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November 11, 1854.] THE LEADER. 1065
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TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION TO '"&t)t Ueattet....
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TO CORRESPONDENTS. "Officersand Gentleme...
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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1854.
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There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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THE GOVERNMENT AND THE ARMY. The delay i...
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THE GREEKS AND MR. BRIGHT. Mr. Bright, i...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
November 11, 1854.] The Leader. 1065
November 11 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 1065
Terms Of Subscription To '"&T)T Ueattet....
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION TO '"& t ) t Ueattet . " For a Half-Year £ o 13 0 To be remitted in advance . <§ T Money Orders should be drawn upon the Sxkakd Branch Office , and he made payable to Mr . AiPRED BOAXiOWA-r , at No . 7 , Wellington Street , Strand .
To Correspondents. "Officersand Gentleme...
TO CORRESPONDENTS . "Officersand Gentlemen . " The clever articles , under this title , by " late a Middy , " we decided on nob going on with on this ground—that while oun officers are doing their work in the Crimea , it would uot be very appropriate to abuse them for their errors in " manners . " Our Stoke .-upon-Trent friend should give us his name and address . Ko notice can be taken of anonymous communications Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of his good faith . Communications should always be legibly written , and on one side of the paper only . If long , it increases the difficulty of finding space for them . " We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . All letters for the Editor should be addressed to 7 , "SVelliugton-street . Strand , London .
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Saturday, November 11, 1854.
SATURDAY , NOVEMBER 11 , 1854 .
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^ iihlir Maim
There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...
There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world 13 "by the verylaw of its creation in eternal progress . —Dr . Arnold
The Government And The Army. The Delay I...
THE GOVERNMENT AND THE ARMY . The delay in the capture of Sebastopol has , © n the whole , been very well borne , here at home , and in the allied army . Certainly in the armies there are reciprocal cr iticisms , but the rivalry is purely professional , and always friendly . Both French and English fight so well that they do not
think it an insult , and scarcely a detraction , to talk with slight disparagement of one another's occasional errors in tactics , or episodical shortcomings in organisation . There is impatience of delay ; and there is , here and there , an angry tendency to lav a fault solely attributable to Russian endurance upon the haste of the French or the caution of the
English—just as the vexed critic happens to be a wounded Gaul or a maimed Briton . Canrobert is all fire , and Raglan all discipline ; and the respective armies take their tone , in proud vindication , from their chiefs . The French said that our army came too " slowly into the fight at Alma , and that our Guards were too much on parade in going up the hill —which , however , they did storm . The French military critics also say that Lord Raglan , who himself has , it is said , been
impatient of Admiral Dundas , has been guilty of the failing of Dundas , before , Sebastopol — taking the sure method wlien the svift would have been open to him , and being- even too 6 low about the sure , On the other hand , some Englishmen write from the enmp that the French got their forts knocked to pieces because they did not take sufficient time in rendering their forts sufficiently substantial . Now in all this there is merely the evidence ) that the alliance must always be so far elastic that
each army , -with its national chunicteristies , shall fight , and go to work , after its own fnahioai . The armies represent the peoples ; the commanders represent the armies ; and however long the campaign , and cordial the coalition , there will always bo the difference in the method of the fighting , and in the preparations for the climax , that there is between Lord Raglan and General Canrobcrt . The manner and tone of Lord Rag-Ian remind people of Wellington : the fact being that
Wellington ' s characteristics were the characteristics of his country , and that all our great commanders , military and naval , have all more or less had the Wellington attributes . So Canrobert , in his impetuosity and dash , is the national French general—who as often loses as wins , but obtains glory even in a defeat This is certain—that the English people are finding no fault with the English army . It is
an army which has reassured the nation of being- still a great nation ; and there is gratitude to it for the glory that it is heaping upon a generation that was passing away without a history . But , nationally , tins gratitude ought to be practical ; let us take care of this army —let us see that the Government be worthy of it—that the Ministry of War be equal to the war .
No doubt the Duke of Newcastle , a very able , honest , and zealous man , is learning his business very fast ; if we put a duke into the management of a great concern like an army —an affair that should be left to a Peto or a Brassey—we must make up our minds to wait while the duke is in his apprenticeship . Probably no one is more sensible than the Minister of War that he has not been up to his work ; and it would be ungracious , because useless , to dwell now on repaired blunders . Of nurses ,
surgeons , hospital accommodation , of gunboats , Lancaster guns , of clothing , tents , ambulances- —of everything but powder and shot and gallant life- —there has been a frightful deficiency . The news of this week indicates that there was even , a deficiency of breadwithin a few hours sail of a great capital— the French commissariat having shared their loaves with our weary-of-biseuit-eating cohorts . War , on a great scale , "was new to us ; our chief
officers and clerks were old and routiney ; and everything was done on a petty scale , with consequent loss of efficiency , of prestige . These matters , however , are being better done—gradually . But there is a question still—Has not even the supply of men been on too small a scale ?—will not , therefore , the loss of life before Sebastopol be utter loss ? In other words , shall we have an army left to profit by the victory ?
