The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-26 00:00:00

stated by a gentleman connected with the Ordnance De-
partment, who had taken occasion to cast blame upon the
coaduet of that department, that we had sent out a large
number of 6-pounders. But, with the exception of the
case of the Horse Artillery, would the house believe that
no such thing as a 6-pounder had been sent out at all ;
upon the contrary, 9-pounders only had been transmitted
to the seat of war. He maintained, therefore, that we
should be extremely careful before we agreed to accept
statements coming from abroad as positively correct.
The hon. member for Aylesbury had also referred to
the medical department ; but he (Mr. S. Herbert)
must say, that if that and the commissariat depart-
ment were so greatly neglected as they were repre-
sented to be, he was at a loss to account for the extremely
good health which prevailed among the troops in the
East. Taking the whole of tee army into account,
there were in hospital but four per cent. out of the
number, and out of that 4 per cent. nearly one-third were
under treatment for diseases which could not be said to
have been contracted in consequence of any deficiency in
the commissariat arrangement, but to which men were as
liable in the streets of London as iu the field. At the pre-
sent moment, in short, the health of our troops at Varna
was quite as good as the health of the army in any part of
England. (Hear, hear.) There were, however, he might
observe, certain situations in which troops ight be placed,
in which no care or providence, no matter how great,
could keep them in good health. The hon. member for
Aylesbury had, among other things, contrasted the arrange-
ments made for the comfort and efficiency of our troops
with those which had been made upon the part of the
French Government with reference to their army. Now,
there could be no doubt that those two great armies, both
of them equipped in the best possible manner, must have
much to learn one from the other—(hear, hear)- —nor could
he state that no fault had been committed in fitting out
our troops. He was not such a pedant as to suppose that,
in a case in which the greatest expedition was necessary,
everything had been done in the most perfect manner.
(Hear, hear.) Sir W. Napier—a great authority upon
such matters—had observed that mistakes upon such occa-
sions were the rule, and not the exception. He might,
however, state with reference to the subject, that every
effort had been used to fit out our troops in the best mou-
rner possible, and that the arrangements connected with
our expedition to the East might be favourably contrasted
with those of any similar movement. He should, with the
permission of the house, read a letter from one of the very
ablest paymasters in the service, which was dated the 29th
of June, 1854. The writer, in alluding to the English and
French, expressed himself as follows :
"I am happy to say that a most excellent feeling exists.
Our army is well fed, and there is not the shadow of a
complaint; the supplies sent out by the Government hate
been a great boon and are highly appreciated; they. are
all good of their kind, and, as Lord Raglan has most Judi-
ciou ay put the issue under regimental arrangements, the
most perfect confidence and satisfaction has been the result
of the arrangements. Had it been through other channels,
the regimental authorities would not have been so inte-
rested in the good working of the system, and the men are,
moreover, more satisfied to be dealt with regimentally ; the
conplaint can be rens ailed, if there should be one, without
going turdrer—indeed, all works well."
He should also r ad other lett_rs from persons, who, in
consequence of the positions which they occupied in the
army, had the best means of becoming acquainted with
the events which were taking place. One of our officers
wrote to the following effect :
"No one can believe, who has not seen it, of what value
Chobham encampment has proved to the troops. I am
quite sure the health of the troops is in a great degree
owing to the knowledge, now becoming general, of a good
system of encamping. Osman Pacha, a most intelligent
man, with whom we communicate on all the quartering of
the army in and near Scutari, has frequently told us he
could not conceive why we had so little illness, and that
no Turks could have remained on the Scutari Hill so long
in camp with impunity. We can only answer him that he
should see the care and attention of our officers, and the ad-
vantage of our whit.) cap covers over the senseless fez which
his people persist in wearing on their heads, with no pro-
tection for the eyes or back of the head, and he would
learn the true cause of the difference between us. General
Forey called here yesterday to see the barracks, the 95th
happened to be parading in their fatigue frocks, which he
much admired. I asked --- to wheel them into line,
and it ended in General Forey being so pleased that he
asked for two or three movements, which the regiment
executed admirably. lam always glad they should see
what our interior really is, and how little we do for
show.
He should trouble the house with only one other letter,
which had been written by a man whose character must
secure for his words a respectful consideration. In refer-
ring to the opinions which the French officers had formed
of our troops, the manner in which they were equipped,
encamped, ant! fed, the writer said—
" Seeing the abuse that is lavished upon every branch of
the British army, and that we are told all day long that
the arrangements and equipments of the French army are
in every way superior, I was surprised to find that we were
viewed in a different light by officers of experience in
another service, and that justice which is denied to us by
many of our own countrymen is really conceded to us by
foreigners."
He had goneinto those details, being of opinion that he was
in no small degree responsible for the manner in which our
troops had been equipped, and he felt assured that the
house would extend to him its pardon for having entered
at such length into topics which were not immediately con-
nected with the question under their notice. (Cheers.)
