The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-03 00:00:00

T.14..g,g11N, LONDON, MONDAY EfiriiiN I NG, SEPTEMBER 3 18

Sir Charles Napier has given publicity to the fol-
lowing letters, apparently a selection from his cor-
respondence with the late First Lord of the Adini-
ralty. The letters of Sir James Graham were
narked "private." We print them as we find
them, without expressing an opinion as to the pro-
priety of first making them public.
No. 1.
SIR JAMES GRAHAM TO SIR CHARLES 'NAPIER. _ _

Admiralty, Oct. 17, 1854 [Recd. 22d.]
My dear Sir Charles—You refer to my letters at the
end of August, as contemplating then the early termina-
tion of active operations in the Baltic for this year.
I was not prepared, even at that time, for the imme-
diate departure of the French army after the capture of.
Bomarsund ; and I pointed out to you, Abo, Sweaborg,
and Revel as points which, with military aid, were opera
to attack. Much less was I prepared for the
with-
drawal of the French squadron from the combined naval
operations almost simultaneously with the departure of
the army, so soon as Bomarsund had been destroyed.
These decisions were taken on the spot, I believe,
with your consent, but without any reference to the
English Government. But in August we had not seen
the report of General Jones on Sweaborg, which you
forwarded to us from Ledsund on the 29th of August,
and which was in your hands before either the French
army or the French fleet had left the Aland Islands.
That report is entitled to respect. It made a great im-
pression here, and raised a strong presumption that with
the aid of the military force then present with the fleet,
in seven or eight days the works at Sweaborg might be
destroyed, and that the month of September afforded
ample time for the operation.
On the sth of September you sent us the observations
of General Baraguay d'Hilliers and of General Niel on
the report of General Jones.
General Baraguay d'Billiers says expressly, after hay-
himself, together with General
ing reconnoitred Sweaborg
Niel :—" We partake of the opinion of Gen. Jones.
Sweaborg may be attacked and taken by the fleets, if
they think fit to make on that fortress a serious attack."
General Niel went further, and said that, without any
military co-operation, 8 or 10 sail of the line could lay
the works in ruins in two hours, by a bombardment near
at hand, on the sea front, where the works are weakest ;
and he intimated very distinctly an opinion that the
attack ought to be made.
In the face of these reports, and within a week after re-
ceiving, them, the intelligence that the French army
and French fleet had left you, without a shot being fired
except at Bomarsund, was both a surprise and a disap-
pointment.
Then came your own second reconnaissance of Swea-
borg, and a plan of naval attack, which you considered
practicable. We were anxious, if the French and Eng-
lish forces could be reunited, that it should have been
tried even this year before the immense fleet which had
been assembled retreated from the Baltic ; but our own
sailing ships hating gone to Kiel, and the French
squadron being on its way home, the opportunity was
lost, and nothing now remains to be done but gradually
to withdraw the line-of-battle-ships' and to await the
moment when ice shall enclose the Russian fleet within
the Gulf of Finland for the winter.
No doubt, at the time of the equinox, there are heavy
gales of wind in the Baltic ; it is a narrow sea, and there
is danger to large ships in maintaining the blockade,
even when at anchor. But war is not conducted with-
out risks and dangers ; and prudence consists in weigh-
ing, and firmness in encountering them ; and nothing
great by sea or land can be achieved without consider-
able peril, as your own experience and example have
demonstrated.
We await the next report of your movements, before
we send you further orders. I am, yours sincerely,
J. G. GRAHAM.
His Excellency Sir Charles Napier, K.C.B.
No. 2.
SIR CHARLES NAPIER'S REPLY TO THE ABOVE.
Kiel, Oct. 27.
My dear Sir James—So far back as August 29 I
announced to you the intention of the French General
to withdraw his troops. I agreed with the French Gene-
ral and Admiral that Sweaborg could not be attacked at
this season of the year, and I have no hesitation in say-
ing, had we moved the troops and ships up to Miolo
Roads, and landed 5,000 men, we should not have
brought off one man, and how many ships we would
have lost I cannot say.
After the capture add destruction of Bomarsund till I
left Nargen there have not been three days fit for ope-
rations that required seven or eight, and then the ships
and transports must have lain amongst the rocks and
shoals of Miolo Roads—a position that might have done
for a general, but certainly not for an admiral.
Shortly after the troops sailed I communicated to you
that the French admiral had received orders to go to
Cherbourg, that they were dated the 39th of August ;
so that the decision was not taken on the spot, as you
suppose. General Jones's report made no change what-
ever in our opinions.
You say the French generals partook of General
Jones's opinions ; then why did he not carry them out ?
Surely, Sir James, you could not have read them ; they
are quite opposite. The French generals thought the
fleet could knock down Sweaborg iu two hours. General
Jones required a combined movement, which would re-
quire seven or eight days. The French general, in his
letter to me, says :—"Nous partageons l'opinion de M.
le General Jones, Sweaborg peut etre attaque et pro; par
les flottes si alles veulent faire contre cette fortresse une
attaque seriuse."
You will find no such thing in General Jones's report.
The French general mast have meant Gen. Niel's report.
The opinion General Niel gave, in writing, after he
landed, he certainly did not give to the admiral on the
spot; and the mole I think, the more I am satisfied
that such an attack would end in a signal failure—even
if we succeeded in knocking down the sea face the work
would be only begun.
You say, Sir James, that General Niel intimated very
distinctly that the attack ought to be made ; your board
and you, Sir James, do not agree on that point ; in their
letter to me they say, " But General Niel at the same
time remarks that so bold an operation has not, to his
knowledge, been yet attempted by ships against forts,
and that it is not his province to advise it." And they
desired me to confer with Admiral Parseval, and ascer-
tain whether he was willing to join in a naval attack.
And if it appears both to ynu and to him an attempt
too rash, you are to cause this joint opinion to be re-
corded ; but if one agrees and the other does not, the
Admirals present shall be called and their advice and
opinion taken."
This was done—the French Admiral declined attend-
ing the conference, as he had before given an opinion
against attacking Sweaborg, and the English Admirals,
after having read (General Niel's) report, said they had
no reason to change the opinion they had already given,
and iii which Admiral Martin concurred. The truth
the troops came too late—too many for Bomarsund, and
too few for Sweaborg. The cholera got amongst them.
General Jones made a proposal which the generals de-
clined acting on. The people in England were dissatis-
fied, and as some one must be blamed, the Government
want to throw it on me, but I will not accept it
I ask you, Sir James, to examine the chart of Swea-
borg, and ask yourself, if any man in his senses, at this
season of the year, would anchor his ships in Miolo
Roads, and commence operations that would require
seven or eight days to finish, which was General Jones's
proposal ; and I ask you whether any admiral would
attack Sweaborg with his ships alone, contrary to his
own judgment, and the opinion of the admirals whom
he was ordered to consult, because an engineer thought
it could be done ?
You were angry with me when I made use of the word
" mad," but, on my conscience, I believe it the only
word applicable to such an operation.
You say General Jones's report made a great impres•
sion. I have no doubt it did ;it is very easy to make a
report. General Jones knew that the French general
would not land a man—we all knew it : and lam quite
certain, after the continuation of had weather General
Jones saw on board the Duke of Wellington, he himself
would not have landed a man. Had people considered
one moment, they would have seen the impracticability
of the attempt ; but they thought Sebastopol was taken,
and I must take Sweaborg, Revel, and Cronstadt.
After the French generals had reconnoitred Sweaborg,
I examined it again, and sent home my opinion as t
how it ought to be attacked—by ships, batteries, gun-
boats, mortar.boate, &c.—at great length ; and the Ad-
miralty, as if anxious to get up a case against me, take
it into their heads that I meant to attack it with the
fleet alone, and were going to send back the French
squadron and Admiral Plumridge's ships, and though I
have remonstrated, they persist in still thinking so, and
ycu, Sir James, seem to have fallen into the same error.
You say, "then came your own second reconnaissance,
and a plan of naval attack, which you considered prac-
ticable."

TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.

Had I seen the smallest chance of success, I should
have attacked without the French, but I did not ; and
surely my opinion is worth more than a general of engi-
veers, but the Admiralty seem to think different. The
general talked of destroying Sweaborg in two hours. It
is much more likely the ships would have been set fire to
by red-hot shot and shells, and some of them on shore by
that time. Be assured it is a most difficult place to at-
tack, and whoever does it will have a hard nut to crack.
No admiral has, as yet, ventured to attack such a fort-
ress, defended as it is by art and nature. The sunken
rocks alone, combined with the smoke from the guns and
steamers, is no bad defence.
You observed, Sir James, that the month of Septem-
ber gave ample time for the operation. All the month of
September it wag blowing a gale of wind, and it was all
that Captain Watson could do to keep his station. I did
not wonder at the people of England expecting impossi-
bilities, but lam surprised at the Government counte-
nancing them at my cost.
lam glad the French ships did not come back. The
Admiral had already given his decided opinion that it
was not practicable, and it was with that conviction that
I decided on complying with your wishes, in sending
away the sailing ships, which the Admiralty disap-
proved of.
I do not wonder at your surprise and disappointment
when you heard the French fleet and army had returned
—the Government ought to have informed you of it. I
always warned you, even before the arrival of the troops,
that nothing more than Bomarsund could be done. They
came me too late, and I think they were fortunate in getting
safe ; it is more than I expected.
lam quite aware that the Baltic is a dangerous sea,
end that even blockading at anchor at this season is clan-
geroue ; and I know that war is not conducted without
risks and dangers, and I am as ready to encounter them
as any man, but I will not be driven by clamour to act
C)ntrary to my own judgment.
All summer, Sir James, you were cautioning me, and
so were the Government, not to risk my ships against
stone walls, for which you had a great respect, and

SIR CHARLES NAPIER AND SIR JAMES praising me for the manner I had conducted the fleet :
GRAHAM.
now winter is come, you are dissatisfied at my not doing.
impossibilities ; and as the people are not satisfied, the
Government are preparing to abandon me, because I
will not follow the advice of a general, contrary to that
of my own admirals, hn,d diametrically opposite to the
opinion of the French General of Engineers, and attack
a fortress at a season of the year when it is more than
probable I should have lust half my fleet.
I have gone into this explanation at great length ; it
has given me much pain. I am conscious of having done
my duty, and if you are dissatisfied you can bring me to
a court-martial, or remove me, as I before mentioned to
the Admiralty.
I am very far from well, and I assure you this corre-
spondence has not improved my health, and I am suffer-
ing much from cold.—l remain, dear sir, yours very
truly,
CELLS. NAPIRR.
The Right Hon. Sir James Graham,
Bart., G.C.8., Admiralty.

