The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-09 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 9, 1855.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

MINISTERIAL EXPLANATIONS.
(From the Times of this clay.)

The long series of Ministerial explanations which have pre-
ceded, accompanied, and followed the formation of the pre-
sent Administration was brought to a close last night by the
statements of •Lord'Granville, Lord Derby, and the Marquis
of Lansdowne in the House of Lords, and by the observations
of Lord John Russell inthe House of Commons. At any ordi-
nary time Parliament and the country would have listened
with unusual interest to these incidents of political life,
which display the action of parties and the personal relations
of public men ; but, from first to last, in the present state of
public affairs, there has been a strong and just feeling iu the
country that these.diseussiens were paltry and mischievous.
As Parliament adjourns this day for another week, to enable
the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary to be returned by
their respective constituencies to their seats in the House of
Commons, very nearly, three weeks will have been consumed
in this crisis from. the day of Mr. Roebuck's motion to the
recommencement Ot. the session on the IGth of February ; and,
what is of still greater importance, the action of the public
departments has for a considerable portion of this time been
suspended. It is impossible not to remark that a little more
foresight an l candour on the party of two or three members '
of Lewd Aberdeen's Cabinet might have avoided all this incon-
venience, by effecting a modification of that Administration
during the recess..
The proceedings of last evening in the House of Lords
were, opened by Lord Granville, who will now act as the
principal organ of the Government in the upper house,
with the assistance, or, as he himself modestly expressed
it, under • the guidance of Lord 'Lansdowne. No man
is better qualified than Lord Granville for this hon-
ourable duty, and we remember that the discriminating
judgment of Lord Lyndhurst marked him out at a very early
age as the member of his party best fitted to succeed the emi-"
nent statesmen who have filled that post. Lord Granville's
statement of the policy of the new Cabinet amounted to no
more than a renewal of their solemn pledges to adhere to a
liberal system at home, and, above all, to carry on the war
with vigour and effect atroad. These expressions have been
used so often from the very commencement of hostilities-that
they might be stereotyped in every journal, in every debate,
in 'every public meeting, and in every official declaration.
There is absolute unanimity in the sentiment. But the ques-
tion addressed to the late Government was - " What do you
mean by carrying on the war with vigour and effect ?" The
House of Commons was of opinion that the measures taken or
promised for this purpose were not an adequate' performance
of the engagement, and Lord Aberdeen's Ministry fell. The
presentecabinet has the advantage of knowing by melancholy
experience where our military system is most defective, what
men have proven most incompetent, what evils wo have to
surmount ; and we are therefore entitled to expect that they,
will apply their efforts in the right direction, and especially
to objects which it is but too easy to point out.
Lord Derby's account of the transactions in which ho has
recently played a considerable part was elaborate to minute-
ness and admirably eloquent ; but it had in some degree the
tone of an exculpation, and of an exculpation addressed to his
own adherents, rather than to his .opponents or to the coun-
try. We have not the slightest desire to address to Lord
Derby any adverse criticism upon the conduct he pursued
ou this occasion ; on the contrary, it appears to us to have
been sensible, spirited; and -patriotic ; and perhaps it is
to be regretted that ho was not more successful in his
attempt. But that conduct is a complete disavowal of all
that the Tories have been professing mid demanding for seve-
ral years ; and Sir Robert Peel's announcement that he meant
to repeal the Corn-laws was scarcely more startling to the
rural mind of his party than Lord Derby's declaration that he
desired to place himself at the head of a Coalition Govern-
ment. He boasted, indeed, of the strength of his phalanx in
tho House of Commons-280 good men and true, whom ad-
versity itself has not reduced. He told the House that Lord
Ellenborough was ready to assume the direction of tho War
Department ; that the " commanding abilities" of Sir Ed-
ward Bulwer Lytton would add their lustre to the -Cabinet ;
and that Mr. Disraeli had waived his pretensions to lead the
House of Commons. Yet, such was the unanimity' of the
country with reference to Lord Palmerston's high qualifica-
tions for office in the present conjuncture, that Lord Derby
felt it necessary to address himself in the first instance to that
nobleman, and the proposal was accompanied by an offer to
include Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Sidney Herbert in the same
Ministerial combination. Considering the language which
has been addressed to these statesmen by the Tory party and
its organs for thelast seven years, it must be confessed that
Lord Derby was prepared to construct his Cabinet ou a very
broad basis of reconciliation. But he did not stop even here.
He proceeded to pay a just tribute to the ability displayed by
Lord Clarendon iu directing the foreign affairs of the country,
and he intimated that, if the arrangements for this Adminis-
tration had not been cut short by Lord Palmerston's refusal, it
would have been his duty and his desire to urge Lord Clarendon
and Lansdowne to lay aside all- party feelings and join in
the formation ; of. this :national and patriotic Govern-
ment. Such schemes are, unhappily, too brilliant •to
be realised, and, even if the attempt had been made,
we-could scarcely have hoped for success in the combination
of elements at once so powerful and so various. But what
are we to think of the effect of this disclosure on- the Tory
Party itself ! What are we to believe when Mr. Disraeli,
who declared that " England loves not coalitions," was Lire.
pared to sacrifice his own personal pretensions to the most
wonderful coalition which had been projected since Mr. Fox
joined Lord North ? What has " the great country party"
to hope for when the possibility of their return to power was
"made to depend on the consent of their antagonists to act as
k their leaders These are the questions Lord Derby en-
'sleavoured to answer, and the difficulties he attempted to
• but. his speech only confirms the opinion wo ex-
return to Milne was impossible ,without extrancons support.
We cordially concur iu tho spirit of tho just and forcible
exhortation with which Lord Lansdowne concluded his
statement to the-house. It is true that the difficult and
distracted condition of public affairs and the incalculable in-
:crests which are engaged in the war do impose on., every.
member of this nation, on every man who calls England his
country, great, direct, and peculiar duties. Each of us is
bound, by every motive of national interest and of public
duty, to contribute, by whatever means wo may possess in
our respective callings and positions, 0 the successful pro-
secution of this contest. We are bound to assist the cause
of our country, not merely by a passive aequiesence in the
sacrifices required of us, but by vigorous efforts to improve
what is amiss, and to supply what is wanting—and we must
be allowed to add that in this respect the press and tho
country have set au 'example to the Government,:and not
the Government to them. In the efforts in which we have
had the honour to participate we acknowledge no object, we
are conscious of nemotive, but an earnest and ardent desire
to throw our whole power into this national cause. We have
spoken the truth without respect of persons, even when it
was most painful to do so we have exposed abuses wherever
they could be detected ; because these are the duties which
immediately devolie on our own profession. In every in-
stance_ a tardy confession or a reluctant discovery has demon-
strated the accuracy of that information. Let the Govern-
ment and the officers of the Government in every department
of the public service be equally ready to give effect to their
resolutions, and to enforce. in every instance the paramount
obligations of public duty, and we shall have little reason to
complain ; but at present the most essential condition of im-
provement and success is that these principles should be not
toen addressed
their
subordinates Ministers
e ed b
tonftelremcouynttrhye,mbsuettraespplied
htae nd sternly

