The Press.
London, England, 1854-12-16 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Far be it from me to make any reflection on the
courage of the Germans, or any other people, but I
ask does not this passage freely support the view
taken by Lord Ellenborough that it is unlikely a
German regiment at Inkerniann would have fought
as the English regiments did, and that had such a
regiment, when in line, given way it might have been
fatal to the whole army of the allies. At beet, it must
be a considerable time—if we consider only the diffi-
culties from foreign language—before these recruits
can become component and effective parts of a British
army.
A word more. No one out of the Cabinet contem-
plated the necessity of such a measure. It has taken
the country by surprise. And this fact—when all
minds were directed to the war—affords some pre-
sumption that the measure can enlist no national
sympathy in its favour, and was the very last one
which a really English mind would have contemplated
for the prosecution of that great struggle in which
we are engaged.—l am, sir, obediently yours,
Dec. 15. D. T. C.

THE "TOO LATE" POLICY.
TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS."
Sir,—lf Ministers, as they ought to have done, had
completed their winter arrangements for our Crimean
army in the dog-days, and had their hands at this
moment free to prepare for next years' campaign,
there might be some hope for us; but from the
bustle with which they are now at last making pro-
vision for hutting our men and supplying them with
winter clothing, when winter is come and many have
llready perished, we can only anticipate that they
will be seen equally energetic in arranging for the
campaign of next spring and summer, when the
summer is far advanced, and the spring gone by.
We all remember the story of the savage who
engaged in a boxing-match. He had no idea of
guard—never stopped a blow. But, wherever hit
there he immediately clapped his hand; thus shield,
ing, but shielding too late, the smashed nose, the
punched bread-basket, or the damaged visual.
Now that, sir, I would humbly submit, is precisely
the way in which recreant Peelites and disastrous
\Vhigs are conducting the present war. We hear of
some deplorable mishap, they then adopt some tardy
expedient—good it' in time, worthless because too
late. The hand whi,At ought to have parried the
blow is applied to the wound.
This is no groundless imputation. It is the very
principle of action developed by Mr. S. Herbert, as
I see this day, in last nights' debate on the answer
to her Majesty's Speech. Mark his defence. He
made certain telegraphic and superhuman efforts for
butting our troops the moment the requisition for
huts arose. The moment the requisition for huts
arose 1 That, I presume, was the moment the tents
were levelled. The moment it arose ? Say, the
moment when our wounded, stripped by the furious
blast of the last rag of covering, were perishing in
the sleet and driving slush, exposed to all the fury
of a typhoon ! He presently adds those pompous yet
memorable words, "It is thus that I answer the
charge." No answer at all, Mr. S. Herbert. The
charge is, that you did not make the provision in
time. Your answer is, that you made it too late.
You ought to have had that shelter against the
winter which you have now prepared, or rather
which you are now preparing, ready and sent out
long ago; and the very fact that you acted only
when "the requisition arose" proclaims your short-
coming and culpable incapacity.
What, then, is the inference now to be drawn by
the deeply-concerned, excited, and anxious public ?
If such are your omissions, that alone is bad enough.
But if you so defend your omissions, why then there
is no hope. You ought to have sent an ample supply
of winter clothing long before our men began to
perish by the winter blasts: yes, long before ; so
long that, if the first supply did not come to hand,
you might have heard, and sent a second in good
time. Small comfort will it be for the " deaths by
neglect" which have already occurred on that bare
rock, or for those which will yet occur em the end of
winter, if our men are sweltering in their furs and
sheepskins under the fierce sun of a Crimean June.
And that they are very likely to be ; for you ought
now to be busied in getting up and despatelling a
good serviceable light dress for next summer. I sup-
pose we shall hear of that next autumn. Meanwhile
we now know the character of the consignments to be
successively forwarded, each having been despatched
" when the requisition arose "—hay for famished,
though once gallant, steeds, of whom the vulture has
ere this made skeletons cannons, whenever
they shall be cast or forged, for a siege already com-
menced—wine for men at the last gasp, whose life
might have been saved by one half pint of port—
medicines and lint for convalescent cripples, by this
time invalided home—and nurses for the dead !
Sir, I strenuously assert that, in the conduct of
the war, this great war in which we are now em-
barked, nothing has yet been done, either adequate
to the demands of the present, or even bearing any
doe reference to the future. Oar wisole policy has