The Press. — London, England, 1856-11-08 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 8, 1856. The men's dinners in the meantime had been prepared, and the grog mixed, when a message came from Sir C. Napier, Commanding in-Chief, stating that the Penelope steam•frigate had got ashore under the batteries, and that very probably the line•of battle ships would have to go in to support her, and requesting that the men should return immediately to their ships. Directly the order was given the grog and dinner were all thrown out, and a general race was made for about three miles for the boats. I thought then, and think now, that it was a great pity that these men could not have been indulged in a general action. Viscount MELVILLE returned thanks for the " British Army," and Colonel M'Alahon, Lieutenant Colonel Kelly, and Lieutenant• Colonel Hamley, as guests, severally for their corps. Lieutenant-Colonel HAMLEY said that the late campaign had left upon his mind the most vivid im• pression of it as pre-eminent in splendour. He alluded to the English attack at Alma, the capture of the Mamelon, and the heavy brigade charge at balaklava:— Considered merely as spectacles, they were as brilliant as ever met the eye of a soldier, and when I think of them they rise in all the gorgeous colours of a picture by some great master. I was passing along the crest of the plateau with the artillery sent to support the cavalry in the plain when the Russian horsemen streamed over the slopes beneath. What a theatre was there! The spacious grassy plains, inclosed by those grand old hills, and three armies for spectators. And what a spectacle they saw !- 4,000 men met there hand-to-hand, and of these 1,090 were Pritish. For a moment the conflict was doubtful, till the 4th Dragoon Guards charged on the flank, while your guests of ta•night and another regiment charged in sup. port of the main body. Then the conflict was no longer doubtful—in a moment all the Russians might he seen bending one way, like a field of corn that bows before the blast--and every Cossack was crouching on his horse's mane, and flying for safety to the shelter of his guns. He thought, among all the honours and rewards given, that the Artillery had scarcely met with their deserts : Considering our regimental motto is " libique." that we are everywhere in the campaign, and that no operation of the smallest importance in madern warfare can take place without the aid of that arm. I think we have been — I will not say neglected, because no one has a right to claim praise for merely doing his duty, but I will say that the services of the Artillery have been a little cast into the shade by those of some other corps who have figured more prominently before the public, but not perhaps before the enemy. I was with them on every occasion in the field, and I can therefore testify to the manner in which they performed a duty which requires not only the strong arm and the stout heart that the Lard Advocate has alluded to, but a cool and clear head, with something in it, too, besides coolness and clearness. Of tneir services in the trenches no one can tell you better than my friend Major Dickson, who filled a most honourable part in all the operations of that unexampled scene. I shall forbear to say more on this head, except to remark that in a campaign which has been so narrowly watched, and where ceusure has been so freely lavished, not one syllable has ever been breathed against that arm of the service whose duties are so complex, so various, so heavy, and so incessant. The Earl of ELGIN, in a vigorous speech, proposed Our Allies." The noble earl said :- 1 know well that there have been times in the history of our country when there would have been no room for such a toast. There have been times when the British soldier and the British sailor have had to stand well nigh alone amid a world in arms, and right nobly, even in such cir curnstances and against such odds, have they always justi• fled the confidence reposed in them by their Sovereign and their countrymen. But these days are past and gone —past and gone, we hope, never to return. The gallant armies of France and England sealed with their blood, upon the heights of Alma and upon the hard•fought field of Inkermann, a covenant of friendship which, please God, will prove enduring. Never shall we cease to remember with admiration the valour with which our faithful allies, the Turks, resisted the common foe upon the banks of the Danube, and in the beleagutecl fortresses of Silistria and Kars, or the chivalry with which the high-spirited monarch and people of Sardinia came forward to our assistance when the fortunes of war seemed to be trembling in the balance. I shall not say a word more on this subject; I shall only add the earnest hope that peace, with its mani fol l interests, commercial, industrial, and progressive, will rivet yet more firmly the bonds of amity and esteem which have been forged by common defenders and mutual ser vices upon the battle-field. At any rate—and M. de Bruant will bear me out when I say so—the alliances of this war have taught us one useful lesson—they have taught us that there is no more pestilent fallacy, no more arrant humbug, than the talk of natural enemies. Let peace complete the lesson by teaching us that what God and nature will is, that the nations should live together in amity and employ their energies in improving, for the common good of humanity, the blessings which a bounteous Provi• dere: has strewed around them. Sir JOHN APNEILL, who was received with loud applause, proposed the health of "Florence Nightin gdie," and in doing so alluded to the noble heroism displayed by the troops before Sebastopol The British soldier has