The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1854-08-14
THE BALTIC FLEET.

I'll the purposes OF nhta ~ !" 49, - "
er fioated upon the deep, has proved entirely
Inadequate to the purpose for which it was
cent. 1.-The reduction of Cronstadt and the
aher principal Russian strongholds on the
Baltic. The Black Sea feet has likewise
,roved incapable of reducing Sevastopol.-
These truths. which have long been surmised
by the public, are at last conceded by the
commanders of the respective squadrons.-
Some time ago, when an English nobleman
ventured to suggest that wooden walls were
no match for stone walls, especially such
tone walls as Nicholas had erected on the
Baltic and Black Sea, he was hooted at as
iimpleton, and almost suspected as traitor.
But the result has demonstrated that ne was
,bout the only man in Great Britain who I'M
lerstood the subject, or had Independence
enough to express his opinions. We doubt
whether Sir Charles Napier himself has ever
| had much confidence in the practicabiiify OF
IN assault by ships of war upon sucn ior-
,resses AZ those of Cronstadt and Sveaborg.
Every body must have been struck with tne
emphatic recommendations in his snort
speech upon leaving England, that too much
should not be expected from the heet tnaI
many of its appliances of war were mover
and untried, and that they would have formi-
liable enemies in the Baltic to encounter
though they might rely upon it that the men
would do their duty. His speech, on leaving
England. was more than modest. 1t even
showed lurking distrust of the capacity o.
the squadron to make sensible impression
upon the difficulties which it would have 10
encounter. If those difficulties had been
confined to hostile squadron, we have no
hesitation in saying that the Baltic feet under
Sir Charles Napier could have swept an equai
force of French or Russian ships from the
sea, in sixty minutes after they had joined
battle; but wood against rock is dlfferent
question. A better and holder seaman than
Napier never spread his broad pennant TO
the breeze, and when such a man sails upto
Cronstadt in such ship as the Duke OF Wei
lington, followed by such feet as the World
never saw before, and then sails back again
without firing a shot, we scarcely needed his
letter to the Admiralty to assure the world
that Cronstadt is impregnable.
1t is true, that when Sir Charles first enter
ed the Baltic, he did issue a rather vaporlng
in which he ordered his sailors
to sharpen their cutlasses and to take good
aim with their big guns; and that not one OF
those cutlasses has yet been stained with
Russian blood nor one of these big guns
been fired at a single formidable fertilization
in the Baltic. He is also said to have vowed
on one occasion, that he would lunch in Cron-
stadt and dine in st. Petersburg; and on an
other, that long before this, he would be Ell
Their in st. Petersburg or in Heaven. Now,
if Old Charley finds as much difficulty in get
ting to Heaven as he has in getting to St.
Petersburg, we are afraid he is doomed to a
double disappointment But it may be doubt
ed whether the really gallant old sailor ever
INDUCED in such boasts, or if he did, it must
have been when he was in that part of the
ocean, the influence of which upon the head
and legs of both youthful and ancient mari
ners,'' has been often described, and which
is better known in nautical parlance as ''half
seas over We trust the British public will
not rush from one extreme to the other, and
insist upon recalling Sir Charles Napier be-
cause he cannot perform impossibilities.
Nothing but an immense land force can
ever reduce Cronstadt, and it is now too late
in the season to concentrate such force in
that quarter. Winter is approaching, that
long and rigorous season which, though it
win arrest the arms of the allies, will not
freeze up tho arts of Nicholas. A long, bloody
and expensive war is before them, and in their
midst an enemy more terrible than the Rus
slams, a discontinued and disaffected people.
CONNECTIONS WITH THE DANvILLE
RAILROAD.
The Legislature, at its session in 1858,
passed an act incorporating the Halifax and
Pittsylvania Railroad Company. This act
provides for the construction of road from
some point ON the Richmond and Danville
Railroad, north of Banister river, in the
county of Halifax, to some point on Pig
river, in the county of Pittsylvania. This
railroad scheme is one of considerable i'm
portance, as it is intended to accommodate
very productive region of the State, whose
people are anxious for the best mode of COM
munication with the principal markets of
Virginia, and at their instance the charter
was granted. To Richmond, the project is
very interesting, and the attention of her
people should be directed to it. As part
of the system of railroad net work, designed
to drain the State with ease and expedition,
so that production will be stimulated, and
Agriculture receive the highest compensa-
ton, we regard this Halifax and Pittsylvania
scheme as one of very considerable dignity.
1t constitutes one of the cross routes that
will ultimately intersect every respectable
agricultural district in the State.
Books of subscription to the stock of this
road viii, we learn, soon be opened by the
commits sioners appointed for the purpose at
different places.
An intelligent correspondent of Charlotte
county calls our attention to another conuee.
ton with the Danville Railroad, viz: rail.
road from Lynehburg to join the Danville
! Road in Charlotte. This is the "Chicken-
somn ridge" project, SO long favorite
| of the lamented TuSsTALL. The route is