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January 13,1855.] THE LEADEB. 4*1
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[IK THI8 DEPARTMENT, AS All OPINIONS, HO...
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THE COMING PEACE. (7*q the Editor ofthe ...
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POLICE! POLICE! ( To the Editor of the L...
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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.
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Memoir On The Conduct Of The War. [The F...
vanced and developed their strength , until they would have found themselves inferior to the enemy . The best counsel , therefore , and the most prudent ,-was that to re-embark before the season of the equinoxes and the storms in the Black Sea . Arid they have not yet been able to disembark all the materials o . f war and of siege for the army . The moral of the soldier , raised by the battle won on the Alma , would not have remained affected by retreat ; nor could the
enemy , in retreat and beaten , have been able to boast of any success . I n the coming spring , under the best auspices , a new campaign might have been undertaken . A good and opportune retreat is equal to a victory . Wellington , who is reasonably reputed the most fortunate among the great and prudent generals , in spite of having won the battle of Fuentes de Onoro , in Portugal , as the enemy had preserved order , did not wish to follow him when he retreated behind Agueda : and instead of
doing so , he better fortified his line of battle on the heights of Fuentes de Onoro , raising redoubts and batteries . And why so much prudence ? Because a battle lost would have compromised his army , which drew its reinforcements from the sea ; and because the French being ill -provided with victuals and ammunition , to gam time was of great use to the English army , which secured its defences and augmented its forces by the Portuguese troops that were opposed to Massena , who , in proportion as time lapsed , consumed his provisions , and thus dail y fell into a worse position . And however Wellington may have fortified the
celebrated lines of Torres " Vedras , and fought in a friendly country , nevertheless he carried on war on the Fabian principle , because he justly thought the sea not a bad base of military operations . Even now the Anglo-French , in a hostile country , choose the stormy and inhospitable Black Sea for the base of operations , and hazard the rashest operations against the enemy , who to bravery adds superiority of numbers . Nevertheless , by some it is objected that after the battle of the Almar it was necessary to undertake the siege ; otherwise , in the coming spring , the Russians would have much increased the fortifications
of Sebastopol . ^ But I ask if , with the siege , that object is secured ? On the contrary , the Kussians would have been compelledT to- fortify all— the points of the place ; as they would have done , if they had not known the front of attack , and had been thus permitted to fortify only those that are now attacked . In this deplorable state of politico-military affairs , what remains to be done ? To be logical , you must patronise liberty , civilisation , and independence . Well , are you with the oppressed peoples , and not with the oppressors ? Are you with the Gospel and . not with the Koran ? In fine , would you-be with-Justice ? Do . you want to combat the Russian ? Well , march to encounter his army and fight him in open . field . Arrest the reinforcements that you send to the Crimea ,
because these arrive there in a decimated condition , and in the spring you will not find so much as half available for the campaign . Shut up the army of the Crimea in a strong camp , enclosed so that it is to be regarded as a citadel capable of sustaining a siege ; suspend the siege of Sebastopol ; concentrate a strong Turkish army of reserve at Varna , reunite the cavalry and artillery in the plains of Adrianople , and quarter the English and French infantry at Constantinople on the shorea of the Bosphorus , where you will reunite a strong army , which in the next spring will enter into line with the Turkish army on the right of the Pruth , and will bestride the Lower Danube . Hence , if the Russians , without taking account of the concentration of formidable armies in
Turkey , were to continue to send reinforcements to the Crimea , and were to resume the offensive there , besieging the allied army in its enclosed camp , send them onl y those reinforcements that would suffice to sustain the siege until the good season . Moreover , the wet season and the infamous state of the ground render attacks difficult ; besides which , the fleet offers a powerful support to the defence .
As to the equivocal attitude of Austria in the Principalities , there is no ocension to take thought of it . This power has many vulnerable points , and it is an easy thing to make a diversion of their forces . To enter into that qucation , however , would be beside the present subject , while France and England persevere in their fatal and unjust policy . , !* !*
January 13,1855.] The Leadeb. 4*1
January 13 , 1855 . ] THE LEADEB . 4 * 1
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[ IK THI 8 DEPARTMENT , AS All OPINIONS , HOWBVKB EXTEIME , AB 1 ALLOWED A » BXPBESStOK , THE EDITOB NECE 83 AK 1 LT HOLDS HIM . 1 SELF 8 ESPO | ISIBLE FOB NOSE . 3
The Coming Peace. (7*Q The Editor Ofthe ...
