The Press. — London, England, 1856-10-18 00:00:00

1004 legions of the Czar were hurled back from the walls of Kars by the half starved, despised, and neglected Turks! The transparencies were very successful : The first was that of the monument to the peasant Sous sanni, to whom in a dream was revealed the hiding-place of the persecuted youth who founded this great dynasty, and who was led forth from obscurity to become Czar of all the Rosales. The second was that of the equestrian statue of Peter the Great. The third that of the Arch of Triumph at St. Petersburg, with the cyphers of the reigning Autocrat. These were visible through the smoke and fog which settled down over the front of the Ecole. The electric light alone was able to pierce this dense fume, and it played with prodigious distinctness on the crowd, on the uniforms of the Guards, and on the glittering square of two thousand regimental musicians, who played with a beauty and precision that spoke highly for their training and proficiency. As to the chorus of cannon, it must be understood that only one gun was fired for each bar, and that there was no roar of artillery as we expected. On the whole the effect, though not disappointing altogether, was not such as would induce one to hope that this sort of ac companiment would become popular, and that you would see announcements that "the celebrated performer on the 82-pounders, Napoleon Walker, has the honour to an nounce," or " that Signor Bomba's fantasia on the new brass howitzer, sustained by Mr. Smith on the 1:1-inch mortar, draws crowded houses," at Jullien's concerts or the Surrey Zoological. The people melted away with their ordinary powers of self-solution in this part of the world, and marched quietly homeward when all was over, and thus ended the fetes at Moscow. THE EARL OF CARDIGAN AND COLONEL BUCK, M.P. THE Earl of Cardigan has this week addressed the following letter to the newspapers : On my return to Dublin, after an absence of some days on duty in different parts of Ireland, I find a letter from Mr. Buck, which has been copied into all the newspapers of the day, and which letter appears to me to be a tissue of ignorance, presumption, and slander. I consider that Mr. Buck's conduct in this matter has been disgraceful, and unworthy of his position as a gentleman and a member of Parliament. I consider also that he has offered a gross insult to me without the slightest provocation. It is there fore my intention to hold no further communication with him. This individual has now identified himself with a low slanderer, whose statements—dictated, no doubt, by some person much above his own position in society—were the origin of all those falsehoods which have been launched at me ; for it is well known that not one word was ever said on the subject in the Crimea for many months after the b ale of Balaklava, or until those calumnies were in vented in England, and sent out to the East. These calumnies met with no encouragement from the respect able portion of the press. It was therefore unnecessary for me to treat them otherwise than with silence and con tempt. But it is different when a person in Mr. Buck's position, one which is usually occupied by a gentleman, thinks proper, at a public dinner, to make offensive allu sions highly derogatory to my reputation as a soldier. The direct and personal allusions to me, made by that indivi dual at Torrington, bear no relation to the observations of the Times newspaper, with which he so artfully tries to connect himself. That newspaper did not reflect, and never has reflected, upon my conduct in leading the charge of the light cavalry at Balaklava. What the Times news paper alluded to as a " falsification of history" was the praise of Lord Raglan as the commander-in-chief of the army. This is a matter of opinion, but it would not prevent me again stating my respect for the memory of that dis tinguished commander, and the high opinion I have ever entertained of his qualifications as a general. Mr. Buck then re era to the loss of horses on the heights of Inker mann ; but, considering that the whole of this matter has recently been thoroughly investigated by order of the Government, and that 1 and my brother officers implicated have been relieved from all blame, I have only to observe that Mr. Buck's opinion on the subject is an infamous and disgusting slander. With regard to being on board my yacht, the com mander-in-chief was well aware that I was too ill to live in camp, and lie preferred my sleeping on board to my leaving the army. I consider, therefore, that I had sufficient authority for my conduct. It was from sleeping on board this yacht that, on the 25th October, 1854, by order of my superior officer on the spot, I placed myself at the head of the light cavalry brigade to attack the Russian batteries. Of my conduct on that occasion the following report was made by the general commanding-in-chief :—" The order was obeyed in the most spirited and gallant manner. Lord Cardigan charged with the utmost vigour, and attacked a battery which was firing upon the advancing squadrons, and having passed beyond it, engaged the Russian cavalry in the rear, dm ; " and by the lieutenant-general command• ing the cavalry division, "This attack was of a very daring and difficult nature, and was led by Major-General the Earl of Cardigan in a most gallant and intrepid manner." And now I have to state, in the most positive terms, that after entering the battery, all rallying was utterly imprac ticable. Cavalry cannot rally with an immensely superior force of cavalry in their front, and tw', batteries playing upon their right and