The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-18 00:00:00

LITTERS FROM THE CRIMEA.

manoeuvring, and luckily compelled us to fight a la de-
bandade, and as the enemy adhered to the column sys-
tem of attack, throwing out about an eighth of his men
as skirmishers, we were enabled, notwithstanding our
small force, to have as many muskets at work as he, and
ultimately, with the aid of our good allies, he w in
spite of rum and superstition, driven down the hill.
It is most delightful to see the way in which the peo-
ple in England subcribe to alleviate the hardships and
sufferings of this army, but it is more heartrending to
know that, until the means for and the management of
the transports from Balaklava are improved, all their
money and good-will will be unavailing. I know not
where the blame rests (at any rate, I do not choose to
express my opinion), but I must say that matters con-
nected with this department are not only badly, but
wickedly managed, and, what is worse, no suggestions
are ever listened to. No time seems to improve them.
With the commonest method and forethought, this
army might be happy, healthy, and comfortable—for,
hitherto at any rate, the climate has not been so bad,
considering it is winter—but the men are over-worked,
wet, ill-fed, and without sufficient time to get fuel. This
arises from our having undertaken to do too
much as
to the siege, and too little as to the commissariat trans-
port. At Balaklava there is everything,in the camp
nothing, or but little, and that little has constantly to
be fetched by sending men, just out of the trenches,
twelve miles through nine inches deep of mud and
mire, and keeping them standing or sitting in it for
hours until they can get what is to be given to them.
It would be well not to publish the fine statements of
arrangements for the sick as to comforts and conveyance,
until the plans are not only preposed but executed.
After the fine article I saw in the Times some months
ago, what would they think if I told them, that the only
bed for weeks in the hospitals in camp was an inch and
a half in mud, the only transport a springless artillery
waggon, or a worse araba ? After the French have lent
us aid we are now employing the cavalry horses to con-
vey the men on board ship, poor fellows, who can't stand,
and possibly have never ridden, aro hoisted on half-
starved horses, and thus conveyed. The French, on the
contrary, do well, they are organised for war—we for
nothing ; the result is that out of an army employed in
the East 0f.44,000 men, we cannot produce above 22,000
under arms, and those not half fit to fight, and the whole
in such a state of dirt aaa ..
weuiu tat.. nuglish soldiers. Still there is
no grumbling, no real discontent ; and slew clothing,
good food, and 10 days' rest, with warmth, would, I am
convinced, make them a match (as to fighting) for the
like number of any troops in the world. The manage-
ment here, I repeat, has been wretched, disgraceful ;
and I hope if Sebastopol be ever taken, some sound head
and strong hand will be sent here to put matters to
rights, if we are to continue the war. It will not be a
very easy matter, but it must be done, and there are
men that could do it if they would bat look about them
at homo, and not adhere to all their old trumpery notions.
I was always against coming here, and in favour of
Odessa. As we did come,. however, I believe with more
activity we should most gloriously have succeeded. We
took the bull by the horns at Alma, flung him, and then
would not keep him down ; but after all we might have
taken the town by assault on the 28th September, as was
proposed by Cathcart ; but, instead of doing so, we
idled away nearly three weeks in smoking pipes, and
then, when we opened our batteries, we found the long
range a perfect failure. Sir J. Burgoyne, I think, has
conducted the siege very badly, but I shall be told, of
course, that lam wrong. They are, I believe, getting
up immense quantities of ammunition new, and intend
opening at the same range ; this, you will see, will be
another failure. The town can only be taken by vast
labour, time, sickness, and expense, or by assault. I
am for the last, or, if not that, an attack upon the
enemy outside, and then to entirely invest it. The only
difficulty to overcome in this is that cursed " transport."
I suppose the commissaries would expire if they were
told that they were to convey provisions 15 miles in-
stead of six.

