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r «« d <* fiter kame delay ; returned home . Sooh are tbe ^ nattun evetrts . . __ The eowplaint against Sir Chabmes Napiek is , > tbat he has riot attempted to take Cronfcfcadt , H « lsingfors , or Revel . Now , has the attack on Sebastopol been so completely successful ^ to encourage similar attacks ? Formidable as th © defences of Sebastopol appear , we do not conceive that they can for * a ! to Cronstadt
moment be compared or Sweaborg . As foPRevel , we long believed that the -fleets might have battered the town 'down , though an occupation of the town without ja land force would have been impracticable in the face of the troops encamped on the heights outsfde . General NieL is reported to have declared , -after reconnoitering it , that it was stronger than ' Bweaborg ; . but we must have evidence "before we can believe it . But Revel ,
in itself , would have been a poor conquest . Anotiier complaint is that Sir Charles 'did not -take Bomarsund earlier in the campaign , so that the -work might have been done without the French troops . Bomarsund , indeed , has been the reverse of Sebastopol . With sufficient means , the former was attacked
And captured almost without loss . Sebastopol lias been attacked with an insufficient army , and is not yet taken , though thousands of men have , perished . Now , had we not possessed a force sufficient to invest Bomarsund we might have met with a reverse . We cannot , therefore , accept the date of the Bormarsund success as a real fault .
Gross faults , however , there have Tindoubtedly been . Our spy department has been in a wretched state . With the Swedes friendly , a T Kttle TOoney ^ udieiously scattered at Stockholm "would have ensured us a complete acquaintance with Sweaborg and the state of the garrison ; yet ¦ td ^ the last it was uncertain whether the forts commanded the town or vice versa . The Tinity between the French and English Admirals ought to have been complete : we doubt it—not without reason . But independently of
naval , there may have been political reasons which' induced the Allies to send troops out to the Baltic . The 10 , 000 men were ostentatiously named the " First Division , " and we ' wll ^ expected an ^ wn ^ ' ^ f ^ 070 XX ) T ~^ OT t ~ clf t ^ y September . . May not the Russian Government have been equally deceived ? It is probable they were ; for our troops having passed the Belt at the beginning of September , on the 15 th the Emperor reviewed part of his guard and two regiments of hussars , and then sent them southward . If it had not been for
the " FaTSt Division" of the Baltic army these 15 , 000 men might have struck with fatal effect at Alma ; but we have yet to ascertain that the political 'objects were so distinct , or so successfully aimed at , as to have justified the ruse . On the whole , the results of the Baltic campaign indicate the original and radical fault—¦ w ant of a purpose sufficient or distinct .
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GENERAL GUYON AND SERGEANT SULLIVAN . The spirit of chivalry is not dead ; it survives in a considerable portion of our own army ; it is displayed by many Englishmen who have gone forth in search of adventure for the defence of right against wrong . Where the spirit of chivalry is dead appears to be in the central Government ; for there they cannot appreciate the thing when they
find it . One of the men who has most distinguished himself in The great exploits of the 'Crimea is a young sergeant named Sullivan , " who was in all the actions , distinguished in tift , "j ^ nd particularly distinguished , with somoi officers , in arresting the advances of the Kus-Bians upon Baloklava on the 26 fch of October . 3 Ie was / one of a picket-which personally con- ' tested the field , and performed prodigies of
valour . Many sergeants have been pro-Mioted since tfoat date , but Stu-mvait ' s name , although mentioned by brave old Sir de Lacy Evaks , is not in the official list . How is this ? Is it that he was not a sergeantmajor , and that the official heart cannot recognise chivalry beneath the rank oi a sergeant-major ? , There is another brave man—a true
knighterrant in the highest sense of the word—who has been unjustly treated ; and as the ^ injustice is not perpetrated by oar own Government , we might expect that his official countrymen—if such a phrase as official countrymen can be allowed—would advance in his defence . The case is stated in a letter to ourselves , from a gentleman whose name is sufficient voucher i—
( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Weston-Super-Mare , February , 1855 . ¦ g ut , The French journals report the arrival of General Guyon at Constantinople , and the Times , a day or two eince , quoting from a French paper , stated that this brave soldier had been placed on half-pay by the Sultan . Surely our gallant countryman , the tried Mend of oppressed nations , the hero of " Braniszko" and " Temesvar , " the commander of the fortress of Comorn , and whose heroic deeds have given him a E uropean fame , and caused his very name to be feared in the Russian camp , deserves a better fate ? Is it Austrian , Russian , or Turkish intrigue which seeks to crush the energies , and to remove from the battle-field one of England's bravest sons ? It is to be hoped that our ambassador at Constantinople , supported by our Foreign Secretary , will use his influence to obtain for General Guyon some prominent command in the Crimea . Such a man , with no slight experience in Russian tactics , acquired both in Hungary and Asia , would be of the utmost value to Lord Raglan or Omar Pacha at a time when death and illness have deprived ~ us of our best generals . It cannot be too generally Icnown , for the honour of General Gnyon , that in the early stage of the present war he had been urged by the Turkish Government to embrace the Mahomedan faith , but like a good Englishman , and an enlightened son of the-Church of his fathers , he resisted the great temptations of military command and high honours , more willing to forfeit his life , and to cast away his sword , which he loved so dearly and used so nobly , than be branded with the name of apostate . I am , Sir , your obedient servant , A . Kinglake .
