1856.] Macdonald's 'Within and Without.' Down the full river comes a light blue sail; And down the near hill-side come country girls, Brown, rosy, with their loads of glowing fruit; Down to the sands come ladies, young, and clad For holiday in whose hearts wonderment At manhood is the upmost, deepest thought; And to their sides come stately, youthful forms; Italy's youth, with burning eyes and hearts Triumphant Love is king of the bright day. Still, Lilia is a noble creature, and feels that if he could only understand her, she is not unmeet to be a great man's wife. Yet I have thoughts Fit to be women to his mighty men. And he would love them did he lead them out. Into this somewhat sombre life their only child, the little_Lily, drops like a snowdrop. Exquisite is the child-life of the little girl, in its pure and spiritual innocence; and the simple idyls which her father and mother sing to her, are remarkable for the spontaneous lyrical power they manifest; so much so, indeed, that notwithstanding the clearness and vividness of his dramatic insight, the author's real power lies, I think, in this direction. The fourth part is wholly tragic, rendered even more so by the innocent unconsciousness of Lily. The estrangement deepens, and the parents are further parted than ever. Yet Julian's love does not decay. I love less passionately, But not less truly; I would die for herA little thing, but all a man can do. Lilia, in her helplessness, listens to what seems to her more thoroughly human tenderness than Julian's wide awful soul' is able to bestow; but as she listens the past comes back upon her, she is startled abruptly from the delusive dream, and in that decisive moment she learns more clearly than she ever did before, how infinitely precious her husband's love is to her. Still, though innocent, she seems to her own intense sensitiveness 'a guilty VOL. LIV. NO. CCCXX. 237 thing,' and she cannot return to her home. My presence will not grieve thee any more My Julian, my husband. I will find Deserted by his wife, and believing her to be guilty, Julian is very wretched; but after a brief interval of stormy passion-in the spirit of that Divine Merey which he has himself besought and received, the single object of his life is concentrated in the passionate desire to rescue her, and bring her back. The search, however, proves bitter and fruitless; his daughter Lily pines. and dies in his arms; and as he stands in utter loneliness by the green mound under which the little innocent lies, it seems that for him there is no further work this side o' the earth.' O gladly would I come to thee, my child, And lay my head upon thy little heart, And the desire is speedily answered just as he receives the assurance that Lilia is innocent. These four acts, though there is none of the artist's artificial polish, are wrought out with instinctive finish and insight; but the fifth is incomplete and fragmentary. The scene is laid in 'a world not realized' -a world where the fatal contradictions of life are unravelled, where our eyes are opened, and we know each other even as we are known. You will see, however, from this hasty sketch-so hasty, indeed, that I feel I have not given you any notion of the breadth and felicity of the conception, of the richness and reality of the life-that the book is unique in its way, and worthy of special recognition even in an age of remarkable poetic activity.' Just as Juniper finished this discourse the boat touched the shore. The sun had long been out of sight; the golden mist had fallen in wet dew on the parched fields; and the daffodil' hues of sunset had brightened into the cold death-like whiteness of the northern light.So in this fashion we spent our Midsummer Day with the Poets. SHIRLEY. THE LAST NAVAL CAMPAIGN IN THE PACIFIC.* Miser, chi mal oprando si confida FROM the time of La Perouse until five years ago, the shores of Tartary had been scarcely visited by Europeans; and although some rumours of a contest in progress between Russian aggression and Japanese exclusiveness might occasionally reach us, it was supposed to extend only to some rocky and volcanic islets of the Sea of Okotsk, and no part of the world seemed less likely to occupy a place in the naval history of our times than Sighalien, the Amùr, and the wild coasts of Northern China. Until lately, a shipwrecked or fugitive English sailor found by the Chinese officials on the coast of Tartary, was conveyed under strict guard, but without harshness, first to Pekin, and then, after due examination, to Canton, for speedy exportation to Europe; but to have been caught on these shores during the last three years would have entailed upon him a drearier journey, not unlikely to have terminated in the healthy but monotonous plains of Siberia, or possibly in the dreaded mines of the Ural Mountains. The year 1855 has