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Leader (1850-1860), 17th November 1855, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1096, Untitled Article

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      5 , 000 dead , which it took the Turkish infantry four days to "bury . Then * wounded and prisoners in our possession amount to 160 , whilst those who-were carried off are said to be upwards of , 7 , 000 . " As the garrison was afflicted with cholera , and I was apprehensive of a great increase of the malady , should this melancholy duty of the burial of the dead be not pushed forward with every possible vigour by our fatigued and jaded soldiers , I daily visited the scene of strife to encourage them in their almost endless task ; and 1 can assure your lordship that the whole battle-field presented a scene which is more easy to conceive than to describe , being literally covered with the enemy ' s dead and dying . " The Turkish dead and wounded were removed on the night of the battle . The dead numbered 362 , the wounded 631 . The townspeople , who also fought with spirit , lost 101 men . " His Excellency the Mushir has reported to his government those officers who particularly distinguished themselves—a difficult task in an army which has shown such desperate valour throughout the unusual period of seven hours of uninterrupted combat . "I have , &c , ( Signed ) "W . F . WILLIAMS . " The Earl Clarendon , &c . " THE FIXED I » EA"OFTHK GRAND DUKE CONSTANTINE . The Pays publishes a long letter from St . Petersburg , the writer of which ( a Frenchman ) gives a most fearful account of the state of anarchy and distress to which the populace of Russia are reduced by the war . Unusual precautions are resorted to , to prevent the recruits from deserting ; but they often contrive , nevertheless , to escape , and flying to the forests , live by brigandage and murder . " I think , " says the writer , " that if this state of things goes on for another year , Russia will fall into an anarchy of bloodshed . " From the same letter it appears that " the Grand Duke Constantine , some time since , in a council of war , made a most singular proposition . — Ttamely , to arm and equip the whole fleet of Cronstadt , Revel , and Sweaborg , to embark 20 , 000 men of pinked troops , to make sail at a propitious hour , to force a passage through the allied squadrons , or await their departure , and the moment they left the Baltic . to effect a landing in Scotland or England . " The Emperor , it is said , at first sanctioned this project ; but , on the representation of the Empress , that the expedition would leave St . Petersburg almost unprotected , he changed his mind . The Grand Duke , however , still holds to his scheme . " His fixed idea appears to be that lie could sack and burn London , or bury himself and his troops under the smoking ruins of the first commercial city of the world . " The letter-writer states that the ¦ R ussian army available in the field does not exceed 400 , 000 or 500 , 000 men , her million effective , -with another million for reserve , being in a great degree imaginary ; and that the Russian recruit is so slow in being drilled , that " after ten years he is not up in his exercise . " * THE GREAT REDAN . The Redan abounds with detached features of interest , many of which are very curious and instructive . This might be expected , when it is remembered that the Redan comprehends within itself a vast and complicated fortby no means the simple work its name implies , derived from its elementary formation—armed with guns of every calibre * and jn enormous numbers ; a series of remarkablyconstructed underground barracks ; raised bomb-proof cooking kitchens for the troops ; powder magazines , most ingeniously secured ; piles of projectiles of all shapes and denominations ; on arsenal of stores , timber , platforms , guns to replace others injured ; and a sappers ' yard of -engineering tools . Looking at the work as a whole , , the attention is first struck by its massireness of construction . and vastness of extent , covering , as it does , the principal . part of the Karabolnaia suburb , and stretching across and ¦ completely defending a steep and , broad , hill , from the ravine which separates it from the Malakhoff to the Woronzoff ravine and head of the South harbour . The attention ia next attracted by noticing , how , in respect to its construction aa a , . work of art , all ordinary rules of fortification have boen token advantage of where usefulbroken , and new arrangements made , where not , applicable - —how every .. M ^ e advantage of ground has been turned to account , and what devices , hare been resorted , to when no natural advantage could be found ; and it is interesting to trace ita gradual growth and increase as our works advanced , and n « wi cover and defences were required . On examination of the several parts ,, it is found that , wonderfully great aa must have been the amount of labour , the caro and attention , to details , have been no less so . The work of the , parapets showed the greatest care in the arrangement of ita materials , and nothing was omitted that could udd to their firmness and strength . The sides Of some of the huge traverses were completely enclosed in strong hurdle-work , aa carefully entertwined ana plaited as if it had been basket-work , instead of a nupport to rough stones on <] earth . In like manner , to prevent the crumbling of the earth of which the banquettes in roar of the parapets wjio formed , they were all embanked , itakea being driven in , and mutually supported , by similar gabion-work . In some , places , where the soil was very fine and dry , , a plastering of mortar was lajd over the ; inrfcce , , of the b / urdlerwork , or of the , gabions , to prevent >• * * '¦¦ ¦ ¦¦' ' . .. :. ;! : !¦•; 1 . 1 > .. i .. , , , ¦ . , , , . .

