The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-12 00:00:00

LONDON MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 12, 1857.

LORD A. VA NE TEMPEST ON THE LATE

GV AR.

On Wednesday evening Lord Adolphus Vane Tempest,
11. P. for this county, delivered an address before the mem.
hers of the Durham Athenaeum, the subject being " Recol-
lections of the late War." There was a very numerous and
fashionable attendance, and Professor Chevallier occupied
the chair.
Lord A. VANE TEMPEST, after some few preliminary
observations upon the vastness of the subject he had un-
dertaken to discuss, and the expression of his fears that ho
hnuld not be able to do full justice to the magnitude of
the task, proceeded to say that he was not one of those who
were permitted at the commencement of the Russian cam
paign, to take part in the expedition to the Crimea. Al-
though he made application to be allowed to join the gal-
lant band who in 1854 left the shores of thisc onntry to en-
gage against a powerful foe, he found that the claims of
senior officers were preferred to his, and it was not until
Oct., 1835, that he was enabled to leave this country to
join his regiment at the seat of war. It was not his fortune
to be present at the glorious struggle of the Alma ; it was
flat his fortune to take part in the gallant but mournful
achievement at Balahlava ; nor was he permitted to be
present at the memorable engagement on the heights of

Inkerman, where 8,500 British soldiers withstood, for 3
hours, 40,000 of the best disciplined troops in Russia, and
where the brigade to which he belonged greatly dis-
tinguished themselves by their intrepidity and valour
(Loud cheers). It was his misfortune to find the British
army almost destitute of clothing and provisions, covering,
or shelter, to!support the privations and hardships of the
terrib'e winter that ensued. Against those unexampled
hardships and struggles they bore up with the most
heroic fortitude, and he could give them the evidence of
an eye-witness as to the sufferings they endured. In doing
so, he should not furnish them with mere retrospective
opinions, but would, with their permission, occasionally
refer to letters written at the time, some in despondency,
some in the height of misery, and some in hope that the
war would ultimately terminate in a manner which would
slcure to the allies all those objects for which hostili-
ties were commenced. Before doing so, however, he
would briefly advert to those causes which had led to
the war, which, in the language of an eminent states-
man had proved so disastrous to Europe and led to the
destruction of human life at tho rate of a thousand per
day. In .the year 1851, our ally, Louis Napoleon, then
the President of (the French republic, claimed from
the Sultan of Turkey certain privileges in behalf of the
Latin Church. Those demands were enforced by threats
of the presence of the French fleet in the Dardanelles. The
Sultan, alarmed by those threats, conceded the demand
made upon him, and Russia, feeling jealous of the privi-
leges granted to the Latin Church, determined to enforce
similar demands on behalf of the Greek Church. The
Sultan hoped to satisfy his two powerful applicants, and
certain concessions were made which it was thought set-
tled the question respecting the Holy places. In March,
1853, however, Prince Menschikoff arrived on his memor-
able mission at Constantinople, and the spirit which he
evinced showed that his designs were anything but of a
pacific or conciliatory character. Matters continued in
dispute till the sth of May, when the Prince made his ul-
timatum to the Sultan, the effect of granting which would
have been to place 12,000,000 of the Sultan's subjects
under the Emperor of Russia, and virtually to reduce
Turkey to the position of a dependency of the Czar. This
ultimatum was refused, and Prince Menschikoff left
Constantinople. On June 27 the Russian armies crossed
the Pruth, and the two-headed eagle swooped down upon