(From the Morning Herald.)
We aro glad to perceive that a period is approaching in
England when her people are likely to throw off the various
delusions by which they have been misled to follow one poli-
tical nostrum after another, instead of looking steadily to
honesty and integrity as the only things needful to secure the
safetyo f the nation at home, its honour and its authority
abroad.
We need not attempt to run the gauntlet through the
Various erroneous phases which have signalised the long years
since 1830, during which the nation has been running to and
fro, vainly demanding " who will show us any good ?"
The first was the greatest—the Reform delusion ; and to
that after the test of experience has been applied, we find the
miserable residuum to consist of that exposed humbug—Lord
John Russell, and the powerless and factious assembly called
the Refornied House of Commons.
Next the Peel humbug lasted a considerable time, but we
think the condition of our army in the East has finished that
delusion, as the nation is now convinced the whole of its mis-
fortunes and miseries is the work of Peel's clerks.
During the last two years we have had the Coalition hum-
bug, divided into various small delusions. Suffice it to say,
we have had the diplomatic humbug—the Sebastopol delusion
—the Baltic fleet dream ; and now the nation.stands aghast
at the fearful reality of the Crimean catastrophe.
There remains, however, a last delusion, which the people
of England must throw off before they are entirely restored
to health—the Palmerston delusion ! ant this we hope will
be the" work of a very few, but alas, very precious weeks.
The Palmerston delusion has already cost this country and
the world :
The Affghan war, and the destruction of our army in the
Khyber Pass.
The breaking up of the Protestant kingdom of Holland.
' The sacrifice of the kingdom of Poland.
The treaty of Unkiar Skelessi, handing over the Dardanelles
to Russia—the direct cause of the present war. .
The destruction of freedom in Portugal, by the treacherou
arrest of the Junta of Oporto. .
The non-execution of the cession of the Milanese to Pied-
mont, as proposed by Austria in her extremity, thereby, sacri-
ficing theliberty of north Italy, preventing the strengthening
of the, constitutional kingdom of Sardinia, and, as a conse-
quence, aiding the entrance of Russia into Hungary, and the
establishment of her influence in central Europe.
These few items may suffice for the present ; it would be
-easy to extend the list of our debts to the present Premier.
But one evil more, the last and the worst, remains behind—
the present state of things.
Lord Aberdeen and Lord Derby both declared that what
England required at the present moment was a "strong
Government ;" and no one can deny that Palmerston is the
man who has forced en the country the wretched mummery
which now mocks the nation by assuming the functions of a
Ministry. Look to the Treasury benches. There sits the
phantom, mopping and mowino—the ghost of the old
Coalition, "sitting crowned and ghastly on the -grave
thereof."
Now, it is a fearful thing to ask for what has this Minister,
who has reached the full period of human life, interposed.
individually and personally, to prevent the possibility of a
.strong Administration being formd adequate to the emer-
gency I The gi eat difficulty of carrying on the Government
of this country since the Reform Bill, and the destruction of
the confidence of the nation in the honour of public man, has
been the difficulty of obtaining a reliable Parliamentary ma-
jority—front the vast subdivision of members into cliques,
and the impossibility of those cliques trusting each other.
An opportunity occurred, however, by which a party might
have been formed capable of .pommanding the majority of the
house,- and se carrying out the wishes of the nation.
The great Country party under Lord Derby amounts to
something between 270 and 280 votes —4O more of the men
,WRO may be classed • as waverers and supporters of all
Governments would have joined this, and by a junet7on with
this mass Lord.. Palmerston might have aided in constructing
a Ministry able to count on supporters numbering consider-
ably more than half of the entire house.
Nevertheless, this patriotic) Minister has preferreddte-Join
himself to a wretched and feeble clique, already. condemned
by the nation, which has even coerced its representatives to
endorse the sentence by a majority of 157. Even with the
aid of these condemned men he cannot command a sixth of
the house, but must entirely depend upon the forbearance 04

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the parties he has thrown over and the Parliament he has in-
sulted. In fact, by his own act and choice, at a moment
when a strong Government is an imperative necessity to the
salvation of the army and the country, he has selected to be a
" Minister on sufferance."

