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June 9, 1855.] THE LEADER. 537
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THE BALTIC. A Hamburg letter of the 29th...
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FLOWERS AND MUSIC AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE....
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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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War Miscellanea. Health Of The Army : Th...
there , than the Regent's-park , few of the " legion" are to be seen . The French and Russian Armies op the North . —The Berlin Correspondent of the Times says : — " The French , if a report current in Lubeck two days back be true , will export soldiers to the neighbourhood ^ of the German ocean , who will on landing proceed direct to Lubeck , and be shipped at Travemunde for employment on the Baltic cdast . This , if it can be accomplished , will be the most j udicious and economical mode possible , for it avoids the whole trip round Denmark , with all the tedious navigation of the Scandinavian Archipelago , its dangers , and its Sound dues . " The Russians also seem desirous of a Foreign Legion ; for the same writer adds : — "In Copenhagen , the Russians are recruiting for every species of service . An active agent took up his quarters at a first-rate hotel there about the 20 th of last month ; and , before the police got a scent of his mission , he had left Copenhagen with about forty or fifty ablebodied men . From one engineer ' s shop alone , he got ten or twelve excellent smiths ; and , besides those , he had engaged medical men , chemists , and even military oflScers . " Russian Levies . —The Times Berlin correspondent says : — " The latest news from Russia shows that the Northern Power is beginning already to feel a sensible lack of that raw material for war purposes which Russian official language styles ' souls , ' but which Russian military tactics treat as mere bodies . It is only as far back as the 6 th ult . that the Emperor issued his ukase , which , in consideration of the necessity of keeping up the full complement of the armies and navies , ordered a levy of twelve in every thousand registered male souls in the seventeen western governments of the empire ; and now , under date of the 26 th of that same month , a supplementary ukase is published , professedly for the purpose of ' facilitating the levy , ' and ordering that in the State domains in the said seventeen governments peasants of more advanced age than that prescribed by law , viz ., up to the age of thirty , shall be included in the liability to serve . " A Young Veteran . —The Hamburg News contains a letter from St . Petersburg , which says : — " Captain Vernlow lately made his appearance in the drawingrooms of the capital , and has excited much attention from the fact that , although he is only twenty-three years of age , he has twenty-four years of service . 1 st , he has been eight years in the army ; 2 nd , he has served six months at Sebastopol , and as , according to an order of the Cabinet of the Emperor Nicholas , each month ' s service there is to count as a year , his six months are equivalent to six years , which give fourteen years in all ; 3 rd , he wears the Order of St . Anne and of Wladimir , the cross of the Order of St . George , and has a sabre of honour , which reckons for ten years more ; and in that way he makes up the twenty-four years . Strange to say , although this officer has been in twelve sorties , he has never received a wound . " Fire at Gax ^ atz . —A despatch , dated Galatz , 1 st of June , says : — " There was a great fire last night in the artillery and cavalry stables , close to the ammunition . The Austrian garrison succeeded in extinguishing the flames , but 103 horses were burnt . The cholera is said to have appeared in the Austrian army in Gallicia . "
June 9, 1855.] The Leader. 537
June 9 , 1855 . ] THE LEADER . 537
The Baltic. A Hamburg Letter Of The 29th...
THE BALTIC . A Hamburg letter of the 29 th ult . in the Independence Behje says : — " The English Government is still increasing the number of its war vessels in the Baltic . At no former period was so powerful a fleet assembled in any sea . On the 21 th , a transport steamer , laden with ammunition , and a gun-boat , entered Elsinore . On the 25 th , a bomb-vessel , the Redwing , readied Copenhagen ; and on the 27 th , the steam-corvette Volcano , with a gun-boat , arrived at Kiel , also coming from England . It is not to "bo supposed that so large a concentration of naval forces in the gulf will remain there inactive , as last year . The English officers say that Admiral Dundas is only waiting the junction of the French squadron , of which ho naturally desires tho co-operation , to commence hostilities . . . . Four English ships of war are constantly in sight of Swcaborg , closely watching tho movements of tho enemy in that military port . In a few hours they can communicate with tho main body of tho fleet , stationed at Nargon . Tho Isles of Aland continue to bo completely abandoned , no English vessels having as yet visited them . Hostilities are to be carried on this year at the other extremity of the gulf , and it is to he presumed that Admiral Dundas will not allow the season to pass over without striking some decisive blow against tho Russian fortresses in that sea . Tho appearance of three English ships of war before Korpo , near Abo , had caused there considerable alarm . Tho Russian commander of Abo having made tho signals agreed upon , in a short timo an entire division of troops was concentrated at Abo and along tho coast . This place is considered tho most important in the Gulf of Bothnia .. An Intricate channel leads to it on tho sea , sldo , and tho waters are bo shallow that ships of war cannot well Approach the town . The flotilla of gun-boats , expressly ^ constructed in England to operate in theso shallows , fvill enable tho Admiral to attack positions hitherto inaccessible . The whojo of tho Russian troops
