The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-27 00:00:00

_...., --ha he auarcoeit a despatch
G. Cathcart, informing him that tie force should not be
reduced till it should meet his tiws. On the 24th
March last year ho received a despat;le from Sir G. Cath-
cart, stating it was very undesirabl the force should be
then reduced, though the time of thi jest and 12th Regi-
.
relents had elapsed. Sir G. Cealicae -expressed a desire
that the 12th Regiment should be left here it was, and in-
formed him (the Duke of Newcastlt4 hat he would move
the 91st Regiment from the frontier t Vales Town so as to
have it ready for embarkation when s ti'M would arrive, on
their return from Australia to take it mine Subsequently
to this the breaking out of the war lei o an alteration, and
it became impossible to leave the 9lst;enil it was decided
that the 40th, which was to go to Vie{oria, should be re-
tained at home. That being the case` end it being still de-
sirable to bring home the 91et as worths possible, arrange-
ments wore made that the regielet at the Cape should
be augmented to 5,00 J meu by thetas from this country.
On the oth of Juno lett year he addreeied a despatch to the
Lieutenant-Governor at the Capo, al ruling him of those
arraugernefits. On the 30th of Ma he addressed letters
tat) the Admiralty anti the Horse Gust ts, apprisiag thenaof
a 1 the arrangements. Accordingly two litips, the -3
faidstone
and the Punjaub, wore chattered to thing home the troops
from the Cape. Those ships areiveta at the colony about
tho middle of October, and it appeateal that, though his
vthe Duke of Newcastle's) despatchto the Lioutenaut-Go-
ei•nor had salmi, Major-General aeckson had not re-
ceived corresponding orders from the elorse Guards. Under
these circumstances, he (General Jacks* hesitated; and
because the drafts sent out from this you ttry did ilea make
up the number to 5,000 mon, he wrote) home, declining. to;
send home the 91st Regiment, and the Punjaub returned
empty.
~
The subject then dropped.
THE PRESS AND THE WAR.
The Earl of WINCHILSEA. said Jo slaguld not occupy
many minutes in drawing their lerefetnips' attention to a
question of which he had given nutietit He had no doubt
that many noble lords round him would think he had
taken a bold course in ve.ntruieg to al eeee hemmer ;-. eeeteet
with Pe zheeereewsPaPer, aieti for d.feteg to call in oues
.
tion any part ofthe course which teet.a eurael thought pro-
per to adopt in reference to tho war in which we were er.
gaged. But ho never had been deter ree, and he never should
- shrink from boldly declaring hie Sentiments, when he
noble lords around him. Ho was wellaware how
i
thought any part of the Public press of this country
outetepped its due bounds, or whoa he believed Le
course it was pursuing was detrimental to the interests
onffehriisor he
counmt,rays.
in (aHbeilaitry t
, hear.)e ninny
He might not, from leek of talent and ability, have been
enabled to render much assistance to his country in that
house ; but, with all humility, he might express a sincere
hope that he had not been deficient in that moral courage
which adorned so many of their lordships. He had never
ever
been behind-hand in boldly .expressibee his sentiments, re-
gardless of the risk and inconvenience to himself. Tate
moral courage was one of the greatest among many bless-
ings which he had received from Providence ; it induced
him, on all occasions, to act up to hie principles, and it was
strengthened and confirm .3d by the. kin(' conduct, the precepts
and, above all, the example of one whose memory he
cherished with the deepest affection, and who taught him
the maxim to fear no man, but to honestly and conaciant
tiously do his duty in whatever situation he was placed.
Them stood not among their lordships a hshipe greater friend of
the liberty of the press than himself. He know the public
benefit
—the"libweortnyldit enjoyed
evengreat
say a
had its
blessing
a—d
tboeetnhea
country,
but
du ics as well as its limits. If the liberty of the press" was
not restrained within certain bounds, it degenerated into
licentiousness. Let him instance the resent attacks on
individuals in their public capacity in letters published by
the newspapers, and from which, for some purpose or an-
other, the writers had thought proper to withhold their
signature. Though he had often exposed himself to the
lash of the press, he had never placed his sentiments before
the public through its instrumentality without having the
honesty and boldness to attach his name to them. Ho con-
tended that the paper to which lie alluded had exceeded
all proper bounds, and had made most unwarrantable,
most cruel, and most unjust attacks upon sonic individuals
holding high stations of trust in the army, now fighting
England's battles. He stood there to vindicate the mili-
tary character and talents of those entrusted with the com-
mand of that army. If he were the ablest military autho-
rity in that house, he should 'scorn to form an opinion
upon their conduct until he knew every circumstance
connected with the war, and all the difficulties with
which they had to contend. A new era had certainly
sprung up in the country when the public press sent out
,individuals to the seat of war, to tell not only all that
took place in the camp and the field but to pass
judgment on the conduct and character of those who had
the conduct of the war. These persons also gave most
useful information to the enemy. Andeed, he might say
that no spy which Russia, by raeaniiif her gold, had been
enabled to avail herself, had ever supplied her with such
valuable news as was to. be found in the columns of the
public press. Would that groat gdaerale whose talents
were never fully appreciated until lost to them,
VI
have suffered such a state of things t - •st if ho were now
alive and at the head of our army i ehe East? Would
he have allowed the sickness amoneAhe soldiers, and the
diminution of the army in numbers,o have been commu-
nicated to the enemy, thtergiving eneouragement to him,
and placing the army in a worse positiOn than it really
was? Attaaks ba,l boon outdo voile, typnrx ij..l7t. Eug-
land and Sir G. Burgoyne. but ups*, o noble lord who
commanded the army, with whom, 11 wan proud to say,
ho had been intimately acquainted for many years. it
was said he had no feeling and sympathy for the sufferings
and privations of his gallant men, lend that ho was never
seen about camp. Now, a more foul, false, and unfounded
calumny had never been levelled against the character of a
commander, for amoro kind-hearted and feeling man than
the noble lord at the head of the army in the Crimea could
not, he believed, be found. Ile considered the public
press had outsteppcd its proper province ; but if it were
to assume to itself the direction of the war, and pass cen-
sure on what was going on in the camp and field, the
sooner the Government of the country was placed in the
hands of the press, and the noble lords opposite removed
from the Treasury bench, the letter. After some further
observations, the noble earl sail, the question which he
wished to ask was, whether the correspondent of the Times
in the -Crimea had, in the slightest degree, received the re-
cognition of the Government ? He did not suppose for a
moment that the expenses of that gentleman's journey to
the Crimea were borne by the Government ; but he was
given to understand he had a free passage in one-of her
Majesty's ships. He was informed, also, he had received
rations from the commissariat while in the Crimea. He
should like to have an answer upon these points. He
wished to inquire further, whether the noble duke had re-
ceived any communication from Lord Raglan stating that
the course pursued by the prees had been detrimental to
the best interests of the army, and calling for some orders
to prevent the continuance of the evil?