The motive of this conduct still remains au inigma. Can
it be conceived that it is merely personal vanity; and that he
preferred being a powerlegis Premier to.taking his place as an.
honoured member of a great Ministry ? Such wickedneis
would be hardly conceivable, and yet there have been men
who were content to go down to posterity as the perpetrators
of great 'crimes sooner than be forgotten altogether. Perhaps
the noble' ord has taken a leaf out of the book of Erostratus,
the inediary of the great temple of Diana at Ephesus, and
hopes to transmit his name to after ages in connection with
themidp-spread mis:ortnnes inseparable from the restoration
of the incapable anl guilty Coalition." Those., however,
who aro well acquainted with the versatile and volage nature
of the noble viscount's political amours do not scruple to as-
sert that he is afflicted with—

" That false, edge of jaded appetite
Which haunts the latter years of vicious men."

And that as Peelism was the only phase of political life which
he had never experimented on, he was determined to try it,
in order to be able to say that he had been all round the

compass

What,,ver may have boon his reasons, of this there can be
no doubt, that if he' had rece:ved and obeyed instructions
fram Count Nesselrode; he could not have more effectively
served th interests of the Czar than by substituting a.ricketty
and dishonest Administration for a strong and honest one,
with a great administr.tor, instead of a tenth-rate peer, as
War Minister. That this mockery of a Cabinet can last, wo
do not believe even Lord Palmerston dreams. There are two
rocks ahead, either of which must be fatal to the crazy craft
'—Mr. Roebuck's committee, and the impossibility of carry-
ing on the war without a loan. The first must be carried out
if the country is to be saved from the connivance of one payty
playing into the hands of the other.
Should the Government Tontrivo, toiaxist, however, even for
a short time, the nation mast prePare itself for one of two
things—either the total destruction of. our unfortunate army,
or the raising of the sioie of SebastoPol. The present Cabi-
net is incapable of working out any other solution. Supposing,
however, that it fails, the nation remember, should the
Palnio-Peelites attempt a disso7utiOn, that to them they will
owe the lbss of two irretrievable months, on which certainly
the fate of our army—perhaps the position of England in
Europe—may depend. We fear, however, that the experi-
ment, however fatal its results, was absolutely necessary to
get rid, one Sird. for ever., of the "great Palmerston delu-
sion."

(From the Morning Post of this day. )
Prom Lord ..Derby's stateMent to the House of Peers last
night, One thing at least .ia clear, that a Derbyito Ministry
was at the present time impossible. His lordship is certainly
not chargeable with the sinoftimidity. He has, before now,
undertaken bold if not rash experimenta...;.--He last night re-
counted to the house-the number of gentlemen who think
with him, as though they. would think with him on all sub-
jects. We who know—the public which knows—how grie-
viously these ranks are broken, on almost every point that
can arise—know also how little Lord Derby could count on
their votes, following one of Mr. Disraeli's brilliant speeches
in the House 'of-,COmmons, or .calculate a favourable division
with any -degree of certainty. His lordship talks .of the cordial
support 'of two hundred and eighty members of the
House of ConimOns being still at his command. It may
be so, but recent division lists do not show that exact disci-
pline—that perfect confidence—that entire abnegation and
surrender of all personal .will—which are. desirable in a party
doomed to follow blindly measures, not because they aro good,
but because they are the measures of the Ministry whose name
they bear.
But Lord-Derby, failing himself and by his own weight to
form a Ministry, bethought him of the nobleman whose name
was on all lipsHwhose reputation was in all hearts—as the
man to lead and, to save the country. He offered seats in the
Cabinet to Lord Palnierston and to two. of his friends—Mr.
Gladstone and Mr. Sidney Herbert—and professes himself
somewhat surprised at the receipt of a negative reply. Wo
should have been surprised had he received any other
—had Lord Palmerston disappointed the demand of the,
country by accepting a nominal office, such as that of
President of - the Council, at a ,time when Lord Ellen-
borough would have held the War Secretaryship, at a time
whenhe himself would have been virtually shelved, and the
fate of England would have been entrusted to a Ministiy iu
which the country could not have felt that confidence now so
essential. No man stands higher than Lord Palmerston above
all suspicton of selfishness in such matters. He has repeatedly
sacrificed personal claims and personal considerations to the
desire of serving his Queen and his country. Tho country
ywould be
decide •.whether he was not justified in concludionfgLothradt
his presence as President of the Council. in the Ministry of
to LordtheDerb nation.yw
ebhe
houses
euso
osfe rvpaii
aeniitelni etr
willtothsaoto
nCabbeinceatlleodr
ponaitmoe-
. forced to call into office. _
itteoindetowthheethreac orrencoratihtseywhpoii-enfe
otrhae lapfienrisbtyr

