The Press. — London, England, 1855-01-27 00:00:00

JANUARY 27, 1855. any wine, wirits, or dried meats would be very acceptable. I really think I am getting quite well again; I am getting strong, certainly a little rheumatism in my back now and then, but no dysentery or diarrhoea, thank God. I shall wind up this letter to-morrow when 1 come back from Balaklava (if I get there). The mail goes out to-morrow morning, so I shan't have time to say much. I hope some of you thought of sending me the Illustrated News with the "West minster Play " in it. I have built, or rather made, a kitchen, so as to be sure of being able to light a fire at any time (when 1 have got wood, which is very scarce indeed; when the huts do come I think we shall use them all for firewood). My kitchen is merely a large hole dug, roofed with cask-hoops, biscuit-bags, and dead moms' great-coats, &c., with a hole at one end to jump in, and one at the other for the smoke to jump out. Jan. 8. I am just come from Balaklava ; no news of boxes ; the old story ! I found in the post-office, to my great surprise, a letter from and of Dec. 15th ; they had been lying there by the usual mismanagement, and if I had not come in by acci dent I should never have got them. Pray thank the dear G. very much for his kind and affectionate letter. I have only a few seconds to scrawl this in, or I would write to thank him by this mail. By great good luck I picked up a poney strayed from the Cossacks : I think, however, he will now have to work for me. I rode him back without saddle or bridle for above three miles, and you may fancy how sore I was. God bless you all. A. From a major serving in the camp before Sebas topol:— Jan. 4, 1855. Thanks for your kind consideration in sending me a box containing the articles you mention, which, however, owing to the miserable carriage and store arrangements for the army, will probably never reach me. I thank you for them, however, the same as if they were in my tent. There must be great mismanagement somewhere ; there are quantities of things for the troops at Balaklava, and yet they can not be got. The wooden houses even hsve arrived now, so much wanted, and yet we have little prospect of getting them. No storage seems all this time to have been provided. No system, no arrange- ments for anything—all seems confusion. And as to transit from Balaklava here, we have only a few miserable ponies ; almost all our carriage animals having perished, and I am much inclined to think chiefly from neglect and want of food. The French, with an enormous army and its requirements, have to assist us with their horses to bi ing up our ammunition, &c., and have for some time conveyed almost all our sick to Balaklava. The torrents of rain have now changed to hail and snow, and the ground is covered nearly a foot deep : the temperature is like a severe English winter. This is trying weather for the trenches, but they must be held through thick and thin. There is not much fighting now, beyond skirmishing in the advanced trenches, and some times a sortie in the works. These have al ways been successfully repulsed, but not with out loss. The last, about fourteen days ago, was the most unfortunate, though the enemy were soon driven back. They killed Major Moller, of the 50th Regiment, and took prisoners Captain Frampton and Lieutenant Clarke, of the same corps, and left in the trenches, killed and wounded, about thirty men. I believe a better distribution of the sentries would have prevented this catastrophe. It was a fine night, but the enemy managed, I suspect, to creep in between the 2nd and 3rd parallels, and gained a footing unperceived. I was in the trenches, but not in the milie, being occupied on the right of the lines, with a threatened attack. These occur rences keep us on the alert, particularly in the advanced trench, and make it not the pleasantest situation in the word, especially on a dark tempes tuous night, the ditches full of water or thick mud, the rain pouring in torrents, or perhaps a driving sleet of snow and hail. However, I think the spirit of the enemy is much more subdued than ours. These efforts appear to be without much design, beyond the slaughter of a few men, and they have invariably, in every encounter with our men, got the worst it. The encounters between the French and Russians of this sort are almost nightly, with little result beyond the sacrifice of a few lives. Our allies have had immense reinforcements, and are very numerous. Ido not think they suffer from sick• mess in any comparison with our men. This, I be lieve, may be attributed very much to their not being so hardworked, having plenty of reliefs. They are capital sc•ldiers, and their interior economy, and their whole working system, seems to be most ad mirably conducted. Our numbers seem to diminish instead of to increase, notwithstanding all our rein forc.