The Duke of NEWCASTLE was sure the noble earl
would excuse him if he did not enter on that occasion into
any discussion as to whether they had been taunted by the
press to undertake the expedition to the Crimea prema-
turely, and whether they had, m ;
consequeece of that,
placed the army in any difficulty. His noble and learned
friend on the cross benches had given notice of a very
striaoent motion on tho subject for Friday next, and it
would be his duty ou that occasion to vindicate the Go-
vernment from any charges which might be made against
them irrespective of the conduct of the press. He con-
curred with his noble friend that the press of this country
had not acted on all occasions with judgment and discre-
tion • he thought it had shown a great lack of judgment
and discretion in the information which it had communi-
cated at`different times—not to the people of England, for
as regarded them he should rejoice in their being supplied
with all this news that could be obtained—but to the Rus-
sian Government. They must, however, recollect that the
same news which was conveyedt to them was transmitted
with the greatest rapidity to Russia. He believed it was
a fact that people in this country were in the habit of
communicating to the Emperor of Russia by telegraph the
information contained in the press of this country, so that
what appeared hero in the morning was known at St.
Petersburg in the course of the very seinesday. Although
therefore he would not impute to the press any want of
patriotism, he did say they had acted' with a want of dis-
cretion in the information they Ilea published. (Hoar.) His
noble friend asked whether the correspondent of one parti-
cular paper had received from the Government any en-
couragement or assistance in the Performance of his task and
he alluded to two allegations which had been made with re-
gard to him,—first that he had, with the concurrence of
the Government, drawn rations from the commissariat
while with the army in the East ; and, secondly, that he
had a free passage out from this country, Now, as to the
latter allegation, which he would take first, it was per-
fectly true that a gentlemith, who was certainly not en-
• • did intimate en-
titled to give such permission, that, in one of
the vessels which was to convey out troops—he believed
the very first—the gentlemSn in question might have a
free passage. Before, however, the vessel sailed, the cir-
cumstance came to the knowledge of the Government, and
they sent down expressly td Southampton or Portsmouth
-- he forgot which—a message, saying it was contrary to
rules in the case of a vessel engaged for the conveyance of
troops alone, and that the gentleman who, lie believed,
was then on board, must leave the ship. The gentleman
accordingly did leave, and by other means proceeded to
Malta. He hoped that was a satisfactory answer to the
noble lord's question. As to the second statement, respect-
ing the drawing of rations, if the questiono__ had been put to
him at the beginning of the month f December, he should
have been enabled to give his noble_ friend as positive a
contradiction of it as he had done of the other. Applica-
tions were made to him by the editors of newspapers in this
commencement of December, requesting that
eountryat the
• .
their correspondents in the Crimea might receive
rations,
and it had been his duty to inform those gentlemen that
such a course would be contrary to all the roles of the
ld suplie '
p d withcommissariat servics, that none cou
üblibe
tions except those employed in P c duties connected
with the army, and that it was therefore quite impossible
to afford the assistance which was solicited. A. rejoinder
was made by one of those gentlemen, tie the effect that the
person referred to by his noble friend was in the enjoy-
ment of the privilege which he bad refused to others. It
b 0 happened that he (the Duke of Newcastle) had had an
before of conversing with friend
opportunity not long
who had been in the Crimea, and on his authority he
positively contradic • ted that, statement. Just before
the meeting of Parliament before Christmas, he re-
ceived an intimation from another gentleman who came
from the Crimea, which led him to make further in-
quiries. It was right he should state here that it was only
in the month of December that the commissariat came
under his immeliato management, consequently before then
he was not cognisant of the details of the business which
had been transacted. The fact, however, was undoubtedly
this, that by private permission, given by the head of tho
department of the Treasury, the gentleman in question had
received rations from the commissariat, and he could only
say that the moment the matter came to his notice he inti-
mated to the Chancellor of the Exchequer the disapproval
of the Government at the course which had been taken, and
expressed a hope that the privilege would be abandoned.
He wished it to be known, however, that Ivo did not think,
under the circumstances, at -that particular moment, the
gentleman having already enjoyed the privilege, to issue a
peremptory order depriving him oit,
f lle treated rather