quartered in the interior of Esthonia , Livonia , and Courland , have been ordered to proceed by forced marches to the coast , where the greater part of the army of General Siewers is now assembled , awaiting events . " We gather the following from correspondents of the Times : — " Th 2 Amphion has been to reconnoitre the Aland Islands . During the winter , the Russian police came over there from Abo , and have sent many of the inhabitants , who had been reported to them for trafficking with us last year , to Siberia ; others had been flogged ; and the people in the little village of Dagerby were nearly famished during the winter . The police would not allow them to buy provisions at the public stores , for having sold us milk ^ eggs , & c . " The general belief of many persona who ought to be well informed on the subject is , that active operations against the enemy are about to be undertaken ; but , lest their nature should be made known through the medium of the pre 3 S—the principal source from which , since the commencement of the' war , the British people have derived any detailed information—the utmost reserve on all that relates to the plans of the present campaign is practised by the supreme naval authorities in the Baltic , under the questionable impression that the promulgation of them to the public would tend to the advantage of the Russian Government , by enabling it the more effectually to thwart the offensive measures that are to be adopted . " The general in command of the Russian army in the Baltic has recently inspected the fortifications of Riga , Revel , and Pernau . The armaments , by his direction , are to be considerably increased along the line of coast . The Russians are reported to consider that Revel is the most likely place to be attacked by the fleets of England and France . Revel , according to an opinion stated to have been given last year by General Jones , is deemed even stronger than Sweaborg . " Large bodies of military have been posted by the Russians all along the Baltic coast , and in the chief towns and cities . A great many prizes have fallen into our hands .
Flowers And Music At The Crystal Palace....
FLOWERS AND MUSIC AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE . Flora has been holding high festival in that translucent temple on the green Sydenham slopes and bosky lawns . An ancient Roman might on Saturday last have paid his devotions to the goddess of young buds and flaunting blossoms , among evidences of her creative power more glorious and overwhelming than any he can have ever seen . Anacreon might have wreathed his brows with coronals of greater variety , splendour , and intensity of perfume , than even the gorgeous light and languid glooms of his own Asia Minor could produce , and might have chanted forth some new ode , " dropping odours , dropping wine , " under the intoxicating influence . Hatiz , the Persian poet of roses and nightingales , would have fairly acknowledged a rival to the delicious valley of which he sang , and have been content to quaff the wines of Shiraz under the diaphanous rcof of " the people's palace . " Indeed , the inhabitant of the most favoured climate of South or East must have admitted that science and culture had collected in one spot the most marvellous and bewildering affluence of floral beauty that the eye has yet seen . . " And , sifter all , what of it ? " cries the " practical man , always eager for something " useful , " meaning therebv something profitable to the pocket . "It was a mere effect of colour . " Nay , thou mechanical , automaton-souled Jones ; it was something more . Yet , even had it been merely so , this alone would be sufficient to move the deep fountains of delight in any spirit which has a living sense of the magnificent marvels of creation . Colour is one of the most glorious and divine of God's physical mysteries — ii gorgeous angel coming to us out of tho sunbeams . But , over and above their flushing tints and luminous brightness of hue , as though we were looking upon sheer light in its utmost concentration and ripeness , flowers suggest an indescribable purity , grace , and tenderness — a vestal innocence as of the maidenhood of the enrth—n something which in sill but the most callous minds induces a feeling of natural religion . It is not the most unreasonable peculiarity of the Roman Catholics that placing of flowers upon thair altars ; and tho visitor to Sydenham must be devoid of all feelings of reverence if ho do not flnd himself touched by aflner sense of the marvellous beauty of creation . It is impossible , moreover , to calculate the amount of good that might be done to Methodist and Quaker by such an exhibition , if they could he persuaded to enter the atmosphere of its fascination . Here , indeed , we may learn tlu \ t Nature ' s is not a drab-hued universe . Here , in , t he exquisite lines of Leigh Hunt , we may , " Sec , and scorn all duller Taste , how Heaven loves colour ; llow great Nature , clearly , joys in rod and green 5 What swpet thoughts she thinks Of violets and pinka , '
