The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-07 00:00:00

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THE EARL OF CARDIGAN AND
BUCK, P.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlR,_Raving obEerved in your newspaper received by
rue this evening the publication of some letters which
have passed between myself and Lord Cardigan, may I
beg the favour of your finding a space in your journal
for my reply to Lord Cardigan's last letter, this reply
having been delayed in consequence of my absence from
home ?

I am, Sir, yours obliged,
GEORGE STUCLEY BUCK, M.P,
Hartland Abbey, Bideford, Oct. 2.

" Hartland Abbey, Oct. 2, 1856.
"My Lord,--My latter of the 20th was intended to
convey in a few words a reply to yours of the 18th, con-
taining an extract from the .Daily News paper. It seems
to evade the expression of my
my attempt has failed to please you, and, having no wish
feelings upon the subject,
I gratefully avail myself of the opportunity which you
have afforded me for giving a fuller interpretation of my
spe"ech at Torrington.
You are anxious to know why your speech at Leeds
appeareii to me unsatisfactory. My dissatisfaction, in
measure, coincides with the much severer cendernuation
which you will find in the Times newspaper of Sept. 4.
This newspaper is no scurrilous portion of the press. It
can hardly have escaped your notice, and I yet wait for
the violent language with which you question a state-
ment contained in it, that your speech at Leeds was a 'fal-
sification of history tke writer in that newspaper said
more ; indignantly he adds, England failed utterly in
playing a great part in the late campaign. From the be-
ginning to the end, mistakes, quarrels, shortsightedness,
want of skill, want of common professional knowledge,
marred the exertions of the British army. From the first
reconnaissance in Bulgaria to the last attack upon the
Redan there were, on the testimony of high-placed offit•
cers themselves, proofs of unmistakeable incapacity and
folly. The men died, the horses died, the hospitals were
without stores, the camp without victuals. A brigadier-
general of cavalry (your lordship) executes a movement
which the general of division declared to have impaired
his forces, while the general of division orders a
charge which his subordinate (your Lordship) takes
every occasion to sneer at as indicative of ignorance, or
worse.'
"Such sneers and such insinuations against your late
commanding officer cannot fail to disgust others than the
writers in the Times newspaper, and again call to our
recollection how the horses starved under your command
with stores at Balaklava—distant about seven miles ;
how your Lordship, leaving your companions, your
privations, and your command, sought the comfortable
shelter of your yacht—an act of generalship unrecorded
in the history of other cavalry commanders.
"Your Lordship has done me the honour of writing
a very interesting account of some portion of the cavalry
affair at Balaklava. As the friend of Captains Nolan
and Lockwood, I have not failed to gather the details of
their gallantry and death. Your Lordship, however,
may be aware that individuals, newspapers, a book writ-
ten by a Mr. Ryan, and to be bought at railway stations,
have questioned your skill and judgment with reference
to another portion of that battle, and your Lordship may,
perhaps, ou a future occasion complete your narrative
by giving details of the skill, judgment, and coolness
with which you rallied and drew off your men from that
terrible encounter.
" Your lordship evidently requires from me some ex-
planation of my allusion to the sums of money paid for
your advancement in the army. Considering your lord-
ship and Colonel Morris to be types of the two differing
systems of promotion in the English army—your lord-
ship representing that of advancement by money with-
out distinguished merit; Colonel Morris, on the other
band, illustrating that of advancement by distinguished
merit in the field before the enemy in India and in the
Crimea—l congratulated Colonel Morris upon having
achieved by merit what it was reported your lordship
had attained at the cost of between 30,0001. and 40,0001.
" My attention was called to this matter by a return
which was circulated among members of the House of
Commons, giving the dates of promotion of every staff
officer who had served or was then serving in the Crimea.
Your lordship's promotion, without any distinguished,
or, I believe, foreign service, was by far the most rapid
of any officer. In May, 1824, your lordship was a cornet;
in December, 1330, you obtained your lieutenant-colo-
neley. Your lordship was subsequently removed from
the command of your regiment for organising a system
of espionage in your order!) room by which you gathered
matter for a court-martial upon Captain Wathen, a dis-
tinguished officer. Captain Wathen was acquitted of the
charges preferred by your lordship, and you were re-
moved from the command of your regiment. Notwith-
standing this, your promotion went on, and in 1846 you
obtained your colonel's commission. I confess, upon
looking over this return, I endeavoured to ascertain from
those acquainted with the Horse Guards' machinery how
your lordship had attained such rapid promotion. I failed
in understanding the process, but I was informed your
lordship's advancement bad cost you 84,0001. If your
lordship to secure your a.dvancernent were compelled to
expend so large a sem, the inference can only be that
au officer without such resources would fail in
his advancement in the British army, and that money—
not merit—decides the destiny of her officers.
"I shall be happy to join ultra-Radicals or any other
class of politicaus dining the next session of Parliament
iu securing for the army a more just and efficient system
of promotion.
" I believe with you, the British public, although
liable to deception, in the end judges a just judgment of
the merits of her servants, and I wiil conclude with one
more short extract from the same article in the Times
newspaper of Sept. 4, That no such oratory as has been
lately listened to should b 3 allowed to blind the public
to facts which lees partial communities daily comment
on. While in the eyes of both allies and enemies our
army was reduced to a contingent by the incapacity of
its chiefs, no provincial speeches at home can perma-
nently raise the character of the men who thus worked
its ruin, and lowered the national fame.'—l have the
honour to remain, my lord, your lordship's obedient
servant, "GEORGE STUCLTY BUCK.
" The Earl Cardigan, &c."

COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL.

Yesterday a special Court was held for the purpose of
considering a report of the London Corporation Bill
Committee upon the subject of the tax upon freedoms,
and that of abolishing the office of compurgators. There
was a very large attendance of members of both Courts.

Columbus, in his first voyage of discovery, on his re
turn entered the port of Nipa, in Cuba, Oct. 23, 1492,
and on the following day, believing the coast to be
Asia, left it in hopes of finding the city, which, induced
by the Indians, he believed lay to the westward. On the
2d Nov. he deputed messengers to confer with the great
king, who was supposed to govern this vast continent ;
but, on the fourth day of their absence they returned ;
they had found no Eastern magnificence, but simply a
town about twelve leagues distant. Those messengers, in
the course of their journey, observed, for the first time,
the application of tobacco to smoking. This was de-
scribed as being in the form of a roll of a large quantity
of the leaf, one end of which was on fire, the smoke be-
ing inhaled •by the mouth from the other, a process
which occasioned the Spaniards much surprise. Thus,
observes Navarette, was the first lesson given to Euro-
peans, of this extraordinary habit, that has become uni-
versal ; and hence the origin of the so-inuch prized
and so far celebrated Havanas. The natives on being
questioned why they adopted the practice, replied as
woll as they could be understood, that it prevented
them from feeling fatigue. Las Casas, the Spanish his-
torian, is the first to exclaim against the custom, being
unable on his part to discover the benefit that was to be
derived from it ; but Navarete inadvertently supplies a
satisfactory answer, one that applies to other states as
well as Spain, in simply observing, Who would have
supposed that this new and curious vice could have be-
come so general, as to be one of the most profitable
sources of revenue to the State ? This after all appears
to be the most beneficial result of the use of the weed
in all the various ways in which it is applied. Captain
Beecher, in his recently published admirable work, the
" Landfall of Columbus," p. 356, observes—Here, as
sated by Las Casas, is the origin of smoking tobacco, a
practice which, however extensive it may be iu other
countries, has become so general in this, that, to the
discredit of parents, it is even followed by children l the
eternal cigar is seen iu the mouth of old and young, even
in that of the ragged urchin, who swaggers along not
only astonishing those who see him at his early hardi-
hood, but leaving them to speculate how he came by it,
considering the price which must have been paid for it.
Profitable indeed it is to the State, but indulged in to
the cost of the pocket, the health, and the personal corn-
fort of society, as the following statement from an offi
cial source of the amount of duty derived from tobacco
in the United Kingdom, for the last three yeari will
substantiate : i

1853 £4,560,827
1854 4,751,776
1855 4,704,663
These are tolerably good round sums, contributing to
the benefit of the state, if not of its subjects, and as may
be added—wholly blown off in a whiff !