(FROM A CAVALRY OFFICER.)
Camp Heights of Balaklava, Dec. 29.
lam sorry to tell you there is an immense amount
of dissatisfaction and discontent among the troops en-
gaged at the Balaklava battle that there is no " Bala-
klava clasp" named,'Alma and Inkerman being the only
two mentioned in General Orders. We had an army in
our front big enough to eat us up, all in order to ad-
vance, and which was advancing upon us, skirmishers
in front, until they witnessed the result of their cavalry
charge. It was a most important action, for, if the
enemy had succeeded in their attack, our army would
have been hashed altogether, its base being cut off. But
because some Turks ran away, and blunders were made
subsequent to the repulse, surely it is hard that those
who shared in causing that repulse, and who participated
in the unparalleled gallantry which, unhappily, resulted
from those blunders, should be debarred from what all
join in decreeing as justly their due. I see, too, in a
speech made by Mr. Sidney Herbert, Secretary at War,
the following :—" During the present campaign, three
most important battles have been fought,"—why then
give a bar but for two ? It is also suggested, with
some grumbling at the omission, that- we Balaklavians
are also entitled to the Inkerman clasp, inasmuch as
we had a strong body (three times our number) of that
same Russian army which attacked at Inkerman,
in our front—all under arms, with cavalry
and skirmishers in front—allusion to which you will
have seen both c English and Russian despatches ; in the
latter its purpose being declared "to keep the detach-
ments at Balaklava in check, so that we could not
move to the front, or detach any of our troops
here." Our batteries opened fire upon them, causing
their cavalry to recede, and we were under arms during
the whole period of the batttle,the whole of which, it
is considered, most strictly es.titles us to the clasp. Other-
wise, why did the reserve at Waterloo get the medal for?
wby will the cavalry have the Alma clasp? or the Third
Division that of Alma either ? Surely, when it is known
in England that so much dissatisfaction is caused among
those who daily look upon the enemy, and may at any
hour be again engaged with them, these things will be
rectified.

(pips A rip A nonv 1
Scutari Hospital, Dee. 11.
My dear Brother,-=You can't think what delight I
felt in this miserable place to receive your most kind
letter. I am glad you did not see at first whether I was
wounded slightly or severely. I dare say by this time
you have seen that I have been wounded severely. I
must now tell you the nature of my wound. It was a
canister shot through between the two bones of the lower
part of the left leg, about six inches above the ankle ;
one of the bones was quite was quite shattered, and am-
putation found to be necessary. It was taken off on
the field, or at least in a temporary hospital we had in
Balaklava. I was sent aboard ship that evening, and
steamed down here in a couple of days. It would have
been a good job for me if I could have been disembarked
next day, but the weather came on rough, and only the
slightly wounded could move. I lay between decks in
that steamer for 10 days. Yon could not get any attend-
ance, and the rain came through the deck above, and re-
gularly saturated you ; the consequence of which was that
by the time I got ashore myleg had taken an unfavour-
able turn, and I have since had a very bad bout with it,
but now the doctors say it has taken a favourable turn
again. I think so myself, and thank God fur it. My
leg is cut off very long, about a foot below the knee, so
that if I can get on all right I can have a cork leg; and
having both my arras I can earn a good livelihood yet.
The battle of Balaklava was certainly a disastrous af-
fair for the poor Light Cavalry. The cowardly conduct
of the Turks, in the first instance, made a great odds to
us all through the day, the Russians have such play at
us from our own redoubts and using our own shot and.
shell. However, our Marino Artillery, with a tremen-
dous range, with some ships' guns which they had planted
on the heights close above Balaklava harbour, soon re-
gularly shelled them out of the redoubts. They now
made a bold stroke for it, in their way, and came over
the hill with most of their army, including a great many
cavalry. The first thing they did (a large cloud of Cos-
sacks) was to charge about three companies of the 93d
Highlanders, who, however, gave them such a warm re-
ception that they turned to the right about pretty sharp.
Our heavy dragoons, first the Scots Greys and Ennis-
killens, charged slap at the whole front of the cavalry,
with the infantry in rear. They went down at first like
reeds before our Heavies, but as there was only about one

