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December 22, 1855.1 THE LEADER. 1229
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TWO CRUISES IN THE BALTIC. Two Summer Cr...
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A ROMANCE OF UNREAL LIFE. Zaidec. A Roma...
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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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Himalayan Joubnals. Himalayan Journals, ...
calculated to discharge the somewhat delicate duties of his post with advantage to his employers and honour to himself . The Rajah of Sikkun was an infirm old man , not ill-intentioned , but completely over-ruled by his Dewan or Minister , a man deeply imbued with the worst vices of the Oriental character . The latter was sufficiently ignorant to believe that , if he could get Dr . Campbell into his power , the Supreme Government would ratify whatever concessions fear or suffering might have extorted from their accredited Agent . An opportunity unfortunately presented itself , and , while returning to Darjeeling from an amicable visit to the Rajah , the buperintendent was suddenly attacked , knocked down , and made prisoner . After a lengthened detention , and much ill-treatment , he was only set at liberty when an armed force proposed to invade the country . But what was the reparation for this gross violation of the law of nations , this msult to the wie
British flag ? Troops were marched to the frontiers , ana commana entrusted to an officer who had distinguished himself in the Nepal war twentyfive years previously . The lapse of a quarter of a century may have increased his prudence—it had certainly chilled his enterprise . He pronounced bikkim to be impracticable for a British army , and , after remaining encamped for some weeks within three hours' march of the Dewan ' s ill-armed rabble , our troops were timidly recalled . The country , indeed , was mountainous and difficult , but the inhabitants were generally well disposed towards us , and t
eager for the downfal of the oppressive Minister . As it was , they brough abundant supplies of milk , fowls , and eggs , and would have continued to do so . But the troops were withdrawn , and the Government contented itself with the resumption of a tract of land lying at the foot of the hills , and which it had formerly bestowed upon the Rajah as a free gift . This was effected , says Dr . Hooker , by four policemen taking possession of the treasury , which contained twelve shillings , and announcing to the wellpleased villagers that they were once more British subjects . It is thus that we trifle with our prestige , and are yet astonished to hear of warlike commotions and tumult , as if Orientals were to be governed by any other than an iron hand .
December 22, 1855.1 The Leader. 1229
December 22 , 1855 . 1 THE LEADER . 1229
Two Cruises In The Baltic. Two Summer Cr...
TWO CRUISES IN THE BALTIC . Two Summer Cruises with tlie Baltic Fleet in 1854-5 . Being the Log of the " Yacht , 8 Tons , M . T . Y . C . By the Rev . Robert Edgar Hughes , M . A . ' London : Smith and klder , 1855 . Mr . Hughes has fallen into the error , so common among writers of travels , of confiding to the public passages intended for the domestic circle . His pages contain many mild jokes , and milder adventures , which would provoke country cousins to ' laughter and breathless attention ; together with some of between the author
those dialogues ( usually held in a broken language , who speaks a little French , " and " a Frenchman , who speaks a little English " ) which kind friends consider dramatic , and value as delineations ol character . But his book is just rescued from mediocrity by the descriptions of naval evolutions in the Baltic , and the bombardment of Bomarsund and Swealjorg . We must own that Mr . Hughes's manner of speaking of the navy is rather " cocky , " considering how slight his experience has been oj the inner life in a man-of-war . Yet he criticises manoeuvres as fearlessly and readily as an admiral on half-pay , forgetting that the squadron of lme-orbattle ships is a more difficult task than the navigation of the Pet ¦ DttLLIC aiJJLUS IS a . lliuic uimi , ui « *«« a- ™ c , -Rolf :,, flDD * c the inaction of Baltic fleets
