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SEsrmnmiu Ws^ftH kj T HIBi lEADIS B^ §&j
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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CRIMEA. It is just a...
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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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Noblesse Oblige. A Pxiantaoenetis Accuse...
formation to a committee of proprietors , except through himself . It lias been thought eute to drive asharp ^ bargain , to take any advantage which offered itself , to foist a losing branch upon some other company , if possible to persuade a rival enterprise out of a parliamentary opposition ; to impose an " understanding " upon the representative of a rival company without a technical bond , and then to repudiate : and such conduct is , it appears , practically the rule in . railway society . Nor is it railway society alone . If we accuse the magnates of the railway world ,
they only turn round and say that they are no worse than the grandees of the political world . Take our own highest officers . Lately we had Sir James Geaham presiding over the birth of the Silloth Railway , and avowing on that august occasion that he had been , " of all things , the maintainer of peace , " even , of course , at the time when he was Minister , and affecting to commence the war . If we take his own avowal literally , he must have been giving advice in the Cabinet Council to begin the war which he pretended to encourage ; he continued in the Council
to frustrate the advice given to her Majesty ; he suddenly left the Council , with the expectation that his abrupt departure would break it down ; and so , whether tending advice to the Queen , withdrawing his advice , equally seeking to take the Crown by surprise , to obstruct that which he pretended to aid , and to make the Sovereign , G-overnxnent , and the people yield to his individual crotchet of peace at all price . But Sir James Gbaham is the Knight of Netherby , one of the cleverest of our public men , and extremely respected . There is not one of the Cabinet Council who would exclude him
from a grand party . The moral atheism , without which these incentives to political suicide could not exist , is the worst product of a discredited utilitarianism , and is the lowest decline of morals amongst us . We have sunk so low , that at this point we must rise . The science of the political sharper has been exhausted , and upon a practical experience we find that it does not " " pay . " In railways it is a losing
game ; companies try to outwit each other ; but they have to pay for their mutual cheatings in Parliamentary expenses , and in " preference " shares , while dividends sink to 4 s . 6 d ., or nil . Sharp practice never pays in the long run . If it is so in railways , it is bo in politics . Gbaham and Debut , Russetx and Disraeli , have outwitted each other so often , that at last the public ends by thinking each inferior to the rest . TJow as the Derby
level may be , Russei / l is lower ; and Graham vaunts hie peace manoeuvres amidst a silence that condemns himself . If swindling proves a leBS profitable course than upright honesty in domestic politics , the rule holds not less good abroad . Half of our difficulties result from the fact that we have lost the clue to get through the perplexities
of life , public or private , which is aflbrded by " principle . " "Wo do not know whether to choose between fidelity to Turkey , or compromise with Austria . Oar Governments tolerated Prussia , because they had learned to compromise every species of dignity and honour . If chivalry had supplied the standard for our own statesmen , no mean Mantisuit-TEii would have boen able to secure
immunity for Prussia , in the double-dealing course of an alliance with the West and subserving Russia . A pettifogging philosophy may make us respect the p iratea who share in the booty of international peculation , but the fact is , that we have to pay so many millions in our war expenditure becauso we have let Prussia pamper fche absurd expectations of * he Czab . The same test would have settled
all Italian difficulty : long ago . If we look to the simple measure ( Of chivalry , we should find that we must give assistance to that scion of the house of Savoy who has placed his trust in his people , lends his armies to the cause of justice , and dares to defy states exceeding his own as the giant exceeds the pigmy . The same test would have taught us that a Prince like him of Naples , who- violates his word , imprisons the helpless , . and serves : our enemy while pretending to-be ,-our ally , is on every principle of Christian knighthood
absolutely intolerable ; and yet we have tolerated him , and he still wields a sceptre for the advantage of Russia . He should be expelled from every protection of knightly brotherhood , and yet he is included in the actual " system . " The people , who instinctively test their own actions and those of rulers by very simple principles , are mystified , and are incapable of following our policy ; and they are likely to aid the enemy because we leave them without trust for any leaders that we can offer . "We intend to
be magnanimous and glorious , and we find ourselves entangled with mean men like Mantetjffel , with crowned tipplers like Frederick "WiLiiiAM , and with idiots like Ferdinand , because statesmen have thought themselves free to do what " no gentleman" would think of doing , and what would compel the herald , if he knew it , to place the stain of disgrace upon the escocheon of a knight . The " spirit of chivalry" may revive in the field where its qualities are roughly awakened ; and if it can thence be introduced into our
society , our statesmanship , our great companies , and even our knightly " orders , " moral vitality would be restored to us , and we should recover from that disease of adulteration which infects noble lords and state councils as much as it does commercial companies , or " food , drinka , and drugs . "
Sesrmnmiu Ws^Fth Kj T Hibi Leadis B^ §&J
SEsrmnmiu Ws ^ ftH kj T HIBi lEADIS B ^ §& j
The Campaign In The Crimea. It Is Just A...
