were
worth fully 4s 10d per Sibs. Sheep—the supply of which
was rather limited for the time of year— were in good re-
quest as respects the best kinds, which advanced 2s per
Sibs. Inferior sheen were dull, but not lower. The
highest figure was 6s per 81bs. We had a good inquiry
for lambs at from 2d to 4d per 81bs more money than on
Monday. Calves were in large supply and steady request
at full quotations. In pigs very little was doing.
Milch cows moved off steadily at from 141. to 191. each,
including their small calf.

Per Sibs to sink tho offals.
s. d. s. d.
Inferior Beasts.... 3 6to 3 8
Second quality.... 3 10 4 2,
Prime large oxen 4 4 4 6,
Prime Scots, dce. 4 8 4 10'
Inferior Sheep ...3 4 3 6
Second quality ...3 8 4 01
Prime crse.-wiled.4 2 4 61
Lamb
TOTAL sums

a. d. N. d.
PrimeSouthdown 410 5 0
Large erse. calves 4 0 4 6
!Primo small d 0... 4 8 5 0
Large hogs 3 4 3 8
Small porkers 4 0 4 4
'Suckling ealves..2l 0 28 0
Quarter old pigs 21 0 27 0
4s 10d to 6s 4d.

Beasts 1.022
Sheep ...................10,500
Calves' 470
Egs .................... 500

General Pelissier's despatch of the 22d of June, giving
a full report of the action of the 13th, or at least of that
part of it in which the French army was most promi-
neetly engaged, is a candid, perspicuous, and highly
creditable narrative of the proceedings of that unfortu-
nate day. Some additional circumstances might have
been mentioned which possibly contributed to the failure
of the attack, but upon the wholethis report is a fair and
correct account of the chief causes of this untoward oc-
currence. It makes no attemptto conceal the magnitude
of the losses sustained by the allied armies or the keen-
ness of the disappointment which rapidly succeeded the
immoderate confidence of the troops, and it haves us to
award the responsibility of this disaster to those upon
whom the chief burden fills. We shall not assume that
ungracious and invidious office. There were errors of
judgment, there was a want of accuracy and combination
in the movements, there was an incorrectestimate of the
resources of the fortress in this plan of attack ; all this
is fully acknowledged by the Generals themselves, hut
the consummate intrepidity shown by the troops and by
the gallant leaders who fell at the head of their men bids

us abstain from saying a single word which may aggra-
vate the pain of our loss or of their untimely fate. These
daily remarks of ours are read by a large portion of the
civilised world, but more especially they are read, and
read with avidity, by those whom they most concern—
by our countrymen in the camp before Sebastopol; and
however indifferent we may be in general to the praise
or blame of interested parties, we should be sorry to
write a single word which could be thought inaccurate,
unjust, or discouraging by the army.
We therefore confine ourselves to the general
considerations which the problem of this siege still
suggests, and which must eventually decide the fate
of Sebastopol. It is now universally admitted by all
the engineers, English and French, before the place
that the Malakhoff Tower and the works about it are

