The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-21 00:00:00

sible, did our Government signify its readiness to
approve any scheme which the pinie, of the Divan
suggested.

What a satire is the telegraphic despatch of
Lord Clarendon on the 9uli of August last,
authorising the hopeless expedition of Omer Pacha
to Redout-Kaleh upon the deliberate documents
which informed Will►ams, four months previously,
that no assistance would be resdered !

The real question& the v
House of Commons,
sitting as the great inquest of the nation, to deter-
mine is, whether more should not have been done
for the relief of Kars than could possibly have been
anticipated from the despatches of Lord Claren-
don ? Had a resolution been taken in the spring
of last year to comply with the requisitions of
General Williams, and to have afforded the army
of Asia the direct asistance of this country, the
army of Mouravieff would surely have been kept in
check, and perhaps have been signally discomfited.
To affirm that the 'Adruinistration is free from the
blame of the Kars disaster will be to approve a
weak, vacillating, and inglorious policy, and to
declare that the wisest course for our Government,
when a great military-operation in which we are
nearly concerned is in progress, on the issue of
which the reputation of England iu the East must
mainly depend, is to follow the precedent esta-
blished by Lord Clarendon and Lord Panmure,
and do—NOTHING.

SIR R. AIREY AND THE CRIMEAN

BOARD OF INQUIRY.

When the news of the Crimean horrors arrived in this
country, not wholly unexpected, nor yet without warn-
ing in what had occurred at Varna and in the long-de-
ferred embarkation, it was often asked, both here and
abroad, how it was that the English character, so vigor-
ous, so practical, so inventive, so full of resources, Was
so little reflected in what hal just transpired of our mili-
tary operations. It was clear that England was one thing
at home and another thing abroad. But this was not the
whale of the puzzle. The soldier was hardy, brave,
ready, and, above all, thoroughly subordinate. He might
he said not to have a will and scarcely a mind of his own.
Whence, then, the failure of an army which seemed
to combine in an extraordinary degree the absolute
obedience of the soldier with the power and skill
of civilisation ? Let us see how far answer to
this question is supplied by the tone of the wit-
nesses before the Crimean Board of Inquiry. Sir
R. Airey must be considered a fair specimen of the
more favoured class of. British cfficers. He has enjoyed
the friendship of our most powerful military men, and is
evidently regarded with no disfavour by the Court of
Inquiry. Intrusted with a most important position in
the Crithea—with what sad results we know—he has
been rewarded with a still more important position, with
what results we nave still to experience. He is the Bri-
tish officer, the man of the Crimea, the very, being on
whom England and all Europe were speculainga twelves
month ago bow it was that, being'an Englishman, he
was so little of an Englishman, and showed so tittle of
that race which covers earth and sea with its achieve-
ments.
Tue tone and temper of the Man have now been tested,
not merely by command, but by being brought into contact
with two Royal Commissions, both of them coming from
the same source, and entitled to the same respect, as his
own commission of Major-General and the commission of
his Commander-in-Chief. Under tie first Commission
two officers of great ~ability" and services went t
the Crim'ea to inquire into the loss of many thousand
men and horses by want of food, clothing, and shelter,
in spite of immense eueplies sent out from this country.
As General Airey's office was directly responsible, and
as the Generals of Division, Lord Lucan, for example,
referred to the orders from his office, of course the Com-
missioners of Inquiry had to go straight to him and the
register of his office. It is impossible to read Sir R.
Airey's own account of what took place between him-
eelf and the Commissioners without perceiving that he
determined to set them at nought. Though they often
sought him, and thrice-actually sat down at the table of
hie office, and opened a regalar examination, be never
answered one question by word of mouth. Though
written questions were sent t him, be left them unan-
swered for many weeks,
.and, to all appearance, never
would have answered , them, had he not received a pe-
remptory order from Lord Panninre to answer them by
the next mail, which, by-th•by, be boasts he did not do !
He assumed from the first that the inquiry was to be
" only" into the Commissariat, and business of that sort,
aed that the only object was the future mending of tha>,
department. Even on this supposition, though his own
reeent experience had shown the importance of that de-
partment, he neverthe'ess did not take one step, net one
minute's trouble, not one word, not one stroke of the
pen to advarce that supposed object—the improvement
of the Commissariat and Transport services—till after
the departure of the Commissioners, and when he bad
received peremptory orders from her Majesty's Secretary
of War. He admits that, as it was his own opinion
that a formal examination, in which the Commissioners
were to take the lead, would be of no use, he was resolved
not to submit to it. He was ready, he says, to take a
ride with one of them-; and thinks, he says, that in free.
conversation lie could have expleinel everything. No
doubt many a man who, in the course of life or the vicis-
situdes of human affaira, has to stand an examination
would like to have it conducted in that free•and-easy
manner. But the two Commissioners did not think they
were sent 3,000 miles to inquire into the loss of an army
in this pleasant conversational style. They resolied to
ask questions and obtain answers, which they did even
tually. So, as the answers have been obtained, and a
report has been founded thereupon, let us now see' how
Sir R. Airey deals with a result so much beyond his an-
ticipations.