The following is the rejoinder which the ex-Lord of
the Admiralty sent to the letter of Sir Charles :
No. 3.
SIR JAMES GRAHAM TO SIR CHARLES NAPIER.
My dear Admiral,--I am very unwilling to be in-
volved in a written controversy with you, but you have
brought it on yourself, by your report of the 25th of
September, afteryour second reconnaissance of Sweaborg.
That report appeared to me to be entirely at variance
with the opinions previously expressed by you, and I
certainly understood you then to say, that if you had
mortars, rockets, and Lancaster guns, you considered
Sweaborg assailable by sea. In May you declared it to
be unassailable, by sea or land, and the Admiralty did
not send to you the appliances which, in September, you
declared to be wanting, because they believed, from your
account, they would be useless against a place which in
the first instance you pronounced to be impregnable. I
could not bring myself to believe that the want of Lan-
caster guns, or even of mortars, rendered a sea attack,
on your plan of the 25th of September, impossible, if
you had 25 sail of the line re-assembled before the place,
with all their means of vertical fire.
I am sincerelysorry to hear that you are unwell. I hope
that Kiel Harbour and milder air will restore you to
health.—l am, yours very truly, J. G. GRAHAM.
His Excellency Sir C. Napier, K.C.8., &c.
No. 4.
SIR CHARLES NAPIER TO BIR JAMES GRAHAM.
Duke of Wellington, Kiel, Nov. 6, 1854.
I can assure you, Sir James, it is far from my wish to
enter into a controversy with you, but I will not admit
that I have brought it on myself ; there is not a word in
either my public or private letters that justifies the con-
struction that you, and the Admiralty have thought
proper to put on them. My letter in answer to their
lordships' last despatch is plain enough ; but if their
lordships think proper to deliberate on one part of my
letter, and ignore another part, I can only protest
against it ; and I am quite prepared to defend myself
against any unjust attacks that are made against me. I
have documents enough in my possession to justify my
conduct. Enough has not been done to satisfy an impa-
tient public as you called them—some one must be
blamed, and I am the chosen one ; but I will not allow
myself to be crushed because I could not du impossibili-
ties.

All this stir has been caused by the reports of two en-
gineers (one French and the other English), diametrically
opposed to each other ; in addition to which was the re-
pert of the capture of Sebastopol, not yet taken, though
the fleet there is assisted by an army of 70,000 men, in
a fine climate ; and I have been expected to take places
much stronger with a fleet alone ; and the same people,
who so often warned me against unnecessarily risking
my fleet, are now dissatisfied because I did not expose
them to certain destruction.

I presume you have seen Captain Sullivan by this
time ; he is capable of opening the eyes of the Govern-
ment, if they are not hermetically sealed.
I have gone through the world with honour and credit
to myself, and just as I am about to leave it unworthy
attempts are being made to ruin my reputation, but
they will fail and recoil on themselves.—l remain, yours
very truly,

CHARLES N.
The Right Hon. Sir James Graham, Bart., G.C,BAPI
~R
Admiralty.

