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    3^4, TH2 LEADBB. [Sactbpay,

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    THE TORY PARTY. There: is a great appear...

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    The Sins Ofthe « System.' It Is Impossib...

    xnents abounded , but no operating tables were to be had ; so that many a suffering wretch was held down on a crazy bench , or even in a fellow-creature ' s arms , while his limbs were cut through—and , then , in some instances , the victim bled away , because , there was not a sponge to stanch his wound . At Varna this mismanagement was exhibited in its second stage . Numbers of the troops , even there , were insufficiently fed , badly sheltered , and overworked . Twenty-four

    valuable ponies were shot in one morning to save them from the agonies of starvation , as four hundred were afterwards shot in the Crimea , though men were then doing the work of horses , and though the southern coasts of the Black Sea yielded endless supplies of forage . Fuel was scarce in the vicinity of woods because the tools were useless ; and provisions ran short in a rice country , because , said a

    witness , rice was not , probably , an ordinary ration for a soldier . The martinets who in Kensington Gardens would put a man on fatigue-drill for . a spot on his pipeclay , saw their battalions , still unscathed by warfare , becoming filthy and ragged , as if they had toiled through a harassing campaign . Neglect was the genius of the expedition ; at home the authorities were at a loss ; in Turkey they were helpless , and the sacrifice of the British army began .

    Reaching the Crimea , the expedition was landed without a siege-gun , and set in motion unprovided with a mortar . These deficiencies at a later date were partially remedied j but the fact remained unaltered that Sebastopol was besieged by _ a force altogether Tinprepared . That our soldiers—invariably irreproachable in battle—did all that ~ in them lay , with their allies , to retrieve the evil influences of the

    campaign , is no extenuation of the acts which brought them to such a trial , but rather a more heavy impeachment . They bore a noble "testimony before the world , that their brave nature had not been blasted by the plague of " departments , " " official observance , " and " customary order . " But this courage , unless for selfdefence , was more fruitless than vanity , because the disastrous enterprise was at the mercy of a system , not Whig or Tory , but favourable to family arrangements .

    - Prom the-first the difficulties of the campaign began to appear ; it was remarked that thie roads were bad , and certain officers , foolishly digressing from routine , wondered why 1000 men in ten days did not make a passable highway from Balaklava to the camp . The reason was no mystery—they were not set to do it . But they soon had more to bear than labours in the trenches , almost insufferable in themselves . Their food was poor and scanty ; they could seldom enjoy the warmth of fires ; their horses died had to roast their

    ; they green coffee on hot stones , to pound it with cannon-balls , and to drink a decoction " resembling charcoal and water . " Often their pork was raw , and sometimes their spirits sank under these privations . As a body , however , whether ill or well , they endured their lotthe witnesses say—" with pious resignation , " while commissariat officers , overtasked at the pen , could give them no active assistance . It was to no purpose that complaints were made about tents that had rotted in the Peninsular

    wars and now were soaked to shreds by the rain ; about the harbour choked with carcases , and green with putrid scum ; of clothes that swarmed with vermin ; of horses who looked as if they had gnawed their tails and manes away ; of stenches from the burial-grounds ; of transports in which half the contents were rotted ; of countless cruelties by which . the army was continually reduced and disheartened .

    ^ __ V ______ ______ _ o « No one helped the soldiers , and they had no means of helping * themselves . Some of them , in the freezing cold , bound sandbags on

    their legs ; but most , in utter helplessness or in despair , submitted-to- the bitterness of their situation . Meanwhile , the administration at home had reports of these affairs , and in accordance with " the system , " sought to redeem possibly , but their second thoughts were almost as useless as their original preparations . The Jason carried three thousand great-coats three times from Constantinople to Balaklava ; a splendid steamer , laden with charcoal , was knocked about the sea , like a shuttlecock , by little officials , who would insist On " the prescribed forms . " Contracts were refused

    because they got in a few days too late ; requests for provisions were considered " inadmissible , " because not made " on pr inted forms , " and certain vouchers were refused because " the signature was half an inch too low . " To such sticklers millions of public treasure are confided , and human lives more precious ; and through such errors chiefly have fifteen thousand Englishmen perished in the Crimea . After the battles came the horrors of the hospitals . Wounded men were wrapped in blankets in which the dead had been carried

    to their graves , and for which some shivering victim was willing to pilfer his countryman ' s tomb . They were , in the worst instance , huddled on the shore , three hundred together , under a storm of icy rain , with two boats for their conveyance to the unsheltered deck , on which they lay , wet and miserable , and expiring , witho % t nurses , medical attendance , or food . The hospital added little to their comfort . Filth unnamable , and a distressing paucity of bedding and food , exasperated instead of alleviating their pains : The nurses , when they arrived , reformed these pestilential

