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g54i THE LEADER. [No. 285, Saturday,
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THE WAR. Since tihe commencement of the ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Fi Ortschakoff, Who At Last Publicly Anv...
sity ; but it is known that her roubles are paper , and that her hard cash is becoming seriously deficient . She goes into the market , and finds herself in total discredit . She asks the Princes to assist her , and they fail ? Austria cannot Tend even underhand help in this direction . Naples is said to be acting as agent , and && er German Princes to be borrowing for the saiae purpose . Hence a < rreat draft of bullion in "Central Europe , which is felt even in this country ; as -witness the raising of the Bank discount on Thursday last from 3 £ to 4 per cent . But no " tightness" that we can fear , even prospectively , equals the excessive pressure upon our enemy and his
allies-It is quite possible that Naples may render real assistance to Russia ; although King Fkbbikani > himself stands in no small need of support . His position is becoming more desperate than that of the potentate to whom he is subservient . This , however , arise 3 from the morbid state of the Prince in possession . Naples is a rich country ; tlie people are naturally inclined to put up with much ; and any difficulty that the court can feel must arise from the simple madness which rules over it . Of this we have had oecasion to notice frequent and recent examples . The poor King will not let well alone . He is so nervous with respect to the odium that he may incur towards the Western Powers , by aiding Russia secretly—so apprehensive of the local hatred which he may incur by his
unconcealable co-operation with the reactionary party at Vienna , that he is not content to be safe and quiet in his palace , but he must set his police to be ineessantly ascertaining whether or not eadh particular individual in the city of Naples remains loyal , or is- rendered harmless . This goading tvith the royal sceptre in the hands of a brutal police puts the people in a humour extremely favourable to any revolutionary movements , and evidently some movement is in preparation , with Naples for its centre . Thus , while doing all he can to serve the purposes of the Czar as a spy , stockbroker , and general agent in the South ,
the Kihg of Natives is practically undermining his own throne , and opening the road for a restoration of the Murat dynasty by rendering the present system absolutely unbearable to the Neapolitans . Dinance has become the turning point even in Spain , and the telegraph announces the most hopeful movement that we have seen in that country . The Loan , although compulsory to a . certain extent , by no means vies with the French and English loan $ in the facility of raising . On the contrary , it is a kind of boast that the Government has at last obtained offers of about threefvfths ! But a new step is taken , —it is announced
that there is to be a general reform of the Tariff . The duty on cotton goods is to be lowered ; that on paper and wood abolished . The telegraph deals roughly with subjects like these : it may exaggerate ; it frequently underrates the importance of public measures . But if the Spanish Government grapples with the Tariff that protects the Smuggler to the injury of the Crown and the honest citizen , it may really have made the first move towards escaping from chronic bankruptcy 'to a renovation o * its exchequer ; and , in tnat Case , the Liberal 'Government of Estpatbtbuo has obtained a lease of existence that it may continue as long as 'it pleases . Let us welcome the illustrious volunteers who liave come forward to expose tne British
administration as it has been , if not as it is . Sir CtiARr-Bs Napier has been priblitrtsmg a correspondence , mainly intended to expose Sir Jamics Graham and his conduct , while he was First Lord of the Admiralty . Sir Charles appears to bo innocently unaware how much the correspondent *© exposes 'both parties ; and Sir Jambs has been lending aid , vivdvoce , to the 'expos 6 . By this correspondence , which was not intended for publication , but does not pretend to . bo the more sincere on that account , we understand the reason why Sir Charles ! Najpier was chosen for the command . Sir James Gtramam evidently saw through * he old Admiral ' s deficiencies and weaknesses , excusable to a certain extent on the score of age , but for that very roason likoly to grow worse . JOt
is , however , manifest irom the whole tenor of this correspondence , that Sir Jambs Graham was not looking for a commander who would go in and strike a blow at Russia , 4 > ut for one whowould be nmntf & r . He wanted , in short , an Admiral not for use in the Baltic , but for show in the Reform Club ; and the popular ex-Member for Marylebone , who had amused all and sundry % y his naval sallies , his oddities , and his recklessjwriting , was a showy person for line purpose . Thus we learn the sort of Admirals that are chosen , and perhaps we ought not to limit the remark to the naval force . Land officers may be chosen for show as well as sea officers ..