Passing from these details, he wished to know whether it
was true—as had been asserted by the hon. member for the
West Riding and by the noble lord who had just spoken—
that, although a powerful armament had been sent to the
East, yet that no great results had thereby been up to the
present moment achieved, and that our armies had won no
laurels? War had been declared upon the 29th of March,
and the noble lord seemed to be astonished that Russia
had not been " crumpled up" in the four months which had
since elapsed. That consummation had not been attained ;
but was it right to say that nothing whatever had during
those four months been effected? An hon. gentleman
stated last night that a great number of accidents had
taken place in connection with the expedition to the East,
and that we had succeeded in monopolising more than our
share of those accidents. Our troops have certainly been
subjected to casualties in the course of the operations
which in the north and south of Europe we have been em-
ployed in carrying out. The Tiger had been lost—a vessel
had been destroyed by fire as she was conveying a portion
of the soldiers of the 6th Dragoons to the East ; and in
alluding to that loss he might be permitted to say, that
however long might be the duration of the war—however
brilliant the actions which in its progress might take place
—no man's name would be more honoured by Englishmen
than that of the gallant officer, who, with none of the
glorious excitement of the battle-field to excite him to the
performance of heroic deeds, faced in cold blood death in
its most frightful shape in order to save the lives of those
whom he commanded, and who, notwithstanding the soli•
citations of his own soldiers, refused to leave the sinking
ship while one living soul remained on board her to receive
his generous aid. (Loud cheers.) It was also true that
grievous casualties had occurred in the Baltic—that a
boat's crew had been sacrificed in the endeavour to cut out
from beneath the enemy's batteries the enemy's ships. If,
however, such events as those were subjects for regret, we
should bear in mind the spirit and the gallantry which
they had evoked. (Cheers.) If its were tree that the cou-
rage of our seamen amounted almost to foolhardiness we
should not forget that the great renown of the British
navy had been acquired by a series of exploits such as
those to which he had just been adverting; and, instead
of giving way to useless regrets, weehould rejoice that that
spirit, whose manifestation had raised this country to the
summit of fame as a naval power, still continued to exist,
brilliant and unchangeable. (Renewed cheering.) But in
answer to the statement that no practical result had as yet
been brought about by British arms in the present con-
test, he would ask, was it nothing to have established in
four months a complete, an effectual, and an irresistible
blockade of the enemy's ports? Those gentlemen who
spoke lightly upon that subject seemed to forget that one-
half the lifetime of the gallant Nelson had been passed
in maintaining a blockade. (Hear, hear.) If the
country expected that we ought to hear at once of vic-
tory followingof victoryiinpos
iobviel
ti
easn not
meet our fleets, why, then, the country expected the
sea-
men
bad already demonstrated that want of
from those gadallarencti
cpoeurfroarinan
gwe hoorcewant of enterprise formed no part of the
reason why these results had, up to the present moment,
not been attained. (Cheers.) But has nothing else except
the institution of a blockade been effected in the Black
Sea? How many pounds sterling, he would ask, had been
spent by Russia during the last quarter of a century in
erecting along the shores of Circassia those forts which
constituted the chains by which she had kept the Cir-
cassians in thraldom ? AU these forts had fallen into our
hands.
Mr. LAYARD—They were abandoned by Russia.
Mr. S. HERBERT continued—The hon. member did
not seem satisfied with the fact that we had it all our own
way. (A laugh.) It was said that the people of England
liked to hear of a good battle, and of the sacrifice to a vast
extent of human life. That, however, was not, he be-
lieved, the general feeling of the English people, and he
felt assured that they rejoiced to find that these fortresses
on the coast of Circassia had fallen into our hands without
the loss of a single man, with an account of whose fall the
pages of the Gazette might be adorned. But had nothing
more been effected? The noble lord the member for
Marylebone had stated that the Turks had manifested the
greatest courage
and fortitude and skill in the present
contest, but it was a matter of astonishment to all Europe
that armies so small as theirs had not only maintained their
Position, but achieved great successes against overwhelming
numbers. Such was the fact; but had that result been
attained solely and entirely by the forces of Turkey ? Had
the Russian armies no enemies but the soldiers of the
Sultan to encounter? Was it nothing to have wrested from
the Russians those means of communication by which they
were enabled to supply the troops with provisions? Had
the closing up of the Black Sea no share in producing results
so favourable to Turkey ? He was not aware whether the
noble lord had studied the history of the present campaign,
or whether he had observed the manner in which its
operations had been carried out? At the present moment
the Danube, Sebastopol, and, in fact, the whole coast of
Russia on the Black Sea was blockaded. No provisions,
no ammunition could be conveyed to her armies save by
land across the full extent of Bessarabia ; and he had been
informed that when provisions were being transported by
land for the Russian troops, the air became tainted by the
putridity, in consequence, no doubt, of the length of
time occupied in transmitting them to their destination.
The Russian Government had been compelled to resort, in
order to provision their army, to the use of small carts
drawn by bulleeka, in a country where the roads were
extremely bad, and where the distance to be traversed was
so great that by the time the carts arrived at the camp the
bullocks themselves had consumed nearly all the grain, and
were reduced to a condition so lean as to render them unfit
for human food. Now these, he would venture to say,
were no trifling results, although they might partake of
none of that brilliancy by which some bon. members
wished all our movements to be characterised. (Hear.)
But he should likewise say that Englishmen might claim
some share in the defence of Silistria through that young
man (hear, hear)—Captain Butler, or Major Butler, as he
should like to call him, although he had never heard of his
promotion, or of his having been placed by her Majesty in
the Guards. (Hear, hear.) He said that young Irishman
—(hear,hear)—displayed during that siege qualities which
marked him out for certain eminence—not merely dogged
courage, but likewise a remarkable power of command.
He, a stranger, accompanied by another young officer,
having gone to a strange town, although not speaking the
Turkish language, had by his energy and determination so
imposed on the men by whom he had been surrounded,
that, in point of fact, be had almost had the command of
that garrison. It was by the pertinacity and energy with
which he had pressed his councils on them, that the sur-
render of the external forts, which formed the keys of
Silistria, had been prevented, and that that glorious suc-
cess had been accomplished. (Cheers.) The noble lord
said that he had no confidence in the Government. We
(continued Mr. Herbert) met him fairly upon that issue.