The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-05 00:00:00

LORD RAGLAN.

In the second of our own letters from the Crimea which
we published on Saturday an explanation was offered of a
circumstance whioh had been noticed in our previous com-
munications from the camp, and which had been made the
subjectiof some remarks at home, It had beezl observed
that the Commander-in-Chief rarely showed himself to the
troops, except in time of action, and that the soldiers re-
mained without that personal acquaintance with their
General which they naturally desire. Our correspondent.
in recurring to the fact, represented this practice at head-
quarterspursuedConstlitP:tilion an , principle,dand as being defended
usages of the British by th e es
system,
ser-
vice. The officers in immediate attendance on Lord Rag.
lan—that is to say his personal staff—are said to maintain
that this species of treatment is most suitable to the cha-
racter of English soldiers, and that the discipline of the
army is best preserved when the General is invested with
the attributes of unapproachable superiority.
We do not stop to remark upon the incidental confirma.
tion here given to the fact itself, which in one or two quer.
ters there appeared some disposition to question, but we
must express our opinion that such views, if really enter-
tained, proceed upon principles entirely mistaken. We do
not deny that the usages of the military service, as main-
tained in peace, providing as they do so strong a line of
demarcation between the officer and the soldier, might
naturally suggest the idea of an immeasurable distance be.
tween the soldier and the General ; but 'these usages, as
we already learn, are not applicable to the realities of war.
If the question fell within the scope of such kind of argu-
ment we might reasonably inquire what peonliaritios could
render the British soldier so different a Jelling from
those of all other times and countries ; but we ere per-
fectly convinced that no such difference exists, and the
simple proof of the fact is to be found in theP circum-
stance, that when this system has been pursued as at
present in the Crimea, and in the last war under Welling-
ton, it was always recorded BR matter of complaint. In
this respect the Duke of Wellington's practice supplies
rather a werning than an example. It is one of the few
drawbacks on the military character of that great com-
mander that he failed in conciliating the affection of his
troops, nor could anything short of that unbounded con-
fidence with which he inspired them have stood him suffi-
ciently in stead.
We may go, however, a step further, and observe that,
if there is a single officer in the army who could afford,
without risk of depreciating his dignity, to maintain this
species of personal communication with his troops, that
man is Lord Raglan. His known steadiness of feeling, his
perfect self-possession and control, his long habituation to
command, and even his official tendency to reserve, all
combine to produce a character entirely beyond the
reach of impertinent familiarity or disrespectful ur-
gency. We recollect, indeed, that during the stay of
the army in Bulgaria anecdotes were related for public
edification of the easy tact with which his Lordshrp re-
pelled or eluded any intrusive attempt to acquire his con-
fidence; nor can wo think it credible that by any frequency
or directness of intercourse with the various branches of
the .trmy he could have exposed himself to the slightest
loss of influence or position. And, even if this case were
less clear than it is, it may surely be thought that the ex-
traordinary sufferings of the army and the emergency of
the conjuncture were enough fo justify any broach of tra-
ditional punctilio.
For the rest, notwithstanding the information afforded
by the correspondence now arriving more frequently than
formerly from the scene of war, we look in vain for any
adequate explanation of the misfortunes which have oc-
curred, nor cen there now, we should think, be any ques-
tion about the necessity of the inquiry which has been
resolved upon. Those who charge upon the system rather
than upon individuals the miscarriage of our efforts may
certainly gather some justification of their opinions from
the very universality of the evil.—Times.