its prey, while England and the other European Powers
stood aloof, and Turkey was left unaided to cope with her
powerful enemy. His lordship then proceeded to comment
upon the gallant achievements of the Turks at Oltenitza
and other places, and then went on to speak of the abortive
►ttempt which was made to terminate existing differences
at the first Vienna conference. A note was concocted
which it was thought would effect a satisfactory settlement
of the question at issue, but the Turkish Minister finding
that, according to the Russian interpretation of the note,
it would fully secure the demands of the Czar, he, con-
trary to the advice of the allies, advised the Sultan to
reject it. Turkey for a time was left to struggle with
Russia, and in October application was made for the allied
fleets in the Black Sea, but they were only sent to the Dar-
danelles, where they engaged in innocent pastimes at the
time when the Turkish fleet was destroyed at Sinope. The
Russians obtained various successes until they came before
Silistria, which was defended with the utmost gallantry,
and ultimately, by the attitude taken by Austria, the
troops of the Czar were compelled to raise the siege on the
22d June. On the 11th March, 1854, the Queen led out the
first division of the Baltic fleet, unprovided with gunboats,
and when (it was now admitted) the only attack could have
been made upon Cronstadt with any hope of success. In
the early part of that year, the British troops were sent
out, and in the month of June instructions were issued by
the English Government for an expedition to the Crimea.
In. September a landing was effected with most perfect
success ; and on the 20th of that month the memorable
battle of the Alma was fought. It would be needless to
dwell upon the heroism displayed by the English and
French armies on that occasion; suffice it to say, that the

formidable position which Prince Menschikoff boastingly
asserted he would hold for three weeks was carried in the
space of three hours by the invincible gallantry and deter-
mination of the allied forces. After the battle, the allied
armies marched upon Sebastopol. Unfortunately, how-
ever, the number of wounded and the want of sufficient
transports prevented them from making a forward move-
ment immediately after the engagement, and the delay that
took place gave the Russians an opportunity of sinking
their ships at the mouth of the harbour, and preventing
the entrance of tho allied fleets. This, of course, necessitated

some other movement on the part of the allies, which led to
the adoption of a flank march on Balaklava, where they
arrived in October, and on the 17th the first bombardment
of Sebastopol began. His lordship here made a digression
from his narrative, and proceeded to animadvert upon

statements made by a Staff Officer, in a work recently pub-
lished, entitled "Realities of: the Crimean War." He
condemned [the indiscreet praises which he had lavished

upon Lord Raglan's abilities as a commander, and disputed
many of his alleged facts ; and especially he denied the
accuracy of the statement that in December, 1854, the
troops had begun to hut themselves, and that Lord
Raglan was frequently seen in the camps. The lee-
terer spoke in terms of reprobation of the deficiencies ex•
hibited by the staff, by the home authorities, and by the
commissariat department, and remarked that the intense
sufferings which the army had to undergo from the rigour
of the Crimean winter obtained little alleviation, except
what was furnished from private resources through the
medium of the Times fund. After some further criticisms
on the " Staff's Officer's " views, which he characterised as
partial, narrow, and unreliable, his lordship proceeded t •
quote from letters which he had written home from the
seat of war. His personal recollections had reference es-
pecially to the sufferings of the troops, who, without means
of roasting and grinding their coffee, without fresh meat
or fuel, died by thousands of scurvy and dysentery. No
effort of imagination could enable them to conceive the
amount of privation and misery which the troops endured .
The officers, badly off as they were, did not suffer so much
as the men, as they were enabled to procure the necessa-
ries of existence at enormous prices ; but the rank and
file, with their green coffee, salt pork, biscuits, and no
fuel but the roots they were enabled to dig with much la-
borious effort, were in a most deplorable condition. As a
proof that Lord Raglan seldom visited the camp, he men-
tioned that it was some time before the British commander
became acquainted with the fact that green coffee berries
wore served out to the men, but when he did discover it
he severely took the head of the commissariat to task on
the matter. Lord A. Vane Tempest then went on to ob-
serve that he was of opinion that many of the disasters
which the army met with occurred by the army being sent
to the Crimea at so late a period of the year, and without
sufficient forethought and previous arrangement being
exercised. Three great evils, after the landing, he consi-
dered to be the issuing of green coffee, salt pork, and the
deprivation of bread, and he believed that all these might
have been averted by a moderate amount of energy and
forethought on the part of the authorities. With regard
to the coffee, there would have been no difficulty in pre•
paring and roasting and crushing it at Balaklava, where
there was plenty of fuel, and there was no reason why the
British troops should not have been provided with bread
as well as the French. Numbers of steam vessels were
lying idle in Balaklava which might have been employed in
fetching fresh meat from the shores along the Black Sea ;
and he mentioned, as a proof of the want of energy, fore-
thought, or arrangement, which characterised all the de-
partments excepting the regimental department, that he
saw one vessel bearing the misnomer of " the Propeller,"
which to his certain knowledge was never propelled for
two months ; and that was at the time when the army
was gradually melting away for the want of those neces-
saries which the most ordinary care might have supplied
to them. His lordship next made some incidental allu-
sions to the Foreign Enlistment Bill, and contrasted the
difference with which the Government had behaved
towards
fmf footirlheh.
rmietiiegarn,
withers a nliBll. theirpe per man,
own
a plotcountrymen,
of
lau
laud
furnish-
ing i
thesh-
in g the former
Cape, and a free
greatest brought passage
emergency,too utthei ra n standard awdischargingwith h
scarcelye m
anyany
of the o
mo-
ment
clothes upon their backs, or a penny in their pockets.
This was a system not very likely to fill the ranks of our
armyproee
eadtetdh et
tot time
aorfko uurp
ogar etathee sdt
untei ee ds
of. Hh
iiss
olwo rd snbhaitpt
battalion
in the Crimea, and observed that they had only 700 men to
perform the trench duty of 2,000, and he quoted from one
of his own letters, written at that period, an observation to

