The Press.
London, England, 1855-02-10 00:00:00

134

MANSION-HOUSE BANQUET.
THE Lord Mayor on Tuesday evening gave his cus-
tomary annual banquet to the aldermen and other
civic dignitaries at the Mansion house. The occa-
sion, however, derived its chief interest from the
presence of Admiral Sir C. Napier and Lord Cardigan,
who had been invited as guests, and both of whom
made speeches after dinner, in which they referred
to the momentous operations wherein they had been
respectively engaged. The gallant admiral spoke
first, and began by contrasting the positions which
himself and Lord Cardigan occupied in public
opinion. He said :

If an officer having returned from a foreign service like
my noble friend, after having performed prodigies of
valour, and been received in the manner in which he has
been this day, must feel proud on this occasion, how must
I feel, who have returned from my command having
scarcely performed any service at all, and been censured
by the Government, and dismissed from my command ?
(Cries of " No, no.") I repeat, dismissed from my com-
mand. I have no doubt it will be expected by the present
company that some account should be given of the very
small services performed in the Baltic by that magnificent
fleet which was sent out from this country. (Hear, hear.)
The fleet was magnificent, certainly, to a degree. It was
very badly manned, and worse disciplined ; but, however,
we managed to take it to the Baltic without pilots, without
charts—all the officers being perfectly unacquainted with
the Baltic and the difficulties of the navigation ; and we
succeeded in getting there in perfect safety. Now, the first
object I had in view was to endeavour, if possible, to
satisfy the wishes of the people of this country. I was
quite aware, when I went there, that one-tenth part
of what was expected could never be performed ; but never-
theless I was determined to do the best I possibly could
under the circumstances. When we first went out my

view was to give the Russians every chance of putting
to sea. I divided my fleet into two squadrons—l left one
in the Gulf of Finland, and the other not very far off from
the island of Gothland. However, the Russians did not
think proper to come out. Our next object was to go to
Cronstadt and see what was to be done there. We accord-
ingly proceeded, with the assistance of a French squad-
ron, to do all that we possibly could in order to attack the
enemy. But we found the thing totally impracti-
cable. In the first place, there was not depth of water
enough for the ships, and in the next place the batteries
were of such strength that it was impossible to attempt to
attack the place without the certainty almost of destruction
to our fleet. I think, therefore, that I acted the prudent
part in the course I pursued. The French admiral entirely
concurred in my opinion, and we returned to our former
anchorage, and thence went to I.3omarsund. 1 had written
before to the English Government, proposing to attack
Bomarsund. I wanted no other troops to enable me to go
there—l had troops enough ; but the French admiral
thought it more proper to have some. The French Go-
vernment sent out ten thousand troops accordingly. I re-
peat that I did not want them—they would much better
have been employed at Sebastopol. I only asked for one
or two thousand men to make the thing more sure ; but I
could have done the work without them; and I wrote
home to that effect. However, they sent us out ten thou-
sand men. It is needless for me to say how quickly the
thing was accomplished. (A laugh.) Bomarsund was
taken in no time, with little loss, and a great fortification
was destroyed—or rather a series of fortifications which
extended a considerable distance over the Baltic.

In vindication of what had been represented as his
subsequent inactivity during the remainder of the
s mson in the Baltic, Admiral Napier added:—

I now come to a matter of greater consequence, and I
think it my duty to make it known as much as I can do
here, because lam not in Parliament. I have been very
much censured by the Government. Great clamour has
been raised against me, and instead of the Government
discountenancing that clamour, they have actually sup-
ported and encouraged it. The moment it was known in
England and France that the French army intended to
return home, seeing that it was impossible at that season
of the year to perform any further service without risking
her Majesty's fleet, the Government became dissatisfied,
and they ordered a council of war to be held. I dare say
nobody ever heard yet of a council of war fighting.
(Laughter.) However, we did not want that to drive us
on. But the whole subject was carefully and thoroughly
examined by a marshal of France, a French admiral, a
general of French engineers, and also by no less than
three British admirals; and they all unanimously decided
that it was perfectly impossible to proceed further ; and
that had we done so we should have encountered the risk
of almost certain defeat and loss. The British Admiralty
was not satisfied with that, but they listened to the advice
of an officer of engineers, and I was ordered to hold
another council of war, to ascertain whether French
admirals and English officers would abandon their own
opinion and adopt that of the Admiralty. The English
officers felt insulted at that proposal ; they thought it was
not necessary to hold another council of war, and the
French admiral very properly refused to join in such a
proceeding. He said, " I have already given my opinion,
and it is not the opinion of any general of engineers,
whether he be English, French, German, of of any other
country, that will make me change my opinion of an
attack purely naval in its character." The Government
at home was not satisfied with that. The French general
of engineers sent home another report, still more bare
than the first, and it is unnecessary for me to state that we
all concurred in condemning that opinion also, and the
French army returned to France. I believe, and have no
hesitation in saying, that had they gone up the Gulf of
Finland again, instead of returning home, our fleet would
have been totally lost. Not satisfied however with that, I