EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 324, 8 December 1855, Page 7

EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE.

By the Harry, from Wellington, we have received news from England, via Melbourne and Sydney, lo the 18ih August.. Great successes have attended the allied force* in the Crimea, in the Baltic, and in the Sea of Azov. Tiie fortress of Swcaborg, in tlie Gulf of Finland, has been destroyed; the particulars of the attack will be found below. In the vSea of Azov, Port Petrovskoi had been silenced, and the public buildings, with the forage collected there for the troops in the Crimea, destroyed. Extensive depots of fish, corn, and forage, formed along1 the coast of the Gulf, likewise intended for tho Russian army, have been al>o destroyed. The towns along the coast have been spared as much as possible by the allies, but the nets and other implements connect d with the different fishing stations, which appear to have been on a most extensive scale, and by winch the Russian? iv Sevastopol..have .been- principally supplied with fish, have been s vept away,—a few necessary for the supply of the inhabitants have been alone preserved. A pontoon, the ouly communication Am hat spit and (he Crimea, at the entrance of the Kita-su river, was burnt by C"mmodore Lambert, of the Curlew. The allied squadrons were under the orders of Commander Sherard Osborn, of iheVesuvius. The cool gallantry of the men had elicited the approbation of Sir Edmund Lyons, the Commaiider-in-Chief. The account of the progress of the siege of Sehastopol will be found below. SWEABORG DESTROYED TIIE RUSSIANS DEFEATED IN THE CRIMBA. (From the Sydney Morning Herald. Nov. 12. By the City of Sydney, Captain -Moodie, we have Melbourne papers to Friday. These contain eight days' later intelligence from the seat of war. The Emma, and Lightning, mail packets of the 20th of August and 4th of September, had not arrived. The news is brought by the Star%of the East, and brings it down to the 18th of August. . The intelligence is of great importance, announcing- the total destruction of Sweaborg, with insignificant loss to the assailants. The bombardment commenced on the tnorning of the 9i.h of August, and contained until daylight on Saturday, the 11th. The town itself is burnt to the groun 1, not one house left ; the dockyards are completely destroyed ; all the earthworks and batteries are knocked to pieces ; six magazines are blown up—in fact, Sweaborg exists no longer. Under date, Dantzic, Aug. 16th, a letter says :—"The allied squadron returned to Nargen from Sweaborg on the 13th, The success at Swe.ihorg is fu*lv confirmed.* No ships have h'-en seriously injured. The casualties on the English side are—killed, none; two officers and about thirty men wounded. The French loss is equally trifling.'1 In Paris a despatch was posted up nt the Bourse, of which the following is a copy:— "Dantzic, August 14th.— tdiniral Peijand to the Minister of Marine. On board the Louisville, August 15th, 18.05. The bombardment of Sweaborg by the allied squadrons has been attended with complete success. An immense conflagration, winch lasted forty-five hours, has destroyed all the storehouses and magazines of the arsenal, which is a complete ruin ; various powder magazines and stores of projectiles blown up. Tlie enemy received a terrible blow, and suffers enormous loss. Our loss is insiiinicant i i men—nothing whatever in material. The crews ip-em a great state of enthusiasm.' j. The following tolegraphic message from Admiral Duudas was received at the Admiralty at a late hour on Tuesday night (August M) :— Sweaborg was attacked by the mortars and gun boats of the allied Squadrons on the morning of the 9th instant. The firing ceased early this morning. Heavy explosions and very destnictive fires were produced in a few hours. Nearly the whole of the arsenals and dockyards are burnt. Few casualties have occurred, and no lives lust in the allied fleets. Private despatches speak of the destruction of the dockyards, the town, the earthworks, the batteries ; and it is very satisfactory to find that this great exploit has cost an" insignificant" loss of life, and no loss whatever of matiirid. The allied fl-.-et, consisting of 17 English men-of-war, 15 gun-bouts, and 16 mortar ves-dl-s; 2 French men-of-war, 6 gun-boats, and 5 inortur vessels, left Nargen on the 6th August,

Jiicl anchored the same night among the islands, al)oiii live miles from Sweaborg. The shores wen- thronged wiili people,'who Saw the magnificent and powerful shins come onward to their destination. The particulars of the operations by which the great result was obtained have not yet heeu reeenei, but it appears to have been a part of the programme that the gunboats and mortar-vessels should open the bombardment al 2.500 yards ; and as Rtune of the is lands lie at that distance from the inner-nosl verge of the forts, we presume that a por'ion of them, at least, took up their position behind these natural barricades, somewhat on the flank of the main defence.-.. The citadel of the for tress is Wargon, which the Russians state was "almost entirely bomb-proof." It is behind this that the Swedes constructed the spacious docks and basins of the place, and it is within the fort of Wargon, entombed. Since last year the enemy has strengthened the easemated granite batteries by earthworks at various points ; but Sweaborg was already a muss of walls and guns, and little remained to be don« except to secure the flanking positions on the larger islands and the main. We irive the list of the fleet before Sweaborg on the fith August : — English.—Duke of Wellington, Exmoulh, Edingburgh, Pembroke, Coruwallis, Hastings, Euryalus, Arrogant, Magicienne, Cossack, Vulture, Cruiser, Merlin, Geyser, Dragon, Lightning, Locust. B-ileisle, (hospital ship) /Eolus (ammunition ship), a merchant collier filled with spare shells for supplying mortar vessels, 15 gun boats, and 16 mortar vessels. French.—Tourville (flag ship) and tender, Austerlitz, six gun-boats, live mortar vessels. The French mortar vessels are schooner rigged, and armed with two ten inch murtars. Sweaborg is described as consisting of seven islands, and partially fills the water way between Bakholmen and the Main Land, forbidding hostile entrance to Helsingfurs. They are equal to a mile in length across harbour, half a mile wide, and a mile and n half from Helsingfors ; each island is fortified. The barracks are on the island next the entrance; the docks, arsenal, and Governor's house, on the island next to the first. Helsingfurs is defended by three batteries and two forts. No doubt the place is now aceesible to gun boats. The destruction of Sweaborg is the crowning result of <>ur operations on the coast of Finland. Captain Yelverton and Captain Vansittnrt had already destroyed all the forts between YViborg and Helsinfors, Frrderickshsun, K<>tha, and Swartholm. Although the military results of this naval k campaign, terminating with :i victor*', are not very important, yet we must not overlook their moral and political effect upon Germany and the Scandinavian States. We have now given a strong indication that there is nothing Russian in the Gulf of Finland that our armaments cannot reach; and, even if the fall of Constradt should be postponed to next year, the nation will feel pretty well assured that the doom of that robbers' den is now sealed. Advices from Konigsherg state that, when the attack on Sweaborg began, the Grand Duke Constantine, informed by telegiaph of the event, demanded leave to go out and attack the reduced fleet before Cronstadt. The Emperor refused. Attack on Rk.vel.—The /'imps Paris correspondent writes; ''I am assured that letters have been received from the French consul at one of the Baltic ports, announcing thai the allipd squadrons had attacked Revel—that the attuck had been successful, and that considerable damage was done to the place. It is believed that Count Bind has received a declaration on the part of the English and French, that they diil not wish for new negntutions for peace to interfere or forental the more decisive events of the war."