the effect that, if the Russians had attacked their works at
that time, he should have been anxious for the result.
Other letters which he read gave accounts of the Russian
entry into their advanced parallel, and he mentioned an in-
stance of the adroit coolness of 3. Russian spy, who walked
through the batteries on the left, and, when questioned as
ohis business, he stated himself to be a medical officer at-
tached to the 3d division. His lordship next alluded to the
unfairness of the French, who left the British armies to
perform the greatest portion of the trench work. When the
armies landed in the Crimea the British army amounted to
24,000 men, and the French to 20,000, and each army
ook up ground in front of Sebastopol according to their
numbtrs. The French received constant reinforcements
until their numbers far exceeded the British, and repeated
applications were made to them to take some of our ground,
but they uniformly refused, even when theirarmy amounted
to 68,000 men, whilst the available British force was not
above 12,000 strong. These matters went on until the
railway was nearly completed; and at last the French con-
sented to help our army and take some of our ground.
Lord Raglan wished them to take ground to the left at-
tack, but they refused and wished to take ground to the
right, which the British commander, from the weakened
state of his forces, was at length reluctantly obliged o con-
cede, and the French thus robbed them of their birthright.
(Applause.) Lord Adolphus here read a letter, written by
him on the 19th of Feb., expressive of his regret that the
Luglish troops were obliged to give up ground which they
had held so long, and at such an enormous sacrifice of life,
and in this epistle was the following observation :—" If
Sebastopol is ever to be taken, the French will get the
chief credit, as it is now admitted that the Malakhoff, the
ground in front of which we have held so long, is the key
to the Russian position." His lordship then noticed the
gallant attack of the Zouavesan the outworks of the Ma-
melon, which was repulsed with a loss of 200 men and 16
officers, killed and wounded. The Zouaves were furious
that they were not led on to a second attack, and it was
not known to this day why a second attack was not made.
Lord Raglan offered the services of an English division,
which was, however, declined. The next letter contained
an account of the sortie made by the Russians on the 26th
of March, when poor Capt. Vicars was killed. Other let-
ters contained accounts of the second bombardment, and
of the successful attack on the Russian rifle pits, which
were carried at the point of the bayonet. In the latter
engagement he was sorry' to say Colonel Egerton, an
accomplished soldier, who led the attack, was killed!
In subsequent letters Lord Vane adverted to a circum-
stance that wanted satisfactory solution, which was, that
an artillery officer, at the bombardment, received orders
not to fire to the fullest extent of his force, but only
to fire six shots an hour. He refused to obey this injunc-
tion, unless under the hand of Lord Raglan himself. The
reason why an assault had not been made after that bom-
bardment had never been explained, but it was said to
arise from an indisposition on the part of the French.
His lordship next read a letter alluding to the sailing of
the expedition to Kertch, and remarked upon the cir-
cumstance that the expedition should have been delayed
so long when the Duke of Newcastle had recommended it
as early as June, 1854. The next letter had reference •to
the appointment of General Pelissier to the command of
the French troops, and the subsequent attacks which led
to the taking of the Mamelon, after a heavy loss. This
engagement, of which Lord Adolphus was an eye witness,
he very graphically described. The English attack on
the rifle pits was equally successful, but the losses in
killed and wounded both on the part of the French and
English were very considerable. His lordship next gave
