The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-04 00:00:00

THE COMMISSIONERS TO THE CRIMEA•

The f,)11-,wing correspondence hag been sent us for
publication :---
" To SIR JOHN Mc NEIL, G.C.8., AND COLONEL TULLOCII,
LATE COMMISSIONERS OF INQUIRY IN THE CRIMEA,
FROM THE MAYOR AND PRINCIPAL INHABITANTS OF

PRESTON.
" To discover how it happened that a British army per-
forming prldigies of valour, gaining victory in every en-
gagement, and suffering little from the weapons of the
enemy, became in a few months almost annihilated for
want of raiment, shelter, and even food, and, by ascer-
taining the cause, to prevent the recurrence of such a
calamity, you were sent to the Crimea.
" Your mission required high intelligence, matured ex-
perience, discreet zeal, and a degree of moral courage not
ordinarily possessed ; that all these qualities were exer-
cised the Premier warmly declared in Parliament soon after
your return, and the Secretary for War, after a longer in-
terval for reflection, has, in a place hardly less public,
fully acknowledged.
" Our gracious Sovereign has with her own hand placed
badges of honour on the breasts of many survivors of this
dreadful campaign, and long may they wear the distinc-
tions they have thus honourably won ; but we have not
yet heard that yourservices have received any public re-

ward.
vYe are unwilling to believe that if your report bad
spoken smooth things, and had contained less truth, it
would have been more acceptable ; we would rather think
that, official forms affording no reward for extraordinarf
services such as yours, our governors have been restrained
by an adherence to that routine which proved so fatal
in the scenes of your inquiry. However that may be, per
the undersigned magistrates of Preston and its vicinity►
j,,in in this expression of our gratitude, and thus make
known to our countrymen our desire to concur in some
more substantial proof of it, in case of your services failing
to meet a due reward from the Government which required
them.

"Grantors-house, Feb. 21,
" Gentlemen,--You have done me the honour to send
me, through Mr. Parker, your representativeinParliament,
an address from the Mayor and magistrates of Preston and
its vicinity, in which you convey to me and to my colleague
(Colonel Tullocb) your thanks for the manner in which we
performed the duties required of us as Commissioners in
the Crimea. Allow me to assure you that I have received
with much satisfaction and gratitude this spontaneous ex-
pression of approbation from gentlemen to all of whom I
am a stranger, and whose intelligence and information
both enable them to form a well-founded opinion and en-
title them to announce it.
" You appear not to be ware that any steps have been
idot
taken by her Majesty's nment to mark their recogni-
tion of our services ; an seem to doubt whether ani
such are contemplated 3 - I. therefore consider it due to them
as well as to you to put you in possession of an official com•
munication which I have recently received on the subject;
and of my answer, copies of which are enclosed.
" I have honour "to
JO be, Sm.,
HN M`NEILL.
" Law. Spencer, Esq., Mayor • T. B. Addison, Esq.,
Recorder, &c., Preston."

" I am, gentlemen, yours, &o.
" L. Spencer, Esq., Mayor ; T. B. Addison, Esq.,
Recorder, &c., Preston."

LLOYD'S SHIPPING.—(This Day.)

-
[(PER ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.),
SOUTHAMPTON, Wednesday, 10 a. n]

Wind E. S. E.
Arrived—Kate,• from Ibrail a.

DUBLIN, March 3.

Wind W.S.W.
Arrived—Emily, from Bordeaux.
Sailed—greole, for Cadiz.

WATERFORD, March 2.

Wind E.S.E.
Sailed—Martha Popo, for Malta.

(BY SUBMARINE AND BRITISH TELEGRAPH.)
Wind S.W. ; tide Gt RwAov
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os
uE
rNs
e,
bWb
;e dwn
ee
as dt
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ey
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c 9
04
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da.y .m
Arrived—Loone and Leon. from Gravelines.
Sailed—Fort William, for Calcutta.
DEAL, Wednesday, 9.30 a.m.

Wind W., moderate.
Passed—March 3—Sabrina, from Shields, for Malta.

" War-office, Pall-mall, Feb. 20.
" Gentlemen,—l have the honour to acquaint you that
her Majesty's Government have decided to mark the ser-
vices rendered by you in the discharge of your datieslia the
Crimea by tendering to each of you the sum of 1,0001.
" This grant is intended, not as a mere pecuniary equi-
valent for the results of your inquiries, but to convey like-
wise, in the manner which appears to them most proper,
the recognition by her Majesty's Government of the zeal
and ability with which those inquiries were conducted, to
which Lord Palmerston, in his place in Parliament, ball
already borne testimony.
I have reason to believe that you have felt hurt by the
omission made on my part of the usual official acknowledg-
ment of so important a document as the report laid by yen
before the Government. I at once admit the ground of
this complaint, and express my personal regret that it
should have existed, but the fact was that, having ac-
cepted the report from the hands of one of the Commis-
sioners at a personal interview, without, so far as I caa
trace, any formal letter accompanying it, and my mind
being much occupied by important affairs at the time, I
omitted that formal acknowledgment of your services
which courtesy and my own opinion of their value rc•
quired.
" With this explanation on my part, and tendering to
you the thanks of her Majesty's Government and my, own
for your services in the discharge of an arduous and ira•
portant duty, " I have the honour to be, &e.,
" PANMIIRE.II-1
" Sir John Nl`Neill and Colonel Talloch, &c."

