The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-05 00:00:00

MILITARY EDUCATION.

were comfortably provided for during transport,and when
they arrived at Varna the men were well, and did not
become sick after landing. He did not know when they
embarked at Varna where they were going,
although, from circumstances that occurred, 'he
had no doubt that they were going to attack the
enemy somewhere in the north. The state of his
division was by no means bad at that time, but

THE LATE CZAR, AND THE MINISTERS.

still there was a certain amount of depression of spirits
amongst the troops, arising from the circumstance of
their having been so loug inactive. He arrived at Varna
on the 18th June, and remained there until the Ist Sep-
tember, during which time he moved his camp three or
four times. He thought it was on the 12th or 13th Septem-
ber that he arrived at Eupatoria. Some of the battalions
had knapsacks, but he believed the majority had not. An
order was issued from head-quarters, but there was a
great deal of irregularity about the matter. The Battle
of the Alma took place on the 17th or 18th of Septem-
ber, but he did not accurately remember. The French
took similar means to ours for the care of the wounded,
but he did not think they were so long in making the
necessary provisions as the English. We managed to
get up the teas by the 29th September. The weather
was fine, but the nights were cold, and the troops
suffered much in consequence. The fuel became
very damp. There was brushwood, which, in fine wea-
ther, ‘s as available for fuel, but when it rained it became
perfectly useless. No firewood was served out to the
troops. The clothing of the troops was becoming very
indifferent when he left. After a succession of cons*
plaints of various kinds, he succeeded in getting new
clothing for his troops. The gentlemen sent out to con-
duct the commissariat department were utterly incom-
petent to their duty. Altercations consequently arose,
and at length he had the good fortune to get a
competent man in the person of Mr. Power, and
efficient officers were afterwards attached to his di-
vision, which accounted for its favourable condition in
comparison with others. He could not say that there
was any great deficiency in the medical department. He
bad frequently known his horses to be without food for
a day in consequence of the difficulty of getting receipts
signed—a form which was observed with groat strict-
ness. He was not one of those who believed
that Varna was a very unhealthy place. Of
course, if large masses of troops were brought
together in any spot in hot weather disease must
follow. In reference to the French transports, they
were very far inferior to our own—indeed there was no
comparison between them.

On the motion for going into committee of supply,
Mr. RICH said he had been most anxious to move
for a select committee to inquire into the subjtc; of mi-
litary education in this country, but owing to the recent
Ministerial thanes he had been unable to Ming such a
motion on ; and now, seeing that there was no prospect
of introducing it before Easter, be was compelled to take
advantage of this opportunity to introduce the subject to
the house. A great change, he thought, wai about to