THE COMING PEACE . ( 7 * q the Editor ofthe " Leader . " ) ' gIRj According to the latest rumours , the Ministry of all the Incapacities will meet an impatient and bewildered Parliament with head erect and ready tongue . In the aristocratic chamber , Lord Clarendon ; in the house of the landed gentry and the trading classes , Lord John Russell , will confidently place upon the table a treaty containing the four guarantees . In various forms of ministerial equivocation they will inform an enthusiastic and indulgent
nation that a glorious peace is about to be signed . To the disinterested and patriotic opposition of Lord Derby and Mr . Disraeli , those natural enemies of despotism , the Ministry Avill say triumphantly : — " If this be not a desirable peace , what more would you desire ? Turkey is saved , we have gained two signal victories , Russia is humiliated , the Black Sea and the mouths of the Danube are open to every flag , the supremacy of Russia in the East is destroyed , her exclusive Protectorate is annulled . " And Ixirds and Commons will hear ! / tearI and so the
curtain falls upon the tragi-comedy of mystifications , and another entr ' acte of " European tranquillity " begins . So much for the balance of power . But you have another duty to accomplish : you owe to the intelligence of your readers , to the political faith you serve , to the cause you represent , plain words of truth and sincerity . I assert , then , that the Czar , making peace to-day , comes out of the contest stronger than before . It was not presumed that Russia could make head against France and England united ; it is now proved that without Austria , France and England do but court disaster . It was imagined that Cronstadt would fall at the first gun of the British fleet in the Baltic . It is proved that shallow waters protect the Russian forts even more securely than granite , while the 14 th of October has convinced Europe that Sebastopol can resist the combined atmaritime
tack i > f the fleets ^ of the two strongest powers of the world . Russ ia now knows that Great Britain alone is powerless against her , that a leet without an invading army is a show , and that Great Britain is henceforth compelled to cleave to France against their common rival . The campaign began with sympathy-for the Turks , it closes with contempt . The Protectorate of the Four Powers will weigh as heavily on the Ottoman Porte as the ambition of the Czar , and Turkey is more " sick " than ever . The cure is fatal . How the Sultan shall become a Christian is still the question . Russian diplomacy fought the battle of Navarino in concert with France and England : a little more shuffling of the cards , and she will give the coup de grace to Turkey with her allies of Navarino , whose vigilant jealousy will not allow her alone to despatch the sick object of so much solicitude . „ _ _ Crimea undertaken
The expedition to the was , not merely to destroy Sebastopol , but with the afterthought of cutting out of Southern Russia a separate kingdom . Now , " it is purely a political war we are waging : we never entertained the idea of humiliating the just pride , nor of dismembering the territory of Russia . " If Sebastopol is already stronger than it was last October , what will it be when the Allies have retired , and how will the preponderance of Russia in the Euxine be subdued ? The destruction of the Russian fleet is a secondary consideration : the first is the rescue of the wreck of the British army . How grateful should England be to a Ministry so sagacious , so economical , so imperial 1 And the Circassians who were to be delivered ? They live too far from the coast . But your conclusion , the impatient and mystified Englishman demands . Would you repudiate the peace and continue the war ? Certainly not . The Ministry of all the Incapacities cannot get beyond the Four Points : it may go down to posterity as the Ministry of the Four Points . No more of this dull comedy of war without a purpose . Kings and Emperors fight with buttoned foils and courteous grimaces . How should Louia Napoleon be in earnest against despotism ? When the nations have recovered their rights , they will fight the battle of principles—by shaking hands . I remain , Sir , Your obedient servant , The Author op " Tub Nations of Russia and Turkey , and their Dkstiny . "
Police! Police! ( To The Editor Of The L...
