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Jfo. #75, June 30, 1855] TIE LEADBE. 631
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FOUR STORY-BOOKS. Fairy Tales. By the Co...
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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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Russian Conquest Op Finland. Narrative Q...
A . great number of fugitives had taken refuge in Sweaborg at the commencement of the < Russian invasion , —worse than useless for the defence of the place , but consuming the provisions . Admiral Cranstedt was sensible of the error he had committed in receiving them in the first instance , and he tried to rid himself of their presence : but the rigorous laws of war prevented the Russians from showing a courtesy which would have been misplaced under such circumstances , and the unfortunate population was repulsed by their advanced guard . The Swedish admiral nobly refused an offer that was made him , to allow his family alone to quit the invested fortress . Under the veil of military politeness , the Russian officers took care to supply the Swedish admiral regularly with the newspapers and gazettes they received from the continent . At that time they were filled for the most part with disastrous accounts of everything in Sweden . The . bulletins of the Russian army , the proclamations , the letters from families dispirited by the loss or absence of their heads , —everything that could tend to depress the spirits of the garrison , and that it "was to the advantage of Russia should be believed and discussed in Sweaborg , was transmitted there daily , and received with the eager curiosity naturally felt by men cut off from all other intercourse with the rest of the world .
A personal acquaintance with some of the superior officers enabled the Russian generals more and more to appreciate the _ characters of those with whom they had to deal . Colonels who for twenty years had been assiduously occupied in the cultivation of their military farms , —subalterns who had never seen the face of war—a sort of rivalship between the Swedes and Finlanders—the number of women—the dissatisfaction of many—the prodigal consumption permitted by inexperience of the provisions , always so precious in a besieged place—the firm belief entertained of the superiority of the Russian forces ; such were the principal elements of the perplexity and anxiety which distracted the minds of the admiral and his officers . Nevertheless , the high reputation borne by Count Cronstedt for talent , valour , and honesty , as well as attachment to his king and country , had a great effect upon men ' s minds . It was of consequence thoroughly to understand the man himself , and an opportunity of conferring with him personally was taken every advantage of .
In the interviews that followed , it was easy to perceive that he secretly disapproved of the politics of his Government , and he considered Sweaborg as a precarious possession , and that he was full of anxiety for the safety of the flotilla , on board of which he had distinguished himself at the battles of Wiborg and Swenksund , and ¦ which an ill-fated shell might reduce to ashes . He could not conceal his apprehensions concerning the alliance with . England ; and it must be confessed , the events at Copenhagen might warrant a distrust of their good faith towards any naval power . As a seaman , he was embarrassed by the defence of immovable walls ; as a man , and the father of a family , his heart appeared to bleed for the sufferings of those dear to him . Doubt and hesitation are great faults In war , and it rarely happens that they do not lead to the most fatal results .
Count Cronstedt was naturally of an anxious disposition ; it is a sort of moral malady , from which neither courage nor even probity itself can preserve those who are . not endowed with due energy of mind . Placed in a difficult situation , where he was abandoned to distrust of himself , without any one beside him on whose opinion lie could rely , his feelings of uncertainty and want of confidence in his resources could not fail to become contagious . His high position had been given him by the King , and confirmed by the general respect in which he was held , and which he had well earned during a long and honourable career ; his very reputation made it impossible the irresolution he evinced should fail to paralyse the energy of his subordinatesand , " The fortress that deliberates is lost . " Count Cronstedt was too fond of calling together his council ; a middle course is too frequently the consequence of such assemblies : on the present occasion they considered it a great stroke of policy if they could contrive to gain time , to preserve the fleet , to save their honour , and not to run any risk at present .
