The Press.
London, England, 1855-10-20 00:00:00

FRENCH VIEW OF THE ASSAULT ON Tlil

-
REDAN.
,
TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS."
Sir,—My attention has been called to an article in
THE PRESS of the 13th inst., in which it is stated
that " a letter frown Professor Aytoun, dated frolu
raris Oct. Ist, first publisked in an Edinburgh part,

OcTonn 20, 1855.

has been copied into some London journals, and
o.een much canvassed, as it gives the French military
view of the British assault on the Redan."
I have not seen the letter which is referred to, but
I can assure you that itoires not written by me ; and I
sm not aware that lOisCher person of my name is
a professor i• any university. As Ido not wish to
be held responsible for the opinions of others, you will
oblige me by giving a place to this note in the
columns of your nest publication.—l remain, sir,
,your very obedient servant,
W. EDMONDSTOUNE AYTGUN.
Eccles Thornhill, Oct. 17, 1855.

[The letter in question, though commented on by
us, was copied from our morning contemporaries,
and therefore we are not responsible for the error.—
.ED. PRESS.]

BRITISH DINNERS IN GERMANY.
TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS."

Sir,—The Tinges and other journals remark that
the speech of Sir Alexander Malet at Hombourg was
meals on neutral ground, and at a private dinner.
Hombourg is nine inile3 from Frankfort and the Diet
to which the British Minister is accredited. It is
four and a half from Bonames, the frontier village.
The dinner was of authorised publicity. British
officers of high standing and repute were amongst
the stewards, or committee so called, and the re-
spective places at the table were officially marked.
The i'rench Resident and secretaries at the Diet were
invited, and it was publicly announced at the Kursaal,
again and again, that the English Minister would
take the cbair. The report of the speeches in the
English journals was correct, excepting always that
the observations were softened down from a con-
sciousness that a gross mistake had been made.—
tours obediently,

A CONSERVATIVE, ONE WHO WAS PRESENT
AT THE DINNER.

Oct 16.

The following letters were left over from last week.
" A" is, for reasons we dare say he will comprehend,
omitted :
MINISTERIAL POLICY.
TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS."

Sir,—My signature will show you that I belong to
n particular class, and you may be inclined to ask
why I do not send my notions to the journal of that
.class ? I reply, that that journal seems to me to be
.swept away with the general tide of pOpular delusion,
and hence I cannot hope for admission to the fol-
lowing complainings. Your paper, only, seems to me
to be showing signs of sanity just now, and I propose,
therefore, to try if you will find room for some views
.of the war which are not popular. I have long
viewed the conduct of the Government with wonder
and alarm ; yet I have not the least sympathy with
Mr. Bright, and Mr. Gladstone I think the worst of
the three. Can there be.a fourth course ? Yes, I
*hall soon show you that there can ; and show also,
I trust, that it is the course of common sense. Nor
;am I quite in the position of the man who said that
he thought all the world mad, and the world
thought him mad ; and so the world, being the
litrongest, shut him up in Bedlam. There are
rational men going about. the world, who coincide
with my views. I lately fell in with that honest John
Bull, Henry Kemble, late M.P. for East Surrey, and
'found him thinking much as I thought. Nor is he
the only one by many hundreds.
Briefly to explain my position, then, .I will admit at
'once that Russia gave us cause for war ; and that as
she invaded Turkey, we had a right to send, and
probably were called upon to send, substantial help
to our ally. I therefore differ from Mr. Bright at
the outset. And I differ still more from Mr. Glad-
stone, inasmuch as I think that whatever course we
took, should have been taken deliberately and with a
view to a'settled policy.
But now, eschewing alike the Bright and the
Gladstone policy, I come t 3 the system, or rather
no-system, adopted by the Government. This seems
to me to have consisted, mainly, in a reckless dis-
regard of the commonest rules of life. No school-
boy can play. a decent game at chess without con-
sidering, at each step, what will probably be the
next two or three moves. The British Government
seems to me to have disregarded, from the first, this
commonplace rule.
Now, what has chiefly given me a sinking of heart,
all through this campaign, has been, that I could
not discover that either the Ministers themselves, or
any of their friends or abettors, bad the slightest
idea as to what the next move was to be. I will not
go back to our position in March last, or in July. I
am content to take our present position, and to ask,
Does our Government, do any of their supporters,
now know what the next move is to be ? I have put
the question to members of the Legislature—l have
put it to Ministerial journalists—but I can get no
answer. The cry is, "Drive the Russians out of the
Crimea." Well, I ask, and when this is done—which
may be done, perhaps, in a month, or in the course