No. 387, 21 August 1855.  
Mittagblatt

X. London, 18 August. (The Anglo-French War against Russia.)  
Given the inaccuracy of existing maps, and the difficulty of forming a correct tactical or strategic judgement from a distance, we shall not go into this matter more closely. There remain the two main theatres of war: the Crimea and the Baltic.

In the Crimea the siege drags on in a somnolent stupor. Throughout the whole month of July the French and English have been working at their new advances against the Redan and the Malakoff; and although we have been told time and again that they had drawn “quite close” to the Russians, we now learn that on 4 August the head of the sap was no closer than 115 metres to the Russian main ditch, and perhaps not even that close. It is certainly gratifying to see hotspur Pélissier driven to confess that his “system of assaults” has failed, and that regular siege-works must break a path for his columns. None the less it remains a peculiar mode of warfare to leave 200,000 men lying quietly in their tents and, while awaiting the completion of the trenches, to let them die of cholera and fever in the meantime. If the Chernaya cannot be crossed, in view of the impregnable Russian position lying on the far side—as the Paris papers maintain—an expedition to Eupatoria by sea and an attempt to force the Russians into open field on that side and to ascertain their real strength and the state of their resources might always produce some beneficial result. As things now stand, the Turkish, Sardinian, and half the French and English armies are reduced to the role of passive spectators. A large part of them could therefore be employed for diversions. The only diversions of which we hear, however, are staged at Astley’s Amphitheatre, in Surrey Gardens and Cremorne Gardens, where the Russians, every evening, amid a tempest of applause from the patriotic Cockneys, suffer frightful defeats.

The Russians must by this moment have received all their reinforcements and, for the immediate future, have attained the maximum of their strength. The English are dispatching a few more regiments, the French have sent off 10 to 15,000 men, more are to follow, and it is said that altogether 50–60,000 fresh troops will be added to the allied forces in the Crimea. Moreover, the French government has registered or purchased a large number of river steamers (variously stated at from 50 to 100), all of which are to be employed in an expedition in the Black Sea. Whether they are destined for the Sea of Azov, or for the entrance to the Dnieper and the Bug, where Ochakov, Kinburn, Kherson and Nikolayev would offer the objects of attack, remains to be seen. We have earlier prepared the reader for the likelihood that it would come to bloody collisions towards the middle of August, because the Russians, having received their reinforcements, would again seize the initiative around that time. They did in fact, under General Liprandi, make a sortie against the French and Sardinians posted on the Chernaya, and were repulsed with great loss. The loss of the Allies is not stated, and must therefore have been very considerable. More than telegraphic reports are needed to go into this affair more closely. In the Baltic, at last, “a great blow has been struck”. *A great blow has been struck!* See the English press. Bombardment of Sveaborg! Destruction of Sveaborg! All earthworks and other works lie in ruins! In truth, Sveaborg has ceased to exist! Glorious triumph of the Allies! The fleet is in an indescribable state of enthusiasm! And now consider the fact itself. The allied fleets—6 ships of the line, 4 or 5 large frigates (blockships) and about 30 mortar vessels and gunboats—sailed from Reval to Sveaborg on 7 August. On the 8th they took up their positions. The light-draught squadrons passed the sandbanks and rocks west of the fortress, where larger ships cannot pass, and stationed themselves, as it seems, at a long cannon-shot from the islands on which Sveaborg stands. The large ships remained outside, and, as far as we can judge, outside the range of the fortress works. Then the gunboats and mortar vessels opened fire. Direct fire seems not to have been attempted, but merely the throwing of shells at the highest elevation the guns allowed. The bombardment lasted 45 hours. A certain amount of damage was inflicted, which it is, however, impossible to estimate without detailed reports from both sides. The arsenal and various powder magazines (evidently smaller ones) were destroyed. The “town” of Sveaborg (as far as we know only a few houses occupied by people employed by the fleet or on the fortifications) was burnt down. The damage done to the fortifications themselves can only be insignificant, for the fleets, as both admirals declare, counted not a single man killed, only a few wounded, and no loss at all in their *matériel*—the best proof that they kept on the safe side, and, this being the case, they could indeed bombard, but could not act by direct fire, the only means by which fortifications can be destroyed. Dundas, far more decent and restrained in his dispatch than the French admiral (at least according to their wording in the *Moniteur*, which may have been coloured in Paris), admits that the damage inflicted was confined to 3 of the 7 islands that form Sveaborg, those situated to the west of the main entrance channel to the bay of Helsingfors. No attack on the main entrance seems even to have been attempted. The large ships appear to have looked on idly, and the decisive act in such an attack—the landing of troops to take possession of and destroy the works—was not even contemplated. Thus the damage inflicted falls exclusively on stores and magazines, i.e. on things that are easily replaced. If the Russians exert time and means, Sveaborg can be in as good a state three weeks hence as ever before. In military terms it has suffered not at all; and the whole affair amounts to an act whose material results are scarcely worth its costs of production, and which was undertaken only, partly because the Baltic fleet must have done *something* before returning home, and partly because Palmerston wished to close the parliamentary session with a fireworks display. Unfortunately, for this purpose, it happened 24 hours too late. Such is the glorious destruction of Sveaborg by the allied fleets. We shall return to this subject as soon as detailed reports are to hand.