The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-30 00:00:00

is a little above one man in two

r compan,

estimated at

This s

)ne hundred

atement placed the whole ques-

before the country in an intelligible form

keeording to Sir WILLIAM CODRINGTON's showing,

that t

nnmber of crimes of drunkenness was

the above one man in twc

lays per company

timated at one hundred men," we should be

justified in inferring that each company would be
drunk in less than two hundred days, and that
the whole army would be tried by court-
the orderly rooms to

, or appear

iat period

to [number

50,000 men, anything over one per cent. in two

a considerable fraction over 230

cases of drunkenness in the ranks each day—a

number quite sufficient to attract considerable

attention in the area of a camp. But, Sir
WILLIAM CODRINGTON does not appear to have
been impressed with the full magnitude of his
ures, and feeling indignant at the charge,
he hurls it back on the country from whence it
came. For he says in the same despatch,

doubt there are many facilities in all these open

crowded camps for drunken men to get in

without being I:seen ; no doubt they do so and
escape observation. But suppose we dcuble, or
treble, the amount of these numbers which are

taken from official returns, and I suspect the

army will bear a compaifson with many towns,

" many villages, and many populations of Great

" Britain." Now, we have too much respect for
official returns to think of doubling or trebling

em to justif

a most illtimed comparison, or to

slur over the demoralising effects of a long season
of inaction on the part of a British army, with
an enemy before them, whom they were capable of
attacking, and ought to have defeated if not anni-
hilated. If Sir WILLIAM C3DRINGTON is not to
blame for the suspension of active military opera-
tions, which is the true source of the evil com-
plained of, it must be attributed to the political
spirit which directs the war, and not to the
natural viciousness of the British soldier,

or people from whose numbers our heroic
armies are taken. If we were to double, or treble,
the number of cases of drunkenness in our army,
we should have the whole camp reeling in one hun
dred days, and the whole army tried by court-
martial, or passed through the orderly rooms every
six or eight weeks.

We can scarcely believe this is the impression
Sir WILLIAM CODRINGTON wished to make on the
public mind at home. When drunkenness first

appeared in the ranks under his command, why
did he not prohibit the sale of spirits and intoxi•
eating drinks? and, instead of punishing men for
drinking maddening and poisonous liquors, inflict

heavy fines on their vendors, and banish them
from the Crimea? A Commander-i

Chief has the

power of doing this; and where it is not done,
every reasonable man will see where the blame lies.
Let tho soldier have every comfort, every neces-
sary, his extra pay, his rational amusement, but, in
the name of all that is just, cut off that which
injures his health, undermines his moral courage,

Ind exposes him to the horrors of the lash, and an
ignominious death for neglect of the sacred duty
antrusted to him, when on duty as a sentinel, or

when called upon to take his place in the moment
Df battle. Military commanders in the present
lay may well copy the " Great Duke,"

where a country's militar

presto

lie field is concerned ; and in dispensing
rith the lash, they need not be at all afraid
f following the example of the late Lord RAGLAN.

That humane man conducted the whole siege
rting to corporeal punishment ; and
in the immediate presence of foreigners, amongst
whom the lash is not known, we think its use is
very inexpedient. It has already led to one mutiny
in a regiment of the G'rman legion, on board a
transport bound for the East; and if we are to
have camps composed of different nations, 'stand-
ing side by side, we must endeavour to assimilate
our punishments to those of equally warlike
countries—if our alliance is to be looked upon
as barely respectable. The charge of drunkenness
against our army did not originate in these
columns ; and we have waited impatiently for
some days for our cotemporary, the London Times,
to answer SIR WILLIAM CODRINGTON9 on behalf of
its Crimean correspondent. But
since the leading journal" has not deigned to use the
Commander-in-Chief's statistic, to prove the truth
of its correspondent's allegations, we could nolonger
resist noticing the official disclosures, and pointing
out, what we humbly conceive to be, the natural
remedy for the extraordinary evils our cotempo-
rary was the first to bring to light.

without res