The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-30 00:00:00

buBLIN, Aug. 28.

Wind, N.W.
Arrived—Sarah Berkett, from Porto Rico.

(BY SUBMARINE AND BRITISH TELEGRAM)
GRAVESEND, Thursday, 10.20 a.m.
Wind, N.W. ; tile, low water; weather fine.
Arrived, August 29—Asia, from Quebec • Ram, Gefle ;
Protector, Jamaica ; Prima, Guernsey ; London, Jamaica.
August 30—Carl, from Leer; Naiad, Haparanda.
DEAL, Thursday, 9.49 a.m.

Wind N.N.E., light.
Passed—Behairs, for Portsmouth ; Amelia, Malaga ;
Alfieri, Genoa ; Borneo, Cardiff; General de Caen, Havre
—all from Lnndon; Betty Black, barque, from North-
ward, for Westward.
Auchored—Napareino, from Trinidad, for London.

THE NRW NEWSPAPER ACT.—The Glasgow Daily
Gazette, a penny journal recently started, published its
last number on Saturday.—North British Daily Mail.
Prince Albert has deigned to accept the title of Hono-
rary Member of the Cercle Imperial, which was offered
to him by General Count d'Ornano, in the name of the
members of the Cercle.
NEWSPAPER MORTALITY.— The Kilmarnock Chronicle
issued its last number on Thursday. Some few weeks
ago this,paper, whose short and feverish course has ter-
minated, underwent a transformation from a 4id. heb-
domadal to a lid. thrice a week. Like many others of
the too cheap papers, though ably edited, it has been
borne to the tomb of all the Capulets.
SERGEANT BRODIE DISCHARGED FROSE THE SERVICE.
—On Monday, Sergeant Brodie, of the First Royal
Dragoons, whose conduct in preventing the duel in con-
nection with the " practical joking " has repeatedly been
referred to in these columns, proceeded, according to
his route, to Chatham, to undergo the usual inspec-
tion previous to being discharged from her Majesty's
service ; while Adjutant Webster, who prompted the
duel and ordered his men to " Knock the sergeant
down with the butt-end of their carbines " if he re-
sisted being taken to the guard-room for preventing
its consummation, has been promoted to a captaincy
in the Turkish Contingent, the sergeant is to be re-'
warded with his discharge from the service ! This may
be Horse Guards law, but it is not English justice.—
South- Eastern Gazette.
BULL FIGHT.—The Cambrian describes a terrific con-
flict which took place last week between two bulls on
the banks of the Cleddan, near the village of Barnsley„
PembrokeAliire. The animals a ere in separate meadows
with the river between them. After sundry mutual
bellowings and hoarse challenges to the combat, one of
them swam across to his antagonist, and the fight com-
menced.
Several men tried to separate them, but in
vain. At last one of the bulls was driven into the river
the other followed, and the fight was continued in the I
water until one of the combatants was killed.

THE :BOMBARDAIE.NT OF SWEABORG.

The Minister of Marine and Colonies has re-
ceived the follo*rng report from Rear-Admiral
Penaud, Commander of the French division in the
Baltic :