an account, of the unsuccessful assault on Sebastopol
on the 18th of June, when the fire from the double-shotted
gnus of the Russians was most terrific, and made fearful
carnage amongst our gallant troops. Having adverted to
the loss of two of his intimate personal friends, the adju-
tant of the regiment and Captain Drummond, the former
•f whom was shot in an advanced parallel, and the latter
killed by a shell in the trenches, his lordship next adverted
to the gallant engagement of the Tchernaya, or the battle
of the Traktir, where the gallant Piedinontese greatly dis-
tinguished themselves, and three times repulsed the despe,
rate attacks of the enemy. Lord Vane at length came to
the final bombardment and grand assault on Sebastopol.
The French gained by a surprise the Malakoff, but did not
prove so fortunate on their attack on the left. Five times
they attacked the Little Redan with the greatest vigour
and intrepidity, and five times they were repulsed. The
English, on the signal being given, assaulted the Great
Redan, which they entered in the midst of a terrific fire,
but, in consequence of the supports not being sent up, to-
gether with the formidable nature of the work, and the
desperate resistance made by the Russians, they were un-
able to hold it. Arrangements were made for a second
attack on the following morning, but it was discovered
that the enemy had retreated, and they found that the
attack had been a work of supererogation, as the Malakoff,
as formerly conjectured, commanded the whole. It had
since been stated that the attack was of the greatest im-
portance to the success of the general assault, as by draw-
ing off the Russian forces it enabled the French to establish
themselves inside the Malakoff, and that, in point of fact,
the assault of the English was but a feint. As Englishmen,
we could not but feel mortified at the loss of 2,000 b. ave
men in killed and wounded, and if it was necessary for
the final success of the attack on the fortresses, the French
ought to have taken their share of the feint, and the Eng- .
lish shared in the glory, of the success. (Applause.) It
was believed that this was proposed by General Simpson,
but was not consented to on the part of the French, and,
therefore, this was another instacce of robbing us of our
birthright. (Applause.) Instead of saying that the French
attacked the Malakoff, on the Bth of September, with
success, and that the English attacked the great Redan,
and failed, it ought to have been that the allies attacked
five places and carried one, and that by a surprise, for the
French got into the Malakoff with a loss of 25 men.
General Pelissier gave, to his mind, a very gratifying de-
scription of the English attack on that occasion, and which
was in striking contrast with the disparaging accounts that
had been given by our own countrymen. He said, " the
same causes which frustrated our endeavours on other
points militated against the attack of our brave allies on
the Redan, notwithstanding their courage and valour.',
(Applause.) The French gallantly attempted to carry the
little Redan, and two other points on the left, at all of
which they failed; but he (Lord Vane) never read any re
mark made by the public prints in France in this matter,
but all shared equally in the glory of the success on the
Malakoff, and he thought it very unpatriotic on the part
of English writers—men from their position exercising
great influence—to decry and depreciate the courage of
the British troops, not only in the eyes of their own
countrymen, but in the estimation of the whole of Europe.
(Applause.) His Lordship then briefly adverted to the
subsequent events which occurred after the fall of Sebas-
topol, and concluded by presenting to the members of the
Athenaeum an inkstand formed of a small round shot,
raised on a marble slab, surrounded with minie rifle balls,
together with a curious painting, which had been taken
from the city of Sebastopol. His Lordship resumed his
seat amidst considerable applause.

