The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-19 00:00:00

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.

Under the direction of Mss Rebecca Isaacs.
THIS EVENING,
Will be performed THE HONEST L kWYEE.
After which. CHERI AND FAIR STAR. Principdl character
by Miss Rebecca Isaacs.
To he followed by I'VE EATEN MY FRIEND.
To conclufle with SALLY SMART.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.
Lessee and Manager, Mr. Win. Cooke.

Boundless Magnificence and Majestic Effect.

THIS EVENING,

The Crand Hippodramatic Spectacle called. ENGLAND end
FRANCE in the DAYS of CHIVALRY ; or, the Brothers in Arms.
Caparisoned steeds' knights in armour, tournament in the Field of
the Cloth of Gold. One gigantic arena formed by the ring and the
stage! ',fizzling braliancy and vi rid reality!
Each night the unique AC 1 S in the CIRCLE, arranged by Mr.
William Cooke.
- -

Box-office open from Eleven till Four. Stage Manager, Mr. W
West. Acting NT Ana:cc; Mr. W. H. Cooke. EqueVrian Director,
Mr. W. Cooke, Jun.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON

Tana DAY —Mornins 44 rotn.after 4 j Eveni. g 4min. aft. f,
To---Initnow—Aorniug 24 min.after 5 j Evcning 41min. art. f,

TiTE WEATHER.—Sum Orrunt, June 19,
MERMONETZA, IN TITS SLUM
59 —%igheßt since noon yestorlay.
51—lowest this morning and during the night.
;,9—this day, at noon.
BAROMETZB, very unsteady; down to 29.85—n0w up
to 30.20.
Wisu, N.E.—Fresh, with find cold, sunshiny weather.

b., e; ~i, j 71;:,!: ), N.,
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LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1855.

The Report of the Select Committee appointed
on Mr. ROEBUCK'S motion was last night pre-
sented to the House of Commons. From the
anxious care displayed by the Government in the
selection of its members, and their palpable adhe-
sion to the principle laid down by one of their
number, Sir CHARLES Woon, at the time of the
nomination of the Commercial Crisis ComMittee,
it was tolerably clear that everything practicable
would be done to screen the delinquents through
whose misconduct the privations and sufferings of
as gallant a body of men as were ever seat forth
from any country were occasioned, and who were
responsible for a large proportion of the mortality
by which the ranks of that gallant army was
thinned—whose apathy and indifference occasioned
a far greater destruction of human life than the
Russian shot or steel. The attempt to do this is
manifest ; but, despite the Ministerial bias
of a majority of the Committee—despite
their resolution to prevent the most startling
revelations—facts have been elicited of the most
heartrending character, which fasten Criminality
of a very serious description on some of the mem-
bers of the ABERDEEN Cabinet, and on sundry
subordinate officials, and which prove beyond the
possibility of doubt the imperative necessity of a
large and comprehensive measure of Administra-
tive Reform—a total change in the system under
which such intolerable abuses were possible, and
the exemplary punishment of those responsible
therefore, through sins either of omission or com-
mission. If a boiler bursts through the negligence
or incompetency of the party in charge, he may
be convicted of the manslaughter of all who have
lost their lives through his default ; and shall we
suffer the destruction of thousands of our fellow-
subjects to remain unavenged because the offend-
ers are of a better class, or because the victims
were sacrificed on the altar of routine, in strict
accordance with a long collection of vicious pre-
cedents ? No. England, justly indignant, de-
mands that retributive justice shall fall on those
who have so deeply injured the best and bravest
of her children, and that the delinquents shall
bitterly expiate the wrongs and evils for which
they are justly responsible.
Fortunately, the House of Commons is not
limited to the diluted Report. It has also the
evidence on which it was founded. The answers
to more than twenty-one thousand questions re-
main on record, as abundant data to warrant
much more stringent and decisive conclusions than
the carefully-chosen Committee were willing to
arrive at. Much valuable information was con-
cealed in consequence of the decision of a majority
of the Committee not to allow the production of
the secret instructions from the Board of Ad-
miralty to. the Commanders of the Baltic and
Euxine Fleets, and to restrain the publica-
tion of other matters, where publicity was
especially desirable. But there is still suffi-
cient not merely to justify, but imperatively
to demand, the speedy and decisive action of the
chosen representatives of the British people.
It is impossible within the limits of a single
article to enter at any length into the various
points referred to in the deplorable narrative of
privation and suffering en the one side, and of
gross inefficiency and culpable negligence on the
other. The heads of the inquiry conducted by
the Committee were—

" Ist.—The condition of our army before
Sebastopol.

