The Press.
London, England, 1854-12-23 00:00:00

FOREIGN MERCENARIES.

THE following indignantly-eloquent remonstrance
has been addressed to the Times by the distinguished
historian of the Peninsular war :

Sir,—The Duke of Newcastle, with a strange prasump•
tion, told his brother lords that, except Lord Hardiuge, uo
officer of capacity and experience remained in England
with whom he could consult to avoid the errors he had
committed as a War Minister—all were in the Crimes !
He must now be taught that there are officers still in
England with sagacity enough to see through his inca-
pacity, and with indignation enough to rebuke the grovel-
ling spirit which has dictated the degradation of the
country and the army, by the introduction of foreign
soldiers to tight our battles, at the very moment when
the steam of heroic blood from Inkermann makes
England snort and start like a warhorse iu the midst of
carnage.
1 will not say that the German Legion in the last war
were not good and trusty soldiers—their cavalry was ex-
cellent ; but, despite of the Duke of Richmond's gene-
rous eulogium, I will, with Lord Ellenberough, say, that
neither they, nor any foreign troops, were able to equal
the fighting of the British soldier. That legion was well
composed; it was, indeed, a national force, with high
moral motives, and with the gentlemen of their own
country as officers ; they were thus presented in the best
possible form that foreigners could assume in another
nation's service ; and gallant things they could and did do ;
but emulate the terrible fighting of the British soldier they
could not. And shall a mere mercenary band, picked up
for gold, without national feeling—poor miserable hire-
lings, selling their limbs and lives, sy! their very souls for
lucre—ready, without a cause, if paid, to murder, to slay, or
be slain, and, of course, ready to change sides for higher
pay if good occasion offer—shall such varlets stand in
line beside our noble soldiers who fight shouting " Eng-
land! England!" and dying murmur, " We have done our
. duty " ?
Whet did German or Switzer, Prussian or Austrian,
stand before the gallant French in equal battle? And
those brilliant, fierce, impetuous French, could even they
sustain the might and terror of British battle, though,
glorious soldiers that they are and ever have been, they re-
turned to the combat as unceasingly as waves beating
against rocks ? Such as they are, indeed, fit and worthy
to stand abreast with the unconquerable " red line that
never yields," and, together, they will trample in the dust
any troops in the world that presume to oppose them.
But let them not be shamed by finding a hired third rate
selection from inferior sources between themselves and
their British comrades. Let them not be told to depend
on the dressed-up foreigners—poor frauds, like the camels
of Semiramis, accoutred as elephants, and sure to leave
dark silent gaps where loudest shouts aml fiercest fires
should stream forth in the hour of need. Shall the stern
infantry of Inkermtum, striding in blood ; shall the proud
cavalry of Balaklava--those noble horsemen who accepted,
not an order, but a doubtful sign only, to go bounding on
as it were to Vie open jaws of death; shall they have as
comrades the refuse hirelings of Germany and Switzer-
land? God forbid!
You, sir, say that the Ministers will go out if the
country refuses to accept their degrading measure. So let
it be. Let them slink away, while the universal shout
arises of " God and our right."
I sin, sir, your obedient servant,
W. NAPIER, Lieutenant General.

ON ACCOUNT OF THE ARMY AND NAVY SERVICES,
as appears from a return obtained by Mr. Disraeli,
the total payments made by the Bank of Eng-
land up to the llth inst., in respect of the sum of
12,874,5051., appropriated for the navy services of
the year 1854, amounted to 8,825,0001. ; the same
payments in respect of the sum of 8,810,0591., appro-
priated for the army services, to 5,029,0001., and the
same payment in respect of the sum of 4,583,7011.
appropriated to the Ordnance, to 2,950,0001. The.
balances of credits, &e., now in the Bank are respeo•
Lively as follows, viz.:—On account of the army,
38,104/.; the navy, '5,0291.; and the Ordnance,
37,8801. The above payments comprise the full
sums advanced up to the 11th of December ; but it
will be impossible to state how much of these ad-
vances will ultimately be chargeable upon the vote
of credit for 3,(XX1,0011/. (appropriated by the said act
for " additional expenses ") until accounts and
vouchers shall have been received, including all the
returns from abroad, showing the actual diaburse-
ments for each separate service.

DECEMBER 23, 1854.

THE WAR.

PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE.

roads between this place and the camp renders their
transit impossible. We entertain west hopes from the
mortars brought up by the Gulden Fleece, which ship
arrived on the afternoon of the 26th with the 9th Regi-
ment. These mortars are twelve in number, and, being
'hirteen inches in diameter, are expected to throw right

...........er, a... _
The information contained in the latest telegraphic into the town. These is much need of the town being well
advices respecting the siege of Sebastopol is unim- hammered before the assault is made, for in the preseut
portant. it is comprised in the following brief des- position of the line-of-battle ships they command the
patches published in the Monitcur on Tuesday and street's, all of which run straight towards the water. There
Wednesday last : are still many among us who fear, after all, that Sebastopol
will have tom taken at the bayonets point. The thith
Cerezi, Dec. 7.—The batteries are reestablished, and and 46th Rments are attached to the 4th division ; sick-
will be ready to open fire in three days.
The allies are formidably intrenched, and now receive ness still continues rife in the latter—they have lost nearly
sixty men since they landed. But none sutler so severely
their provisions with so much ease and regularity that they as the Turks, and hunger is added to their other evils ;
can, if necessary, remain the whole winter in their present now, indeed, they get 8 oz. of biscuit a day from our com-
positions.
day two Russian steamers made a sortie, under missariat' but this is little enough to keep body and soul
Yesterday
together, and they are continually to be seen in our camp
the fire of the forts, by the narrow outlet which they have begging biscuit. - 'There is usually a group round the hoe-
retained. They exchanged a few shots with two French pi tal tents early in the morning, tor.soldiers the are
steamers that were at anchor in the Bay of Stresaika, but always very attentive in bringing tar more biscuit than
failed to hit either. Two English frigates and a French they can ever eat to their wounded comrades, which, when
corvette drove them into port with their volleys. thrown away, falls to the lot of " Buono Johnny." '. I'oor
Dec. o.—General Montebello arrived yesterday. The Bu on o," it was very hard times for him for some weeks
Russian corps under General Liprandi has quitted the after the 21/th' but now our fellows' hearts are melted at
heights above Balaklava, to rejoin the Russian army to the their forlorn state. One of our troubles in the camp now
north of the Tschernaya. must be the want of generals. 1 will just give the list as
The Cambria, Ripon, Thames, Niagara, and other it stands now:—Light division, no general; Ist brigade,
English steamers have arrived in the Bosphorus with Codrington; 2nd ditto, Buller. 2nd division, no general;
5,01 K) French troops for the Crimea. Ist brigade, Peneenither; 2nd ditto, senior officer 47th.
In a despatch from Constantinople of the 7th it is Ist division, no general; Ist brigade, Colonel Upton, senior
stated : officer ; 2nd brigade, Mir Cohn Campbell. hind division,
Omer Pacha has embarked for the Crimea with the Sir Richard England ; Ist brigade, Eyre : 2nd ditto,
colonel tith Regiment. 4th division, Sir J. Campbell
greater part of his army. Ismail Pacha commands the
Turkish troops on the Danube provisionally. Prince (acting) ; Ist brigade, Colonel Garrett, 46th (acting);
2nd ditto, Colonel Horn, 28th (acting). Cavalry, Lord
Naoleon has had a relapse, and cannot yet rejoin his
division. Liman; lst brigade, General Scarlett ; 2nd ditto, no one
(Lord Cardigan sick).
Russian advices adil little to the information re-
ceived viii Paris, but as usual bring down the intelli- The Times writer, in his letter of the Ist inst. from
gence a few days later. On the sth Prince Menschi- the camp, gives a still more gloomy picture of the
koff reported:— state of affairs and prospects of the besieging forces.
The besiegers and the besieged have received eonei-
He says
derable reinforcements, the latter principally in cavalry Although It
may be dangerous to communicate facts
and Cossacks of the Don. General Liprandi has fallen likely to be of service to the Russians, it u
is certainly
into disgrace. hazardous to conceal the truth from the English people.
They must know, sooner or later, that the siege has been
On the Bth . for many days practically suspended, that our batteries are
Nothing new has taken place before Sebastopol. The used up and silent, and that our army are'much exhausted
enemy continue their fire, but very feebly, and causing us by the effects of excessive labour and watching, and by the
scarcely any injury. wet and storm to which they have been so incessantly ex-
On the 13th : posed.
It is now pouring rain—the skies are black as ink—the
Nothing of importance had occurred before Sebastopol wind is howling over the staggering tents—the trenches
up to that day. are turned into dykes—in the tents the water is sometimes
Some small sorties had been made with success. In one a foot deep--our men have not either warm or waterproof
of them the Russians captured in the trenches of the allies clothing—they are out for twelve hours at a time in the
some small mortars, and spiked some others of larger trenches—they are plunged into the inevitable miseries of
dimensions. a winter campaign—and not a soul seems to care for their
The fire of the allies was feeble, and the Russian loss comfort, or even for their lives. These are hard truths,
