The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

-- ~--

SATURDAY REYlEW.—Looking to the evidence
produced by Lord Cardigan it is proper to notice, by
way of introduction,that the Light Cavalry Brigade
advanced to charge the Russian battery in three
lines. The first line was composed of the 13th Light
Dragoons and the 17th Lancers; the secona line
was formed by the 11th Hussars; and the third by
the 4th Light Dragoons and the Bth Hussars. Lord
Cardigan, in his own affidavit, stated that he an-
vanced at the head of the first line of the brigade,
and led it up to and into the battery. He rode
through the battery at the head of the brigade, and
past the guns, till he came nearly up to a force of
Russian cavalry stationed behind the battery, and
in rear of the guns. He was then attacked by
some Cossacks, slightly wounded, and nearly dis-
mounted. He was at this time almost alone, for
the first line of cavalry, which had followed him into
the battery, had been entirely broken up. Upon
disengaging himself from the Cossacks and return-
ing past the guns, he saw the broken remnants of
the first line, in small detached portions, retreating
up the hill towards their original 2osition. The
statement of Lord Cardigan was confirmed by
several witnesses. Lieutenant Johnson, of the 13th
Light Dragoons, served as a sergeant in this action.
He entered the battery with his regiment, which
formed part of the first line. Tne remnants of that
line retreated in small detached parties, one of
which. including Sergeant Johnson, fell in with the
second line as it advanced, and turned and rode a
second time through the battery along with it. On
making this second advance, Sergeant Johnson
found himself within a few yards of Lord Cardigan,
who was then in the rear of the battery,nurrounded
by and engaged in defending himself against, four
or five Cossack lancers. Lord Cardigan disengaged
himself from the Cossacks, and rcde away unhurt,
one of them making ineffectually a right rear point
at him as he departed. The witness then retreated
towards the hill as rapidly as he could. Another
witness was Mr. Percy Smith, formerly a captain
in the same regiment. He charged in the first line,
and had the best possible opportunity of observing
where Lord Cardigan was and what he did. Lord
Cardigan rode nearly opposite the space between
the two regiments which formed the first line, and
he entered the battery about three horses' lengths
in advance of the line. Mr. Percy Smith adds ;
" After we had passed through the battery, I saw
one of the Cossacks who were drawn up in the rear
of the guns cut at his lordship with his sword, and I
recollect this circumstance particularly, as I
observed that Lord Cardigan kept his
own sword at the slope, and did not
seem to take any trouble to defend himself."
Colonel Jenyns, of the same regiment, served as a
captain at Balaklava. He describes how a gun was
fired close to Lord Cardigan's horse's head. " His
horse slightly swerved to the right, crossed me, and
entered the battery on my right front."
ATTIENZEUm.—In the dedication of Wednesday,
the world, we may be sure, thought less of the CryE-
tal Palace and all its wonders than of that prince
of men who first conceived it in his mind, and then
by skill and courage translated the idea of his soul
into its perfect material shape. It was an unwel-
come rather than an infelicitous combination ; the
fitness being perfect, while the need for that fitting
combination was full of pain, The figure which
should have crowned the pedestal in the Horticul-
tural Gardens was a Britannia—making the whole
work symbolical, instead of partly real and partly
ideal, as it now stands, to its manifest artistic loss.
But the years consumed in making out the original
thought brought with them changes which com-
pelled us to adopt new plans. Britannia gave her
place to Albert ; the true genius of the Exhibition
—the best representative of Peace, Industry and
Art. We could well have spared the mournful poe-
' try of this association ; but having no choice in the
affair, we may take to heart the tender teaching, the
benignant moral, of events, which come upon us
against our selfish will. That lapse of a Dozen
Years which changed our memorial into a monument
must be accepted with other facts. It is the old story.
We go a safe and steady pace. A more sprightly peo-
ple, to whom a fanfare of trumpets is an event, and
real events are but a fanfare of trumpets,would have
enjoyed, and quizzed, and libelled, and forgotten
