The Press. — London, England, 1855-10-13 00:00:00

FRENCH VIEW OF THE ASSAULT ON THE REDAN. A LETTER from Professor Aytonn, dated from Paris, Oct. 1, first published in an Edinburgh paper, has been copied into some London journals and been much canvassed, as it gives the French military view of tie Bntish assault on the Redan. This view is, that there was no chance of the assault suc ceeding, so far as regarded the capture and retention of the work, but that the assault did succeed in the object intended,—viz., to effect a diversion of the Russian force, and prevent it from being concen trated against the French at the Malakoff. Some expressions in the letter have epigrammatic point, as that General Simpson thought bis "young recruits good food enough for powder." Professor Ay toun first speaks of the feeling he found prevalent in Paris as to the gallantry of our soldiers, and of his agreeable surprise on discovering that his numerous acquaintances in Paris, from their general comprehension of strategic plans, frankly admitted that the British troops, by their attack on the Medan, contributed as much to the success of the day as the capture of the Malakoff by the French. He then gives the " almost universal opinion of Frenchmen as to the action ": The Malakoff was the key of Sebastopol. When that was taken the town was ours. It was, therefore, necessary that every effort should be directed to this end, and that everything else should be subordinate to the capture of that fort. But, in order to reduce the Malakoff, it was absolutely necessary to make diversions in other places; because, if the Malakoff was attacked alone, the whole Russian army would be concentrated for its defence, and all the men the allies could bring against it would not be sufficient to secure its capture On the Bth of September the approaches to the Malakoff were quite sufficiently close to warrant the assault. The French were at less than twenty-five yards from the forti fication ; nearly every gun was silenced, the walls around the fort had been nearly levelled by the play of the artillery, a nd the French had nothing to do but to walk into the i ortification, fighting their way, of course, but without the necessity of an escalade. But the Great Redan was not in any way prepared for an assault. The English trenches were at inure than two hundred yards' distance from the walls. The batteries of the fort, both in front and in flank, were in full activity ; and the taking and retention of the Redan under these cir cumstances was physically impossible, supposing the Russians comported themselves with their usual obstinacy and courage. Such was the state of things on the Bth of September. The allied generals thought that the propitious moment was arrived for taking Sebastopol. General Pelissier said to General Simpson, '' I can easily, from the position I occupy, take the Malakoff, but the difficulty is to hold it before I can bi ing my reserves and artillery into action, and prepare it for defence. If I surprise the Russians, which I hope to do, and take the fort by a coup de main, they will return in such force that the small number of men who mount to the assault will be overwhelmed and driven back as on the 18th of June. Ido not expect that the Redan can be taken by you. You are not in a condi tion to du so; but it is absolutely necessary that a diversion should be made in our favour after our first success, to give us time to breathe, and to bring up our artillery and reserves. All I ask for this is one hour, and I will uuder take to keep possession of the Malakoff. Make your assault, and girt us, if possible, that length of respite. Throw away as few men as possible, but engage the Rus sians fur at least an hour, and Sebastopol is ours." Such is the conversation supposed to have taken place betwixt Pelissier and Simpson ; and I am informed upon good authority that private letters from French officers in the Crimea fully confirm that the purport of what 1 have stated was really said by General Pelissier. Such was the plan adopted. It was exactly in accord: &nos with the tactics of the great Napoleon, who was in the habit of sacrificing a certain number of men in order to secure the object in view. Napoleon was in the habit of saying to a colonel of a regiment, without mincing the matter, " Allez vous faire tuer, vous et votre regiment," when he sent a devoted corps to the attack of a redoubt or a position which there was not the slightest chance of taking, and that in order to facilitate the successof another part of the army. And the corps of General de Salles, who attacked the Central Bastion, and was repulsed, was placed in the same position as the English, except that the work it had to do was not quite so desperate. This is the real state of the case fully admitted at Paris, but which, of course, could not be openly declared in the despatches, although it is hinted at sufficiently clear to military men in the report of General Niel. The devoted band which attacked the Redan, as well as the French under De Salles, were in a manner sacrificed to the success of the great object in view, the retention of the Malakoff. They were the forlorn hope—" les enfans perdus "—of the allied armies. This the blundering correspondent of the Times has not had the sagacity to discover, and he has expressed himself as if the sole object of the English bad been to take the Redan. Nor has the Times itself, with all its thunder ing articles against General Simpson, seen clearer. The explanation which I have just given, and which is recognised by everybody in Paris, is the real one, and clears up the apparently inexplicable conduct of General Simpson. Why, it is said, did not he send reinforcements? Because he knew that no reinforcement which the English army could have sent could have secured the capture of the fort, and would have been an additional and useless loss of life. His object was