WAR PREPARATIONS.
The news from the Baltic is brief, but important. Some time last week, Admiral Plumridge was despatched, with four or five steamers, to the Gulf of Finland ; and on Tuesday the Dauntless returned with despatches, stating that there was very little ice in the Gulf of Finland. Such is the statement of the Times correspondent at Copenhagen. Early on Wednes- day morning, the whole of the English fleet left Kioge Bay. Its desti- nation is of course unknown, but it is reported that the Imperieuse dis- covered eighteen sail of the line in the harbour at Sveaborg, and that the port is open. Another account is, that the Russian ships have been seen off GothUnd, and that thither the fleet have sailed. A young officer writing to friends at Plymouth, under the date of April 5, looks for- ward to Revel as the first point to be attacked. From a statement of the periods when the ice has broken up at Cronstadt, furnished by a Russian merchant to the Morning Post, it appears that the earliest date was 17th April 1848, and the latest 25th May 1852. The military news is scanty. Lord Raglan, the Duke of Cambridge, and their aides-de-camp, left London on Monday night, by train, for Paris, via Dover. There were many persons at the railway station, who cheered them as they set off Sir Hew Ross, Deputy-Adjutant-General of the Royal Artillery, is ap- pointed Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance ; an office which has been revived in consequence of Lord Raglan the Master-General's absence in the East.
The cavalry are now actively preparing for departure; but nothing certain seems to have been determined as to the route which the different regiments will take to the Continent. Next week additional infantry re- giments will probably sail for Gallipoli. Advices from Malta, up to Saturday last, show that regiments have been recently departing nearly every day for Gallipoli ; but no accurate account is before us. Seven re- giments, however, had sailed up to Saturday.
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