long been the most formidable in battle of all the soldiers of Europe. On a fair field, with equal forces, he has not hitherto encountered any enemy whom he could not beat. But, if we would juFtly estimate our special obligations to the men who fought for the freedom of Europe in the Crimea, we must look not THE PRESS. only to what they have achieved, hut also to what they have endured—not only to their conduct in action with the enemy, but also to their bearing under the pressure of privations and sufferings such as perhaps no other victori• ous army has undergone, and which are far more trying to the fortitude of brave men than the dangers of actual combat. In the chill rains of December and the bitter cold of January, when his strength was sinking from pri• vation and fatigue and the enervating diseases that follow in their• train, under which his comrades were falling like leaves in autumn, he preserved unimpaired the honourable pride of a British soldier in the midst of all his sufferings. As long as his enfeebled limbs would carry him he stag gered down through miry ravines to trenches ankle-deep in mud, or struggled up to his picket on some exposed height. He was determined to do his duty whatever might betide. He knew that the honour of her Majesty's arms and the glory of his native country were intrusted to his keeping. He never lost heart—he never yielded an inch of ground, and not a murmur ever escaped his lips. This, to my mind, is proof of a loftier heroism than even that which was displayed in the devoted gallantry of Alma, Balaklava, or Inkermann. Sir John INl‘Neill then briefly alluded to the disasters of the winter of '54, and came at once to the Crimean Commissioners' report:— Had the Government intended the inquiry in the Crimea to be a sham, they would have selected tit instruments for that purpose, but for any other than an honest purpose they sent out the wrong men. Reports more }tiniest, and, in all essential particulars, more faithful, or founded upon a greater amount of trustworthy and concurrent testimony, than the two reports which, on behalf of my colleague and myself, I put into the hands of the Secretary of State for War, and which he thought proper to lay before Parlia- ment anti the public, were never, I believe, presented to any Minister, and nothing that has since occurred has in any degree shaken my confidence, or. I believe, the confi- dence of the country, in the diligence, fairness, and fidelity with which the inquiry intrusted to my guidance was conducted, the evidence recorded, and the results stated. That confidence will not be shaken until a better authenticated account of the causes of those deplorable deficiencies into which it was my duty to inquire has been produced. (Loud cheers.) To the hospital system he attributed the losses of our army in the first winter:— The truth is that the system upon which our military hospitals were conducted, especially in the field, appears to be antiquated and defective. It is little in accordance with the ideas of our times—it contrasts disagreeably with the progress in comfort and decency of most classes in our community, and still more painfully with the improved education, the improved tastes, and the improved social position of the soldier. The sick who were landed at Scutari from the Crimea, suffering from the prevailing diseases, during the autumn and the early part of the winter, were generally received into hospital in a loath some condition, and without any change of linen. The hospital authorities did not consider themselves at liberty to provide them with linen, because, according to the rules of the service, a man going into hospital ought to take his linen with him. Bnt this it was impossible for him to do. When he embarked from Bulgaria for the Crimea in Sep tember, 18M, he hail been ordered to leave behind him his squad bag, which contained the greater part of his linen and spare clothing. Those bags were stored at Scutari, where, I understand from a gentleman who has made in quiries on the subject, they all remained till January, and nearly all till March, 1A55. When the sick and wounded were sent down from the Crimea in the autumn and first months of winter the linen which they had taken with them to that country was generally either worn out, lost, or destroyed during their illness ; and when they arrived at the hospital at Scutari in the condition I have stated the fact that their squad bags were there appears to have been overlooked, and their own linen, which was lying in those bags, within a few yards of where they were suffer ing in filth and rags for want of it, was not made available to them. Who was responsible for this omission it would be useless to inquire. Of course nobody is to blame, unless, perhaps, I should be blamed for letting the cat out of the squad bag. But, though I em unable to tell yeat who was responsible for leaving the sick in that wretched condition, I am able to tell you who rescued them from it. Florence Nightin gale found them in that condition, and, except the aid she received from the Times fund, provided. at her own ex pense, linen for the numerous patients, which could not have cost less than 2,0001. or 3,0001. She found the hospi tals unprovided with any establishment for washing the linen, and with the aid of the ladies and the nurses made arrangements for that purpose, some of the ladies taking an active share in that menial labour. She found the hospitals without any trained cooks, and she established a private kitchen in which food fitted for those who were most reduced was prepared, and I have no doubt contri buted to save the life of many a brave man. Foreseeing that the accotomodation would be insufficient, she urged the