The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-05-09 00:00:00

THE WAR.

BOMBARDMENT OF ODESSA.
The Moniteur, of Saturday, contains an official despatch
from the French admiral, respecting the attack upon
Odessa by the combined fleets. It states that the bombard-
ment took place on the 22nd of April, commencing at six
o'clock in the morning, the fleet consisting of three French
and five English frigates. Two of the moles and batteries
very speedily returned the fire of the ships. At ten o'clock
the combined fleets were joined by four other frigates.
The action continued until five o'clock in the afternoon.
The powder magazine belonging to the mole exploded.
Fifteen of the enemy's vessels were either sunk or burned.
The marine establishments were very much damaged by
fire or by shells. The commercial harbour was spared,.and
the merchant ships contained within it escaped destruc-
tion. The loss of the allies only amounted to five killed
and wounded. This despatch was dated on board the Ville
de Paris, before Odessa, on the 25th of April. It is stated
that the combined fleets afterwards sailed from Odessa for
Sebastopol; and that thirteen Russian ships, laden with
munitions of war, had been taken. A letter from Odessa,
dated 24th ult., states that the bombardment produced
great terror among the inhabitants ; they emigrated en
masse, and the town was almost deserted. Several foreign
consuls went on board the English and French vessels.
Admiral Dundas declared that an indemnity will be paid
for the Austrian vessel burned in the port. On the 23d
and 24th the bombardment did not continue, but the in-
habitants feared that it would be recommenced. The
blockading squadron consisted of twenty-four vessels placed
in three lines, eight in each. It was only the vessels of
the first line which fired. The warehouses situated on the
port, and belonging to European commerce, did not receive
any damage. The English and French gunners aimed
admirably, and only hit the houses and warehouses of Rus-
sians. A combat took place on the 9th between an Eng-
lish vessel and a Russian corvette.
The official Moniteur gives its recital of the affair as
follows :

The government has received the following details of
the attack directed against Odessa by the admirals of the
combined fleets. We know not which to admire the most,
the energy and the rapidity or the certainty of the blow
which the two navies have struck on this occasion, An
attack had been committed against the law of nations by
the military authorities of Odessa. The object of the
admirals was to chastise the authors of it. It is on the
military part of the Russian town, on its warlike esta-
blishments, that our sailors concentrated their fire; and
Europe will remark with what scruples of humanity and
with what precision of movement they kept the effects of
the attack beyond the commercial part of the place, and
spared it, as well as the property of neutrals, from any
damage. In acting with this consideration and generosity
the French admiral coiTformed himself to the general in-
structions which he received in compliance with the wish
of the Emperor, and which prescribed to him to spare open
towns as much as possible :
" Ville de Paris, Odessa Roads, April 25.
" On the morning of the 22nd eight steam frigates
(three French and five English) proceeded to the Imperial
port of Odessa, and at half-past six four of them had
opened their fire on the land batteries. The two moles,
as well as the intermediate batteries, warmly returned it.
At ten o'clock four other frigates joined, and then the
action became general. It continued until five o'clock in
the evening, when Admiral Dundas and I made signal to
the frigates to join the squadron. The fire had quieted
the battery of the Imperial mole, the powder-magazine
had blown up, and 15 vessels, with the exception of two
or three, were either sunk or on fire. The naval estab-
lishments were also on fire or very much injured• from the
shells. The town and the commercial port, where a num-
ber of vessels of all' nations were moored, were respected.
Several of these vessels took advantage of the confusion
and got out, and among others the only two French vessels
that were there."'
The Turkish ambassador has received from the Ottoman
legation at Vienna the following dispatch, on the subject
of the same fact
"I have just received the following dispatch from Bel-
grade; it has been communicated to me by Omer Pacha,
who begged me to transmit it to you. Eight steam-frigates
belonging to the combined fleets proceeded to Odessa, and
commenced bombarding the military port on the 22nd. In
a few hours they destroyed all the fortifications, the bat-
teries, and the military establishments of the Russians.
Two powder-magazines blew up, and 12 of the enemy's
vessels of war were sunk. The commercial port was
spared, and the merchant vessels escaped; 13 Russian
vessels laden with stores and ammunition were captured."
The town of Odessa was defended by four batteries,
which were constructed about the beginning of this year,
and were placed as follows : the first, of 12 guns, on the
mole of the quarantine port, defending the entrance of the
great roadstead ; the second, of a guns, below the boule-