(Front the Despatch.)
My Lord,—You are a fallen man. I write this with
no feeling of exultation or of insult. Nor do I say it
either with any affectation of condolence. I give you
credit for an innate sense of greatness and desert which
would render both inappropriate. Still the fact is indis-
putable, that in the estimation of almost the whole poli-
tical world, and it may be presumed in your own estima-
tion also, you are a fallen man. You have led the House
of Commons, you have led the Liberal party, and now
you lead nobody. All power, save that which is inhe-
rent, has passed from your hands. You have known
what it is to be the head of Administrations which ruled
this mighty empire ; you have been the representative of
a Government which needed your support as its repre-
sentative; you have stood for Great Britain in the Congres-
sional Assembly of the plenipotentiaries of the great states
of Europe, and now youare nobody, you arenothing. Dur-
ing the latter days ofthe Parliamentary session just closed,
you sat obscure on the back benches, between Brotherton
and Wilkinson, far behind that row of potentialities of
whom you were once the centre and the chief. In a divi-
sion you walked alone the length of the lobby, no one
presiding near to exchange a half-whisper, or eager to
catch a smile or nod of recognition. Your vote counted
for one, and that was all. You are a fallen man, my lord;
and who reckons, in a new Parliament, on having even
to refer to the speech of " the noble lord, the member for
the City of London ?" You have purchased an estate
near Stroud, they say ; it being implied in the gossip,
true or false, that your majority, even in that convenient
borough, may not be the less secure for a little influence
from a neighbouring property. Party in Parliament you
have none ; party in the country you have none either.
The press ignores you. From public meetings you have
neither praise nor reprobation ; your name excites nei-
ther storms of hisses nor thunders of applause. You
are a fallen man. Have you any hope of a glorious re-
surrection ?
I fear you may, and that fear it is which induces me
to indite this epistle. Party principles, party morality,
and party tactics, are strong in you, bone of your bone
and flesh of your flesh, intus et in cute ; and therefore it
is that I fear you may yet try another fall with Palmer.
ston, may yet aim at tripping up the heels of another
Government, may yet speculate upon new combinations,
and may eagerly watch some opportune moment for
rearing on high your torn banner in the hope of its be-
ing rallied round by a majority. If so, my lord, I warn
you that discreditable will be your success and brief your
triumph. What trickery achieves trickery can defeat.
You will only prepare for your political career a melan-
choly and disastrous close. You will be worsted by your
own arts. You will invite defeat, and deepen defeat
into disgrace. Alienated from the country in what the
country has most at heart—driven from the only possible
Ministry by which that country's first wish for the vigor-
ous and unrelenting prosecution of this war with Russia
can be reasonably anticipated—your only means for Par-
liamentary rnanceuvering would be contingent upon the
co-operation of some portion of those various Peace-and.
Russian factions which the nation holds, according
t . their various degrees, in deep suspicion or in direct
abhorrence. Although a combination might be effected
for a specific and destructive purpose, you could not but.
be false to them, they would assuredly be false to you,
both would be false to the nation's intense desires and
purposes, and speedy dissolution would come upon the
frail edifice by the beating of the winds and waves of
popular indignation. You would then find "in the
lowest deep a lower still," and become, in a stronger, a
more irretrievable, an 1 a more absolutely final sense, a
fallen man.
And yet, my lord, what need for this ? No need at
all, save the thirst and quenchless craving for official
power and dignity. And are they the only power and
dignity ? Are they the highest power and dignity, even
in public and in Parliamentary life ? If such be your
thought, and there are not wanting reasons to make your
best friends and admirers apprehensive lest it possibly
may be so, look at the example of one whom I may c ill
in some respects your great predecessor, Sir R. Peel.
He, too, fell from official power. He was driven from
place amid shout and execrations far more bitter than
any by which you have been assailed. He had violated
the conventional precepts of party morality and honour
to a much greater extent than is chargeable upon your-
self. He was pursued by a pelting prosecution that beat
far more pitilessly upon his head than any storm which
has ever burst upon yours. And what was his course ?
Did he manoeuvre with either friends or foes for the dis-
placement of his successors, or for his own return to office?
Did he in any way aim at tripping up one set of men, or
embarrassing another ? Did he ever come into the field
of discussion to sow therein the seeds of dissension and
difficulty ? No ; he took a more manly, honourable,
and patriotic course. He fell back gracefully into
the position of an independent member of Parlia-
ment. He appeared there as one between whom
and office there had passed a final and irrevocable se-
paration. Leading the house, or leading a party, be-
came, as to him, nonentities, impossible imaginings.
And how did this utter abnegation of official power, in
his case, act ? It invested him with the highest degree
of personal and moral power. He had no need of official
influence, he became endowed with a mightier influence.
He was is himself a power, and more than a party. The
premature close of his life prevented the full develop-
ment of the grand career be was pursuing; we can only
appreciate it by remarking the lofty position on which
he already stood, and the yet loftier to which he was
naturally and without effort ascending, and by thus rea-
coning upon obvious tendencies, arrive at a just concep-
tion of the truth. He had made a wise and patriotic
choice, and he was fairly winning for himself a degree of
power and influence before which leaders of Whigs and
of Tories paled into insignificance. What would have
been achieved by that course, of glory for himself, and of
good for the country, is unhappily left for inference and
reasonable conjecture ; but there can be no doubt that
it would have been something far beyond all that is to be
gained by the closest party ties or the highest official
authority. Is there any need, my lord, that I should
point the moral of my tale ? Has not your own mind
and that of my readers forestalled the application ? Or
must I add, in plain terms, "Go thou, and do like-
wise ?" Be all that Sir Robert Peel might have been
had his life been prolonged. Renounce office and rise
into moral influence. Give over shuffling the cards for
the prize of place, and play the nobler game of islets-
pendent patriotism. Cease aspiring to the leadership of
the house, and become the over-ruling and inspiring
spirit of the Legislature.
I will not leave my counsel in generalities. Let us
come to particulars. As an independent member, un-
fettered by Government and unentangled by party, you
have not only the opportunity of interposing on the

