The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-25 00:00:00

No. 82.—VoL. 11.

(ri)t s.

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1854.

A VICTORY, more remarkable, perhaps, than
anything in the annals of war since Agincourt,
has been gained by the sheer and splendid
valour of troops who had 60,000 of the enemy
before them and a Coalition Ministry behind
them. Despite both obstacles, Inkermann
was won.

There is little fear lest the glorious deeds of
the sth of November should lack record and
eulogium. The nation has burst out with one
exulting acclamation at the tidings transmitted
by our Field Marshal. Not an incident of
that day, from the church-bells sounding
out in the darkness of the morning to the
final retreat of the routed enemy at the dusk
of evening, will ever be forgotten where the
English history is read. And the journalist,
who perceives a more imperative duty than
the gratifying one of dilating upon the heroic
actions of our soldiery, has at least the satis-
faction of knowing that there is no chance of
their glorious valour and unhesitating self-
devotion going unrecognised.
Unhappy England ! that the very glory of
her soldiers is the shame of her statesmen.
Unhappy, that in every one of the facts which
make the victory a marvel and a miracle, is a
damning charge against those who sent forth
the expedition. The army was miserably
scant to contend against the enormous force
of the enemy—it did contend in the face of
those fearful odds, and vanquished—hence
its glory, but why were its numbers so few?
Such a fight would have been impossible had
Sebastopol been previously assaulted ; and
the day of assault had been again and again
named, but, unable to complete their pre-
parations, the besiegers allowed time to pass,
the Russians came up, and this dreadful battle
was fought. Why was the army unable to
complete its preparations? Why, but because
its resources were, by the criminal negligence
of the Government, inadequate to its work.
At no time was our armament at all propor-
tioned to the task act before it. Ere disease
had thinned the ranks, and ere a single Rus-
sian shot had been fired, the army was—as
every military man knew—far too small for
the reduction of Sebastopol ; and yet, after
thousands had rotted and died while Lord
ABERDEEN was cackling over " negotiations,"
and after the slaughter of the Alma and of
Balaklava, the Ministerial organs received
orders to pretend to expect the fall of the
great stronghold. The sudden shrieking and
shouting for reinforcements is a cry of the
very latest date—it was not set up until men,
incensed at the fearful and wicked waste of
life in the Crimea, and indignant at the cow-
ardly terror of the Administration to face
Parliament, began to speak of holding their
own meetings, and of considering for them-
selves the conduct of the war. The first of
such assemblies would have sounded the
Coalition knell ; and the cry for reinforce-
ments was made, we admit, with all the fervour
and frankness of imbecile despair.
Despite all that had been done to ensure
failure and ruin, the little Crimean army has
triumphed. Our best blood has been poured

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25,1854.

out like water, a carnage which, had it been
necessary, would have been dreadful, but
which, seeing that it might have been spared,
is utterly hideous, has been in part an-
nounced ; and there is other sorrow on its way.
Scarcely a family of rank but is already in
mourning. Our brave soldiers, slaughtered
by the thousand, find nameless graves in the
Crimean valleys. And yet the glorious little
baud holds its own against all corners. How
long it may be able to do so is a question too
grave for discussion. A council of war has
decided that the army is to winter in the
Ciimea, from which resolution it is evident
that no immediate effoi t was contemplated.
Sebastopol is to be taken at our leisure. It is
most probable, therefore, that our skilful
generals will be able, Heaven only knows at
what price, to secure and maintain a position
which may defy the onslaughts of the enemy.
Let us trust that such maybe the case.