And a thousand flushing hues , made solely to be seen ; See her whitest lilies Chill the silver showers , And what a red mouth has her rose , the woman of the flowers . " The Flower Show was interesting also in a scientific point of view , as exhibiting the singular power of . art in modifying , and we may even say in improving , natural productions . It was a great holiday , last Saturday ; the Londoners were evidently determined to enjoy themselves . Nearly twenty thousand persons went down by the rail ; and to these are to be added about ten thousand who proceeded along the highways . Seven thousand carriages , say the police , were to be seen at Sydenham on that day ; and they add that they never beheld so many vehicles in one spot before . The attraction extended to the very highest in the land , with the exception of her"Majesty herself , who was expected , but did not come . Prince Albert , however , was there ; and the Ministers put off their usual Saturday afternoon meeting until a later hour , in order that they might attend . The Duchess of Kent was also present ; and the Duke and Duchess of Argyll , the Duke of Beaufort , the Duchess of Sutherland , and the Duke of Devonshire ( the latter just recovering from his late severe illness ) , might have been noticed during the day . We append from a daily contemporary a brief notice of the chief features of the occasion : — " The naves , both north and south , had been fitted up with temporary platforms , running almost their whole length ; and these were densely covered with the rarest specimens of the conservatory , the greenhouse , and the garden , all tastefully arranged with an eye to form and colour . In one place , extraordinary specimens of the cactus family attracted groups of admirers ; in another , the gay variety of innumerable pelargoniums arrested crowds- of young ladies , who looked as gay and riantes as themselves . Here the regal azalea shed a flood of pink and scarlet over a whole district ; and close at hand the mimxter beauties of the exquisitely tinted and formed geraniums arrested the gaze of the more discriminating spectators . Orchids in all their variety occupied a large section of the space ; and the interstices were everywhere filled up with stove , hot-house , and pitcher plants , of which few could understand the names , but all could appreciate the rarity and beauty . To the rhododendrons , a great portion of the transept was devoted ; and down the southern nave a second platform rivalled its neighbour in the north in the extent , variety ^ and beauty of its floral treasures . But even hoe the contributions were not exhausted . Along the whole of the open corridor facing the terrace stands were erected , protected by a stout awning , and forming a sort of aggregate meeting of all the flowers that were more strictly classified inside , and further enriched by parterres of roses . Those who are deep in the mysteries of floriculture , gave the preference to the azaleas , and amongst the azaleas to the contributions of Sir E . Antrolms , whose gardener , Mr . Greene , received the commendations also of the universal public . The orchids next received the most general meed of approbation ; and , after them , there was a struggle for pre-eminence amongst the roses , ferns , fuschias , & c . As might have been expected from the backwardness of the season , the display of fruit was not very extensive ; but what was exhibited was of very fine quality , especially the strawberries , a magnificent basket of that fruit having been sent up by Mr . M'Ewen , the gardener at Arundel Castle . Some enormous cucumbers were sent in by Mr . lloser , gardener to Mr . Bradbury , together with melons , nectarines , and some bunches of black and white grapes from other contributors ; but , on the whole , the show of fruit told tales of tho inclemency of tho spring which has so recently passed away . " Tho flower show , manifold as were its attractions , by no means concluded the bill of fare which the Crystal Palace authorities had provided for their visitors . The nmsical arrangements concluded not only tho whole strength of the permanent orchestra , but also the service of two military bands stationed in different parts of tho grounds , and the brilliant performance of Master Arthur Napoleon on tho grand piano in tho transept . Mr . Sehallen ' s troupe performed a varied programme , comprising some of the choicest works of Beethoven , JioUini , Handd , and Rossini ; and the military bands enlivened the air without with marches and polkas . " After tho flowers and tho music , came tho frond display of the waterworks , tho first of tho kind ever attempted in this country on a scale of equal magnitude . Wo had hoard of Versailles , and to our sorrow and shame had scon tho fountains in Trafalgar-square . j ; but no imtrnvellod Briton had ever aocn a whole ser , s of mcniflcot basin * , each throwing dozens of jots of Z ? ing water Hixty or seventy feet into tho air , until t c SmiUih of Sir Joseph Paxton wood the waters of 0 Thine- and iu , tributaries to tho top of Sydciiham hill Tho tusk l . « w boon ono of immense difficulty and " st " Imt t ho result , even an yet incompletely developed , J a complete "" cccbh , and was so pronounced by the ho ,. H « m Jwho witnessed tho display of Saturday last . Tho ix av of tho water was strong , steady , and contlnwouh , tor upwards of an hour ; and tho effect was of a novel kind of beauty , thojots . ua they foamed , featured ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 9, 1855, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09061855/page/9/
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