The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-29 00:00:00

SUPPLY.

On the question that the report of the committee of
supply be received,
Mr. BOVILL complained of the hardship to which inn-
keepers are subjected by the billeting system. The allow-
ance per day to each man was 9d., for which the publican
was obliged to find I /lb. of meat, 11b. of bread, and 11b.
of vegetables, besides lodging, fire, and candles. It was
impossible for any publican to provide all these articles for
less than 15d. or 16d. (Hear, hear.) He trusted the at-
tention of the Government would be turned to the subject
with the view of removing the grievance under which the
publicans were labouring. (Hear, hear.) •
The report was then received.
PORTLAND HARBOUR BILL.
This bill was read a third time and passed.
CINQUE PORTS ACT AMENDMENT BILL.
This bill pas.ed through committee.
PRINCESS ROYAL'S ANNUITY BILL.

This bill was read a second time.
The other orders having been disposed of, the house ai
journed at 20 minutes past 12 o'clock.

MR. RUSSELL'S LECTURES ON THE WAR,
AT WILLIS'S ROWIS.

Yesterday afternoon that very popular narrator
and publicist, Mr. William Russell, delivered the
second of his Course of Three Lectures upon the late
War between Russia and the Allies—as usual, be-
fore a rather numerous, a very fashionable, and a
singularly attentive audience, at Willis's Rooms,
St. James's. Resuming the thread of his Personal
Narrative upon the morrow of the Battle of the
Alma, Mr. Russell commented briefly, but signifi-
cantly upon the fact that for Three Whole Days the
Allied armies were detained upon the field won
with so much valour and so much bloodshed by the
sluggishness of the English Commander-in-Chief !
He spoke of the impatience of the French at this
extraordinary and extravagant delay, of their eager-
nes to follow up the advantages of the victory,
of their threatening at last to hasten forward in the
track of the defeated Russians without tarrying
any longer for their British companions in arms I At
length,the morning oflhe fourth day after the t3attle,
came the gladly-welcomed signal for the advance so
long, and deplorably, and unaccountably delayed.
At cockcrow the French were off—hours before
the first i•egiinent of the English army took its de-
parture ! The lecturer descrieed most picturesquely,
as au incident never to be f Tgot en, the will
flourish of trumpets and roll of the drums, again and
again repeated in the grey light of the dawn, amidst
ringing shouts of Vive l'Empereur ! as the Gallic
soldiers moved onwards from the heights of the
Alma, battalion by battalion ! He spoke of the
grey mass distinguishable upon that historic hill-
side when the allied armies had at last left the
scene of their first Crimean Victory—a grey mass
covering about an acre of ground--that grey mass
the Russian wounded, to the number of 750, at-
tended only (ont of all that host) by two heroic
Englishmen, Dr. Thompson and his servant. The
former of whom, we all remember, died not many
days later from the effects of his benificent minister-
ing to that swarm of suffering foes—breathing his
last, in fact, but a very few hours after his arrival
at Balaklava. Afterwards came, in duo course,
Mr. Russell's personal narrative of the celebrated
Flank March in suggested by Sir John Burgoyne.
He rapidly sketched the peculiarities of the new
position occupied by the assailants and the assailed
when the allies moved round to the south side of
Sebastopol, and deliberately entered upon that pro-
tracted and bloody siege. The Second Lecture
closing with an eloquent and thrilling delin-•ation
of the glorious and immortal Cavalry Charge in the
Fatal Valley of Balaklava. Of which almost match-
less deed of heroism, the Lecturer, we all recollect
full well, was himself an actual eye-witness. It
would be difficult to tire of ever hearing
of that magnificent but most lamentable achieve-
ment. It is hardly possible to listen to the account
given of it viva voce by Mr. Russell, without
the tears starting to one's eyes in mingled anguish
and admiration. Like an eminently rational man,
as he is, Mr. Russell perfectly exonerates Lord
Lucan from any blame whatever in giving the word
of command for that disastrous and dauntless Feat
of Arms. Lord Lucan simply obeyed the positive
order of his Chief as brought to him by Captain
Nolan—he (Lord Lucan) knowing that that Chief
in sending to him those explicit injunctions, com-
manded a distinct view of the Russian positions,
which were altogether invisible to the noble earl
and his Brigadier ! So the Trumpets sounded for
that Charge in obedience to the word utte.-ed, as it
was his bounden duty that it should be uttered
by the Earl of Lucan ! And so that Charge
was le .1 at a trot—at a canter--at a gallop
along the whole sweep of that Valley of Death
cleaving its way through a great Russian army,
waiting t o receive it in position—led, that memorable
Charge, as it was also his bounden duty that it
should he led, by the daring and dauntless Earl of
Cardigan ! Listening to Mr. Russell's account of
what he saw one could almost realise she wonderful
scene he was describing, even to the flames and
smoke suddenly bursting ft om those twenty pieces
of ordnance—the flame and smoke " through
which hissed the deadly iron !" It was an unfortu-
nately brief, but, at the same time, a very vivid
and oratorical description.

GREAT HANDEL FESTIVAL. —The large organ erecting
at the Crystal Palace for this enormous musical con-
gress is nearly completed.
THE CALEDONIAN BALL—The ladies patr+nessrs of
the Caledonian Ball met in committee at Willin's Rooms,
yesterday afternoon. In consequence of her Majesty
having fixed her first grand concert for the 10th of June,
it was unanimously resolved to postpone this annual
festival to Monday, the 22d proximo.