NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ANOTHER fierce engagement between the Russians and the Allies before Sebastopol took place on the 5th of this month. From the numbers brought against us, from the duration of the contest, and from the apparentloss as well as from the 'consequences, this ap- pears to be the most important of all the battles in which the belligerents have been engaged. As yet, our only authentio information is conveyed in two very brief despatches from Lord Raglan and General Canrobert, written on the 6th. We are not able from these documents to gather the nature of the opera- they resistecti but we may infer that the object of Prince
Meziae off was to follow up the series of attacks upon the .Allied for6es which he commenced at Balaklava on the 25th. of last month, for the purpose of compelling them to raise the siege. The Russian army, "swollen by reinforcements from the Danube, as well as by combined reserves from all the Southern provinces," commenced an attack upon the English right in the dawn of the morning ; and, as General Canrobert expresses it, a sortie was made by the garrison at the same time upon the left of the Allies. We may conjecture, therefore, • that -the bulk of the available force of the enemy, including what we may call their army of investment of the Allied position, and the garrison of Sebasto- pol, were concentrated upon the attack or engaged in supporting it; while a portion, of the garrison endeavoured to distract the Allies by the sortie on the French aide. Beginning•at dawn, the contest beted, says Lord Raglan, until past noon; and the enemy was then definitively repulsed at all points, 'leaving the field of battle covered with his dead and several hundreds of prisoners. The number of combatants on the Russian side, Lord Raglan_re- ports, -greatly exceeded the number opposed to us at Alma. The loss of the Allies must have been severe, but particularly amongst the English troops. The feet that five general officers have been wounded, and three slain, proves the desperate character of the at- tack, and the still more ardent character of the counter-attack. Lord Raglan does not state specifieellY the loss of the enemy; he calls it "enormous." General Canrobert, whose language in this particular is not quite explitit, seems to estimate the Russian loss in the general engagement'on the right at eight or nine thousand, and their loss in the sortie repulsed by General Forey at one
thousand, killed and wounded. - - • The week has furnished a large accession of correspondence of an earlier, date, with faller narratives of the action at Balaldava. The simple recital of the actual events answers all the hostile,
criticisms, that were liveished the,.glies by a part of our press, at a distance and in ignorance of the fads. There was no surprise, no neglect to poet pickets, or to prepare resistance when the enemy should come. As we explained last week; the attack constituted part of lffensohikoff's well-understood plan of operations ; the na- ture of the ground enabled him' to "approach close before he could be opposed ; but instead of a surprise, his coming was announced in the usual way. His approach was resisted, however, in an un- usual manner, by the chivalrous audacity of the pickets ; he was received by the British troops without even a tremour, much less 4 chance of their succumbing ; and he was repulsed with a success as marked as the confidence and skill with which he was met.
There were, however, two accidents in the course of the day. The Turkish contingent had been put to the best use for which it seemed available--the manning of the redoubts that guarded the approach of- their post; and they unexpectedly gave way, in a panic, not unprecedented in the history of war, nor particularly Characteristic of the Turks in the present war. It was a disaster
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repaired by that "living wall of brass," to use the language of a French contemporary, presented by the Highlanders. The other accident was, the fatal charge of cavalry, which originated in a mistake. Lord Raglan issued only an order that the ca- valry should follow the retreat of the enemy, and if possible pre- :vent his carrying: off *guns that had been taken from the Turks in the redoubts., When that order reached the Lieutenant-General commanding the cavalry, it was interpreted to be an order to Marge ; and he did charge, with a desperate sacrifice of men, but not without inflicting severe blows upon the enemy. Nor was the loss of life entirely a waste. To the Russians the incident proved the unmeasured daring of the foe they have to face ; to the British troops it showed the lengths to which disoipline and fidelity can be carried. The attack upon Balaklava, we have said, was evidently part of Prince Idenschikoff's plan of general operations; and it failed, like the still more important attempt which he made a week later.
In both of these memorable days many things occurred which showed the perfect unity of feeling and action existing between. the French and the English on the field and in council. The rem- nant of the light cavalry owed their rescue in part to a gallant diversion effected for them by'the Chasseurs d'Afrique; the success of the day was shared by the French division under Bosquet. If the English right sustained the brunt of the attack on the 5th, it was supported by the French from the left. Lord Raglan acknow- ledges " the support given to him by the assistance and excellent counsel of General Canrobert" ; the General, as he records in his di- Breda, had an opportunity of witnessing the manner in which our soldiers sustained the attack " with most remarkable
firmness and solidity."
Amidst our regrets for the individual bereavements and suffer- ings by which these triumphs have boon pNrchased, iia,isigh eon- soiation to know that our nation has not, in any grade of seeiety, been enervated or deteriorated by the long disuse of arms ; and that war, with all its :fierce asperities, has not failed to call forth the noblest qualities of manhood and the gentlest instincts of charity, which had been concealed if they had not languished in. the ease and comfort of peace.
