The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-22 00:00:00

284 varying brutality towards us all during the plat ruinous season. When you turn teetotaller (which we all feel must be very shortly), you will perceive that the vase can be con verted, at the shortest notice, into a tea-urn. Should you fall into difficulties, it would be superfluous to point out to you the advantages of the spout. You are thus made aware of our mutual hostility. For myself, I have only to assure you that I am you constant and bitter enemy. C. J. MATHEWS. MME. GOLDSCRMIDT contributed 1,8721. to the Nightingale Fund as the proceeds of her concert on Tuesday week. CREMORNE GARDENS open on Easter Monday. MR. STAFFORD, M.P., ON THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. MR. AUGUETUS STAFFORD, M.P., on Tuesday evening last, delivered at. Stamford a narrative of his two expeditions to the Crimea in 1854 and 1855. The general character of Mr. Stafford's experiences at Scutari and in the Crimea is well known, but never theless in a narrative of this sort some new facts were looked for, and given. As a proof of bow little is known of what occurs in the French army, it will be remembered that after Mr. Stafford left Marseilles last. year, in a French transport with 760 men on board, cholera broke out within a few hours of sailing, and the most frightful scenes occurred. The men had been embarked without any medicines whatever on board. Again, he told his audience on Tuesday that, conversing with a French officer, be (Mr. Stafford) had been told by him that the French had lost between July, 1854, and July, 1855—slain in battle, left dead on the field, 12,000; died afterwards of wounds received in battle, 7,000; sent home with less of limb or broken in constitution, 25,000 ; died of disease, chiefly diarrhma, cholera, and dysentery, 60,000 ;—thus making the total loss about 105,000, exclusive of all who had been killed or died (luting the last seven months. " But," added his informant, "we do not put this in the newspapers ; we only re port a loss of 20,000. You English know too much about your army; we know too little." When Mr. Stafford went through Sebastopol after the town was taken, the civilised look of the place astonished him ; and he thought, considering the honourable defence made by the Russians, that history would hereafter award the glory to the defenders, rather than to the besiegers of Sebastopol. Of - the frightful su - &rings of the sick, his sketch of Balaklava, "that most miserable village," where the infamous extortions practised by Maltese, lonia'', and Italian stallkeepers in its streets, and the horrors of its hospital, where he found surgeons quarrelling with orderlies, and orderlies with surgeons, while their wretched patients died, brought all the past horrors of the winter of 1b54 vividly before the mind:— No arrangements were made for the embarkation of the sick at Bal ikluva. Sumttimes the French were obliged to carry down our sick to the shore; there were not suffi cient boats to embark them when they got to the shore. and when the transports came the unfortunate creatures bad to lie on the hard boards until the skin was worn off their joints by the friction occasioned by the motion of the vessel. You might trace the course of these transports from Balaklava to the entrance of the Bosphorus by the skeletons of the miserable sick thrown overboard on the way. On arriving in the Bosphorus, owing to the insuffi ciency of accommodation, three or four days sometimes elapsed before the sufferers could be landed ; when they did land there were no arrangements fur supplying them with foot', or for their reception in the hospitals: and, be• tween one thing and another, he had known them to be from four o'clock in the afternoon until twelve the next day without anything to eat. Altogether, so dire was the aspect of affairs at Scutari that it seemed as if heaven had f asaken us, and as if our sins had given us over to de stroction. But in 1855 Florence Nightingale had been at work, and all was altered. Confusion had given place to order, and filth to cleanliness . But there was onething not changed. He found among our soldiers the same good feeling, the same noble de m •anour, the same heroic spirit that he had witnessed the y •ar before. And there was another thing not changed ; f)r in the same little room, with no luxuries and vet-) few c.,mvorts, engaged in her ceaseless work, there he found Florence Nightingale. He asked her, " What do you think of the soldiers now ?" She said, " They have their faults, and those who in their several positions in life may feel that they have a little neglected the education of the lower orders will be the last to blame those brave men for the faults they do possess ; but they respond to kindness and they recognise discipline, and, for ourselves, we have never heard from them one word or seen one gesture that might not have been Sued for the drawing•room. They have been to us, and to all the ladies, gentlemen and Christians." He asked one poor fellow what he thought of Mis, Nightingale, and the reply was, " Well, I hope she will go up to heaven before she dies." The lectur e was listened to with marked attention throughout, and frequently elicited hearty applause. Ihi, THE PRESS. 