•
(Rom the Morning Chronicle of this day.)
At a moment when the fortunes of England are depending
alike upon the conduct of a groat war, and the successful
management of her foreign policy, it is a circumstance of pe-
culiar felicity which places the Cabinet under the presidency of
a chief whose pro'onged experience in administration has
been derived from services in the War-office and in the Fo-
reign-office, of nearly equal durati&n. Lord Palmerston
has spent in each department aterni of years which would have
entitled him to rank almost as a veteran functionary, and
has in both achieved a reputationJor singular ability and
'Emcee:ss. At the W.:ix-office his lleri-Wils eAtuded in an un-
broken series from 1809 to 1828; during which time he gra-
tinallv anti liter.dh- his ~,„
tion of the department. As Yoroign Saeretary, ho hold 'the
antis of ()Mei) uz.der every Whig Governincnt from 1830 to
1852, and consequently enjoyed throughout that long period
only two intervals of leisure, extending to five mouths,
from November, 1834, to April, 1e35, and to as many
years between 1841 and 1846. Tab curious in detecting
" coincidences," will probably notice that the year in which
his lordship-first became a public servant was that of the
celebrated Walcheren inquiry, 'which-served as the sole, and
very inapposite precedent that could be cited for the appoint-
ment of Mr. Roebuck's Committee during the recent de-.
bates. It may also be recorded among the curiosities of
political history that Lord, Palmerston entered public life,
in 1807, as the colleague in the representation of New-
port, Isle of Wight, of the future Duke of Wellington,
the great military organiser of the age ; and afterwards
won his way into the foremost ranks of statesmanship
notsin ,until during the Ministry of Mr. Canning, ,who first vindicated for
this country her due place in the consfiwunteeui:zoahfnoEdpues.roarpe,e as the
check and opponent of absolutism. When Canning died, the
Liberals of the Continent looked to Pahnerston as his politi-
calTtirinnacntdi trusteeothsenfse
io.eft
atrhye-iart:olwv
an
a. chiefly
Minister that Lord Palmerston was in a position to put the stamp
of individualityexecutive.ltwump was,
accordingly,
hlpolicy.gly, 01 r,
becamee
hi l e a d mFi no
Ir.
setiegrn.
ing the foreign affairs of the country, he has encountered
twice over, at distinct intervals, the '
erils of a republican
cataclysm which shook the thrones and submergedthep nations
of the Continent. He has also conducted
successfully over
successive crises, which threatened to plungeus us in war with
one or more of our powerful neighbours
peril on account of the unconquerable---erises of the greater
per-
vades the English public with regard apathy that
.n
all foreign affairs
until they are roused by the actual
presence of insult or
of danger, and leaves the Minister, at moments of the
most pressing exigency, without the strength which
under our constitutional system, can only bo derived from the
support of . popular opinion. Throughout the whole Ad-
ministration the noble viscount's policy preserved the charac-
ter of unity and consistency. Everywhere he stood forward
to rebuke, and, if prudently possible, •to restrain the
aggres-
sion of absolutist Sovereigns upon the liberties of mankind.
By no act and no omission on his own part has •he ever justly
forfeited the confidence reposed in him
by the advocates of
liberty and progress either at home -or abroad.
Nevertheless, at two different eras in his
career,
Palmerston has been assailed by eager
Liberals on Lord
ac-
count of his alleged want of aYstipathy
.with nat.
onal
efforts for enfranchisement. In the first month of his
Foreign Secretaryship a trivial incident created a disturbance
in Poland, which rapidly acquired the dimensions of an in-
surrection. Two students drank the health of Koscinsko
and the unwise attempt-to
_punish their se
o ence produced a
conflict in which the Polish nation struggled heroically
against their Russian oppressors, at first for freedom, and
afterwards for existence. At this time the Englishl sym-
pathisers with the Poles found grievous
. . us fault with the
Foreign
Ministe.r because ho declined to interfere in the
Contest further than by an aseaurance that England
would keep watch over the faithful observance, by
Russia; of the obligations entered into at the Treaty of
Vienna. Much more 'recently, an outcry, excited by a Pre-
cisely parallel event, has assailed the noble viscount from the
partisans of Hungarian "nationality."
In both instances
Lord Palmerston never concealed his personal predilections
for the cause of liberty, nor abstained from giving expression
to his opinions either in Parliament or through his official
correspondence with foreign diplomatists. His fault lay in
his not allowing those predilections to overbear the dictates
of prudence and the responsibilities of a Minister of State. He
would not involve the country in the dread hazards of war,
oven for the propagation of liberty and cOnstitutionalism,
when these principles were embodied in the conflict between
a people and their recognised Sovereign.
The propagandists of liberalism have censured Lord Pal;
merston for timidity in the • advocacy of abstract principles.
As an English Minister, and in controversies wherein the
dignity or 'interests of `England were engaged, ho has been
taxed with temerity. Both charges arc equally unsubstantial.
Tho allegation of rashness has been raised once and again;
at
times when the country seemed verging upon hostilities with
France. Just as often has: it been disproved by the result,
which allowed that the Foreign SceratarY Was able to obtain
the desired end without paying the heavy penalty of war, and
what events could not do for him the noble 'viscount did for
himself during the session of 1851, when all the pleas it was
possible to collect from fifteen years of administration were
piled together into a monster indictment, and Provoked that
memorable reply which formed at once one of the most
triumphant vindieations of statesmanship and splendid effu-
sions of eloquence to which the House of Commons has over
'listened. May we not include it among our coincidences, that
this noble speech was elicited by a motion proposed by Mr.
Roebuck, just as it has been another motion of the same
honourable member which has resulted in placing Lead
.Pal-
merston at the head of the Cabinet ?
One epithet was attached to the name of Palmerston dur-
ing the debate to whieh we have alluded, earned throughout
his whole career, aud constituting new his great claim to the
confidence of the country. Alwoys, and at all points, ho is
preeminently an " English" Minister. English iu his sympa-
thies for liberty—Eaglis:l in the po-icy which be has enforced,
and the interests he has fostered throughout Europe----he
is not the less English in Lis personal character. In
courage, vigour; persoverance, and patience Lord Palmer-
ston exhibits the endowments whi,h his countrymen most cul-
tiieste. and admire. His Parliamentary career has testified to
the possession of qualities of intellect and temper that pro-
mise to fit him well for the performance of the arduous duties
ho has now undertaken; Alike as a Minister and as an aspi.
rant for Administration, he has shown himself prudent,• pa-
tient, and boll. Ho has never snatched at Power, nor fled
from responsibility. No momentary petulance has caused him
to throw up a • great scheme of reform, nor any hope of
personal aggrandisement indneed him to plunge the Go-
vernment into confusion and- paralysis, The critical, times
that have come upon us demand the interposition of a
Premier who can act withoout fear and without haste ;
who unites great administrative vigour with. mature
official experience ; to whom the intricacies of our mili-
tary -system and of our foreign diplomacy are equally

