EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 251, 28 March 1855, Page 5

EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE.

Loss of the " Prince" Steamer with supplies fob the Crimea.—( From the limes.) Of the many great losses suffered by the AngloFrench expedition from one cause or another, the storm on the 13th of November, of which we have at length the melancholy details, may almost be regarded as the worst. It is true that the immediate loss of men is not to be compared with the'numbers placed hors de combat at the battles of the Alma and Inkermann, still less with the victims of cholera. It may also be admitted that for a country so rich as ours, and with such a power of rapid production, the loss of material is usually little more than a temporary inconvenience. In this instance, however, the losses come in a form, and in a time, the most unfortunate that could be desired by the worst enemy of the expedition. The total loss of men at the various stations on the coast of the Crimea on the disastrous 13th cannot be less than a thousand, besides those that have fallen into the hands of the Cossacks. The loss of vessels was thirty British and French wrecked and half as many dismasted at Balaklava, and 18 dismasted at the mouth ofthe Ratchka. Our men-of-war, thanks to the precaution of frequently trying their cables, have come off with no further damage than the loss of guns, or of masts, or of rigging, the twisting of their rudders, or the springing some leaks. -The French have lost the Henry IV., a noble three-decker, and a favourite war-steamer. Thus far we have sustained no loss beyond the ordinary drain of war ; but the greatest calamity is that of which we scarcely now know the full. The Prince, a magnificent screw steamer of 2,700 tons, carried out the other day to Balaklava the 46th regiment, all the winter clothing for the troops engaged in the siege, including 40,000 greatcoats, flannel suits, underclothing, socks and gloves; beef, poTk, and other provisions; hospital stores for Scutari: and a vast quantity of shot and shell to carry on the siege. These are wholly lost,' and nothing remains of the Prince but half-a-dozen of her numerous crew, who managed to get on the cliffs when she was " broken to powder" against them." The Resolute, with 900 tons of gunpowder, also went to the bottom. Thus, it seems, all the. materials for carrying on the siege, and providing against the severity of the winter, have been carried off at one fell swoop ; and, even if we think to content ourselves with merely maintaining our position on the heights before Sebastopol, it is evident that we are not in a condition to stand our worst foe, the coming winter. Everything seems to have conspired, under a mysterious dispensation of Heaven, to make the loss of the Prince the greatest possible disaster. She could not stop at Scutari to land the hospital stores so greatly wanted there. When She arrived at Balaklava it was blowing fresh, and she did not venture within the narrow tortuous channel ofthe harbour. All she did was to land the 46th, though it is said that, besides a very large crew, some sappers and some medical and other officers were still on board. On attempting to anchor, the whole of the cable run out, not being properly clinched. A second cable shared the same fate. The Prince then steamed out, while a third cable was got out from the hold, and with this she was brought to, though with a smaller anchor than those she had lost. This answered for a while. On the dreadful morning of the 13th, however, it proved utterly inadequate. The Prince cut away her masts, and put on her steam ; but the wreck of the mizeumast fouled her screw, and tbe noble vessel becoming helpless, immediately drifted against the rocks. Figures are but feeble language for the description of such a catastrophe, but the value of the Prince, as she floated, is put at £150,000, and her cargo at half a million. There must have been nearly 200 souls on board. The thirty transports utterly lost, with most of their crews, at Balaklava, are put down at £16,000 each. So here at once a million of money went to the bottom, in a form of which money conveys but a small idea. The other losses enumerated above, the French ship ofthe line and war steamer, the transports lost on the western, coast, the many vessels of all kinds disabled, make up another million to be added to tbe naked pecuniary estimate of the loss. But the true way of stating it is, that the army is utterly disabled for the present, and left to no other protection than Heaven, and that valour which the British soidieristever sure to display in the face of the greatest difficulties, the direst privations, and the most overwhelmuiug uum-

hers. Yet never was the ancient valour of our race put to so tremendous a trial. The tempest, which is said to have been the most terrible ever known in; that part of the world, -and which overthrew three of the miuarets of Sultan Achmet's Mosque 'at; Constantinople, besides driving large-vessels from their: moorings before' that cityi did not spare the allies even on land. It blew down and greatly injured Uheir tents, feeble as they areagainst the cold of a Crimean winter at the height of 700 feet above the neighbouring surge. Such is the 'situation-in. which the army finds itself suddenly deprived ofthe much wanted supply of clothing sent out for the winter, and the equally needful ammunition for •'■the'siege/:'■'/.'■-,'; *'■'■.'■.:' ; "v"'! :"" .7. ; For oiir part; we do hot despbndj and cannot even fall/iutb the somewhat gloomy tone of! our correspondent at Gdhstantinople. 'Whatever hopes might be raised in the 'imagination of a people'who forforty ;■ years had only read of war, or heard: of it through the distant medium of .Indian cam paigns, sober reason--jtiiight liave assured us that the much-disputed empirei "of*' the Euxine, the protection of Christians in the East, the security of both the East and the West from Russian ambition, and all the other great issues involved in this war,were not to be accomplished in a day. Ancient; epic is biit true to the invariable fact when it opens with tedious delays and destroying pestj with shipwreck^ and every form of calamity. It was not to be tupposefl that the; balance of the civilized world was to be corrected !at once by a naval promenade and a military demonstration; The grandeur of these disasters is only in -keeping" with the magnificence ofthe prize, or rather with; the 'majesty '6t \ theytask. Seb^topolonce.iin wir hands, arid* the Crimea secured^'from by: land!, Jsnglands arid Ffahce:mayi hold it, saud with it tlie dominion of: tfießla^ S^ and'the"cohtrdl ofthe Mediterray rieari,for ages to :c6mev f If is impossible to ex-: aggerate the consequences of such a position in tlie hands of two sucliiPow^^ tare tosay that,largely:^^as the Crusades bore on the interests of huiViauifyiaiid the cbuiise:6f, the world,- the!:Ahglq^Frencli3 ascendancy iii-the BlackSea,the^^ J\lediterrahean, and the East, is pregnantywi tir far greater;:conse-; quenCes.Turkey,; '^ia: Miti6r,AE^ypt; Africa,' :Persia; Arabia, Central Asia, and many other countries how crushed by Turkish Apathy, menaced by Russian ambition", or; lying in their; own ancient barbarism, will be opened' to' the civilizihsr and softehiiigiufluence of the Westi' Very possibly we shall live to see the realization.' of the dream that even sober men have indulged in,—-the replenishment of the depopulated; countries of Asia with, copious migrations from Western Europe. It cahoot be imagined but that the religion of the West will go alongwitti the power of our arms. But can these great objects be attained in a day, or even in a few brief months ? Such a rapidity, not to say versatility, is not to be expected in Fortune herself. No; we shall have to fight hard, to contend with storm, plague, famine, and every form of disaster—with impregnable forts and innumerable armies—before we can put forth our hands; and grasp the hurh object of our ambition. No other result was to be expected, and therefore we do not see in these disasters any reason to despair of a just and noble cause.