The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-23 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 23, 1854.

THE WAR.

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.
The Royal Albert will be all ataunt. with top gallant
masts sent an-end,' on Saturday next, the 26th inst.
(the al,niversary day of the birth of his Royal Highness
Princ, Albert.) She will, if the tides permit, be put
out of dock en the came day, if not on Monday follow-
ing. Her steam machinery department Will be quite
ready by that time.
The crew of the Impregnable, 104, Captain Wise, in
Hamoaze, rove • life lines on Moirlay for exercise of the
crew, preparatory to the arrival of the Lords of the
Admiralty.

Colossiis, 80, Captain R. S. Robinson, has got every-
thing on board except powder. She will now paint
outside, and with another 150 blue jackets is ready for
any service in 24 hours. She has stowed 290 tons of
coals, and has fund more room for provisions than could
have been expected. She has picked up lots of Atholl
men.

The frigate Inconstant, 36, has been towed from her
moorings in Hamoaze to the jetty of the Devonport
dockyard to be jury-rigged and htted as a receiving-
ship for Queenstown.

'the Eslc, 20, screw steam corvette, recently launched
from the shipbuilding. yard of John Scott Russell and
Company, with all her machinery on board, and one of
Griffith's screw propellers in its proper place, was taken
into dock at Woolwich, to be coppered and made ready
for commission.

The Malacca is completing her stock of coal§ at Sheer-
ness from the brig Porcia, of Colchester. More iron
ballast is being sent off to bring her down to her intended
displacement in the water. A number of the blue jackets,
since receiving their advance, have been on'liberty on
shore. The men are most punctual in their return at
the expiration of their leave, and they express a wish
that they may be sent where they can do their duty to
their country and their officers.
The Harrier, 16, new screw sloop, was removed from
the steam-factory basin at Portsmouth yesterday, and
placed alongside the dockyard for facility orequipment.
Commander Story had not arrived yesterday to commis-
sion her.

The Salamander, 6, paddle-sloop, Commander Priest,
hauled out of the factory-basin yesterday morning to the
stream in the harbour, to have her compasses adjusted.
The Spy brigantine had her compasses adjusted yes-
terday (by swinging ship), under tne directions of Mr.
John C. Barlow, master of the Formidable, guard-ship
of ordinary.
_

The Rhadamanthus, paddlewheel steam store vessel,
Master Commander Belam, has been sent into the basin
at Woolwich to take on board a portion of the machinery
of the Exmouth, 91, screw steamship at Devonport, and
convey it to that pod. She left the Melampus, 42,
frigate, at Pembroke, as it is now doubtful if that ship
will proceed to Glasgow to bring round the machinery
said. to have been made by Napier for the Russian Go-
vernment. Mr. Napier states that the engines in ques-
tion were never intended to be sent to Russia, and,
therefore, they are not liable to be seized by the British
Government.

The Black Eagle, Master-Commander Petley, arrived
on Monday evening with some of the Lords of the Ad-
miralty from Weymouth.
The Vivid, steam-vessel, arrived in harbour yesterday
morning from the eastward.
The American packet sailed from St. Helen's roads
yesterday morning for New York.

to the invalid depot, St. Alary's Barracks, to be disposed
of by the decision of a Chelsea board.

THE COAST GUARD BRIGADE.
The supernumeraries who have joined the Coast Guard
service in the place of those who have been sent abroad,
are daily exercised with the long gun exercise at Sheer-
ness, under the superintendence of Lieut. Hosken, of
the Garrison Point station. The result from the" daily
training is, that tbe-e men, many of whom a week ago
bad never seen a gun, can now go through all their
evolutions, and fire with great precision.

•
MAILS. FOR THE BALTIC.
Mails for the Holyrood hired steam transport have
arrived at Sheerness for the Baltic fleet. She was expected
there yesterday. A. countermanding order gives until
the 26th instant to make up her mails at that post-office.
No official intimation has been given by the authorities
there of her intended arrival. However, a number of
persons rotiding there, having relatives and friends
serving in the Baltic fleet, are snaking the necessary
preparations to avail themselves of this opportunity of
communicating with their relatives and friends. There
ate many families there who have fathers, and some two
or three their sons, now fighting the battles of their
country, and it is only by a side-wind report they are
enabled to know when opportunities offer to send either
letters or newspapers out to them. Some thousands of
pence might be added to the Postmaster-General's
receipts if only publicity were given when ships are to
call there for mails for the Baltic or Black Sea fleets.