familiar; above all, who has boen' accustomed to make the
influence of England felt, and her name respected, throughout
the world. Political accidents, it may be said, have left Lord
Palmerston " master of the situation ;" but his personal at-
tributes constitute him the Mau for the times. He is sum-
moned to power at a moment, of urgent need.. Trusting to
his antecedents, the nation looks with confidence to his genius
for its preservation.

THE " RIBALD PRESS. r'
(From the Times of this day.)
In both Houses of Parliament a good deal of time was
given last night to the instruction of the press in its special
duties under present circumstances. So dead a set seemed
to be made at ourselves and those of our contemporaries who
have taken most pains to get news of the war—so numerous
,were our schoolmasters, so sober the ton-6: of rebuke, and so
weak the matter—that if is evident these gentlemen imagined
themselves teaching in a Sunday school a class of young jour-
nalists ready to learn anything the squire and the .parson
might agree upon for the purpose. We find ourselves al- •
mouished. by Ministers and ox-Ministers; by Lords and
Commons, by all sides of the house. Lord Lansdowne
having sweetened the lip of the cup with his most
honeyed terms, trusts that we will say nothing to
disturb the general unanimity on the subject of the war.
Lord John Russell, who has .given currency to some of the
strongest expressions about the state of our army and the
character of its management, now turns round, abuses the
" ribald press" for what it has done' expresses his entire
satisfaction with Lord Raglan for what he has done, announc-
ing his intention-for supporting the Ministry for what it will
do, whatever that may be, and speaks as if it were the
greatest crime in the world to do what he has himself done in
helping to buiSt the bubble of our late War. Administration.
Mr. Gladstone adheres to his figures, and, in the face of every
letter that arrives, still maintains that there is a British army
of near 30,000 fighting men before Sebastopol. Mr. Wortley
thinks the banger the jaisNapapamJikely to create despon-
dency in our own sciittiers antf confidence in thelool
moreover, that their accounts are grossly exaggerated. In
fine, we have received a great deal of advice, civil and un-
civil, but in purport very much the pamo—the same, in fact,
as that which certain allied Kings in the Bible are said to
have given to a particular prophet who would persist in giv-
ing a different account of their prospects, from the rest of his
class, and which somehow or other they could not but
suspect to be true. " Prophesy unto us smooth things" is
the language of all self-constituted masters. It is evident
that we haVe. only to burke our correspondence from the
camp and Constantinople, and compose letters from the
Crimea, describing a perpetual improvement in the weather,
Lord Raglan always seen everywhere, order reigning at
Balaklava, the men in excellent health and spiritS, and
the army always standing at 30,000, and we shall
be in better favour at head-quarters thin we have
been for many a long month, and shall continue, to
radn Raglanth and
china,is
staffenjoy r
etthui
rs
nfaNvzhr,tht ielilrsome
horses,fiu flue
tmheoli•luipneaf zoo
their German cook, and several tons weight of official returns
—all in excellent order, and the announcement that, the last
.British soldier being dead, they had left our position in the
care of our gallant Allies.
•We are fully prepared for this sort of advice, or rather re- •
proof. It is the language of all barbarous and semi-civilised
nations, who either decapitate the bearers of ill-tidings or pro-
mulgate false news, turning defeats into victories, multiplying
their own army till-the hour of action, and 4then multiplying
as much the slain of the enemy. The readers of " Hadji
Baba" will remember just such a scene.. At the opening of the
present war the British people choSe to consider the Russian
accounts very much exaggerated, and took occasion to con-
trast, very favourably.to themselves, their.. own candour at all
costs. Indeed,' it is popularly supposed that the English can-
not lie, and are, if anything, rather too frank,. so that if you
want to know the worst of them you have only to hear what
they say of themselves. We believe that this is true. But
then it is not true of the whole nation, and certainly is not

