The Press. — London, England, 1856-10-04 00:00:00

944 of God should be forgotten. And well does it know how difficult it is to restore the dominion of society when once it has been extinguished. She calls on you to aid her in this great work. She shows you the nature of the rules by which she is governed; her voice comes to you, and her voice sounding from her agents in this country is like- wise a voice that comes across every sea that compasses the four quarters of the globe; it is the voice of the settlers who live in the colonies, your children, your brothers, your greatest and your dearest friends ; it is the voice of that devoted ministry which is now discharging all the spiritual duties in the British colonies, in such a manner as, with out the smallest desire to create an invidious comparison, I would say draws down upon them the respect and the admiration of all among whom they live. It is the voice— in some cases we may add, it is the voice of the dead, who having freely and deliberately, and not without counting the cost, given up all in order to be enrolled among the sol.liers of the Cross, have been early called to their re ward ; not too early for themselves—not too early we may, perhaps, in faith believe even for us, because it is our prin- ciple to hope that their bright example will continually draw more warriors into the field, and that the great masses of God will multiply under its beneficent influence. Do not, I bessech you, remain indifferent to a cause like this— do not hesitate to examine the claims, the history, the cause of this society. She wants nothing, lam convinced, except to bring the claims of that history, and of the firm tieing which she has charge of, home to every heart, every fireside iu England. '['he right hon. gentleman shortly concluded his speech amid loud applause. THE EARL OF CARDIGAN AND COLONEL BUCK, M.P. A CORRESPONDENCE has ensued lately between the noble earl and the member for Barnstaple with reference to certain expressions reported in the daily papers as having been uttered by Colonel Buck at a dinner lately given at Torrington to Colonel Morris, of the 17th Lancers. Colonel Buck was reported to have said : Their gallant guest was not placed in the same position as Lord Cardigan, who, it was said, had paid 40,0011. for the present position he held in the army, and who, when he met his friends at Leeds the other day, was obliged to " try back " and first explain his conduct in the charge of lialaklava. There had been nothing in the conduct of their gallant guest so equivocal as to require such an explana• tion about the duties of cavalry officers as that made by Earl Cardigan at Leeds. Lord Cardigan upon this, on the 18th ult., called upon Colonel Buck fur an explanation. Colonel Buck replied : Hartland Abbey, Sept. 20. My Lord,—ln reply to your letter received last evening, containing an extract from the Daily News paper, reporting a speech made by me at Torrington, I have the honour to inform your lordship that the Daily Ncws' version of the speech is very incorrect. I referred to your lordship's public speech at Leeds, which I simply stated was unsatis• factory to me. I gave no reason fur my opinion, nor did I mention anything about " trying back,' or " Balaklava," or " equivocal conduct." I alluded to what I understood to have been the ease, that your lordship's commission had cost between 30,00 W. and 40,0001.-1 remain, my lord, your lordship's obedient servant, GEORGE STANLEY BUCK. The Earl of Cardigan. Lord Cardigan replies to Colonel Buck's explana tion in the following terms:— Dublin, Sept. 20. Sir,—l have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th inst. in reply to mine of the 18th inst., and I regret to have to observe that nothing can be more unsatis factory, more unatraightforward, or evasive, than your reply. And as I conclude you acknowledge the correct ness of the report of your speech in the Daily News, with the exceptions you have referred to in your letter of the 20th inst., I have only to state that you thereby justify every expression with regard to your conduct which 1 adopted in my letter of the 18th inat. With respect to the commencement of your unwarrantable allusion to myself, stating that I had given 40,0001, for my commis sions, while your guest, Colonel Morris (to whom you were very properly doing honour on that occasion ), obtained his through merit alone, I must admit that the manner in which Colonel Morris has been promoted since the charge of the light cavalry brigade at Balaklava is certainly a much more agreeable way of obtaining promotion than by paying 40,0001., supposing that statement to be true Colonel Morris, as senior captain of the 17th Lancers, led them in the attack at Balaklava, and for his services has since been made a brevet-major and Companion of the Bath, a brevet lieutenant.colonel, colonel in the Turkish Contin gent ; also has held an appointment in the Adjutant- General's office, London ; a staff appointment at Scutari ; the post of Assistant-Quartermaster-General in the Turkish Contingent ; and is now Assistant-Adjutant•General in the camp on the Curragh. This proves that officers in our service do not obtain promotion by money alone. As to the comparison you draw between Colonel Morris and myself, viz., " that there was no necessity for him to ex plain his conduct like Lord Cardigan at Leeds," it is clear that he, never having been attacked by anonymous libel, had no ground fur entering into any defence of his conduct. With regard to the charge of the light cavalry brigade at Balaklava, as you appear to be ignorant of what occurred there, and as I have hitherto, in returning thanks on several occasions for honours conferred upon me by my fellow-countrymen, only spoken of the brigade generally, I must now aff ord some inform a ti on as to the part all the officers took in that affair. Colonel Morris told you in his speech, in returning thanks, that I put myself at the head THE PRESS. of the brigade (which I did by