various questions which come before the house, with a
high degree of authority and influence, but there are va-
rious matters which you can very advantageously origi-
nate. The change in your position leaves you :t liberty
again to introduce your Reform Bill. Your hands
are no longer tied by timid colleagues. You are not
now fettered by your followers. You owe, now, no
deference to opponents. The cant about the inoppor-
tune season of a time of war you can afford to despise.
Unoccupied by the cares and details of office you can
devote the vast resources of your mind to the elucida-
tion of that excellent plan which I do not hesitate to
characterise as the best scheme of Parliamentary Reform
yet submitted to the house with any chance of actual
success. It will be easy for you to tear to atoms and
scatter to the winds those selfish and local objections
of the Manchester school which had so prejudical an
effect on the first presentation of your plan. It has
only to be distinctly understood by the people to gain
acceptance with the people. You must make it under-
stood. You must expose the contemptible perversion
of the phrase " Representation of a minority."
You must show what your plan would really do ;
how it would add from one to two millions to the
constituency, and abolish sixty sham representations.
You must enforce the great fact that the means
by which this was proposed to be accomplished con-ti-
toted the measure a real and bona fide extension of the
principle of representation. Little or nothing of all this
was done on the former occasion. Perversion was unre-
buked. Ignorance went uncorrected. The bill sunk under
the pelting of Manchester mud. As an unofficial and free
man you can put forth your strength in its advocacy.
Ones fairly set before the people, they will back you
with intelligence and zeal rising to enthusiasm. The
desire for Army Reform and for Administrative Reform
are favourable concurrent circumstances. For neither is
there the slightest chance of attainment, save through
the preliminary of reform in Parliament. Here, then,
my lord, is a noble work before you. It is one to which
your position calls you. As an official man, you could not
make the attempt. Yet the times and circumstances in-
vite you to it. By no other can it be undertaken. Upon
you especially it devolves. And it is worthy of you, and
offers that historical association with your name which
must needs be the object of your highest ambition.
Nor is this the only way in which you may emulate
and surpass the example of Sir Robert Peel. The present
state of the education question affords you another and
a fine opportunity. We all know you have that question
strongly at heart. And what is its present position ?
Three competing bills were last session before the house.
The opposing theorists have all matured their schemes,
and have all come to a dead lock. By their divisions
some ten or a dozen impracticable voluntaries triumph
over them all. Yet a most liberal scheme (that of Sir
John Pakington) has been propounded from the anti-
Liberal side of the house. There is every sympton that
the subject is ripe, if properly taken in hand, for amalga•
mation, mutual concession, and satisfactory settlement.
Who so fit to undertake this great work as yourself ?
Not, indeed, on the basis of your last year's hurried and
imperfect measure, which seemed only to be pitched
into the house, incomplete and unformed, for the sake
of not being behind in a race with Sir John Pakingto❑ ;
but on the full and mature consideration of the
various plans which have been produced, and which
present ample materials for the formation of a truly
national measure. The public would welcome such a gift
from your hands. You would be supported by all the
intelligent and true-hearted educationists. As an inde-
pendent member, you need not slavishly consult the
Church ; and that is more than can be said by any Mi-
nister—more, indeed, than can be said of any aspirant
to the possession of high Ministerial office. They must
cringe to the mitre, and sacrifice much of the interest of
public instruction to its jealous demands. You, in your
independence and your consequent moral influence, can
afford to dispense with such servility. You can look
straightforward to the object. And I cannot persuade
myself that, thus pursued, its attainment is beyond your
grasp. Is it possible, my lord, that your feelings and
hopes should be dead to prospects such as these ? Is
there ought to compare with them in the aims of that
poorer and lower ambition which the trappings of office
can gratify.
Other topics arise before the mind—such as the extinc-
tion of intolerance by conceding their civil rights to the
Jews, and other kindred measures of religious liberty,
on which I will not enlarge. Enough has been said to
show that there is yet a wide and noble sphere for the
exercise of your powers and the completion of your fame,
provided only you will consent to occupy that sphere as
an independent man, and not as an aspirant for renewed
office-holding. Make these questions the means of par-
tisan tacties for that purpose, and your power will van-
ish. You will sink in the trickster, competing with
other, and perchance abler or luckier trick-ters. You
must have done with shows and shams. You must de-
spise objects after which you have been too greedy. You
must be content with what, after all, is the really truest
greatness. Then, my Lord, may we anticipate for
you a brilliant future, the more brilliant for the pre-
sent temporary eclipse, and the worthy consumma-
tion of an honourable and useful life. But fall back
again upon your old manoeuvres, and ontcan only expect
that you will sink yet lower—that you' will incur dis-
graceful failures, or gain seeming successes not less dis-
graceful—that you will tarnish whatever has been most
illustrious in your career, and that, after a few fitfu
glimmerings in the socket, you will go out in a snuff.

P ÜBLICOLA.

ITALIAN MOVEMENTS AND PROSPECTS.