largely increased our knowledge of the coasts of Tartary, and it will probably not be long before we possess accurate descriptions of its magnificent harbours, its steady breezes, its noble forests, and its abounding metallic wealth; but in -Ariosto. spite of all its beauty and advantages, the mere The Russians have lost no time in these regions. Six years ago they applied to the Chinese Government for permission to navigate the Amùr. Although their request had not been answered, they conveyed some small steam-boats to the river which they had determined to appropriate, and established a permanent and well fortified settlement, called Nicoloffski, about sixty miles above the mouth of the river. A little later they began to build on the shores of De Castries' Bay, and fixed upon that spot as their future naval station, from whence to effect the conquest of Japan, the Corea, and China; and to start in the race with England and the United States for the commerce and supremacy of the Pacific. Had it not been for Captain Whittingham's Notes, we should not have obtained, until long after all interest in the subject had evaporated, any more information on these subjects than the newspapers have already afforded us; for the naval officers who have returned from that part of the world have been called upon to surrender their private *Notes on the late Expedition against the Russian Settlements in Eastern Siberia. By Captain Bernard Whittingham, Royal Engineers. Longman and Co. This coincides with the period when the Nepaulese Government determined to invade Chinese Tibet-an expedition which has proved a valuable diversion to Russia, and has hitherto paralysed the efforts of the Chinese Government to send a powerful force to the banks of the Amùr. It was with a view of overcoming the opposition of the Indian Government to any undertaking of the sort, as being likely to disturb trade and to embroil us with the Chinese Government, that Jung Bahadur, the Nepaulese Maire du Palais, undertook his mission to England in 1850; and the late Assistant-Resident in Nepaul attributes his visit to England to the desire of obtain ing the sanction of the British Ministry to his aggressive views upon China, for which the preparations were already in progress. He also informs us that Nepaul is neither beneath the notice, nor beyond the intrigues of Russia; and he states that if it were not for some artificial impediments, kept up for Russia's benefit, the Tibetan fur trade, which is so valued by, and so important to Russia, would no longer follow its present expensive course through Siberia, but would be diverted to Calcutta, which is only two hundred miles from the Nepaulese frontier, with the advantage of water carriage from the foot of the hills.-See Narrative of a Five Years Residence in Nepaul. By Captain Thomas Smith, Assistant Political Resident from 1841 to 1845. Colburn and Co. 1856.] Difficulties of Naval Commanders. journals into the safe-keeping of the Admiralty, and are left in no doubt that to publish an account of the naval operations on the Tartarian and Siberian waters would be to exclude themselves from all chance of future promotion and employment. Captain Whittingham accompanied Captain Elliot, as his guest on board the Sibylle, and we rejoice that his cruise resulted in his Notes, and honour him for his courage in making them public. It is true that they will not greatly benefit the reputation of his friend, Captain Charles Elliot, nor will they lead to a court-martial upon the admiral, but they are nevertheless of the highest value. The defects of the book consist in considerable omissions, and a strong determination to throw upon Sir James Stirling the whole responsibility, where a very large share ought to fall on the commodore. Each of these officers has his own burden to bear. The commodore was not over-hasty in seeking the enemy, and having accidentally stumbled upon him, he retreated under cover of the night. The admiral appears to have wasted the whole season of 1854, and to have been by no means anxious to attack the enemy, or to allow his officers to attack him, in 1855. The commodore's reputation has been defended, but not cleared, by the official protection, not very willingly extended to him by the present First Lord of the Admiralty, in the debate of the 8th February; while the admiral's conduct, like that of Admiral Dundas in the Black Sea, is still incomprehensible. As the naval incidents of the Gulf of Tartary are without parallel in our history, it is clear that unless some light is thrown upon them, the public voice will condemn all the parties concerned, for the country will be left without any means of discriminating between the Government, the commodore, and the admiral. And even if honours should be showered upon these two officers when they return home, the country may