The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-07 00:00:00

common sense to command themselves, let alone a
body of men, to say the least of them, as I have
already stated, lath better than demi-savages, as
they proved themselves. The officer who is in per-
foiana.nce of his duty, outrageously assaulted by a
mob of plunderers miles from their cantonments—
saving his own life and those of others around him—
is immediately placed in arrest for seven days, and
then coolly informed by the Deputy Adjutant-
General that the Lieut.-General Commanding can-
not allow him to serve with this force any longer,
and that he must leave for England. at once, and
present himself to Lord Panmure for his decision
! of the case, who it his hoped will take a more honest
and just view of it than General Vivian. .The
officers of the contingent are highly incensed at the
decision given against Major Guernsey. He bears
with him letters from most of the officers of rank
in the force, approving of his conduct, regretting
his loss, and indignant at the injustice done him.
Not a sentence is breathed of Major Guernsey's
case in the general orders of the day ; but in a few
days a letter is sent to the generals of division, &c.,
requesting them to read it to all the officers under
their command. The purport of it is that General
Vivian requests and commands that nq officer will
draw his sword for the future on any Turk, under
any circumstances ; but if they commit a crime,
their regiment is to be found out, and they are to
be handed over for punishment. The Turks being
now aware of such an order, place it all to fear,
and act accordingly.
Turkish prejudices, more especially when mixed
up with them politically, are to be viewed in a dif-
ferent light than when largo bodies of troops are
congregated together, such as are at present in
Kerte!), &c., consisting of material scraped to-
gether from all parts of the Ottoman empire. In-
stead of our bending to suit their ideas, half bar-
barous, it should be the object of the officer i❑
command, as far as compatible with the order of
things, to bend them to the form of the civilised
portion of the army of the two great nations doing
duty in Kertch and its vicinity. General Vivian
may rest assured—and it is the opinion of the
principal generals and officers under his command
—that his soothing system, of letting no European
whatever interfere for the future with the Turks,
as far as punishment goes, for any crime, will go
far to render the force nugatory and useless. Their
own officers, from their highest pasha downwards,
are men so ignorant that, if he got the Sultan's do-
minions, one of them could not sign his name. An
English officer would be ashamed to be seen in a
tent with one of them, so degraded, and vile, and
lost to all decency are the characters of those men,
more especially when we know and rest assured
that the source of their appointment proceeded
originally from a calling so disgusting and so pol-
luted that it can hardly be named or even hinted
at. Such are the proteges to be brought under
British rule by mild treatment. I can give the
opinion of a French officer who witnessed the
affray with the provost marshal. If, says he, a
French officer were treated in a similar manner to

your provost marshal, more especially in the exe-
cution of his duty, I should feel degraded if I did
not order out every man of the French army in
Kertch, and decimate them on the spat, for inter-
fering with justice. The destruction of public pro-
perty fresh from England is disgraceful in the
extreme ; only within the last week I witnessed
such havoc and waste that it is high time John
Bull should open his eyes to the facts. At Fort
St. Paul I witnessed the landing of 700 sheep on
the beach, per the Tynemouth, from Constantino-
ple, ordered there by the command of Captain
Hall, of the Miranda frigate. No person was pre-
sent to receive them ; the consequence was, that
nearly one half of them were lost (Captain Hall's
duty seems to be chiefly riding with an aide-de-
camp two government horses, provided by order
of General Vivian, through the streets of Kertch)
by the negligence of giving an ord.ar for the com-
missariat to receive them. The same vessel brought
up 300 bags of barley, which were landed on the
beach. No person ever came to receive them. I
saw a lot of Turks, each with a horse, the next day
feeding out of sacks ; after they had finished, the
remaining portion was thrown away, so that out of
300 bags only 120 remained untouched. Any per-
son walking on the - beach for the last fortnight
could have perceived several _cages of medicine, ex-
posed to every danger, addressed "The Inspector-
General, Turkish Contingent ; " there they remain,
and are likely to remain. The same remark ap-
plies to the purveyor's stores. I witnessed several
cases of lamps lying in the same condition, the
cases burst open, and any one that chose helping
himself to what he pleased. Now, instead of Gen.
Vivian showing off through the streets of Kertch
daily, with a guard or escort of Turkish Lancers,
if ho would give his attention to these trifles, he
would far better serve his men and the country
that employs him. In Madras he never saw ser-
vice, and it is very unlikely while lie is employed
here that he will ever have the chance of seeing a
shot fired, with his Brummagen brigadiers, as Sir
Cohn Campbell most felicitously designated them.
Major-Gen. Shirley arrived here a fortnight back.
with the cavalry of the contingent, and after re-
maining this length of time and losing several of
the best horses, it is now found out there is no
stabling or forage for them in Kertch. They are
at last ordered to Eupatoria, where it is pretty
certain they will be hardly allowed to land, and
they will most probably proceed to Buyukdere or ,
Varna. Surely such wanton waste of public money
must be put an end to—there is no denying it.
The head-quarter staff of the contingent are ineffi-
cient, and not up to their work. General Vivian no
doubt must have been delighted to have pleased
and promoted his friends from the Madras Army ;
but if the country pays for service supposed to be
rendered, it ought to have the best men for the
money it affords. His staff at head-quarters con-
sists of the following, where they came from being
stated: —Deputy Adjutant-General, Lieutenant-
Colonel Crewe, captain Madras Army ; Assistant
Adjutant-General, Major Goldsmid, lieutenant,
! Madras Army ; Deputy Assistant Adjutant-Gene-
ral, Captain Hearne, lieutenant Madras Army ;
Assistant Deputy Quartermaster-General, Major
J. Luther Vaughan, lieutenant, Madras Army ;
Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General, Captain
J. L. Parry, lieutenant, Madras Army. All the
brigadiers are from the Indian army, the last pro-
moted is Paymaster of Warley Barracks, and One
of the Generals of Division is an Indian officer,
who commanded a company in .Burmah two years
back, but never was under fire in his life. One of
those staff gentlemen, who got himself made a
Pacha some weeks ago by a commission from the
Sultan, to flatter his vanity, had the good taste
and feeling to express publicly at Missiri's Hotel,
Constantinople, a short time back, that Lord Pan-
inure had no right whatever to appoint an officer
from the Queen's service. Having that opinion
surely discretion should have made him keep it to
himself. It certainly was rather an awkward
expression to use. However, the officers of the
Queen's army present treated it as it deserved,
Constituted as at present, the Turkish Contingent
can never repay the money expended on it in any
one way. At a future period I will give you a
further detail of its proceedings in Kertch.