The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 20, 1855,

LINES LEASED AT FIXED RENTALS.

FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY.

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yesterday.

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this day.

(From the Press of this day.)
If the remarkable prophecy of Mr. Disraeli, that
"every Minister of the Coalition Cabinet would be
damaged eventually by his connection with it," termi-
nated in mischief only to Lord Aberdeen's colleagues,
many persons would regard such a result with the com-
posure of contempt. But it appears plain that the
national credit is now seriously involved in the conse-
quences resulting from the culpable adoption by the
Ministry of the inefficient (if not imbecile) Ministers
of the War Department. The fact can no longer
be concealed that, while our soldiers are second to
none in courage and endurance, the campaign of
the English in' the Crimea has been decidedly
eclipsed by our French Allies. Although proud
of the union with our illustrious neighbours,
we cannot forget that between nations there is
rivalry in the flank as well as in the front, and the his-
tory of human nature shows that emulation on the same
side is often attended with keener feelings than when the
antagonists are avowedly opposed. Barristers employed
by one client in a great cause, physicians in consulting
fur a serious case, divines in unfolding the intricacies of
a knotty subject, arc evidently as anxious to excel each
other for the sake of their personal reputation as if they
stood upon opposite issues, and contended for different
objects. So, also, in the histary of Parliament we can
see that the competition between rivals is just as spirited
as between antagonists.
To apply these considerations to a practical purpose
we must remind our readers that rivalry between
nations partakes of the individual law that we have here
indicated. National competition in war, manufactures,
commerce, science, and literature is just as zealous and
as stimulating as if single persons ale' not whole com-
munities were the competitors. How stands the case at
present between ourselves and our gallant associates the
French t In science and letters and civilisation we have
both run a long and glorious race of competition. In
more deadly rivalry we have shown heretofore that we
were firemen worthy of combatting with each other. In
our famious wars the fiery impetuosity of the French
chivalry, and the terrible steadiness of the English reso-
lution, have been recounted with honourable impartia-
lity by both French and English historians.
Unhappily, however, it would _seem that in the pre-
sent contest the French have decidedly surpassed us in
the art of carrying on war without grievous losses.
The miseries endured by the French have been
trifling compared with what our troops have had
to undergo. Our brave allies have, like our own
glorious heroes, encountered the swarming numbers of
the Russians. They have displayed prodigies of personal
courage in the battle-field ; but they had not to endure
being served with green coffee, without means to roast
or grind it; nor were they put upon half, and even
quarter, rations of raw, fat pork, without any fuel to
cook it ; nor were their wounded allowed to lie in the
sludge without beds of any kind ; nor had they to endure
such horrors of the middle passage as were reserved for
our wounded champions; nor had they—but we cannot
go through the list of horrors which the French escaped,
and to which our soldiers have so cruelly been subjected
by the scandalous neglects of Ministers in office.
Well, and what is the result t Look to the evidence
supplied by the columns of the most, potent supporter of
the Coalition. In the Times of January 15th, we read
from one of its best correspondents writing from Con-
stantinople—" At this moment, the Turks are full of
admiration at the greatness of the Western Powers, and
especially of France." Then, after recounting the " en-
ergy" shown by the latter: nation, tie communication
states—" It is not without something like humiliation
that an Englishman finds how small a part his coun-
try fills in comparison with its ally, and how uni-
versally this struggle is spoken of by the people of
the country as a war between France and Rus-
sia." Surely this statement is most painful, and
deserving of the most serious attention. It is
more remarkable, as the writer commemorates
how great was the effect produced by the first ap-
pearance of the English in the East. It would seem,
however, that owing to the evident earnestness of the
Emperor Napoleon's policy, and his great resources,
the skill of his officers, and the general effectiveness of
his forces, an impression not flattering to England, as
contrasted with France, was produced at Constantinople.
But there are still later, and more mortifying, testi-
monies as to the superiority of our French rivals. In
the Times of yesterday (Jan. lath) Col. Elves Napier
has published a long letter, addressed to him from
Sebastopol, under date of the 28th December. Its
writer is an officer,and some of his statements are painful
to our national pride, though we fear that they cannot
be disputed. Thus he writes—" The French seem
to have everything, plenty of clothing, food, and forage ;
their horses look fat and sleek, and their commissariat
mules splendid ; they beat us in everything but fight-
ing—both armies know that." This is, indeed, a painful
admission, but it is corroborated by a letter from an as-
sistant-surgeon, printed in the next column of the same
journal, who says— " The French, as I think I have told
you before, beat us into fits as to arrangements and
comforts."
Unfortunately, these facts cannot be gainsaid. Hun-
dreds of private letters tell the same tale, and the cor-
respondents of the various journals, differing in many
things, are nearly unanimous upon the superior feeding
and coreforte enjoyed by the French. We know that
is asserted, on excellent authority, " that the French

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alone have an army in the Crimea now." Our force is
completely disorganised, and in whatever is under-
taken against Sebastopol, the French must have the
" entire direction." Wooden houses are sent out, to
arrive in January, for men who have been left to a Cri-
mean winter through December. The whole English
commissariat system has broken down for want of wag-
gon-trains and adequate horses. The troops cannot get
up their biscuit and beef, and is it expected that they
can convey their wooden houses from Balaklava! And
side by side are the French, " with plenty of everything."
Surely the contrast is deeply humiliating to any man
with a spark of honest British pride. No nation excels
the English in method and practical talent for affairs.
In the difficult art of colonisation we have surpassed all
the world, and yet our army exhibits this melancholy in-
feriority in its physical condition.
Ind why is this the case ? Its men are of the same
stock as those wino filled the Crystal Palace with won-
der., and who have challenged the world to excel their
industrial ingenuity. Many of its officers are of tried
experience arid courage, and hew, therefore, can such
mortifying contrasts have been shown ! It is because a
great Red-Tapist presides over our War-office, and be-
cause no military man is in the Cabinet. It is because
the most important of Ministerial offices is given to the
worse than second-rate capacity of the Ddke of New-
castle, a politician who never previously discharged the
duties of any great office of the State, and whose innate
mediocrity of miad is patent to any one who ever passed
an hour in his company, or listened to him twaddling in
the House of Peers.
There are persons who will say, while sighing over
these statements, that the French have the advantage
of an old military system, and that our English army is
only improvised. The assertion savours of calumny
against the institutions of our country. We shall not
hero discuss the issues raised by that question, which
can be better treated elsewhere ; but we are desirous of
fastening attention to the fact that under the vaunted
" administrative powers " of the Coalition, our army
and our public service have been defrauded of the ho-
nour due to them. Nay, more, there is a case proved
by the advocates of the Coalition, that our Ministerial
mismanagement has tarnished the national credit and
sullied the fame which our combatants at Inkermann
and Balaklava so gloriously supported. Our soldier-
ship is admitted to have been first-rate, but of our states-
manship it is enough to say that ten thousand brave
men perished under the fatal rule of the destructive
Duke of Newcastle. Never had any country so incom-
petent a Minister of War. Nor can it be a matter of
surprise that such painful comparisons are drawn in the
East between the Frendh and the English so long as the
latter perish under a War Department whose adminis-
tration is more calamitous than the hostility of the Em-
peror of all the Russias.