the doings in Hyde Park long ago. This haste to
do and to forget is not in our sober and chastened
natures. We play our music iu slow time. Our
festivals become solemnities. We pause so long about
our rejoicings that Time and Death come knocking
at our gate and add some fresh and unwelcome
visitors to our string of guests. It has always been
so with us ; for our movement of ideas is like the
growth of our oaks, our Constitution and our em-
pire. We are talking of a monument to Shakspeare,
and asking whether Cromwell is to have a statue.
Our Nelson column is still unfinished. With us,
everything has to grow, and while growth is pro-
ceeding change may come. It is the principle of our
national life, and we must accept the law even when,
instead of giving us, in our most frequented and
brilliant public places, a memorial of our enterprise
and greatness, it reminds us of an irretrievable loss.
As a mere spectacle, the uncovering of Mr. Dur-
ham's group was singularly five—recalling more
than any other show of a dozen years, that festive
scene when the Queen and Prince, in the bloom of
youth and manliness, rode over into Hyde Park on
the Ist of May, 1851. There were the same bright
colours, the same royal salutes, the same graceful
harmony of trees and flags, the same fitful sunshine,
broken by straying clouds, and the same serpen-
tine winding of a rich bright line of representative
mei,. and women, Some of the chief performers were
the same ; and where, as in the foremost, change
had done its melancholy office, there were gleams of
beauty and of hope which proved that if the cloud
which weighs upon the nation is very dark, it has,
nevertheless, the most radiant golden fringe.
EXAMINER.—Why does Mr. Hankey hanker so
for the Nelson lions ? Is not sufficient for the day
of production the evil thereof ? "Show his eyes
but grieve his heart," the evil genius that presides
over Trafalgar-square may say. That Sir E. Land-
seer will make all that artist can make of lions we
are quite certain. He will not make them look as
Livingstone says is the established sculptural usage,
like" old women in night-caps," but no matter how
the animals may be rendered, the design is bad, and
its completion will bring prominently out the ab-
surdity. There you will see a hero in a cocked hat
at the top of a lofty pillar. What is he up there
for ? For very good reason ; because there are four
savage carnivorous animals at the bottom licking
their chops, and ready to devour him if he comes
down within reach of their fangs and claw.. In
appropriate slang phrase the gentleman in the
cocked hat ig up a tree. He will never come down
while those lions are there. No wonder, then, that
Sir Edwin Landseer has been in no hurry to set the
lions there. Things are not now at the worst, and
it does not seem that the hero in the cocked hat is
in any jeopardy, but merely that he has mounted
that pillar to take an observation of the sun's alti-
tude, and he has been there so long, snd is likely to
be there much longer, waiting for a lucid interval
for a sight of the sun. All this looks professional
and suitable. But set the lions there, and it is ob-
vious that Nelson has climbed up out of their way,
or that he is in the difficulty before described of being
"up a tree." Time was when the lion was a beast
of good repute for courage and generosity. He is
now known to be an arrant impostor. Except when
stimulated by hunger he is one of the most dastardly
animals in the creation. He is a huge cat and no-
thing more. The true type of courage is the dog,
which, unstimulated by hunger, will at the command
of man attack an animal a hundred times his size.
In ignotanee of natural history the attribute of
courage was bestowed on the lion, and with im-
proved knowledge it will be withdrawn, and popu-
larly understood that the mangy beast is only brave
whenhe has an empty belly. The saying, " brave
as a lion," will soon come to sound pretty much the
same as " brave as a hare," or " bold as a mouse."
So, if Landseer would present his lions in the
only mood, rendering them types of courage, he
must exhibit them with every appearance of
a long fast, exceedingly lank and lean,
with a notable collapse of the flanks. They will be
bold enough in that shabby condition, but then,
will it not seem obvious that they are at the foot of
the column for no good, and hungering for the
gentleman who has taken refuge at the top ? The
predicament is not one in which you would choose
to present a hero.