left rear, in addition to the fire of a la-ge body of riflemen. In such a position troops must either advance or retire. In advancing beyond a certain point all would have been destroyed. In my last letter I described what occurred to myself until the period of our entering the battery. I stated that advancing at a charging pace through obstacles which one horse might pass, but a line of troops could not well follow, I came alone upon a large force of Russian cavalry, that I was attacked by two Cossacks in flank, slightly wounded, and nearly unhorsed. I have now to add that an attempt THE PRESS. was made by several more Cossacks to surround me, but I defended myself, and got clear of them. Meantime the line that had followed into the battery were gallantly doing their duty by cutting down and lancing the gunners, and in surmounting the many difficulties of the advance, on account of the guns, ammunition waggons, and other obstacles. Many did advance immediately afterwards in different directions, and gallantly did their utmost. For myself, having to retire from the position which I have described, I considered it my duty to retreat at a slow pace, and I have fortunately two witnesses to prove that this was the case—viz., Major-General Sir James Scarlett, and his orderly, who, being in advance of the heavy brigade down the hill, would testify to the truth of my statement. It is fortunate that I should have two witnesses, if neces sary, to protect me against the malignant slanders of Messrs. Buck and Ryan. . . During the time • I have alluded to numbers of the brigade were retreating, and many were shot down by the Russian riflemen in my immediate neighbourhood, and im mediately afterwards all the brigade were retreating, after having rallied in the only way iu which troops could rally under such circumstances—viz., going about and retreat ing, and in doing so they very properly retired at the same pace as they had advanced. The usual manner to rally is to re-form. In this case it would have been certain destruction to all. Mr. Buck has referred to the trial of Captain IVathen and its consequences, whom, in order to enhance the general truta of his statements, he names as a distin guished officer, although at that time never having left the barracks of the United Kingdom. Considering that the whole of the subject was brought before Parliament more than twenty years since, and that, on the motion of Sir William Molesworth, there was, in a full House of Commons, a majority of Btolin my favour; that I then went to India, and bringing back the 11th Light Dragcons (afterwards Hussars), commanded them for eighteen years, such a reference can only be designated as mean, paltry, and despicable. In the course of this and other letters I have given a full account of all that occurred in the light cavalry charge at Balaklava, the subject of which is clearly the main object of attack with such slanderers as Messrs. Buck and Ryan. CARDIGAN. PS. I wish to correct an error in my detailed report of the officers engaged in the light cavalry charge at 13alaklava, having inadvertently omitted the name of Lieutenant Chadwick, the adjutant of the 17th Lancers. This officer went forward with some men after entering the battery, when his horse was killed, himself wounded, taken pri soner, and kept a year in captivity. I feel that it is not fair to leave out the name of any officer engaged in that desperate attack. Dublin, Oct. 11, 1848. PROFESSOR DE MORGAN'S ADDRESS AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. THE autumn session of the Faculty or Arts and Laws in connection with this college was opened on Tues day, when an introductory lecture was delivered in the theatre by Professor De Morgan. The learned PROFESSOR, before entering upon his discourse, paid a warm tribute to the memory of the late Mr. John Wood, Chairman of the Board of Inland R.venue. Proceeding with his lecture, he remarked that the present century might with some justice boast of its public men; and in all respects, if its own evi dence was to be taken as the test, it was the most glorious century in modern history. Undoubtedly in many points of view it did deserve to be mentioned with great praise as compared with its immediate predecessor, but he questioned the method by which in regard to events the centuries were divided. They would more accord with the progress of events if each century began with the fiftieth year, that having, generally speaking, been found by experience to be the commencement of a new era in human progress. In 1450 the types were being founded for pnnting the Mentzian Bible; in 1550 the Council of Trent was sitting; 1050 was the Commencement of a cen tury of deterioration as 1750 was the beginning of a century of progress and improvement, during which great moral and social reforms were effected, great advances made in the arts and sciences. The great exhibition with which this century might be said to have closed afforded an exceedingly good index of what had taken place during its existence. He sug gested, however, that in taking credit for the progress which had been made in our own time, we forgot to consider how the future would regard it. A few cen turies hence and our railways, upon which we so much prided ourselves, might excite a smile similar to that with which we new contemplated the old stage-coaches and pack-horses of the past. In every century the arts made progress, but whether that progress was directed to the true purposes of educa tion VMS not so certain. This must depend very much upon whether the student directed his studies to the practical duties of life in all its relations