a

alll

ca

” — EDWARD WHELAN]

——

VoL. V.

Literature.

A STERLING OLD POEM.

Who shall judge a man from manners ? Who shall know him by his dress ?

Paupers may be fit for princes ,— Prinees fit for something less.

Crumpled shirt and dirty jacket May beclothe the golden ore

Of the deepest thoughts and feclings— Satin vests could do no more.

There are springs of erystal nectar Ever welling out of stone ;

There are purple buds and golden Hidden, crashed and overgrown.

God, who eounts by souls, not dresses, Loves and prospers you and me,

While he values thrones the highest But as pebbles in the sea.

— ee

ye

LOLA LL

Man, upraised above his fellows, Oft forgets his fellows then: Masters—-rulers—lords, remember That your meanest kinds are men ! by labor, men hy feeling, Men by thought, and men by fame, Claiming equal rights to sunshine, In a man’s ennobling name. There are foam-embroidered oceans, There are little weed-clad rilis. There are feeble inch-high saplings,

There are cedars on the hills;

Men

God, who counts by souls, not stations, Loves and prospers you and me,

For to him all vain distinctions Are as pebbles in the sea.

Tolling hands alone are bailders Of a nation’s wealth and fame;

Titled laziness is pensioned, Fed and fattencd on the same,

By the sweat of other’s foreheads, Living only tor joice,

While the poor man for his freedem, Vainly lifteth up his voice.

Truth and justice are eternal, Born with loveliness and Licht:

Seeret wrongs shall never prosper While there is a sunny right ;

God, whose world-heard voice is singing Boundless love t> you and me, ; Sinks oppression with its titles, As the pebbles in the sea,

-¢& eg? —_———_—_—_______....

ON BOOKS. The man that hath a library’s full store, Hath much of riches in a Tittle Space ; The mind's rich tilth of those who went before, Compressed to essence for the reader's grace. All that was good in Plato lives again, And fructities to-day, as Greece of yore, Homer, nor Virgil, wrote no word in vain, The brain’s wise word to studious brain is lore. No drop of well seript wisdom ever dies, The salt of wit is like the briny Bea, From part to part the quickening savour flics, Till not a drop unsalted found may be, \ book’s the precious relie of the mind, A student's legacy to all mankind.

<—e0e ——_—_-——

(Krom the Edinburgh Review.) THE TAURIC CHERSONESE. 1. The Crimea and Odessa: Journal of a Tour, with an account

of the Climate and Vegetation. Ky Dr. Cusnies Koen : trans- lated by Joanna B. Hornur. &vo. London: 1855.

2. An Lhstorical Sketch of the Crimea. By Anrnoxy Grant, D.c'.L., Archdeacon of St. Alban’s, &c. 12mo. London: 1855.

(Continued from our last.)

A spirit so active and energetic was not likely to remain long contented with the narrow limits of the kingdom of Pon- tus. The injury inflicted on him by the Romans immediately after his accession had sank deep into his fiery and vindictive spirit; and there can be no doubt that from an early period he was preparing for a contest with the haughty republic. But he had the sagacity to see that the time was not yet come, and that he was no mutch for the armies of Rome. On his western frontier the kingdoms of Bithynia and Cappadocia enjoyed the all-powerful protection of the Roman name, and any attempt to aggrandise himself at the cst of these neigh- bours would be sure to involve him—as it ultimately did — in hostilities with the great republic. But on the east he found free scope for his arms ; oe in wars with the wild barbarian triles of the Caueasus and Armenian mountains, he himself acquired military reputation and experience, while he trained up his armies for future conquests. At an early period of his reign, though the exact chronology of these events is very ob- seure, he bad extended his dominions along the eastern shied of the Black Sea as far as Dioscurias, the last of the Greek settlements on this coast*, and the chief emporium of trade on this part of the Eaxine. Inland from thence to the Caspian, the warlike races now known as the Imeretians, Mingrelians, and Georgians, had submitted to his arms and acknowledged his supremacy, The part of Armenia adjoining to Pontus was also directly subject to his rule, while Tigranes, the power- ful sovereign of the interior or Greater Armenia, was secured to his alliance hy marriage. The wild tribes of the Caucasus —the indomitable ancestors of the Lesghians and Circassians —still maintained their lawless independence, and defied alike the arms of Mithridates and the Romans, as they have those of the Turks and Russians in our own days.