true of the whole house of Lords or the whole House of Com-
mons. if it had been true of every ,part of the common-
wealth—if there. ,had been, no statesmen, no classes, no in-
terests, no professions, no combinations of any kind, always
having an eye to fair seemings, hollow consistencies, and pre-
sent inconvenience, rather than the plain truth, we should
never have had the management of this expedition left so
many months in the same incompetent hands. Indeed, on this
very point of plain-speaking, we beg leaVe to challenge a
comparison between- Lord John Russell' part and our
own throughout this war. As soon as there was
the least chance of fighting, we sent gentlemen to
various stations in the East with one and the same simple
instruction—to describe what they saw, and relate what they
heard oh the best authority. Had we given no such -com-
mission, the necessity of the case would itself have prescribed
the same thing, for no acknowledged correspond-out of this
paper could show his face in the army if that army did not
find him faithful and exact in the discharge of his mission.
Besides these letters, we have also inserted many other's from
all ranks in the army, and the remarks we have ventured to
make ourselves have been simply in the naturo of the com-
ments oh those letters, generally with no 'other view than to
call attention to therm, and secure for them the weight they
deserved in regard to the administration of the war. From
the first landing at Gallipoli and Varna, and again, with.still
more urgency, from the lauding in the Crimea,- we have, on
the indications supplied by our correspondence, endeavoured
-to impress upon Government many deficiencies to be sup-
plied. When the siege operations threatened to be pro-
tracted, and still more when the news had arrived of the
failure of the first general attack, we immediately offered
many warnings on the prospect of a winter campaign, and
tho result was a great number of letters, from persons en-
titled to respoct,..ou-tho proper means, of preparing against
t fn. illt h soc
saythg IDat if the suggestions which appzarc4l in this paper
the winter of . the Crimea, and the I-
ro
uartiships of a
et
We have no hesitation in
-
Z'o'r. November,
ceived timely attention :it least half of this hideous disaster
might have been averted. Wo regret, however; to state that
Such was not the feeling at head-quarters in this country,
and that about that very time a contemporary, in
the confidence -of a section of the late Cabinet, and evi-
dently under its inspiration, published a series of articles
lampooning all the suggestions that-had been Made in these
columns—railway,:huts, sheep-skins, woollens, &c., with the
general remark that. it was just as absurd to send those things
to our soldiers in the Crimea as'it would be to • a friend who
was going to spend the Christmas in the same latitude at
Dijon.
We have described our colu•se. Now for Lord John Rus-
sell's. He confesses he was never satisfied with the adminis-
tration of the war. He always wanted it to be in stronger
and more experienced hands. First he wanted one man,
with more authority; then, when the Puke of Newcastle

seemed to have settled into the office, and his colleagues more
immediately concerned in the conduct of the war began to
complain that the Duke did not take sufficient notice of their
suggestions—still more, when matters looked ill, Lord John
then began to talk about a Board of War—a second best ex-
pedient to supply what was wanting in the actual Minister of
War. In fact, however, he did not press his advice, and for
months he gave so little vent to his convictions; his words
and deeds so little corresponded to his information and his
judgment, that not only were his colleagues all under a mis-
take to the last, but Lord John has been utterly incapable of
doing justice to his own mental history in the matter of the
war. With much humility he has confessed that he ought to
have resigned very much earlier, and it is obvious that ho
ought not to have resigned without first saying and doing
everything that was possible—short of resignation. In fact,
therefore, his fault has been not speaking out, and a very seri-
ous error it has proved. Had he spoken out in time, no doubt
the administration of the war might have been rendered much
more effective. Indeed,, Lord John said only the other night
that, had Lord Aberdeen had a better servant, or the
Duke of Newcastle a better master, things might have gone
right. All, therefore, that was wanted was the application
of the Cabinet stimulus to the Duke, which Lord John Rus-
sell confesses he did not give as he ought to have done. The
result has been a break up of the Cabinet, and a new Admi-.
nistration, much too late, we fear, to save more than a frac-
tion of the army, and only just in time—if in time—to pre-_
pare for the campaign of 1855. With a coarse of conduct so
mysterious, so untrue to, conviction, so dilatory, so timid, so
uncertain, so barren of present results, so abrupt and appa-
rently so treacheroui at last, so indefensible, so calculated to
shake the mutual confidence of political men, and finally lead-
ing to such negative and even injurious results, we fearlessly
contrast the open, decisive, and uniform course taken by the
'" ribald press" Lord John now petulantly abuses.
But there are accusations which in their substance, their
spirit, their time, their occasion, and their authors are the

strongest testimony one could receive in one's favour. Mark,
an inefficient Administration is overthrown, the faulty mem-
bers removed, and a new Administration formed on the un-
derstanding of prosecuting the war with new vigour. The
three members displaced are the Minister who would not do
his work, the chief who would not make him do it, and the
colleague who would not speak his mind till it was too la e.
As we, by the consent of all, have spoken our mind all
along, and newspaper and. statesman have all in turn had to
come round to us, the result is -a triumph. We may now hail

- ,
it as a triumph, for we find ourselves greeted with a storm of
abuse from all the disappointed personages. We say ". all," for
several of the Conservative leaders have joined iu the cry,
evidently chagrined to have gained so little in the scramble,
whioh has merely ended in the substitution of ono chief for
another and the strengthening of one particular department.
But why are we abused just now, when so much good has
been done, if it be not from a general conviction that we have
'done it I No sooner does the new Administration meet Par-

Bement- than the maliguants in both houses, instead of at-
tacking the new Administration, turn round and attack us.
Nay, they attack us under cover of civilities to the new Ad-
ministration, as if it mattered very little whether they praised
or abused Lord Palmerston or Lord Paumure, but was very
important and very appropriate to the•occasion to abuse us.
So much for the charge of plain speaking, and letting tho
British public know more than they are likely to hear from
Commanders-in-Chief and Chancellors of the Exchequer. One
word for the very much smaller affair in which Lord Malmea-
bury has a fling at us. Does ho pretend -to say that rank,
private interest, and money, have: not more influence in the
British army than in any other army in the world ? Does he
pretend to say that personal talents, personal virtues, and
experience in actual service, have not less influence in the
British army, and in the whole military system of this coun-
try, than in any other it If ho cannot say this, what is the
value of all the details he can rufnmage out of the Army List?