"Nargen, 20th August, 1855.
" 'Monsieur le Ministre—On the 7th, the day on
which all the vessels of the division joined my flag at
the anchorage before Sweaborg, at half-past nine o'clock
in the morning, I proceeded towards Abraham Island,
situated 2,200 metres from the Russian forts, to seek
therein the site best adapted for the establishment of a
battery of mortars. I was accompanied in this recon-
naissance by Captains Sapia and Mourette, of the ar-
tillery of the marine, and by Lieutenant de Vaisseau
Verneuil, comtleander of the steam advice the Aigle,
which I had sent some days before to sound in the en-
virons of Sweaborg, and to survey the anchorages.
" The site on which the battery was to be erected
having been chosen, we commenced at half-past eleven
the construction of the epaulement destined to protect
it, by means of bags filled with sand, which I had taken
at Nargen, and which were brought up in the boats of
the vessels of the division. This undertaking was exe-
cuted without difficulty. At half-past two the next
morning, at daybreak, the little island was eva-
cuated. The enemy no doubt did not perceive what
we had done, for they did not fire a single
gun. The Bth was also employed in preparations ;
our mortar-vessels, towed by the gun-boats, were
placed in a line with the English mortar-vesseis.
These vessels, five in number, the Tocsin, the Fournaise,
the Trombe, the Torche, and the Bombe, armed each
with two 124 inch mortars, and commanded by Lieu-
tenants de Vaisseau de Leotard de Ricard, Cuisinier-
Delisle, Souzy, Cottin, and Buret, anchored in the
centre of the fine which extended from the Isle Rouskar
to that of Gohara, at 4,000 metres from the centre of the
fortress of Sweaborg, where all their fire was to converge.
Eight English mortar-vessels, each carrying a 13-inch
mortar, occupied the left; eight others the right. Haw-
sers were paid out in order to enable the vessels to ap-
proach 600 metres towards the enemy's batteries at the
moment of the action. The gun-boats, the Aigrette. the
Avalanche, the Tourruente, the Trumpete, the Dra-
gonne, and the Fulminante, commanded by Lieutenants
de Vaisseu Mer, Tresse, Jonuart, Maudet, Barry, and
Harel, anchored outside the mortar-vessels on a parallel
line. The frigate the Isis, Commander Cleret-Langa-
vant, andfthe corvette the Galath6e' Commander Mance!,
were taken to the east of Skog-kar Isles, in order to
place them near the flotilla, which they were to supply
with ammunition. Measures were taken on board the
Isis for forming an ambulance, and the Abbe Piel, chap•
lain of the Austerlitz, went on board her. The steam ad-
vice boat the Aigle and some English frigates were an-
chored at a short distance, ready to render assistance,
either in case of fire or the springing of leaks to the
vessels which were to combat. Orders were besides
given to the boats of our vessels to assemble the next
morning near the Aigle with the same object, and Capts.
de Vaisseau Laurencin of the Austerlitz, Taffart ue Saint
Germain of the Duquesne, and La Gallic-Keriz met of
the Turville, were charged to direct this service by turns
and to supply my place if necessary.
"As soon as the obscurity of the evening enabled us
to hide our movements from the enemy, the boats of the
division, which had been ordered in advance, left the
ships at the same time and in good order to convey to
Abraham isle strong parties of sailors, bags of earth, and
artillery materiel. They continued these transports
during all the night. On being disembarked the men wet
to work with ardour under the direction of Capt. Sepia,
commanding the battery, and on the 9th, before three
o'clock in the morning, after less than five hour's labour,
I found on arriving on the island that an epaulement
of 20 metres long by 3.t wide at the base, and 2 high,
protected a battery of three 10-inch mortars loaded and
ready to be fired. A large store of gunpowder was
placed in a rent in the granite, and so covered as to be
protected against shells, In short, the battery which I
had so long projected was established, and we had taken
an advance and fixed post, at a distance at which mortar
vessels could not he placed without being too much ex-
posed. In order the better to superintend the ensemble
of the operations, and to be in a situation to act more
promptly, according to eventualities, I, on the morn-
ing of the 9th, hoisted my flag on the steam advice boat
the Pelican, which is ceminanded by the young and
zealous lieutenant de Vais-eau Baron Duperre, who pro-
mises to walk in the steps of the admiral his father.
All these preparations were accomplished without the
Russians making any attempt to disquiet us.
"At twenty minutes past seven, everything being
ready for the attack, the signal was given. The fire
commenced on all the line, and at the same moment
twenty-nine shells, English or French, fell into the
place. The Russian forts, which had been so far silent,
immediately replied. The combat was general. At 9
o'clock the gunboats approached the mortar-vessels, and
placed themselves in the spaces left between them. A
thick smoke had already risen in different places to the
east of the church situated on the Isle Est-Svarto, and
all at once, at 25 minutes past ten, we heard a very loud
explosion in a powder-magazine. It was greeted by the
cry three times repeated of " Vive l'Empereur 1" in all
our vessels, and by loud hurrahs from the English. Most
of the batteries which defended Sweaborg fired all their
pieces. The French and English gun-boats fired shells
and ball ; their great number, and in particular the
rapidity with which they changed their positions of
attack, were calculated to disquiet the enemy, and to dia.
tract their attention from the mortar-vessels on which they
might have concentrated their fire. At the beginning of
the action two diversions were made at the extremities
of the line ; at the right by an English frirate and two
English ships of the line against the Back-Holmen forte,