merely to occupy a great portion of the Russian army for a certain time, and to give Pelissier time to fortify himself in the Malakoff, in order to be able to resist the tremendous attack of the BUBBiall army to re- Ilbil. THE PRESS. take the fort, to which he was sure to be exposed in the .1 afterpart of the day. Another question is also put by the Times correspondents—" Why did not General Simpson send his best troops to the assault ?" Because (the answer is evident) he wished to preserve his best soldiers for an attack which really would succeed, and thought the young recruits fit enough food for powder. Such is war ! The success which amended this policy is then insisted on : While the English troops were devoting themselves in the manner 1 have described, the French in the Malakoff were comparatively free from attack, for the great assaults of the Russians to retake the fortifications only commenced about half-past two. Pelissier had then double the time of respite he asked from General Simpson, and daring this interval the French had made the most of their time. The approaches on the French side were levelled so as to allow the entrance of artillery and the rapid advance of the reserves. A number of field-pieces by this means were brought up and placed in battery, and the Imperial Guard were entered for the defence, in addition to the troops employed in the assault. The cannon of the Russians were turned against the enemy, and the place in a manner fortified against the Russians themselves. After this, as Pelissier said, the Malakoff was secure, and could nut be retaken. It is true, after the Russians had finally re pulsed the English, but not till then, they returned to the assault of the French in the Malakoff, and they brought their whole army to this operation But it was too late. This attack was desperate and courageous in the extreme ; but they failed, after immense slaughter on their part as well as that of the French. Such, however, was the des perate and powerful nature of their attack that all the French with whom 1 have conversed admit, with the greatest frankness, that had the assault of the Russians been made immediately after the first French success, before they had time to fortify themselves, the French would have been certain to have been driven out of the Malakoff, and the affair would have ended as it did on the 16th of June. The French are, therefore, right in saying that the English, by their heroic resistance in the Redan, are entitled to as much credit and honour for the final re duction of Sebastopol as are those who were employed directly in the capture of the Malakoff. This view, the candid reader may think, breaks down on the point of reinforcements not being sent to the troops engaged. General Simpson expressly states that reinforcements could not be sent, "owing to the crowded state of the trenches," and if the attack on the Redan was essential to the capture of the Mala koff, it would seem that the attack ought to have been vigorously maintained, so long as it was expedient that it should last. It is doubtful whether General Simpson—one of the plainest and simplest officers that ever lived—was nearly so crafty as he is here sup - posed to be. An amusing tale published some years ago, under the title of "Adventures of General Sir Frizzle Pumpkin," was directed to show that a man may be regarded as a hero and have all sorts of honours showered on him, greatly to his own astonishment, through misconception of his character and acts; and something of a like error would be committed in attributing to General Simpson the subtle calcula tions of Frederick 11. or the great Napoleon. How ever correct, therefore, Professor Aytoun may be in his main view, most persons will be inclined to think that he has attempted to prove too much. REFORMATORY-SCHOOL MEETINGS. THE movement for establishing schools for the refor mation of juv,nile offenders is rapidly gaining ground —meetings for the establishment of these institutions being frequently held in different parts of the coun try. An influential meeting was held at Bristol on Saturday last, and signalised by the presence of M. De Metz, who may be considered, by his admirable institution at Mettray, as the founder of the system. He was introduced to the meeting by Mr. Commis sioner Hill, and gave some account of his experience, and of the success which had attended his efforts : His attention was first called to the subject of reforming young criminals by the numbers of children brought. before him in the performance of his duties as judge at Paris. Many of these were no higher than his desk, and as there were at that time no establishments for the recep tion of juveniles, he was obliged to consign all to the prisons, where they were associated with grown-up cri minals, some of them the most hardened of their class— where, moreover, the treatment for children was the same as for adults, and which, consequently, he knew to be ut terly unfit for them. M. Courtelles and himself commenced the institution of Mettray in July, 18:39, by assembling twenty-three youths of respectable parentage, whom for six months they occupied themselves in training for teachers. They then began the icole preparatoire, or school for officials, which he believed to be the most important feature of the institution—so important, indeed, that if it were to be relinquished he believed that Mettray itself would soon cease to exist. In January, 1840, they admitted twelve young criminals, and very gradually increased the number. Mettray had for its basis—first religion, without which it was impossible for such an institution to succeed ; secondly, the family principle for a bond; and thirdly, military discipline tor a means of inculcating order. The military discipline adopted at Mettray was this—the lads wore uniforms, and they marched to and from their work, their lessons, and their meals with the precision of