or merely to certain professional objects. Comparing the philosophy of the past with that of the present, he entertained an opinion directly opposed to those who asserted that it was to the schoolmen, as they were called, that all the darkness of the middle ages was owing, agreeing rather with Bishop Hampden, who said " they were but the precursors of great re forms both in religion and philosophy, who by their speculationsinured men's minds to think boldly." SATURDAY, The attention of the schoolmen was given to matters which must occupy the attention of human beings, but many of the questions discussed by them in abstract terms were questions which must equally arise among children in the nursery, ladies in the drawing•room, and legislators in Parliament. After entering at length into the question of whether the human mind is capable of setting oat general physical laws, or whether the laws of nature are the foundation of our knowledge of things, and examining the theories of occult matter, subtle matter, the materia prima, and occult quantities, he observed that the soundest point in our modern philosophy was the return to occult quantities. That return took place the moment the quality of gravita tion was announced by Newton. Newton had been described as a follower of Bacon, but that he dis puted, holding Bacon's philosophy in light esteem, and suggesting that Roger Bacon, who said that " things of this universe could only be known by mathematics," might in the end turn out to have been a greater man than his namesake Francis. Neither was Boyle a follower of Bacon. Through out the whole of his five volumes, Boyle only refers to Bacon three times; and in speaking of him calls him, not a great philosopher, but " the great archi tect of experimental history." The credit generally accorded to Bacon was due rather to those who went before him, and who did that which lie knew only how to describe. The study of mind he could have declined, since the study of matter arose. There were three philosophies—the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of matter, and the philosophy of lan• guage, and unless the three were combined nothing great could be done. He spoke of the errors and false theories which the study of matter without mind had occasioned in former times, and enlarged upon the necessity of bringing the philosophy of mind to bear in the work of education. At present our people were too much like machines—fit for one thing—one mode of acquiring wealth, and one only; hut when a truly liberal system of education was in operation every man would be qualified to do many things, and there would no longer be that extreme of poverty at the nether end of society which at present existed. He might call this an examining age. Everywhere there was a mania for public examina tions. Young men from sixteen to twenty, on en tering life, were called upon to prove their qualifica tions and acquirements by writing down answers to a number of questions contained in certain printed papers. This might be all very well if the system of education with which it was combined, and efficiency in which it was intended to prove, had a tendency to remove those elementary errors which were found to prevail in life. In these elementary examinations we did not find much of thought, or the material for thought, or the material for life re form. The knowledge required in these examina• lions was too professional, and the evil of it was that it generated an immense amount of fancied incon venience. He wag happy to say that the University of London had mended very lunch of late years in its method of examination. Nothing could be more absurd than the questions formerly put to boys under examination. For instance, he had found in some of the examination papers such questions as the following to be addressed to boys of sixteen : What is the reason of the difference between the French, Italian, and Spanish languages? To what branch of the Hindoo language does the Affghan most assimilate ? What is the superlative form of the Sanscrit? In all this a great improvement had taken place ; still there was much to be done, and it was the duty of all to protest against the public ex amination papers being converted into nothing more than a means of showing off the examiner. Practi cally this evil would bring itself to an end, but it was desirable that it should be set right in the right way. The remedy was with the students themselves. If the students read thoughtfully, the examiners must examine thoughtfully. Turning to the system of examining for the public service, he said it recalled to his mind Gulliver's ac count of the examinations in Lilliput, where every applicant for public office was required to dance on the tight rope before the king and the assembled court. But the system here was not, alter all, so good as that of Lilliput, for there, according to the veracious Gulliver, the examination was repeated every year during the whole time the Minister was in office, in order to show that there was no falling off in his efficiency. He knew not what would be the result if our Ministers had to undergo annually such an examination as they required every applicant for public employment to pass through ; but of this he was quite sure, that if the members of the Cabinet were required to pass through an examination every one or two years in arithmetic, we should long since have had the decimal system established in our coinage and weights and measures. The learned Professor concluded with some re marks deprecatory of what he termed tumultuary knowledge, which he trusted his hearers would have the grace to avoid.