11 aVal anb Vilitarg itttilignitt. The Royal Warrant granting a fixed sum of money in lieu of pensions to widows of officers killed in action or dying from the effects of wounds has appeared with the following scale :- - • - To the widow, widow and children, father, mother, sister or sisters, of Cavalry. Infantry. lAeutenant•Colonel 10,175 .... sl.sm Major 4,675 .... Captain Lieutenant Cornet Ensign But it shall in no case exceed the sum of money actually paid, in conformity with the regulation price, by the officer for the purchase of his commission or commissions. Various regulations follow in the Royal warrant re garding the disposition of these moneys in the event of the officer dying leaving only certain relations. The ninth article of the warrant permits any person of the class mentioned now enjoying a pension 'littler the old warrant to exchange the same for a sum of money upon making application at the Wax-office before the 23rd of October in the present year. The Military Board of Inquiry to be held in the Great Hall at Chelsea Hospital is unavoidably post poned for a short perio'i, owing to the indisposition of the president, General Lord Seaton. The pre liminary meeting, it is expected, will take place early next week, when the court will adjourn for about ten days, bef,re the real business of the inquiry will be entered upon. Colonel Wetherail, Director• General of Land Transport in the Crimea, is en route home, to attend as a witness ; and the Field Marshal Com manding-in-Chief has directed that several officers on leave of absence from the Crimea shall not return to the East until the breaking up of the Board. The Earl of Cardigan is assisted by Mr. Merewether, Q.C., in preparing his answer. Sir Richard Airey is also preparing his answer, assisted by Mr. Kinglake, Mr. Towers, Colonel Steele, and Major Hackett. Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons, it is generally believed, does not return to the command of the Black Sea Get. The gallant admiral's private baggage has been disembarked from the Caradoc at Marseilles, and forwarded home. General Sir George Berkeley has been added to the commission of general officers appointed to in. quire into the allegadons in the Crimean report, in the room of General Sir Thomas M'Mahon, whose health does not permit his attendance. Lieutenant-General Lovelace Walton succeeds to the colonelcy of the sth .Fusiliers, vice General Sir John Grey, deceased. Rear-Adairal Sir F. M. Berkeley, K.C.8., in spected the gun-boat division at Spithead on Wednes day. Sir Cohn Campbell and two divisions of the army in the Crimea will, it is expected, embark direct fur Canada on the conclusion of peace. Captain Horatio Morgan, engaged in recruiting for the Turkish Contingent Land Transport Corps, has received a countermanding order from the War• office. The contemplated addition to the corps is not at present to de carried out, and upwards of 100 men, lately enlisted, have been discharged with a fixed sum as compensation. Le Baron Joseph Smola, General au Service, Colonel Wurrab, and Captain A. Wissiacke, Austrian officers of high military rank, are et present on a tour of inspection through the naval and military arsenals of the kingdom. During the present week they have visited the fleet at Spithead. Great works are being pushed on at Dover, in re pair of the fortification, and in preparation of bar racks for a large force. Mr. Commissary• General Filder has published his reply to the grave charges laid to his door by the report of the Crimean Commissioners. The reply, which deals with the charges seriatim, is necessarily of great length, and enters minutely into all par ticulars. He admits that some partial " deficiencies of tood did unfortunately take place, but denies, in the first instance, that they were of sufficient amount to have any important effect on the health of the troops, and, sucondiy, that they were caused by any want of effort on the part of the Commissariat to prevent them. Also, that the injurious quality of the food supplied to the troops was fur some time inca pable of being remedied ; and that during the period when the troops were without vegetables and lime juice (which might have corrected the deleterious effects of the diet), the Commissariat had not been ordered to provide them ; and that when so ordered the issues of both were regularly maintained as soon as the necessary arrangements could be brought into operation. That there was neither neglect nor indis• position on the part of the Commissariat to provide fuel, but that it was furnished as soon as he had the necessary orders to that effect to the full extent to which the means of conveying it could be procured. That the supply of fodder only failed of success through causes which it was not possible to prevent. That, although the Land Transport was for some SATURDAY, time inadequate, it was a matter beyond his control. And, finally, that be neither neglected nor overlooked any means of overcoming the unprecedented difficul ties of his position, and certainly (lid not allow any consideration of mere form or usage to interfere with the fullest application of those means. FROM THE LONDON GAZETTE►. Tuesday, March 18. BANKRUPTCY AN N ULLE D.