I can't help thinking that ere many days we shall
make a move of some kind, and the sooner the better.
This division, which this day week had only 3,500
men under arms (out of 6,000), has now 372 less, that
being the loss in seven days from death and sick ab-
sence. Why won't the Times try and touch up a system
that produces such results? Its remarks about staff offi-
cers are excellent, and, although a staff-officer myself, I
quite agree with them. They have often really difficult
things to do and hard duty to perform ; if they do both
well, let them have their reward, but for merely convey-
ing an order with propriety why should they be men-
tioned I The Duke of Newcastle's letter is excellent ;
praise deserved and handsomely bestowed must be gra-
tifying to all men, and good hearts must feel satisfaction
at mention being made of their comrades now in the
grave. But men fight not for praise alone, and surely
it is rather hard, after going through the miseries of
wet, cold, and cholera, without any " sweet or dry " to
help one—after having had a fair allowance of shot and
shell, to say nothing of sword and bayonet—to be re-
quired to have a good constitution for years to come,
that one may reach " the lean and slippered pantaloon"
period of existence before getting a reward. I under.
stand that officers are corning out from England to take
all the plums out of the pudding, and that we are not to
have any of the prizes of that lottery in which we took
a ticket. There is, however, noase in grumbling, so I
shall roll myself nu ip. my blanket, cglate myself
I upuu the many eneenum nres mat are blazing mu tue e6t-
tages of Old England, wish you and all my countrymen
a merry Christmas, and then fall asleep as comfortably
as these constant cannon shots will allow me upon these
Heights above Sebastopol.

bonnie Grey or bold Enniskillen to so many Russians they
began to outflank them, when the rest of the Heavy Bri-
gide charged and drove them back like a flock of sheep.
The Light Brigade was ordered to the pursuit, we and
the 4th Light were on the extreme left flank, covering
a troop of Horse Artillery, to keep back a division of
them who were trying to outflank uc in that direction-
After their artillery and ours had battered away at each
other for sorse time, the balls corning hot and strong
through the coverers, a French battery of heavy metal
opened on them from the rear of the Sebastopol heightg,
drove them back, and we could see the Chasseurs
d'Afrique coming down at a gallop. It was just about
this time that we got the order to pursue, so off we went
to the rear after the retiring party ; we had to get through
a vineyard over a mud wall and ditch, and there were a
good many "downers" and some fun. When we gut,
through we went Lea. Dag up LLD LIU af,,a 611,..A, rue
Heavies were close on their rear. The Lancers and