still feel dissatisfied, for rewards have in many cases been given in a manner which has taught us to appreciate the biting jest of the Spaniard, who said: 239 En el tiempo de las barbaras naciones We are prepared to admit that a naval commander of the present day is surrounded by almost insurmountable difficulties. He is charged with diplomatic as well as warlike duties; he is bound to the strictest secrecy; and at the same time is hampered with so many cautions against endangering his ships or risking a reverse, that he is frightened out of all energy, and terrified at incurring the slightest responsibility. In addition to all this, he has been taught to believe that the First Lord may set aside his public instructions by private letters, so that he comes to regard himself as the humble servant of the First Lord, and may forget that he owes a duty to his country, to himself, and to the noble service in which he has the honour to be enrolled. is tempted to do his utmost to penetrate the secret wishes of the First Lord, rather than to act upon his ostensible instructions; and it is only just that the country which has been in the habit of honouring courage, even when unsuccessful, should pour forth the full tide of its indignation on those who, while they receive its pay and profess to serve it, are willing to sacrifice their duty for reward, prefer honours' to honour, and are content on those terms to endure reproach which, after all, may be more justly deserved by those on whose instructions they have consented to act. He We have before us a chart of De Castries' Bay, and after examining the soundings and the position of the two squadrons, we do not hesitate to say, that if Commodore Elliot had summoned the Russians to surrender at discretion, they I would have had no alternative but to do so, or to resort to their established and national system of themselves destroying whatever must otherwise fall into the enemy's hands. Their three armed vessels were so placed that they could not support one another, and the long thirty-twos of the Hornet would have knocked them to pieces in succession without any risk to herself. If the Russians had more guns than the English, there can be no doubt that the superiority of range, weight of metal, steam power, and general efficiency, were on the side of our squadron. The Russians were encumbered with women and children, as well as with all the stores and property which had been removed from Petropaulovski; and the vessels which Commodore Elliot took to be heavily-armed corvettes, turned out to be transports, one of them an American, the crews of which had in all probability been transferred to the men-of-war as soon as the Russians found that their hidingplace was discovered. But we are anticipating, and must return to Captain Whittingham's narrative. In the spring of 1855, the gradual increase in the number of English and French frigates lying in the harbour of Hong-Kong betokened, as it was imagined, a speedy termination to the inactivity of the allied squadrons in the eastern seas, and once more awakened the sentiments of pride and hope which the aimless movements, the delays, and the illsuccess of our naval forces on the north-eastern shores of Asia in the previous year had repressed.* Shame and despair might well have been rife amongst our officers and men, who were now aware that, while they had been lying idle for six weeks at Nagasaki, engaged in forcing upon the Japanese a ridiculous and futile treaty, the enemy's men-of-war had a rendezvous near the same shores, and were cruising about, unsought and unmolested, until the spring of 1855! Nor were the particulars of the melancholy death of Commodore Price, of the Pacific squadron, unknown to the fleet on the Chinese station. Unable to bear the disgrace of retiring from the face of an enemy possessing only a third of his force, and equally afraid of gaining a vic tory which might prove unacceptable to his Government, he had, in the previous year, committed suicide off Petropaulovski, and left his successor to incur an ignominious defeat before two disarmed and dismantled ships-of-war, and five uncasemated, open, and small earthen batteries, which Captain Whittingham, after hearing all the excuses that could be alleged, and with all the plans before him, declares that a steam corvette ought to have silenced successively in a quarter of an hour! In speaking of this failure, which has never been the subject of any public investigation, he says It is inconceivable that four frigates, a steamer, and a brig, should have failed in silencing the enemy's guns; or that, however ill-conducted or disorderly the landings may have been, they should have miscarried. The allied squadrons possessed Belcher's exquisitely-finished survey of Petropaulovski and Awatska Bays, and had no less than one hundred and ten guns against seventy! No wonder that the Russians are proud. The war found the professions dedicated to war ready for war; and whether at The combined French and English fleet in the Japanese seas consisted of the following ships:— Total 405 guns. The Russians, after the wreck of the Diana and the Pallas frigates, had only two ships of war in this part of the world, the Aurora, forty-four gun frigate, and the Olivutza, a corvette; the Dwina was merely an armed transport. + The Russians at Petropaulovski, reckoning the women and children, and all the inhabitants, amounted, we believe, to three hundred souls! 