"2dly.—The conduct of the departments, both
at home and abroad, whose duty it has been to
minister to the wants of that army."
The matters relating to the first topic will ex-
cite the deepest grapathy—to the second the
fierce and burning indignation of the people.
There is, indeed, abundant materials for both, and
our first care should be to make the utmost
amends to the sufferers, and if we do not
severely punish, the wrong doers; at least to

Lclop!- every possible precaution agaiust the recur-
•ence of the like calamities. The cold earth has

,losed. over many of the victims, but there are few
who have not left relatives and friends to whom
iotne recompence, however inadequate, may not
be offered for their irreparable losues. Even a
iimple recognition by the nation may convey some
legree of balm to their wounded feelings.

The Committee report that the suffering of the
irmy " resulted mainly from the circumstances
under which the expedition to the Crimea was
undertaken and executed." Tho Admin-
istration by whom it was ordered were
profoundly ignorant as to the opposition that
night be anticipated. They looked for an imme-
liate triumph, and made no provision for a winter
campaign. This ignorance was the teterrima causa
aiali, the fountain and origin of all the mischief
hat followed.. Every true-hearted Englishman

ill concur in the expression of admiration and
gratitude for the patience and fortitude displayed
by the sufferers during their arduous trials, and
t'ervently join in the aspiration that " every
British army may in future display the valour
xhich this noble army has displayed, and that
~one may thereafter be exposed to such sufferings
LS are recorded in the Report."

The accounts hitherto received of the massacre
f the boat's crew of H.M.S. Cossack, while land-
ing prisoners, under the protection of a flag of
truce, at Hango, and to which we referred in our
impression of Saturday, by no means explained
the cold-blooded brutality of that inhuman atro-
city, which has placed not only the infamous
actors in the sanguinary outrage, but the Govern-
ment that could shelter the perpetrators of such
t crime, far beyond the pale of civilisation. An
luthentic account was last night given by Sir
CHARLES WOOD of the various circumstances con-
fleeted with the event, which deprives the blood-
'hirsty miscreants of the shadow of a pretext for
saying that there had been any mistake or mis-
conception. If ever there was a wilful, deliberate,
Led cold-blooded murder, it was that of the
-,fficers and seamen of the Cossack, at the very
moment when they were engaged in an act of
mercy to the countrymen of the infamous assassins.
If ever there was an act of diabolical vindictive-
less and profound disregard for every moral ob-
ligation, it was that of which " the thing"—we
cannot call it man—who commanded the Musco-
vite imurderers was guilty—an act which should
call down the vengeance of all civilised nations,
tnd which should insure the condign punishment
of the offenders even by Russian hands.
It appears that the Cossack had some time
ago taken and destroyed some coasting vessels off
Hango, and that three persons were carried off as
prisoners—that Admiral Dim:us, anxious not to
visit with any unnecessary severity the trade of the
country so long as the communications and sup-
plies between St. Petersburg and the Gulf of
Finland were interrupted, directed the Cossack to
put back b Hango and restore to liberty the
three persons so captured, and font other pri-
soners, who requested to be landed in the same
place. This was accordingly done ; and
now mark the manner in which this tender
consideration for the enemy's trade was recom-
pensed. The Cossack anchored a short distance
from Hango, and sent her cutter, under the com-
mand of Lieutenant GENESTE, with the liberated
prisoners, and an ordinary boat's crew. The flag
of truce was prominently displayed the entire
time. It must have been visible for at least
:calf an hour before the boat approached the jetty.
One person was only visible on the shore, whe
ran away, and the prisoners were landed with
their baggage ; the officers (three in number)
also landing, while the crew remained in the
boat.