LONDON REVIEW.—The story of Colonel Waugh's
doings is worth recalling. Some years ago there
existed a joint-stock bank, whose seat of manage-
ment was in London, but whose scene of operations
was in India. The company was respectable, but
not profitable; and as those were the days of Bri-
tish Banks and marvellous dividet.ds, it struck some
of the members that it would be well to cultivate
the rich field of English confidence, and add to the
Oriental connection an extended London business.
The idea found favour, and towards the latter end
of 1854 the scheme of the London and Eastern
Banking corporation was submitted to the public.
Applications for shares came fast and thick.
Officers, civil and military, of high standing under
the East India Company, became contributories;
the deed of settlement was executed ; and in
January, 1855, the company obtained its charter of
incorporation. Of course it was essential that a
first-rate concern should have a first-rate manager.
This desideratum was found in Mr. J. E. Stephens,
a gentleman possessed of experience and influence
in India ; known t:. Lord Gough, and other Indian
officers of rank, and well acquainted with the In-
dian Exchanges. The wisdom of this choice of a
manager soon became apparent. He introduced
customer after customer. First came the Letts'
Wharf Timber and Sawing Mills Company ; then
the firm of Minter and Co:, upholsterers and

invalid-chairmakers, of Soho ; then Barwiso
and Co., watchmakers, of Piccadilly. True,
these firms exhibited the drawback that
Mr. Stephens was a partner in all of them,
and that their custom consisted in exchanging
their paper for the solid cash of the Bank. But
Mr. Stephens had another partner. He had en-
gaged with Colonel Waugh in forming the
Branksea Clay Company, which was to turn
Branksea Island, Dorset—the property of Colonel
Waugh—into an English El Dorado. Aed for a
time the experiment was successful ; for on the
22d of March Colonel Waugh lodged his acceptance
with the bank for £2,630, on the strength of which
he drew out in six days £2,779, and by May he
had increased his debt to £17,000, and by July to
£50,000. In that month, by virtue of his " large
stake" in the concern, he became qualified for a
seat at the board, and on the 16th was elected a
director. This, of course, gave him and Mr.
Stephens full play for their abilities. As the
Colonel's bills became due they were met by new
ones; and from the interest on these and similar
transactions, paid out of the money borrowed from
the bank, the directors had soon the gratifying
duty of declaring a very handsome dividend, and
the shareholders had the happiness of believing
that they had invested their money in a magnifi-
cent speculation. But while the bank was thus
scudding along with a wet sail and a flowing sea,
suddenly was heard the cry, " Breakers ahead !" In
September, 1856, the Royal British Bank came to
grief. In spite of all the ingenuity, lying, and
daring of its manager and directors, that sublime
mixture of piety and rascality broke up with a
crash which was felt in hundreds of families, and
gave a shock to public confidence in all joint-stock
speculations. Banks which were safe invited in-
vestigation into their accounts and position. The
London and Eastern was not safe. But its
directors met, and passed a resolution that
for the future no sum should be advanced
to any director without such security as
would be required from an ordinary customer ;
and that no further advance should be made to a
director already indebted to the extent of £5,000,
without the sanction of the weekly board. But
there was a charm in Colonel Waugh's account
which no resolutions could control. On the 25th of
November two of his bills for £4,000 each were dis-
counted by the bank ; and on the 30th of December
two other bills for £lO,OOO each were discounted
without the sanction of the weekly board. Every-
one knows that if you stop a heavy body which is
moving with great velocity, the consequences will
be serious. The colonel's debt answered this de-
scription ; and Mr. Stephens declared, before the
Edinburgh Bankruptcy Court, that it was impossi-
ble to stopit suddenly. And thus when, in January,
1857, the books were made up to the 'end of the
previous year, it was found that Colonel Waugh
was indebted to the bank in 1196,310 ; and this
enormous sum was increased by farther discounts,
between January and the 11th of April, to £244,000,
or within £6,000 of the entire subscribed capital of
the company. And now came the smash. But Col.
Waugh was gone before it came. He had feathered
his nest. He had transferred his Branksea El Do-
rado to the copper mines of Valverde, in Spain; and
there for a while he remained lost to the world.
But he had plenty of money at command—the spoil
of the London and Eastern Banking Corporation,
which he had plundered of a quarter of a million
sterling. He invested between 10 and 15 thousand
pounds in Spanish mines, transferring his shares to
a member of his family, and negotiating with his
agents in England for a loan to the tune of several
thousands. His patient creditors in England re-
peatedly consented to the enlargement of his time for
surrender under the adjudication of bankruptcy, upon
the plea that he was " sick, and ill, and like to die."
But the colonel was in rude health. He ate and drank
with an appetite equal to the voracity with which he
had devoured the substance of the London and
Eastern Bank. He visited England and Paris to
consult his London attorney; and on one occasion he
rode 160 miles over the rugged mountains from Se-
ville to Valverde and back, a journey of two days'
and nights' duration, and " requiring," says one of
his viciims, " the stoutest heart to accomplish." All
this while he was sending "sick certificates" to Eng-
land. But the Spanish mines did not prove so pro-
fitable a speculation as the Loudon Bank. 111-got,
ill-gone. The money out of which the Colonel had
swindled the shareholders of the London and
Eastern Banking Corporation seems to have dwindled
away till be and his family were obliged to adopt
the humble life of cottagers. And now, when all
is gone, Colonel Waugh comes back to England
to have an operation performed on his eye, no
doubt by that celebrated oculist, Mrs. Elizabeth
Martin. He returned to an ungrateful country in
August last. In due time he was arrested and con-
fined in Whitecrossestreet. And very recently he
petitioned the Court of Bankruptcy, praying to be
allowed to surrender under the adjudication of the
13th April, 1857,

SPECTATOR.—The entertainment at the Guildhall
to the Prince and Princess of Wales on Monday last
displayed a magnificence that recalled the splen-
dour, without the beauty, of the " Arabian Nights."
The cost of the gigantic and gorgeous tickets of
invitation alone is said to nave been near £2,000,
and the additional insurances, as we mentioned last
week, were for £50,000. The Princess was in more
than usual radiance, and her manner, so English in
other respects, so un•Englishly cordial, is rapidly
making her the pet of the country. Her expression,
kind, cordial, delicate, and innocent, was touched
with a :twilight archness that seemed to depre-
cate the formality, while it heartily accepted the
enjoyments, of these festivities. No wonder
the worthy aldermen flapped themselves about
in an agony of delight, and basked in her
smile like their turtles in the sun.. They had even
risen into the sublimity of a sentiment. On the
way from the robing room to the hall lay a trans-
parency representing the home of the Princess's
youth—which was the pearl of aldermanic delicacy.
Her Royal Highness dances well, and though her
evident want of familiarity with the Lancers threw
her back on the counsels of her husband, this did
but add a new grace to the many graces of her
manner. The feelings of the City Corporation were
not soothed by the presence of any of their recently
vanquished political foes, for Mr. Disraeli was the
only statesman present, and very sleepy and Jionlike
he looked as he towered on the dais above Prince
and people. The peeresses were in good force, and
might be described as the Royal British Life Guards
of the regal beauty, so well and largely did they
enchance the little gem of Denmark.