The Press.
London, England, 1855-01-13 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

derable amelioration since the last-received letters
from the Crimea were written, but the picture drawn
in them of the then position of domestic affairs among
the British troops is very deplorable. The following
extracts are from the correspondence of the Herald :
There is one gratuitous piece of neglect, against which
all—officers and men—do complain, and in terms not to
be mistaken or slighted over. I allude to the utter indif
ference which the majority of our generals show whether
their men are well or ill, alive or dead. I have refrained
from noticing this point for some time, but the discontent
it has occasioned in the camp is now so bitter and wide
spread that I am certain it must already have transpired in
private letters. Every regimental officer repeats almost
the same remarks, and first and foremost among the gene-
rals thus spoken of is the commander-in•chief, Lord Raglan.
The complaint is that he is never seen—never quits his
house—never makes his presence known to the troops,
except by occasionally issuing a gene‘ral order. He does
not know what the troops suffer, fee he takes care not to
witness it. They are hungry, cold, and miserable—yet not
once has he ever been among them to show himself or to
utter a few cheering words, the recollection of which would
for many a day lighten the men's hearts, by showing that
they were not totally forgotten by their leaders, whose
names they have made illustrious. If there is one officer
out here more ignorant than any other of the feelings, the
real wants and sufferings of the army, that one is Lord
Raglan ; and this ignorance can be his only excuse for the
cold, the almost studied neglect with which all ranks, except
those on his immediate staff, are treated. At the smallest
possible discomfort to himself, Lord Raglan might have
become one of the most popular commanders that ever
lived. Everything was in his favour, and at first he was
liked in spite of himself ; but now the opportunity has
passed ; and I will venture to say that, of all the recollec-
tions of bitter hardships which will survive this campaign,
none will be more bitter or more enduring than the memory
of the utter coldness and neglect with which Lord Raglan
has treated the troops.
am sorry to say that the scurvy has appeared rather ex-
tensively among our troops. Wet and salt provisions,
with no vegetables, have brought this formidable disease
among us. This result has long been foreseen bythe naval
men, who knew that the troops were in the habit of frying
their pork and biscuits together, and there is no manner
of preparing provisions which more rapidly produces scurvy
than this. Yet the men still go on, and the scurvy has
begun to spread, and will spread throughout the troops un-
less immediate and proper precautions are taken to arrest
the disease. Fresh provisions, lime juice, and, above all,
fresh vegetables, must be got ; for, if it once obtains a foot-
ing, it will knock up two-thirds of our army in a month.
Varna could supply sufficient live stock to give the whole
force here three days' fresh provisions each week, and Varna
is within thirty hours' steaming from this place. But while
our commissariat get salt provisions to their hand they
will never trouble themselves about any other, unless some
stringent order to that effect is received from head-quarters.
The latter contingency is remote, and not very probable, as
Lord Raglan is the last person in camp likely to hear of the
presence of this terrible disease, which, if unchecked, would
infallibly ruin us all.
- - • - • •

BALAKLAVA, Dec. 18.—I floundered in here this morn-
ing through such an amount of mud as quite baffles my
comprehension to know where it could have all come from.
Compared with the dull marshy solitude of the camp,where
one almost expects to meet bitterns between the tents, Ba-
laklava is quite a metropolis; in fact, it is called par excel
fence " going to town." I do not think there is another
village in the world which, for its size, could show the
same amount of business, excitement, dirt, and misery
as is perpetually going forward in this little collection of
huts, which all the world is talking of under the name of
Belaklava. Here, indeed, one sees war. Not as the
English are accustomed to picture it—a thing of pride and
pomp ; but war as it really is—privation and misery un-
speakable. The harbour of Balaklava is now like the basin
of the London Docks, so crowded is it with shipping of all
kinds ; and from every one of these vessels, at all times of
the day, supplies are being constantly landed. Along a
flat, dirty causeway, rather beneath the level of the harbour,
are boats and barges of all kinds, laden with biscuit, bar-
rels of beef, pork, rum, bales of " winter clothing," siege
guns, boxes of Minie ammunition, piles of shell, trusses
of hay, and sacks of barley and potatoes. These are
landed in the wet, and stacked in the mud, until all the
provisions that will spoil are sufficiently impregnated with
both to be fit for issuing to the men. The motley crowd
that is perpetually wading about among these piles of un-
eatable eatables, is something beyond description. The
very ragged, gaunt, hungry-looking men, with matted
beard and monstachios, features grimed with dirt, and torn
greatcoats, stiff with successive layers of mud—these men
whose whole appearance speaks toil and suffering, and who
instantly remind you of the very lowest and most impo-
verished class of Irish peasantry—are the picked soldiers
from our different foot regiments, strong men selected to
carry up provisions for the rest of the camp. Mixed with
these are about 200 horsemen, whose lank, feeble steeds,
covered with huge " yaws," seem barely able to move about
with their riders through the thick, tenacious mud. The
horsemen themselves are all pretty much alike—that is,
they are all ragged and all muddy, yet on examining these
men closely you perceive that some have dingy brass hel-
mets on their beads, others the small Scotch cap of the
" Greys ;" the remnants of red trousers indicate a Hussar;
while a headdress curiously misshapen discovers a Lancer.
From all these facts you suddenly rush to the conclusion
that the queer•looking cortege is cavalry, or, rather, all
that remains of the nine fine regiments which two months
ago landed in the Crimea. Yes, the let Royal Dragoons,
the Scots Greys, the bth Dragoon Guards, the tith Ennis-
killen Dragoons, the 17th Lancers. the 4th Light Dragoons,
the Bth Hussars, the 18th Light Dragoons, and 11th Hussars
—that formerly had an effective strength of some 2,600 sabres,
cannot now among them all mount 200 men in a state fi