•ments. Hundreds die, and thousands are in lealided to Scutari. The 2nd brigade of our division of four regiments muster stthis moment only 900 men tit for duty, though the mortality in my oorps is not THE PRESS. nearly what it was about the end of November; but we still constantly lose men. I attribute this sick ness and misery chiefly to two causes : the first, too frequent exposure, and watching in the trenches, and which does not leave the men time to look after their little comforts, and ought to be conducted by just double the numbers; and, next, the want of the means of transport from Balaklava, where a liberal Government and country have sent, and are sending, out every comfort, but where they lie some times for weeks before they can be procured. I have known the men obliged, in addition to all their other duties, to march to Balakiava for their rations, and carry them out here on their backs. Surely, considering the length of time we have been here, carriage might have been provided, mules from Gibraltar, carts from Malta. The French have their transports for their immense army and sick, and lend us them besides. Their cattle have lived, and are comparatively strong and serviceable; ours have perished—a sad contrast This wear and tear of our troops is much to be deplored ; for I believe, but for the causes I have mentioned, our troops would have weathered the winter bravely, and we might have had four or five thousand out of some seven thousand invalids set to Scutari still, besides hun dreds of lives saved. The deplorable deficiencies in this medical department are justly exposed in the papers, but scarcely come up to the reality. DEPARTURE OF THE " PIONEER." Tars vessel, which had been engaged by the committee of the Crimean Army Fund, sailed on Tuesday last for the Black Sea, having been delayed for two days by an acci• dent which she encountered while on her way down the Thames, through coming into contact with a collier brig. The Pioneer is freighted with a cargo of almost inestimable value, consisting of warm clothing, comforts, and con veniences of almost every description, intended to mitigate the privations and to sustain the courage and spirit of our brave army before Sebastopol, and collected or purchased under the auspices of the committee of which the Earl of Ellesmere is at the head. _ _ Since its establishment on the Ist of December last not less than 20,0001. has been contributed to the fund by sub scribers of every rank, from her Majesty downwards, and the committee have already despatched several vessels to the seat of war with supplies of various kinds. On the 7th of December, they sent out the royal yacht schooner Fairy, laden with tobacco, pipes, tea, stationery, lea ther, and other useful articles for the accommodation of the troops. The public liberality also enabled them to hire and freight the Zarnia, steam-vessel, which left the Tower ou Chistmas-eve, laden with 270 tons of valuable goods of all descriptions. The Earl of Elles mere's yacht, carrying seven hundred additional tons, sailed on New Year's-day, from Southampton, for Bala klava ; and on Saturday last the Pioneer started on a similar errand, carrying a cargo far more valuable than any that has yet gone out at the instance of the committee. The following are some of the principal articles of which her cargo is composed. There are, first of all, four hundred cases of potted provisions, including venison and other articles, and a quantity of ale, generously presented by his grace the Duke of Portland; thirty-seven cases of potted deer, from Taymouth, and eight hundred gallons of whisky, the gift of the Marquis of Breadalbane ; a hogshead of whisky from each of the distillers of Campbeltown, packed in cases of two dozen each, for easy transit from Balaklava to the camp, and a hogshead of port wine from each of the principal distillers in London, similarly packed ; four hun dred patent stoves, peculiarly adapted for use in the Crimea, and an immense quantity of candles and lamps—in all about 740 cases—the donation of Price's Patent Candle Company, whose workmen have also given 1501. to the fund, being one-half of a day's pay ; great quantities of Gloucestershire cheese, the gift of residents in that county, and other donations, amounting to several hundred hales of woollen goods, blankets, Jerseys, drawers, shirts, stockings, together with as many muffatees as will furnish two or three pairs to each officer and soldier in the army ; and contri butions of game preserved at Gunter's and Batty's. Besides these donations, the committee themselves have purchased a large quantity of provisions, comforts, and useful imple ments and utensils, which also form part of the freight. These include, among a variety of other things, regimental boots, shoes, leather, and shoemaker's tools, 1501. worth of tobacco and clay pipes, cocoanut fibre matting for the floors of tents, blankets, railway rugs, Australian jackets, waterproof clothing, stationery, oatmeal, pearl barley, half salt butter, essence of coffee, cocoa, chocolate, Parmesan cheese, turnery, brushes and combs, gridirons, saucepans, fryingpans, conical beer warmers, milkman's pails and yokes for carrying water, wa'er filters, saws, hatchets, ham mers, six gross of iron spoons, two hundred teapots, Welch wigs, portable fuel, a great number of interesting books, 2.50,0(K) rations of patent compressed vegetable soup (French), an exceedingly agreeable and nutritious article; a large quantity of preserved vegetables, and last, but perhaps not the least useful, one street baked-potato machine ; more of which would have been sent, but the idea of forwarding them did not occur to the committee until the eve of the vessel sailing, when time did not permit of their being procured. The ship on touching at Malta will also take on board a number of oranges and lemons. Three wooden storehouses have already been sent out to Balaklava, to be erected, on their arrival there, as a depot for the provisions and clothingforwardcd by the committee. The whole of the articles have been packed with a careful regard to the difficulties of transport from Balaklava to the camp, namely, in small wooden eases, one of which a man may carry on his shoulder for a considerable distance, or a number of which may be conveyed together:on hand trucks, or shag on polio, a supply of which theme part of the cargo of the Pioneer. Sir Edmund Lyons has written to the committee, stating that he will afford all the