Again , Ttre have the Cabinet Minister exposed . Sir ^ Tames < J ** sam mows that ire is « * f ail things the maintainer of peace ; he has always been so , and he means to keep so ; but be continued in command of the Admiralty during , war and appointed fighting Admirals for show instead of service , while he himself of course sat in his department for show instead of service . He is accounted a clever administrator , and he is a clever manager . He can fit out ships , and he can economise stores ; but he appoints Admirals not to do the duty , and ships not to fight . have been
If the examinations which commenced in the admission of candidates for the artillery and military schools do their duty , they ought to give us better public servants . But how far are the examinations intended for show ? Some are ludicrously and extravagantly severe ; there have been others which were ludicrous pretences ; and ' even the best may be merely a mode of stocking the public offices , and the army and navy , with " good" schoolboys . Or there may be real methods of securing that manly , active , and intelligent youths find their way into both services . Experience only can tell us which will be the result . In the meanwhile the taint of humbug is so extensive , that we vratch with doubt as well as hope .
One of the best acts of the Administration was undertaken at the suggestion of Sir William Molesworth—the appointment of Mr . Francis Hincks , the late Prime Minister in Canada , to be Governor of Barbadoes . It is a great practical step towards the consolidation of the Colonial Empire . But will the Barbadians , the proud people of " Little England , " tolerate the appointment of an unsuccessful Canadian Minister to be their governor ? For Hincks is a man who has so managed reform in Canada , that while he has helped the success of it , he has made everybody mistrust him as one pushing to gain his own ends ; and so he is driven from the head of the party which he has rendered successful .
At all events , he understood colonial business , which is more than all governors do . We have a fresh example in Sir Charles Hotham , who succeeded so well as a peremptory negotiator in South America , and appears to be making a " mull" at Victoria . Finding the expenditure of that golden colony very high , he clapped on several taxes ; and when the colonists kick against taxation , instead of pushing his measure as he might , he cuts down the expenditure ; as if , sulky at the refusal of money , he would make the colonists feel the effects in stinted public works . That is his grand offence ; but he has
been foolish enough to commit himself to a small and ludicrous private quarrel . One Croons , a victualling contractor , was , it seems , invited to a ball . At the ball , growing thirsty with the delightful labours of the scene , he retires to take a draft of " the vice-regal beer . " We guess from the sequel that the audacious contractor had made a tender for beer of his own , nnd had boon rejected . At all events , it is hinted that " the vice-regal beer " was sour and bad . This is nothing new in viceregal houses , or oven regal : the tea which Queen CHARfcoTTB gave w « s notoriously undrinkable ,, 'and in other courts the viands have been found !
worse than those which humble citizens demand . But Croons probably was moved by an animus : ; and with a reckless disregard of the sacred precincts in which he stood , he significantly exclaimed " O Lord ! " This was construed to be a direct insult to the vice-rogiU beor ; and with an admonition from un official secretary that he had violated the etiquette of the court , ho was dismissed from his post as a victualling contractor . Whereupon Croons rushes into print , appealing from Sir Charms HotaVatkr to the public , and camplaining thnt lie is not only 'dismissed , not only declared < ti violator of etiquette , but degraded before the public na " « mum of weak digestion . "
G54i The Leader. [No. 285, Saturday,
g 54 i THE LEADER . [ No . 285 , Saturday ,
The War. Since Tihe Commencement Of The ...