and to the left by three frigates of the same nation against
Drumsio island. At about half-past eleven a second
explosion, much more considerable than the first one,
took place in the Isle Vargon, and was followed by a
very violent 'nonftsgeaeaer, wnicn soon spread in dif-
ferent directions. The fire made rapid progress in a
space forming a sort of ravine, and our attention was
strongly attracted in that direction, when at half-past
twelve a third explosion enveloped all the fortress in
thick smoke. During some seconds we heard succes-
sive detonations, similar to the roll of thunder. The
last explosion, in particular, must have caused enor-
mous losses in materiel and men. It was the most ter-
rible of all we witnessed. It must have caused great
disorder in Sweabore, for from that moment the enemy
responded less vigorously to our fire. Several batteries
even completely ceased to fire ; then Langorn and Back-
Holmen forts alone continued to disquiet our vessels.
Fires increased in different places in the magazines
situated to the right of the church at the two sides of
the ravine. The fire of the mortar vessels was exceed-
ingly well sustained during the greater part of the day.
The Trombe, Capt. Suezi, succeeded in attaining an ave-
rage of 24 times an hour. Towards the evening the fire
slackened a little ; the flames continuing the work of de-
struction, it was enough for us to keep up the disorder and
dismay which prevailed in the place. At about 6 o'clock
the gun-boats ceased to fire. A little later they took in
tow the mortar-vessels, which had exhausted their am-
munition, and conducted them near the frigate the Isis,
where they received new supplies. Captain de frigate
Cleret, acquitted himself of this service, and of several
operations which I gave him to direct, with the zeal and
capacity which I have long known him to possess.
" Electrified by the impulsion given them by Captains
Sapia and Mourette, the artillerymen of the Abraham
battery fired incessantly all day, and did great injury to
the enemy. Fearing that they could not continue such
an active service, I caused to be sent to them some cap-
tains of guns and gunners who volunteered from the dif-
ferent vessels. All the men of this class presented
themselves, manifesting the strongest desire to go under
the fire, and it was necessary to decide by lot who should
be favoured. Our sailors soon acquired the art of
manoeuvring mortars. They displayed on this occasion
the practical intelligence and the gaiety which render
them always useful in operations the most unconnected
with their profession. One of the mortars burst in the
afternoon ; it was changed in the night, and three other'
were added to the battery. Some of the mortar-vessel,
resumed their post at about 11 o'clock in the evening.
and sent, from time to time, shells into the plan-,
where the conflagration did not cease a single instant.
Three principal edifices which communicated with each
other were devoured by the flames. In the course of the
eight English boats approached Sweaborg, and threw
congreve rockets into it.
"The proceedings of the 9th had given brilliant re-
sults ; those of the 10th were not less so. At daybreak
we perceived that the Russian three-decker was no
longer in the place she had occupied in the Gustafs-Vard
Pass. Several projectiles had reached her on the pre-
vious evening, and the enemy had taken advantage of
the darkness to place hsr out of the reach of our shot.
" As soon as the Russians perceived that our mortar-
vessels had taken up their former mooring-line, they
began to fire with a sort of fury from the fort of Gustafs-
Vard, from Back Holmen, and from the vessel anchored
near Langorn. They directed their fire particularly
against Abraham's Isle, where the French flag floated.
Splinters of shells, and fragments of stone covered this
rock. and yet we had not a single man wounded.
The artillery of the flotilla recommenced the fire with
_no less vigour. The mortar-vessel, the Tocsin, after
having terminated her supply of ammunition, resumed
her post of combat ; but she was anchored a little too
much to the east, and was consequently within reach of
the guns of the batteries of Back-Holmen. All these
batteries directed their fire on this mortar-vessel ; but
the balls either fell at a short distance from her, or
entered her rigging without touching her. The position
of this vessel having become dangerous I gave orders
to the gun-boat Tempest to tow her off. This opera-
tion was promptly effectedeend gave me the opportunity
of seeing the calm and-energy of Captains de Leotard
and Maudet. The Fournaise, Capt. Delisle, anchored
nearly in the same direction, was also seriously engaged
under the fire of the battery of Back Holmen, which did
not spare her. Captain de fregate, Baron Roussin, my
chief of the staff, a very distinguished officer, and who
possesses all my confidence, seeing the danger that
mortar-vessel was in, jumped into a boat, and towed
her farther from the ports. On the other hand, the
Torche, Captain Cottin, which had been taken to the
western extremity of the line to bombard Langorn, and
the ship moored between that isle and West Svarto, was
also expcsed for some time to a well sustained fire on
the part of the enemy. She was also withdrawn from
her too advanced position by the Tempete, which had
just rendered the Caine service to the Tocsin.
" I had remarked that the fire of the gun-boats with
solid shot was not so efficacious as could have been
wished, and their supply of shells of 19 centimetres
having been exhausted, they went alongside the line-of-
battle ships to change the half of their 50-pounder
cannons for 22 centimetres mortars. This operation
was effected eery rapidly, and the gun-boats soon re-
turned to take part in the action.
" About noon a fresh fire broke out in a large building
to the left of the church, and the flames soon spread to
other considerable establishments quite in the western

