The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-20 00:00:00

THE HORRORS OF WAR.

Do you speak that from positive knowledge as to the
allowance, sad are ycu sure that such information was
given me by Captain Kellett believe the ration was
11b. a day.
Mr. W. H. Richards sworn—Were you clerk in
charge of the Resolute I—l was.
Were you with her at the time she was abandoned ?
—Yes.
What quantity of provisions had you in her and the
Intrepid?—We had on board provisions to last fifty men
until August, 1855, except preserved meats, of which,
previous to receiving orders to abandon the ship, we
should have required about 750 lbs. from the depot at
Dealy Island to have completed us to that time. We
should also have required 100Ibs of tea. On abandoning
the ship there were no preserved meats: left on board.
There were also several' articles not generally used on
board the ship.
Whit sort of articles ?—Fruits, dried apple; a quan-

such should likewise be your opinion, after mature eon,
sideration with the senior officers under your command,
there appears nu other course left but to abandon all
further search.
"3. But in case you should have found any trace of
the expedition, it will be your duty to follow up that
trace. In doing this you must exercise extreme caution,
so as not to lose your means of communication with
Beechy Island ; nor are you to incur any hopeless risk
by proceeding beyond reasonable limits, for the safety of
your crews must be your first care. 'We place every con-
fidence in your zeal and intelligence, and feel assured
that you will act with sound judgment in whatever situ-
ation you may be placed. 'We therefore leave it to von
either to abandon the expedition altogether if you are of
opinion that no further steps can be practicably taken,
or to send such of the ships to England as you may
not require, transmitting by them to our secretary, not
only a fell account of all your proceedings, but charts of
all your discoveries, and keeping us informed of your
views and intentions, so that if it should be necessary
every requisite aid may be given you in the summer of
1854.
" 4. Before your final departure from the Polar Seas,
should you think proper to adopt that course, there ap-
pears one very impontant subject which will require your
serious consideration ; and that is, the present position
of the ships under the command of Captain Collinson
and Commander M'Clure, which entered the ice to the
northeast of Point Barrow (Behring Straits), the latter
in August, 1850, and the former in July, 1851. These
officers, with their respective crews, may have been coin-
pelied by circumstances to abandon their ships. If such
should be the case, they may probably attempt to reach
Melville Island, and having had this in view when you
left England, we directed in your instructions that a de-
pot of provisions and other stores should be formed at
that island. From this position they will no doubt en-
deavour to make -their way to Beechy Island or Port Leo-
pold. It will therefore be your duty before returning to
England to be fully satisfied that a proper depot of coals,
provisions, &c., had been formed at Melville Island by
Captain Kellett, and that clear information had also been
left there that similar supplies would be found at
Beechey Island.
" 5. This depot on Beecbey Island is to consist of a
full store of coal, provisions, clothes, and other stores,
and you will take care to have it most carefully secured
against the depredations of bears or other animals ; you
are also to leave one of your ships there, with or with-
out a crew, as you may deem most advisable, so that
Captain Collinson or Commander M'Clure's party may
find every possible assistance which they may require,
and have the means at their command of returning to
England ' • but should you find it, practicable to place the
ship or a depot of stores, in a more advanced position,
between Melville Bay and Beechy Island, it might be
expedient to do so. This is a point on which you can
fore/ a better judgment than we can. Our most anxious
wish is to establish the best possible arrangement with
the view of giving succour and support to the crews of
those ships, should they be compelled to seek refuge in
the direction we have pointed out.
"6. Having expressed these general views, which
will require your careful consideration, we leave it to
you to take such steps as you may consider most expe-
dient for meeting the circumstances of the case."
The following document, which was read by Sir E.
Belcher, contains the latest instruction which he re-
ceived from the Admiralty •
" Admiralty, April 28, 1854.
"Sir,—My Lords CommisSioners of the Admiralty
have directed her:Majesty's ships Phoenix and Talbot,
under the orders of Captain Inglefield, to proceed with