the key of the whole position, and that against this
point the main operations of the attack must be directed.
The chief importance of the Mamelon, which was cap-
tured by the French on the 7th of June, and is now
called by them the Brancion Redoubt, is, that it at
once enabled the besiegers to advance their lines and
works about 700 yards nearer to the Malakhoff than
they were before, and consequently to drive on their
approaches with greater energy against the main posi-
tion. The surprise we have already expressed on pre-
vious occasions that measures were not instantaneously
taken on the 7th to secure this advantage was equally
felt by the army and by the Russians themselves ; for
in the course of the armistice which was so strangely
granted, as if to enable the enemy to repair his works,
some of the Russians asked whether the Generals were
drunk when they acceded to such a request. General
Peliesier says that after the capture of the outer works
they had been rapidly converted into the basis of an
attack against the Karabelnaia suburb itself. But no
works by sap or otherwise had been driven beyond
them, and the artillery placed in them was still 650
yards from the Malakhoff Tower. Nevertheless, an
assault under these extraordinary conditions was deter-
mined upon after the bombardment of the 17th, and it
was to be directed almost at the same time by the
French against the Malakhoff works, and by the Eng-
lish against the Redan. Upon this arrangement another
remark of great importance presents itself. It should
be borne in mind that the Redan is a work which pro-
jects or advances considerably in front of the Malak-
hoff, and that the fire even from the Mamelon takes
the Redan in flank. The Redan is, moreover, lower
than these works, and is commanded by them. The
double operation of the 18th of June is, therefore,
reduced to this dilemma :—lf the French attack
on the Malakhoff works proved unsuccessful, it
was totally impossible for the English or any
other troops to occupy the Redan, or to hold it
even if they had crossed the abattis and the ditch ; but
if the French attack on the Malakhoff works had suc-
ceeded, then neither could the Russians have continued
to hold the Redan ; they must inevitably have been
driven out of it in a few hours by the fire of the Malak-
hoff and the Mamelon directed against themselves, and
this result would have been obtained with certainty, and
without any assault of the Redan at all. Or, to express
the same proposition in fewer words, if the Malakhoff 1
works were not taken, the Redan could not be held by
us ; and if they were taken, the Redan could not be held
by the Russians. In no case could the capture of the
Redan have contributed to the fall of the Malakhoff
works, because the latter are in the rear of the former,
and completely enfilade it. If this argument be sound,
as we believe it to be, the result is that no attack on the
Redan ought to have been made at all, or, at most, a
false attack to divert the attention of the enemy from
the main point. The real English attack would have
produced a far more serious effect if it bad been directed
against the Barrack Battery, the point assailed by
General Eyre ; and if a powerful body of troops had
penetrated there they might have caught the Russians
in the Redan on their flank and rear. A redan is a re-
doubt not closed behind ; but to attack it by assault in
front is to attack it precisely where it is strongest. The
cross fire of such a work from the faces of the bastion
and the flanking batteries is perfectly irresistible, and
the consequence was that no man got within 50 yards
of the ditch alive. Nothing, in short, could justify such
an attempt, except the moral obligation Lord Raglan
might feel to share the peril of our allies. But there
was this difference in our position—if the French had
carried the Malakhoff, they would have decided the
fate of the siege ; if the English had carried the Redan
only, they would have decided nothing.
This being the unfortunate, but inevitable result
of a premature attempt to carry by assault works
still retaining the superiority of their fire, the course now
to be pursued by the engineers is clear. They have it
in their power to push forward by regular approaches
from the position of the Mamelon against the Malakhoff
Tower, and eventually to establish in these advanced
works batteries of sufficient weight to subdue the fire of
ttie enemy, and we have reason to believe that this regu-
lar operation has now been commenced. Indeed, Gene-
ral Pelissier states in his telegraphic despatch of the 3d
inst. that our works are progressing satisfactorily, and it
is probably to this operation that he refers. Hitherto,
in spite of the prodigious resources which have been
brought to bear against Sebastopol, the fire of the be-
siegers has been too distant and too diffuse to produce a
decisive effect on any one point. The siege has now as-
sumed a more precise direction, and with an adequate
amount of time, of labour, and of artillery, the approaches
against the Malakhoff Tower will acquire more of that
certainty which has hitherto been the boast of the science
of military engineering.
But, while the allied armies Bre obviously endeavour-
ing to concentrate their attacks upon the place, we per-
severe in the opinion that there are many points in the
adjacent districts of the Crimea against which the large
bodies of effective troops not employed in the siege work
might with advantage be directed. The recent excur-
sions conducted with judgment and success by Omer
Pasha and by General Marmora, at the head of the
Turkish and Sardinian corps d'armee, have penetrated to
a considerable distance into the lateral valleys of the
Tchernaya. Nearly the whole country on the left bank
of the Belbek has been visited by these troops as far as
the pass of Aitodor, and without encountering any serious
resistance reconnaissances have been made half way from
Balaklava to Bakshi-Serai. It is extremely uncertain what
amount of forces the Russians have in reserve in the in-
terior, and there are strong reasons for believing that
the main body of the Russian army has been withdrawn
to reinforce the garrison of Sebastopol. All appearances
of an aggressive movement on the part of the enemy
from the north have, for the present, ceased ; and,
though the country beyond the Belbek is exceedingly un-
favourable to field operations, General Bosquet's army
of observation, assisted by the means of transport at our
command, may in a few hours menace any part of the
coast. It is, of course, impossible for es to enter with
more detail on the possibility of such operations ; but
while the allied forces, amounting to 200,000 men, re-
main confined within the plateau which extends from the
Tchernaya to the sea, as if they were blockaded by a
superior force, it is more than doubtful whether any
such force exists. We discovered by experience the
weakness of the Russians at Kertch, at Yenikale, at
Anapa, and on every point we have attacked, except
Sebastopol, and we cordially hope that advantage will
be taken of the delay in the siege operations to make at
least another diversion against the enemy on some other
point of the theatre of war.