The Express.
London, England, 1855-01-04 00:00:00

SOUTH AMERICA.

ARRIVAL OF THE IMPERADOR.
(IT MAGNZTIC TILLORAPH.)

(FROM THE

IRXT 07 THII DAILY KIWI.)
LIVERPOOL, THURSDAY.

This morniog, at 9 o'clock, the South American
and beneral Steam Navigation steam-ship Impe-
rador, arrived off Holyhead. She is expected in the
Mosey about 4 p.m., and that her mails will be in
time for first delivery to-morrow.

COMPARATIVE CONSIDERATIONS ON THE
STATE OF THE ARMY.

WE see without surprise, in letters from the
Crimea, that the anxiety and fatigues of some of the
overwnrked officials are aggravated by "the lies in
the Times." There is little use in controversy in
London as to the precise state of things before Sebes- 1
topol; and time will show, better than dispute at a
distance, what censure is deserved, and by whom.
The great point is to avoid all unfair and unnecessary
weakening of confidence in the commanders of the
expedition and their administrators, and to save the
feelings at once of the families of the sufferers in the
Crimea, and of the friends of those officers who are
arraigned in their absence. We desire no falsehood, and
no concealment of the truth : bat there are different
ways of looking at the same facts which make the
facts themselves more or less painful, at the same
time that honesty and justice require that the truest
view should be taken that can be had.

The state of our camp at Sebastopol is contrasted
with that of the French. The French have a good
road, horses and mules fit for duty, and, as a conse-
quence, whatever comforts can be derived from the
ships. The French are better fed, better clothed,
better warmed, better tended in sickness, than the
British. Such is the fact; and thankful we may be
that our generous Allies have been in better plight
than ourselves during the fearful season of distress
which seems to be now giving way to ameliora-
tion day by day. That the French have been
more comfortable, and heartily willing to impart
their comforts to us—their good road, the use of their,
mules and their ambulances, and above all, their ex-
ample of practical army administration, is the great-
est of privileges to us. Hut, the more our attention
is fixed upon the subject, the more clearly do we see
that that skill is not heaven-born, any more than any
other excellence of which co-operation is a condition.
The French commanders and heads of departments
had to learn, and to perfect their learning by prao-
tios, as our officials have ; and it is our business now
to remember where and how, and at what cost they
learned the lessons which are at present so valuable
to themselves and to us.

A dozen yeas or oo ago, there Wall a certain

CAN ROBwEIT in Algeria, whose

perigee... 2 uncommonly like that of our friends in
the Crimea this last November. There was a Colonel
Br. ARNAUD, too, in Algeria during that season Of,
NM, trial; and a Commandant Boscuu, 1113111
others whose names will henceforth be connected
with the war against the CzAR. Algeria was their

@drool of instructico, as the Crimea is ours. At one
time, they and their Zouavea were encamped in •
valley when the rains converted the moil late a viscid
mud, knee deep or more, through which the EIS
could scarcely make their way whim sommtmed to
relieve guard. "Make hute r, ewe:lased • sergeant
to a straggling soldier, "you. don't upset me to

come and fetch you, I suppose." " coming u
fast se I can," replied the ethe:, "but you see I am
up to the knees; and a man can't walk through such
a mess." " When men can't walk they should run,"
,•
was the facetious reply. Such was sentinel duty,
under a pouring rain for days, nights, weeks toge-
ther. Within the tents, the fall of the rain-drops on
the canvas was like an incessant rapping by
a never-tired arm a sound depressing to the
spirits beyond belief. A hole in the damp earth in
the middle of the tent held a chafing-dish, which
could do little to warm the inmates is &season when
soldiers were opt to have their feet frozen, by the
half-dozen in a night. The wretched horses turned
their cruppers to windward, and stood to be rained
or snowed upon all night, unless they broke from
their tether, and fried the plan of galloping about in
the dark for exercise. The hospital at Medeah made
strong men shudder to look at it. The scarred old
Zouaves made coverings for feet and legs out of sacks
and the hides of the starved bullocks they killed,
sewn with thread made out of the hemp used in
grooming the horses, or out of old cannon wadding.
Sometimes the wine and brandy failed, and sometimes
even the tobacco ; and often one or another kind of food
—the biscuit, or the coffee, or the meat. Sometimes

no newts was received from the civilised world for
half a winter. On one occasion 800 men were over-
whelmed by the snow. At another time the cholera
marched faster than the column, and smote it sorely
as it passed. The beasts of burden were heavily
laden with the dying, and the enemy pursued, guided
by the fresh graves all along the road. It was on
that occasion that Colonel CamtonEaT rode out alone
with his interpreter to meet the foe, and proclaimed
to them that he was the bearer of the plague, and
that he would cast it upon them if they interfered
with his march. There were times when the troops,
in their raggedness or impromptu habiliments, and
with their gaunt forms and haggard faces, looked
like savages. This was their schooling for the
Crimea; and they got through it without the
advantage of an experienced ally at hand to ad-
vise and teach them in their perplexities, and help
them in their need. We own that we feel no jea-
lousy or shame in admitting and asserting the lope •
riority of the French in the arts of war : and we
admitted and asserted it before a blow was struck.
We ought to have known more, and to have managed II
better than we have; but it is also true that the
French had a ten years' discipline in Africa, while
we were leaving imperfectly organised our military,
and naval establishments at the request of the Peace
party, who now find themselves answerable for more
loss of life than any body in Europe, except only
their friend the CZAR.