It was at this time, before hostilities had actually broken out between Mithridates and the Romans, but when both parties were looking forward to them as inevitable, that the (ireeks of the Crimea inyoked the assistance of the king of Pontus. The free cities of Chersonesus and Olbiopolis joined in the application of the royal ruler of the Bosphorus. “Their overtures were gladly weleomed by the ambitious monarch, but Mithridates did not regard the war as deserving of his own oo and confided to two generals, named Diophantus and Neoptolenris — both of them evidently of Greek origin — the defence of their countrymen on the other side of the Euxine.

lheir success justified his confidence : Diophantus overthrew the power of Scilurus in the Taufic Chersonese, defeated the numerous hordes of the Eioxolani, whom he had ealled in to his assistance, and established the power of Mithridates over the western portion of the peninsula. It is from this period

* In the time of Strabo, Dioseurias, which was situated at Isgaour, a

little to the south of Soukhum Kaleb, was a very important mart, to which all the nations of the Caucasus and the reigons between the Blatk

Sea and the Caspian were in the habit of resorting. They were said to speak seventy different languages. It is one of the best roadsteads on this coast, and was still much frequented by traders in the days of Chard- in, though the site was then no longer inhabited. Voyage en Perse, vol. 1.p. 57. The cireumstance may serve to show the importance of the evacuation of Anapa by the Russians, and the possibility of establishing svwmercial relations at the very same ports which were frequented by the ancients on the Circassian coast.

CHARLOTTET

be Et

a Se

Chis is true Liberty, when Free-born Men, having

+ eS

‘that the now familiar name of Eupatoria derives its origin. | period by the diligence of antiquarians, principally by the aid}

_It was bestowed by Diophantus upon a fortress which he erect- el to confirm his conquests, and strengthen the position of the Chersonesites on the north, and was derived from the surname or title of Eupator, by which Mithridates was distinguished from his predecessor; his well-deserved appellation of «+ the Great’? bemg unknown alike both to Greek and Roman his-

OWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

} *

UMINET.

A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF POLITICS, LITERATURE AND NEWS.

ge = to advise the Public, man speak free——eURIPrpgs.

~~

titel

of their coins ; but all we know of their history may be sum- ‘med up in the fact that they continued to maintain their po- sition as petty sovereigns dependent upon the Roman emperors, | whose favour they purchased by the payment of a moderate tribute, and by occasionalyembassies of compliment. Its se-| cluded position preserved the Bosphorus from the fate of most

torians. The site of this ancient Eupatoria is uncertain, and of these depend@nt kingdoms, which were gradually absorbed | 'the name has, as usual, been bestowed by the Russian’ upon | into the colossalmass of the Roman Empire.

the Tartar town of Khosloy without any ‘sufficient warranty.* | Meanwhile Neoptolemus liberated the Greeks of the cities on ,the Bosphorus from their formidable neighbours, overthrow the Sarmatians and Roxolani in repeated battles, and carried | his victorious arms along the northern shores of the Euxine, as far as the mouth of the Dniester, where a fortress, called the | Tower.of Neoptolemus, served to mark the limits of his con- | quests, and of the dominion of Mithridates. The district be- | tween the river and the mouths of the Danube, now included in the province of Bessarabia, seems to have been in ancient | times a mere desert, and was neyer occupied by either Greek or Roman conquerors. Even in the days of Augustus it was from thence that the wandering Geta used to cross the frozen | Danube, and shoot their poisoned arrows at the terrified colo- | nists under the very walls of Tomi. The Greek cities on the Euxine now became permanentl