soldiers, and to the sound of a clarion and a drum ; but as the sound of these instruments led men on to perform acts of heroism, and to surmount the greatest difficulties, might they not reasonably employ them with the same object at a SATURDAY, reformatory school, wherein in resisting vicious habits, and conquering them, true heroism was displayed, and where a marvellous power of overcoming difficulties must be celled forth. A striking proof of the hold which the system had obtained o'er the minds of the boys was given at the time of the French Revolution in ISO. France from one end of the nation to the other was in estate of anarchy and all the Government schools in rebellion. At Mettray, with out walls and without coercion, there was not a sign of in: subordination, not a %tingle child attempted t f o rqu away' it was in allusion to the absence of walls that M. le Baron de hi Crosse, Secretaire du Renal, observed, "Here is a wonderful prison, where there is no key but the eke, deg champs.". (Applause.) If children remained captive with you it was proved that you have discovered the key of their hearts. During the revolution a blind of workmen came to Mettray with flags flying and trumpets soandiug, and, meeting the chil lien returning fatigued from field labour, their pickaxes on their shoOlders, thus addressed them— " My boys, do not be such fools as to work any longer, bread is plentiful. It is ready for you without labour." The chef who was conducting the lads, and who behaved with the greatest calmness and tact, immediately cried, " Halt. Form in Line." The lads, being accustomed to military discipline, immediately formed, and the chef stepped forward and said to them, " My friends, you have learned to labour. You have a right to rest, but leave these lads here ; let them learn now, and when their turn comes they may rest as you do." The men went away, the boys marched home, and Mettray was saved—saved, as he be• keyed, by its habit of military discipline. Had the boys been walking homeward without rule like a flock of sheep, the men would have got amongst them, carried off one or two. and the rest would have followed. In this speech will be observed that M. de Metz lays special stress upon the necessity of having offi cials thoroughly qualified for the work they under take—a point not to l be neglected in the establishment of all reformatory institutions. In LONDON the first stone of a permanent building for the St. Pancras Preventive and Reformatory In stitute, was laid on Tuesday last, with great ceremony, by Lord Robert Grosvenor. The building is situated in the New-road, close to Gower-street, and after the stone was laid the Rev. Canon Dale addressed a few words to the company assembled, urging that a sub scription of one shilling a week would entitle the subscriber to recommend an inmate for the institu tion. Lord Robert Grosvenor in his speech expressed an opinion that reformatory institutions should be supported by the Government, but till that object could be achieved a wide field lay open for private benevolence : They should recollect that in this country all great movements, whether of politics or benevolence, had cow meuced with private exertion. Refoimatory institutions had been established with great succeas in the midland counties, and the promoters already congratulate them selves ou the fact that they had saved from future crime seventy-five per cent. of the whole criminal population. Their own small institution presented similar gratifying results, as, out of fifty-one inmates that had been admitted since its establishment, only one had been dismissed for misconduct, while seven had left, being unable to endure the discipline. All the rest had been completely reformed and restored to society. At the conclusion of the proceedings, Mr. Bowyer, tbehonorary governor of the institution, informed the company that the building would cost 8501., of which only about one half was up to the present time in hand. At YORK also was held, on Friday last, the first public meeting for the establishment of a reformatory for juvenile offenders. The Earl of Zetland presided, the attendance was highly influential and numerous, and the Rev. Canon Harcourt read an able report, and, after stating the project of the committee to be to establish a farm-school, proceeded to report that the Earl of Carlisle had offered a site of forty.three acres, between York and Mahon, which it was recom mended should be accepted. A resident chaplain of high character had been engaged, and arrangements had been entered into with the magistrates regula ting the terms upon which the boys were to be al mitred. With regard to the question cf religious distinctions the report stated : That though in schools of so simple a character there is little room fur religious distinctions, yet, since a question has been raised respecting the Roman Catholic boys, the committee recommend that the principle should be fol lowed of not receiving, or not retaining, in this school any boy who may prefer, or whose parents may prefer, his be ing placed iu, or transferred to, a Roman Catholic reforma tory institution. The rules of the society were then agreed upon, tho officers of the institution appointed for the ensuing year, and various resolutions passed for the pur chase of the land and for the future government of the institution. In DORSET also a central school was about to be established. A charitable lady had given the site, and donations and subscriptions to the amount of 4501. had been raised. The building, it was calcu lated, would cost about 4001. in erection and 1201. per annum to be sustained. At DEVIZES in Wilts an influential meeting has also been held, under the presidency of the lord lieu tenant of the county, and practical steps taken to carry out the excellent object. Subscriptions to the amount of 7001. had been received, and a much larger sum was yet anticipated.,