The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-20 00:00:00

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which no officer can violate with impunity, say,—" All or-
ders sent by aides-de-camp are tobedelivered in theplainest
terms, and are to beobeyed with the same readiness as if de-
livered personallyby a general officer." I ask any military
man—l ask the noble duke near m e (the Duke of Richmond)
who has been aide-de-camp to no less a man than the Duke
of Wellington—whether an aide-de-camp is not the organ
of his general, and whether an officer who took upon
himself not to receive an order brought by an aide-decamp
would not risk his commission ? If this were not so, why
could not an orderly dragoon deliver an order as well a'
an aide-de-camp? An aide-de-camp is chosen because he
is an officer of more education and intelligence than a
dragoon, and is therefore more likely to convey an order
correctly; he is also supposed to be in the confidence of
his general. I shall be told that Captain Nolan was not
in the confidence of his general. Was he not? General
Airey told me this,—" I first of all communicate') the
order verbally to Captain Nolan. Captain Nolan turned
his horse and was galloping away, when I called him back
and pet it in writing." Under such circumstances, I
would ask any reasonable man whether I am to be told
that any mistake was committed on the part of Captain
Nolan ? The words of Captain Nolan were that the ca-
valry should attack immediately ; and I may here quote
from my letter to Lord Raglan what passed between my-
self and Captain Nolan e-
" I asked him, Where, and what to do ?' as neither enemy
nor guns were within sight. He replied, in a most disre-
spectful but significant manner, pointing to the further end of
the valley, `There, my lord, is your enemy ; there are your
guns.' So distinct, in my opinion, was your written instruc-
tion, and so positive and urgent were the orders delivered by
the aide-de-camp, that I felt it was imperative on me to
obey, and I informed Lord Cardigan."
My lords, I here wish to bring another matter under your
consideration. The words of the order were those
"French cavairy is on your left." Now, the French ca-
valry were not within my reach—in fact,. they
aw I n pre not
within three-quarters of a mile of my position, d had
reason to suppose that they were much nearer to Lord
Raglan than to me. They were entirelyc out of my sight,
and out of my reach ; and what was the meaning of
the words " French cavalry is on your left," but to
inform me that I was to receive support from that
French cavalry, and that the French cavalry were to
act with me in a combined movment Had I failed in
any part of the duty intrusted to me, I felt
performing
have placed the French cavalry in a position
tia I should
wti ich it would have been difficult for them to defend
themselves. (Hear, hoar.) I felt perfectly satisfied as to
what my duty was, and that I could not hesitate under
the circumstances. I accordingly desired the light brigade
to advance, and your lordships are well acquainted with
the brilliant character of the charge which was then made
by Lord Cardigan. (Cheers.) It is impossible to exae*gerato
the gallantry of the British troops on that day, and, from
all that I have witnessed, I believe that a more brilliant
charge was never made. (Cheers.) I may now tell your lord-
ships what arrangements I made when I found, as I con-
sidered, that I had no choice left in the matter. I thought
that a senseless attack was about to be made, and I endea-
voured to take measures to render it as safe as possible. I
formed the cavalry in three lines, and I brought up, not,
my lords, two regiments of heavy dragoons, as it has been
supposed, but every heavy dragoon I had. It isundoubtedly
true that in my letterof the 30th of November I only men-
tioned having brought up two regiments of heavy cavalry,
but everybody knows that I had in support, in addition to
those two regiments, the 4th Dragoon Guards, the fith Dra-
goon Guards, and the Enniskillen Dragoons. I myself fol-
lowed the light brigade up to near No. 3 fort. It is
a mistake to suppose that I ever imagined the charge
could be successful by the aid of one brigade alone.. I
thought that the services of the whole division were called
for, and the only reason why the whole of the division was
not in the same difficulty as the light brigade is, that when
I found the perfectly hopeless nature of the charge, and
that any further advance of the heavy dragoons would
merely lead to their destruction without rendering assist-
ance to the light cavalry, I prevented them from advan-
cing, and placed them in a position where they would be
enabled to render the most effective support to the light
brigade. (Hear.) The consequence was that they were not
pursued; and can any man assert that they would not have
been pursued if the enemy had not seen that the heavy ca-
valry were watching their movements? (Hear, hear.) It
is right to tell your lordships that at this time the first di-
vision, commanded by his Royal Highness the Duke of
Cambridge, and the fourth division, commanded by an
officer whose death your lordships must much lament—Sir
George Cathcart -advanced, and it is also right that your
lordships should recollect that both these officers were icy
seniors, and were, therefore, my commanding officers.