facilities in his power towards landing the cargoes despatched under their auspices. GENERAL SIR DE LACY EVANS. A CONGRATULATORY address, accompanied by a sword valued at 150 guineas, was presented to Sir De Lacy Evans on Monday, at Folkestone, in recog nition of his gallant services in the Crimea. Mr. Brockman, M.P. for liytha, headed the deputation who waited upon the gallant general on the occa sion, and after the address had been read and the sword presented, Sir 1)o Lacy Evans duly expressed his sense of the compliment paid him. He then proceeded : He knew that the compliment was not intended for him self alone, but that it was also an exemplification of feeling for the gallant army with which he had the honour of serving. He had observed that great complaints were daily made of the management of the war, and it was as serted that the war had made but slow progress. Now, be begged to differ with many on that point. He did not consider, under the circumstances, that the progress of the war had been slow, and he was sure that the result would show the correctness of his opinion. No such war as that in which they were now engaged could possibly be finished in so short a time as some were unreasonable enough to expect, particularly where such a country as England, with its small military strength, was nut the aggressor. England was not a military power ; and the aggressor in the present war was a very important military power, possessed of vast resources—(Hear)--oue who always maintained a very large army, and was always prepared for war, if not, indeed, for aggression. Hence, at the sudden outbreak of the present hostilities, England had not been prepared with a large standing army. It was impossible we could always have a perfect war establishment on a military scale. We had happily enjoyed forty years of peace, and public opinion would not admit of the .iontantied maintenance of a large standing army. He would recal to their minds the many military wars in which this country had been engaged, and it would be found that the British forces seldom attained decisive success until at least a third campaign had set in. England was great and power ful as a commercial nation, and he had no doubt that the present contest would be brought to a termination as de cisive in its results as it would he glorious to British arms. The army sent to the Crimea, though young, had vindi cated the honour of its country. There was no other army to send. It was young, but it had done its duty. Many mistakes in details had certainly occurred, but they had been the result of inexperience. No want of judgment, in his mind, had been evinced by any officer of that staff in which he had had the honour of holding an humble post. Some battles had been fought in which our army had gathered glory in alliance with the arms of France—an alliance ho would pronounce the Most devoted and loyal, and which the spirit of this country fully appreciated. Mr. 11. HART, one of the deputation, asked permission to call his attention to the present oondition of our army in the East. He was not desirous of drawing forth any expression of opinion which Sir De Lacy Evans, as an officer, might feel desirous of withholding ; but the fact could not be disguised, that the army at present in the Crimea was in a most wretched condition. Much anxiety existed in the public mind on this subject, and he trusted he was not out of order in alluding to it in the presence of a gallant officer who would, no doubt, at the proper time, take care that the truth was elucidated. Sir I)s LACY EVANS observed that he had of late read many statements on the condition of the troops. It was not his province, on that occasion, to enter into this ques tion ; but he had no objection to say one thing, and that was, that when he left head-quarters the army was not in the condition described in some reports. More he could not say. He would again remind them that at the commence ment of a war many mistakes generally took place, and after forty years' peace such mistakes ought sot to occasion much surprise. Ile would take this opportunity of saying that he fully appreciated the kind sympathy now so gene rously evinced by all classes for the army, and he had no doubt the course of conduct pursued by the people would be the forerunner of great results. The deputation then retired. Sir De Lacy Evans, though much improved since his arrival at Folkestone, is still in very imperfect health. The sword presented to Sir De Lacy bears the following inscription : Presented to Lieutenant• General Sir De Lacy Evans K.C.13., M.P., by the inhabitants of the united borough of, Hy-the, Folkestone, Sandgate, and adjacent parishes, in com memoration of the courage, devotion, and generosity exhibited by him in the memorable actions of Alma, the heights of Trcher• nays, and Inkermann. LIEITT.-COLONEL J. H. ELPHINSTONE DALRYMPLE, of the Scots Fusilier Guards, who was ill on board ship in the harbour of Balaklava, on the sth of No vember, no sooner heard of the attack on the British lines, than he rose from his sick bed, and, though suf fering from fever and the effects of a wound in the knee, received at the battle of the Alma, made his way to the scene of action, and, the senior officers being at the time killed or wounded, took the command of the battalion from about one o'clock till the shat tered remnant of the brave band was marched off the ground at four p.m. This energetic action nearly cost the gallant officer his life ; a violent relapse of the fever ensued, sad a medical board decided on sending him instantly to England for the res toration of his health, which, we are happy to hear, is now improving,