The Express.
London, England, 1863-09-17 00:00:00

MKRYBODY KNOWS Mr. MILES.
ina Webb Kiln ISICYTED FROM BONDSTRILIT
be
row*... jorsszr Bauoyersquare. Ise.
ma. by him) in a the Now Psininin.
a THAN ev

Eke •Ir'regili.

TO cosuroNDsirts.
olverttsements triadic! Mr • The &pros
Pwr, sea b. M So caps lf. Scam
cidsk as tM 4a et lobbed/es

•
i° Lovdoa I,i
etwotreet. by Two

riuNciows.
?me Cream, STILL WATERS HUN DEEP sad THE IRON
CHLiT. John Madmay aad Sar Edward Morthser, Mr. Wariar
Itoaaresary.-040-51aaca at 7.

tu!srigng.t.

Tin 1V TPO. LADY AVOLZYTI SECRET. no GREAT
anon. EIPAC7. Mesdames Yarnoid sad Cranford.—Mr.
TURES
hater. M
GT TIC
adam Mo. sad Mr. W. RarelAlL—And TM ADVEN-
A KET Or LIAM

'Ma WATIL AT LONDON =DOI.
Tut DAT —TIN . .Altartaaa. 4h. She
iv•rossolr —Wow s& th Altantess. bh. 84s.

LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17.

To write the narrative of political and military
events not ten years old, in which many living
men were conspicuous actors, is an undertaking beset
with inconveniences which only an insatiable
passion for notoriety or an implacable zeal for
truth can afford to disregard. The author of the
" Invasion of the Crimea" was not the man to
shirk the difficulties or to daily with the troubles
of his anxious and ambitious task. When it be-
came known that Mr. KINGIAKE had set himself
to paint on a large and enduring canvas
passages of the history of our time which inferior
sit sts had but rapidly sad hastily sketched
in outline, the public were predisposed
in favour of a writer who had known how to rest
content for twice nine years with one charming
literary performance, and out of the merest per-
sonal impressions of travel had added a volume to
the English classics. In the pages of that unique
story of a tour in the East there was the magic of
a style of masterly simplicity and strength,
a fearless independence of thought, a sustained
self-possession, and a manly glow of English feeling
and humour, which aroused the keenest expecta-
tions. Nor can it be said even by the most
malignant critics that these expectations have been
disappointed. Four editions Li the course of •
single season no doubt may little or nothing for the
lasting value of a book which stings like a
pamphlet, eulogises like an epitaph, and assaults
like a lampoon. There are successes due to scandal
as much as to merit, and perhaps we should not be
extremely ill-natured if we gave the historian of
the Crimean War credit for both the one and the
other. But we hasten to record our conviction
that the scandal was inseparable from the condi-
tions and circumstances of his work, and was not

unduly sought for, while the merit is of • nature
to commend itself to all English readers—the merit
of most scrupulous and unwavering sincerity. We
are the more anxious to render this homage to •
work, one half of which is a spirited contribution
to the romance of war.

In his new Preface Mr. KINOLLYZ sgain, with
characteristic firmness, insists that not a word has
been withdrawn from the text nor a word added to
it, while in corrective footnotes he has with the
utmost distinctness recorded against himself every
single inaccuracy, however minute and trivial, in
the former editions. And he is thus enabled not
only to keep a check upon those " who might like
" to be able to say that he had materially altered
" the book," but to convict out of the original
text itself unfaithful descriptions and garbled
versions of his words. He takes pains to
show that the inaccurames of detail with which
he has been charged are microscopic, while not a
few material misstatements have been gratuitously
invented by the vindictive industry of his accusers.
It is to the fabrications of false witnesses that
his good faith has been a prey. On the other
hand, since the first edition appeared, he has been
favoured with the authoritative testimony of
private letters and journals confirming his own
statements. So that on the whole Mr. lineotaxx
appears to be particularly well satisfied with the
result of the severe sifting his book has nuclei,
gone, and it is evident from the calm and resolute
pertinacity he displays, that he understands the
temper of the public to whom he appeals.
Perhaps it is the very faculty of addressing the
public with audacious confidence that has incited
against Mr. KINGLAXI the biggest and loudest of 11
his assailants in the press. It was an inexcusable
sin against that infallibility which thinks vicariowdy
aloud every morning for the enlightened selfishness
of a public too busy to think for itself, to describe
with cold precision the process by which that in-
fallibility is manufactured from the raw material.
It was an unpardonable crime to puncture that
tremendous windbag, and Mr. lineotAxx has suf-
fered, and survived, the penalty. He has, we
trust, enjoyed the spectacle of temporal infalli-
bility in a passion, and in ,the madness of outraged
vanity reduced to " eat dirt " with amusing
ostentation, and to deprecate with an air of
superior gentility the sentence of history upon
the greatest public crime of the age.

Whether Mr. KimLsxr remain; absolutely blind
to what we believe to be the ineradicable defect of
his work we cannot tell. In his Preface he acknow-
ledges that " until after the publication of his book
" he was as much inclined as the generality of men
"to be doubtful of the possibility of getting
" very close to historical truth, and be knew of
" warm that the occurrences of a battle-field
" are especially hard to seise ." but he confeeses I
that any tendency he had to this kind of historical'
scepticism was lessened—by what do our readers
suppose f By " the fresh confirming proof by •
" which be now finds himself supported ;" in other
words, by the private letters and journals of eye-
witnesses like himself, and of regimental colonels
engaged in the battles be describes. We take the
liberty to doubt whether the History of
the Crimean War, which remains to be
written when the present generation has passed
away, will be quite so enthusiastic as Mr. Bine-
Lanz in celebrating the fine forhunting genius of
Mr. KlNOLlilell aristocratic commanders. Pro-
bably before Mr. KINOLAKeII completed work is
comfortably shelved, the Horse Guards will have
learnt the art of war, and the successor to Mr.
Kiscirme will be a little less Homerically fond of
episodical Colonels, and • little more disposed to
avail himself of the judicious licence of a painter
of battle-fields, and not to spare the smoke even
to the eccentric movements of a Commander-in-
Chief.

REPSNSINTATION OF WEST KIEFF.—it is stated
that Sir E. Meer, roe of the preset* conservative mbers
taret West Kest, la em
a determined so redden from the repre-
sentation of the meaty.
TH. Berm AROIIAOLOOICAL SOCILTY.—The
20th anniversary meeting of this society. establiehed la
1843 for the escotusgement sod presort**, of researches
into the arta and moonmente of the early sod middle ages,
will be held at Leeds os Mooday, the 12th of October, and
daring the remainder of the work. Etcursions will be
made by the members to Ripon shod Fountain's Abbey,
Adel, Fereley, Ilkley, Harewood, Wakefield, Pontefract,
Boroughbridge, Aldborough, Kirkstall Abbey, Retiree. and
York. On the day of opening the president and meshes
of the alomelettee will be received by the mayor and oor•
poratioe antretelrn-ball, the nee of which has been panted
for the meetings sad discurelots.