tributary to Mithridates ; but the long-continued wars in whi | that monarch found himself engaged with the Romans, left him but little time to attend to his remote dominions on the | Bosphorus, the government of which he entrusted to his son /Mahares. Perhaps, however, amid the vicissitudes of that Mong-protracted contest, the thought may have occasionally presented itself to his mind, that here, at least, he had a safe | place for refuge in the hour of adversity, whither the Romans | wonld find it difficult to follow him. The hour came at length. Worn out by twenty-two years of almost unceasing warfare, and driven back step by step from the shores of the Aigwean to the mountains of Armenia ; closely pursued by Pompey, and abandoned by his son-in-law Tigranes, on whose support u had vainly counted, Mithridates found himsélf at the head of a scanty band of followers in a mountain fortress on the frontiers of Armenia. In this extremity he adopted the daring resolu- ,tion of transporting the theatre of war to the shores of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and placing the Caucasus, with its wild | barbarian tribes and inaccessible mountain fortresses, between | himself and his enemies. A project so boldly conceived was carried out with equal ability. He took up his quarters for | the winter at Diocurias—a position already sufliciently re- } mote to-secure him from immediate pursuit—and here he once ‘more assembled a small fleet and army, with which he, the next |spring, continued his progress along the coast of Circassia. |The wild tribes that occupied this tract had never acknow- iledged his sovereignty, and had been irritated by previous attacks without being subdued. Nevertheless, he fought his way step by step along these rugged and mountainous shores, till he arrived in safety at the Greek town of Phanagoria. | Thither even Pompey did not attempt to follow him; and / while the Roman general returned to regulate the affairs of | Asia, Mithridates established himself in security on the shores of the Northern Bosphorus,

Bat nothing could be further from his thoughts than to give himself up to the tranquil enjoyment of this security. Though now nearly seventy years of age, the old king, with a spirit worthy of Hannibal, whom he resembled in his unceasing ani- mosity against Rome, however inferior to him in genius, began to form fresh schemes of aggression against that formi- dable power, the superiority of whose arms he had already felt so often and so severely. The successes of his generals Diophantus and Neoptolemus had established the fame of his arms amongst the barbarians north of the Euxine, and Mith- ridates now meditated nothing less than to rally round his standard all these wild nations, and fling himself upon the Danube and the European provinces of the Roman Empire, at the head of a countless multitude of Sarmatians, Roxolani, and Get ; thus anticipating three centuries the great irruption of _ the northern barbarians, which ultimately proved destructive to i the power of Rome. The mighty scheme is described by Ra- 'eine at the opening of the third act of his ‘‘Mithridates’’ in one /of the noblest passages of French tragic verse. But the king of Pontus stood alone. ‘Those who surrounded him were alike incapable of appreciating his magnanimous spirit or compre- hending the vastness of his schemes. His soldiers murmured }at the dangers to which he was about to ex them ; and a conspiracy was formed against his life, at the head of which was his favourite son Pharnaces. The plot was discovered, and the accomplices of the young prince put to death ; but Mithri- dates; with a clemency unusual among eastern despots,and which was in this instance but ill-requited, spared the life of his son. Pharances immediately took advantage of this impunity tu raise the standard of open revolt, and putting himself at the head of the discontented troops, marched upon Pantica- peum, where Mithridates was contined to his palace by a pain- ful illness. Finding that all hope was at an end, the aged monarch in vain endeavoured to put an end to his own life; the habitual use of antidotes in his youth had rendred his con- stitution proof against all kinds of poison, and his fechle hands refused to wield the sword. He was forced to call in the aid of one of his Gaulish guards to dispatch him.