•
yard, and to the right of the flight of steps which comes
down to the sea, and divides the boulevard in two ; this
battery defends the entrance of the quarantine port ; the
third, to the left of the steps, placed in such a manner as
to cross its fire with that of the second battery, and to
command the roadstead ; the fourth, on the quay of the
port de pratique, below the palace of Prince Woronzow ;
each of these two last named batteries had 8 guns. In
addition to these four batteries, there were three others ;
one on the other side of the Gulf of Odessa, at the Russian
village of Dofiinofka, nearly opposite the quarantine port;
the other to the south of the port, near the country-house
of the Countess of Langeron ; and the third in the same
direction, and near the Cape of the Great Fountain, where
a lighthouse is also placed.
A letter from the Baltic, of the 25th ult., states :—" The
thaw of the Neva is expected in two days. The ice has
already broken up in the Gulf at a little distance from
Cronstadt, which will be very probably accessible at the
end of the month. The approach of hostilities is strongly
felt at St. Petersburg, and measures are being taken with
a view to dangers which are profoundly apprehended,
though denied. Four batteries have just been established
at the entrance of the Neva. The treasure in the fortress
was sent, eight days ago, to Moscow. From the 27th the
command of the town will be divided between four mili-
tary governors, and the state of siege will be applied in all
its rigour. Many persons are leaving for the interior of
the country. The departure of the Emperor for Peterhoff,
where the Court was to have gone on the 27th, is adjourned.
The displeasure (mecontentementl caused by the policy of
Austria was every day expressed more openly. It had
been affirmed in some saloons that the Government was
preparing to place that power, by an ultimatum, under the
necessity of pronouncing for or against it. His Majesty
is in such ill health that he had been obliged to counter-
mand twice a review which he had intended to pass."
We have news from the Baltic fleet to April 26, at
which it was still lying at anchor, at Elfsnabben, four
miles distant from Stockholm, where it arrived 19 sail
strong, on the 23d, or even earlier. The force has been
subsequently increased. At Stockholm Admiral Napier
bad an audience of the King, who is said to have received
him most graciously, to have kept him to luncheon, and,
at leaving, to have conducted him as far as the steps of the
palace. In Stockholm 100 oxen had been purchased and
sent on board, part alive, part as carcasses. It was under-
stood that no operation of importance would be com-
menced until the arrival of our French allies. The block-
ade of the Russian harbours was assumed to be already in
force, inasmuch as the Lubeck vessel, Alexandra, bound
for Riga, was turned back by our cruisers, both off Bol-
dera and off Liban, and has since put into Memel.. On
the 11th, the brig Dido, Captain Holmberg, of Ranmo,
with 2,000 casks of salt; on the 16th, the brig Ida, Capt.
Steen, of Helsingfors, with 2,900 sacks of coffee ; and, on
the 17th, the brig Patrioten, Capt. Rockelman, of Gamle
Carleby, from London, with ballast and 900 casks of salt
on board, were brought in prizes to the Stockholm roads.
The population of the Swedish capital make frequent
I excursions to visit the fleet, and, as it would seem from
the local journals, have every reason to be satisfied with
the reception they meet with. The Senate, on the 26th,
issued a prohibition to all Hamburgs to connect them-
selves in any way with privateering, and all privateers are
forbidden entering the Hamburg ports, either with or with-
out prizes. A similar prohibition has also appeared at
Lubeck.
A letter from the Dobrudscha of the 17th ult., says :
" The deserters arrived here from the Russian army say
that the Danube overflowed and carried away all the raft
bridges, the communication with the right bank of the
Danube is cut off, and for the last four days the armies
have been without provisions. Their number is 60,000
men. They lost 4,000 in passing the river. The place on
which they are encamped is very marshy, and their loss is
100 men per diem.
RUSSIAN "CHAMPIONS OF CHRIST."—The volunteer
corps of " cross bearers," organised by the Russians in
Wallachia, as a.chosen band of champions of Christ, has
been disbanded, not as a concession to Austria, but on
account of its indomitable propensity to stealing.
MONTENEGRO.—Prince Daniel issued a manifesto on
the 28th March, calling upon all brave Montenegrins who
do not fear to die, to join him as volunteers, and fight for
the holy cross, (Russia,) the orthodox faith, and their
country. It is said that Prince Daniel can raise 20,000
men, and enter at once Albania and the Herzegovina.
Austria views this rising with alarm ; and will, it is said,
intervene to crush it.