i Part of -the place. The flames spread with frightful
raridity ; they rose higher than the dome of the
church, and at times the smoke was so dense that Swea-
borg Has entirely hidden from our view. The enemy
roust have suffered enormous losses. Four of the six
large mortars in the Abraham battery having become
aefit fir further use, -et consequettee of their having been
so heavily loaded in order to reach the distant part of
Sweaborg, two large howitzers were landed from the
line-of-battle-ships, and placed in position in the bat-
tery. On the following day firing was commenced from
them, and their shells went beyond Langorn ; the Rus-
sian line-of-battle ships anchored near that islands.
" The extensive conflagration which was destroying
Sweaborg during the night of the 10th was increased by
a breeze of wind which sprung up and tended to extend
the fire. At four o'clock in the morning of the 11th,
Rear-Admiral Dundas sent an officer to tell me that as
we had attained the object of our attack, be proposed to
put an end to the bombardment. As this suggestion
coincided with my opinion, I made the signal to cease
firing. I, however, gave orders to each vessel to remain
in its position, and to recommence firing if a single shot
should be fired from the Rnssian batteries.
" Thus terminated the bombardment of Sweaborg,
which lasted 45 hours. The French vessels and the
Abraham battery threw on the citadel or into the arsenal
4.150 projectiles, of which 2,823 were shells. During
the nights of the 11th and 12th, all the materiel which
had been landed on the Island of Abraham for the estab-
lishment of the battery was re-embarked on board our
vessels. In the course of these operations, the move-
ments of the English. vessels and our own were nearly the
same ; it might have been said that they had both been
commanded by the same chief, so admirable was the
ensemble. The success of the one was enthusiastically
applauded by the other.
"As I have already had the honour to inform your
Excellency, notwithstanding the great number of pro-
jectiles which fell round our vessels, we have no loss to
regret. It appeared as if Providence watched over us,
and it was evidently shown in the two following facts:
—A ball struck the carriage of a gun on board the
Ternpete gun-boat, and the splinter which flew from it
knocked down Lieut. Lefort. It was thought that he
was killed, but when some men hastened to pick him
np, he ro•e by himseif without appearing to suffer from
the blow he had received. On board the gun-boat
Aigrette, a redhot shot passing through the deck, fell
into the powder magazine between a copper case and
the partition, to which it set fire, but it was immediately
put out by the hose of the fire-engine being directed to
the spot, and no further mischief ensued.
"1 cannot conclude, Monsieur l'Areiral, without re-
peating to you that I have to speak in the warmest
terms of the eager co-operation afforded to me by all,
officers, sailors, and soldiers. I roust say to your Excel-
lency that wherever I went during the bombardment,
on board the gun-boats, the mortar-vessels, or at the
Abraham battery, I found the men full of ardour and
devotedness, and expressing by cries of enthusiasm the
happiness they felt at having an opportunity of striking
a blow at the enemy. I hope that your Excellency will
call the attention of his Majesty to their conduct. I
am, &c., "PErrama."