It is a high calculation to estimate that 15 , 000 of our men will , be left after Sebastopol . We face the power of Russia with an army of 1 , 5 , 000 men ! True , there will be 3 o , O 0 O French left . We face , then , the power of Russia—power to waste human life against us —with 50 , 000 men ! Is this our Government ' s conception of the character of the war which we have undertaken ?
True : we are sending out some 5000 move men . True , France has great reserves—could send 100 , 000 men into the Crimea . France , no doubt , will do so ; but is it not plain that an English army of 20 , 000 mon will play but a sorry part in a war which must assume the oharucter of a war between France and Russia —the English and Turks as auxiliaries ?
Early in this contest it was suggested that France and England should divide their forces ; the French taking 1 the land fighting , and the English the sea . But it is possible that England could maintain her position in a more effectual manner . Her army of 20 , 000 or 30 , 000 men—by deranging the labour-market , and drafting the militia into the line , a force of 50 , 000 could be maintained—would be somo
years in wearing down the force of Russia ; and carried on , on the present small scale , there would eoain to bo a great probability of the war lasting to a date which would place it in history with other prolonged contests , n $ "the — years' war . " To conquer a power like Russia , wo must rise out of routine and do in a few years , in one year , what , by the methods of routine , would take half a century . Men are to bo had , like anything else , for
money . What necessity is there that the army of England should be exclusively composed of Englishmen , Scotchmen , and Irishmen ? Men are also to be had for money ' s worth . The Crimea can be taken by men who fight for their mere pay ; but the Crimea would be more effectually conquered if it were made a condition that the Crimea be parcelled out to the conquerors . So with Poland : the Poles are there quite ready , with a little
encouragement , to take it . So with Bessarabia ; so with Finland . In a word , England could conquer Russia by means of the Russians ; by a bold , wise resolution to go into this war , not only to conquer , but to destroy Czardora—by invoking oppressed races to rise —by solemnly assuring them that they would rise as the soldiers of England—safe under her shield . It would cost money ; but the English nation has made up its mind to that .
The Greeks And Mr. Bright. Mr. Bright, I...
THE GREEKS AND MR . BRIGHT . Mr . Bright , in a letter which is a model of effective popular writing , has condemned the war : and the Greeks , in a series of small manifestations , on the Stock Exchanges of London and Manchester , have intimated their delight at what they are pleased to call the successful defence of Russia against the allied armies . Now , as the nation is very hot about the war , and very anxious about Sebastopol , the leading journals have soundly abused Mr . Bright , and
some choleric mercantile men have suggested the lynching of the Greeks—whom the mercantile man enduring-ly abhors , because your Greek , the incarnation of the commercial spirit , is such a very successful trader—beating the Englishman wherever he presents himselfand seldom "being found in proximity to the low Jew , in accordance with that domestic axiom , which teaches that where you find one class of vermin you are at least safe from the other .
But , in our indignation , we are forgetting our constitutional principles and our national traditions . This war happens to be a very popular war ; our unanimity , as a nation , when we do agree , is indeed wonderful ; and we are , naturally , restless under the criticism of the few dissentients—whose- " vulgar vanity" small morning journals , determined to ignore European personages like Mr . Bright , are resolved not to gratify—so they refuse to name them ! Let us , however , recollect how we stood in former wars . Have we forgotten the
Affghanlstan war ? Have we forgotten the untoward business of Navarino ? Some slight differences of opinion existed at these epochs ; the Houses of Parliament dividing , in tolerably equal numbers , on the question of the justice of the hostilities declared in the name of the Sovereign and the nation . In Wellington ' s time , it was only one half of England was carrying on war against France , the Whig half not only condoling with the people ' s lialfon the King ' s victories , but actually corresponding with Napoleon , or Nnpoleou ' s agents , in a manner that , if they would read their history , would surprise the
gentlemen who declaimed against Lord Granville for asking Count Puhlen to dinner , and against Mr . S . Herbert for breakfasting with his Russian relative at Brussels . Certainly , in those days there was once or twice a notion ? even though the unpatriotic peace men were led by the King's heir , of sending the Whiga to tho Tower . lint the result suggests that it would have been very unjust , for wo have lived to see the daiy on which tho present Whig leader , Lord . John Hussull , evoked hearhears from nil partw of tho I Jouso of Commons when , crushing u Conservative attempt to exalt Mr . Pitt , he smd that , after all , tho Tory anti-French war must bo acknowledged to have been a blunder . Who can say that in
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 11, 1854, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11111854/page/9/
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