•Mr. Thomas B.• Curtis, of Boston, ft rmerly of the
United States' navy, has lately isusel printed circulars,
both in the United States and on this side, to urge an
alteration in the course purseed by st a,ne ra in their
pas ige from Europe to Amer:ca. The present plan is
to keep as northerly as
possils'io, passing over Vie lesigth
and breadth of the Banks of Nsa foneolland and sighting
Cape Race. lc is in this vicinity, however, that the
most deplorable accidents, including- the loss of the
Arctio, have happened, and Mr. Curtis contends that
au af,:reernent should be alopteil to I,:t the course be
shaped so au to en so merely the tail of the banks, and
leave Cape Race 100 or 150 miles to the northward,.
thus escaping the possibility of wreck at that point, and
also in a great measure the dan;eer of collision with
vessels crossing the foggy banks.. The temptation to
risk has hitherto been from an idea that tho snore
•northerly course involves a shortening of distance vari-
ously estimaled at fron 75 to 300 mike, but, according
• to Professor Peirce, of Haward University, the loss by
the new route would be only 20 miles. -
The accounts from all parts of the country describe
great stagnation in trade: Probably, however, it is due
to the severity of the weather more than to any other
cause,

//

I PRICE SD.

LETTERS FROM THE CRIMEA.

The following letter has been received from Ka-
miesch Bay, dated the 20th'January :
" I have nothing to say to you to-day about the
siege. For the last eight days our labour is almost ex-
clusively devoted to removing the snow out of the
trenches. As for the works they are completely sus-
pended. The troops continue to arrive in small detach-
ments, and to leave in considerable numbers. During
the last eight or ten days about 2,000 sick have been
sent eff—ontethird, or nearly so, with their limbs frost-
bitten. Since yesterday the weather has become fine.
The snow is melting. If we have but 15 days like the
pre cut weather we shall have a serious affair with--
if not, the army is mull to be pitied. The vacancies
will scarcely be filled up by the new reinforcements.
The clint de, the privations, the snow, the mud, try the
new arrivals in a most severe manner. Those who
cane first hold out the best as yet."
The Presse publishes letters, dated before Sebas-
t 22d inst., from which we extract the follow-
ing :
"Tile Russians have modified their system of attack .
Their sorties, which were from the beginning and until
last mouth executed in a slovenly and irresolute man-
ner, are now admirably conducted. In the attack cn
the 15th they displayed great intrepidity. The snow
appears to have excited their warlike ardour and
mili-
tary recollections. Perhaps it is solely owing to the
change of their commanders, which, according to the
deserters, is very frequent. Towards 11 o'clock •n the
night of the 14th, our advanced piquets gave notice of
the approach of the enemy. There were then in the
trenches two companies of the 95th Regiment of Infan-
try, audtwe others of.the 74th, under, the orders of Cern-
niander.letinrriej tillak*hiCitue-
slam', on that point, that they came down upOn us
nearly as soon as the advice of their approach, with ex-
traordinary boldness, their, officers marching at their
head. We coolly awaited them, and when sufficiently close
we charged them with the bayonet. A dreadful
melee ensued, but the Russians, unable to resist when
attacked with the bayonet, were speedily driven back,
notwithstanding the strenuous exertions they made to
maintain themselves on our line and penetrate into the
battery. The melee continued during their retreat, which
does honour to their officers, three of whom were killed
at the first rank. You will remark probably that this
account pretty nearly resembles what I already wrote
to you respecting the sorties of the Russians. They are
no longer the men we had to contend with at the begin-
ning of the siege, and I can assure you that we have
now opposed to us adversaries not to be despised. More-
over, our losses indicate the gravity.of the affair. We
had too captains and several men killed, and fifteen
wounded, amongst whom were Commander Roumejoux
and two other officers. The Commander is still living,
which is truly miraculous, for the upper part of his lungs
has been perforated by a bayonet. The Russians left 30
killed in our trenches. The assailants formed a strong
column, and were supported by a corps of reserve of a
novel descripton. That corps, composed of men, spe-
cially chosen for their agility and dexterity, was only
armed with slight but solid ropes, at the extremity of
which was a running knot. On arriving within reach of
the batteries, and during the engagement, they threw on
our soldiers those lassos, which they had handled with
much skill. They did not even spare our wounded.
We have been told that this new weapon was used in
Caucasus. This may be the case, but as we aro not the
half-savage populations of Caucasus, we could not help
branding that barbarous proceeding as unworthy of a
European army. Publish the tact in your. journal. It will
be a reply to the fine sentiments expressed by the Empe-
ror Nicholas, which we read to-day in the papers. Every-
thing in that sortie was strange indeed. It was evidently
organised by a man of great skill and boldness. Those
lassos, the peculiar arms borne by the officers,—long
straight swords with poinard hilts, —the nails and hammers
, for spiking the guns, found in their pockets, all showed
that the attack was planned and conducted by men rho
were determined to die or succeed in the attempt. One
of the officers, in his despair at not being able to climb
on the epaulemek, ran his long sword through the
gabions to wound the soldiers placed behind him. One
of the latter broke the sword in two with his spade, and
then, leaping over the parapet, he attacked the officer
who had only his broken sword to defend himself, and
killed him. No doubt remains as to the worth and rank
of the brave chief, who commanded that coup de main.
The next morning a flag of truce presented himself with
a letter from General Oeteu Sacken to General Forey,
e:.
in which ho expressed lila deepest regret for the death
of ' that most distinguished officer,' and requested the
Commander of the besiegirg corps to give up his body to
him. Gen. Forey immediately acquiesced in his desire,