THE WAR . Since tihe commencement of the war , we have rarely had to record a week so barren of intelligence from the vaticWs seats of hostilities as the past has been . Avaest ^ Seal of preparation—a great deal of expectation with * efep « i ' ce to the next blow , whatever that may ne—and . a small dropping lire of rumours ( though even *© f those there has been a comparative scarcity)—such is almost the sum of the week ' s war news . The only intelligence ^ of interest relates to a sortie made by the Russians from the Redan , and the destruction by them of some gabions . A despatch I from General Simpson , and another from General I Pelissier , dated respectively August 31 and September 1 , speak of this sortie as having occurred on the previous night , which would seem to indicate two separate attacks ; but , from the terms of both despatches being almost identical , we should judge that they refer to a combined and simultaneous action , and that there is some ambiguity in the term " last night . " | The Russians , it is asserted , have made two semi- I circular lines behind the Malakhoff Tower , which I there is no doubt they will defend with the utmost 1 tenacity . The bridge that is to unite the north I and south sides of Sebastopol , and to facilitate the I passage of the Russians into the former , should the 1 latter fall into our hands , is being actively con- | structed ; and everything seems to indicate that the I enemy is beginning to despair of keeping us out of that part of the fortress . Still , the coming blow does not 1 come , though the Allies get nearer to the outer works , and every day lose more and more men in the trenches ; the Russians feel the deadly foe of hunger pressing them hard in the very midst of their defences ; and it would almost seem that the besieging armies calculate upon the issue being settled by that last and strongest ally . Touching the internal defences which the Russians are supposed to be constructing within Sebastopol , we read as follows in a Vienna letter in the Independance Beige : — " If we are to give credit to the information received here , General MelnikoffT who has succeeded General fe Todleben as director of the defensive works of Sebasto- [| pol , has had mines , fosses , galleries , small redoubts , and fx barricades made between the first and second lines of j defence . Upon the eminence between Fort Paul and | the bastion No . 1 , he has had a work constructed , which | commands the towers of Korniloff and the Malakhoff to I such an extent , that the Allies will be unable to esta- | blish themselves in these towers , even when they shall have conquered them . The Belbec heights again are stronger than ever , and the entire park of field artillery previously at Sebastopol is also there . " Yet , side by side with all these anticipations , is the positive declaration of Prince Gortschakoff , if we may credit a despatch from Hamburg , that the fortifications have been greatly damaged , and that the garrison has suffered heavy losses . It is suspected , however , that the enemy will make yet another desperate effort on the Tchernaya . The troops there have been kept , for many days and nights , in a state of incessant watchfulness ; but as yet we have no intelligence of any repetition of the affair of the 16 th . New works have been constructed by the French and Sardinians to protect the line of ; : the Tchernaya ; and there is little doubt that another [ y attack would be even more disastrously repulsed , if j $ that be possible , than the former . In the meanwhile , \ j according to a despatch from Marseilles , a great .. ; . movement is observable amongst the arniy of the I enemy on the Balbec plateau . 1 Omar Pacha is in all probability by this time on } his way to Asia with his army . By the end of Sep- ; tcmber , the reinforcements sent to Anatolia will ;; amount , it is said , to 80 , 000 men . Kars and Erze- , roum are effectually relieved ; for , although the Russians still intercept the communications with the , | latter place ,- and have burnt the villages round } ? about , they have no means of attacking either town . , ! Another account states that the Russians recrossed < the Soghanli-Dttgh , after a combat at Kepri-Keui , in | jj which Kerem Pacha greatly distinguished himself . p | Letters from Erzoroum say that the Russian Ge- U neral i ' yars that the army 'of Batoum , under Omar Pacha , will cut off his retreat by advancing on Tiflis . ^ The following bulletin is published by the Ottoman j Government : — f | " On the 4 th , at sovon a . m ., tho Russians advan u ¦ with tho whole of their forces against tho intronchments of Kars , and made an attack on the battery of Khanly-Tabiu . A contest between tho « artillery commenced , and lasted two hours . Tho Russians , who lost a great numbor of men , retreated . Besidos tho dead « n <| wounded , whom they took off , they loft on tho flow more than one hundred men . " A Russian General , it is added , was killed , oM one of tho enemy ' s guns was so injured that it wa » abandoned . Owing to the position which tho-1 urKs occupied , they loBt but few men . From Trieste , undor date of September otli , ««
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 8, 1855, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08091855/page/2/
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