1856.] Proceedings of Commodore Elliot. Sebastopol, or at the extremities of the empire in the East, professional talent and command were found combined. Whilst Cronstadt has defied menace, and Sweaborg has only been bombarded at a distance, dare any English officer of reputation and experience prophesy the same of Gibraltar or of Malta? While speaking of the attack on Petropaulovski, where our own honour suffered so severely, we must mention an incident for which honour is due to a chivalrous enemy. When the allies landed with the intention of storming the place, a few shots were sufficient to make them turn and fly; but a little midshipman, whose zeal and courage had led him to get in advance of his party, remained in ignorance of their flight, and rushed on towards the enemy, waving his sword. On approaching the Russians, he suddenly discovered that he was alone, and, from indignation at the conduct of his party, rather than from a sense of personal danger, the boy stood still and burst into tears; upon which a Russian officer stepped up to him, and said in English, Put up your sword, my boy; this is no place for you. Run back to your boat as fast as you can; and when you write to your mother, tell her that Lieutenant life.'* saved your In April, 1855, Admiral Sir James Stirling despatched Commodore the Hon. Charles Elliot, in command of H.M. frigate Sibylle, the steam corvette Hornet, and the brig Bittern, from Hong-Kong to Japan, with six months' provisions, and as much powder and shot as they could carry, to look for the Russians. Were it not for the experience furnished to us by the way in which the contest against Russia has been carried on in all parts of the world, we could scarcely have believed Captain Whittingham's statement, that, after fourteen months of war, 241 the officers of the China squadron, who received their despatches and letters from London in less than sixty days, should have been sent to search for the Russians with no more information as to the settlements, forces, and ships of the enemy, than they had been able to gather from an article which had appeared in Fraser's Magazine for January, 1855,† in which there was a sketch of the Russian acquisitions on the Amùr, and a list of several of her ships of war which were known to have sailed for that part of the globe. Commodore Elliot was not only left in absolute ignorance of much that was known in Europe, but the Government at home had taken no pains to supply him with copies of the excellent charts of both entrances into the Amùr which have been for some time in possession of the Dutch Admiralty; and he had not even La Perouse's chart of the Gulf of Tartary! After passing a short time in Japan, the squadron proceeded leisurely to the northward, and on the 20th of May stood across the Gulf of Tartary to look into De Castries' Bay, where the Russians had begun to form a settlement about three years before. It was in this port that their ships which had escaped from Petropaulovski, as well as their other men-of-war in these seas, had been ordered to assemble; but it was only the fugitives from Kamtschatka, under Admiral Savoiko, who had reached the rendezvous, as the frigates Pallas and Diana had suffered shipwreck. In this part the Gulf of Tartary is only forty miles across, and it is about the same distance to the head of the Gulf, from whence there was supposed to be a narrow passage into the Amùr. Prayers had just terminated, when a sail under the We deeply regret that we are unable to ascertain the name of this officer, but we hope it will be made public by some of those who must be acquainted with it. + Entitled The Latest Acquisition of Russia, the River Amoor. Admiral Savoiko, the governor of Petropaulovski, had received orders, during our blockade of that port, to destroy the fortifications, and to proceed to the liman of the Amoor. After sawing a passage through the ice, he sailed on the 17th of April, passed through the British blockading squadron in a fog, and after a perilous passage, cast anchor in De Castries' Bay. We have not been able to ascertain how long he had been there when the English squadron appeared, but he must have passed close to the ships of Captain Elliot in rounding Japan. |