Having gone so far, it is now proper that I should deal
with the letter of Lord Raglan. Oa the night of the ac-
tion at Balaklaya I saw Lord Raglan, and the first remark
made to me by his lordship was --" Why, you've lost the
light brigade." I denied that I had lust the light
brigade, and I said—" I felt myself obliged to early
out your lordship's orders." Lord Raglan made no further
remark upon that occasion, except to say that I, being a
lieutenant-general, ought to have exercised my own discre-
tion. Notwithstanding that Lord Raglan, as commander-
in-chief, was upon the spot at the time, and far better able
to see what was going on than myself, his lordship said to
me that if I disapproved the charge, as a lieutenant-gene-
ral I had a discretionary power and ought not to have
made it. He said, " You did not advance far enough in
the movement before," but he never attempted to show
that one order had the least connection with the other.
The day but one after the action at Balaklava Gen. Airey
called upon me in my tent. The moment he came in I said
" General Airey, this is a most serious matter ; you may
depend upon it, it will create a great deal of talk and dis-
satisfaction at home." GeneralAirey's reply was, "Oh !
these sort of things will happen in war; its nothing to
Chillianwallah." (Hear, and a laugh.) I said, "I know
nothing about Chillianwallah ; but I tell you, Gen.Airey,
that this is a most serious affair; and what is more, I tell
you that I do not intend to bear the smallest particle of
responsibility. I gave the order to charge under what I
considered a most imperative necessity, anal will not, bear
the blame." General Aire7 thou tried to convince me that
the order was not imperative, and after some conversation
with him upon other matters, I said, " Now be careful,
General Airey, that no responsibility is placed upon me,
for I will not bear any." His reply was, " You may rest
quite satisfied, Lord Lucan. You will be pleased with Lord
Raglan's report." Perhaps I had better here call your lord-
ships' attention to the fact that throughout the whole of
this conversation General Airey, though he had signed the
two orders which I received from Lord Raglan, never gave
me any reason to suppose that there was any connection
between the two. Had the last order been in any way
connected with the first, would he not naturallyhave called
my attention to the fact? But he did no such thing.
He never pretended that the last order had the slightest
or remotest connection with that which preceded it.
Now, my lords, I did not expect that any injustice would
be done to me at home. In my simplicity I even omitted
to supply the English public, who do not appear to deal
very justly with their absent friends, with a copy of the
order I received. I did nothing until Lord Raglan's re-
port arrived at the end of November ; and I beg to evil
your lordships' attention to what then happened. On
the 28th of November I read Lord Raglan's report in
the newspaper, and I felt exceedingly hurt and grieved to
receive at the same time several letters from my friends
asking what I had been doing, and saying that my conduct
had been strongly censured at home. I considered what I
should do, and I thought the most model ate course I could
take would be to wait upon Lard Burghersh. I accordingly
waited upon Lord Burghersh, and said, "I come to you
more as a nephew of Lord Raglan than as his aide-de-camp.
I feel greatly grieved at the report which his lordship has
made, but Ido not wish to say anything which can give
Lord Raglan the slightest pain. Will you ask Lord. Raglan
to see me, so that we can talktke matter over in a friendly
way ?" Lord Burghersh came over to me the next day, an:!
said, "If you particularly desire to see Lord Raglan ho
will see you, but he is very much occupied at this mo-
ment." I replied, " I can very well believe that Lord
Raglan would rather not have any conversation with me,
but it has occurred to me that it would not be objection-
able to Lord Raglan if I were to write a letter to him
explaining the facts, and requesting him to send it
to England." Lord Burghersh immediately brightened
up, and said, "Lord Raglan can have no objection to that,
if that is all yox require." I replied, " I require nothing
more on earth than that the English public should know the
facts of the case ;" and I added, " If in ray letter there
should be anything offensive or annoying to Lord Raglan,
if he will be kind enough to point it out I shall have great
pleasure in altering it." Now, my lords, I don't think that
was either an unfriendly or a disrespectful communication
to make to my commander-in-chief. I wrote the letter that
very night, as the post was going out on the Ist or 2d of
December; and I delivered it early next morning in the
hope that Lord Raglan would have sent it by that post.