provisions and stores to Beeohy Wand, for the purpose
of replenishing the ships and depots ; and lam com-
missioned by their lordships to acquaint you that
on the return of the Phoenix from Beechy Island
last year, they had the satisfaction of hearing of the
safe arrival of her Majesty's ship Investigator, under
the command 'of Captain M'Clure, at Banks Land,
having completed the discovery of the north:west pas-
sage, though, . unhappily, without discovering traces of
Sir John Franklin, and that part of the crew had been
enabled to reach Captain Kellett's station at Melville
Island. By despatches which they received from
Behring's Straits they have information that in August,
1851, Captain Collinson, in her Majesty's ship Enter-
prise, passed the entrance of the Colville river ; and their
lordships trust by the reports he may have obtained from
the natives of Prince Albert's Land, as well as from the
records deposited by Captain M'Clure on his passage
along that ahore, that he may also have been enabled to
reach some harbour on Banks Land, whence he has
made known his position either to Captain M'Clure or
Captain Kellett. •
"Their lordships have desired me to direct your spe-
cial attention to the measures they now require to be
adopted at once for withdrawing, if possible, the whole
of the force now employed in the search of Sir J. Frank-
lin, from the Polar seas ; for effecting this object they
refrain from issuing any positive instructions how you
are to act, or what steps you are to take, as they are
aware you must be entirely guided by the position of the
ships, and these varying circumstances which in that
region must influence our operations ; but 'their lord-
ships' views may be stated generally as follows :
"If the crews of the Enterprise arid Investigator are
at Banks Land they must abandorethelr ships, and every
endeavour should be made to get them to Beechy Island,
that they may return to England. If this has already been
effected, and Capt. Kellett, with his ships had returned
from Melville Island, you are immediately to proceed to
England with the whole of the ships and their crows,
abandoning all further search for the missing expedition,
unless any circumstances (on consultation with the senior
officers of her Majesty's ships) should induce you to be-
lieve that your remaining out another year would tend
to clear up the fate of our missing countrymen. But if
Captain Kellett has been unable to move from his posi-
tion at Melville Island, it may be necessary to give
orders to hini to abandon the Resolute and Intrepid,
and secure his retreat to Beechey Island ; but as this
cannot be accomplished this year, you need not detain
any officers or men. Who may have already reached
Beechey Island, but send them to England forthwith.
"2. Should no tidings have been heard of Captain
Collinson in her Majesty's ship Enterprise, it becomes
absolutely necessary to provide for her safety. For this
purpose the Melville Island depot must be replenished
with provisions and stores ; and it will be necessary for
a ship and steam tender to remain there, also the North
Star, or Talbot, with a tender, at Beechey Island, an:
at those stations everything which can add to the
health and comfort of the crews should be deposited ;
and, having done this, it does riot appear to their lord-
ships to be necessary that anyof the ships should remain
another year in the Polar Sea, unless, as before stated,
you consider further search prudent and necessary.
"These are the views of their lordships, their great
object being to recal, with the least possible delay, the
whole of the ships or crews named in the margin (As-
sistance, Pioneer, Resolute, Intrepid, Enterprise, In-
vestigator, North Star, Phoenix, Talbot), if it can be
done ; if possible to do so, they leave it to your judg-
ment and discretion to send home such of them as may
not be required, and to adopt those measures which you
consider most necessary to insure the safety of Captain
Collinson and his crew, and their speedy return to Eng-
land. This, their lordships are aware, must depend on
the information you may have received from Melville
Island, the position of the respective ships under your
orders, the state of the depots, &c. ; alt them' lordships
can do is to confide in your judgment, and they autho-
rise you to take such steps, and give such orders, and
to make such exchange of officers and men as you may
deem necessary for carrying their wishes into effect.
"They trust, however, -Captain Collinson is safe ; and
if so it will be a source of much satisfaction to them if
during the approaching autumn the whole of our ships
and crews shall arrive in England.
"On the return of any of the ships to England from
Beechey Island, it is desirable that the coast to the
southward of Ponds' Bay, namely, from the river Clyde

