The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-03 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Campaign in the Crimea. An Historical
Sketch. By George Brackenbury. Illustrated
by William Simpson. Messrs. Coluaghi and
Messrs. Longman.

The most beautiful souvenir of the great Rus-
sian War of 1854-55 is, beyond all question, this
exquisite volume--descriptive generally of the
campaign in the Crimea, and illustrative particu-
larly of the Siege of Sebastopol. A volume it is,
altogether, of little more than a hundred pages of
letterpress, embellished by some forty lithographic
plates engraved from drawings taken on the spot
by William Simpson, who may be designated par
excellence THE delineator of the memorable struggle
still pending between the forces of the Czar and
those of the Allied Governments. The historical
narratives of the last two Crimean campaigns will
be found by the reader to have been judiciously
confided to the late Secretary at Kadikoi to the
Honorary Agent of the Crimean Army Fund, Mr.
George Brackenbury. That gentleman has ac-
! quitted hiirself admirably well of the responsibility
devolving upon him as the contemporary celebrant
of the glorious contest as yet but partially de-
veloped upon the shores of the Euxine. He has
recounted the events of the campaign with the
most perspicuous exactitude, beginning with the
earliest indications of the outbreaking of war after
a peace of forty years' duration, and ending with
some of the latest incidents of the renowned con-
test under the shadow of " the blood-stained ruins"
of Sebastopol. His introductory sentence has refer-
ence to the memorable celebration of that prolonged
tranquillity in the fairy palace conjured up from the
green sward of Hyde-park during the winter cf 1850-
51. His closing remarks bear allusion to the heroic
memories of the winter of 1854-55—memories
associated with " the gloomy cypresses of Scutari,
and the bleak hills of the Chersonesus." There is
a strange significance in the former reminiscence,
when our author talks of the spring of 1851 wit-
' nessing " a ceremony as imposing, perhaps, as any
in the world's history"—the inauguration of the
Palace of the Great Exhibition—imposing, certainly,
, to all those whom it may perchance have deluded
for the moment into the belief that war was for
ever at an end, and that the peace of nearly two
score years' continuance was to be perpetuated un-
interruptedly ! Of Mr. Simpson's forty illustra-
tions to this charming memorial of the contest
which so soon afterwards ensued, it is almost need-
less to speak here at any length in terms of any-
thing like deliberate commendation. The original
drawings from which these lithographic prints have
been copied on a reduced scale, have now for some
time past been rendered familiar to the English
public, through the medium of the beautiful seri('
of engravings issued from the press by the Messrs.
Paul and Dominic Coluaghi periodically. It will
be remembered by those already acquainted with
them, as they have thus appeared from time to
time in a separate and costly publication—that the
series commenced effectively with the sketch of the
notable spot which witnessed the first incident of
the struggle on the 19th of September, 1854—the
spot upon which the First Gun was fired, upon
the occasion, that is to say, of what has been
thenceforth known as the Cavalry Affair
of the Heights of Bulganak. Turning over the
subsequent pages of the volume—what familiar
scenes ar© there not successively opened up to view
for contemplation—familiar, thanks to the word-
pictures of William Russell, and the transcripts
from the drawings of William Simpson, a writer
and an artist who have thus taken high place
among the ranks of our instructors, and therefore
(by reason) of our benefactors. Through the me-
(bum of one illustration, for example, wo look down
upon the picturesque little inland sea-port, as it
may be called, of the now famous Balaklava. In
another, wo gaze, from the rear of the English bat-
teries, upon the remote town and battlements, and
shipping, and harbour of Sebastopol. Here we are
scanning the huge round tower of the Malakhofl'—
there surveying the wild panorama presented to
observation by the city of the caverns and the ruins
of Inkerman. Yonder, we are noting Lord Rag-
lan's head-quarters, at Khutor Karagatch, and
yonder, again, marking the caves along the Woron-
zoff-road, and the dismal gorge now known far and
wide, so grandly, as the Valley of the Shadow of
Death. Opening the book at one part, we come
upon " A Hot Day," and at another, upon " A
Hot Night" in the batteries. Now, we are peer-
ing down into a Russian rifle-pit, and now tracking
out the course taken by the railway, extending
from the camp to Balaklava. Conspicuous among
the incidents of the campaign herein represented,
however, must be especially enumerated the charges
of the Heavy Cavalry Brigade, and of the Light
Cavalry Brigade en the 25th of Oct., where poor
Nolan met his glorious death so bravely, and
where Scarlett and Cardigan won immortal fame
with their good swords, by a prowess as splendid
as any ever displayed of old by the vaunted heroes
of the days of chivalry—upon that memorable but
disastrous day when Lord Raglan issued that most
preposterous order, the folly of which he afterwards
shamefully endeavoured to shift from his own
shoulders to those of the valiant and ill-used Earl
of Liman, the scapegoat of a disingenuous strate-
gist and a bungling Commander-in-Chief. Nume-
rous other scenes of interest will be found, more-
over, lending the collective charm of their attrac-
tion to this graceful and valuable record of the
Campaigns in the Crimea, as preserved for after
times by the pencil of William Simpson and the
pen of George Brackenbury.