But I heard nothing more of the letter until the 4th of
. .

December. On that day. an aide-de camp of General Airey
called upon me and began to talk about the hutting of the
horses. At last he said, " General Airey will be glad to
speak to you upon that subject." Well, my lords, I went
to General Airey, and he began in a rambling manner to
talk about the lautting for the horses ; but after some
time he produced my letter, and said, " The real
object of my wishing to see you is with respect to this
letter," I said, " That letter ! I believed that letter to
have been half on its way to England by this time." Ha
replied, "No ; Lord Raglan thinks that this letter is very
unnecessary. You have received the thanks of her Majesty
and the thanks of the Minister of War ; surely you ought
to be sat sled." I said " General Airey, I don't know way
lamtobe so particularly grateful. I think both her Ma-
jesty and the Minister of War have said quite as much as
Lord Raglan's report would have warranted ; but if you put
the question to me whether I am charmed with this repast
of Lordßaglan, I saY I think my Lord Raglan was exceed-
ingly scanty when he came to my praise. I wanted nothing
more than justice in that report, but when I recollect that
with 700 men I have successfully repelled the attack of some-
thing like 3,000 or 4,000 men, and I repelled i t undortho most
disadvantageous circumstances, I do not see in that report
anything with which lam very much enetnoured. But I
have only touched upon this subject in consequence of
your having sent for me, for if you had not, I should never
have mentioned it either to you or any soul living." I
also said, "I am very much annoyed by the word ' miscore
caption ; there was no misconception of the order." Gen-
eral Airey answered, " Lord Raglan is very much annoyed
by this letter, and says that no power on earth shall in-
duce him to hange his report." My reply was, " I have
not expressed any wish that he should change his report ;
it would be most unreasonable that I should ask him to
do so, for I take it for granted that when ho made that
report ho believed it to be true, and I have no right to
ask him to change it. I only ask him to carry out what I
understood to be agreed upon—namely, that my statement
of facts should be sent with it to England." General Airey,
not a very unskilful diplomatist, then thought he would
take a higher tone, and threaten ; he was sure that Lord
Raglan would be so annoyed about it that he would wish me
to be sent back to England. I said I was very sorry, bat I
could not help that. Lord Raglan had not objected to the
letter ; it was written by agreement, and I did net ask
him to change his report. Upon that Gen. Airey changed
round all at once. " Oh," said he, "if you don't ask
Lord Raglan to change his report he had no objection to
7bni:lo,.t,.h,ee statement." and upon that we parted. On the
Ihim accordingly, saerin'.'? Lorduth I got another letter from Qeneral Airey,
some-7 athgt
.s
oßuiavgeltasna
tiwished°n w it
h veryb immuch
(Generaltha that
Ali shouldrey). I
m haveet
this letter at 4: when he said, " Lord Raglan don't like
Fell, not see it. Point out to me where
justice." I said, ~iedsays You have charged him with in-
ter beating about and hesitatime
I have done so."
Pointed
seid " There." I said
a long time, he
tea
oathe word "unmerited," and
Raglan had had this letter tes: dvery extraordinary—Lord
any alteration, and it was drat gr ihla he(cl
should
red to snake
ob-
ject to that ono word. General Airetyhsailr
his
now
said something about the cavalry, upon which I said,ldshi p
I to understand that you, as quartermaster-general 'f'Air
army, say that his lordship is dissatisfied with the tcom-
mandere of the cavalry ?" He said," laQ not mean that;"
but, said I, " You said
something'Well, butto that effect."
Then, my lords, he said,
L really, after
all, it was agreed between yourself and Lord Burglieesh
that any word
i objected to should be removed," and
b understanding that any little
we parted with the thorough