others of the Lights were closing on them, and we were
coming up at a good pace and nearly into them, when
they got over the hills beyond the redoubts, into their
. stronghold in the valley, when they brought their guns
to bear upon us. We retired out of range, and sat
fronting them, when they formed as nice a trap as could
possibly have been, and which nobody but a blind man
could have missed seeing. They planted guns on the
hills right and left of the valley, and all their field pieces
at the end right facing us. I believe Captain Nolan was
sent to reconnoitre the hills on each side. Whatever re-
port he took to Lord Raglan we know not, but I expect
his reported they were ail clear, as he came back with an
order to Lord Lucan for the Light Brigade to charge
and take the field guns, and the ammunition and guns
taken from the Turks. Lord Lucan asked if Lord Rag-
lan was aware of the enemy's position t "There is-the
order, and there is the enemy," Nolan is reported to
have said. Lord Cardigan then got the order as given,
and gave the order for the brigade to advance in two
lines—first the 17th, 18th, and 13th, second the 11th
and 4th. Off we went tearing towards destruction. The
round shot came first, killing many a poor fellow. One
most wonderfully came past my shoulder, striking my
rear-rank man right in the chest. Onward we went. I
could see the shells bursting over our heads and hear the
grape and canister hissing through us. The cross fire
was murderous—a square of infantry and guns with
grape and canister pelting through us and shelling from
the opposite heights. But I felt or feared nothing—a
sortrof wildness came over me, and I seemed to care not
where I went or what I did. Onward still. The first
line had retired, the guns were silenced, and, retiring
behind a large herd of Cossacks, they formed a front,
but would not stand our charge, but galloped through
guns and everything. We cut down the gunners and
literally took the whole lot. The Cossacks came out
by twos and threes, and kept firing away at us from
their long pieces, annoying us dreadfully. We looked
anxiously round for a support, when we perceived
what we considered the 17th Lancers a good distance in
the rear of us. "Hurra, my boys," sung out our
brave Colonel Douglas, "let's give them anothercharge;
the 17th will be up then, and we'll take guns home with
us." " Come on, lads," said Lord George Paget, his
gallant brother-in-law, Colonel ofthe 4th Lights. I found
myself as excited as possible, slayings out, "Come on
boys ;" anything is preferable to sitting quietly and
being shot at. At last some one gave the alarm that it
was a large body of Russian Lancers, formed up to cut
off our retreat. " There's no help for it," said Lord
George Paget, "we must retire, and cut our way
through them as well as we can." We went threes
about, and went calmly to the rear. They did not at-
tempt to cross our front, but attacked our right flank
and rear. I was pretty near the right flank, and of course
retiring in the rear rank ; I had allowed my horse to
flag a little, when one of the gentlemen came on to at-
taci: me with hisqanee at a slanting pneiLion, and was
making a poke for my back ; I wheeled round in the
saddle, parried his lance, and gave him a second rear
point to the left of his right shoulder, which I expect
will spoil his lancing for -seine time. I was quite chuck-
ling to myself over this affair, when we came to the
horrid cross fire again. I had
not gone far through till
I got a rap in the leg as if from a sledge hammer.
blood gushing from a looked down and saw the
good-
sized hole. "Now then, old_horse"—he had carried me
well through the campaigot,
had seen ail over the field four
osravfive ine
31Coisfajcynsowsprikin(gI
any poor fellow who was down.) I kept t
work, and galloped a mile er more, when the spur at
began to get
quite blind and faint ; I saw dimly a tent chum, I hailed
to lend a hand, he heard Inc and came
ga
stopped me the first thing, and gave me a g°oPoPiang drink'he
out of his water-bottle ; that revived me,
old Cardiganj
and I just got
a
to where the regiment was forming and
was sitting, with the tears almost in his eyes, when he
saw his smart brigade so cut up ; our fellows cheered
him, when he said, "You must not think, men, this is
one of my mad-bra ineda2tions ; I would have given almost
anything rather than ,it had happened." I moved for-
ward and asked to be taken to the rear ; I was hurried
off to the doctor (the assistant), who had a lot of our
officers and men in the nice green ditch of a vineyard,
where we could lie up the slope ; I had lost a tremend-
ous deal of blood, and one of the officers gave me a good
swig of brandy oat of his flask. The doctor stopped the
bleeding-, and we had to wait some time for the ambul-
ance, which came at last and took us off to the hospital,
and you know the rest. Give my love to all our family ;
break this affair very gently to my mother, and tell her
I shall viritc in a day or two, but it is a
_great exertion ;
and now, dear
hoping and trusting that God
will allow me to see you all again, believe me your most
affectionate brother.

The following is an extract from a letter from an
officer of Light Dragoons who survived the sanguinary
Balaklava char ge :
" We are sending in our claims for the Crimea medal.
Mine appears with Alma and Inkerman. I wish I could
add Balaklava. We all consider it a great grievance
that we are to get nothing for our charge on the 25th
of October, I confess I think it is too bad.' Our Allies
are astonished. They said to an officer of the Bth, a
day or two ago—' If we had made such a charge as
that, every officer and man who came out would have
bees decorated.' Lord Raglan said that it was made
under a misconception. What have the officers and
men to do with that They were ordered to charge
the Russian guns, and most gallantly did they obey the
order."

BALl[ORAL—Balmoral is in Aberdeenshire, and on
the Dee : it is near Abergeldie and Braemar, and was
formerly the seat of the Earl of Fife. It is in the heart
of a most romantic and mountainous conitry

"The eirelimg hills all black and wild
Are o'er its slumbers darkly pilad."

It is backed to the south by the bills vhereon the father
of young Norv,al fed his flocks,--the granite Grampians,
with their frightful precipices, yawning chasms, and
rushing torrents ; while to the west tower up some of
the loftiest and most picturesque mountains in the king-
dom,—Den Maick Dhui, Cairntoul, and Cairngorm,—
the mountain of crystals. Amongst these are to be
found scenery of the grandest description, views varying
in character, from the wild sublimity of utter barrenness
to the mild beauty of smiling streams and richly-wooded
heights, incliding—
" A stately progeny of pines,
With all their floating foliage richly robed."

