NEWS OF THE WEEK.
So simple in its main thread is the story of the battle ,of In- kerman, that the official despatches and fuller correspondence which reach ns this week scarcely modify the tale ; but rather, as usual, enable ni to realize the magnitude of the contest, its des- perate obstinacy, its appalling amount of bloodshed, the imminent peril of our soldiers, and the heroism which enabled them to en- dure, to resist, and to triumph over fearful odds. For a day or two previously to the 5th November, the Rus-
sians, who already possessed a laige force within the prolonged fortifications' and a large force towards the rear in the neighbour- hood of Balaklava,- .laid.keen obseryed -to receive reinforcements, estimated at '30,000 or "40,060 ; which added to Liprandi's corps on the Ruisian left, of 35,000 or more, and the garrison, would probably justify .General Canrobert's estimate of 100,000 men in one way and another arrayed against the Allies on the Memorable 5th of November. To augment the weight of the force brought down to crush the besiegers, the now useless army of the Danube had been withdrawn from iic;lditvia, leaving Bessarabia still de= fended by itis special army, but not, it is supposed, entirely ex- hausting the remforeements to be biought from the interior. The effort of Menschikoff to throw his strength into a suc- cession of powerful and if possible decisive blows, is shown by the advance of Dannenberg's army in the very lightest order, augmenting the numbers about Sebastopol without much regard either to their equipment or provision. The aim was to bear down by accumulated pressure ; and it was with such a view that the batteries resumed the bombardment of the Allies in their besieged camp, a strong force from the garrison moved out to act with Dan- nenberg's army, and Liprandi made a feint, that might have been, had it succeeded, a penetrating attack towards the rear; and as it was, it did busy a portion of the British and French forces. Thus the Allies were to be occupied all round, while the weak, unintrenched, and unfortified point in their position towards the valley of the Inkerman, was to be penetrated by a force of great weight and momentum. It was with the earliest dawn, enveloped in mist and rain, that the Allies, hearing, without seeing, the movement of the enemy, roused themselves to a comprehension of that which they wore to expect. They were attacked in position, by troops converging into a narrow and broken ravine or meeting of ravines; and here, for all the " solidity " ascribed to them by the French commander, the English soldiers were repeatedly driven back. At one time the battle consisted in the play of artillery upon the soldiers of either side ; at another, in sharp conflicts of small-arms ; but for the most part of the time in direct personal encounters, where each side tried against the other its weight, muscular strength, nerve, and resolve, perilling body and soul in the deter- mination to kill. The 8000 English, who were repeatedly brought forward to meet the attack, were the same, unrelieved, throughout the day. The narrowness of the channel &rough which the battle raged prevented the Russians from using their numbers at once, but those numbers gave a command of fresh forces in successive re- lays. So the conflict continued throughout the day, till afternoon ; the contending bodies swayed backwards and forwards as reinforce. ments or new resolution lent the greater weight to either side. The arrival of the French first restored something like aggressive equality to the aide of the Allies ; and at last, English solidity and French fire proved greater than Russian ferocity and numbers. The Russians gave way and retired ; their immediate object unac- complished, their path strewed with dead, principally of their own. In this day's battle, the ascertained loss cf the English was 2612; that of the French is stated at 1700; and the Russian loss is guessed at 15,000. The proportionate loss of officers in our army was excessive ; but we doubt whether it was due entirely to the conspicuous dresses which they wore : their conspicuous acts contributed much more signally to point them out for special at- tack. Supposing the Russian loss not to be over-estimated, it would about equal that of the Allies in proportion to the gross numbers at the command of Prince Menschikoff. if we had assnnied that the Russians were inferior soldiers, their infe- riority at all events does not exist in a greater ratio than their superiority of numbers. If their bravery is less chivalrous, it is not less stubborn ; and the battle of Inkerman has exploded, be- fore hundreds of competent witnesses, the old dogma that hand- to-hand conflicts with the bayonet cannot be. Many times the bayonet was the only weapon with which the swaying multitude was fighting man to man. In one resource the Russians were alone : blindly obedient to the divine order of their Emperor, assoilzied before the conflict by the blessing of their priests in the churches of Sebiistopol, they were licensed to carry the war further than humanity warrants, for the wounded were slaughtered where they lay. We are not, therefore, to hope for anything from Russian incompetency to use Russian resources, from the want of adapted skill on the part of the commanders; of animal bravery in the men ; nothing to hope from Russian scruples. The conquest of Sebas- topol must be effected by main strength exercised to overcome the great-numbers, the strong position, blind fidelity, and absolute un- scrupulousness.
Reinforcements, it is said, have continually been arriving for the Allies.' The Russians were exhausted, and had not renewed the attack doWn to the 14th. The lion and the tiger were reposing after the mortal combat. The one conclusion, however, compared to which all other small encouragenients and Collateral reassurances are worthless, is, that the Allies, forced into a defensive position where they ought to be the 'assailants, have not that command of aggressive power and weight which would enable them to execute the gigantic task in hand, to finish it as it must be finished, to re- pay with victory the agony endured on that bloody field, and felt in many a home of our own country. Theloree must not only be kept up, but enlarged, strengthened in men, equipments, and en- gines of war, in order that the great stronghold may be wrenched froth the MuscOvite, and the host that has hemmed us into a corner be driven back upon its proper territory.