be made in -the organisation of the army, a
change which had been brought about in some mea-
sure by the disclosures of the press in connection
with the war. There were some people who found
fault with the press for disclosing the condition of our
army with so much freedom ; but he, for one, did not
r hare in these censures, because the press had done
much good in exposing abuses and suggesting reforms
in the military department. This country stood the
foremost amongst the civilised countries that cul-
tivated the arts and sciences, but, nevertheless,
recent experience had proved that in the art of war we
were lamentably deficient. The Levy, however, pre-
sented a sing her contrast to thearmy. In the navy the
strictest discipline was preserved, and the men who
adopted it as a profession were trained to it almost from
childhood, but not so in the army, and he wanted to
know why it had not or should not be so ? He was
told that there was no fit school in this
country where the military art could be studied.
The hon. gentleman tten referred to the fact that pro-
motion came from pnrcbase or from fay our, and not from
merit, and thus one of the greatest incentives to exertion
and distinction was lost. Then as to appointments on
the staff, he defied the license to say that staff appoint-
ments were fairly and impartially made, and with a re-
gard to the previous character and service on the part
of the individual selected. (Hear.) He instanced ca,es
in which officers who had never been under fire ha I re-
ceived their promotion whilst veterans who had ap-
peared years and years in the active service list were
passed over. Under such eireumstauees could they feel
sun rised at the inefficiency of our iteff ? Well, how
should this be remedied I Why, by adopting the same
regulations as were observed with regard to the navy—
by educating our officers for the duties they were
to perform. Those who followed particular professions
or particular avocations were generally fitted by espe-
cial eduction previously for the nature of their duties,
but in the army no such preparation was demanded.
Let officers pass through a certain routine of education
before they were entitled to their oemmistions and then
they would be qualified at the outset to the performance
of their functions, arid, as they progressed in experience,
for promotion from rank to rank. With regard to the
Military College, the junior department was devoted to
cadets, and the senior department of it was designed for
the qualification of officers for staff appointments, and on
completing their curriculum of exAmination in it a cer.
tificato was given to them, stating that they were so
qualified. Well, was this certificate a mockery or not !
It was a decided mockery, inasmuch as it was never
acted upon when those appointments were made. But
the college itself had been allowed to dwindle away, and
at present there were only about 150 cadets and officers
under its care ; and this arose not from the fact that
the college was expensive—for, in fact, it was self-sup-
porting—but for the simple circumstance that every
circumstance awarded by it to merit interfered with the-
patronage of the Horse Guards. In the officrs of an
army there were two classes; the first composed of
scions of the aristocracy or heirs of estates, who had
entered the service with no intention whatever of making
it their profession for life; and the second of young men
of intellect and talent, who had adopted the service in the
full hope of rising in it to distinction. Looking, then,
at the promotions, and bearing this in mind, it would be
found that the first-class were those who were invariably
promoted by the Horse Guards, whilst the latter were
too poor to command themselves such patronage as
their more fortunate brethren, though their acquirements
and capabilities not oily entitled them to preferment, but
rendered them far more deserving of it. All he asked
were that the military college should be placed
on an equal footing with the naval college at
Woolwich, and that similar inducements should
be held out to students after they had studied
there for a certain period of years, not only in the way
of simple boek-learning, but also all the science of
the profession they intended to adopt. By that means
only could we hope to possess a more efficient and
properly educated class of officers in the army. (Hear.)
He should, therefore, hear with great satisfaction
a statement for the Secretary at War, to the effect that
the Government would take this matter into considera-
tion.

The following letter has been addressed to the Editor
of the Times :

Sir,—l commit into your hands the following letter
and memorandum for publication. It is fit that the people
of this country should know that at the commencement
of the diplomatic dispute with Russia Ministers were
made aware of the state of mind and prospect of life of
its mighty ruler. The discussions carried on with him '
were shaped on the usual metaphysical grounds. They
bhould have been guided instead by a knowledge of the
physical condition of the disputant.
At every confidential interview with the British re-
presentative up started the monomaniacal idea of
" l'homme malade—gravement malade," which was often
repeated, "not without excitement," added Sir George.
If this fact did not of itself open the eyes of Ministers
January and February of 1853, the timely professional
warning conveyed to them in theannexed letter not long
after might, one would think, put Ministers on their
guard, albeit the warning came from an humble indivi-
dual. Who knows how many thousand lives since sacri-
fice'. and millions of money squandered might have been
saved if, on the conviction of the truth of the warning
received, instead of continuing for months together all
sorts of unprofitable arguments, peremptory language
and peremptory action had been employed, leaving no
time to the imperial and real " sick man" for the inlic-
tion on his own devoted people and those of the three
nations allied against him of that irreparable mischief
which he has been suffered to perpetrate ! It was thus
that Pitt dealt with Paul. But, alas, there is no Pitt
iow.

Mr. F. PEEL rose to reply, and was
[LEFT SPEAKING]

At ten minutes before four o'clock it was announced
,hat the Speaker was at prayers, and the inquiry was

adjourned.

For regularity's sake, I mention that three pas-
sages in the following letter, which was strictly confi-
dential, are omitted. The first was the expression of a
purely religious opinion, which, though awfully appro-
priate at this moment, might be considered presumptu-
ous. The second detailed the grounds on which during
my residence of several weeks in St. Petersburg, in
1849, in attendance on a high personage at the Imperial
Court, I formed the medical opinion which I deemed it
my duty to convey to the Government at home ; their
publication at this moment would be injudicious. The
third passage was an illusion to my ill-requittad service
in the navy, which cannot interest your readers.—l have
the honour to be your obedient servant,
A. B. GRANVILLE, M.D.
1, Curzon-street, Mayfair, March 3.