It was agreed that unless the fortress were succoured in a month it should be given up . Of course it was not succoured , and the inestimable prize fell into the hands of the enemy . The capture of Sweaborg entfrely altered the conditions of the war , and vastly augmented the resources of the Russian army ; but it did not necessarily decide the fate of the campaign . The Swedish general , as summer « ame , seemed to revive ; and although now really inferior in number , by acting with resolution , well sustained by partisan corps , he gained considerable successes , and forced back the Russians upon the whole line of their advance northwards . Gustavus himself , having quarrelled with Sir John Moore , and tfaua lost 10 , 000 English troops to the defence of Sweden , undertook a direct control over the war in Finland . The open sea , the presence
of an English fleet under Hood and De Saumurez , the facility for landing the troops at any point , and , with sufficient activity , of intercepting the Itussian supplies sent by sea , were advantages which an able general would Lave turned with the utmost force against the enemy . But Gustavus was fickle ; a good soldier , but no general , he followed no plan , scarcely adhered to any resolution for forty-eight hours , and thus constantly placed his troops in the power of the enemy . When winter reappeared , notwithstanding a really heroical defence and several brilliant actions , the Swedes were driven back as far north as Tornoa . During the winter the Russians not only regained possession of the Aland Islands , they actually crossed the Gulf of Bothnia on the ice , under KoulneiTand Barclay de Tolli , and " conquered a peneo on the soil of Sweden . " The march of Tolli across the Gulf is very well described by our author : —
After a toilsome and diHicult march the Ruasians reached a group of rock 3 on the 7 th ( 19 th ) of March , and bivouacked there that night . The noxt day the guides lost thoir way in the midst of the frightful iimhhom of ico and snow , confusedly heaped togother by the Btonns of the winter . They appeared bewildered by the desolate appearance of everything around them , and were unable to find the Htakes placed at distances , the manner of landmarks , to direct the march of the troops , by the oificcra who had been Boot beforehand to reconnoitre ; and bofore long they had to depend upon the compaes aa thoir only Huro guide . The nieces were contihuully stopped by wide chasms , either requiring to bo crossed like- rivers , or rendering so great a ttetow necessary , that thero was tho greatest danger of thoir lioing entirely lost in those trackless waates . The horses Btmnblcd and lamed thuinMolvea on the ico ; tho infantry waa exhausted with tho labour of walking ; and , although every moment of time was precious , General liarelay was continually obliged to halt and allow his imm to rest . lh <> ¦ weather waa intensely cold , but tho air wua still ; had it boon otherwise , had a snowdrift coino on , a common occurrence in thoso regions , it must infallibly have proved fatal , nnd tho troops and their bravo commander must aliko havo perished .
Bia / t in tho meantime a revolution nt Stockholm had dethroned Gustavus , aad a party had come into power , ready to purchase a poaco by yielding up Hnbbml . And thus , partly by fraud , partly by superior numbers , ltussia , taking advantage of a critical moment in tho history ot Jwope , and <« a
temporary agreement with Napoleon , acquired possession of Finland . It : is one of the most instructive lessons read to modern Europe , and should be intently studied not only by those who may have to direct operations against Sweaborg , recover Finland , and perhaps carve out a way to Sfc . Petersburg itself , but by those who ask us to make peace upon easy , upon evasive , upon shameful terms , and to make that peace with the only power that , now-a-days represents a barbarous antagonism to modern civilisation .
Jfo. #75, June 30, 1855] Tie Leadbe. 631
Jfo . # 75 , June 30 , 1855 ] TIE LEADBE . 631
Four Story-Books. Fairy Tales. By The Co...
FOUR STORY-BOOKS . Fairy Tales . By the Countess d'Aulnoy . Translated by J . R . Planehe ' . Boutledge . Brittany and La Vendee . Tales and Sketches . By Emile Souvestre . Constable and Co . Stories from a Screen . By Dudley Costello . Bradbury and Evans . Aspen Court . A Story of Our Own Time . By Shirley Brooks . Bentley . With all possible respect for the modern authors on our list this week , we must claim permission to give the place of honour to a writer of the bygone time , and to offer our first and heartiest welcome to the Fairy Tales of the Countess d'Aulnoy . We leave it to more elaborate critics to discover the defects in these charming stories—to suggest , no doubt truly enough , that they betray , 'here and there , traces of the formalities and pomposities ,
the elegant artifice and courtly mock-prudery of the time when they were written—the age of Louis the Fourteenth . Our own experience of the book leaves us nothing to record but the delight of having read it—of having renewed our familiarity , in the case of some of the stories , with tlie old friends of many a happy hour , and of having , in other instances , become acquainted with new Tales which have enabled us to catch fresh , glimpses at the pleasant Fairy Land . The playful fancy , the charming grace , the elegant invention which these stories exhibit , the good lessons of humanity and loving-kindness -which they so delicately teach , fit them to be treasured library-companions for readers of all ages and all ranks . We pity the hard-headed people who have no hearts to open to them ; we rejoice , in the name of all the genial men , women , and children in England ,
on their present appearance in public ; and we thank Mr . Planehe most gratefully for having collected tliem in their present form . All listeners to fairy stories at the Theatre have owed him many and deep obligations for years and years past—all readei's of fairy stories at home will owe him , for the future , a happy debt of gratitude for the work which he has now produced . He has translated the Fairy Tales faithfully , elegantly , and completely ; has published them in a single volume , very nicely illustrated and got up ; and has enabled his readers , by a preliminary sketch , to know something of the life and character of the original writer of the stories . With these recommendations lie and the Countess of Aulnoy must make their way delightfully everywhere ; and we leave them with our best wishes to attain their well-merited success .