Pharnaces hastened to make his.submission to Pompey, and sent the body of his father to the Roman general as a proof of his fidelity and a claim on the gratitude of the republic. Such was the terror that the name of Mithridates still inspired, that | the sight of his lifeless remains was hailed by the Roman army as equivalent to a great victory. But Pompey had the magna- ‘nimity to show respect to a deceased enemy, and ordered the remains of Mithridates to be consigned with due honour to the royal sepulchre at Sinope. It is therefore without any foun- dation that the inhabitants of Kertch still profess to point out the tomb of Mithridates among the mounds which surround their city. But it is a natural feeling that leads them to claim the sepulchre of the only great man whose name is to be found in the annals of the kings of the Bosphorus. For once that obscure corner of the Euxine had attracted the attention of the whole civilised world : as long as Mithridates lived, the petty kingdom was raised into a sort of preternatural importance, which it lost immediately afterwards. Pharnaces in vain took advantage of the civil wars of the Romans to raise once more the standard of his father in Asia: his futile attempt to re- store the kingdom of Pontus is remembered chiefly as the ocea- sion of Czesar’s celebrated dispatch, which commemorated in three words, “* Veni, Vidi, Vici,’’ its complete and decisive defeat.

A very few words will suffiee-to dispose of the ee kings of the Bosphorus, Asander, to whom Cxsar delegatec the task of completing the defeat of Pharnaces by expelling him from his dominions north of the Euxine, after sucessfully per- forming his mission, seated himself on the vacent throne. He is chiefly remarkabie as having fortified the peninsula of Kertch with a wall drawn across from the Bay of Arabat to the Bay of Theodosia ; the remains of which were still visible in the time of Pallas. Such a mode of defence seems to have been a favourite resource in the Crimea, and was probably sufficient to guard against the hasty inroads of wandering Tartars. Asan- der was in his turn dis ssed by the Romans; but the next monarch, Polemon, who was placed on the throne by Augestas, was more fortunate, and became the founder of a dynasty who continued to rule over the little kingdom of the Bosphorus for more than three centuries. Their names, and the order of their succession, have been traced throughout this

* According to Dubois de Montpereux (vol, vi. p. 250.), the fortress of Diophantus was erected on the plateau of the hill of Inkermann, but it must be confessed that the lan of Strabo is not very clear. It seems certain, however, that ic must have been somewhere in

|

But the petty kings of the Bephorus soon began to find that, the nomina pon afforded hy the rulers of the Roman | world, was instficient to defend them from the increasing swarms of inyaders from the north and east. The Crimea lay in the highway of these nations, which swept in successive waves oyer the Hroad expanse of the plains from the Volga to the Danube. Even as early as the reign of Nero it was ravaged by the Alani; and it was probably on this occasion that Theo- dosia was destroyed, as we are told by Arrian (whose geogra- evel account of the Black Sea was composed in the reign of adrian), that in his day that city was already in ruins. Be- fore the middle of the third century the Goths, who had already taken up their abode in the provinces north of the Euxine, spread themselyes into the Crimea, where they soon obtained a firm footing. Of all the nations that contributed to the over- throw of the Roman Empire, the Goths, — whose name has become almost a synonym for barbarism—were unquestionably the least barbarous. Wherever they came in contact with civilisation they speedily began to feel its inflaence, and par- tially adopt its refinements. ‘Thus in the Crimea they became an agricultural and settled people, and occupied the fertile tract along the northern and southern slopes of the mountain chain which extends from Sebastopol to Kaffa ; a district which thence acquired the name of Gothia, by which it continued to be known down to the period of the Turkish conquest.