( From the Economist.)
The state of Italy is very disquieting. There are
several indications of approaching difficulties, if not
actual disturbances. The continuance of the war, though
as vet confined to the East, has not unnaturally excited
a vivid and general sensation. No one believes that
the present condition of that wretched land can be per-
manent ; and therefore every political movement arouses
at once the hopes of the oppressed and the fears of the
oppressors. The spirited behaviour of Piedmont, in
gallantly joining the Western Powers ; the recruiting
for an Anglo-Italian legion ; the attempt of Austria
to throw dust in the eyes of Europe and to offer a sip
to her own subjects by the proposed revival of
those miserable mockeries of representative institu-
t:ons, the Lombardo-Venetian Central Congregations ;
and the stupid and brutal proceedings of- the King of
Naples and his police—whom alarm seems to have
driven actually frantic—are all so many significant symp
toms of coming change.
It would be hard indeed if the present European
struggle should pass over without bringing some good to
that oppressed peninsula. It is not only wild patriots
and chimerical republicans who now grieve over Italian
sorrows, and grow indignant at Italian wrongs ; conser-
vatives, as well as liberals of every grade, are beginning
to feel and to stvow that there are excesses of despotism
that cannot be borne, and cruelties so brutal and de-
griviing that neighbouring nations, more advanced in
civilisation, ought not to stand tamely by and see
them perpetrated without protest. It is beginning to
be admitted, even among the ruling &asses of better
lands, that there are tyrannies which justify rebellion,
and monarchs so bad that brother potentates must not
stain their characters by endeavouring or even wishing
to uphold them. It is felt, too, that the sway of Russia
—which we are in arms to restrain— is not more bar-
barking or benumbing than the sway of A ustria at Milan,
or of the Pope at Rome, or of King Ferdinand at Naples
—to which hitherto we have afforded at least counte-
nance or aid. It is felt, finally, that the condition of
the Christian subjects of the Ottoman Porte, which the
Allie-1 Powers have in a manner pledged themselves to
ameliorate, is in no degree more suffering, or enslaved
than that of the Protestants of Tuscany or the moderate
and constitutional liberals of Lombardy, Naples, or Ro
magne. There is nothing stew in these circumstances—
scarcely any aggravated feature : what is new is the
higher and more conservative class of politicians; here
and elsewhere, who have opened their eyes to the facts,
and are slowly admitting the inferences to be drawn
from them.
Moreover, the conduct of Piedmont both in govern.
ment and war, is gradually creating in the minds of our
more timid liberal and suspicious tories a juster ap-
preciation of the manly and slid qualities of the Italian
character. Till 1848, the foolish, ill-contrivf d, and abor-
tive attempts of the various insurgent bodies in that
country ' • their inability to make any head against the
smallest bodies of regular troops, or to organise their own
raw levies; their hasty explosions, followed by surren-
ders as hasty and yet more disreputable, bad worn eta
popular sympathyand discredited the whole people. But
the movements of that great revolutionary year caused in
all close observers a marked revulsion of opinion. The
rapid and signal successes of the first Milanese outbreak,
when in 5 days they drove every Austrian out of Lombardy
or confined them within a few citadels and fortresses,
showed energy where it was least suspected ; while the
gallant defences of Rome and Venice, and still more
the admirable internal government of those cities
during the republican regime, gave evidence both of fight-
ing and organising talent 'are enough in any land, and
wholly unexpected there. Never, it is now admitted,
was there more perfect self-government or less crime and
disorder in any state than in Venice during the dictator-
ship of Mania, and in Rome under the triumvirate of
which Mazzini was the chief. But these spirited and
well-conducted experiments fell beneath overwhelming
foreign forces, and the proofs of capacity and worth they
gave might have been forgotten or denied, had not the
Sardinian government survived to show by indisputable
evidence, what Italians when left to themselves can do.
Starting in the spring of 1848 with a judicious constitu-
this granted by the King, passing through the peri-
lous crisis of a war forced upon them partly by the ex-
treme democrats at home, partly by the general excite-
ment around them, the Piedmontese, by the most ad-
mirable and even dexterous management, have steered
their young vessel safely through all imaginable dangers
during seven eventful years. Yet these dangers have
been of the most imminent and deadly nature. The Pied-
montese liberals had no experience in the management
of constitutional forms—a problem which we know, from
the failure of other nations, to be of the most difficult
solution ; yet they have managed them as sktlfully
as Englishmen themselves. They had to contend at
one and the same tittle against two opposite foes, the
Reactionists—aided by the priests, who abhorred the
very name of liberty or constitution—and the Republi-
cans, who were reckless enough to assume a hostile atti-
tude towards any Government that did not go their
length and adopt their intolerant and narrow creed.
And while steering this delicate and anxious course, and
making head against both these contradictory opponents,
they had also to carry on a subtle war with the Court of
Rome, which was striving to bring them back under its
crushing incubus, and to baffle and withstand the under-
hand intrigues of Austria, who saw the full weaning
and peril of suffering the successful establishment of a
really free and prosperous state so close to her own con-
tracted dominions. They had to throw off priestly di-
rnitestion—and no people had been so priestridden as
the Piedmontese—without alarming or offending the

sincerely catholic feelings of the nation ; and they had
to watch with the most jealous care lest the violent and
discontented a.nalng themselves should, by outbreak or
intrigue, give any excuse for Austria•• interference, nr is
any degree turn away the warm sympathies of the inure
liberal states of Europe.
All this they have done with the tn-st, consummate
skill. Born Anglo-Saxons could not have dune it better,
and would scarcely have done it so patiently. The
maintenance of freedom has invigorated industry and re-
stored commerce. Railways and other public works
have gi ten a vast stimulus to enterprise, and wealth and
revenue are steadily increasing. During this period, too,
the constitution of the Sardinian army has been entirely
re-modelled. It used to be nearly as aristocratic as our
own, and was sadly infected both by favouritism and cor-
ruption. Now, without flying into the opposite extreme,
the door has been opened to all merit, and closed against
all incapacity ; the troops are, we believe, among the
finest and best-equipped in Europe, and have already
shown in the Crimea that they are not inferior to those
of France and England either in courage or in discipline.
The effect of all this upon the future prospects of Italy
—if only the Italian patriots will be patient and bide
their opportunity—cannot be too highly estimated. The
Foreign Italian Legion, composed of men drawn from
every corner of the Peninsula, and trained by the hard
experience of actual warfare, will furnish a nucleus for
an Italian army whenever there shall be a real Italian
state ; and will supply leaders, officers, and organisers
whenever the day of liberation shall dawn, and the war
of emancipation shall begin. And the Sardinian troops
will return home, after their work is done, veteran sol-
diers, fully competent to defend their country against
the unpr ictised regiments of Austria, and to put to
shame her armies, while their liberal monarch puts to
shame her despotic Emperor.

on Saturday to embark boilers and machinery for Ply-
mouth. The Australian, with battering guns, sailed
from Greenhithe on the same day for the Crimea ; and
the Monkey went down from Woolwich to Northfleet
to convey 20 riggers to assist in launching the two gun-
boats Sandfly and Slieldrake.