MISpELLANEOVS.
The Princess Alice, formerly one of the Dover mail-
steam-packets, having been thoroughly refitted, was
taken out of the basin yesterday to moorings in the
stream.
••

THE 46TH REGIMENT.—Lieut. G. F. Greer, of this
regiment, is the son of the late William Jackson Greer,
J.P., of Rhone Hill, county Tyrone, and not, as has
been stated, the son of Mr. Greer, of Portstewart,
county Derry.
His Imperial Brazilian Majesty's steam-sloop Gequi-
tinhouha, Captain Lemare, recently built in the Thames,
arrived in Plymouth from London on Thursday, and,
having coaled, sailed on Saturday for Rio Janeiro.
Mr. W. H. Skinner, clerk's assistant (first appoint-
ment) has taken up his appointment, and joined the
Wellesley guard-ship of Ordinary, at Chatham.

THE MILITIA.
The 3d West York Light Infantry, at present sta-
tioned in Dublin, were inspected on Monday in heavy
marching order, by Major-General Cochrane, com-
manding the garrison, on the esplanade facing the
Royal barracks. The regiment was formed in line at 11
o'clock a.m., when the Major-General arrived, accom-
panied by his staff, and was received with the usual
honours, Colonel F. Loftus commanding.

THE INVASION AND CONQUEST OF
FINLAND BY LUSSIA. 1808-1809.

[The Moniteur of Sunday, the 20th inst., contains the
following account of the conquest of Finland by Rus-
sia. At the present moment a peculiar interest attaches
to this event ; but what. has principally moved us to
devote so much of our space to the narrative is the con-
viction that there is an arriere-pensee in its publication
in the Moniteur just at this time.]
Russia had been for some time vainly endeavouring to
persuade Sweden to unite with herself and Denmark for
the purpose of closing the Balticagainstthe English. Sud-
debly, without any declaration of war, without even
waiting for the answer to the last summons, she invaded
Finland. The ultimatum spoken of was the subject
of a note dated the 22d of February, 1808, and, the
evening before, the Russian troops had passed the -fron-
tier of the two states. The invasion of Finland, during
a time of profound Peace, is one of a class of acts at the
commission of which Russia never hesitates. It is a
proceeding similar to that of the occupation of the Prin-
cipalities of the Danube in 1853.

Finland, covered with lakes, marshes, and hills, with
rocks a:!d forests, contains a population of scarcely
1,200,000 souls, scattered over a supeificies of about
58,000 square miles. Its present boundaries are the
Gulf of Bothnia on the west, Norway on the north, the
governments of Archangel, and Olonetz, and the Lake
Ladoga on the east, and the Gulf of Finland on the
south. It stretches almost to the gates of St. Peters-
burg. In 1808 it was separated from Russia by Rus-
sian Finland—that is to say, by that part ,of the grand
duchy of Finland which the treaties of peace of Nistad,
in 1721, and of Abo, in 1743, had taken from it on the
other side of the river Kymen. These acquisitions did
not satisfy Russia, which from the time of Peter I. had
ardently coveted the possession of the whole of Finland.
The neighbourhood of the Swedish province was a
source both of trouble and anxiety% The Emperor
Alexander could not forget that in theyear 1788, during
the last war with Sweden, Gustavus 111., at the head
of nearly 40,000 men in Finland, had thrown Petersburg
into the greatest consternation, and that the court had
determined to seek refuge in Moscow.
The shores of Finland are the part of the country
'most densely populated, but at the same time its vulne-
rable side. Although defended by fdrts and numerous
lines of military communications, they are not the
less accessible to attacks of an enemy who is master
of the sea. Such an enemy might cut off these com-
munications by landing detachments of troops, and
assist a Swedish army to recover the country. This as-
sistance would be the more powerful, as it would be, ac-
cording to all probability, assured of the assistance of the
population, generally hostile to Russia, and tired of its
domination.

