The Press.
London, England, 1855-01-06 00:00:00

" OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT."

IT is very commonly reported, and very generally
believed, that "Our Own Correspondent" of a leading
journal has lately been unceremoniously dismissed
from the British camp before Sebastopol. The
reasons given are numerous in detail, but unite in
one point, viz., that his statements upon several
occasions have been (to use the mildest terms)
grossly exaggerated, and hence his sudden and
immediate dismissal from the camp. That the
Commander-in-Chief of the British army has a
perfect right to dismiss any amateur from the camp
no one will be bold enough to deny, and especially
if the latter, in his capacity as correspondent to a
public newspaper, has chosen to make statements
or give information which might be of advantage to
the enemy, on the one hand, or of serious prejudice
to the " esprit " of our army on the other. The
Commander-in-Chief is as absolute in his power over
civilians in the camp as the captain of a frigate
would be on board his own ship. Neither, on the
other hand, can we blame the " Correspondent," paid
as he is for the information which he collects ; but a
little reflection may lead us, perhaps, to hesitate
before we accept his statements. The fact is, that a
man unaccustomed to military discipline and to
that predominant sense of DUTY which it creates, is
more than likely to exaggerate the evils of a cam-
paign—he cannot comprehend this sense of duty
which enables the soldier to suffer so much, and it
must be allowed that to destroy this sense is a very
questionable proceeding, and one not likely to meet
with compliance at headquarters. Hence the dis-
missal of "Our Own Correspondent," and hence the
sudden and violent attacks which have simultane-
onsly appeared in the columns of a leading journal
upon an eminent military officer in high command.
It is a singular coincidence, and worthy of notice,
that the discovery of "want of head," and the receipt
of innumerable letters from the Crimea expressive
of the same opinion, should occur exactly at the
same time that we hear " Onr Correspondent "
starts to Constantinople for the benefit of his
health. "There's magic in the web on't," or, per-
haps, some of that material out of which magic is
composed.

MAJOR-GENERAL LORD ROXRBY, late of the Scots
Fusilier Guards, and a distinguished Waterloo officer,
accompanied by Major-General Barnard, late of the
Grenadier Guards, left Montague-house, Portman-
square, on Thursday for Plymouth, where both
gallant officers, appointed to the command of divi-
sions in the Crimea, were to embark to-day for the
seat of war.

NUMEROUS applications have been made at the
Bank during the present week for the new form of
note, under the impression that it was to be issued
on the Ist of January. The printing of the new
form commenced on that day, but it willnotbe issued
until the stock of notes of prior date is exhausted.
THE EARL OF DESART has lately served his
tenantry with notice that he would not henceforth
permit them to grow potatoes, as they were a failing
crop.

JANUARY 6$ 1855.

THE WAR.