SATURDAY,

e :
for even temporary service. The Scots Greys are, name.
rically, the strongest regiment out here. It mounts 70
men, out of which only about 25 men and horses
s are
spoken
fi
for service in the field. For some three or four weeks past
we have known that our cavalry, as an arm of the service,
was no more ; but still, out of compliment, it was p
of as a division, and was therefore, on the whole, a plea.
stun fiction to believe in. But now all our cherished
fancies are destroyed—the term " cavalry " has no signi.
fixation ; the 15 or 20 men remaining out of each regiment
are all formed into one corps, and used in carrying biscuit
up to the camp. Each soldier leads one horse, which is
always such a mass of bones, sores, and general dilapida.
Lions, as would excite the indignation of that most polite
of philanthropists, the secretary of the Society for the Pre.
vention of Cruelty to Animals. The led horse carries one
bag of biscuit, and frequently is unable to bear this weight
(81)1b.) more than half the distance to the camp, when they
fall and get rid of two burdens—their lives and their bis-
cuits—together. Among these cavalry stalk all kinds of
officers, some mounted, some on foot. The rough heavy.
looking men in tarpaulin coats, sou'-wester caps, and high
boots, are generally officers in the Guards The very
"seedy" looking individuals, in dilapidated garments,
with breadbags tied round their legs, are officers from
the naval brigade. The mounted men, who most re-
semble shipwrecked mariners, who have stranded some•
where on a mud bank and waded through it to the shore,
are cavalry officers. Among these motley characters, gen.
tlemen walk about with great-coats made out of their
blankets by the simple process of cutting holes in them
for their arms. These garments, though primitive-looking,
are warm, and to obtain that desideratum there is nothing
one would not wear in the Crimea. Some of the common
soldiers mount Russian great-coats, others have extraor
dinary-looking habilaments, made somehow out of morsels
of old sails—the remnants of the wrecks which have drifted
in from outside the harbour. Just around the landing.
places, or rather what are supposed to act as Luch, are
crowds of lounging Turks, who concentrate all their feeble
energies upon purloining a morsel of biscuit from the bags
which are piled up on shore. In nine cases out of ten
these bungling attempts at larceny are detected by the
Turkish official, who, of course, is not hungry, and then
the famished Osmanli gets " paid " over the head with a
thick stick in a manner which commands immediate at.
tention from all within bearing of the blows. With this
rebuke the Turk is dismissed to seek out horseflesh, or
starve at leisure. Seriously speaking, the miseries and
sufferings of these Turks are beyond all description. They
are now dying at the rate of 300 per diem, in this village
alone. They are dying of positive starvation ! The Turks
complain that half their effective men are employed in
burying the rest; but even a London sexton would be
astonished at the idea which they (generally so careful of
their dead) entertain of a grave. Any hollow from which
sufficient earth can be scraped to strew over a corpse is
considered sufficient. When once the more prominent
features of the body are covered the rites of interment are
over. It is with reluctance that I mention such a hor-
rible subject, but the truth is that the bodies of the Turks
are hardly buried before the wild dogs which abound
round 13alaklava root them up and devour them during the
night. These ferocious animals have now become so bold
as to collect in crowds round the Turks who are engaged
in burying their departed comrades on the hillside, and
nothing will drive them from the spot. Any sanitary
officer—and the appointment of such I have suggested
over and over again—would prevent these appalling scenes,
by taking care that the Turks buried their dead at a proper
depth. If we are here in the hot weather our disregard
of this precaution will revenge itself, but unfortunately not
upon those who are really guilty. 1 am certain that lam
within the mark when I state that the carcases of at least
1,400 or 1,500 horses lie about among the tents of the
English camp, putrefying and poisoning the air for miles
round. 1)o our authorities seriously think that the efflu-
vium arising from such a mass of corruption is not in-
jurious to the men ? or, if it is injurious, why are they not
buried, or destroyed in some way ? I am certain we should
soon find a great diminution in sickness if a sanitary
officer—a medical gentleman would be best—were ap-
pointed to each division, to see that all caresses, offal, and
ether poisonous filth were regularly covered with earth.
No words can give an idea of the stench that prevails in
our camp.

The following sketch of the armies, including that
of the Turks, is drawn by a correspondent of the
Cologne Gazette. It may, perhaps, be a little over-
tinted on one side, but ou the whole seems to be the
production of an intelligent and impartial observer.
The letter was forwarded from Constantinople on
Dec. 25:

Chersonese, where most merchant ships land, is the
nearest point to the French camp. Here everything has
an appearance of care and comfort. On every side the
French have laid down paved loads, along which, despite
the unfathomable mud of the Crimea, they transport with
the greatest ease their guns and provisions, and march
without difficulty from one point to another. Their huts
..id tents stand in regular rows, and at the entrance
of each street there are signposts to indicate the way.
strict camp police is established, and prevents the areumu•
lation of dirt and rubbish. Between the tents innumerabl'
baking-ovens are erected—some of stone, others portable
—in which fresh bread is being continually baked, so
that the French soldier is not obliged, like the English
soldier, to content himself with biscuit, which en.
genders scurvy. Without awaiting the providence of
their Government, they have erected warm huts, from
wood collected and partly taken from demolished Tartar
huts, and the smoke of their chimneys curls up plea.
sanity in the air. Under these circumstances there is
much more joviality in the French than in the English or
Turkish camp. The men talk, tell tales, sing, and work
merrily. The clothing of officers and men is as clean as if

JANUA

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