There are antecedents in our own history, and
within the memory of the existing generation, which
should check the profane and lying licentiousness of
talk which imputes " disorganisation" to the British
forces in the Crimea—forces which are ever found at

the post of duty, in the trash, on picket, or in the
front of the fight. " Disorganisation !" The living
CANROBERT and the dead WELLINGTON, who had
both such cause to know what an army may have to
endure, in a trying season, on a foreign soil, would
have thought such a charge worth more than a
smile of scorn (or perhaps a frown, if the calumny
could reach the eye or ear of the enemy). And with
such scorn should the slander be treated now.

The army which redeemed Spain, and marched
from the coast of Portugal to the north of the Pyre
pees, marking its latter stages by victories, was
repeatedly in worse straits than our troops in the
Crimea, before reinforcements began to arrive. When
the reinforcements sent to Spain in 1811 carried the

14-alcheren fever with them, then were soon 25,000
of the allied troops in hospital, leaving oily 14,000
available for work of any sort; and of the 25,000
sick, 19,000 were British. The immediate and natu-
ral consequence was tho desertion of a multitude of
Portuguese, who dropped back into their own coun-
try and native districts. The enemy had at that
time 40,000 cavalry, and a total force of 370,000.
Yet, so far were the British from "disorgani-
sation " on account of their vast miafortuness that
k three months more they began that glorious awl
des of victories whioh drove the invaders, who nevus
gained another battle, out of Spain. If our troop
and the nation that sent them forth have reason to
ilcomplain of mismanagement at home and abroad. so
had WELLLNGTON, and his troops, and his nation I
yet was our army never " disorganised " nor turned
back in its road to conquest. It is true—the pe►
gram of science and improvement of the arts of was
should have spared our army some of its recent suf-
ferings; but again, that improvement affords the
strongest possible ground of confidence as to our
future camp condition (which we see foreshadowed
in that of our Allies), and as to our ultimate achieve-
Imola. Some think that the late calamities was,
ham our inexperience, inevitable, and others thigh
not; but all rational and disinterested persons believe
the worst to be over. If WELLINGTON got over the
October and November of 1811, and won his victo-
ries. way from Ciudad Rodrigo to Toulouse, we may
well expect to get over the November and December
et 1854, and advance from Sebastopol to that point,
whatever it may be, where the CZAR may at length
held up the white flag, and let our gallant soldiers
tern homewards. In that day there will be retribu-
don in store for any traitor who, in the first season
of adversity from wind and weather, charges our
steadfast, long-suffering soldiery with " dimorganisa-
dee Till the Times can show that our posts are
unserved, the trenches deserted, and duty of any
kind shirked, we need not give any more heed to its
doleful prophecies than to its spiteful or treacherous
slanders.—Daily News.

EARTHQUAXES.—A letter from Nit* give. the
following details of the earthquake which was felt there
in the night of the 28th:—" For three quarters of a
minute," says the letter, " the earth shook with violence,
the houses appeared as if they were about to be torn up
out of the ground, and the beds moved about the rooms.
Some of the houses leant so much that the inhabi-
tants could scarcely stand up. In a moment half
of the inhabitants left their houses. It was a sad
scene, and the greatest fears were entertained for the
following night. There were three distinct shooks. The
first was the strongest, and if the succeeding ones had
been equal to it, the whole town would have been
destroyed. A number: of houses in one street have the
walls cracked, and one house in the town has fallen down,
and another in the neighbourLood. No other casualties
are mentioned." A slight undulatory shock of earthquake,
which lasted about three seconds, was felt at Alemandria on
the 29th ult. A letter from Porto Maurisio, near Niee, of the
29th ult., states that a violent shock of earthquake was felt
there at as early hour of the morning of that day. There
were at first two slight shocks followed by a frightful sub-
terraneannoies,and which threw the inhabitants into muster-
nation. The letter adds that if the oecillation,wkieh was very
irregular is its movements and lasted about eight seconds,
had continued a few seconds longer, it is probable that Porto
Maurizio would no longer exist.
THE CLIPPER GREAT REPERLIC.—BOSTON, DEC.
13.—The clipper ship Great Republic has come out of the
Brooklyn dry dock. She is now 301 feet long, 43 feet 4
inches la breadth, sad will register about 3,380 teas. Her
keel, Buse,
_dte., remain analtarid.
Sir J. Maxwell, Bart., of Pollok, pending the de•
cision of government with respect to his offer of a contribu-
tion of 600 tons of teal for the use of our brave fellow-
countrymen In the Crises, has brdered 60 toes le be shipped
by the Cicero, about to rail for Balaklava, to be placid at
the disposal of Sir Colin Campbell, for the wbeial behoof of
, the Highland Brigade.—Edinboorgh Onral4.