MILITARY.
A detachment of 70 recruits of the Royal Sappers and
Miners left Woolwich on Saturday for Chathain, under
the command of Lieutenant and Adjutant Lempriere,
for the purpose of undergoing instructions under Colonel
Sandham, Royal Engineers. Twenty men belonging to
that corps arrived 'at the Woo!wich Barracks the same
day from Chatham, under the command of Captain and
Adjutant Fitzroy Somerset. These men are for imme-
diate embarkation in the different transports about to
convey huts to the seat of war. Two men will be ap-
pointed to each ship. Lieutenant and Adjutant Lem-
priere, Sergeant-Major Bradford, and two non-commis-
sioned officers proceed to Aldershott to receive volun-
teers from the Militia.
On Saturday afternoon the largest number of invalid
soldiers from the Crimea who have been received at
Chatham for some time arrived at Strood station by
special train from London. The number included in-
valids and wounded soldiers from almost every regiment
now in the Crimea, amounting in the whole to 232.
Nearly the whole of them came home in the Great Tas-
mania steamer, which landed them at Portsmouth, and
the remainder were from the hospital at Chichester.
The invalids embarked at Balaklava on the sth, 6th,
and 7th of July, and sailed on the 10th of the same
month. Previously to their embarkation nearly all had
been under treatment at the hospital, and a few were
from the hospitals at Scutari. Ten wounded officers
took passage in the vessel for Malta and England.
During the voyage 10 deaths occurred on board. On
the arrival of the invalids at Portsmouth 62 men, who
were convalescent, were permitted to leave on furlough,
and the remainder were sent to Chatham in medical
charge of Acting Assistant-Surgeon James Jardine. To
assist those of the invalids who were unable to walk
from the railway carriages to the hospital spring vans
and omnibuses were in waiting, and a large fatigue
party was in attendance at Strood provided with
stretchers. A considerable number of those who
arrived had been severely wounded, and upwards of
20 were supported on crutches. Assistant-Surgeon
W. J. Fyffe, M. 8., 30th Regiment, and Acting-As-
sistant-Surgeon Cole, from Fort Pitt hospital, were in
attendace, for the purpose of making the necessary me-
dical examination. After a careful inspection 56 were
ordered to be removed to the Supplemental Hospital,
Brompton Barracks, for medical treatment ; three, who
were insane, were taken to the hospital for that class of
patients at Fort Pitt, and the remainder were sent to
the Invalid Depot at St. Mary's.
On Saturday morning two draughts of the 43d Light
Infantry and the 84th Regiments, consisting of 150 non-
commissioned officers and men, with four women, left
the provisional battalion, Chatham Barracks, for the
Strood station of the North Kent Railway, and pro-
ceeded by special train :to Gravesend, where they em-
barked on board the Trafalgar for Madras. The draughts
were under the command of W. K. M'Leod, 74th High-
landers, and the following officers embarked at the same
time : Ensigns A. R. Close, H. Gorton, and T. Elmer,
43d Regiment.
During the past week two detachments of the First
(King's) Dragoon Guards, with other troops, have arrived
at Exeter, and occupied the barracks recently vacated by
the 11th and 15th Hussars. The first detachment con-
sisted of 42 men and 60 horses, under the command of
Capt. Bradbury, Capt. Bridge, Lieut. Edelman. and
Cornet Sidbnry. The remainder of the depot, which
arrived on a later day, were composed of 60 men and
100 horses, commanded by Capt. Thomson, Lieuts.
Kempe and Marter. There are also in training about
30 recruits for the Scotch Greys. The Dragoon Guards
travelled direct from Edinburg by rail.
The enclosed copy of a farewell Regimental Order
issued by Brigadier-General Shirley, C. 8., to the Con-
naught Rangers, on assuming the command of the 2d
Brigade Light Division, has been received from the
Crimea :
" The General Commanding-in-Chief having been pleased
to confer the local rank of Brigadier-General on me, I
now resign with sincere regret the command of the 88th
Regiment.

"It is now more than 21 years since I joined the
Rangers, and a more happy 21 years no man ever passed ;
the cordiality and good feeling of the officers to each other
and the attachment and steady obedience of the non-com-
missioned officers and men to their officers have been fre-
quently remarked by officers of all ranks throughout the
army, and has caused us to be the envy of many.
" I have now commanded the regiment for more than
seven years, and I feel confident that no commanding offi-
cer ever commanded a regiment for so long a period with
Ifewer occasions of annoyance than I have had. Many of
you are, I suppose, aware that her Majesty has lately been
pleased to confer on me the Order of the Bath, as well as a
grant of 100'. a-year; these honours and these rewards
have been gained for me by the Rangers ; it is to your gal-
lantry, to your bravery, to your patience under the severe
trials of last winter that I am indebted for these honours
and rewards, and most sincerely do I thank you for them.
The old soldiers will recollect that I felt confident before
I left England that the Rangers of the present day would
prove equal to the Rangers of the Peninsula, and most
nobly have they answered my expectations.
" In giving up the command of this regiment I have the
satisfaction of feeling that I hand it over to one who is
worthy of it—viz., Lieut.• Colonel Maxwell, who has
shared all your dangers, and who is most capable of per-
forming all the duties to the satisfaction of every one I
have little doubt but that you will shortly gain for bins
the honours you have already gained for mo. I have also
the very groat satisfaction of knowing that I am not to be
entirely separated from my old regiment, but am appointed
to command the same brigade, and that should I be mer-
cifully spared to receive further honours, they will still be
gained by my old regiment, in conjunction with our brave
friends and companions on our right and left."