BIRMINGHAM MUSICAL FESTIVAL.

BIRMINGHAM, Aug. 29.—Mr. Costa's oratorio of Eli
was performed to-day for the first time in presence of
an assembly that completely filled the Town-hall. Its
reception was triumphant. Greater honours were pro-
bably never lavished upon a composer. No less than six
pieces were redetnanded by the President, with the evi-
dent concurrence of the audience, who on several occa-
sions took the initiative themselves, and, in contempt of
established etiquette, began applauding before Lord
Willoughby de Broke had time to ri-e from his seat.
Before the performance began Mr. Costa was vocife-
rously applauded, and at the end of the first part the de-
monstrations were renewed. But the scene that took
place when all was over beggars description. The
audience, who had risen to the final chorus—" Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel, from everlasting to ever-
lasting "—remained standing, to cheer Mr. Costa at
the conclusion. Such cheering bas rarely greeted
the ears of a zealous aspirant to fame, whose
sweetest music is the applause of the multitude—
such waving of hats and handkerchiefs —in which
the orchestra and chorus joined with wild enthu-
siasm—has seldom been witnessed in a concert-room—
such an ovation, as the term goes, in short, is almost
without parallel. The biographies of the greatest mu-
sicians record nothing to compare with it.
If Mr. Costa possessed the genius of Handel, he could
hardly have succeeded in constructing a really effective
oratorio upon the materials furnished by the history of
Eli, and thrown into the shape of a sacred drama by
Mr. Bartholomew. . The chief personage himself—
Eli, the priest—offers no opportunity to the musician
for variety of treatment. He is constantly praying,
preaching, or admonishing; and this has forced the
composer to present him in a succession of slow recita-
tives and airs, which, long before the end, induce a feel-
ing of monotony not easy to dispel, since Eli has a very
great deal to declaim and sing, and is almost constantly
prominent. Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, is a cha-
racter more favourable to music ; and Mr. Costa
has availed himself with great felicity of the contrast
suggested by her first condition, as a woman child-
less and barren, and her afterwards joyful state,
when God has blessed her with a son. The air in
which her affliction is portrayed—" Turn Thee unto
me, and have mercy upon me "—is devout and
beautiful ; while that which reveals the abundance of her
joy when, in the Temple of Shiloh, she pours out her
gratitude to the Lord for having given her Samuel—"l
will extol Thee, 0 Lord "—is extremely happy, and has,
moreover, a touch of the Handel bravura about it both
in form and sentiment, by no means unwelcome. The
personage of Samuel is, perhaps, the most successfully
ueveiopeu Lir .11. The tranquil piety of the heaven-de•
voted child is well expressed from the first, ana toe,.
not a more chaste and expressive melody in the oratorio
than Samuel's morning prayer in the temple, " Lord,
from my bed I rise." The evening prayer, though grace-
ful, is in a tone less purely devotional ; but the whole
character of Samuel is marked by a serious purport,
and a power of sustaining which is a gift of itself.
Mr. Costa has given Eli to a bass (Herr Formes),
Hannah to a soprano (Madame Castellan), and Samuel
to a contralto (Madame Viardot Garcia). For a tenor
he has been compelled to go over from the Israelites to
the Philistines, from the mouth of whose chief, a mighty
.nan of Gath (Mr. Sims Reeves), we have one of the
most vigorous battle songs, with chorus, ever written—
viz., " Philistines, hark ! the trumpet sounding !" in
which the infidel warrior urges on his compatriots to
march against the Hebrews. There are two other
tenor parts—Elkanah, the husband of Hannah and
father of Samuel, and a very small one in the person of
messenger of the Israelites (Herr Reichardt), who
brings the news to Shiloh of their defeat by the Philis-
tines. There is aiso a second bass in the Man of God
(Mr. Weiss), who reproaches the Levites for their iniqui-
ties, and discloses the awful denunciation of the Lord
against the house of Eli. Into the merits of the various