and by the same opportunity delivered to the Russians the
bodies of 20 of their coinre.des-who had not yet been in-
interred. This delivery took place within the buildings of
the Quarantine, in the presence of an officer of an eccentric
character; who spoke French very fluently, and said to us
rrki,., is fl, shocking work we are eng,a,zeil in ! What
hinders you from taking the town ? All this cannot
ainuse.you. For our part, .we are heartily tired of it.'
What did he mean by putting to us such questions ? I
cannot, I merely repeat his expressions verbatim. The
artillery of the place has modified its firing, and has of
late adopted the strange system of letting off several
mortars at a time. This produzes ar.. extraordinary com-
motion in the air. The plan is not a bad one, for it is
easier to avoid one bomb than ten. Since the return of
the fine weather the sanitary condition of the army has
sensibly improved. The arrival ti an immense supply
of winter clothing, and leather and wooden shoes, will
hereafter protect our soldiers from cold and damp. One
would suppose we had Turks to command. All our men
wear the red fez, which has been given to them in lieu of
nightcaps. They have, besides, received wooden shoes,
with excellent socks and woollen gloves. Those particu-
lars will afford you an idea of the minute care taken of our
soldiers. A large cargo of charcoal has just been landed
at Katniesch, for distribution among the divisions.
Some vessels laden with firewood have also arrived
there. The Government, you see, does not let us want
for anything. Since the night of the 14th we have not
heard of nor seen the Russians. They have only retained
posts of observation in the valley of the Tchernaya,
Since their last unsuccessful attempt to penetrate by
Inkermann into Sebastopol they can only communicate
with the army outside along the roadstead. Neverthe-
less from our positions we can see them regularly attend-
ing to their usual occupations. They establish works of
defence, carry gabions, and, like us, often blow on their
fingers to warm them. On the I2th of January (the
first day of the Russian year), I was standing in our new
battery (the one we received from the English, and which
is to batter the tower of Malakoff), whence I had a full
view, between the fort of the Mat and the city, of the
fine promenade, on which the theatre stands. With my
long glass I perfectly beheld five or six female figures,
dressed nearly alike, enjoying a morning walk. Every-
body was anxious to have a peep at them, for it is now
eight months since such a sight relieved our eyes. Two
of them appeared handsome. We followed their move-
ments with a certain pleasure, when they were ac-
costed with many demonstrations of politeness by two
officers, in whose company they shortly afterwards dis-
appeared."
The Constitutionnel contains the following from
the Crimea, under date 23th ult. :
" The weather has become very fine. Every night
we have a strong frost, followed the next day by a bright
sun when we begin to bestir ourselves and set to work
as if nothing was the matter. Our batteries are all
finished, and armed with 230 guns and mortars. The
English, on their side, lose no time. They have lately
received a number of horses and mules from Spaiu. The
armament of their batteries is proceeding rapidly, and
will be soon completed, provided the fine weather lasts
some days longer. The Ottoman troops are fast arriving
at Eupatoria. The Russians
_continue to fire upon us
as usual, but the moonlight has no doubt deterred then
from making sorties. It was Colonel Papof, of the Im-
perial staff, who was killed in the sortie of the 14th,
and whose body was delivered up by us to the com-
mander of the town. The general health of the army is
good. We have lately received supplies of provisions and
effects, as well as presents from private individuals. The
city of Algiers has sent to the General-in-Chief a large
quantity of cigars and tobacco for our soldiers. This is
a kill(' aid noble action, ani the gift of cur colony will,
I ass sure, be gratefully acknowledged by our brave
troops, who for the moat part commenced their military
career in the country. Yesterday, I met my General
dressed in a for cloak sent to him by the Emperor. All
the Generals have received from his Majesty a similar
gilt. Thank God, the sun has reappeared, and we shall
soon be able to storm ten Sebastonuls."
We read in the Courier de Marseille, of the 6th
inst., under date Constantinople, 29th ult
"Mehemet Bey, son of Redschid Pasha, who has been
lately elevated to the dignity of Pasha, and appointed
Ambassador to France, will pass through Turin, on
hit way to Paris, to concert measures with the
Piedmontese Government relative to the Sardinian con-
tingent destined for the East. Two Piedmontese offi-
cers, M. Morelli and Count de Revel, arrived yester-
day at Constantinople, to prepare quarters for those
troops. Detachments of the 9th French division land
here every day. General Brunet, their commander,
paired sonic days ago to Deoud Pasha, where the French
are encamped, and reviewed the IGth and 49th Regi-
ments of Infantry. We exp, et, to complete the division,
a portion of the let briesde, en route front Algiers, under
the orders of Ge:ieral Co3llr. The batteries of artillery,
the company of enginceie, the waggon train, and the
g.,mdaralerie att.lche.l tr time division :ire also shortly
expected. A company of engineers, pieced at the dis-
poni of Gen. ral Lareher, Military Conimaneler of Con-
stantinople has arrived in tii«.l l iami C., nee was gear_
tered at the Pitt of the Seraglio, in the barrack
occupied by the Turi-ht;ls, uli re the Gctvral inttn Is to
install a large artillery e:tellishilient. The barrack is
to be given up to him by the Turkish Government, and
Ile is expecting every day a compaey of arinourera irom
Algeria, which the Minister of War has placed unc'ee
his direction, together with four gvards of artillery, and
as many of engineers. Yesterday, General Brunet, ac-
companied ley his staff and a numerous cortege of offi-
cers of the 9th division, repaired to the Palace of Tche-
ragan, where they were received with the utni7twi ;
dis-
tinction by the Sultan. Abdul Medjid converse
several of them, and expressed to them in excellent
1 French his admiration for our army. The arrival t