"CONFIDENTIAL LETTER TO VISCOUNT PALMERSTON,
DATED KISSINGEN, BAVARIA, JULY 6, 1853.
"My Lord,—Failing in my endeavours to meet with
your lordship at the appointed interview at thee House
of Commons on the 22d ult., at which I proposed to
make a viva voce communication of some importance to the
Government, as I thought, concerning the present politi-
cal discussions with Russia, I stated, in a second note writ-
ten at the moment of my departure from England for this
place, that I regretted the disappointment, inasmuch as
the subject of the intended communication, from its
delicate nature, did not admit of being committed to
paper.
" I think so still. But, on the other hand, the ne-
cessity of the Government being put in possession of the
communication appears to me to become every day so
much more urgent, that if it is to be of any use it must
be made at once, or it will fail to direct Ministers in time,
as I think the communication is capable of doing, in
their negotiations with Russia, and in their estimation
of the one particular element which, I apprehend, has
first provoked, and is since pushing on the Emperor in
his present reckless course.
" Mine isnot a political, but a professional communi-
' cation therefore strictly confidential. It is not conjec-
tural, but positive, largely based on personal knowledge,
and partly on imparted information accidentally obtained
—it is not essential that I should say from whom, for I
take the responsibility of the whole on myself, inas-
much as the whole but confirms what I have myself ob-
served, studied, or heard on the spot.
" The Western Cabinets find the conduct of the Em-
peror Nicholas strange, preposterous, inconsistent, un-
expected. They wonder at his demands ; they are
startled at Lis state papers ; they cannot comprehend
their context ; they recognise not in them the clear and
close reasoning of the Nestor of Russian diplomacy, but
rather the dictates of an iron will to which he has been
made to affix his name ; they view the Emperor's new
international principles as extravagant ; the doubt if he
be under the guidance of wise counsels. Yet they
proceed to treat, negotiate, and speak, as if none of
these perplexing novelties in diplomacy existed on the
part of a Power hitherto considered as the model of
political loyalty. The Western Cabinets are in error.
"The health of the Czar is shaken. It has become so
gradually for the last five years. He has been irritable,
assionate, fanciful, more than usually superstitious,
capricious, hasty, precipitate, and obstinate withal—all
from ill-health, unskilfully treated ; and of late deterio-
rating into a degree of cerebral excitement, which, while
it takes from him the power of steady reasoning, impels
him to every extravagance, in the same manner as with
his father in 1800 ; as with A'exander, in Poland, in
1820 ; as with Constantine, at Warsaw, in 1830 ; as
with Michael, at St. Petersburg, in 1.848-9. Like them,
his nature feels the fatal transmission of hereditary in-
sanity, the natural consequence of an overlooked and
progressive congestion of tho brain. Like them, he is
hurrying to his fats, sudden death, from congestive
disease. The same period of life, between 45 and 60
years of age, sees the career of his fated family cut
tsort.
" Paul, at first violent and fanatical, a perfect lunatic
at 45 years of age, is despatched at 47, in 1301.
Alexander dies at Taganrog in December, 1825,
aged 48. For five years previously his temper and his
mind had at times exhibited the parental malady by his
capricious and wayward manner of treating the Polish
provinces. He died of congestive fever of the brain,
during which he knocked down his favourite phyeician,
Sir James Wylie, who assured me of the fact at St.
Petersburg in 1828, because he wished to apply leeches
to his temples.
" Constantine, eccentric always, tyrannical, cruet,
dies at Warsaw suddenly in July, 1831, aged 52 years,
after having caused rebellion in the country by his harsh
treatment of the cadet officers. I saw and conversed
with him on the parade and in his palace at Warsaw in
1828. His looks and demeanour sufficiently denoted to
