The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-24 00:00:00

Liverpool Cotton Market--This Day,

(REUTER'S TELEGRAM.)
Weekly sales, 56,300 bales. 11,310 speculation,
18,370 export. Quotations—fair Orleans, 25 ; Mo-
bile, 241 ; Upland, 24. Estimated—middling Or-
leans, 22 ; Mobile, 211; Upland, 21.
Stock, 365,100 bales. Imports, 50,654. Surat,
Bto 203. About 4,000 Quiet.

A curious circumstance connected with the cotton
trade is that large quantities of American cotton exported
to France have been reimported into America through the
United Kingdom.

VINDICATION OF CARDIGAN.

(From the 7imes.)

The Battle of /Maklava has been fought on
again in the Court of Queen's Bench, and this tin
Lord Cardigan remains master of the field.
cannot be said, indeed, to have finally routed ti
enemy, inasmuch as the rule obtained by M
Bovill ex parte remains to be argued ; but he hi
certainly gained an advantageous position, fro
which Colonel Calthorpe will find it very difficu
to dislodge him. As impartial spectators of tl
conflict, we must, of course, suspend our judgmet
till proofs have been adduced in support of the lib
in question ; but we cannot put the same restrait
on our wishes. We should be sorry to think thr
an officer of Colonel Calthorpe's rank and pox;
tion had been guilty of malicious slander againt
the personal courage of a nobleman holding
high command in the army ; but we should
still more reluctant to believe that this noblema
had sullied his own honour and the lustre of a bril
liant feat of aims by deserting his followers in th
presence of the enemy. That such a charge shoul
be made on anonymous information, circulated
successive editions of a popular work, and reiterates
after repeated protests by the injured party, is
scandal that can only be justified, if at all, by posi
tive evidence of its unqualified truth. Even then i
might be open to question whether a wise ant
kindly reticence would not have been more public
spirited than ostentatious publicity. We do not fee
bound to decide this point of casuistry, but we art
quite sure that brave men, for the sake of their owl
manhood, ought not to deal in these imputatiout
unless under a paramount sense of duty. No anti.
pathy tolraperialism and the Emperor Napoleon car
excuse Mr. Kinglake for having employed CO
ignoble weapon against him, and no mere convie'
tion of Lord Cardigan's incompetence as a General
can excuse Colonel Calthorpe for such insinuations,
especially after he had ceased to command the Light
Brigade of Cavalry, Unless the accusation can be
made good to the letter, no course will be open to
its author, as a gentleman, but to come forward and
retract it openly. Public opinion judges these
matters by other than legal rule. It may be that the
rule for a criminal information will be discharged
on the ground that the motion should have been
made immediately after the publication of the libel,
but Colonel Calthorpe's character will remain on its
trial. He can only clear it by substantiating hie
assertions, or making ample apology.
The vague suggestions of misconduct on the part
of Lord Cardigan that have been bruited about ever
since the first report of his heroism was called in
question have now narrowed themselves to a single
issue. Colonel Calthorpe, who had been induced to
withdraw or modify other offensive expressions,
takes his stand upon his own version of the Bala-
klava charge. According to that version, Lord
Cardigan was leading on his men to the attack Of
the Russian battery when the explosion of a gun
frightened his horse, which swerved and carried
his lordship back at fast as he came. In the first
edition the story was told as though the horse had
run away with the rider,who was powerless to stop
him. In the second and third a different complexion
is• given to the incident, under cover of a compli'
went to Lord Cardigan's horsemanship. It is there
admitted, as if by way of concession, that he Was
not likely to have lost control over his charger, and
the reader is led to infer that he fled of his own
accord precipitately to the rear while the Light
Brigade dashed into the battery. This most inv.
probable statement is made on the authority et
"officers present on the occasion," whose names are
not given. Against it Lord Cardigan brings the
sworn testimony of four officers at least, and
several privates actually engaged in the cherge,ous
and all of whom declare that they actually saw On