The French Government have received and pub-
lished in the Moniteur the following telegraphic
despatch, dated Dec. 27, from the Charge d'Affaires
of France at Constantinople :
General Canrobert writes to me on the 25th:—" We
shall very soon be in a position to assume the offensive.
We are renovating our condition much faster and more
effectually than the enemy can do with his. We are full of
confidence."
The French commander has also forwarded to
Marshal Vaillent, the Minister of War, his chronicle
of siege operations down to the 22nd ult. He re-
ports as follows.:—
The bad weather has been prolonged until now, with rare
and brief intervals of improvement; nevertheless we con.
tinue as much as possible the work of inclosing the place
with our trenches, and although the rains make the move-
ment of vehicles difficult, all the siege works are growing
to completeness and consolidation.
The two armies reciprocally waist each other. To the
English army I am indebted for the conveyance, by water,
of nearly all the cavalry at my disposal in the Crimea, and
on my part, I have placed at Lord Raglan's disposal sump•.
ter horses for removing his sick to Balaklava. and teams
for the conveyance of his supplies. These exchanges con-
tribute to keep up excellent relations and perfect cordiality
between the two armies.
Hardly a night passes in which our advanced works are
not attacked in a sortie of the enemy. These attempts
generally cost the assailants dear. Yesterday, at 2 o'clo.ik
in the morning, the Russians, after making a sortie against
the third parallel of the English, who vigorously repulsed
them, made a sirnilardemonstration against the centre and
left of our works. Received with a very lively and well.
directed tire, they retired before our soldiers, who pursued
them with the bayonet. The enemy left a great number of
dead upon the field.
In order to render the protection of the trenches more
efficient, I have organised a corps of volunteers, whose
peculiar duty it is to reconnoitre the approaches to our
works daring the night. This institution completes that
of the sharpshooters (francptirears) organised at the coin-
mencement of the siege, and who do duty by day in our
trenches themselves. They have already done a great deal
of harm to the enemy.
As I have already announced, our works now extend to
the bottom of the Quarantine Bay. The enemy shows that
he is not inattentive to our progress on that side, and his
guns hotly dispute the ground with us, where we are
obliged, as we are nearly everywhere, to dig into the solid
rock. But our progress is not the less real, and we remain
in possession.
I believe that, on the left bank of the Tschernaya, the
enemy has only a few soldiers posted to observe our posi-
tions at a distance. A movement has evidently been pro-
duced in the Russian army. the probable cause of which is
the debarkation of the Turkish troops still going on at
Eupatoria. I shall soon receive positive information on
this head.
Although the number of the sick has slightly increased,
in consequence of the constant dampness in which we live,
the sanitary state of the army is satisfactory, and the moral
spirit of the troops is perfect.
Although the soldiers have been heavily inconvenienced
by the rains, there has yet been no cold weather ; the snow,
which for a long time past has covered the tops of the
mountains in the interior, has not appeared in the hill.
playa we occupy, and the thermometer has not once fallen
below zero. These general conditions are improved by the
:are we take of our soldiers ; and, thanks to the 2rudent
foresight of the Emperor and his Government, the army
enjoys a relative degree of comfort that makes it gaily sill •
port with a light heart its fatigues.
The number of the sick in our military hospitals at Con-
stantinople amounts to 3,794, of whom 1,387 are wounded.
Out of this total, 266 are Russians. I have established a
convalescent depot in the Crimea, near the Bay of Karatch.
Here the men who leave the army ambulances, and who
unly require a little repose before they return to their duty,
will have their recovery promoted. This measure will
liminishi our draughts to Constantinople.
H. L H. Prince Napoleon, still detained at Constantino-
ple by the illness that compelled him to leave the Crimea,
wished to come and rejoin us. I was hound to oppose this
return, which compromised the health of the Prince.
(Signed) CANZOBERT.
Despatches have been received in St. Petersburg
from Prince Menschikoff, announcing that nothing
remarkable had taken place at Sebastopol between
the 20th and 20th of Decemberrwith the exception of
'wo sorties on the 21st. • In one of these sorties eleven
Russian officers and thirty-three soldiers were made
prisoners, and a considerable number killed. In
consequence of the bad weather, the siege operations
were progressing slowly.
The only despatch published on this side, is the
following brief letter from Lord Raglan to the Duke
of Newcastle, which was printed in an Extraordinary
Gazette on Saturday last:—

Before Sebastopol, Dec. 13, 1851.
Your grace will be happy to hear that the wea-
ther has continued fine since I bad the honour to
address your grace on the Bth instant.
The enemy has made no movement of importance,
and nothing of any material consequence has taken
place before Sebastopol.
The Russians moved upon our advanced pickets,
in front of our left attack, the night before last, in
some force ; but they were instantly driven back by a

THE PRESS.