A medical man, writing from the seat of war, says :
" In Russia it is believed, in military quarters, you can at
any moment produce cholera artificially by compressing
together, as it were, large masses of soldiers, and that,
under certain such conditions, cholera, after being a while
in a district, becomes contagious."
THE INSURRECTION IN ALBANlA.—Letters just re-
ceived from Corfu confirm the capture by the Turks of
Peta, a strong position of the Greeks near Arta, in south-
ern Albania, and announce the re-taking, by the Sultan's
troops, of the town of Metzovo, a very important position
indeed, for it commands the principal pass over the chain
of Pindus, between Epirus and Thessaly. The inhabitants
of Metzovo are entirely Christian, and were wealthy from
the carrying trade, in which they were almost all engaged.
They allege openly, that they were induced to throw off
their allegiance to the Sultan by Signor Rosetti, the
Greek consul, -who has just been expelled from Janina.
No sooner had they done so than the Greek General Grivas
came to " protect" them, and began his operations by
levying a contribution of 100,000 piastres upon the town,
and by stripping every woman in it of her jewels, and of
all her gold and silver ornaments. He then fortified him-
self with about 300 picked men, in some loop-holed houses,
burnt-all the other houses that might have interfered with
his retreat, and awaited the Turkish General's (Abdi
Pasha's) arrival, exhorting the people of Metzovo to de-
fend themselves gallantly. This they did for a short time;
but Abdi Pasha's irregulars, with -the plunder of such a
town before them, soon put an end to all resistance.
Grivas never stirred from his snug retreat, but made good
his position till night; Abdi Pasha having no heavy artil-
lery, and then made his escape, while the Albanians were
too intent upon pillage to watch him. He got safe off
with his booty, which was what he chiefly came for, and
the deputation of Metiovites, which waited upon Abdi
Pasha to make their submission, and to beg for an am-
nesty, declare that they would sooner live for ever under
the Turks than endure for another week such Christian
tyranny. Abdi Pasha did all in his power to protect the
Greek prisoners, and to preserve that portion of the town
which is still standing ; but the Albanian irregulars had
had been roused to the greatest fury, and, indeed, van-
quished rebels do not receive very mild treatment in any
country. The lonian Islands are tranquil, though, of
course, there is great excitement in all parts of the Levant
where there are Greeks.

A telegraphic dispatch states that the Russian barque
Argo, from Cardenas, for this port, had been taken into
Queenstown, a prize to a revenue-cutter..
Lieut. Raymond, RN., hoisted his pendant, as Admiralty
agent, on board the fine frigate-built ship Tyrone, trans-
port No. 57, on Tuesday, and sailed from the Mersey on
Wednesday, having under his orders also transports Nos.
52, 53, 55, 56, and 71, which vessels are to embark a por-
tion of the 11th Hussars and their horses for conveyance
to the seat of war in the East. Constant calms and light
head winds pi evented the Tyrone making a very quick
passage to Kingstown.

The French squadron lying in the Downs, with the ex-
ception of three vessels, sailed for the Baltic on Monday
last week. The three vessels left behind were the frigate
Andromague, and the two-deckers Breslau and Tage. The
Breslau, which had been damaged by a collision with tile
Tage during a gale of wind on Tuesday, has since proceeded
to Sheerness to be repaired; and the Tage also stands in
need of some repair. The ships of the French squadron in
the Downs have been very good customers to the trades-
men of Deal, having spent £l,OOO for fresh meat, and one
baker was nearly overwhelmed by an order for 14,000
loaves.

SOLDIERS' FAMILIES.—Major Powys, secretary to the
Central Association for Soldiers' Families, has written to
the daily journals stating that as yet no money has reached
the Association from the treasurer of the funds raised at
the Drury-lane demonstration and fancy fair. Two hun-
dred pounds had been raised, but the Lord Mayor has not
been as yet convinced that " the Mansion-house is not the
best place for administering relief to every person calling
herself a soldier's wife."

AN AMERICAN PRIVATEER IN TIIE CllA.NNEL.—lntel-
ligence has been received by the Admiralty, that an Ameri-
can clipper, the Grapeshot, has captured a French merchant
ship off the Laud's End. The Grapeshot cleared out of
New York, on the 23d of March, for St. Thomas's, with
1,500 packages on board, professedly of hardware, but
really containing 500 muskets and supposed to be bound
for Finland, and failing debarkation, then for the Medi-
terranean. This will explain the story of a Russian frigate
in the Channel.--Morning Herald.—Upon this statement
the Shipping and Mercantile Gazette say es :—" There is
no mention of this by any of our agents in the locality
referred to, and on inquiry at the Admiralty this morning
we are informed that there is not a word ;of truth in the
statement."

The eighteen Finnish-Russian seamen, portions of the
crews of the captured Russian ships, Kamptscliatka and
Carlos, which have been brought up the river and taken
into the London and West India Docks, continue prisoners
on board Her Majesty's ship Crocodile, off the Tower
Quay. The men think very little of the Czar, and have
expressed their readiness to join Her Majesty's service.
Measures are about being taken to ship them on board
merchant ships bound to Australia, India, or on any long
voyage where they may be far away from the seat of war.
They appear hardy and active young fellows, and are
described to be very smart sailors. According to the pre-
sent rate of wages in the port of London, the men will be
entitled to an advance sufficient to equip them for the new