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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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even rich . ISTot long since , a dinner was given to Colonel Mobims , who , as senior captain , commanded the Seventeenth Lancers in the charge of the [ Light Cavalry Brigade at Baliaklava . There were speeches , and they were reported ; and hi the report of Colonel Buck ' s speech was this passage : •—"Their gallant guest was not placed in the same position aa Lord Cardigan , who , it -was said , had paid 40 , 000 ? . for tie present position he held in the army , and who , when he met his friends at Leeds the other day , was obliged to ' try back , ' and first explain Ms conduct in the charge of Balaklava . There had been nothing in the conduct of their gallant guest so equivocal as to require such an explanation about ihe duties of cavalry officers as that made by the Earl of Cardigan at Leeds . "
Xiord Cardigan calls upon Colonel Geouge Sta ^ IiEY Buck to explain . " Did you , " he aska , " give utterance to sucli an uncalled-for allusion to me , expressed in such unwarrantable terms , and conveying such , an offensive insinuation with regard to my conduct ?" Colonel Buck replies that the report of his speech is very incorrect : — - " I referred to your Lordship ' s public speech at Leeds , which I simply stated as unsatisfactory to me . I gave no reason for my opinion ; nor did I mention anything about ' trying backj' or ' Balaklava , ' or ' equivocal conduct . ' I alluded to what 1 understood to have been the case—that your Lordship ' s commission had cost you between 30 , 000 i . and 40 , 000 ? . "
Colonel Mobeis had no necessity to explain his conduct at Balaklava , says Lord Cabdig-ai * , " because he had never been attacked "by anonymous libellers . " Colonel Morbis had been promoted since the charge of the Light Cavalry at Balaklava ; " which is certainly a much more agreeable way of obtaining promotion than by paying 40 , OOOZ ., supposing that statement to be true . " And his promotion , Lord Cardigan naively remarks ; ,, " proves that officers in our service do
not obtain promotion by nioney alone . " " nothing / ' he affirms , " can be more unsatisfactory , unstraightforward , or evasive than your reply . " Now , evidently Lord CaHdXg- ai * thinks that it ; is more honourable to obtain promotion by merit than money ; the 40 , 000 ? . is the sting of the " insinuation ;" yet he does not say that he did not pay the money ! Again he explains the charge at Balaklava 3 but he does not explain his own part in the retreat , unless lie does so in this
very vague expression : — " For myself , having led this brigade into the battery , I pursued my direct course as leader , a course which one horse could take , but in . which a line of troop 9 could hot well follow from the number of guns , limber carriages , and other impediments which stood in the -way . " It perplexes us to discover what is the point of honour to -which Lord Cardigan
adheres . He accuses others of insinuations , but we do not find that his own language ia more direct . He is full and explicit about the charge , when the question is concerning the retreat . He is angry at being said to have spent 40 , 0001 ,,, yet he does not deny the ' imputation . ' Is it thought honourable in the army to purchase your commission , but dishonourable to talk about it ?
Another great British officer increases our perplexit y . Lord Luoan threatens to bring am action of libel against the Daily News , for a general criticism on Crimean affairs in which the Earl figured . " Through our means , " Bays the Daily News , " Lord Luc an Beeks to obtain the opinion of a Jury of Englishmen on the part he played in the Russian war , and in tho controversies which arose out of his removal by the Queen , on the re commendation of Lord Habdtnge , from C ^ OmnMV H ° f Cavalry Division in the ^ rirnea : we fe el that wo hav e a great public eenerX t ^ atld > however indisposed generally to appear as defend ™** in Ln ^
tutes the libel , and for which he demands either an apology or damages . He demands an apology , without saying what for ! la the complaint too absurd to be stated ? Lord JJiJCAN published a little book — English Cavalry in the Army in the _ Etas £ —containing correspondence of his own ; in the course of this book , it appears that upon one or two occasions he had been compelled to perform duties which he would have left to others . Some light is thrown on his pretension to be exempt from duty by his subsequent complaint to Lord John" Eussell .
" With many officers in this army , a sense of duty and an ambition of professional distinction are the sole inducement to hold commands of great responsibility under ¦ no ordinary difficulties . How mortifying and how great must be the disappointment of any such officer , " &c . &c . ISTow , what was the point of honour here ? Lord Lttoan evidently thought he had a right not to take the foremost post in the hardships
of the Crimea , because he . was a person of " distinction . " "When a drink of water was brought to Sir Philip Sidnex as he lay dying , he pointed to a common soldier who needed it more , and should have it first . According to the modern and therefore educated view , Sir P hilip should have said , " Bring it to me first , or to rne only , for I am a person of distinction . "
A contemporary journal is rather severe upon Lieutenant Massy , because the p \ iblie has duhbed him ' Redan Masst , ' for the share which he took in the attack upon the Redan . There Here other men quite as heroically doing their daily duty in the trenches ; but if we understancl some passages which we have quoted above , those trenelimen had their motive ; they were paid for it . The English -public , like all great
publics , will always feel a powerful impulse to applaud a man who voluntarily seeks a very conspicuous post of danger ; a gallant young officer who dashes forward to confront death where numbers are falling around him is naturally admired by the English public . " We now understand , however , that this conduct was not so very admirable oh the part « of Masst : he had n , o natural claim to be in the reai' , since he was not a person of distinction .
These facts explain the distribution of honours . Officers of rank get the rewards for the sacrifices they make ; but what sacrifices are made by non-commissioned officers and privates ? One of the most chivalrous men who won renown in the war was Sir " WiiiXTAUc Williams ot ? Kars , and certainly we should have looked to a mar * so gallant for the very perfection of chivalry . Yet again we are perplexed . Civilization , has made such progress that our calculations are at fault . In all his speeches , amid the glow of welcome and applause , Sir William of Kaks has never so much as mentioned his patriotic ., chivalrous , but leas fortunate companion in arms , Kmety !