heading the troops as they penetrated the line of
guns, while some affirm that they saw him ride
through the battery, and that they saw him in
rear of the battery defending himself against the
Cossacks. One man's eyes may deceive him,
but it is simply incredible that several soldiers
,bould have fancied that they saw their chief cone
•ptcuons in front, and have marked bis conduct at
different points of time after the guns were reached,
if he was all the while galloping to the rear. More•
over, one witness at least observed Lord Cardigan's
horse take fright, and admired the coolness with
hich he managed it, as he maintained his position
in advance of his own line, then on the point of
closing with the Russian gunners. Another went
to his rescue when he was surrounded by Cossack
horsemen behind the battery. There is no room for
imagination here. It is truth or perjury; and
until credible persons are produced who will swear
that they saw the same Lord Cardigan turn to the
rear when his horse swerved, and make his way
back somehow through his own advanced "NO'
drons," we " firmly believe," with General Scarlettr
that he was the first into the battery, that he passed
through it, and that he was one of the last to retire.
,
We are not insensible to the inconvenience 01
bringing a question which partly turns upon mill'
tart' details before a civil court. But we really do
not see what Lord Cardigan could have done. He
could not allow such a stain to remain upon his
memory. '1 he charge was made by a man of no
mean social influence, of high station in the army'
and known to be related to Lord Raglan. It bed
come to be more than half believed in many circles.
and the interest of it had been revived by the 01/:
pearance of Mr. Kinglake's book. Unless refuteet,
in Lord Cardigan's lifetime, and while survivors el
the 25th of October were still to be found, it might
have passed into history in connexion with a mew();
rable day. He could not resort to what Mr. Bovill
calls the "old method" of settling disputes of perso-
nal veracity, and we think his advocate would bane
done better to abstain from allusion, in a legal argu;
went, to that disgraceful relic of the old wager et
battle, as though it were a venial alternative. lie
failed to get a court-martial upon Colonel Calthorpe'
on the obvious ground that no military offence had
been committed. He tried in vain to obtain the
suppresaion of the passage through the intervention
of common friends, and to the representation of hi!
solicitors Colonel Calthorpe replied by a downright
refusal to alter a single word. He might, of course'
have appealed to a jury, but for every purpose elf;
cept that of obtaining damages an application to
the Queen's Bench was preferable. No doubt it
would have been more proper to take this course
earlier, hut it was not until the sth of Februed
that the last defiance of 'colonel Calthorpe eves re' •
ceived. Moreover, it was urged with some for ,
that a libellous narrative in a book, as distinct fr°'
a libellous article in a newspaper, is a continniril o
rs
injury, and may acquire en increased power
.0
damaging a reputation long after it first appea.2-
print. Such were the reasons which led tb
oi
Queen's Bench to strain their usual principle
limitation, and to grant a rule eubj, ct to 0
technical objection on the score of undue delay'
For the sake of the public we are glad that t ,
carat to this decision. No doubt should be
lowed to rest upon any pert of such
i%
occurrence as the Balaklava charge. While 0,
criticise minutely the annals of extinct natiov,
io
and dogmatise upon the strategy of campaig,
which can scarcely be traced in obscure chronicle
it is scarcely creditable that we should submites tot
uncertainty about facts of the greatest interor
o
passing in our own times, and almost under .s,e
own eyes. What was the numbers of our effeetlbe
force in the Crimea at various dates, what eve(! t
French loss at the Alma, whether a scurvy tiole
was played upon the British fleet by our ally
e
what credit was due to the tales of Sepoy erre.
during the Indian mutiny, what is the everY,,..dauctt
working of the relief system in Lsnc ode
are topics which we are fain to treat as open
rirl tee
tions, though we pronounce confidently %ode,
events of remote and even of prehistoric r:wit,
If we cannot get at the truth from living eietiol
nesees, we may learn to appreciate the stepd zee
sarcasm of Sir Robert Walpole, 'e Don't read