The stories of Brittany by that good man and good writer , the late Ennle Souvestre , form an excellent addition to " Constable ' s Miscellany of Foreign Literature . " The chief merit of these tales consists in the skill and picturesque vigour with which extraordinary events and superstitions peculiar to certain places are worked into the body of each story , and made to form the main basis of its interest . Thus the breaking up of the ice on the Loire , and the tremendous consequences which it brings with it to the population engaged in the river trade , produce the catastrophe of fche first story in the collection . And , again , in " The White Boat , " the introduction of a strange
and striking local superstition makes a pretty domestic story lay the strongest hold on the reader ' s imagination , by the most legitimate and impressive means . Tales written on this plan have an interest of their own , which every one must recognise . With singular dramatic power in producing his effects ( as the painter would say ) , Souvestre is sometimes a little tedious in the arrangement of his preliminary details . But he has , to compensate for this defect , a tenderness of feeling which is very rare among modern French writers . Thero are passages of real artless pathos in the painful but very beautiful story of " The Lazaretto Keeper , ' ^ passages which nlace the ' writer almost alone among his contemporaries in his own
nation . Persons who are violently prejudiced against modern French literature ( and there are far too many of them in . England ) , may take up this volume with perfect confidence . Its moral tone is uwixcepiiouably and thoroughly pure , from the first page to the last . Mr . Dudley Costello understands one great necessity of his vocation as a writer of stories—the necessity of being various in his choice of subject . The handsome volume which he has just published contains fourteen tales , which appeal to all sorts of tastes in matters of fiction . People who like historical stories will find him ready for them with " The Fate of Jobst of lludenz , " and " The Chocolate of Chiapa . " 1 eoplo who are all for modern times and light comedy ( to say nothing of a touch of farce now and then ) may apply themselves confidently to " Advertising for a Wife , " " A Love Shift , " and « A Portsmouth Pic-nic ; and people ot like to ieol their ileah
the " morbid" sort ( ourselves among others ) , who creep and their hair stand on end over a really terrible ghost-story , may find one of the most appalling kind in Mr . Costollo ' s eo lection We especially congratulate the author on the manner in winch he has told tho tale of the « Haunted House in Yorkshire . " Great part of the eiloct o tho story on tho reader ' s mind is derived from the simple , quiet , and skil ully subdued tone in which it is related . It is something to make a cntie ( whose business is never to feel any emotions ) driver in Ins awful cluur of judgment , and start when his lamp begins to sputter at tho dying f ° *™* . ^ f casts upon his grim study-walls . This eflect Mr . Oostello certamly i iocluced n our own case . Wo always believed in ghosts , « uid ho 1 , «« tort . hod uh in our dread convictions . Ho hints , wo observe m the n t duct on to his stories , that if the present collection should prove «« cei , t » ble , we may expect another series of tales , suggested hko those now be ? ore us by the odd varieties of prints stuck upon nn old screen . Wo cordially wiah h u ,, ufc JwtingNucEa reception from the reading world aa may soon justify the ^ SSJ KW ' ^ Court , haa already annealed auccessfully io the puhHc in the pages of JBenttys Miscellany . We are glad , to
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 30, 1855, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30061855/page/19/
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