a medical man what he was, and what his fate would be.
It has been said that he died of cholera ; again, that he
had been despatched like his father. The physician in
chief of the Polish Military Hospitals assured me some
years after that he Lad died apoplectic and in a rage.
" Michael, after many years of suffering from the same
complaints which afflict his only surviving brother—en-
larged liver, deranged digestion, and fulness of blood in
the head—became in 1848-9 intolerably irritable, violent,
and tyrannical to his own officers of the artillery and eu-
gineers service, of which he was the supreme chief. In
July, 1849, he consulted me at St. Petersburg. It was
after he had passed in review the whole train of artillery
which was leaving the capital for Hungary, at which re-
view I was present and near him, and witnessed scenes
of violent temper towards generals and aides-de-camp
hardly equalled in a lunatic asylum. I found him as de-
scribed above. I advised cupping, diet, non-exposure to
the sun and fatigue, the adinieistratim of suitable medi-
cines, and the cessation from drinking steel mineral
waters, of which he was fond ever since lie had been at
Kissingen. His physician, the younger Sir Jas. Wylie
(himself since suddenly dead), assented reluctantly, but
did not carry my advice into execution. The Grand
Duke, in the state he was, unrelieved by any medical
measure or proper treatment, joined the army, rode out
in the sun, and fell from his horse apoplectic in Septem-
ber, 1849, aged 48.
" To complete this disastrous picture of the grand-
children of Catherine, their mother, Maria of Wui tem-
berg, a most exemplary pr;ncesss died apoplectic in
November, 1829, scarcely more than 65 years of age.
The attack, mistaken for weakness, was treated with
stimulants and bark by her physician, Ruhl, and bleed-
ing was only had recourse to when the mistake was dis-
covered—but too late to save. The meek and mild
Elizabeth had but a short time before followed her im-
perial partner, Alexander, to the grave, in the still fresh
years ef womanhOod, 50 years of age.
"During my second sojourn in St. Petersburg, in
1849, for a period of tea weeks . . . . What the
opinion was of the Emperor's health—what acts of his
came to my knowledge, which bespokeeccentricity—what
were the sentiments of his physician, Dr. Mandt, who,
homcepathist as he is, and exercising a most peremptory
influence over his master, leaves him, nevertheless, un-
relieved, except by mystical drops and globules.—what
transpired of political doctrines and opinions, or, in fine,
what I gathered afterwards at Moscow on all co-equal
points, must be left to your lordship's conjecture—not
difficult after all I have divulged. To go further would
be like a breach of trust, and of that I shall never be
guilty.
" In all I have related there is nothing that had been
committed to me as a privileged communication ; while
the imperative requirements of the moment calling for
its immediate divulgement I hesitate not to make it,
under the firmest conviction that my fears and anticipa-
tions will be surely realised.
"If so, then the method of dealing with an all-power-
ful Sovereign so visited must differ from the more regu-
lar mode of transacting business between Government
and Government. For this purpose it is—namely, to
put her Majesty's Ministers on their guard accordingly,
that I have determined to place in your Lordship's
hands the present professional information, which must
be considered as so strictly confidential that I shall not
sign it with my name.
" That I have selected your Lordship as the channel
of my communication rather than the Minister ef Foreign
Affairs, to whom more properly it should have been ad-
dressed, will at once appear natural to your Lordship.
In my eapacity of once, and for some years, your Lord-
ship's physician (though not now honoured with that
title), your Lordship has known me personally, and is
convinced that what my pen commits to paper may be
taken as coining from an honourable man and your obe-
dient servant."
N.B. An acknowledgMent of the receipt of this letter
came by return of post Lord Palmerston 's handwriting.