lt was far otherwise with the next swarm of barbarian in- vaders. The Huns, whose progress was everywhere marked by destruction and devastation, in 375 crossed the Cimmerian Bosphorus, aad spread like a torrent over the plains of the Crimea. Phanagoria, and several of the smaller Greek towns on the Bosphorus, were utterly destroyed. Panticapeowm, though it survived the catastrophe, fell into the hands of the barbarians, and the kingdom of the Bosphorus, which had pre- served for so many centuries the traces of Greek civilisation in this quarter, was finally extinguished. Cherson, at the other extremity of the peninsula, was more fortunate. That city seems to have been gradually increasing in importance as those on the Bosphorus declined. Under the Roman Empire it ex- isted as a nominally free republic, though acknowledging the supremacy and enjoying the protection of the Empire ; and its strong and almost insulated position seems to have preserved it from all attacks of the barbarians. It thus beeame the chief centre of what trade was still carricd on in these parts, and secured to the Byzantine emperors a footing in the Crimea. Hence it was treated by those monarchs with especial favour. An inscription still extant records the repairs and additions to its fortifications hy the Emperor Zeno ; and Justinian not only renewed the walls of Cherson itself, but constructed two fort- resses on the southern coast of the Crimea, the names of which, Alustum and Gorzubite, are still retained with little alteration by the villages of Alushta and Gerzuf. He at the same time repaired apd partially restored the walls of Panticapweum. But the decay of that city was already too far advanced to be arrested. The period of its final desolation is not recorded ; but it seems to have gradually dwindled into utter insignifi- cance; though the names of Paudico, Bospro, and Vospro, which we still find applied to its site in the geographies of the middle ages, show that its name was not yet forgotten. It is

Tartar town of Kertch: the Genoese built there a castle which they called Cerco ; but it never rose to be a place of importance under their rule, being eclipsed by the prosperity of the neigh- bouring Kaffa. a ; ;

Justinian, who was a great builder and sought to immor- talise his reign hy architectural monuments not less than by conquests, also rebuilt on the eastern shores of the Euxine a town or fortress to which he gave the name, now so inseparably associated with the Crimea—of Sebastopolis, or the city of the Emperor. The description of it given by Procopius is curiously applicable to the modern city of the name. ‘ Sebastopolis (he ‘* says) was formerly a mere fort, but the Emperor Justinian ** has now wholly rebuilt it, and surrounded it with a circle of ** fortifications which render it impregn«)le, while he has ‘adorned it with broad streets and public buildings of all ‘* kinds, so as to render it one of the finest cities that it is pos- ** gible to sec.”’* But the ancient Sebastopol had*nothing to do with the modern town: it occupied the now desolate site of Dioscurias on the coast of Cireassia ; and hardly one stone re- mains upon another to mark the place where this impregnable fortress once stood. May the omen attend the name !

At this period the Goths, who had taken refuge in the moun- tains during the invasion of the Huns, and had gradually spread themselves again over the peninsula, after the departure of

_ MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1855.

; ? . . c ‘ | not till the fourteenth century that we find mention of the

[EDITOR ann PUBLISHER

power, and by cutting them off Vladimir quickly compelled the inhabitants to surrender.

From the walls of the Cherson he now dictated terms to Con- stantinople, and compelled Basil, the emperor of the East, to give him his sister Anna in marriage. The only condition made by the Byzantine monarch, was that Vladimir himself should embrace Christianity; a demand readily aceeded to, and the baptism of the Russian prince was celebrated, at the same time with his nuptials, in the cathedral church of Cher- son. That city was now restored to the Byzantine Empire, and Vladimir returned to his own capital of Kiev, from whence he issued ukases, in the true spirit of despotism, commanding his subjects without delay to follow the example, and adopt the religion of their sovereign. The ruins of the church in which the baptism of Vladimir took place, were still extant when the site was explored by Dubois Z Montpereux, and are described by him as an interesting specimen of Byzantine architecture.* But we learn with surprise that a monument

Christianity into Russia has been treated by that orthodox go- vernment with the same neglect as the more ancient relics of the Greek city,

* Voyage autour du Caucase, yol. vi. p. M2—141.

(To be concluded in our nert.)

Oe — a —-

Gleanings from late Papers.

(From the London News of the World.)

THE BALTIC FLEET.