detachment of the Ist battalion Rifle Brigade, on the
right, and by one of the 46th on the left. The firing,
however, was kept up for some time, and the 3rd and
4th divisions were held in readiness to support, in
case their assistance should have been required.
I inclose the return of casualties to the 10th inst.
RAGLAN.
Accounts have been received from Constantinople
to the 25th ult. At that date, a number of wooden
houses for the troops had arrived there. Eighteen
battalions of Turks had disembarked at Eupatoria.
When the remainder of the 30,000 shall have
arrived, great operations were to be commenced.
The, weather had improved, and navigation was again
regular.
From the Crimea it is reported that the extension
of the allied lines very much interrupted the com-
munications and the transport of provisions between
Sebastopol and the Russian corps near Balaklava.
The allies had 250 guns in battery, ready to open
fire against Sebastopol. General de Montebello has
delivered to General Canrobert twenty crosses of
officers, and 125 chevaliers in the Legion of Honour,
to be distributed to the army. These letters mention
also the arrival of the first detachment of Messrs.
Pete and Co.'s navvies, who without loss of time
proceeded on to Balaklava to commence their railway
operations.
The Moniteur has the following respecting
the diversion which Omer Pacha is Lto effect in the
Crimea:—
We have made known the resolution of the Sultan to
send to the Crimea, under the orders of Omer Pacha, a
corps destined to second the operations of our generals-in-
chief, by means of an important diversion in the rear of the
Russian army. The news we receive under date of the
25th ult. from Constantinople announces that a ministerial
letter, addressed to the Ottoman generalissimo, enjoins
him to hasten the embarkation of his treops, and to
repair immediately in person to the allied generals,in order
to concert with them his future movements.
Respecting the recent conduct of Omer Pacha, we
find the following statement in a letter from Con-
stantinople, dated December 25 :
General Canrobert and Field Marshal Lord Raglan had
demanded of the Porte that Omer Pacha should head the
reinforcements conveyed to the seat of war, with a view of
operating a diversion on the right flank of the Russian
army. To this the Porte assented necessarily without
hesitation, and transmitted to the Serdar the requisite
orders to this effect. Omer Pacha, however, to the utter
astonishment of all, refused to conform to the instructions
of his Government, founding his objections on positive
information from the camp respecting the critical position
of the allied armies, and his reluctance to take part in an
enterprise likely to result in absolute failure, and finally
demanded permission to return to the capital and confer
with the Grand Vizier on this important subject. On the
receipt of this astounding intelligence, the Grand Council
assembled at once. and in pursuance of a resolution
unanimously adopted, orders have been transmitted re-
quiring the Turkish generalissimo to proceed forthwith to
Sebastopol at the head of his contingent, and there to
expose to the commanders-in-chief of the allied armies his
motives and opinions—the Porte being no longer in a
position to modify a resolution which had been adopted in
common with them. These stringent orders were yester-
day forwarded to Omer Pacha, and which, it is hoped, will
finally terminate this painful little episode.
Admirals Dundas and Hamelin were both on their
return home, having left Admirals Lyons and Bruat
'ln command of the fleets. Before quitting the sta-
tion, Admiral Dundas addressed the following letter
to the officers and men belonging to the British
squadron
H.M.S. Britannia, in the Bosphorus,
22nd December, 1854.
My term of service as commander-in-chief in the Me-
diterranean and Black Sea having drawn to a close, I am
about to return to England and give up the command of
this fleet.
During the past year many trying circumstances have
occurred—pestilence in its most aggravated form ; action
with the enemy against land defences such as ships
hardly ever encountered; and a tempest of the most awful
iolence.
In all those events the good conduct and gallantry of
the fleet have been evinced and proved.
In taking an affectionate leave of the officers, seamen,
and marines of the fleet, I can hereafter experience no
higher gratification than the assurance that. they preserve
their high character for discipline, enterprise, and devo-
tion to oar Sovereign and country.
J. W. D. DUNDAB.