repair of a large wing of the Barrack Hoapital, which was so dilapidated as to be uninhabitable, and the repairs were commenced : but the workmen soon struck because they were unpaid, and the officer who had charge of the work could not procure the requisite funds. She advanced them from her own means, and, curiously enough, the very day on which those repairs were completed a number of sick and wounded, sufficient to fill that wing, and for whom there was no other accommodation, arrived from the Crimea and were placed there. But the wards were as empty as b. - Iris, and the hospital authorities declined to provide the requisite furniture. She purchased it at her own coat, and furnished the wards ; but the amount has since been repaid. I mention these things—and I might tell you of many more—because many of you may not know or may not remember them, and very few, I am sure, 1063 have ever heard or will ever hear of them from her. But it is needless to dwell further upon services to the sick and wounded which are known to the whole world—which have redounded to the honour of the nation, which have made her name dear to the army and to the country, and which secure to her a place in the history of our times as the worthy leader of one of the most remarkable movements which this war, in many respects memorable, has pro. duced The health of " Miss Nightingale " was received with the most enthusiastic applause. A few more speeches were made, when the company were called upon to sing " Auld Lang Syne," which they did with much spirit and effect. The meeting separated shortly before ten o'clock. The utmost good order and attention marked the conduct of the soldiers throughout the proceedings, and altogether the speeches were as well heard as was possible in so large a hall and in so crowded a meeting. A large assemblage awaited outside to cheer the gallant guests on their way to their quarters. (Ala nno lasOion. Her Majesty the Queen and Court remain at Windsor. Her Majesty has entertained the Duke and Duchess of Brabant during the week. Accom panied by their Royal Highnesses, her Majesty, on Thursday, visited the Camp at Aldershott, passed the night at the Royal Pavilion, and yesterday reviewed the troops on the ground. The royal party afterwards returned to Windsor. His Royal Highness Prince Alfred, attended by Lieut. Cowell and Major-General Sir Frederick Stovin, left town on Monday for Dover, for the Continent, where the young Prince is about to make a sejour of some months. The Prince of \Vales accompanied his Royal Highness to Dover, and, after witnessing his brother's embarkation, returned to Buckingham Palace fur Windsor. His Koyal Highhess Prince Alfred has arrived at Brussells. The first of the theatrical performances at Windsor Castle takes place on Thursday, the 131 h inst., when the School for Scandal and Hush Money will be played. In the firmer Mr. Webster plays Sir Peter Teazle, Mr. Wigan Joseph Surface, and Mr. (} Vining Charles Surface, with Miss Heath as Lady Teazle. Mr. Charles Kean will have the direction of the performances. Vittltal. A CABINET COUNCIL will be held at the official residence of I,lrd Palmerston on Monday next. MR. H. DRUMMOND, M.P., at the annual dinner of the Dorking Agricultural Society, yesterday week, in reference to agricultural statistics, said . This information could not be of the slightest value to the farmer or anybody else; but the gentlemen merchants wanted it, although he did not think it would do them any good. They wanted to know this in order to bring foreign corn into the market for their own advantage, as they thought proper; but he maintained the farmer could not tell them until he had thrashed his corn. It was all very well for those scientific gentlemen who wrote pa is and other voluminous matter about having agricultural returns, or whatever they liked to style it, but they must be in formed that they could not get the information they sought until the farmer had sold his crops. But he asked them not to get frightened about it, but give the information re quired, for these fellows would have the returns whether they would give them or not, and if they refused to give them quietly, men would be sent about the country to obtain the information, and the worst of it would be that they would have to pay them, and therefore he thought it was a " bad spec." (Laughter.) After the distribution of the awards, Mr. Drummond maintained that there was as much skilled labour re quired in the agricultural as in the manufacturing districts:— Ask one of the manufacturing gentlemen to draw with the plough two straight parallel lines across a field, and he could not do it; but give the plough to one of their clod- hoppers, as they were called, and he would perform what the Manchester gentlemen could not. Or ask the latter to till the ground so as to make it produce a crop, and he would be unable to accomplish it, but the other could ; or, again, set the manufacturer to clip a sheep without cutting the animal, and start one of those gentlemen with a pair of shears, and the chances were that he would kill the sheep before he had done with it. (Laughter.) The fact was, that agricultural labourers were as much skilled labourers as any other class, and as such he liked to see them rewarded. Mr. Drummond then briefly explained his notion of foreign policy. He approved of intervention : He thought that England m'ght have taken a good course by telling the European sovereigns that they should not treat their subjects in a way according to their fancy. That this country would not stand quietly by and see des potic interference, no more than she would take part with any blood-thirsty revolutionists. With respect to the liberty of the press :