ARMY BEFORE SEBASTOPOL COM-

MITTEE--(THIS DAY.)

(Continued front our first edition.)
Mr. Dundas, M.P., was the first witness examined,
but his evidence did not go beyond statements he had
already made in
speech in the house as to the results
of his observations on a visit he paid to Balaklava, and
the camp in December last—and had reference chiefly
to the defective supply of forage, clothing, food, and
fuel to the camp, and the sickness and mortality amongst
the troops. The disadvantageous position of the burial
and the
amen negle
the
q suct and mortality of the cavalry
gbstance of the matter
elicoristtlenesdd7s,ere also

Memorandum.—At an interview with Lord Palmer-
ston, February 23, 1854, on matters of a private nature,
his Lordship was pleased to ask me before we separated
whether I still adhered to my opinion and prediction.
I replied that before July, 1855 (the Emperor would
then be 59 years old), what I had anticipated would
happen. " Let but a few reverses overtake the Em'
-
peror " I added, " and his death, like that of all
his brothers, will be sudden." It has proved so.
-Alma, Inkerman, Balaklava, shook the mighty brain.
mEuyppartoovriaor
only
ytebdy
T few estirolte, which has anticipated
weeks.

General Sir De Lacy Evans was then examined by
the chairman. He stated that he joined the army at
Scutari, and remained t'Aere some time. When he joined
a proportion of the army had already landed, The men

A, B. G.

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 5, 1855,

ELECTION INTELLIGENCE.

HALIFAX.

The vacancy created in the representation of the bo-
rough of Halifax, in consequence of Sir Charles Wood's
acceptance of the post of First Lord of the Admiralty in
the reconstructed Government, was duly filled up on
Saturday by the re-election of the right bon. baronet
without opposition. There bad indeed been some talk,
when the intelligence first arrived that the vacancy had
arisen, of Major Edwards, who figured as a candidate at
previous elections for the borough, being again started
to contest the seat with Sir Charles, but subsequently
the friends of the gallant major met and resolved that it
was inexpedient for him, in the present critical aspect of
affairs, to press his claims on the suffrages of the consti-
tuency ; and all idea of offering any opposition to the
right hon. baronet's return was therefore abandoned.
The nomination ,took place in the Manufacturers'
Piece-hall—a large quadrangular building situated in the
centre of the town, and enclosing a spacious open equare.
At 11 o'clock Sir Charles Wood, accompanied by Mr.
Joshua Appleyard (the mayor and returning officer), the
town clerk, and several of his principal supporters, ar-
rived or• the scene, and took up their position on a kind
of balcony, which served as hustings—the spectators,
who did not exceed 1,000, being congregated in the open
space below. The weather had been showery all the
morning, and the rain fell at intervals during the speak-
ing, lending to the proceedings—never very lively or
exciting at an uncontested election—an unwonted degr;e
of tameness and insipidity.
The writ having been read and the other usual for-
malities completed,
The MAYOR explained the object of the assemblage, and
bespoke an impartial hearing for every elector who might
wish to address them. That was, he said, the earliest oppo--
tunity at which theelection could be held, and, although it
was their market-day, yet, in the present state of public
affairs, he did not think he would have been justified in
deferring the nomination any longer. They were all
aware of the startlingnewsthat had reached them within
the last few hours of the death of the Czar ; and doubt-
less there were gentlemen present who would express
their opinions on the probable bearing of that event upon
the prosecution of the war. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. J. CROSSLEY then stood forward to nominate the
Right Hon. Sir Charles Wood as a fit and proper person
to represent Halifax in Parliament. The right hon. gen-
tleman had repreiented that borongh for the last 22
years, during which he had repeatedly held high office
under the Crown. He bad lately been entrusted with
the administration of our vast Indian empire, and now
he had been called by his Sovereign to a post scarcely
second in importance to any other in the State, but to
the efficient discharge of the duties of which he believed
the right hon. baronet was fully equal. The long expe-
rience they had had of the services of Sir Charles Wood
rendered any eulogy of his character or conduct quite
unnecessary, and be therefore merely begged to propose
that they should give him a renewal cf their confidence
as their representative. (Cheers.)
Mr. J. BALDWIN seconded the nomination, observing

that the absence of a contest on the right hon. baronet's
acceding to so important an office as that of the head of
the Admiralty in a time of war was ample evidence that
the electors of Halifax were satisfied with his conduct,
both as their representative and as a Minister. The
right hon. gentleman's object had always been to serve
his country, in doing which he bad best served his con-
stituency ; and no doubt he would still continue to fol-
low the same meritorious course. (Hear.)
No elector presenting himself to propose another can-
didate, the Mayor declared Sir Charles Wood to have