The CHAIRMAN proposed a vote of thanks to Lord A.
Vane Tempest for his interesting address, which was ac-
corded to him by acclamation.

Lord A. V. TEMPEST briefly acknowledged the compli-
ment.
Earl VANE next proposed a vote of thanks to the Chair-
man, to whose extensive scientific attainments he grace-
fully adverted.
Professor CHEVALLIER briefly responded, and the pro-
ceedings terminated.

THE GALES.

PORTSMOUTH, JAN. it
The gales of wind which have been so prevalent of
late have caused almost daily arrivals at this port of
distressed merchant vessels. On Friday night consi
derable alarm was excited by a large merchant-ship firing
guns and burning blue lights for assistance. The paddle.
frigate Retribution, Captain Barker, at Spithead, an•
swered the signals and repeated them to the dockyard,
and at the same time sent out her boats and men to the
distressed ship, which was found to be the Sabrina, Fox,
master, from London to Melbourne, calling at South
ampton for. emigrants. In coining up to Spithead she
got on shore on the Dean Sand. Admiral Superinten-
dent Martin at once sent out the dockyard tugs Echo
and Comet, with Flag Lieu'enant Malcombe, Assist-
ant Master Attendant Tonkin, Mr. Jones, pilot, and a
large supply of hawsers, gear, &c. These tugs were out
till one o'clock in the morning, when they returned,
having towed the Sabrina off and anchored her at the
Motherbauk. Fortunately she sustained little damage.
In order to ascertain the exact position of the ship, the
Commander-in-Chief, Vice-Admiral Sir G. Seymour,
sent out the Sprightly, stbamer, and she brought back
the gratifying information that no further assistance was
required.
Fears are entertained as to the fate of a collier, the
Fearful, belonging to Mr. Byeriey, of this port. She has
been assent for a fortnight, and not a word has been
heard of or from her. She was a fine strong ship.
LOWESTOFT, JAN. 9.

At about 3.30 p.m., on the sth inst., the wind being
then NE., in a most severe snow storm, a brig on the
Newcombe made signal cf distress by a flag in the rig.
ging. The Lowestoft life boat was immediately launched
and went off to, the brig, and having been enabled to
anchor to windward of her dropped down upon her
stern, and succeeded ia_taking on board half her crew,
when in a tremendOus squall the cable of the life beat
parted, but having taken a strong rope from the brig as
a guy, the crew were enabled to hold till the remainder
of the crew were got on board with the exception of the
master who, when striving to get into the boat, was
washed overboard, and was with considerable difficulty
recovered and hauled into her in a senseless condition,
After having more than once disappeared in the sea. Tne
life-bnat's crew then immediately ran for the harbour,
in order the more expeditiously to land the crew and
the master, as the latter had since be had been taken
into the life-boat scarcely shown any signs of lite.
By the prompt and unwearied exertions of a
surgeon and his assistant, on the master's landing,
they succeeded ultimately in his resuscitation.
The brig was the Tennant of Stockton, 220 tons
burden, with a cargo' of timber, from Dantzic to
London, and a crew of eight hands. Nothing could
exceed the zeal and hardihood of the life-boat's crew, in-
cluding the gallant. Captain Joachim, R.N., who was
with them throughout the trying occa•ion in the severe
snow-storm, as well as of the willing aid of the people
on the beach in launching the life-boat. Tnii life-coat is
in connection with the National Lite-Boat Institution,
the life-boats of which society have been successful
during the last week in saving the lives of about 60
persons from shipwreck. The crew of the aboVe life
boat will receive, as usual, a liberal reward from the
National Life-Boat Institution for their meritorious
services.