very slight. but the people of Englund must hear them. They must
The Journal de St. Petersbourg makes much of know that the wretched beggar who wanders about the
these occasional sorties, asserting, on the authority of streets of London in the rain leads the life of a prince com-
a report from Prince Menschikoff, that on the 2nd pared with the British soldiers who are fighting out here
a lieutenant and 66 soldiers attacked one of the for theircountry, and who, we are complacently assured by
the home authorities are the best-appointed army in
trenches of the English camp, killed a great number Europe. ,
Ihey are we'll fed, indeed, but they have no
of English, made three pris:oners, and carried off 14 shelter, no rest, and no defence against the weather. The
muskets. On the following night another party, it tents, oolong exposed to the blaze of a Bulgarian sun, and
is stated, attacked one of the French batteries and now continually drenched by torrents of rain, let the wet
killed 30 French soldiers, and on the same night through "like liieves," and are perfectly useless as protec-
another lieutenant, at the head of 00 volunteers, tions against the weather.
attacked one of the English trenches, killed 11 men, Will it be zredited, that, with all our naval officers in
made one prisoner, and carried off four muskets. lialeklave with nothing else to do—with our embarras de
All these bold sorties, says Prince Menschikoff, were richenes of captains, commanders, and lieutenants—there
is no more care taken for the vessels in Balaklava than if
effected without the loss of a single Russian. they were colliers in a gale off Newcastle? Ships come in
Letters from St. Petersburg state that the news of and anchor where they like, do what they like, go out when
the hurricane on the 14th and the loss of the allies they like, and are permitted to perform whatever vagaries
on the Crimean coast was received with an outburst they like, in accordance with the old rale of " higgledy,
of joy. This feeling was soon tempered by other re- piggledy, rough and tumble," combined with " happy-go-
ports from the Crimea, which told the pitiful state of lucky." A drunken man may put an end to the British
the Russian troops themselves. They had been expedition pro hdc rice, for, if a vessel caught fire in one of
almost without provisions or forage during several the gales of wind to which this narrow lake is exposed,
days. The tempest had not only scattered and nothing could save the vessels, packed as they are without
order or arrangement, with fouled anchors, cables crossing
destroyed convoys, but even the ricks of forage, and
and recrossing each other, and hawsers made fast in every
so forth, of the inhabitants. "In the midst of race direction.
even," says a report from Perekop, "such a hurricane Although the men are only left for twelve hours in the
would have been more destructive than a visit of trenches at a spell, they suffer considerably !tom the effects
locusts, and would have brought famine and plague of cold, wet, and exposure. The prevalent diseases are
with it, for, to the destruction of crops, must be added fever, dysentery, and diarrlices, and in the light division,
that of habitations." on which a large share of the labour of the army falls, there
A letter from Odessa of the 4th states that., from were MO men on the sick list a day or two ago. The men's
the 12th to the 30th of November last, the army of clothes are threadbare and tattered, and are not fit to resist
rain or cold..
Prince Menschikoff had been reinforced by two divi-
The siege is practically suspended, and the utmost we
sions, consisting of front 28,000 to 30,000 men. do is to defend the trenches at night and to return shot for
CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. shot whenever the enemy tire. Of course, as the cease.
The narrative of siege operations, if such they can tion of the fire of our batteries allows the besieged, or
rather the partially invested force in possession of the
he called, for some days later than had previously
tow'', to do as they please, the Russians very wisely go
transpired, has been received during the week. The
to work to increase their internal defences, and they
accounts are, however, meagre in incident, the are said to have constructed street batteries on a large
weather having in great measure stopped all active scale.
proceedings on both sides. The Chronicle cos- I suppose one must still head one's letters " Siege of
respondent from Balaklava on the 28th ult. says : Sebastopol," but really and truly there is no siege of the
Perhaps the last five days have been as barren of incident place whatsoever, and all this delay increases the ditticnlty
as any since the commencement of this eventful siege. which was mused by our original neglect and indifference
The French batteries have now advanced within s'2o metres, towards the formidable works which we permitted the
but scarcely a gun fires from them in an hour, as in all Missions to throw up with impunity, and which have con-
probability the Russian batteries could silence them if an veiled Sebastopol into one of the most formidable defen-
active fire should commence. The English remain at eive positions the world ever saw. If we had men enough'
1,400 yards, and we shall probably not attempt anything to do it effectually, perhaps the best plan of reducing the
Ihrther till the news gun. brought hy the Firebrand und Strum. place would be to descend into the valley, administer a
1
hitfrail the fleet are got up. At present the state of the sound beating to Prince Menschikoff and °loners' lA.
•