POLICE ! POLICE ! ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) gIR > —The exposure of Detective Policeman Charles King , and his band of trained pickpockets , has been followed by such general exclamations of surprise
and disgust , that a foreign student of the manners and customs of the people , might easily fall into the mistake of supposing that this relationship between the officer and the thief is not the natural result of our police system—a result ,. too , which is perfectly weH . understood by all who give themselves the trouble to think about the matter . Nothing can be more clear than the fact that the existence of a police at all is nothing but a choice of evils . ^ The public prefers suffering injustice and robbery in a mitigated form at the hands of a small body of men , rather than be at the mercy of a large criminal population , just like a gentleman tolerates the game , keeper who robs him moderately , but whokeeps at bay
the rest of the poaching fraternity . This is so well understood , that some of the predatory habits of the police have passed into a joke , and every householder laughs at the picture of a policeman emptying the larder by connivance of the cook , provided he does not find its realisation * in his own kitchen . The fact is , there is no magic in a blue coat with letters on the collar ; a policeman is human after all ; he is endowed by the same instincts , moved by the same passions , and guided by the same appetites as he was before he entered the service of the law . The routine duties and ostensible emoluments of the policeman are not very tempting , and unless we are to suppose that patriotism prompts men to join the force , there is a difficulty in believing that the average policeman ia not ratherunder than above the average
of Englishmen , in morals , intellect , and education ! What the consequences of this system are may be demonstrated from its history all over the world . That execrable book , the Memoirs of Vidocq , goes to show that , as the best poacher makes the best gamekeeper , so the best burglar makes the best policeman ; it also shows that self-conceit and a sort of hideous liking for his art , led the French policeman into fostering , instead of repressing , crime , in order that he might enjoy the supreme felicity of checking the ingenious villain at the critical momentby some still more ingenious piece of cunning . This is the inevitable consequence of the detective system j for so long as the craft and cunning of the policeman is trumpeted to his praise , he has no object in suppressing crime , but the reverse . to
Perhaps Mr . Charles Dickens has something answer for in making the detective an object of public admiration . The Nights with the Detectives QNbctes Mercuriales ) began the business , and Inspector Bucket , with his mysteriousjForefinger , completed the apotheosis of the policeman ; henceforth he became the most virtuous , the most sympathetic , as well as the most astute Of mortals . " Nights with the detectives" became the fa shion , and many is the silly swell who has been goose enough to pay golden guineas for the high privilege of accompanying Inspector Bucket in his peregrinations through miasmatic neighbourhoods , where ia some wretched lodging-house he has gazed upon a mass of humanity in the last state of filth and weak degradation , and has gone away under the belief that he has penetrated some inner sanctum of crime , and that his own knowledge and views of life have been infinitely
extended thereby . If Inspector Bucket got no more than the fees paid by these Knowing students of . manners , we should leave the matter where it is ; but he is hot so easily satisfied . We will venture to say that there is . not a beat in all this great metropolis the exact value of which is not accurately calculated by the Bucket fraternity . In many , perhaps most neighbourhoods , this value may be expressed in legs of mutton and those indefinite rights and interests classed under the name of cook ' s perquisites ; but it is an indisputable fact that there are some districts in which a more iniquitous black-mail is levied . What we refer to ia matter © f notoriety to all who know anything Westend
of the nightly status of the streets at the -. How is it that you will occasionally see an unfortunate girl dragged off for walking the streets , whilst hundreds more are committing precisely the same oflence within sight ? How is it that the policeman keeps a certain distance of pavement sacred to one or two promenaders ? How is it that the lawis openly and notoriously infringed m certain houses , and the police can't for the life of them , astute as they generally are , find evidence to convict ? Simply because Inspector Bucket is at worK , and because he has not only a finger , but also a palm , and when that palm is properly operated upon , the active , mysterious , justice - working finger is
P These things want enquiring ft ^ . ^ jJX S quired into , it will bo found that Charles , Kn . g is not an exception by any means . The f £ *» Vf ™ * ° to its foundation , and demands an "'^ X ^ nSniSw but in the meantime the public should : ^ " [ gJJ that so loner as thoy deify and applaud tho mannes-S ^^ f & KSKP species than is arat-catchor in the abolition of rats . I am , Sir , your obedient servant , . J . L .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 13, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13011855/page/17/
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