Writers in general have been sarcastic on our during the last two years , and have quoted , with tolerable ffi ™**' ** ancient saying of a Kine of France , who " marched up a hill , and then marched dmvn again / ' ~ There is a better precedent than this l' « ckn . ed rhyme to be found in Farquhar ' s " Sir Harry Wildair , " where the following bit of dialogue occurs : — " Clincher . Well , captain , so you took a fine" fleet to the Baltic . And what then ?" " Firebrace . Then—we came back again . The philosophic disregard for glory ; expressed by Captain Firebrace evidently did not exist anywhere in the fleets of Admirals Dundas and Napier . While we , living at home at ease , abused the ^ »» £ *«" fancy pictures of a fleet in the Baltic under the command of Nelson , the officer and seamen of the squadron growled more deeply still , as we may
judge from Mr . Hughes ' s account of the English camp at Bomarsund : — Nothing puts sailors so much out of humour as inaction in the presence of au enemy ; and the notion of landing guns to beS 1 ege the forts aodger-fa ^ uon while the ships were lying just out of range with colours flying and bands of music playing , waa most disgusting to Jack ' s notions of a British pluck . It was _ not pleasant to hear tlie French growling at the inaction , which they did not hesitate to impute to the English authorities ; aud disparaging expressions were heard repeateclly ,-ge » erally , however , accompanied by the saving ^ Ve modern vLt Men la notre . " Ou all sides the greatest disgust yros expressed for the mode .: n system of naval warfare ; the principle of winch , seemed to bo , to keep out ot
" None of that d d nonsense now we ' re ashore / ' eaid a marine officer ; a sentiment in which all present concurred moat heartily . , ,, . .. But the stone wall aud red-hot shot disease had got hold of the' ^ Wies and the ships were resolutely kept out of harm ' s way . Meanwhile , disappo ntment and disgu « t seemed to weigh heavy upon all ; curses ow andI deep wi ° ^^ A — " The French would got the start of us , and gam all the credit of t °° " ^ p' ° ; ~ « Let five hundred marines and as many blue-jackets alone , and they dJa ke the d d place before dinner time . " - " What ' s the use of talking , Bir ; twajuHt the same at that other place . How do we know the slnps can t do no lung if we never tries 'em ?"— " Tho < Wulorous / along with the Heola and Odm , nearly got tho place in no time , them throe by their Helves . Give Captain the command , aud he'd lorn ' em English . " „„„ ,. „„ wui , Among tho officer * tho same opinions wore expressed , though , of comae , with
more reserve . , « It would be simply ridiculous to suppose that the navy , composed o manly , energetic , and hearty men , was anything but strongly opposed to what Mr . Hughes calls " the modern system of naval warfare . But the captains of each abip , the officers and seamen , and the admiral in chief command , arc powerless when not backed up by the authorities at home . Some people assert that the line-of-battle ships caused our inaction in the Maltic , aud that a fleet of gun-boats , mortars , and floating batteries would have
demolished Cronstadt , Sweaborg , and Helsingfors before a week had expired . But mortars and gun-boats , without stores or ammunition , sent to the Baltic for the purpose of making a demonstration , would be quite as helpless as line-of-battle ships in the same condition . Mr . Hughes considers that the attack on Sweaborg was merely intended as a demonstration ; to show , in fact , what the navy could do if properly supplied with guns and instruments of warfare : — The fleet , not being reinforced , was not , in strength , sufficient for any decisive measures ; the ships were robbed of their best guns and their ammunition to supply the gun-boats , and , above all , there was no reserve of mortars . Mr . Hughes tells us that many of the pictures of Sweaborg published in England , are merely fancy sketches , and that its defences do not consist of huge forts , stone walls , and granite towers : —
No lofty cliffs , no perpendicular granite forts were here to offer a fair mark aud crumble down under the crushing concentrated fire of heavy ships ; no tier upon tier of guns in casemates , but a string of low rocky islands , separated , by narrow channels which , the eye could scarcely distinguish , but presenting , at some distance , the appearance of one low shore of broken aud shelving grouud rising gradually , but irregularly , to the height of some thirty or forty feot . Along this coast we saw continuous lines of sloping earth batteries , showing nothing for a mark but the very muzales of the guns : further bade , where the grouud rose , little stone forts of seven or eight guns nestled iu every nook , aud here and there naked guns , mounted en barbette upon every suitable slope of rock . Then among the buildings every now and then a window could be seen bearing a most suspicious likeness to an embrasure ; and , on a closer examination , guns were seen projecting where , at first sight , nothing but a garret window showed .