order). He also told you that Captain Nolan was immediately killed after moving off (ho was at the time riding about independently as a staff officer). It was my duty to lead the brigade over more than a mile of ground into the Russian battery. Captain (now Lieutenant-Colonel) Morris followed me into the battery in command of the 17th Lancers, and was very soon after out down. Captain Oldham, who followed me, also in command of the 13th Light Dragoons, was blown to pieces on entering the battery. Of the two squadron officers of the 17th Lancers, Captain Winter was killed and Captain White (now Brevet Major White) se verely wounded and brought to the ground short of the battery. Of the two squadron officers of the 13th light Dragoons Captain Good was killed, and Captain Jenyns (now Brevet-Major Jenyns. C. 11.) was slightly wounded and had his horse killed. Captain Percy Smith had his horse killed and was slightly wounded, and the three remaining officers of the 13th Light Dragoons, Tremayne, Jervis, and Chamberlayne, had their horses killed. Of the remaining officers of the 17th Lancers Captain Webb was mortally wounded, Sir William Gordon was severely wounded, and Captain Morgan and Lieutenant Cleveland ( afterwards killed at Inkermann) survived. Captain Maxse ( now Brevet-Major Maxse), my aide-de-camp, was wounded short of the battery ; and Sir G. Wombwell, my extra aide de-camp, had his horse killed and was taken prisoner for a time ; and Captain Lockwood, my aide•de-camp, here or later, was killed. Of all these officers it would be invidious to state that any one distinguished himself more than another. For myself, having led this brigade into the battery, I pursued my direct course as leader—a course which one horse could take, but in which a line of troops could not well follow from the number of guns, limber car riages, and other impediments which stood in the way. Thus coming upon a large force of Russian cavalry, I was attacked by two Cossacks, slightly wounded, and nearly dis mounted. The survivors of the brigade all went about as they came upon the masses of the Russian cavalry, and retreated. The whole of the remnant of the brigade was retreating at the same time, and a few minutes only inter vened between the retreating from the line of guns which we had attacked of all the parties engaged in the affair, in cluding the supporting regiments which had come into the affray in succession under their respective commanding officers. I have further to observe that the confusion was so great after passing the battery that the 17th Lancers and 13th Light Dragoons reversed their position in brigade, and the remnant of them came out in the retreat on the opposite side of the valley to that in which they had ad vanced. It is with reference to a desperate affair of this na ture which I had the honour of leading that you have considered it becoming in )ou, as a country gentleman and a county man in Devonshire, and Conservative member of a large borough, to rise in your place and utter a slanderous insinuation against me which you are unable or unwilling to account fur; and this after my conduct has been com mended in the strongest terms in all the official despatches addressed to the Government from the seat of war. I tell you that such conduct is totally unworthy of the position you hold, and you may depend upon it that if your constituents at Barnstaple were ultra-Radicals instead of Conservatives they would reprobate your conduct. For, be their politics what they may, the British public are al ways just and fair towards men who are placed in the ser vice of their country in positions of danger and difficulty, and despise slanderous insinuations, from whatever quar ter they may come ; and those which you have thought proper to utter against me on a recent occasion were probably founded upon the calumnious statements of some anonymous publications, which the respectable part of the press were too generous to encourage by any notice.-1 am sir, your obedient servant, CARDIGAN. Colonel G. S. Buck, M.P., ttc. ARCHDEACON DENISON, in compliance with the declaration of the court granting him till the Ist of October to revoke his errors, on the 30th ult. filed a paper defending the Roundness of his doctrine, and citing a number of Protestant authorities in its be half. Towards the end of the paper, the Archdeacon remarks : The defendant begs, however, respectfully to say that, as it is not his duty to contend for language only, apart from its substance—if it can be shown to him that the language whioh he has employed in teaching the doctrine of the Lord's Supper is, in one or more particulars, open to just exception, as conveying that doctrine under any aspect new or strange to the Reformed Church of Eng land—the defendant will be ready to alter his language to such extent. The document concludes as follows : All which the defendant, submitting respectfully to the consideration of the court, has now only further to say— That it is not in his power to make the revocation re• quired of him by the court. THE REMAINS OF LORD HARDINGE were buried on Wednesday in the churchyard of the little village of Fordcomb, near South-park. The foundation stone of the district church there was laid by Lord Har dinge on his return from India, and he was the main contributor to its building fund. The funeral was strictly private, its would best accord with the simple tastes and habits of tho deceased. The usual heraldic escutcheons were dispensed with, and the only emblems borne on the pall to mark his rank were the field-marshal's baton and hat, and the sword given to him by the Duke of Wellington after the Peace of Paris in 1815. The body was followed from the house at South park by some of his nearest rela tives, and was met at the church by many gentle. men of the neighbourhood. and by a few of his most attached and distinguished friends. SATURDAY, AGRICULTURAL MEETINGS. SEVERAL agricultural meetings have been held within the last few days. Politics bavo