The Baltic feet has, it appears, been pretty actively engaged at other points than those of Sweaborg and Helsingfors. Ac- counts received by the various routes of Stockholm, Dantzie and Hamburg, inform us that the Gulf of Bothnia has once again been scoured by our cruisers, that Port Baltic has been partially bombarded, and that something in the shape of an encounter upon the open sea has taken ao near Riga, between a number of Russian gunboats and two of our ships of war. We cannot vouch for the accuracy of these state- ments, which reach us only ina yague and fragmentary form ; but it will probably turn out that they are based upon a foundation of truth. There ir, we believe, no reason to doubt that the flying squadron some time since despatched to the Gulf of Bothnia, has succeeded in capturing some nineteen or twenty of the enemy’s vessels—in destroying a considerable amount of property belonging to the Russian Government— and in grievously harassing the whole of the coast. Uleaborg, Simo and Windau, have in turn been visited by our cruisers, and everything in the shape of Government ships or stores captured or destroyed.

As relates to the reported bombardment of Port Baltic, we have no further particulars than those contained in a brief telegraphic communication from St. Petersburg, which says : —‘*A despatch from Revel, dated Aug. 16, states that at 9 a.m., on that day, two frigates of the fleet, at anchor near the island of Nargen, made for the Baitie Port, and opened a bombardment against that town, which lasted an hour. The enemy then put out to sea without haying done us any harm.”’ No confirmation of this statement has as yet reached England from the fleet; but as it has been published in the Invalid Russe, we may presume it to be correct, except, perhaps, in the one particular that the British ships * put out to sea without haying done any harm.”’

Riga. The news, in this instance, reaches us by way of “tockholm ; but all it tells us is that on the 10th of August, seventeen Russian gunboats came out of Riga, and feught for two honrs with Her Majesty’s screw block-ship Hawke, 60, “and the screw corvette Desperate, 8. The result is said to have bef indecisive ; the fact, no doubt, being that the gun- boats took good care not to venture beyond the shallow waters in which it was impossible for the Queen’s ships to follow them.

Tt seems, however, that this is not the only instance in which the enemy has recently been disposed to make a demon- stration with his new steam gunboats. An English cor- respondent, writing from on board the blockading squadron in front of Cronstadt, tells us that ‘‘ the monotony unavoidably attendant on blockading service was relieved for a few hours on the 16th inst., by an apparently hostile demonstration on the part of the Russians. Six of their largest steam gunboats came ont of port, standing directly towards the fleet. The Imperieuse, Centaur and Bulldog, were ordered to prepare to weigh and to slip their cables, and went away in chase, two of the line-of-battle-ships at the same time getting up their steam to support the steamers if necessary. The enemy for a while appeared to invite an engagement; but, as our steamers ap- proached them, gradually edged into shoal water. The Bulldog, having got into position, opened fire from her large pivot-gun at the bow, whereupon three of the Russian gun-

those formidable invaders, occupied the greater part of the Crimea. They are described by Procopius as a peaceful and | agricultural people, who had adopted the christian religion | and become firm allies of the Byzantine Emperors. But they had not yet lost their traditional volour, and the three thousand troops whom thy could send into the tield were among the choicest auxiliaries of the armies that still called themselves Roman.

We cannot attempt to trace the history of the Crimea though the long and stormy period that follows, during which it was overrun and oceuyied in succession by the Khazars—~a Turkish tribe, who gave to the whole tract north of the Euxine the name of Khazaria, by which it was commonly known in the time of the Genoese—the Petschenegans ayd the Comanians. It is remarkable that the position of the Crimea, apparently one of such great natural strength, never seems to have offered any obstacle to these successive swarms of invaders, who passed | with equal facility the isthmus of Perekop and the strait of | the Bosphorus. The hardy Goths nevertleless maintained a | state of virtual independence in the mountains; while the artificial fortifications of Cherson were able to defy the efforts of these rude warriors, who were more than once repulsed from its walls. That city was at this period a place of considerable trade and one of the most importent dependencies of the Byzantine Empire. But its connection with Constantinople was far from being an unmixed benefit, as it more than once involved it in the revolutions of which that capital was so often the scene ; and in 711 Cherson narrowly escaped the vengeance | of the sanguinary tyrant Justinian I[., who had sent a fleet and army against it, with orders for its utter destruction. Cherson was saved on this occasion by the intervention of the Khan or chief of the Khazars, and for a time passed under the supremacy of those sovereigns ; but it was soon again reunited with the Byzantine Empire, to which it continued subject, with one brief interval, till the time of its final downfall.