The Seat of War in the East. Ten Parts-making
the First Series. By W. Simpson. Colnaghi
and Company.
With four additional instalments, recently pub-
lished, of the splendid work, entitled " The Seat of
War in the East," by W. Simpson, the First Se-
ries of that remarkable production is at length
completed. This first series comprises altogether
no less than forty large illustrations-the same
forty illustrations given upon a reduced scale in
the volume above noticed, as from the manuscript
of G. Brackenbury. Dividing the whole series of
plates, thus affording us a detailed view of " The
Seat of War in the East" into four separate depart-
ments, they may be readily enumerated as follows.
Firstly, for example, we have-1, the Malakhoff
Tower ; 2, the heights of the Bulganak ; 3, Balak-
lava, looking towards the sea ; 4, the Loss of the
Prince ; 5, Sebastopol from the rear of the English
Batteries ; 6, the Heavy Cavalry Charge ; 7, the
Battle of Inkerman ; 8, Lord Raglan's Quarters ;
9, General View of the Adjacent Country ; 10, a
Quiet Day in the Diamond Battery. Secondly,
we have-1, the Field of Inkerman ;2, a Zouave
Picket ; 3, a glimpse of the Commissariat Difficul-
ties ; 4, the Graves of the Officers of the Fourth
Division ; 5, the Light Cavalry Charge ; 6, the
Road to the Camp ; 7, the Camp of the Naval
Brigade ; 8, the Camp of the First Division ; 9,
the French Engineers Tracing a Trench ; 10, the
New Mortar Battery. Thirdly, we have-1, a
Sailor's Funeral ; 2, Sebastopol from the Sea ; 3,
Embarkation of the Sick and Wounded ; 4, a Quiet
Night in the Greenhill Battery ; 5, Camp of the
Second Division ; 6, the Ruins of Inkerman ; 7,
the Works outside Balaklava ; 8, the Balaklava
Railway ; 9, the Scene of the Night Attack on the
28th of March ; 10, the Dinner of the Grenadier
Guards on Christmas-day. Fourthly, and finally,
as far as this " First Series" is concerned, we have,
1, Sebastopol from the Fast ; 2, General View East
of Balaklava; 3, Excavated Galleries near Ink_eyman ;
4, a Hot Day in the Batteries ; 5, a Hot Night in
in the Batteries ; 6, the Valley of the Shadow of
Death ; 7, the Russian Rifle Pits, where Colonel
Egerton was killed ; 8, PrinceWoronzoff's Palace at
Yalta ; 9, the Monastery of St. George ; 10, the
Lighthouse at Cape Chersonese. The fourteen
plates last enumerated are those which have but
very recently been issued from the press by the
Messrs. Colnaghi, and by the issue of which the
whole of the First Series has been at last brought
to a most brilliantly successful conclusion. An
eye-witness of the majority of the scenes herein de-
lineated standing beside us as these exquisite im-
pressions of the drawings of Mr. Simpson have been
turned over, one after another, carefully and de-
liberately in succession, has assured us of their ex-
traordinary accuracy and verisimilitude. It is this
faithfulness to the appearance of the actual scenes
delineated iu the series that constitutes the chief
value and the conspicuous attractions of the mas-
terly sketches taken on the spot by William SinipsTlar
and afterwards reproduced. in a collection of spl.ol3olla
lithographic engravings by the eminent publishing
firm of the Messrs. Paul and Dominic Colnaghi.
_
Viewed dispassionately as such, the series can only
be regarded as secondary to actual sun-portraits,taken by the magic aid of some skilled and artistic
photographer. Wherefore William Simpson to our
thinking stands forth altogether unrivalled among
the delineators by the mere aid of the pencil of the
of the geat events of the
glorious historical localities henceforth to be re-
French campaiga before Sebastopol.
re-
membered as the scenes
Angle-

The municipal council of Nantes has just voted
150,000 fr. to succour the poor of the town.—Galignani.
THE NEW OMNIFS SCLIEME.—INTERFERENOE OF TUB
POLICE.—The project for the formation of a new °rani.
bus company has met with a sturdy resistance on the
part of a groat number of the regular " Bus men," and
placards of a very exciting nature have been for some
days posted i nthe City, to counteract what is considered
to be a "19reign innovation." As every available point
is posted with these bills, the congregation of idlers and
the jeering of the " Bus-men " have created such a
perfect nuisance, that the police were diligently emplorl
yesterday in preventing more bills being 'posted, an in
pulling down or defacing any already put, up.

•

. ~..,~