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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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TO CORRESPONDENTS . "Officers and Gentlemen . " The clever articles , under this title , by " Late a Middy , " we decided on not going on with on this ground—that while our officers are doing their work in the Crimea , it would not be very appropriate to abuse them for their errors in " manners . " Our Stoke-upon-Trent friend should give us his name and address . No notice can bo taken of anonymous communications . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated toy the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of his good faith . Communications should always be logibly 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 . Ml letters for the Editor should be addressed to 7 , Wellington-street , Straud , London .
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there is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the "world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress .. —Dk . Arnold
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THE GOVERNMENT AtfD THE ARMY . The delay in the capture of Sebastopol has , on 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 lay 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 he 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 Duudas , before , Sebastopoltaking the sure method when the swift would have been opon to him , and being even too slow about the sure . On the other hand , some Englishmen "write from the camp that the French got their forts knocked to pieces because they did not take sufficient time in rendering their forts sufficiently substantial . ! I \'
in all this there is merely the evidence that the alliance must always be so far elastic that each arm } r , -with its national characteristics , shall fight , and go to work , after its own fashion . The armies represent the peoples ; the commanders represent the nrmies ; 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 in between Lord Raglan and General Canrobert . The manner and tone of Lord R a glim 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 . Bat , nationally , this 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 how 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 breadwitliiri a few hours sail of a great capital— the French commissariat having shared their loaves with our weary-of-biscuit-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 15 , 000 men ! True , there will be 35 , 000 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 wax which we have undertaken ?
True : we are sending out some 5 OU 0 more 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 men will play but a sorry part in a war which must assume the character of a war between France itnd Russia — the English and Turks as auxiliaries ?
Larly in this contest it was suggested that Franco and England should divide their forces j the Fronch taking the land fighting 1 , and the English the sea . But it is possible that England could maintain her position in a , nioro 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 60 , 000 could be maintained—would be some
years in wearing down tho force of Russia ; and carried on , on the presont small scale , there would soom to bo a great probability of tlie war lasting to a dato which would place it in history with other prolonged contests , as "tho —• years' war . " To conquer a power like Russia , we must riso out of routino 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 he 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 destro y Czardom—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 .
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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 leadingjournals have soundly abused Mr . Bright , and
some choleric mercantile men have suggested the lynching of the Greeks—whom the ' mercantile man enduringly abhors , because your Greek , the incarnation of the commercial spirit , is such a very successful . trader—beating tho 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 forgettingour 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 , arc resolved not to gratify—so they refuse to name them ! Let us , however , recollect how we stood in
former wars . Have we forgotten the Alfghanistan war ? Have we forgotten the untoward business of Navarino ? Some slight differences of opinion existed at these epochs ; the Houses of Parliament dividing , in tolerubly 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 half on the King ' svictoiies , but
actually corresponding with Napoleon , or Napoleon ' s agents , in a manner that , if they would read their history , would surprise the gentlemen who declaimed against Lord Granville for asking Count Pahlcn to dinner , and against Mr . 8 . Herbert for breakfasting 1 with his Russian relative at Brussels . Certainly , in tho . se days there was once or twice n notion , even though tho unpatriotic peace inon were led by
the King ' s heir , of sending tho Whigs to tlicj Tower . But the result stig-gx'sts that it would have been very unjust , for we have lived to see the day on which tho present Whig leader , Lord John KussoII , evoked hoarhears from all parts of tho House of Commons when , crushing a Conservative attempt to exalt Mr . Pitt , he said that , after all , tho Tory anti-French war must bo acknowledged to have becu tv blunder . Who cum say that in
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TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION TO " ®|) e SeaUet . " For a Half-Tear £ o 1 $ 0 To be remitted in advance . ^ @ * Money Orders should be drawn upon the Steahd Branch Office , and be made payable to Mr . A : lfhkd EGaxlowat , at No . 7 , Wellington Street . Strand .
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SATURDAY , NOTEMBEE 11 , 1854 .
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November 11 , 1854 ] THE LEADER . 1065 —
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 11, 1854, page 1065, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2064/page/9/
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