been duly elected.
Sir C. WOOD then stepped forward to address the elec.
tors, and was received with faint marks of applause. He
said—Gentlemen, it is now my pleasing duty to return
you my warmest thanks for the honour which you have
done me, and I assure you, from the bottom of my heart,
that in my opinion a higher distinction cannot be con-

ferred on-a
British subject. I well remember the pride
with which 22 years ago, as Mr. Crossley has told you,
I was first returned one of the members for an important
town in my native county ; but you will readily believe
how much that pride has increased when, during the
whole course of those years, I have received such re-
peated proofs of your continued canfidence, and when
now, fur the ninth time, I am returned a member for
Halifax. (Hear.) Gentlemen, lam the more gratified
on the present occasion because I was more than usually
anxious for this last testimony of your approbat on. I
need but shortly advert to the circumstances which have
led to my now appearing before you, You are aware
that Lord Aberdeen's Government resigned in conse-
quence of a vote of the House of Commons. Yon are
also aware that Lord Derby, to whom her Majesty ap-
plied to form a Government, failed in the task. Lord
Derby addressed himself to Lord 13,Irnerston, the head
of the present Government, to Mr. Gladstone, and to Mr.
Sidney Herbert, to ascertain whether they would join a
Ministry which he might form ; and, upon their refusal
to do co, he did not feel sufficient confidence in the mem-

hers of his own party along to warr.►nt him in proposing
them as an efficient Government to the country. Lord
John Russell was likewise commissioned to construct a

