The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-14 00:00:00

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(Fox ille Times.)
The Earls of Lucan and Cardigan are very busily
engaged in preparing their answers to the statements
of
,the Crimean report, but cfe must not lose sight
of the important fact that merely loose and general re-
plies can never constitute an answer to the allega-
tions of the Commissioners and the testimony of the wits
nesses. The earls whose conduct is impugned may, and
most probably will, broadly deny the statements of the
regimental officers ; but we know not why their state-
ments should be received as truth in opposition to the
assertions of officers who were in quite as good a posi-
tion as they could be for appreciating the actual condi-
tion of affairs. What is wanted is that some perfectly
impartial tribunal should hear the statements both in ac-
cusation and defence, and decide upon whieh side right
lies. What prisoner, what defendant, in any criminal or
civil case, does not presume that he has made out a per-
fectly triumphant defence, if his own statements may
be admitted without contradiction ? At the present tno-
went it so happens that many of the officers who gave
their evidence before the Crimean Commissioners are
actually is this country, and can be examined in the in-
terest of the earls; or cress-examined in the interest of
the nation. They, at least, may receive an extension of
leave. There is no suggestion that in any case active
hostilities are to be resumed for many weeks to come,
and it can scarcely be said that the calls of military
duty are so imperative as to require the instant depar-
ture froth this country of gentlemen who can give mate-
rial evidence. Let it a:so be clearly understood, in order
to avoid any recurrence of the futile discussion which
occurred the other night in the House of Peers, that the
mere prowess and personal courage of the earls are not
called in question. Lord Lucan had no opportunity
of displaying his valour; it would be preposterous
to fix any iarputaton upon him on this score. Lord
Cardigan rode in as straightforward a manner over
the bloody lists of Balaklava as any trooper under
his command ; he could not have done better ; and
with this acknowledgement, which we make in
simple truth and sincerity, we -pass on to the
points really at issue. The charge against the Earls is,
that by reason of their improvident administration the
British cavalry in the East was destroyed. The horses
were starved, uselessly and idly exposed, not put under
shelter when shelter might have been procared or con-
trived ; the cavalry force was, both in Bulgaria and in
the Crimea, injudiciously handled ; it was exposed and
fatigued when there was no occasion for exposure or
fatigue, and the end was that the work' of the enemy was
as effectually done by Lords Lucan and Cardigan as it
could have been by the Princes Meuschikoff mid Gorts•
cbakoff.

-

In order that we may not be accused even now of ad-
vancing charges without proper evidence in support we
will take a few statements at random from the evidence.
Colonel Darby Griffith, of the Scots Greys, was examined
by the Commissioners. This officer states that immedi-
ately after the 14th of November he mentioned to Lord
Lucan that his horses were beginning to suffer from the
inclemency of the weather ; but we had better give the
gallant Colonel's own words. He told Lord Lucan "that
he was afraid he should lose a great many horses if some-
thing was not done to protect them, and that if he could
hold out any encouragement to his men to the effect that
they were to remai❑ for any length of time in the camp
which they then occupied, he could get them to erect
souse covering to save them, when his Lordship
threatened to place him under arrest for presuming to
suggest such a thing." The Earl of Lucan, it appears,
like Prince Talleyrand, " objected to zeal." Colonel
Griffith, as though any voucher were wanted fur his bare
word, adds that the con►ersation occurred in the pre-
sence of Colonel Hodge, of Lord William Paulet, and
others. It is his firm opinion that if his suggestion had
been acted on he should have-saved many of the horses
which were lost. He attributes the mortality among
lis horses to starvation, hard vi ork, and exposure. At
last Colonel Griffith succeeded in getting the remains of
his regiment under sheds, " the first of them about the
3d of January—having employed, at his own expense,
five French soldiers to erect them—and had them com-
pleted about the middle of January." So what would
have been required to preserve the horses of the Scots
Greys was an amount of shelter which was ultimately
provided by the exertions of five men ; but against
such a step Lord Lucan determinedly set his face.
It appears that poor Colonel Griffith, being very hardly
pressed to get up his sheds in time, in the early part of
January applied to General Scarlett to procure for bins
the assistance of some ships' carpenters, as there were
no carpenters in the regiment. This request for the
assistance of men, of whom ma•iy hundreds were idle in
the ships within sight, was, of course, refused, not by
General Scarlett, who made the application, but by the
Quartermaster• General, Sir Richard Airey
We turn over a few leaves of the Report, and come to
the evidence of the Deputy-Assistant Commissary-Gene-
ral, Alexander Crookshank. Would any of our readers
wish to know the end of the Light Cavalry El iga•de—
the remains of the heroic frenzy of Balaklava ? Here it
is :—" After twenty days of short rations, the horses
being at the same time exposed to very inclement wea-
ther, on unfavourable ground, the condition of the tr•oop-
horses was deplorable. When the brigade moved down
on the 2d of December, it was necessary to have the
horses led, as they were too weak to carry their riders,
and, notwithstanding, many of them died on the way
from exhaustion, and a considerable number were
left on the ground, unable to move, with men to
attend to them. The cause of this great deficiency
in forage for the brigade was the want of
transport to carry it to the front. Believes there
never was any ;want of bailey at Balaklava, and
that the horses might, therefcre, have had their full
rations of grain if there had been any means of carrying
it to the camp !" At least the horses might have been
led to the barley, if the barley could not be carried to
the horses. Thus there was an end of the Light Brigade.
The blame of its wanton destruction rests partly among
four officers on the day of the futile charge of Balaklava,
and, next, upon those officers who starved the horses
which returned from that bloody fray. What was Lord
Cardigan's share in this latter transaction ?