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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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In truth , the free Circassian tribes , compressed within a narrow compass , form a wedge , wnieh divides and weakens the Russian Empire . There the Czars have never enioyed more than a fictitious or frail authority . The opportunity of the war has been seized , consequently , to throw additional forces into this long-disputed field . General MOURA-VIEFF opened the campaign with fresh troops , computed at thirty thousand infantry , four cavalry regiments , and a proportionate number of guns . These , with the remnants bodt at
of the former army , constituted a y o least sixty thousand men , engaged along that important line , which includes the least defensible frontiers of Turkey and Persia . HMotjbavieff undertook his enterprise tinder the most rigorous commands . He left St . Petersburg with a plan of operations drawn up under the eye of the late Czar , and approved of by the best generals of the empire He has since visited every regiment at its post , and prepared a simultaneous attack on those Ottoman cities which , stand between him and the rich heart of Asia Minor .
Meanwhile , in anticipation of a descent from the mountains , General Babiatinski has been employed , for three months , in keeping the Circassians in check , and has pledged his sword to the fulfilment of this duty . Moubavteff , therefore , may confidently assault the unsupported Turks , the most demoralised of the Sultan ' s army , the least enthusiastic , the worst armed , the worst officered . Indeed , though the first attack on Karadagh failed , the Russian journals have reported some conflicts in which these vagrant Mahomedans have been dispersed after the first collision with the enemy .
Whether or not these incidents have been exaggerated , it is impossible to expect many Turkish successes in Asia . It becomes , then , a question whether our Ottoman contingent , commanded by efficient officers , should not aid in the defence of that important territory . Of regular troops there may be none to spare ; but the materials of an army abound on the eastern coast of the Black Sea , and some of our Indian captains , no doubt , could raise
bodies of light horse and infantry , enough to cope with the Russian columns in Georgia . This is a matter more important than , on the surface , it appears . The Georgian territory is too limited and too difficult of access to be replenished with defenders . It is a limb cut off from the empire by regions only partially under Russian control ; and , with the Armenian border occupied , the Russian army , adequately assailed , might be reduced to desperate extremities .
There have been occasions , in our military history , on which British armies have acted simultaneously over a vast area . In the Mahratta war our operations extended over a surface of four hundred miles square , and , when Holkar was assailed , four well-appointed armies within as many months were set in motion , and the conquest of half India
resulted . We do not pretend to find any analogy between the case of Holkar with hie half-barbarous levies among the Indian highlands , and the Russians on both sides of the Caucasus and in the Crimea ; but the example Berves to prove that when , your military resources are great they may bo safely divided , and that they may be divided to co-operate towards one result .
At all events tho Turks , in their present condition , cannot be viewed as competent defenders of Asia Minor . I / ast year , with a few variations o £ success , they yielded tho ground gradually to their assailants , who aro now attacking them with superior forces , and who may take possession of Kara , or nny other city , before the importance of their movements is perceived in Western [ Europe .
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COMING REPEAL OF THE BEER , ACT . Tiib House of Commons is preparing , by a select committee , a broad confession that last year it underwent that humiliating process which is vulgarly called being bamboozled . It passed tho Beer Act to starve people into stopping at homo or going to church , by shutting all houses of public entertainment ; this year it waa about to atop all kinds of Sunday trading ; but common sense as well as common convenience having revolted against tho whole class of legislation , the %
House has appointed a committee to nnc < whether or not there really was a cnne 'or passing the Boer Act . For that in Iho real question . And ntrangcly onongh the members appointed to inquire into " tho working ' of tho act , aro really inquiring into the original cane ! fttill more utrftiigoly , the foremost witnesses that they summon before them nro those public officers who nro charged with tho oxecutiou of tho aict—the . I ' olico Magistrates and tho chief OoininisnionePH ot Police in tho metropolis and in tho City . The ovidenco which those oflicors givo , coiu-
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so popular and so just as that of General Git yon to some high command . We trust that the Government will not rest satisfied with showing sympathy in this case , but that they will act . Austria can now , at least , "be no valid obstacle : and the Porte , by exonerating him from all blame respecting the loss of the fight at Kurukdere , has wiped away the stains with which calumnious intriguers
? GENERAL GUYOJN . MiB . Henry Herbert has deserved well of his country ia calling the attention of tile Government to the case of General Guyon " , a real soldier , and one of the finest horsemen in the world , who has for a year been kept by intrigues and false accusations without employment ; and we can assure Lord Palmerston that he could make no appointment at once