Government; but he too failed; and her Majesty then
empowered Lord Palmerston to form a Government, as
almost the last resource, lest we should be left without a
Government at all. (Laughter.) Lord Palmerston's
Government was constituted ; but, alas ! within some 10
days of its formation, three of its most important mem•
bets retired. (A laugh.) I cannot but acknowledge that
Mr. Gladstone,in the office of Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, and Sir . Graham, in the post to which I have been
since eaaed, discharged the functions of their respective
departments most efficiently, and I regard it as a great
misfortune that they should have considered it to be
their duty to leave those posts. (Hear.) But, under
these circumstances, however arduous the task assigned
him, Lord Palmerston did not shrink from the perform-
ance of what he believed to be his duty to the Queen
and to the country, namely, to form a Government—
the best that he could constitute—in order ti carry on
the business of the ciuntry in the present difficult state
of public affairs and to promote and guard its be-t inte-
re,t4. In that Government the noble lord called upon
me to undertake the post which had been vacated by
Sir James Graham. Gentlemen, if I had only con-
sulted my own wishes and inclinations I should have
declined that offer. I had filled for the last two years
no unimportant office in the Government, and had been
charged with the administration of an immense empire,
comprising nearly 150,000,000 of people. I had car-
ried through a great measure for the reform of the go-
vernment of that empire. I had advanced many pro-
jects for the improvement of its internal administration,
for the education of its people, for the development of
its trade, for the extension of its public works, and the
construction of its railroads ; and you may easily sup-
pose that I was naturally anxious to watch over the
operation of those measures which, though framed at
home, must, nevertheless, depend in a great degree for
their success upon the mode in which they are exe-
cuted in the coutry to which they are applied.
I had a natural desire, therefore, to protect., as I may
say, the welfare of my own children. At the same time,
however, I felt bound to sacrifice my own personal pre-
dilections if they stood in the way of the discharge of a
public duty. Lord Palmerston and my colleagues
thought it was desirable that I should take charge of
atioth r department—one most important at all time-,
bid, above all, in time of war, more important than sny
other—namely, that which is intrusted with the admi-
nistration of the i•aval affairs and the direction of the
naval resources of this country. With the business and
duties of that department I was not wholly unacquainted
for I had for some four or five years occupied the post of
Secretary to the Admiralty ; and I felt, under such cir-
cumstances, that I should not ho justified in consulting
my own wishes, my own ease, or my own inclinations,
by remaieing in the office which I held, and refusing to
accept one in which my colleagues thought my services
might be more useful. I never from any personal con-
sideration have declined to c 1..) that which I believed to
be my duty. I felt that I was a public servant. As
such you nave trusted me—as such you have sent me to
Parliament, and I am convinced you would consider
that I had done wrong if I bast declined that which I
was called upon by ray Sovereign to undertake. Gen-
tleman, I fairly say that I was unwilling to put you to
the trouble of another election, but I felt confident that
if you believed I was doing my duty you would approve
and sanction my course by your suffrages. (Rear.) I
confess that I was anxious about the result of this elec-
tion, and I am mot) than usually proud of the honour
of being returned by you to Parliament from the gratify-
ing circumstances which have attended that return.
am most grateful to you for this renewed proof of
your confidence. I thank those of my friends upon
whose support I felt I might reasonably rely ; and I also
owe my best acknowledgments to those who have on
former occasions been my opponents, but who in the
present juncture of affairs resolved to waive their party
differences, and for the sake of the public interests to
acquiesce in my return. (Hear, hear.) I have there-
fore to promise to the entire body of electors of Halifax,
and not to the electors alone, but to its inhabitants ge-
nerally, that I will not swerve from that course of con-
duct which has hitherto procured for me your con-
fidence ; and that while I devote my best efforts
to promote the interests of the country at large, I
will not neglect those of this borough and its neigh-
bourhood. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, I have so often on
former occasions stated to you my opinions upon almost
every subject of public importance that I will not de-
tain you, upon what I am reminded is your market-day,
by adverting to those topics at present, and I need the
less de so considering the length at which I had to tres-
pass on your attention at the meeting on Thursday even-
ing. I will only say that lam glad to believe, from all
the most recent accounts that have reached us, that the
state of our gallant army in the Crimea is rapidly im-
proving. The army have received that assistance and
those comforts and means of protecting themselves from
the inclemency of the weather, and against disease,
which, through the bounty of this country and the sym-
pathies of their fellow-citizens at home, have been sent
out to them ; and I repeat that all the latest reports agree
in assuring us that the won't is now over, and that the
troops are improving in their condition. In spirit and
in gallantry they have never failed—(cheers)—and I say
that, sad and grievous as their sufferings have been, the
heroism and prowess they have displayed—a prowess
and a heroism of which we have never doubted—have
only been equalled by the 'patient endurance with which
they have borne up under those calamities which are
harder to Lear than the dangers of actual conflict, be-
cause they are not encountered under the satne excite-
ment or the same enthusiasm. (Cheers) Your worthy
Mayor has alluded to a circumstance, the intelligence of
which was only received here last night, and which can.
not, I think, fail to exercise a considerable influence
upon the affairs of Europe. (Hear, hear.) It is difficult
for us to speculate as to what may happen in conse-
quence of the death of the Emperor of Russia, and God
forbid that we should rejoice at any man's being suddenly
called away from this world ; but if ever calamities mere
justly to be attributed to the will of one man, I think the
present war, with all its fatal consequences, 4 to be al.
_ .

cribed to the overweening ambition of the Emperor of
Russia. It was necessary to resist his aggressive pro-
jects of aggrandisement, which threatened the film. t'e3
and the independence of his ncighb.ur the Sultan,
and which, if successful, would have placed the Czar in •
• a position to exercise a predominant influence over the
affairs of Europe. It was necessary, I say, to resist,
and until our resistance is made effectual, it was impe-
rative upon us, at whatever hazard, to prosecute the war.
But at the same time we should be wanting in our duty
to the country if we neglected to avail ourselves of the
first opportimity of securing an honourable and a safe
peace. (Hear.) I cannot but hope that the important
event which has just occurred may tend to facilitate this
desirable consummation ; and if that should be the re-
sult, grieved as we must be at any fellow-creature being
suddenly summoned to his last account, yet the death
of one man may prove productive of inestimable blessing
to Europe and to the rest of the world. (Hear, hear.)
That such may be the issue may God, in his mercy,
giant ; and wi h the expression ..t this and thank-
ing you ag..in, gent'emen, for your great kindness, I now '
take my leave of you al!. (llcar, hear.)
Thanks were then voted to the mayor, and the con-
. courEe immediately dispersed.