The configuration of a territory so circumstanced as
Finland gave to this province at the time of the Russian
invasion great natural means of defence. It was pre-
pared, as if on purpose, for a war of detail. But at the
very commencement these advantages were paralysed by
the plan acted upon by the defenders of retiring before
the enemy, in accordance with the formal a!:d impera-
tive orders of the whimsical and presumptuous Gustavus
IV. The instructions, in fact, given by the King to
Count Klingsporr, general-in-chief of the army of Fin-
land, on the 3d of February, in anticipation of a coming
rupture on the part of Russia, prescribed the relinquish-
ment of the country at the approach of the enemy.
The Swedish army
was composed only of its Finnish
regiments, all communication with Sweden being cut off
by the ice in the Gulf of Bothnia. The lakes and rivers
which in summer form such powerful obstacles to an ad-
vancing army, were frozen to a depth which enabled
them to bear artillery on their surface, and the shores
themselves of the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland lined
with ice prevented the approach of all maritime assist-
ance. Swedish Finland was thus left to itself, a province
contending against an empire.
Acting on these considerations, the King, in the in-
structions to Count Klingspori, charged him to restrict
himself to saving as much of the army as could be saved,
to throw into Swarthohn and Sweaborg as many troops
as these planes would hold, and to cause the remainder to
retreat towards East Bothnia in the best order that might
be possible, until other measures should be taken at the
opening of the navigation for reconquering the coun-
try. This, however, was looking at things on one side
only. No consideration was given to the fearful obsta-
Ides which the Russians themselves would experience
from the ,extreme rigour of the climate that year, when
the cold was so intense that the thermometer stood at
30 degree., (centigrade), and when the snows lay six feet
deep. The severity of such a temperature, the want of
resting-places, and the extreme poverty of the country
were preparing terrible troubles and great sufferings for I
an m
• y so badly clothed as that of Russia, without'
magazines and demoralised by recent reverses in the
campaign of Friedland.
The Russian army, divided into three columns, and
eoniananded by Count Buxhowden, who had under him
Generals Raieswoki, Suchtelen, author of a narrative of
the war, Bagration, Toutclikoff, gamenski and others,
crossed the river Kytnen, the boundary 2
of the two states,
at Abeifors, Stromborg, and Keltis, the 21st of July,
1808. It was proceeded by two proclamations ad-
dressed, one to the Finns, the other to the Swedish
army. The first announced, without antemt at
proof, however, that the Emperor of Russiay was driven
by the conduct of the King of Sweden, and by
rations of the safety of his own kingdom, to place Fin-
land under his own protection and take possession of
it. The second excited the army to defection and de-
sertion.
Gustavus IV., when he heard of this aggression on
the part of a power but yesterday his ally, very impro-
perly replied to it by a violation of the rights of nations.
On the 3d of March, 1808, he ordered the arrest of the
Russian Minister at Stockholm, M. d'Alopceus. The
Emperor Alexander took care not to imitate this pro.
ceeding, but he seized the opportunity to declare to
Europe that he was incorporating with his own states
that part of Finland which his troops had already con-
quered. This was unmasking the intention of the war,
and the covetousness which occasioned it.
The Russian General-in-Chief, Buxhowden, advanced
rapidly towards Tavasthus, where Count Klingsporr, who
had come from Stockholm, was posted with 5,000 men.
The Swedish general, Klercker, disputed the approach
step by step, and bad made every preparation for a battle;
but Klingsporr, not daring to assume the responsibility
of cbntravening the positive orders of his sovereign, and
forming an exaggerated estimate of the force of the Rus-
sians, retreated and abandoned without striking a blow,
nearly the whole of Finland to the enemy. The Russians
hand nothing to do then, but to march forward. The
south and centre of Finland, the island of Aland and
Gothland, fell thus into their hands at the commence-
ment of April, 1808.
The war wag not terminated. Count Klingsporr had
retreated, it is true, towards the north, but he had pre-
served the important part of his army. His march
was
not interrupted, and his line of retreat was not cut off.
An hostile return on his part might any day change the
situation. In order to avert this danger, and to put an
end to it, Count Buxhowden had thrown forward all
his forces in the direction of Uleaborg, with orders to
attack' the enemy wherever they should come up with
him. But Klingsporr after having continued his march
by Limango and Brahestad, all of a sudden assumed
the offensive, and gained a marked advantage at Sika-
jockt in a contest which 'was the first truly serious-affair
of the campaign. Then recommencing his retreat almost
immediately, he concentrated his army on Luzuijocko

and Limango, whilst the Russians did the same near
Brahestad and Karikinda, above Brahestad. On the
27th of April, assuming the offensive a second time, the
Swedis% general completely defeated the Russians at
Revolax, where General Boulatoff was wounded and
made prisoner. Five days afterwards, on the "2d of
May, Col. Sandels cut in pieces a Russian corps atPul-
killa, north of Saint Michel, in the Savolax, and carried
off a whole park of artillery. He also recaptured
Kuopio.

Klinzsrorr, on his side, reoccupied Brahestad, which
had been evacuated by Toutchkoff on the report of an in-
surgent movement manifesting itself at various points.
After having taken a fortified position on the north bank
of the Pyhajocki, he pushed forward a reconnaissance
towards Kijana, in Eastern Finland, whilst Toutcbkoff
fortified himself at Himango and Gamle Carleby. The
Swedish army, reinforced by troops from Sweden, reck-
oned then about 18,000 men. However, it was the time
when the frost sets in, and when the snow falls, and all
important operations were obliged to be suspended ;
Colonel Sandels alone surmounting every obstacle, con-
tinued his course in Eastern Finland. He spread so
much alarm that it was necessary not only to send to the
spot, with the greatest precipitation, the troops located
in the environs of St. Petersburg, in order to cover Nys-
lott, but also to despatch a division which advanced in
all haste to Kuopio. It had also been found necessary
to detach a portion of the corps of cavalry blockading
Swcaborg, to defend and keep in order the country of
Heinola.