endeavoured to cover his fame . Few names in the Hungarian War of Independence shine with a purer or brighter flame than that of General Guyon . He saw it all . He was in the first field , he was in the latest fight ; and with some brave companions carried his stainless sword across the Danube , while Arthur Gobgei surrendered his to the direst foes of his devastated country . We detract from no other soldier ' s reputation in urging the claims of Guy on upon the British Government ; and all true soldiers will rejoice to think there is a chance that Guyon will be once more in the field
against the ^ Russians . If we only cast a glance ^^ pon the page s of that splendid , chivalrous , and tragic romance —the War for the Independence of Hungarywe see records of the exploits of Guyon . He was a major in the maiden field of the revolution , Schwechat , and there , in the estimation of his malignant detractor , Gorget , he , of all the officers , " had incontestably the greatest merit , " for he stood ^ ith the right
wing at Maims worth , and won renown , when others fell rapidly away . It was after that disastrous figlit that GditGEi met Bem for the first and last time , and in that brief interview , the latter generously remarked upon " the distinguished talents Guyon possessed as a general . " Bem , indeed , had reason to know , at a later period of the war , how daring , decided , and soldierly , was the young major of the National Guards . But not alone on the field of Schwechat did he shine
out the true star of courage in the gloom of defeat . When Gorgei made his masterly retreat through tho mountains in the depth of winter , it was Guyon ' s steadfastness , that caused the army to effect a junction at Neusolh , in spite of difficulties interposed by the overflow of the Gran , the broken bridges , and deeply-inundated roads—a steadfastness that unquestionably saved tho army . But tho work was only half done . The object of the movement was to gain the Theiss and effect a junction with Kxapka , between
whom and Gorgei ' s troops stood Count ScnLTOic , strongly posted on the Branyiszko Pass ; and when Gorgei halted his division of 15 , 000 men at Xieutschau , and passed his time half in dancing , half in a despairing reverie , General Guyon marclied his 10 , 000 troops—with whom Gorgei considered , it impossible to gain victoriesagainst tho Anatrians , and drove them headlong from tho defile . Guyon pursued hia advantage with vigour , and thus it was that Gorgei ' s corps effected a junction on the Theias with tho main body of the Hungarian
army . A brilliant campaign followed in tho spring of 184-9 ; and by a series , of victories the Hungarian army once more arrived in night of tho Danube . Komorn w aa then invested by tho Austrians . Guyon , with the lmirols of many gallant deeds on liis brow , wan appointod govornor of the fortress ; and it
bereserves of the - cavalry , 12 , 000 strong , were brought up to turn the scale ; but Guyon , putting in motion 7000 Hungarians , charged them as they advanced , and drove them * back in the utmost disorder . But at the critical moment Bem found his ammunition fail , and the Austrian General Lichtenstein instantly seized the opportunity , and recovered his losses ; but not before Guyon had once more led his famishing Hussars upon a gallant but ineffectual Balaklava charge against one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon !
AustroRussian hoved him to find a . way in . He did find one . From the field * of Nagy Sarlo . he took a squadron , of hussars , and he broke a way in through the hostile lines of the enemy , and carried with him a company of Austrian infantry—as prisoners ! It is thus we ever find Guyon . Let us take one more glance at our gallant countryman . In the battle of Temesvar , lost , it must be feared , mainly by the too daring rashness of Bem , where was Guyon ? The day , as is known , was nearly won . The
When Gorgei feloniously surrendered at Villagos , Guyon would not yield himself , but , at the head of a faithful few , crossed the Turkish frontier . Five years elapse , and Guyon reappears . The Turkish army at Kars is dissolving away ; Guyon arrives at Kars , labours heartily , untiringly , successfully through the winter and again there is something like an army at Kars , and at least the beginnings of earthen defences on the Karadagh . The Russians
cross the frontier , and defeat the Turks in a pitched battle ; and the depraved , incompetent commanders impute the blame to the ablest man among them—to Guyon . He withdraws from the army ; his conduct , and that of the besotted Zarif , his superior officer , are investigated , and both are acquitted . And now no pretext can be found —not even the pretext that lie was the subject of a military inquiry—which will justify . such
in the least degree , the exclusion of an able and experienced officer from some important command . It is not for us to indicate what . As the leader of a division , Guyon showed that he knew his profession ; as the leader of cavalry , he showed he knew when to use them . And if he is not competent for the highest posts—of which we can be no judge—he is at least competent for a high post of command , and we trust the British Government will see that he receive one ; and that Lord Palmekston ' s expressions do not remain expressions only .
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« THE 111 DER . [ No . 2 fr 8 y Sajbubpay ^ Ol / 9 i — ¦ in i ¦¦ . .. ¦' .. . . .. _ - ^_^^^* j ^**^^ Z ^ L ± L ^^* i ^^* mmmia * a ^ mii ^ immma * ammma ^^^^^^^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 21, 1855, page 694, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2100/page/10/
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