The further particulars tilt have reached us of the
Battle of the Alma, the march across the promontory,
and the operations of Balaklava, will be read with in-
terest even by those whose attention is fixed on the
walls of Sebastopol. The details will paia and they will
amuse, but, besides these conflicting impressions, if we
mistake not, they will excite another, and that is a sort
of surprise. The narrative is, indeed, as strange and as
full of incident as the story of any war' we ever read,
however dressed up by historians or novelists. But
there is one illusion which the columns before us utterly
dispet. Of late years there has been a growing belief
that, should war unhappily return,—and even that
was doubted,—it would not visit us in the rude guise
under which it has ever been known to our ancestors.
There was so much progress and improvement in every-
thing, in the science of war, in the comforts of the sol-
dier, in all kinds of mechanical inventions, in the mutual
courtesy of nations, and everything else, that people
fancied battles would be fought as cleanly and as
smoothly as a game of ches's or a sham fight on Wool-
wich common. The only difficulty was to see how war
would be decided in future. Some thought it would be
an affair of tactic; others that it would be a question of
rifles, and there have not been wanting those who feared
that in the universal diffusion of science and inanufac-

tures the hardy habits of the less civilised nation might
turn the scale against those bred in comparative comfort
and ease. These speculations are disposed of for the
present. War has reappeared—war between civilised,
scientific, mechanical nations— between States that have
immense war establishments, national debts, and all the
rest of it. And war turns out to be just the same

as ever—the same uncouth, disagreeable, savage, in-
human thing, that it ever was since the beginning of
history. It is still reckless, malicious, wanton, and
absolutely envious of happiness and peace ; it still
produces the most miserable scenes, the wildest
adventures, the most perilous situations, the most
horrid calamities, and those large masses of misery that
men had thought too vast and too hideous for these
snug and quiet times. We knew what the expedition.
to the Crimea was to be—we know what it has been so
far, if, indeed, we do know the worst. Putting aside
the question of substantial success and the glory that
attends it, and looking only to the manner and circumstance
of the affair, what a difference between the anticipation
and the fact ! Quantum mutatus ab illo Rectors we
may say. How splendid the warrior as he buckled on
his harness ! How gory, how dusty, how pallid he re-