711ANAGENIENT OF THE RECRUITS.
The reckless manner in which the new recruits
from England are treated on their arrival in the
Crimea, with the result in too many instances of '
decimating their numbers by sickness almost before
they have actually reached the scene of service, is
thus described by a "Field Officer "of distinction in
a letter published by the Times :
Camp before Sebastopol, Dec. 12.—We are going on
much as usual, receiving reinforcements, sometimes by a
regiment or two, sometimes by draughts, hit in both cases
burying them or sending them to hospital quite as fast as
they arrive. A ship comes in to lialsklava with men on
board, it is raining in torrents, but a staff officer in snug
quarters shows his zeal and his smart manner of doing his
work by sending an order for their immediate disembarka
tion and joining the camp. It is promptly obeyed. A.

hundred or a thousand men, as the ease may be, wet
throngh and through, and np to the tips of their shakos in
mud, sometimes without blankets, often without tents,
take np their ground at a late hour, and there they lie.
If they have something to eat, they are lucky; if they
have not, they go without. They grumble and swear Tin-
lently, and that is all they have for it. They thus begin to
learn to be reckless at starting. Their frightful exposure
brings on certain disease, and in a few days the dying and
the sick are the exclamation of every one. Lord Raglan (if
Lord Raglan be really here, and not in London) is never
seen. Whether he knows anything of how things are guing
on or not .I do not know; lam sure he ought to do so. I
have drawn anything but an exaggerated picture of what
happens over and over again. The 9th Regiment marched
up without a medical officer at all ; they had several cues
of serious illness the next day, and when a medical
officer came there was no medicine. The medicine-chest
had not accompanied the regiment, because they had no
draught animais or means of carrying it. This is precisely
the way in which everything is conducted, and yet Lord
Raglan has been made a field marshal. The blood of his
otfi:ers kind men has won it for him, and not his own
abilities. lam told Sir De Lacy Evans will speak out,
and I most earnestly hope he may. Re can make
great exposures, and do much good, if he will. It is
generally understood that he has gone home in the
greatest disgust with everything. It will hardly be
credited that, although the exposed state of our right
flank before the lnkermann battle was the subject of
frequent comment, Lord Raglan never once rode over the
ground, or knew anything of it until atter the Russians
attacked us.
Everything about the French contrasts with us most
strongly. Their sick are not numerous; their men are
always clean and uniformly dressed. They seem to have
good rations, cook them well, and seem a happy set. Oar
men are a mass of dirt, rags, and misery. They seem sunk
in despondency and indifference ; nothing moves them but
an alarm, for they have no hope bat to fight it out and get
it over. They think, poor fellows, that another good fight
must decide it. Our sick yesterday under uwvas, excite
sive of the shiploads at Balaklava and in the hospitals of
the Bosphorus, were :1,181. The French, with their large
army, take charge of 1,000 of them for us to-day. The
46th Regiment disembarked on the 10th of November 708
strong. They have lost 114 men up to to-day, and they
have at this moment '257 sick. This regiment has neva
yet been engaged with the enemy further than in the
trenches. They lout twelve men iu one day from sickness
alone. I saw six dead bodies lying in their camp this
morning. if things go on as they are doing—and as
the winter advances there is every chance of their being
worse rather than better—we shall have no army left.
The :14th and 90th Regiments have arrived, but, owing to
the want of transport, they are unable to get beyond Bala-
klava. The French have batteries with 147 guns ready to
open on the place at from 200 to 600 yards. They only
wait for us to get up some guns to draw off a portion of the
enemy's fire. If the flue weather we have just now holds
fur but a few days you will soon hear of the assault being
given. The Russians have certainly shown a great want
of enterprise in leaving us so long unmolested, situated as
we are. We are most careless, and court rain over and over
again. The indomitable courage of men and officers alone
saves us. I have never heard of anyone getting an order
yet in any action I have been in. We all do as we like.
We have had two alarms lately—the one last night, the
gusts of wind preceding the storm. We shall have a
decisive affair before long. It is, however, a very dreary
prospect before us. It is said that the Emperor Nicholas
engages to send all that are left of us in the spring away in
a single line-of-battle ship. Our encampment is one mass
of graves and dead bodies of horses and cattle, but there is
no offensive smell. There is a portion of the Russian army
strongly intrenched still in our rear ; but they are on the
right bank of the Tschernaya, and their works command
the bridge that gives us the only means by which they could
be attacked.