generally been but slightly alluded to, THE ANNUAL BUCKS AGRICULTURAL MEEEuro took place at Buckingham on Tuesday. The leading gentle men, having inspected the stock, assembled at the Town-hall. His Grace the Duke of Buckingham presided, and, after the usual loyal toasts, proposed "Prosperity to the Association." His grace paid a high compliment to the Bucks farmers for their steady and scientific advance in agriculture : A glance at the farms themselves was quite sufficient to enable the most casual observer to see the progress which had been made and was still making in agriculture. New machines were daily pressing themselves on their notice, which enabled them to clear the fields of weeds, to culti. vete the land, and produce much larger crops than it bad heretofore borne. In fact, the introduction of farm machinery had introduced a revolution the ultimate result of which it was impossible at the present time to prognos ticate. Already they saw steam superseding, to some extent, the labour of horses, and he hoped that before many years they would see the smoke of the steam plough issuing from every farmstead in the country. As he bad before said, the occupation of the farmer was not so en grossingly selfish as many people would have them to suppose. By benefiting himself, be benefited his country at large, and as pure a patriotism reigned in his heart as in that of the manufacturer or the merchant. But socie. ties of this kind were most useful in bringing together the landlord, the tenant-farmer, and the labourer, and uniting them in bonds, not by the links of interest, but affection. He rejoiced that these societies rewarded faith ful honest labourers, not only by the small prizes, which of itself was perhaps of the least consequence, but by the public recognition of the value of the servant to his em ployer. They thus showed the world that there was no contest between them and the labourer, but that they bore willing witness to their worth and integrity. God forbid that they should ever see the day when the labourers of the country should be forgotten by the tillers of the soil. It was not his province to enlarge upon these topics, but this he might say with respect to the farmers themselves, viz., that he was confident that, by evincing energy, per and industry, the English farmer would over come all his difficulties. At the same time, to enable him to accomplish this, he must follow the example of others, taking advantage of every new aid which was placed before him. Mr. DISRAELI, in rising to propose the next toast, was received with loud cheers. He said : Gentlemen, your noble chairman has just introduced to you the most important toast of the evening, and there is this remarkable characteristic in offering such a toast to your notice—that, though there is no one present who feels justified in rising to return thanks for the honour con ferred upon the society, all of us, being members of the society, ought to rise to acknowledge the justice of the observations which our noble chairman has made. I ought, perhaps, more especially to come forward because I have the happy recollection that I was one of the original members of the society twenty four years ago ; but it is not in that capacity that I venture to obtrude myself upon your notice. It is to me, and lam sure that it must be to all of you, a source of great satisfaction that at a moment of considerable difficulty in the fortunes of this associa tion it was steered through a difficult and stormy period with so much wisdom and discretion that we have at length arrived at a haven where we can all congratulate ourselves upon the prosperous and tranquil future which awaits us. It has been said that nothing is so difficult in lite as a commencement, and no doubt there is great truth in the observation ; but, in my mind, there is something much more difficult in life than to commence, and that is to re commence. We had a commencement, and passed through many years of great prosperity and success, and at length we were subjected to great cavil, difficulty, and criticism ; and the time had arrived when we must have coasted to exist or have recommenced. All who were interested in the spirit of the age in which we lived could not doubt that, from a variety of novel circumstances surrounding us, we were suddenly called upon to reform our constitu tion. lam happy to say that the reformation of our constitution has been successful, and it has been suc cessful because we have adopted the only principle upon which a successful and secure reformation can be conducted—namely, the principle of carefully regarding the original principles of the foundation. Whatever objects we may have at. present—whatever may be the purposes which we now propose to ourselves, though some may tauntingly remind us that we have adapted our selves too late to the purposes of the present day, and to objects now recognised as permanent in the institutions of this country, the fact is, that there is not an object which we now wish to accomplish—not a purpose which we now propose to ourselves to achieve, which was not projected and proposed at the time of our original institution. In point of fact the Royal Agricultural Association of Buckinghamshire, instead of being behind the age, was rather too much in advance of it, and if some c ritical observations have in more recent years been made on our conduct, showing that we were deficient in many require ments, the truth is, that we were obliged to relinquish the objects which we originally proposed to ourselves, because there was not then that feeling of public necessity which now fortunately prevails in this country. I have thought right to make these observations in vindi cation of the original purposes of the projectors of this so • ciety, and there are many persons now present who can bear witness to the accuracy of my statement. lam myself de lighted that by recurring to the prinoiple of our original con stitution we have largely increased the sphere of the society.