turns from the fight I
Not to go further back, take the expedition as it
arrives off the coast of the Crimea. The soldiers
and sailors are falling by scores under the stroke
of an inscrutable pest. The army lands, and, after
all our rehearsals at Chobham, it bivouacs in the mud
and in rain. For several days it suffers an actual
plague of thirst. Then comes the march, on the very
first day of which baggage is sacrificed and the rear is
left behind. At last comes the battle, taralz to those
who had expected it, though only the beginning of the
end. It is no paper fight. The carnage, confusion,
feats of daring, the collision of thousands with thousands,
the medley of the victors and the vanquished are those
of the old battles. Then, after a night of triumph and
horrid suffering, the sun rises on thousands groaning,
writhing, and in worse agonies of thirst, over the bloody
field. The writer, himself wracked with fever, describes
the melancholy burying of the dead, and the slow pro-
cession of the wounded, borne on the shoulders of the
survivors, or the rude carts of the country, to the dis-
tant shore. One by one they die on the field, on the
journey, on the beach, in the boats, on board the float-
ing hospitals. They that escaped the battle, and were
its most conspicuous heroes, do not escape 'the pest.
One by one they, too, fall. The march is renewed is
the doubtful morning twilight. On the one bide is heard
the solemn hymn of triumph, raised by the victors from
the heights they had gained, and on the other side,
stretched over the field, is seen a dark mass, half living,
half dead. They are the Russian wounded left behind,
and in the midst of then., like " the last man," a solitary
surgeon, left to do what he could with that world of
misery, his only hope of success, and even of his own
life, being the chance that his mission would bo under-
stood and recognised by the rude enemy certain sees to
surround him. Follow the advancing columns. Few
comforts and little rest have they gained by their victory.
They suffer in rapid succession the burning sun, the
nightly chill, and the morning dew. They enter vil-
lages and find desolation, for the Cossacks have been
before them. What is spared they lay waste them-
selves, as it were, in rivalry. Surprised to find
splendid mansions, furnished with every elegance and
luxury, in a country which they had heard was a
pestilential desert, they admire and destroy. Weary
and thirsty, they rush into gardens, orchards, and vine-
yards, and devour till they sicken and die. The scene
in which Englishmen act this part is just such as we
should witness if our enemies should find themselves in
the suburbs of this metropolis. In this mirror we see
what we should have to endure. But to proceed. In
this well-appointed army we have a day's work of seven:
teen hours, a night march in which whole regiments lost
their way. Even in the day a portion of the army finds
itself almost within the fire of Sebastopol, and the Com-
mander-in-Chief with his staff comes suddenly on a
numerous Russian division, which, fancying itself sur-
prised, flies, and is routed with slaughter and loss of bag-
gage. Then the scene changes to the quiet landlocked
bay, or " mountain tarn" of Balaklava, filled with huge
ships, got there no one knows how, delivering ponde-
rous cannon and mountains of shot. But still the pur-
suing, indefatigable pest. It attacks new regiments,
and does not cease the work of death in the pauses of
the campaign.
Has war changed its character! There is not a cir-
cumstance in these narratives that is not common to all
wars, and, unfortunately, all that we read of in our
youth, when wars had ceased through all the world, re-
appears with sad fidelity. It is impossible to restrain
the license of soldiery, especially when the foe himself
sets the example of destruction. Yet this last is un-
avoidable, for self-preservation compels a retreating
army to leave a desert behind it. A desert it does leave.
Germany has not even yet recovered from the effects of
the Thirty Years' War and the armies that have passed
over the land. War is not a game, nor yet is it like the
cheap and easy vengeance of the wealthy against the
poor, or the many against the few. It is a work of risk.
One thing alone is certain about it, and that is a com-
munity of danger and hardship. The officer and the
private are alike exposed to the bullet and the pest ; and
happily'for us, if war is in aft respects unchanged, so
also is that courage and endurance, both of officer and.
soldier, which have won for us so many triumphs, and
on which and on our good cause we may still trust-
, I fully rely.—Times.
td -

NEW RAlLWAY.—ripreliminary survey has )eon
made, with a view of fixing upon the most eligible course
to be taken for a new railway to Finchley, which will
open out the country to the north of Highgate for the
purpose of building residence& for persons engaged in ,
business in town. It is proposed that the line shall
commence at the Highbury station of the North Lon-
don Railway, and proceed in a western diiection till it
approaches the back of the Model Prison, when it will
turn to the right, and proceed along the back of the
Holloway-road till it reaches Highgate, when it will
pass underneath the hill by a tunnel near to the junction
of Maiden-lane and Hornsey-lane, and procd on to
Finehley, where it will terminate in the first instance
near to the Bald Faced Stag, but it is intended ulti-
mately to continue it further.
THE PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL COMPANY. This
Company have now four steamers engaged on the
Peninsular line, four on the Southampton and Alexan-
drian line, two on the Marseilles and Malta line,siion
the Calcutta and Suez line, seven on the Bombay and
China line, four on the Calcutta and China line, two on
the Singapore and Australsisavn,ehlinset,orfeouarnodn
ctohael China
go'vernment transport service to
laoncda lfisveerveni service,
atewdoinbutihlediGn
and from the Crimea. The Himalaya is still enumerated
in the publishevderinimstsot.f the company's "lalPanY
stated in those lists that she
as been purchased by her
't.leaaimesetYr Had 's Go Government.
has been converted pi
natdod
al e-swailitiene!°
ship, and the paddle-wheel steamer Sultan is beitt con-
vented into a screw steamer. compan'sy,sehipr':' but it is
h