The works which constitute the defences of Sweaborg and Helsingfors extend over a convex line of some five miles facing the sea . The islands qu which these are placed are Storholm f . Za ) v / e Island ) to the eastward , having apparently a small earth battery ; next to this , to the westward , the much larger island of Sandhamn ( Sand Haven ) , the whole south , face of which is lined with earth batteries , very strong , and , up to the day of bombardment , rapidly increasing in size and number . Having quoted Mv . Hughes ' s description of this fortress , we must remark on the petulance he has shown in criticising the correspondence from the Baltic that appeared in some of the London papers . We , of course , do not mean to assert the infallibility of newspaper correspondents ; but a
gentleman , whose duty it is to send home , with all possible haste , a report of each important transaction , can hardly be expected to have gained a correct knowledge of all that passed in every part of the fleet , and in every Russian fort , five minutes after each bombardment . It is plain that often he has to accept rumours for facts , having no power of determining their truth . Mr . Hughes , writing some time after the events he narrates took p lace , considers that doubtless he may have been guilty of many inaccuracies . Since he admits that even he can err , he might have seen the necessity of leaving out his constant sneers against " our facetious friend of the Daily News , " " young gentlemen who write to newspapers , " "the ingenious little gentleman who has already afforded some diversion , " & c , & c . He need not fear that any one will mistake him for a newspaper correspondent .
So much for Mr . Hughes , the critic and tactician . Of Mr . Hughes , the traveller , we need say little , save that he seems a pleasant and hearty fellow , more adapted , perhaps , for the deck of a yncht than for the pulpit , and for the ocean gales than for the storms of controversy . Whatever be his faults * he is not guilty of the prevailing vice of the day , comic writing ; apd can speak soberly and seriously of topics at which a funny man would have levelled his shafts of ridicule .
A Romance Of Unreal Life. Zaidec. A Roma...
A ROMANCE OF UNREAL LIFE . Zaidec . A Romance . By Margaret Oliphant . Blackwood and Son * . This novel opens well with the following description of an old Grange : — The house is such a moated Grange as Mariana herHclf might have inhabited , ; a far-seeing , wistful , solitary house , commanding long lines of road along wtucU nobody ever travels . The freest heart in the world might pine at one of theae deep antique windows , and grow aweary of its life , looking along the roads from theGfrange ; and the Orange _ stancls straining all its dark glowing eye * . into ^ the '" * constant tch for the expected st r who
day andfnto thenight asif on wa . range never comes out of the wintry , windy horizon . It is a rare chance , indeed , when there is not a reddening of storm in the sunset which biases "P " . ^ " ?^ house—a still rarer joy when tho morning comes without the oh 11 breath of a Bea gole-and the « ea itself could not witness a wilder riot of wind and brewing tonpestthan rings about tho ear * of the dwellers here through ^ " ^ J " ^ night . The old house never wave ™ of itH footing for such an argument but stonds firm upon the little rocky platform over which m lawn , which fe . been green for centuries , mantle warmly , and , ntoutly defiant ? - * J . . wm ^ " * ° , whlctl it has been used so long , setK its back against the hill , and holds its ground . ifl the moatwhich thoBO
In a semicircle round the front of tho Orange , , m peaceable day * i « nothing better than a pond enclosed in broken » " «» T . « £ evil qualities of which bit of half-stagnant water are numerous , and would ho more so in a less bree / . y locality , while ita Hole good one ib an « nnum « abj crop of water-lilies ; but no one has the heart to destroy thw bit ° * ^^ Yvtet everyone is proud of tho swan-like floating flowers . Behind the house rises ? heTooky defence of the hill , ho sheltered here ^ . ^^^ eZ FruS richest turf , and draped with wealth of hardy , ruddy , ^ "" ^ P )" ^ " '' ^^ trees and bloHHomingHhrubn do not refuse to grow under ^ wfont dwton and within the warm and well-defended enclosure ; and they say it ih Hummer ^ m tho garden of tho Grunge many a day after tlie autumn winds , are mUj ™ ° dreary fields of the level country , and when the last hollyhock J «^ 'J 8 « JJ « cottage flower-plots below . Modern requirement havej »« d « , « u ^^^ regularity of the building-modern . "" P ^^^^ S' ^ emeutH , and built Elisabeth , have thrown out onol window , ami £ " ^ « l » tor of houww , « additions , till the Grange , though Htil not vary j ^ J hiui juHt that graceful domestic chronicle of architecture in rtn own ^ jf j ^ of old oJnturie » , inodlovo ; flylcs and penodB which w * J «•«^ u . oj finest harmony of au and the living flowers of to-day , com who « ' * ^ X ffir « - ^ % inW ^ i ^ JSa ^ « "Zaidee , "in spite of avery , iHM > r « y J ''{( h ' t \ ncl The story turns on &? S ^ r-ew rSss oTSLIXe „„„ ,, i ,, * . »
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 22, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22121855/page/17/
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