Abergeldic has an old castle ; at Braemar a cairn points
out the spot where clansmen were summoned to attend
by "fell cross of blood and brand ;" and in Lumphanan
a mound marks where fell Macbeth, notwithstanding
Holinshed and Shakspere (because of Holinshed) give
the "honour" to Dunsinane. Aberdeen, the city of
"Bon accord," the birth-place of Scottish learning, and
of Gibbs, the architect, by the way, is about forty-five
miles off to the north-east. The estate itself includes a
ruin and a loch,—loch Muick,—and stretches as far as
"dark Loch-na-Garr," made famous by Byron, who
spent some of the early part of his life near it, and after-
wards sang—

(FROM A STAFF OF
December 28.

I have just been looking over the papers from Eng-
land, and am glad to see the kindly
feeling expressed
by all classes towards the army, and particularly_erce
the
pride our countrymen take in our conduct at the
light of Inkerman. Great and just praise is given to
the brigade of Guarde, the Second and Light divisions,
but the Fourth appears to have no trumpeter, though
surely no division more fairly earned it. Their number
in the action aracun'ted to only 2,225, their loss in killed
and wounded to 750 ; of these two generals, four lieu-
tenant-colonels, three majors, atd ten officers of inferior
rank were killed, and 30 officers wounded. Inkerman
was " the soldiers' victory ;" to them and the regimental
officers all the praise was duP. The superior-officers
cr.uld do no more than they did--fight and fall with
hew.
The nature of the attack and of the ground prevented

"Years have roll'd on, Loch-na-Garr, since I left you :
Years must elapse ere I tread you again :
Nature of verdure and flowers has bereft you;
Yet still are you dearer than Albion's plain.
England thy beauties are tame and domestic
To one who has roved on the mountains afar
Oh ! for the crags that are will and majestic,
The steep frowning glories of dark Loeh-na-Garr."

The Builder.

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e accordingly
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r I bl newly-invented, very 'small,
11351.-1 aua o,
Exhibition,
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1,
powerfulseen and known ._
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site Albemarle-street, power.-39,
site the York HOW.

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 18, 1855.

Court, stated that an apparatus had been applied to the
furnace, which he had no doubt would remedy the evil
complained of, and that he had seen no smoke issuing
from the chimney that morning.
The Court then adjourned.

SEIVERAGE OF LONDON.

