The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-15 00:00:00

OFFICIAL DESPATCHES.

The following dispatch from General Codrington has been
received 17 Lord Panmure :
SEBASTOPOL, December 27, 1855.
Mr LORD,—Your lordship has referred iu several dis-
patches to drunkenness in this army. Reports of all sorts
seem to have beat circulated, statements read, descriptions
made, until it was believed that this army was composed of
drunkards, and immersed in riot and vice. I took the oppor-
tunity of expressinc, myself strongly to your lordship that this
would prove not to be the truth. I now state, in confirmation
of this opinion, that returns are in my possession from every
regiment of all cases of drunkenness tried by court-martial, as
well as those settled at the regimental orderly room for three
months, [September, October, and November.] It was
during this time that arrears of field allowances, more than
£2 each man, were received as back pay, besides 10,000 men
receiving additional working pay; and yet the result is,
including artillery, sappers, and infantry, the number of crimes
of drunkenness (and these are many more than the men
drunk) is a little above one man in two days per company,
estimated at 100 men. No doubt there are many facilities
in all these open and crowded camps for drunken men to get
in without being seen. They do so, and escape observation.
But suppose we double or treble the amount of these num-
bers—which are taken from official returns—and I suspect
the army will bear a comparison with many towns, many
villages, many populations of Great Britain. It is easy to
give—it is as easy to read—a minute, a ludicrous, or even a
filthy description of a drunken man, and it seems seized upon as
a type of the whole. The fathers and mothers, the wives and
sisters in England, are fully persuaded we do nothing but
drink, and the good character of the army is forgotten in a
few sketches from nature. That such need not be the case
with those who know anything about the matter will, I think,
be proved by the statement now made to your lordship.—l
have, &c.,

_
W. J. CODRINGTON, General Commanding.
To Lord Panmure, &c.

THE PEACE PROPOSITIONS.

According to the Independence Beige, the following is the
text of the Austrian propositions :

I. DAN- IJB-lAN PRINCIPALITIES.

Complete abolition of the Russian protectorate. The Da-
nubian Principalities shall receive an organization conform-
able to their wishes, to their wants, to their interests : and this
new organization, respecting which the population itself will
be consulted, shall be recognised by the contracting powers
and sanctioned by the Sultan as emanating from his sovereign
initiative. No State shall be able, under any pretext what-
ever, under any form of protectorate, to interfere in the ques-
tion of the internal administration of the Principalities ; they
shall adopt a definitive permanent system demanded by their
geographical position, and no impediment can be made to
their fortifying, in the interest of their safety, in such manner
as they may deem advisable, their territory against foreign
aggression. _

-In exchange for the strong places and territories occupied by
the allied armies, Russia consents to a rectification of her fron-
tier with Turkey in Europe. It would commence in the vi-
cinity of Chotym, follow the line of the mountains, which
extended in a south-easterly direction, and terminate at Lake
Sasik. The line shall be definitively regulated by the general
treaty, and the conceded territory would return to the Princi-
palities and to the suzerainty of the Porte.