Perhaps sonio of our gallant correspondents may be able to inform us what really ia tho point of honour at tho present clay amongst ' officers and gentlemen . ' If not , perhaps we may issue a commission to inquire into . and report what is the point of honour , if any , among the recognized modern British chivalry .
oniS —Th l e "S W ~ to Wke thJI e ? er Ts " * W T nTt * ° tWs ref *™™ e , howto «?? X Lo r ^ o ^ distinctly refusea to state the particular point wbic £ ocmSrL
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There js no learned man tmt will confess he hath much profited t > jr reading controversies , his senses awakened and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be proatable for him to read , why should it not / at least , be tolerable for his adversary to wrrite j—Mii / toa-
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CHARTISM AND SOCIALISM . { To the Editor of the Leader . } Sir , —I confess myself one of those inclined to favour the Charter as a measure of reform , and wish now to draw the attention of its advocates to the two evils that menace their cause — a leadership without virtue , and a smattering of communism in the Tanks . So universal is the denunciation of the late mocktriumph , that it is evident political bias has had little weight in the public judgment . The mere moral sense of the people , a sense as true and trustworthy as is their political instinct , prompted them to hold aloof from a demonstration that outraged common propriety and good feeling . The lesson conveyed in this truth surely cannot be lost on the select knot of gentlemen who in a carriage-ahd-four paraded
our dingy thoroughfares oh that occasion . If not dazzled by their temporary elevation , they must have seen that the crowds of artizans that stood gaping at the doors they pUssed neither took the trouble to remove pipes from their mouths nor doif their caps in the presence of the majesty of the people , made manifest in the persons of Mr . Frost and the persons who followed at his heels . They must have felt they were stared at not as leaders of the people , hut as the delegates of some fraction apart , some sect feoundy perhaps , by community of opinion to the democracy they dishonoured ) hut certainly "by . no community of principle . Should BIr . Jones , or Mr . Finley , or their companions have the laudable ambition to keep well
in front of the masses they attempt to move , let them remember this unmistakable proof they have received , that an . English crowd at least has healthful moral instincts to consult as well as political sentijments to guide . Assuredly if they forget this , at the first rush in advancethey will find their pretensions most unceremoniously dashed aside . It is some comfort to think , in spite of this breach of good manners and good feeling on the part of the lowest of its advocates , that the Charter is still an open question . People may dispute the wisdom of paying our representatives , or we may not be of one mind as to the degree we should'extend the suffrage , but no one will deny the probability that the points of the Charter , with some modifications , will be
embraced in any comprehensive scheme of reform ; and we may depend upon it , that when reform is insisted upon , the day of mere concessions is past , and it will be comprehensive . In the ridicule which the public press lias heaped upon the tawdry paraphernalia of a congress of ' roughs' on an idle Monday , some people will doubtless see the salvation of abuses , conservative organs will make merry on the strength of it , and timid pioneers of reform-will hustle back into the crowd . But if honest Chartists w ill learn wisdom from this folly of their pseudo champions they -will be the real gainers . They will not be easily turned aside from the conviction that the power of a phalanx of honestly-elected representatives of the people is the only legal , as it is the only practicable ,
engine to break up that concrete mass of prejudice that exists amongst our respectable classes , in which lays the mere vis inertix of our body politic . It is the selfish and ungenerous remark of people well to do in the world , that when the lower classes keep quiet there is no grievance to redress . There is no more dangerous consolation for respectability than this . There are nob wanting signs and portents abroad that a periodic flow of the tide of democracy is about due . It ia just in these days of slack water that the small fry among political reformers wax fa-t on tho refuse of the last ebb . It is such gentry who give currency to the socialistic jargon we now hear mixed with the once specific language of the Charter . An evil sign . ' Solidarity' and * individualism" may bo terms suggesting great truths to the political philosopherbut In the mouths of spouters they serve
, only to frighten the unreflecting and disgust nienrof sense . Any mind of perhaps small calibre , but imaginative and quick instincts , can appreciate an abstract truth , and faithfully point out the spot whero the root of a political evil exists . But it is a hard head only that can get at it and show us how patiently to remove onoby one the difficulties in ouv way . The tool with which we are to work is direct popular ngoncy . The Charter , and Icsb than the Charter , will givo us this . In tho name , then , of all that is judicious , let us for tho present confine our turns to such specific onds ; nnd should there bo a latent truth in socialist principles when wiser heads than are in the ' International Association ' havo proved their practicability , we shall have tho means at least in our lianda of carrying them out . T . G .
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9 S 0 THE LEADEB , [ Ko . 3 &L , Sattodat ,
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Tiie English ILuivest is now nearly completed—in some districts ,, quite ao . Upon tho whole , tho result , aa TOgards wheat , secim to bo about an average . Barley will probnbly fall a . little bolow . Beaua havo yielded well ; ao has mangold wunscl ; oats aro plentiful and abundant ; nnd tho root crops aro in admirable condition , with tho exception , of potatoes , which aro again diseased . Thrashing Is now being actively conducted in tho midinnd and southern districts ; but in tho north tho harvest has been delayed , and in some degree injured , by tho heavy equinoctial gales nnd torrents of rain . Pxicoa in general havo been well maintained .
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w . .. . .. . CIS * THIS DEPARTMENT , AS ALL OPINIONS , IIOWEVEE EXTREME ARE ALLOWED AN EXPRESSION , TIIE EDITOB NECB 8 SJUUI . Y HOLDS lllM SEJ . F KESfONSIBLK FOB NONE . l ™ "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 4, 1856, page 950, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2161/page/14/
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