BIRMINOBAM MUSICAL FESTIVAL.
BIRMINGHAM, Saturday.— The festival terminated with a ball last evening, at which the noble president (Lord
Willoughby de Broke) and some 500 persons were pre-
sent. The gross receipts will fall little short of 12,0001.;
but we are as yet uninformed of the exact amount, and
there are donations yet to come in. Up to yesterday
afternoon the figures stood as follows :
Receipts 1852 £10,638 9 3
Receipts 1855 ............ 11,537 5 3

Increase £B9B 16 0
This excess has been made up entirely by the increased
attendance, for the donations have sadly fallen off ; and
the figures above do not include the ball receipts. The
expenses are unquestionably greater than they were at
the last festival, but at present it is impossible to say
what sum will• accrue to the charity. Be this as it may,
there can be no doubt but that the character of the
Festival has been greatly heightened by the last week's
performances, and that the Birmingham Festival is
stamped as the greatest musical celebration in the world.
After the attainment of such complete success it would
be an omission not to add one word of acknowledgment
to those by whom it has been achieved. We ca❑ find
no better wor is for this than those supplied in the
Journal of this morning "No one can estimate the
amount of anxiety, labour, and self-sacrifice which Mr.
Mason has undergone ; and his arduous duties have been
discharged with the promptness of a man of business and
the courtesy of a gentleman. The best praise that can
be awarded by Mr. Stimpson is the universal opinion
that in or out of England a better disciplined' choir can-
not he found." We only append an expression of thanks
to Mr. George Whateley, for the ready disposition he on
all occasions evinces to supply the press with informa-
tion upon matters ofdetail—a courtesy which we have
pleasure in acknowledging.

fAnvcarismizyr.)—Medicine always aggravates chronic dis-
eases, such as dyspepsia (indigestion), flatulency, habitual con-
stipation, nervous, bilious, and liver complaints,
Barry's delicious Revalenta Arabica Food invariably cures them
in a very short time. We extract two out of many thousand
expressions of gratitude from invalids :—From the Dowager
Countess of Castlestuart. Cure 52,612.—Rosstrevor, County
of Down, Ireland, December 9, 1854. The Dowager Countess
of Castlestuart feels induced, in the interest of suffering hu-
manity, to state that Du Barry's excellent Revalenta Arabica
Food has cured her, after all medicines had failed, of indiges-
tion, bile, great nervousness and irritability of many years
standing. This food deserves the confidence of all sufferers,
and may be considered a real blessing. Inquiries will be
cheerfully answered.—Trevagler, Gulval, near Penzance, Feb.
20, 1851.—Eighteen years nervous debility, violent palpita-
tion of the heart, throbbing of the temples, violent pains on
the left side and back, shortness of breath, cough, numbness
of the extremities, cramps, spasms, flatulency, retching, and
such general weakness, that I was consequently fearful of fall-
ing when on my legs, all these symptoms have been removed by
Du Barry's excellent Revalenta Arabica Food.—MARY GELBERT.
In canisters, 11b. 2s. 9d.; 21b• 4s. 6d.; 51b. lls. ; 121 b. 22e.
The 121 b., carriage free, on receipt of Post-office order. Barry
Du Barry & Co., 77, Regent-street, London ; also at 182,
Piccadilly; 60, Gracechurch-street ; 330, and 451, Strand;
4, Cheapside ; 60 and 68, Cornhill ; 49, Bishopsgate-streot;
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Oxford-street ; 89, High-street, Camden-town ; 18, Pall-
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Paul's Churchyard ; 6 Edward-street, Por tn tan-so uare
[ADVERTISEMENT.)— TUE WAR IN THE EAST. —POWER FL[
PATENT RECONNOITRIN4 GLASSES.— Messrs. S. and B. Solo-
mous, opticians, 39, Albemarle-street, Piccadilly. Observe
opposite the York Hotel. her Majesty's Roy,l Letters Patent for valuable and extrßyaordinary improvements
in the most powerful and brilliant Telescopes, Camp, Race-
course, Opera, and Perspective Glasses, to know the distances
of objects viewed through them--of great importance to the
army, navy, and others. These telescopes possess such extra.
ordinary powers that some 33 inches, with an extra eye-
piece, will show distinctly Jupiter's moons. Saturn's ring,
and the i.ouble stars ; with the same telescope can be
seen a person's countenance three miles and a half distanr
and an object from 16 to 20 miles. They are of larger and at
sizes, with increasing powers accordingly ; while their vary.
ing rom 4 to 6 inches enable us to discover more than the
Exhibi
above, ation nd the Georgian, with his 6 satellites, &c.--The Royal
—Valuable, newly-invented, very small,
powerful waistcoat-pocket glass,the size of a walnut, by which
a person can be seen and known 13 miles distant; they answer
every purpose on the race-course, and at the opera houses,
country scenery, and ships are clearly seen at 8 to 10 miles.
They are invaluable for shooting, doer-stalking, yachting, to
sportsmen, gentlemen, gamekeepers, and tourists, Opem race-course, camp, and perspective glasses, with wonderful
power.—Newly-constructed Spectacle Lenses of the great-
est transparent power. The valuable advantage derive,-
is
ve,
from this invention is, that vision becoming impaired
preserved and strengthened, and very aged
persons enabled to employ their sight at the most minutecrn._y
oncanr•
pation—can see with these lenses of a much less ma
ing power—and they do not require the frequent changes
to the dangerous effects of further powerful
assistance. Deal-
ness—New Discovery.—The Organic Vibrator, an extraordi-
nary powerful, small, newly-invented instrument
of thefor deafness,
entirely different from all others, to am-passanything
kind that has been, or probably v
Being of the same colour as the isskien,ecan be, produced.
not perceptible ; it
enables deaf persons to hear distinctly at church and at
public assemblies ; the unpleasant sensation of singing noises
in the ears is entirely removed ; and it affords all the assist.
ance that possibly could be desired. 39, Albelmtri Q-Ntreet,
Piccadilly. Observe—oppoeito the York HOWL