" Granton-house, Edinburgh, Feb. 21.
" My Lord—This evening I had the honour to receive
your lordship's letter of the 20th inst., and I beg leave to
assure you that it affords me great satisfaction to be put in.
possession of a document containing an official acknow-
ledgment of the services of that commission which I cos"
ducted to the Crimea two years ago. It is a source of still
greater gratification to me to receive at the same time the
thanks of her Majesty's Government and of your lordship
for the manner in which those services were conducted.
" I can readily conceive how the circumstances alluded
to by your lordship may have accidentally led to the omis-
sion of the usual official acknowledgment of the report of
the Commissioners, at least until the Nth of April, when
official intimation was conveyed by your directions to Col.
Tulloch, for the information of the Board at Chelsea, that
there was no document at the War Department approv

the report.
"Your lordship informs me that her Majesty's Govern
ment have been pleased to grant me 1,0001., and you add
' this grant is intended not as a mere pecuniary equiva•
lent for the results of your inquiries, but to convey like-
wise, in the manner which appears to them moat proper,
the recognition by her Majesty's Government of the zeal
and ability with which those inquiries were conducted, to
which Lord Palmerston in his place in Parliament ha
already borne testimony,
" If I rightly understand this statement of the grounds
on which the grant is tendered to me, it means that the
sum of 1,0001. is intended to be considered not merely as a
recognition by her Majesty's Government of the manner
in which the duty was performed, but likewise as the pe-
cuniary equivalent of the results of the inquiry—that is,
the money value of the advantages which the country has
derived from those results.
" This estimate alone is sufficient to lead me, withou
further consideration, et once to decline a proposal which,
as explained by your lordship, appears to me to involve
the admission that the results of my labours have been so
insignificant as to be almost without appreciable value to
the public. The thanks which your lordship has done me
the honour to convey to me would have been far more
acceptable if they had been unconnected with such as
estimate.

• " Had it been considered expedient to adopt the course
which Lord Palmerston seems to have believed was acts•
ally in progress, I might perhaps have been spared the
pain of formally declining what your lordship has proposed,
but the letter which I am now answering is the first com-
munication which I have received upon the subject.
" Your lordship is well aware that I have never sought
to obtain for myself any reward or remuneration. Her
Majesty's Government have till now, apparently considered
my services in the commission as gratuitous, and I am quite
ready, as I have always been, so to consider them ; I shall
be amply rewarded by the consciousness of having freely
given them at a time of difficulty and anxiety to the Go-
vernment and to the public, but I am not prepared to
forego that reward for any consideration the acceptance
of which would be disparaging, or forfeit the good opinion
of the country.
" I have the honour to be, my Lord,
" Your Lordship's most obedient humble servant,
" JOHN lii`NEILL.
" The Right Hon. the Lord Panmure."

The following is Colonel Tulloch's reply to the Preston
address

" 63, Eaton-square, Feb. 27.
"Gentlemen,—lt has afforded me the highest satisfaction
to receive through your representative, Mr. Townley
Parker, the address from the Mayor and magistrates of
Preston which you have done me the honour of forwarding
through that channel, and I beg to -assure you that this
mark of your attention at a time when it is so appropriate
will ever be remembered by me with the deepest gratitude.
" I regret that I cannot inform you that the services on
which you have placed so high an estimate, and to which
such ample testimony has been borne by the Premier in
Parliament, have led to those rewards to which your refer.
The only proposed recognition on the lAA of her Majesty's
Government has been in a form which I could not accept;
but the highest of all rewards has been attained in the con
sciousness of having done my duty honestly and fearlessly
and that my conduct has met with the approbation of illy
countrymen.

LONDON, March 4.—Wind this day at noon, B.S.E.
to S.S. W. ; Light breeze and cloudy.
PORTSMOUTH, March 3.—Wind E. to S.W.—Sailed—
H.M.S. Retribution, for Devonport.
PLYMOUTH, March s.—Wind S.—Sailed—Willing, for
Rio Janeiro.
PILL, March 3.—Wind W.—Sailed—Lady Raglan, for
City Point, Virginia.
COWES, March 3.—Wind E.—Arrived—Texas, from

Bremen.
HULL, March 3.—Wind W.—Arrived—Union, from
Monte, Video.
SCILLY, March 2.—Wind S.E.—Off the port—Van
Dyk, from Rio Janeiro, fo Antwerp.
FowEr, March 3.—The Lark, of Looe, 'which ran on a
rock in the river and sand, on the 27th init., has been
raised without damage.

Wind N. W., fresh.
Arrived.—Vectis, from Sunderland.
Adelaide, Newport.
Sailed.—Marmer, for Sunderland;
LIVERPOOL, Wednesday Morning.

Arrived--Johnstone, from Demerara Arri: Isabella Scott,
Para; Tyro, Leghorn;
Wind W.
Julie, Bilboa; Sir Charles Napier,
•
and Port Wallace, New Orleans , Cas sawattee, Savannah;
Henry Clay, New York ; Dodo (s. s• ), Rotterdam.
Sailed—Flora, for Valparaiso ; Orient, Portland ; Tas-
manian, Bombay ; Italian (s s), Havre ; Arcadia (s s), Con-
stantinoplo ; Rattlor (a a), Oporto ;
Princess Royal, Para.
QUEENSTOWN, March 2.1 N

MR. CHISHOLM ANSTEL—During the debate last
night, ISIL B. Osborne announced, that amongst the
persons suffering from the poison put into the bread by
the Chinese at Hong Kong, was her Majesty's Attorney
General (Mr. C. iinstey). The learned gentleman is not
expected to recover.