Such was the state of affairs, when some
three or four hundred Russian soldiers who pru-
dently kept out of sight so long as they thought
the party were armed came to tho jetty. Lieut.
GENESTE waved the flag of truce, and explained
the reason of their landing, and a Finnish Captain
(one of the prisoners) also took the flag of truce
and added his testimony to that of the British
officer. The Muscovite savage in command of the
detachment not only understood, but was able to
speak English. Ho answered the unarmed
men engaged in the mission of mercy " that he
did not cars for the flag of truce, but would
" show how the Russians could fight ; where-
upon some hundred Russian soldiers immediately
fired on the officers and Finnish prisoners on the
jetty, killing them all, and then fired into the
boat until every man fell. They then rushed
into the boat, threw some bodies overboard,
dragged one wounded man out, and bayonetted
him on the jetty, and retired, leaving five bodies
for dead in the boat."

The skulking cowards thought that they had
removed every witness to their awful crime. Tn
order to do so they had murdered their own
countrymen ; but such atrocity could not
pass unnoticed. One of the men, the sole
survivor of twenty-five, who had been wounded
by two balls, contrived to cut the fastenings of
the boat, and to scull her from the jetty. He was
rescued to bear witness of the unparalleled infamy
of these Russian miscreants, and detailed the
awful and heartrending narrative above referred
to.

What steps will now be taken to bring justice
on the heads of these cold-blooded assassins? We
can scarcely conceive that the Government of St.
Petersburg could sanction or connive at such
conduct. Should the Russians not execute the
criminals themselves, measures of retaliation of a
very stringent character ought to be adopted.
There is one significant fact alluded to. Ad-
miral DUNDAS was " anxious not to visit with Un-
necessary severity the trade of the country." This
is similar to the policy which spared Odessa to be
a scourge to our troops. It is a continuance of the
attempt to wage a rose-water war. We fear it may
be directly traced to that Germanism which has
already led to so much mischief, and at which the
people of England are so justly indignant. Russia
does not understand such leniency which pro-
tracts the War, and is really cruelty to our own
gallant soldiers and sailors and our over-burdened
tax-payers.

ROYAL VISIT TO FORT PlTT.—This day her Majesty
pays her long-talked•of visit to the General Hospital,
Fort Pitt, for the purpose of distributing to the Crimean
heroes their richly earned mesa's. A telegraphic mes-
sage reached the Commandant at 7 o'clock last evening,
when immediate communication was made to Fort Pitt.
The names of such men as are entitled to a medal will
he submitted to her Majesty, stating their respective
wards, and nature of wounds. A guard of honour is to
be at the Strood station at 10 o'clock, and 2 subalterns,
2 sergeants, and 42 rank and file to be stationed at the
gates of Fort Pitt, and a royal salute fired on her Ma,.
jesty reaching that Fort.
A matrimonial alliance is about to place between the
Hon. Wm. H. Portman, M.P., eldest son of Lord P.
man, and the Hon. Miss Fitzwilliam, daughter of Selina
Viscountess Milton, and grand-davgliter of the Earl

The choice of the trustees of the living of Christchurch,
Hampstead, has fallen on the Rev. E. H. Bickersteth,
rector of Hinton, in Dorsetshire, son of the late Rev.
Edward Bickersteth, rector of Watton, Herts.
Mr. Charles Braham has returned to England, after
an absence of six years in Italy.
The Irish claim General Pelissier as the son of a coun-
tryman. It is said that his father was a Limerick gen-
tleman, a Mr. Palisser, who was obliged to fly from Ire-
land during the troubles of 1798.
LONDON-BRIDGE. YrAterday workmen commenced
widening the pavement for foot passengers on the South-
wark side of London-bridge. The arrangements for the
regulation of carriage traffic over this bridge are working
satisfactorily.
An improved system of wires for the electric tele-
graph, by which they will be less exposed to irregula-
rity, malevolence, and wantoness, is in course of opera-
tion in Paris ; and as far as the experiment has been
tried is likely to prove eminently successful.
A computation, originating at Vienna, places the
number of the Allied armies near Sebastopol, at 160,000
—viz., 100,000 French, 20,000 English, 15,000 Sardi-
nians, 25,000 Turks (without including the troops at
Eneatoria and in reserve at Balaklava).
CAMBRIDGE, Jurtz 18.—Professor Blunt, Margaret
Professor of Divinity, expired at his house yesterday.
afternoon. His health had been manifestly failing dur-
ing the last six months, but his decline during the last
nteutae
onth was very rapid, so much so that many of his
roue friends will hardly be prepared for the melan-
choly event.