Had the Government at home made up its
own mind as to the plan of operations, or made
itself adequately acquainted with the nature of
the task which was so glibly prescribed to our
soldiers, not even a Ministry like Lord
ABERDEEN'S would have sent out so miserably
insufficient an army. A powerful force, with
a defined object, would have at once proceeded
to its work, and it is not too much to say, that
in the presence of such an army as ought to
have been despatched to the Crimea, such
attempts us those of MENSCHIKOFF and LIPRANDI
would have been military impossibilities. But,
boasting as seemed the Prince's phrase, when
he announced that he would " cast our forces
into the sea," it was really no such absurd vaunt
when the relative numbers of his own forces
and ours are contrasted. The grand attack
of the 6th was an attempt to fulfil this pledge,
and if one man is matched against six—and
these are the terms on which the Coalition
has pitted our forces againnt the Russians—
the six can hardly be charged with boasting
in whatever way they may undertake to deal
with the one.
But those who expected the Coalition to
manage the war boldly and practically mani-
fested a sanguineness in which we must avow
that we were unable to participate. We
showed at the very outset that the war, begun
at the wrong time, was also begun in the
wrong manner. Now, wrong seldom comes
right, and the whole campaign has been a
series of misfortunes, illuminated at intervals
by the splendid valour of those wantonly ex•
posed to such trials. It is almost useless,
except in refutation of arrogant self-lauclution,
to refer to the past conduct of the war. But
now that our army is finally consigned to the
inhospitable and iron-bound Crimea for a
terrible winter—now, at the end of November,
the Government is taking thought for the
need of our soldiers, and " orders are given "
for the preparation of winter clothing, which
will doubtless be made, in time, and at some
later time will be shipped, for the long
voyage to the Black Sea. Wooden barracks
are even talked about, and a very good sug-
gestion that holes should be dug in the
ground, and that our soldiers should become
Troglodytes during the winter, has been re-
ceived with favour. In the meantime, our
soldiers, under the watchful eye of a practical
Government, are shivering in the Euxine
breezes, starving with miserable rations, and
sickening in presence of medical assistance of
so limited a character that it is little more
than a cruel mockery. May Heaven preserve

PRICE SIXPENCE.

the brave fellows who have withstood the
Russians, but who have yet to withstand the
Coalition !

This is no time to mince words, or to seek
for emasculated paraphrase in place of honest
English. The nation knows that the army
has been abominably treated, and that its con-
dition at this moment is one of peril and suf-
fering. Public indignation demands that
every exertion be instantly made for the
succour and solace of the troops now sentenced
to a Crimean winter. Hands, hearts, purses
are all open if the Government will do its
duty. There is nothing which the nation will
refuse to the Administration—except conti•
deuce.

OUR AIMS AND ALLIANCES.
Tux position of England becomes more per.
plexing from day to day. We are fighting in
a dense fog. We make immense exertions ;
the blood of our soldiers is poured out with a
profusion unknown in former wars ; yet for all
practical purposes we are but beating the air.
We know not what we are striving for. With
the old Greek hero, we pray in the midst of
thick confusion for light, but, less fortunate
than him, no light visits us. The mist
thickens with the strife. As yet we know only
that we have lost an army, and that Austria,
without striking a blow, has obtained the
principalities. While we sweat and bleed, that
power for whose interests we are mainly
battling lurks ia a state of grim neutrality—
smiled on by our Premier—courted by our
Cabinet—eager to seize every concession in
its favour, but careful to avoid taking any part
in the struggle.
Meanwhile, "the sick man," whose strength
it was our policy by every possible means to
sustain, wastes visibly. The war, which may
be merely disastrous to other States, threatens
to be fatal to Turkey. She has neither the
resources nor the stubborn energy of character
to maintain a protracted contest. SheAus.,
tained the first shock of the war nobly;(buil
her first armaments impoverished hers 3 her
credit is sinking, and without a treasury, *
commissariat, or those regular supplies
needful things on which the efficiency
troops depend, her large levies are dwindli
away, or sinking into a mere rabble. Aus
sees this, as she sees the rapid destruction
the allied forces in the Crimea, and still think*
how well Lord ARERDEIN is doing her work.
The greater portion of the immense fore*
which attacked the allied camp on the day
Inkermann was incontestibly drawn from
army of the Danube. Those forces could n
have marched without the knowledge a
complicity of Austria. She must have kno
of their movement, she must have known
their destination ; but her" good wishes " to the
allies did not extend so far as to warn them of the
meditated attack, still less to make an effort to
prevent it. Suppose that tremendous assault had
been successful, that the allied camp had been
stormed, and our forces, as the enemy with
his overwhelming superiority of numbers not
unnaturally anticipated, had been driven into
the sea, would not Austria have been morally
responsible for the disaster? As it is, our ter-
rible loss on that day must be laid to her door.
The slightest demonstratii n on her part would
have prevented DANNENBERG'S corps from
moving. Is it possible to have patience longer