recitatives, airs, and concerted pieces distributed among
these personages we cannot enter now ; suffice it, they
exhibit many decided beauties, are all essentially vecal,
and for the most part more or less expressive of the
ituation in which they occur. On the other hand,
they present a mixture of styles, which is still more
evident in the choruses, and constitutes, indeed, one of
the principal defects of the oratorio, In the choruses,
while examples of spirit, brilliancy, and even dra-
natic power are frequent, there is a singular inequality.
Some are evident'y wr.ten with extreme care ; others
~eein to have been finished too hastily. Several spe-
eimens of fugue are to be found among them, the
lest of which occurs in the second part of the invoca-
tion of the Israelites, when they march against their
enemies—on the words, "So persecute them with Thy
tempest." This is the most interesting of all, and the
hest conduct€d, the florid accompaniments of stringed
instruments reminding the hearer of Mendelssohn, while
'he theme is in the manner of Handel. None of the
usues of Mr. Costa are what is called elaborate. They
In not display any great exercise of contrapuntal inge-
uitv, nor are they remarkable for those cunning de•
vices of augmentation, inversion, and so forth, of which
the fugues of Bach, Handel, and Mendelssohn are so
fruitful, and by means of which these gifted musicians
delighted to exhibit their learning. But Mr. Costa's
''agues have one great distinguishing quality—they are
clear, and therefore effective. Besides this they are
all based on simple and well-defined themes. As
examples of this clearness, and the strength that
is derived from it, we may point to the "Hosanna"
in the last chorus of Part 1, and to the " Halle-
lujah, Amen," which brings the oratorio to a
close. What may be termed—to employ a common
mithet "the descriptive" music in Eli is clever
end spirited, but certainly too theatrical for a sacred
ratorio. We would instance the scene of the " Un-
godly Revel"—where Hophni and Phineas (the sons of
Eli) are rioting with the women in the precincts of the
Temple—the style of which exceeds all bounds of license,
both in the character of the themes and the colouring
imparted to them by the orchestral accompaniments.
Even the war-song of the Philistine chief is in a great
measure open to the same objection ; but the natural
desire of following Handel's example, in making a forced
contrast between the music allotted to pagans and that
appertaining to the chosen people, is a plausible excuse,
and calculated to arrest criticism. For the present, how-
-ver, we must forbear from further remark. Mr. Costa
has made a bold effort—the boldest, indeed, that could be
ventured on by a musician, since the sacred oratorio im-
peratively demands an elevation of style, a variety of
resources, and a profundity of science, to say nothing of
invention and imagination, which only the very greatest
masters have possessed. If, then, his first oratorio
cannot be pronounced a model in that high branch of
musical composition to which it belongs, he must be
satisfied (like others before him) to accept the praises
wliichj are his just due. His ambition was laudable;
and be has exhibited a degree of talent in Eli which en-
titles him to the high respect of musicians and lovers of
music, if it is not likely to bring him immortality.
The execution may be described in a word—perfec-
tion. The orchestra and chorus laboured with a zeal
and unanimity that could only be traced to one source
—viz., the regard and esteem they entertain for the con•
ductor. The principal singers—Madame Viardot Gar-
cia (Samuel), Madame Castellan (Hannah), Mr. Sims
Reeves (the Philistine Chief and Elkanah), Mr. Weiss
(the Man of God), Herr Reichert (the Israelitish Mes-
senger), and Herr Formes (Eli)—were admirable with-
out exception. Of their performances, however, we
;ball have more to say to-morrow. The numbers pre-
sent in the hall to-day were 1,608, and the receipts
amounted to 1,197/. 18s. 8d (including donations.)

CRICKET.--SIISSEX v. YORKSHIRE.—Thiq match was
resumed on Tuesday, and at the close of the day the
score stood thus—Sussex, let innings, 292 ; Yorkshire,
Ist innings, 103 ; 2d inning, six wickets down, 43.