Though London still remains without any organised
system of drainage, and though over a considerable part
of its area the common facilities of sewerage are almost,
if not altogether, wanting, we think we may nevertheless
congratulate our metropolitan readers on the point at
which this question, after years of agitation and debate,
has at length arrived. In a few words, the Commis-
sioners of Sewers are now at last upon the right track,
are apparently in earnest, and are so far advanced in the
business that action must needs soon take the place of
argument. Four er five years ago all the leading prin-
ciples on this subject had yet to be established. It was
not so much as confessed even that a new organisation
of metropolitan sewerage was necessary ; on the con-
trary, it was argued in official quarters that all we wanted
was an extension, and perhaps a little improvement, of
the system actually in use. It was not acknowledged
that the Thames ought to he included in the area to be
purified. Some engineers declared that such a purifica-
tion of its waters was impossible; others roundly as-
serted that the attempt would be an entire mistake, for
that the river could never serve any better purposes than
those of a sewer, for which it was eminently and ob
viously fitted. Pendirpee all these discussions of prin-
ciple there were endless discussions of detail, the metro-
politan public got confused and disgusted with intermi-
nable' squabbles over pipes and "sumps," and, in the
end, as everybody will remember, one commission after
another was swept away without any substantial results
having been obtained.
The present aspect of affairs, if not absolutely satis-
factory, is considerably more promising. The principles
of the question are settled. All the points for which,
on behalf of the public, we so long contended are now
admitted by all parties together. There is no longer a
question about the propriety of purifying the Thames ;
every scheme recognises this condition as plainly indis-
pensable. There is no longer any dispute about the
ra,El 1,201 Ant", ~f-1_ 1 t----, v
schemeaiy
proceeds directly on this assumption, and recom-
mends itself exactly in proportion as it professes to in-
troduce some new, effectual, and comprehensive ar-
rangements. Channels of seine kind or other are to be
substituted for the bed of the Thames ; into these main
tunnels the sewers of the different districts are to dis-
charge themselves, while every house, instead of stand-
ing, as many now do, over smothered cesspools, is to
have an outlet for its drainage into the sewers. These
aro the great points of the question now accepted. The
sewage is not to accumulate in cesspools or "sumps,"
nor to be poured into the stream of a tidal river, to be
washed backwards and forwards at our feet ; it is to be
carried away through seine artificial channels to some
spot where it will at least be innocuous, and where, as
our knowledge of these matters improves, it may some
day be converted into a marketable commodity.
Another satisfactory circumstance is, that beside these
advances in theory, considerable advance has been made
in practice. It is not only acknowledged that all this
ought to be done, but it is confessed that it can be done.
A scientific and comprehensive drainage scheme, which
not so very long ago was pronounced a thing utterly
impracticable, is now admitted to be easily within the
means of our engineers, and is not expected, after all,
to cost any very formidable sum. Measurements have
been taken, plans devised, and oven formal estimates
framed and presented. The approaches, as military
engineers would say, are all complete, the parallels have
been finished one after another, and the branching bat-
teries aro at the very walls of the place. We scarcely
see how there can be any further pretext for suspense or
delay. The project of draining the metropolis on a
comprehensive and effectual system, is not only known
to be practicable, but more than one set of men are
ready at this minute to set about the work. The Me-
tropolitan Commissioners of Sewers have nothing to do
but decide definitively between the proposals before
them ; and this, as our recent reports have informed the
reader, is what they are now about.
Without prejudging the several questions which have
already been propounded, and which will shortly come
before the public afresh, we may give our readers some
general view of the points for discussion. There is one
question as to the level at which the main tunnel sewers
ought to be carried ; there is a second as to the scale on
which they ought to be constructed ; and there is, of
course, a third, as to the particular course which they
should take. The second of these points is that which
appears to have created the principal debate, and on its
solution will depend much not only of the character but
the cost of the scheme adopted. The smaller the main
sewer is, the more easily and cheaply it can, of course,
be made, but the difficulty here is this,—that, whereas
a comparatively small drain would perfectly suffice to
carry off all the ordinary sewage, a much greater power
of discharge is required to deal with the excessive flow
produced by heavy rainfalls, and the dimensions of the
sewer have consequently to be calculated for these extra-
ordinary occasions. The designs of Messrs. Bazalgette
and Haywood, the engineers, respectively, of the Metro-
politan and the City Commission of Sewers, adopt what
may be termed the broad gauge principle in this matter,
And their views aro ---,PA.-n.(l 1,-,!tho 78}u)rity of Sir_i
W. cnoitt and Mr. R. btephenSon,
of opinion that smaller dimensions than those approved
in the said designs would end in nothing but disappoint-
ment. Altogether, this seems to be the principle most
in favour in official quarters, while the proposals of pri-
vate and independent projectors point to simpler and
less expensive plans of operation.
Our readers will easily discern that, although much
interest must naturally attach to these discussions, the
points of chief importance will in any case be secured.
We shall obtain an unpolluted river and a scientific sys-
tem of sewerage ; but it is not to be forgotten that even
these advantages will lose much of their value unless the
drainage of particular dwellings is placed upon a better
footing. It is clearly of no use to have a good tunnel
sewer, unless the house drains of all districts are made

to avail themselves of the outfall. At present we
not only have no sadsfactory outfall, but many
dwellings have no communication even with the sewers
which actually exist. At the Court of the Commission
held on Tuesday last the chairman observed that the
number of houses " drained into sewers "—that is,
brought for the first time into connexion with the sewers
of the district—was at the rate of about 20,000 every
year, of which cases as many as 7,000 were the result of
compulsion. Very many houses, however, including, as
Sir J. Shelley observed, " some of the best in Grosvenor-
square," have still cess-pools under them, and as long as
such a practice is maintained it will be of little avail to
provide general facilities for the escape of district sewage.
It is of no use purifying either street or river if the very
dwellings in which we reside are kept impure. Without
the main drainage scheme we cannot possibly have good
local drainage ; but unless local drainage is also reformed
the advantages of the new system will be lost. Both
warnings and examples are now before us. Pestilence
has but just departed from our doors, and we cannot tell
at what moment it may return. Amid all the mystery
attending its ravages this alone seems clear, that in pro-
portion as wretchedness and dirt are superseded by
cleanliness and comfort the plague is disarmed of its
terrors. We are now blessed with a respite and an op-
portunity, let us turn them to such account for all classes
of people as becomes reasonable beings and Christian
men.—Times.