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CRIMEA . It is just a year and a day since the Allied armies , under IJord Raglan and' Marshal St . Arnattd , landed at Old Fort ^ . a few miles north of the Alma . It is , therefore , a few days short of the anniversary of the battle on that river , and a few weeks short of the anniversary of the commencement of the siege of Sebastopol . That siege has been begun and terminated within a twelvemonth ;
and , dramatically , the event of the 8 th forms a last scene to the second act of the war ; the first winding up with the raising of the siege of Silistria and the withdrawal of the Russian armies "behind the Pruth . How full of incident , how varied in fortunes , personal and military , are the twelve months that have elapsed since the first soldier of the Allied army landed in Kalamita Bay ! On the 20 th September , 1854 , Prince Mensohikofi faced Lord Raglan and
Marshal St . Arnattd on the Alma — the former is in obscurity , the two latter are in their graves . All the British divisional commanders who went out at the commencement of the war are either dead or iu retirement . Tho whole btaff has undergone an almost entire change . In the French army there have been threo Commandora-in-Chief ; in tho Russian and British armies two ; while a totally new body of troops — the gallant
Sardinians—have joined tho Allies . AVithm the year there lmvo been threo pitched battles ; one lino cavalry combat , one immortal cavalry charge , shaking au army iu position ; innumerable sorties and battles in the trendies and outworks of Sobastopol ; and two grand assaults , tho one repulsed , tho other victorious . A Russian fleet has disappeared , either consumed by fire , or covered by the wavos of the Black Sea Throe provincial towns have been taken and retained—one in
spite of the assaults of a . large army . A line of forts on the eastern coast of the Black Sea has been abandoned by the enemy j and an inland sea , hitherto a Russian lake , swept clear of Russian shipping , and ravaged all round by the incessant attacks of a steam flotilla . To crown all , a town , surrounded by an intrenched camp , covered on the sea face bv
strong forts , garrisoned by a large army , and not invested , has , after the most painful labour , great loss of life , vast expense , and a display of immortal perseverance on one side , unflinching constancy on the other , and undaunted bravery on both , yielded to overwhelmingly destructive efforts , and remained the prize of the invaders .
When Prince Mensohikoti 1 entrenched himself behind the Alma , he did so in the hope that he should delay the advance of the Allies until his reinforcements came up . He was rapidly undeceived . The Allies came up before them , and in three hours wrested his position from him before his reinforcements had passed Perekop . The aim of the former was to carry Sebastopol by a . coup de main . Finding that Menschxkoit fled before them ; that the north side was
unassailable , because means were wanting , and a secure base of operations , the Allies moved upon Balaklava and appeared before the south side , as Prince Menschikobe , who had been to Bakfcchi-Serai , returned to the north . It was decided not to risk an assault , but to lay siege to the place in form . The first object of the invasion , the seizure of the city by a coivp de main , therefore , had failed , and for the second , the siege of Sebastopol , the Allies had neither the means ,
the men , nor the time . In a brief space they were in fearful danger . Successively opposed by the garrison , their right flank and right rear were seriously menaced by the external army . Liprandi carried the low hills in the Balaklava valley ; but Dannbnbees , acting under Menschikokf , although employing enormous forces , failed in the more important enterprise of breaking through the right flank of the Allies at Inkerman , and was repulsed with awful loss .
This wonderful battle opened the eyes of the Allied Governments , and they found it needful to make great exertions to sustain the weakened armies during the winter . Precariously fed , and overworked , the Allied armies lost thousands by Bickness ; but still the losses were repaired , the siege works even were continued , and there were nearly thirty thousand British soldiers to welcome the spring . In the meantime Omar Pacha had occupied and fortified Eupatoria , had beaten back superior numbers with his Turks ; and had supplied several regiments to reinforce
the army before Sebastopol . As soon as the fine weather fairly returned the siege operations were actively renewed ; but the bombardment iu April did little beyond demonstrating tho superiority of our fire . The enemy had possessed himself of two strong outworks on his eastern lino of defence , and had constructed rifle-pits even in advance of them . But one by one tho Allies carried tho rillo-pits ; stormed the Mainolon and the works on Mount Sapoune ; and drovo the Russians within their grand line .
In order to distress the garrison , aa oxpodition seized Kortch and Ycni-Kiiloh , and a flotilla swept the Soa of Azof , which led to the fall of Anapa and tho retreat of tho garrison over tho Kouban . On tho 17 th of J unotho Allies again bombarded tiebuatopol , «« don iae 18 th attempted to carry tho WIS or" <^ J s ^^!^ % Vs 5 £ S Russians cut up and repelled in detail . Xlie
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 15, 1855, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15091855/page/11/
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