The exception, however, deserves our notice. In 985 Cher- son, together with the rest of the Crimea, fell for a time into the hands of the Russians. In the tenth century that people had alzeady established their power over a considerable part of the countries now included in the Huropean dominions of the Czar, and their fleets had already struck terror into the Byzantine rulers within the walls of Constantinople ; buat Vladimir, surnamed the Great, was the first who subdued the Khazars and Petschenegans, and thus extended his dominions from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The rest of the Crimea was speedily overrun ; but the fortified city of Cherson for a lon time defied his arms, and the haughty barbarian, who ha threatened to persist in the siege for three years, if necessary, seemed likely to be obliged to keep his words, when a treach- erous monk Vetcosel to him the fact that the pipes upon which | the city depended for its whole supply of water were in his

}

the neighbourhood of the great harbour or bay of Sebastopol, which was j known to the Greeks by the pame of “venus,

© Procop., De <Eijf. iii. 6

boats put up their helms and got inside the shoals, where they were speedily joined by their consorts. Our steamers approached them as far as the depth of water would permit, the Bulldog firing at them continually, her shot falling among them ; but, owing to the long range, not touching them. The Imperieuse threw a broadside amid them and several shells, supported by the heavy guns of the Centaur, but apparently without hitting them, which was warmly responded to by the enemy, whose shot, however, fell short of the mark. Aftera couple of hours it was apparent that to continue the engage- ment longer would be a useless expenditure of ammunition, and the reeall was hoisted to our steamships to return to the anchorage, the enemy following in their wake as far as they could do with safety, and firing at them, but without effect. The Russians, being aware that the whole of the gunboats had left the anchorage off this port, knew our — could not get sufficiently near to do them any injury, otherwise they would, as heretofore, have kept under shelter of the shore batteries. The Sf. Petersburgh Journal will doubtless edify its readers with an account of this incident, and, with its usual adherence to veracity, assert that the ships of the Allies, in an attack on the Russian gunboats, were defeated, and compelled to retreat.”

From these accounts of what has recently taken place at Riga and Cronstadt, it would appear that the enemy is not less alive than the Allies, and that he is for the first time beginning to challenge an encounter on the sea. Yet we are told that the Allied fleet is to engage in no further operations this season. We can scarcely credit the truth of such an assertion; and for the honour of the fleet, as well as the re- putation of the English Government, we trust it is not correct.

Qt + o>

THE VICTORY OF THE TCHERNAYA.

The Russians chose for their attempt the Feast of the Virgin, which is one of the greatest festivals in the Greek Church. The religious ceremonies were inyested with ex- traordinary pomp, and the preachers appointed endeavoured to excite the zeal of their hearers to fauatical fury. Fresh troops, who had felt neither the effects of labour in the trenches nor of the valour of their opponents, were picked as far as possible for the oceasion, They marched out to the combat about 50,000 strong, their force consisting of forty odd battalions of infantry, and six or seven thousand horse, with 250 pieces of cannon. With these superior numbers the Rus- sians directed their attack against a point where they would meet with but three divisions of French infantry, and General Morris’s cavalry. One of these divisions was that of General Mayran, which suffered so terribly in_the assaults of the 7th ar 18th June, and should, therefore, barely reckon as half a division, as the vacancies in its ranks had not filled up. In fact, the French had only 12,000 or 13,000 effective men to

of so much interest in connexion with the first introduction of

We are no better informed of the rumoured engagement off,

CGN EA A ACER OTN: ae

saint.

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