—G 'mans BROWN and Wu.. LIAM HUBBY, Backside, Southwark, and Idle, Yorsailire, atone merchants. BANKRUPTS.—CHARLES BowEN, Cullum-street, City, tailor —ANN SOPHIA POILE, Great Suffolk-street, Southwark, pewu broker—LlVlAN BENSON PEARSE, York•roW, KiLig'S-CiOSS, brick merchant CHARLES FORD, Great Marlborough•etreet, St. James's, tailor—JOHN ALLIN JONES, Birmingham, tailor—MOR TON MUIR and JOHN Wilt/Tom, Kidderminster, carpet manufac turers—PETEß JACKSON, lleatiagate, Manchester. druggist— FREDERICK Coox, Uldham, Lancashire, machine maker. SCOTCH SEQUESTRATIONS.—DIMALD 2d"Pitait, Glas. gow, cotton spinner-oEollos MACFARLANE, jUO., Glasgow, commission ageut—Huns DIVINE and A RCHINALD MORTON ? Glasgow, potters and pipe wanutacturers—JOHN WATSON, Edinburgh, butcher—MACINTTRIL and MACKAY, Glasgow, whole ^.---ANous SUTHERLAND, Latheruu, CAILIIIIenS, stde at farmer. Friday, March 21. BANKRUPTCY ANNULLED.—HENRY, Jona, and Jamas SMITHIES, Blackburn, lroutuuudera. liA NK HU PTS.—JoHi4 J oubb STUTZER, Greville-street, Brunswick-square, tibipowner—JotiN CorAs FOUHDRINIER, Idle Of Bubb-lsue, paper.uisker -WlLLi.txt TURING CURTIS, Greet St. Helen's, inerebrut—swmum. Sussx, Norwood, victualler— EDEN DAVIS, OxtOrd-street, cabinet ulanufacturer—HlCHAßD NICHOLSON, Holborn, carpet-beg maker PATER Hxwirr, Osseo Cowmen, Yin - 1014e, worsted•spitiner—EDWAßD POWELL, Newtown, Montgotueryabire, grocer—HOßEßT CtraE , Liverpol, dealer—Joint PituUT, Sutton , silk manufacturer—J,ml4 SMITH, MiluefieblaT, UThmetUDISt—JOHN PHILLIPS VEYSEY, Exeter, halter—JOSEPH ALASSUEN, Derby, iroutounder. *mug tartirt anti 6itg ;InUlligclut. FRIDAY EVENING. TO. DAY being Good Friday business has been en tirely suspended in the City. All the public offices, including the Bank, the inda-house, the Custom house, the Excise and Stamp Offices, and the Stock Exchange, are closed. The return from the Bank of England for the week ending the 15th instant, shows the following changes compared with that of the week preceding : Decrease in Circulation 4148,369 Increase in Public Deposits 1,129,938 Decrease in Other Deposits Increase in Securities 336,085 Increase in Bullion . 3,156 Increase in Best Increase in Reserve . 129,926 Circulation, including Bank Post Bills Bullion iu Both Departments This comparison shows no change of any great importance, except in the amount of Public Deposits, which, by the payment of twenty-five per cent. of the loan instalments, are now increased to 5,5116,1241. The decrease in Private Depos►ts, which has been considerable fur the last fortnight, is owing in some measure to the greater activity of trade; wh►le the increase in Securities is exclusively in those of a pri vate description. The addition to the bullion is tr►titng; but the Reserve is stronger. THURSDAY EVENING. The Money Market during the week has been com paratively easy. The demand fur commercial pur poses has been but moderate, while the supply has been more than adequate to it. .10-day there was a little more stringency, especially in connection with produce hilts, and for a certain class 01 paper no discounts could be had ; but, en the whole, the mar ket may be described as more favorably situated than last week. Rates, however, remain unchanged, and are likely to remain so. One cause of the im provement has been the certainty of the approaching announcement of peace. This, by reviving the confi dence of parties who have been putting aside re serves since last October, has induced some to offer their money at call at rather lower than the current rates, and so the supply has been increased. Be sides, a considerable amount of the instalment of 1,250,0001. paid on account of the loan on the 13. h inst. having been disbursed by the tiovernrnent to contractors and others, has returned into the market. The great improving element, however, has been peace. Still it is doubted by many persons of prac tical experience in monetary influences whether, even with peace in immediate prospect, the present ease is not merely temporary. Some, indeed, are of opinion that we may have a considerable reacuon before the end of next week. The former dwell upon the small imports of gold and the necessity for checking speculative tendencies by ma ki n g mone y dear ; the latter to the heavy loan of 25 per cen t., .r 1,250,0001., to be paid on the 29th inst., coin bitted with the preparations to meet the commercial bills falling due a few days afterwards. Considering these cir