Sweaborg, a place of the first rank and importance,
was on the eve of capitulation. On the Bth of May it
surrendered, although it was not at all proved that the
resistance might not have been prolonged. This was a
valuable indemnification to the Russians for the reverses
which they were then experiencing.

The Swedes, in their turn, retook the islands of Goth-
land and Aland. They failed, however, in other expedi-
tions despatched from Swedish ports. The most impor-
tant of these failures were the expeditions directed against
Abo and Vasa. In revenge Count Klingsporr ordered
an attack on Ny-Carleby, which was taken by General
Adlerkreuz and Colonel Grippenburg, in spite of the vigo-
rous resistance of General Jaukowitch.

During this time General Barclay de Telly had ad-
vanced from Nyslatt and Wilmaustraudt, through the
Savolax, driving before him Sandels, whom he had forced
to evacuate Kuopio, and marching onwards to join
Raiewski, who had replaced Toutchkoff in command of
the troops destined to hold Klingsporr in check. The
'Russians were desirous of forcine. the Swedish general
back upon Toneo, on the other side of the Gulf of Both-
nia. But two vigorous, though fruitless, attacks made
by Sandels, on the 25th and 27th of June, against
Kuopio, which had been left in charge of General Rak-
manoff, determined Barclay de Tolly to return to that
town to reinforce the troops in occupation, and to watch
over his defence himself. From the 30th of June he
was attacked there by the Swedes, and •he only suc-
ceeded in repulsing them after a murderous contest.
At this period Raiewski, deceived in his hopes of being
rejoined by Barclay de Tolly, who had contented him-
self with sending him two regiments, threatened in front
by the superior force of Klingsporr, and renderedanxious
by insurrections which had just broken out along the
whole coast to the south of Wasa, evacuated that town
on the Ist July, and concentrated the main body of his
troops on Salmi to cover the centre of Finland.
On the 2d, Colonel Wlastoff, who was bringing him
the two regiments despatched by Barclay de Tully, de-
feated Col. Fiaudt at Hindulaks. Fiaudt, attacked on
the 11th at Perko, by Jaukowitch, was repulsed in the
direction of Gamle Carleby. On the Bth Raiewski had
dislodged a Swedish regiment from Happo ; he then fell
back towards Tavasthas, and took up a position at
Alavo on the 19th of July. There being harassed by a
partisan corps under the orders of a sergeant of the
name of Root, seeing his communications intercepted,
and his convoys seized, and in danger of being cap-
tured with his corps, he made a hasty retreat upon Ta-
vasthus.

On the Gth and 13th of July other expeditions from
Sweden made two attempts to get possession of Kris-
tiniestad, on the south-west coast. Each time the
Swedish forces were driven back to their vessels by
Colonel Orloff Amisoff, who was occupyieg Kristiuiestad
and Kasco on the shore, and Kauhajocki in the interior.
On the 20th of July the Russians defeated, at the foot of
the bridge at Finnstrom, a corps of insurgents, sup-
ported by the troops of the garrison of `Vasa, which
the Swedes bad just re• occupied. On the 27th they
were beaten at Kauhajocki. At the same time the
Swedish naval force effected a new landing at Kristinie-
stad, their troops took possession of this town for the
third time, but they were for the third time driven out
again. At length Kauhajocki, retaken by Orloff Deni-
soff, is reconquered on 2d August by the Swedes. We
see that up to this time the successes were about equal
on both sides, and that the Swedes could only be con-
quered by a superior force. The Russian army, in fact,
was receiving daily numerous reinforcements—its forces
increased every day, whilst those of Sweden were weak-
ening by the efforts made during their heroic but un-
equal resistance.