      the dust from falling through the insterstices . —Daily News Correspondent . . THE DOCKYAJRDS AT NICHOLA . IEFF . The dockyards of Nicholaieff are supplied with timber and wood from the government of Ligtewski , which contains several large forests of fine trees . These are chiefly in the neighbourhood of Minsk , Mohilev , and Vitebsk . The wood is floated down the Dnieper to Kherson in rafts firmly clamped and bound together , with strong and substantial huts upon them for the navigators . Each raft is generally composed of 4 , 000 large trunks of oak trees , which are covered with knees and smaller pieces roughly shaped after drawings and instructions sent to the cutters , so as to require little trouble in being made available at once for use in the dockyards . They are floated as far as the current will take them down the Dnieper , and are met by the Government steamers outside or inside the bar off the mouths of that river , and are by them towed up to Nicholalieff . There must be at Nicholaieff some small steamers at all events at this moment , but they have never stirred , nor have seen any traces of them in the Bug . Kherson was the great ship-building and maritime yard for the Black Sea fleet in former days ; but thedifficutly of building large ships there , or rather of getting them away thence when once they were built , owing to the shallow water on the bar of the Dnieper , forced the Russian Government to remove their establishments to Nicholaieff , on the confluence of the Bug and of the Ingul . The bar of the Bug has a depth of eighteen or nineteen feet ; the bar of the Dnieper has only eight feet water on it in ordinary seasons . The ships of the line are built at Nicholaieff ; but it is not improbable that small vessels and frigates of light draught may still be constructed at Kherson . The arsenal at Nicholaieff is very extensive ; but its principal supplies of timber came from the Dnieper , and the loss of these two rafts will be no inconsiderable injury , for fine oak timber such as they contain is very dear and scarce in Russia . The timber in the casemated Spit Battery , and the expense of erecting it , came to no less a sum than 45 , 000 silver roubles , or £ 7 , 500 English currency . It remains to be seen if Austria can supply Russia with wood , as she already furnishes her with supplies of oil , groceries , and manufactures of all kinds ; that is , they are brought to Southern Russia through the Austrian provinces . Sir Edmund Lyons has presented one of the rafts to the French—an act of courtesy and consideration which our polite allies , no doubt , estimate at its full value . Their dimensions are aa follow : —The first is 420 feet long by sixty-three feet wide , and is six feet deep . The second is nearly the same length as the first , is fifty four feet broad , and grounded in eight feet water . At a rough calculation , the two rafts contain 90 , 000 cubic feet of the finest timber , and the present made by the English fleet to the French , through our Commander-in-Chief , cannot be estimated at a lower value than £ 20 , 000 . — Times Correspondent . WAR MISCELLANEA . The Russian Aitair in Bessarabia . —The Emperor ' s presence in Nicholaieff has caused a total change in the position and station of the troops in South Russia , more particularly in Bessarabia and the governments of Cherson and EkaterinoslafF . This is especially the case with the forces on the banks of the Bug and along the shores of the liman ; among these is an unusually large force of cavalry and mounted artillery . Four of the eight regiments of heavy cavalry that had been concentrated at Berditschim , in the government of Kieff , at the time that even Russia believed in the possibility of Austria ' s acting aggressively against her , have been detached to the south-east towards Bessarabia and Cherson . Gen . Ludera has changed the whole position of the army of the South , and , with his rear exposed in perfect security to the Austrian forces in Galicia and the Bukowina , he now rests his right on the Pruth . —Times' Berlin Correspondent . Opinions of thus War in Russia .. —The accounts thut are received in Berlin of the working of the war on the feelings of the bulk of the Russian population are very various , according to the circle where the observations were made . They all coincide , however , in one point , —that the nobility is the party most dissatisfied with its lengthened duration , and its accompanying sacrifices and privations . The lower classes seem to find little to complain of beyond the frequent levies of recruits ; corn is cheaper than usual , owing to the prohibition of export , the prices of labour have risen , and trade has in many branches received a strong impulse , in others has formed for itself new channels . Tiie discontented are the manufacturers , and those dependant on them , for the want of coal and other raw material has brought all manufactures not connected with war wants to a standstill ; the aristocracy and the landowners , who are so heavily taxed by the levies on th , air serfs ; and the rich in general , who sensitively feel the ,, want pf imported luxuries The price of provisions in Simpheropol has risen thirty-foldthus mutton , which , formerly coat on « -third of a penny per lb ., now costs U , Cd . ; a fowl , $ hat formerly cost about 2 d .. now costs £ wo silver roubles , Gs . 4 d . ; suit coats 136 roubles rasijljgn ' ata ) for a berkowotz C « bout 8001 b . ) $ for