The second of the two Royal Commissions with which
Sir Richard Airey has been brought in contact on the
affairs of the Crimea is that now sitting at Chelsea. It
sits, as our readers are aware, in no small state, as be-
comes an inquest ..on a deceased army. Sir Richard,
however, is above such influencee, and he exhibits
throughout his examination the same nonchalance, the
same easy way of shifting the responsibijity from his own
shoulders? and the same art of involving the subject
in a perpetual haze, that he did in the Crimea.
The chief point on which these qualities have been
celled for is a certain-order found in the register of his
office, and issued to the-tenerale of Division at the be-
ginning of November, for the immediate stabling of the
cavalry horses. The oiler was not carried out to any
considerable extent till three months afterwards, in Fete
ruary, and the question is how the order was issued and
eot obeyed. There is hardly a question as to the fact—
.md itis one of the most remarkable features of thi,
campaign,—that nobody seems to have taken,the trouhl.
to see orders carried out. Nobody seems to have gone
about everywhere, early and late, as we read of Napo
leen and the Duke -
of Wellington, seeing with his own
eyes the state of the arm"; and the progress of the works
ordered to be done.. With regard to the order its ques-
tion, Lord Lucan seems to have a vague recollection of
hardship, confusion, and difficulty, and realer nothing
more can les extracted from him on the momentous his-
tory of those three months,—of the disasters in which
he may say, "Quorum pars magna fai." He cannot
say whether it was the uncertainty of the position,
or the want of tools, or the want of labour, or the al,
straction of the men to other work, or the want of wood,
or of canvaes. We are not surprised at this in Lord
Luca!), who did not give the order, and bad, no doubt,
much practical difficulty in carrying it out. Sr R.'
Airey, however, gave the order, and was responsible for
its execution ; but he is quite as dark on that subject as
Lord Lucan himself ; and we must say wilfully dirk. In
a alurt created to inquire into the causes of a terrible
military disaster. for which he was officially responsible,
he says at different times that the order was a matter of.
course, that it could not be executed, that the work of his
once was done more by verbal communications than by
written orders, that this particular order comprised
more than could he done, but not enough for every pur-
pose ; that he supposes it was executed, as of course all
orders from head-quarters are ; that it is perfectly
worthless as documentary evidence, and Colonel
Tulloch might: have. spared himself the trouble of
quoting it ; that though he issued the order, he not
only could not give the necessary meats for its execution,
brit, when the huts did arrive, he sent them to the front,

where they were more wanted. Sir Richard, then, by
his own admission, issued orders by rote or at random,
without knowing or caring whether they were executed,
and did not watch for their execution. Of course he
might just. as well have remained in London the whole
time, dreaming that he was in the Crimea and perform-
ing that or any other office. But what we wish to ob-
serve on is the effrontery of avowing all this in the
Court, and employing his own scandalous admissions for
the sole purpose of baffling, not to say insulting, her
Majesty's Csmmissioners sent to the Crimea to make
these inquiries Hawn!, as he thought, succeeded in
refusing to answer that Commission on the sp it, and
heingobliged afterwards to answer written questions, hr
is now disgusted to find that the Commission did obtain
evidence from him on the spot—that is, from the regis-
ter of his office ; and, still more, that it is not very
compatible with his own written answers. So he at-
tempts to ride off under a cloud of confusion. The most
spoilt child in the worst-conducted family in this king-
d could not behave with more levity to a tutor the
least qualified to command his respect.
But it was only wit}l a view to ;he future, Sir Richard
says, that the kviry was to be made. He had
no idea of its retrospective charactr. He must in-
deed 'aave a msrvelloas power of directing his merit .1
vision at will, if he is able to shut out even in his own
mind the retrospective side of the inquiry. Then, is
so light a thing that about 3,000 bores, which cost on
the sp .t, counting all things, not less than 2001. a-piece,
perished miserably, without doing' anything but that
fool's promenade at Balaklava ? With what confidence
can we send out our.next brigade of cavalry to as distsnt
and as liezardous a war, when the min who talks in this
w". 37 of his own disaster is ro direct the expedition from
hosie ? When a gentleman finds that, though his groom is
a very fine fellow in his way, the stable becomes emnpts,
under his care, and the groom makes light of it, he will
prohshly change his man before he renews his stud. H.
would rather see disaster taken a little more seriously,
and then he would have the less fear of its early repeti-
tion. But it is not at all clear that Sir Richard would
think it his place t mend matters. even if he knew how.
He throws the non.execut'on of his order for the stabling
of the horses partly on the badness of the tools, and adds
that the tools of the British army are notoriously bad. I
Bnt why ? It was his place to see that they were good.
He wa,s at the Horse Guards all the time the expeditien
was preparing ;" he knew the tools were bad, arid he did I
nothing. S far from accusing his own remissness, he
now fouucts upon it a jin,tification for not having at-
tesidisti toile) oieoutioti of 143 ovhi °Nato:. 'lt 11 egg.