The Press.
London, England, 1854-12-09 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

the future before peace was made. The other
plan open to Ministers was to carry on a war
with Russia a routrance till se uccumbed.
Neither of these plans, howehvers, was adopted.
The ports of Russia were not effec
was not k-
all crippled, while our troops were allowed to
remain inactive at Gallipoli and Varna, instead
of uniting with the Turks in the performance
of the duty for which they had ostensibly been
sent out. We thus inflicted no blow whatever
on the enemy. The Russians were allowed to
retire from the Principalities at their leisure,
and they only left them when it suited their
generals to withdraw them to operate against
us in another field. We, moreover, allowed
the Turks to be saddled with a treaty with
Austria, in order to procure us what at best
could be but a negative advantage, and this
fatal treaty has made the carrying on the war
with Russia in an effective manner an impos-
sibility. The Ministry, failing in war, have
thus, by their diplomacy, been the cause of
the destruction at Sebastopol of many thou-
sands of our men.
Such is the manner in which the first plan
open to Minsters has miscarried, and the
mode they dealt with that first plan made the
successful adoption of the second impossible ;
for we think that there is no military man who
knows anything of his professsion who will
not see that the true way to humble Russia
was not to run our heads against the stone
walls of Sebastopol at a period of the year
when, unless it was taken by a coup de main,
the taking it till the spring was a thing next
to impossible, and when the approaching
storms in the Euxine must necessarily deprive
us of the services of the greater portion of our
fleet, without the aid of which the idea of
taking it at all must be a hopeless one. The
only circumstance that could by possibility
have justified such a siege at such a period
would have been the fact of all the forces of
Russia sufficiently near Sebastopol to be capa-
ble of affording aid to it being held in check
or defeated, and all supplies, whether of food
or ammunition, being thus completely cut off ;
but for this end Wallachia and Moldavia must
not only have been cleared of the Russians,
but the command of their resources must have
been held by the allies—resources closed as it
is to the Turks and to us, but of which Russia
appears to have largely availed herself in
moving forward troops to the seat of war.
Bessarabia also must have been occupied, and
the vast magazines that were organised at
Odessa either destroyed—as it seems the Rus-
sian generals ordered they should be in case
of our advance—or secured for the use of the
allies. When this had been done the allies
might have sent a force with safety against
Sebastopol, which must then have fallen with
little loss to us, being thus placed entirely
beyond the reach of support. It may, to be
sure, be still taken, but at what a fearful loss
to the allies ? Put together the useless waste
of life at Varna, the men killed and disabled
in the several battles in the Crimea, and the
numbers doomed to die of disease and inac-
tivity before the place shall fall, and it will be
seen that the loss of life and the waste of
money have been infinitely greater than would
have served for the most triumphantly suc-
cessful campaign; while the only result yet
gained has been a loss of prestige in the eyes
of Europe and the world, which not all the
individual heroism displayed by our troops
can counterbalance, and a loss of money, ships,
and stores, which it will take many a year's
income tax to replace.
There is one point in conclusion which we
would notice, namely, the allegation that the
attack on Sebastopol was the proposition of
the allied commanders, and that for it they,
and not the Ministry, are responsible. To this
we would reply, that if the question of attack-
ing Sebastopol, or doing nothing, accompanied
by an expression of the earnest hope of the
Ministry that they, would do something, was
the question left for the allied commanders'
decision ; then, the matter being put to them
in that shape, the suggestion was equivalent to
a command, and there was nothing left for
them as soldiers but to do what they have
done. But if it be said that the mode of
carrying on the war generally was left to their
unfettered judgment, as it undoubtedly should

have been, and that an unlimited command of
means, whether in men, or money, or supplies,
or carriage, was in the outset granted them, so
as to enable thew to 04irry out any plan of
campaign they !eight please to form ; then
we would unhealtatinely say that nothing 1314,
an admission og I,ord AMMAN'S part that *is
was the case sltould oonvince the public that
it was so, for no wan of military knowledge will
ever bolieve thstt ig laying siege at the season
of the year he did to Sebastopol, he had any-
thing left to him but a choice of evils, and even
of them he was not, we suspect, freely allowed
to choose the least.

DANGER Or )LAYING WITH EDGE-
TOOLS.
WITH the fact before us of a Cabinet totally
destitute of military or naval experience,
and of the War Department entrusted
to the Duke of NEWCASTLE and Mr. SIDNEY
HERBERT, it may be useful to note the evils
that accrued in the last century from permitting
our armies to be mismanaged by mediocre
officials. It is more necessary to do so, as we
perceive that an outcry has been raised on
Sir RICHARD ENGLAND appearing as second in
command under Lord RAGLAN. It is asked
indignantly what are his services, or his pre-
vious exploits; and we may also ask what are
the special antecedents or the peculiar apti-
tudes of the Duke of NEWCASTLE that he
should be placed FIRST in power in the War
Department of the country ?
His Grace has very lately achieved a new
title to distinction. His secretary, Mr. Ito
BEATS, undoubtedly a gentleman of capacity
and diligence, is appoint,o4 to an Under-
Secretaryship ; and Lord ROBERT CLINTON, his
Grace's brother, is appointed to fill the post
thus vacated. This young gentlemen has
certainly yet given no proof of the ability
which would qualify him for the discharge of
duties, at this time more than commonly
onerous ; and, imperfect as the management
of the War-office has hitherto been, it is not
doubted that the change will tend to make it
greatly worse.
The example of the American war, with its
" Iliad of Blunders," ought to be enough to
teach us the folly of leaving our War Depart-
ments subject to minds without genius, and
to statesmen without signal capacity or spe-
cial experience. The disgraces of our gene-
rals at that time may, with few exceptions,
be traced to the fatuity of our Ministers.
Our statesmanship in the Cabinet was
even worse than our strategy in the field.
The intriguing GRAFTON, the feeble HILLS
BOROUGH, the incompetent WEYMOUTH, and the
indolent Lord NORTH, were rivals in imbecility
of administration. When the colonies re-
volted, Lord NORTH sought to quell them by
sending over a few hastily raised Irish regi-
ments to fight against the American rebels.
With uch men at the hel of power, neither
WELL such men at the helm of power, neither
WELLINOTON nor NELSON m could have gained
their glorious names.
We need not dwell on the disgraces of that
time, or on the surrender of BURGOYNE at Sara-
t)ga in 1777, or of CORNWALLIS in York Town
in 1781. A military member of the Pelham-
Clinton family contributed his full share to
the reverses of our American campaigns. The
conduct of Sir HENRY CLINTON at Sandy Hook
has been recorded by Lord CORNWALLIS in
strong terms, and we need not repeat them.
The grandson of the sixth Earl of LINCOLN
displayed those peculiar tendencies which
seem to be innate qualities in the Pelham-
Clinton race. He sought to gain glory by sordid
intrigues. He seduced General ARNOLD to be
tray his post, and employed emissaries to go
amongst the American troops to guarantee
their full payment of arrears of pay, on condi-
tion of their deserting ! The only act of merit
in connection with the official management of
the disgraceful American war was that Sir
HENRY CLINTON WaS—superseded ! His family,
however, did not leave him " without a re-
serve." It enabled him to fall back upon the
representation of Newark ! The military tac-
tics of Sir HENRY CLINTON have been in our