On the Ist of September, General Kamenski marched
towards Sippola, at the head of a very considerable
body of troops. Klingsporr immediately evacuated
Wasa, and fell back on Gainle Carleby. Attacked by
Kamenski at Orawais, he was defeated after a partial
success in the most bloody battle of the war. From
that time, despairing of regaining Finland with the
feeble resources which remained, he *turned to Stock-
holm to make known the situation to the King Gusta-
vus IV., who would not listen to his representations.
When he left he had given up the command of his army
to the old General Klercker. Kamenski advancing
along the Gulf of Bothnia, drove this army from position
to position to Brahestadt. The Swedish army was sta-
tioned at Salo, Palo Savolax, and Pea
lsocki—the van-
guard at Piebangi. It had iuffered cruelly in the retreat.
Reduced to 6,000 men, by fatigue, sickness, and misery,
getting no subsistence from the sea, which was covered
with ice, deeply discouraged, and unable to make
head against an enemy so superior in strength, it was
placed in the most critical situation. Its generals
deeming, therefore, resistance no longer possible, deter-
mined to communicate with Kamenski' for the purpose
of treating of the evacuation of Finland. They obtained
at first, on the 16th of November, 1808, a suspension of
arms for two days, on the condition of abandoning
Brahestadt, and of pushing back their vanguard to Olki-
jocki. On the 29th a convention was signed, in virtue
of which they evacuated the part of the shore which
they still held, and retreated to Tornea. The armistice
was to terminate on the 27th of December—it was after-
wards prolonged indefinitely.

But the Emperor Alexander disapproved of these ar-
rangements. Availing himself of the thickness of the
ice which covered the Gulf of. Bothnia in the month of
January, 1809, he prepared an expedition for. the pur•
pose of taking the Aland Islands. At the same time he
ordered General Schowaloff, first, to denounce the ar-
mistice, and then to drive back the remains of the S wedo-
Finnish armies upon the western coast of the Gulf of
Bothnia, and to advance into Western Bothnia by way
of Tornea and Pitea. The two corps d'armee commenced
their march in the month of March, 1809. The Aland
Isles were defended by General Dobelu, and attacked by
'the corps of Bagration. The Swedish forces, although
bard pressed, made an obstinate resistance. But Dobelu,
informed by a courier of the revolution at Stockholm—
which had just overturned the throne of Gustavus IV.
and had placed the regency of the kingdom in the hands
of the Duke of Sudermania—communicated this event to
the Russian generals, and prayed for a suspension of
hostilities. This was refused ; and Dobelu, forgotten in
the midst of the events that were happening at Stock-
holm, was soon reduced to the nepessity of a precipitate
retreat.

In the meantime Schowaloff made himself master of
Tornea, and compelled General Grippenberg to sign
at Catix, on the 25th March, a convention, by which
the remainder of the Finnish army was disbanded, and
the whole country between Catix and Tornea ceded to
the Russians. Thus ended the war which brought Fin-
land under the dominion of Russia—a war which, if the
measures of the Finnish general had been better pre-
pared in anticipation of a surprise—if the military forces
of Sweden, which, although amounting to upwards of
100,000 fighting men, were yet insufficient for the de-
fence of Finland; had been more eilectively employed—
might have had a very different result. Nay, there is
reason to believe, that had it not been for the initial
oversight, had it not been for Klingsporr's disistrous
retreat before an enemy whom he had never yet fought
with, and whom subsequently he vanquished more
than once, under circumstances far less favourable,
Finland would have remained a Swedish province. The
responsibility fell ultimately on the King, Gustavus IV.,
whose intervention, equally irrational and despotic,
crippled the operations of his generals, and was the
.
principal cause of their reverses. Upon him also fell the
penalty. Everybody knows how much the loss of Fin-
land influenced that national movement which tore from
his brow the ancient and glorious crown of Sweden.

ODESSA.—Odessa contains about 70,000 inhabitants,
lies on the linean or estuary of the little river Peressip,
in the Black Sea. The harbour is bad, but the roadstead
has some advantages. This town was founded by Cathe-
rine 11., in 1792, and rose rapidly under the judicicni
administration of the Duke de Richlieu, a French emigre,
under Alexander. It owes its flourishing condition to
the exportation of wheat from Podolia, Bessarabia, and
New Russia. The population is very mixed, presenting
specimens of most nations subject to and bordering on
Russia. There are two harbours, one for Russian ships
of war and coasters ; the other the quarantine harbour,
for ships comina from the Bosphorus. It has twenty
streets, macadamised, or paved with granite. The
houses, all built of stone, are very respectable and sub-
stantial structures. Including its cathedral, it has
no fewer than twenty-two churches, sixteen docks, thirty
bridges, bazaars, baths, and a theatre. There is also a
college, which was founded in 1817, and which, in 1846,
had no fewer than thirty-two tutors, and nearly two
hundred students. Other educational establishments
exist, and are equally flourishing. There is a school for
"noble ladies ;" schools of navigation and commerce .
an ecclesiastical seminary, and a cabinet of natural his-
tory. It has open boulevards, a botanic garden, and
several other public gardeut —Russia; ow people, ooun.
try, and Government,