The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 26, 1857.

he desired to fix the attack at two a.m., and 1
without the preliminary bombardment—four
hours earlier. To this change Lord Raglan,
after much vain argument, most unwitlin4ly
assented. His aides-de-camp were sent
galloping over the country, and the troops
were started at two o'clock in the morning
instead of at six. Some clue to this remark-
able conduct on the part of the French may be
found in this fact:—The Emperor Napoleon,
anxious that General St. Jean D'A ngely should
be appointed to the command of the assault-
ing columns charged with the capture of the
Malakoff, telegraphed instructions accord-
ingly to Pelissier, which, necessitating impor-
tant changes in his arrangements, male the
French general-in-chief so savagely indignant
at being interfered with that confusion and
contradictory orders on both sides became the
chief features of that semi-night attack, in
which both French and English most signally
failed, and from which they neither of them
won honour or glory, or obtained any solid or
substantial result.
The failure broke Lord Raglan's heart,
for he felt that in altering his plans, and in
yielding to the instructions of Marshal Pelis-
sier, lay the main cause of failure.
A few days had only elapsed when Lord
Raglan fell ill, and died, unexpectedly to all
save a few who saw huw exertion, anxiety, and
sorrow had in a day shattered him, so as to
leave but little how! of his recovery. Cetait
un grand personnage, used to be the constant
remark of the French. His manner and
address, gentle and winning, with all the
highborn politesse and prestige of a "Rohan."
was united to a great heart which, both in the
Peninsula and Crimea, despised danger and
death, when duty and honour were before
him.

It Sir James Alexander slurs over the
causes which led to the failure of the 18th of
June, he suppresses in the most unaccount-
able way for an independent officer all mention
of the criminal blunder of Sir James Simpson,
who, in submitting to Pelissier, relinquished
the claim of the British army for a share in
the capture of the Malakoff. Sir James Alex-
ander consoles himself for our defeat in the
Redan by attributing it to a decree of Divine
Providence. This is a ready consolation, and
an easy way of avoiding detail, but there was
not a man in the British army who did not feel
most acutely our position on the Bth September.
There was but one answer to have been given
to Pelissier when he proposed that we should
take the Redan and the French the Malakoff?
" Non, non, Monsieur, we have for months
" been shelling the Malakoff for you ; we
" have for months been working in the right
" attack under a heavy fire night after night
"in the Quarries and fifth parallel. More
" than a year ago Sir J. Burgoyne said, the
" Malakoff once taken the town must fall.
" Let us share the cream of the enterprise as
" ww•e have had a full share of its dangers up
"to the present time. Let the attack on the
" Nlalakoti be a mutual one. Let the assault-
" ing columns be formed of English as well as
"of French We will try alone at the same
" time to take the Redan, but we insist upon
" a share in the glories of the Malakoff." This
should have been Sir James Simpson's reply.
Every motive of justice and dignity, policy
and prudence, dictated such a demand. Alas !
Sir James Simpson could not muster sufficient
French even to say Non, and we need not
dwell upon the result. The French took the
key of the position, and, in consequence of
guns not having previously been opened on
the Redan, to silence those four accursed
Russian guns which swept the glacis (a
measure of vital consequence to us, but left
undone, because it would have aroused every
soul in the Malakoff, and made it a very
different place fur the French to take), the
heads of the companies of our force which
tiled out of the fifth parallel were destroyed in
detail. The embrasures of the Redan were
glutted with our best and bravest blood, the
Malakoff was captured, and we were driven out
of the Redan.
We have done now with Sir James Alex•
ander, and in parting with him we would
earnestly recommend those writers in posse
upon the Crimean war, of which we have said
Sir James Alexander is a fair type, to take