      delivery next August , 122 roubles have been offered , part of the money d ° > «* " * yet no ; sellers offer . This shows that the Russians have no very speedy hope of driving the enemy ini V the sea . —Idem . The Smyrna . Hospital . —One of the assistant-surgeons of the Smyrna staffs / Mr . Complin , a most promising young , man , whose amiable manners and kind disposition had endeared him to all his companions , has just died ia the Palace Hospital , at Constantinople . He was seized with fever very soon after his arrival on volunteer duty in the Crimea . He was , after some time , removed as far as Constantinople on his way to Smyrna ; but his constitutian could not survive the shock , and he succumbed to the violenca of the attack . — Times Smyrna Correspondent . The Russian Losses at Ears . —I have seen a letter from Souchum Kaleh , of the 17 th October , written by a person who was at Kara during the late action , and who asserts positively that the loss of the Russians , in dead alone , was 6 , 500 , and their total loss about half their number of 30 , 000 . This evidence is very strong and positive , and , in conjunction with that collected from other sources , leaves little doubt that the Russians were more severly punished than even the first reports led us to expect . Several of their Generals were killed . —Times Constantinople Correspondent . The Danubiasj Principalities . —It is still affirmed at Constantinople that next spring an Anglo-French army will occupy the Danubian Principalities . The Floating Batteries employed with so much success at Kinburn are the invention of the Emperor Napoleon . Sheathed in iron of great thickness , they are capable of resisting the hollow shot of General Paixaans , which , lodging in an ordinary wooden vessel , burst , and often produce a leak which may end in sinking the ship . But against the iron sides of these new gunboats , tie hollow shot shiver into fragments , like glass . Recruiting fop . the Foreign Legion . —The Post Ampt Gazette contains a letter from Hamburg of the 6 th which states that the" authorities of that place had instituted new proceedings against parties enlisting for the Foreign Legion . Several persons have been arrested , and among others the captain of the steamer Heligoland , who has taken many persons to the English recruiting depot He has been placed in solitary confinement .

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      V'i-096 THE LEADER . [ No . 235 ; Saturday ,

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      PUBLIC MEETINGS . LORD JOHN RUSSELL ON MORAL . AND POLITICAL PROGRESS . The first of a course of winter lectures , organized by the Young Men ' s Christian Association , was delivered at Exeter Hall , -on Tuesday evening , by Lord John Russell , who took for his subject " The obstacles which have retarded moral and political progress . " The hall was crowded to excess , and among the company were Lord Panmure , the Bight Hon . Vernon Smith , M . P ., Mr . Beaumont , M . P ., and several clergymen . The Earl of Shaftesbury presided . Lord John Russell's discourse was of considerable length , and embraced a large amount of reference to historical examples . One of the main obstacles to progress the lecturer found in religious fanaticism ; and here he argued against the assertion of Dr . Johnson , that a man nas a right to publish his opinions on religion and morals , and that the magistrate has an equal right to punish him , if those opinions are contrary to what society has agreed on . This , said the lecturer , would be to admit two contradictory right 3 , two repugnant duties , in violation of all our notions of divine and human justice . The true policy he conceived to be in the free publication of ull doctrines . The chief religious persecutions of the world vrere rapidly sketched , and an amusing instance was related of the way in which intolerant decrees are sometimes evaded . — " The best commentary on Newton ' s ' Principia' is written by Jacquier and Lo Sucr , two members of tho Society of Jesus . This commentary ia so simple aud complete that it enables a person who has but an imperfect knowledge of mathematics to comprehend and to master the sublime discoveries of Newton . There was , however , a trifling objection to the publication of this commentary . The Pope had , by his decrees forbiddon any one to maintain tho doctrine of the motion of the earth . Tho learned Jesuits disposed , of this difficulty very easily . They prefixed a notice to this part of tho work declaring that they bowed with implicit submission to tho decision of tho Pope that tho sun moved round the earth , but that they had been incited by curiosity to show what would have beon the case h « d it been a truth , instead of a fiction , that the earth moved round tho sun . The world laug hed and learnt ; tho Holy See was satisfied and silent . " Having noticed the obstacles to progress offered by Governments in undue repression of popular liberty , the lecturer proceeded to examine the obstacles springing from the people themselves , and discovered them in the intemperance and ignorance of the poor , and in the sensuality , selfishness , ov «

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 17, 1855, page 1096, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2115/page/4/