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

TELLEIte

Larard, A. H.
Clifford, Col. 11. M.

HUAI WATF:is &7 !MN ifluti

T Ala DDT —l.Torni4 44 znin.after 4 j F.veni^g 4min. aft. 5
To- 4,m...f1y.-...M..orning 21 min./titer 5 j Evcning 41min. att. 5

THE WEATIIIM—Sum On.ci, June 19.
TiIEBNOMETZB, IN T 313 SLUM
59—highest since noon yeatertlay.
51—Lowest this morning and during the night.
59—this day, at noon.
BAROMETNIt, very unsteady ; down to 29.85—n0w up
to 30•20.
W IND, N.E.—Fresh, with fine, cold, sunshiny weather.

Plim,A)t
nu,

adopt every possible precaution against the recur-
rence of the like calamities. The cola earth has
closed over many of the victims, but there are few
who have not left relatives and friends to whom
some recompence, however inadequate, may not
be offered for the irreparable looses. Even a
simple recognition by the nation may convey some 1
degree of balm to their wounded feelings.
The Committee report that the suffering of the
army " resulted mainly from the circumstances
under which the expedition to the Crimea was
undertaken and executed." The Admin-
istration by whom it was ordered were
profoundly ignorant as to the opposition that
might be anticipated. They looked for an imme-
diate triumph, and made no provision for a winter
campaign. This ignorance was the teterrima causa
mall, the fountain and origin of all the mischief
that followed. Every true-hearted Englishman
will concur in the expression of admiration and
gratitude for the patience and fortitude displayed
by the sufferers during their arduous trials, and
fervently join in the aspiration that " every
British army may in future display the valour
which this noble army has displayed, and that
none may hereafter be exposed to such sufferings
as are recorded in the Report."

The accounts hitherto received of the massacre
of 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
a crime, far beyond the pale of civilisation. An
authentic account was last night given by Sir
CHARLES WOOD of the various circumstances con-
nected with the event, which deprives the blood-
thirsty 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,
and cold-blooded murder, it was that of the
officers 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-
ness 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 murderers was guilty—an act which should
call down the vengeance of all civilised nations,
and 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 DUNDAS, 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 t 3 Hango and restore to liberty the
three persons so captured, and four 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 GENEST; 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
half an hour before the boat approached the jetty.
One person was only visible on the shore, who
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 the 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. He answered the unarmed
men engaged in the mission of mercy " that he
did not care 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 DIINDAS 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 aro so justly indignant. Russia
does not understand such leniency which pm-
tracts the War, and is really cruelty to our own
nilant 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 Hosi,ital,
Port Pitt, for the purpose of distributing to the Crimean
heroes their richly earned reedy. 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 modal will
be submitted to her Mi.jesty, 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. W►n. H. Portman, M.P., eldest son of Lord P rt-
man, and the Hon. Miss Fitzwilliam, daughter of Selina
Viscountess Milton, and grand-daughter of the Earl
Fitzwilliam.

The choice of theAustees of the living of Christchurch,
Hampstead, has fa on the Rev. E. H. Bickersteth,
rector of Hinton, in Dorsetshire, son of the late Rev.
Edward Bickersteth, rector of Watton, Herts.
Mr. Charles Brabam has returned to England, after
an absence of six years in Italy.
The Irish claim General Pelissier Iv§ 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. - Yesterday 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 wautoness, 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, 25,00 Turks (without including the troops at
Eupatoria and in reserve at Balaklava).
CAMBRIDGE. JUNE 18.—professor Blunt, Margaret
Professor of Divinity, expired at his house yesterday
afternoon. His health had been manifestly failing dur-
ing the last six tnonths, but his decline during the last
ntianrae
onth was very rapid, so much so that many of his
rons friends will hardly be prepared for the melan-
choly event.

* These were found dead in the cutter and buffed at sea.

with her the Ruby gun-boat ; she has gone to blockwle
the town and port lof Vibotg,
t't,h.—"...'Le Royal Adelaide, trii-Fport, arrived with an-
Othei cargo of bullock,, and having di,,tributai them to
the fleet, left ty,..ain in the evening.
4.40 p.m.—The Pylades patted company to relieve
the Cossack, who is ordered to join the Admiral for a
court of Inqury. The Lightning accompar.ied her as far
113 Nargen..

9th.---At 8 a.m. the Vulture, Harrier, and transp arc
Rob Roy arrived ; the latter with provisions from Eng-
land. At noon, the Merlin, carrying the French Admiral
Penaud and French and English captains, proceeded to
reconnoitre Cronstadt. They were attended by the Dra-
gon, Firefly, and the corvette D'Assas, going first along
the north side of the island they approached within
4,000 yards of the block ships lying iu the open water
between Cronstadt and St. Petersburg. They consisted
of four liners, five frigates, and two corvettes moored in
a line along the three-fathom bank, with their broadsides
bearing upon the northern passage. Inside these, 14
steam gun-boats lay at anchor, and under the wall of
Man-of-war Harbour, anchored in three lines, were 24
row gun-boats. When the Merlin went in so cice_e, two of
the steam gun-boats came cut, and one fired a heavy
shot at her, but it fell short. In the Man-of-War Har-
bour were 17 line-of-battle ships, four of them fully
rigged and the others in progress. Between this har-
bour and Fort Kronslot were 10 steamers of various
sizes, some of them screws, and between Kronslot and
Menschikoff two three-deckers are moored bow to
bow with their broad iles commanding the only
entrance. The island seems full of soldiers, for
besides those quartered in the town and batteries,
three large camps were formed outside, two on the
north and the other on the south side. Im-
mense new earthworks have been erected this spring,
a complete chain of them runs from the Governor's
house across the island to the old Kessell Battery, di-
viding it into two halves, one fortified, the other without
a gun upon it. Just as the Merlin was returning and
when going about 7 knots an hour, a severe shock was
felt, as if she had struck upon a sunken pile. It made the
ship quiver from stem to stern The engines were in-
stantly stopped and reversed, but before she had stern
way upon her another blow, ten times more
severe than the first, struck her on the starboard
bow, just before the paddle-wheel, sensibly lifting
her over to port, and making her masts bend and
shake as if they would topple down. The Firefly
was immediately in the Merlin's wake, and before she
could stop, she ran to starboard of the Merlin and partly
turned round, when a tremendous explosion took place
under her bows, causing her to stagger, and proving
very plainly that they were over a nest of Professor
Jacobi's infernal machines, the existence of which is now
beyond a doubt, and also that they are not such very
formidable affairs after all. They then proceeded care-
fully until they got into deep water without meet-
ing with any more, and then reconnoitred the small'
side, getting so near the shore as to witness a sett
of review of the Russian horse artillery, and after-
wards returned to the fleet. A diver was immediately
sent down to examine the Firefly, and not the
slightest injury could be detected, but inside the
ship almost every bit of crockery ware was broken,
and the bulkheads thrown down or displaced. On
examining the Merlin, eight sheets of her copper
were blown, not scraped, off; and the side appeared
charred. All the inside fittings of the engineers' bath-
room, mess room, and store room were completely de-
molished. An iron tank, which was bolted to the ship's
side, and containing 13 cat. •f tallow, was knocked
a distance of four feet. Shot were shook out of
the racks, and almost everything moveable in the ship
was displaced.
It is supposed these machines have been laid down
since Admiral Dundas reconnoitred the place the last
time ; for, atter he returned, two steamers came from
the harbour, and were busily employed for some time.