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-.. ^ , THE THIEF JPACTOKY . - Some day , we presume , the Grovernment , coerced by the intelligent public , will attempt the removal of that nuisance which is the worst of all others—far worse than the smoke which pollutes the atmosphere , or even than the drainage which pollutes the water we drink . It is the corrupt and decayed mass of humanity which we annually create by the
recruitment of the " dangerous classes . " We are ourselves guilty of positively augmenting that worst of all nuisances , because the nuisance exists , increases , and is as Kttle capable of removing itself as the Thames is of reforming the London drainage , or the smoke of stopping within the chimney . The unhappy children who are annually turned into the streets cannot school themselves out of
the circumstances that render livelihood and vice essential companions . It is almost a principle of English law , that a man who cannot get bread to sustain life without stealing , may steal . Mr . Addebley has calculated that three-fourths of the criminal population are so because of necessity and bad education—faults which must be chargeable against society , and not against the individuals .
The Ordinary of Newgate has lately laid n report before the Court of Aldermen , which confirms the strongest- representations of the effect that our correctional discipline has in positively increasing the crime . Our enactments for the good order of towns artificially multiply the number of offences , and therefore the occasions for misconduct . A boy is sent to prison for calling " sweep" in the
streets , and he learns in the prison how to use his skill in descending chimneys for the purpose of house-breaking . Another boy thoughtlessly breaks a windowwith a stone , learns tricks of dishonesty in prison , becomes a settled culprit , and a murderer . To trundle a hoop , to steal a worthless trifle , to shake a mat in the streets , to be impertinent in some of . __ _ .- - . ^ . a —
walks of life , are only specimens the newoffences -which may be treated penally . The prison is a college of crime , with the advantage of board and lodging , while the pupil sits under a Professor . Some prisons are better classified than others ; but when the youth issues even from them , he is an outcast from decent society , and is _ . forced into constant association with the criminal classes ,
male and female . * "Whether the silent system can be safely adopted , especially with the young , we are not prepared to say . Under very great care it has perhaps succeeded , but it evidently requires the most humane and unceasing vigilance on the part of managers . The reformatory schools at Mettray and at Redhill have proved that youths may be trained out of criminals into reasonable members of society by much more natural means—by well
proper cultivation of their physical as as their moral and iu tellectual position— -by giving them decent home , wholesome diet , and industrial education ; in short , by placing the involuntary criminals on a level with tho involuntary virtuous members of society . ! For let us never forget that he who is well taught Tnay bless" himself ibr Ms good fortune , but has no riglit to exult over the thief or the beggar whose degradation is the result of early training . A « short cut to prevent the constant recruitment of the criminal
class would seem to be afforded by the suggestion of Mr . M . D . Hill , that parents should be made personally responsible for the conduct of their children . This would correct a great difficulty in the control of the young . It has been observed that education is one of those duties the neglect of which entails a bad consequence , not upon the real culprit but upon somebody else . The parent commits , the-wrong , andjthe . child suffers the penalty . Mr . Hill ' s plan would go some connexion be
way to correct that want of - tween motives and results ; but it would by no means do all , nor does Mr . H ill think that it would . At the very first blush we see how unjust it would be to punish parents for not educating their children , when they can scarcely feed those children , much less find schooling for them . Before we can inflict penalties , we must teach tho parents themselves to appreciate the force of education ; to understand the doctrine of
chance , which might make statutory , penalties recoil upon themselves , and to look forward ; that is , you must teach the parents to be intelligent and prudent—you must educate them . But educated parents will usually have educated children ; and to presume tho right working of parental responsibility , you beg the question that the parents of tho young shall themselves be an educated class . You cannot punish a parent for neglecting to send a son to school unless you provide him with the public school for the purpose ;
you cannot have a parent able to appreciate tho blessings of education , or even hope that he will go to the riglit shop for education , unless you have educated the parent . In other words , you cannot have just correctional discipline until you have , had public schools . . Free schools are tho true complement of parental liability . Penal discipline to punish bad conduct , without tho school to teach right conduct , is , in fact , to establish for an uneducated class of society a school which is- all flogging .
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« ftoi fli MBABBE . EBaotrpay , ¦ .. - - ———— - ——™^*^*~^— . ^^—^^^» ; —^ --- ^^^— - ^—1 —^^—*——^ M ^—^**—M ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ ¦' ¦¦ ¦
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 10, 1855, page 134, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2077/page/14/
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