Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
were not military men , reported that the town was still altogether open to the land side . Detached works may , however , have existed even then which escaped their observation ; and there is little doubt that , since the occurrence of war , the Russians have been busied in extending the defences on that side . The landingplaces near the monastery of Sfc . George are too precipitous to be surmounted in the face of a defending army , prepared for such an attempt ; and any force landing on the level shore , between Cape Kherson and Sebastopol , would most probably find itself at once engaged in a general actionand would have to fiht for a
, g space large enough to encamp upon ; I am , therefore , certainly of opinion , that a descent made in the immediate neighbourhood of Sebastopol , even with a strong and wellappointed force , especially after so much time has been allowed to Russia to erect fortifications there—though these may be only field-works—and to collect forces for their defence , would be a very bold , and , indeed , hazardous undertaking ; and that , while the subsequent hasty re-embarkation , should it occur , without any object having been attained , would in itself be inglorious , and great loss of men and material would hardly fail to attend such a repulse .
" When we consider the great scale on which arrangements must be made for attacking even an imperfectly fortified place , the heavy and cumbrous cannon and siege stores which it would be necessary to land here , the great quantity of provisions requisite for the support of the besieging corps , to last possibly some months , and which must be collected in a secure situation ; and when we take into calculation what a large force ought also to be kept in front to resist attempts to raise the siege ; when we consider , further , thafc the army must land on a level shorecommanded at no great distance bheihts of considerable strength
, y g very , and that the area where it would have to make all its preparations is too confined for the operations of so large a force as would be required for such an attack , I feel persuaded that my views of the subject will be admitted to be just by all who have had experience in such matters , though it may not meet the wishes of many who are too impatient that the blow should be struck , at any cost , in that direction . "
i or an unprofessional work , Mr . Hill ' s " Travels on the Shores of the Baltic , " * including an excursion to Moscow , is deserving of great praise ; the descriptions are vivid and fresh , and the volume affords us one of the best introductions to Russia Proper and Russian society that we know of ; Avhile the plates of Cronstadt and its fortifications give an excellent idea of the strength and resources of this huge , sea-girt rock , which has hitherto px-otected the seat of autocratism from the impertinent intrusion of foreign forces . Mr . Hill describes alsowith great apparent freedom
, from prejudice , the intense religious—but we are perhaps Avrong in calling them religious , superstitious we ought to say—feelings ofthe great masses of the population . Their devotion to things as they are , and to the powers which rule them , is abject in the extreme . No class is exempt from the prevailing epidemic ; it percolates the whole of society , giving a character even to the every-day transactions of life , and impressing a stranger with anything but a favourable notion of the national mind . In Moscow , this
pervading devoutness of all classes is much more apparent than in St . Petersburg , where a constant communion with foreigners has naturally taken off the edge of superstition , and converted it into something very like an organised system of hypocrisy .
Were a man , says Mr . Hill , " to go about his daily business here , and trouble himself as little about the churches , as he passed them by , as the people of St . Petersburg seem to do , he would be as unpardonable in the eyes of the Muscovites ( who look upon the coolness of their fellow-countrymen of the modern capital as mere corruption of manners learned from the foreigners resident in that city ) and almost as bad as a heretic .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
were not military men , reported that the town was still altogether open to the land side . Detached works may , however , have existed even then which escaped their observation ; and there is little doubt that , since the occurrence of war , the Russians have been busied in extending the defences on that side . The landingplaces near the monastery of Sfc . George are too precipitous to be surmounted in the face of a defending army , prepared for such an attempt ; and any force landing on the level shore , between Cape Kherson and Sebastopol , would most probably find itself at once engaged in a general actionand would have to fiht for a
, g space large enough to encamp upon ; I am , therefore , certainly of opinion , that a descent made in the immediate neighbourhood of Sebastopol , even with a strong and wellappointed force , especially after so much time has been allowed to Russia to erect fortifications there—though these may be only field-works—and to collect forces for their defence , would be a very bold , and , indeed , hazardous undertaking ; and that , while the subsequent hasty re-embarkation , should it occur , without any object having been attained , would in itself be inglorious , and great loss of men and material would hardly fail to attend such a repulse .
" When we consider the great scale on which arrangements must be made for attacking even an imperfectly fortified place , the heavy and cumbrous cannon and siege stores which it would be necessary to land here , the great quantity of provisions requisite for the support of the besieging corps , to last possibly some months , and which must be collected in a secure situation ; and when we take into calculation what a large force ought also to be kept in front to resist attempts to raise the siege ; when we consider , further , thafc the army must land on a level shorecommanded at no great distance bheihts of considerable strength
, y g very , and that the area where it would have to make all its preparations is too confined for the operations of so large a force as would be required for such an attack , I feel persuaded that my views of the subject will be admitted to be just by all who have had experience in such matters , though it may not meet the wishes of many who are too impatient that the blow should be struck , at any cost , in that direction . "
i or an unprofessional work , Mr . Hill ' s " Travels on the Shores of the Baltic , " * including an excursion to Moscow , is deserving of great praise ; the descriptions are vivid and fresh , and the volume affords us one of the best introductions to Russia Proper and Russian society that we know of ; Avhile the plates of Cronstadt and its fortifications give an excellent idea of the strength and resources of this huge , sea-girt rock , which has hitherto px-otected the seat of autocratism from the impertinent intrusion of foreign forces . Mr . Hill describes alsowith great apparent freedom
, from prejudice , the intense religious—but we are perhaps Avrong in calling them religious , superstitious we ought to say—feelings ofthe great masses of the population . Their devotion to things as they are , and to the powers which rule them , is abject in the extreme . No class is exempt from the prevailing epidemic ; it percolates the whole of society , giving a character even to the every-day transactions of life , and impressing a stranger with anything but a favourable notion of the national mind . In Moscow , this
pervading devoutness of all classes is much more apparent than in St . Petersburg , where a constant communion with foreigners has naturally taken off the edge of superstition , and converted it into something very like an organised system of hypocrisy .
Were a man , says Mr . Hill , " to go about his daily business here , and trouble himself as little about the churches , as he passed them by , as the people of St . Petersburg seem to do , he would be as unpardonable in the eyes of the Muscovites ( who look upon the coolness of their fellow-countrymen of the modern capital as mere corruption of manners learned from the foreigners resident in that city ) and almost as bad as a heretic .