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    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 Cronstedt 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 vras 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 gairison , 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 Finlauders—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 dp 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 he 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 wore succoured in a month it should be g iven up . Of course it was not succoured , and the inestimable prize fell into the hands of the enemy . The capture of Sweaborg entirely 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 tame , 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 thus 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 Russian supplies sent by sea , were advantages which an able general would have turned with the utmost force against the enemy . But Gustavus was ftckle ; a good soldier , but no general , he followed no plan , scarcely adhered 3 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 und several brilliant actions , the Swedes were driven back as far north as Tornca . During the winter the Russians not only regained possession of the Aland Islands , they actually crossed the Gulf of Bothnia on the ice , under Koulncfi ' nnd Barclay de Tolli , and " conquered a . peace on the soil of Sweden . " The march of Tolli across the Gulf is very well described by our author : — 7 th

    After a toilsome and difficult march the Russiane reached a group of rocks on the < 1 0 th ) of March , and bivouacked there that night . The next day the guides lost their wray in the midst of the frightful masaes of ice and snow , confusedly heui > od together by the etorma of the winter . They appeared bewildered by the desolate appearance of everything around them , and were unable to ilml tho ntukcs placed ut distances , in tno manner of landmarks , to direct the march of the troopn , by the officers wlio had boon flfint beforehand to reconnoitre ; und before long they had to depend upon the compaas as their only sure guide . Tho sletlgea were continually stopped by wide chasms , either requiring to bo cro . sscd like rivera , or rendering so great <» dvtour nocessury , that there was tho greatest dangor of their being entirely lost in those tracklesa wuatoa . The homes stumbled and lumod theinaolvoH on tho ice ; the infantry was exhausted with tho labour of walking ; and , although every moment of tnno was precious , Generul Barclay was continually obliged to halt and allow his men to rent , lliu weojthcr was intennely cold , but tho uir wiib atill ; hud it been otherwise , had a mowdrift como on , a common occurrence in those regions , it must infallibly have proved : ftHwland the troops and their brave commander must alike have perished .

    , . Bi * t in the meantime a revolution at Stockholm had dethroned Gustavufi , » ftd a p < trty had como into power , ready to purchase a peace by yielding up VinUxnd . And thus , partly by fraud , partly by superior numbers , Kushiu , taking advantage of a critical moment in tho history ot Europe , ana ot 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 St . 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-dajrs represents a barbarous antagonism to modern civilisation .

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    FOUR STORY-BOOKS . Fairy Tales . By the Countess d'Aulnoy . Translated by J . R . Planche " . Koutledge . 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 Leartiest 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 the old friends of many a happy hour , and of having , in other instances , become acquainted with new Tales which have enabled ua to catch fresh glimpses at the pleasant Fairy Land . The playful fancy , the charming grace , the elegant invention which tbese 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 . Planche most gratefully for having collected them 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 readers 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 then * in a single volume , very nicely illustrated and got up ; and has enabled his readers , by a preliminary sketch , to knowsomething of the life and character of the original writer of the stories . With these recommendations he 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 Emile 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 the first story in the collection . And , again , in " The White Boat , " the introduction of a strange and striking local superstition males a pretty domestic story lay the

    strongest hold on the reader ' s imagination , by the most legitimate and nnprcssfve 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 . There are passages of real artless pathos in the painful but very beautiful story of " The Lazaretto Keeper , "_ passages which place 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 toue is unqxeeptiouably 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 talcs , 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 Rudenz , " and" The Chocolate of Chiapa . " People to ui

    who are all for modern tunes and Uglit comedy ( . say notnmg u mm « , u 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 the " morbid" sort ( ourselves among others ) , who like to feel their ileaU creep and their hair stand on end over a really terrible ghost-story , may find one of the most appalling kind in Mr . Costello's co lection We especially congratulate the author on the manner in which ho has told the tale of the " daunted House in Yorkshire . " Great part of the eilect o ho story on tho reader ' s mind is derived from the simple , quiet , and skil uUy subdued tone in which it is related . It is something to make a cntic ( whoso business is never to feel any emotion , ) . shiver in his awful chair ofjud «™» fr and start when his lamp begins to sputter , at the dying j ''^" . ^ JL * casts upon his grim stud y-walls . Tbw eflect Mr . ^"" . J ^ &Slod duced In our own case . We always Sieved in ghost * md he * loit icd us in our dread convictions . Ho hints , we observe in the mUouuction to h s toHesf that U ' £ e present collection should prove « - ^' " ^ J expect another series of talc , suggc-Htod like those inow of ^ £ v hc "Jj varieties of prints stuck upon an old screen . We uoi ^ ""| J »» » « parting , sucli a reception from the reading world us may boon justify tbo PU " sWrJey BrXl ^ H ^« Court , has already appealed successful ^ io the public ? in the pages of Bentky ' s Miscellany . Wo are . jsM to

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    J ? o . 275 , June 30 , 1855 . ] THE LEADEB . 631

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 30, 1855, page 631, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2097/page/19/