    quarters ; but previous to their coming , the stench was so malignant that it afflicted visitors with diarrhoea . In one hospital the dead-house was directly benelith a sick ward ; and in many the arrangements allowed not even the pr ivileges of decency . There were instances of dying men , for whom the attendant was unable to procure a spoonful of brandy ; one man perished through being put on a wrong diet , "by mistake ; " a single person cooked for two thousand of the sick and wounded ; soldiers who had survived Inkerman were placed on the wet beach to await removal , and "to be

    drowned by the next tide : " in therwardsnunibers were without mattresses or blankets ; the meat was raw ; and unsplit peas were given to dysentery patients . We have left ourselves little space for comment , and none for a comparison between our own arrangements and those of the French . But the general view above presented is based exclusively on the evidence taken before Mr . Roebuck ' s Committee , without a touch of

    colour added . The members were anxious to reach the cause of all these intolerable errors and misfortunes . All they could extort condemned " the system : " the confessions of conflicting authorities ; quarrels of thirty years' standing between the heads of departments ; formalities and complexities ; and a code of responsibility by which the official is taught to shrink from his duty , on the pr inciple that he is safe while he is quiet . There is matter here for reflection , and for inquiry , but we must commit it , for the present , to our readers .

    3^4, Th2 Leadbb. [Sactbpay,

    3 ^ 4 , TH 2 LEADBB . [ Sactbpay ,

    The Tory Party. There: Is A Great Appear...

    THE TORY PARTY . There : is a great appearance of disunion among the Tories , but we believe it to be merely superficial . It extonds only to questions of principle . On questions of party , a complete union still prevails . There is a little difficulty about accepting the Radical programme , which Mr . -Disbaeli , recommends as suitable to the present state of the political market . That is the whole account

    of the matter , and Liberals had better speculate on it no more . The JPress and the Herald quarrel like man and wife ; but Mr DisRA-Eiii still votes with Mr . Spoonee for Sabbatarianism and Church-rates , and so Be will continue to do , unless he can s ucceed in converting the Spoonerian intellect to a more practical line . Lord Stamxey may safely be allowed , not only to talk and write , but sometimes to vote liberalism , and in , that -way to make as much capital as he can out of Radicals who think nothing of their own friends , but are ravished at the condescension of the heir

    of Debby . The Conservative whi pper-in , however , will tell you that on any party division Lord Stanle y ' s vote is safe . He , and : his patron , and the whole set of " historic Tories , " are quite ready to take office at the head of the Spoonerites , though they wish that the Spoonerites would drop some impracticable articles of their creed . After which , who shall say that high principle is not the exclusive heritage of the aristocratic party , or that it is not worth while to keep up ^ he peerage for the sake of maintaining a morality higher than that of the people ? We trust for the credit of human intellect

    that there are no Liberals weak enough to be caught by such a bait as Mr . Disuaeii and his followers hold out to them . Even if their liberal tendencies were sincere , why should we be picking up the crumbs that fail from the table of Toryism ? We are rot so weak ourselves that it should matter to us whether this or that flashy young Tory has small Liberal tendencies or not . But the

    fact is , the whole thing is a Jesuitical intrigue . It is all of a _ piece with the Free Trade addresses of Tory candidates for boroughs in 1852 , and the promises of " administrative reform , " which were so faithfully performed in the administration of the Duke of NoBTHUMBEBLAiirD and Mr . Staffobi ) . It is the contrivance of a set of political infidels to whom all professions are alike , provided they lead to place . Upon the minds of these men , the most acute of

    their party , has dawned the great truth that , in a country where Liberal principles are completely triumphant , illiberals must sham liberalism in order to clamber into powerwhen they have once gained power they will use ifc for their own ends , or , rather , foF tlie ends of those who have taken them into their service , and whose plush they wear . Something of eccentricity and vanity may perhaps mix with this Jesuitism , but the Jesuitism is the root of it . Instead of being disposed to

    coquet with the young Tories , we admire the few genuine old Tories that remain for choosing to fight under their own colours , at all events , and we would far rather trust English liberty in their honest , though bigoted , hands . If the Disbaelites could succeed in extinguishing or overwhelming the remains of Tory morality , they would be at the head of a faction which Liberals would have only too much cause to fear . The game of party is at best but a low' game , and therefore

    naturally it is one in which the lower natures have the advantage . A mass of stupidity led by a sharp adventurer was the political vision of Mr . Dishaeh ' s youth , which in his maturity ho is struggling to realise , and there is a world of roguish wisdom iu the idea . Nothing is more disorganising than independent thought , unless it is controlled by a very rare degree of disinterestedness and self-command . The Tory ranks are almost entirely free from this inconvenient influence . ThflvnrA nlmost onmillv freo from the jealousy

    and insubordination which is caused among the Liberals by personal ambition . Inl tlie first placo , the country gentlemon are seldom so constituted by nature aa to be subject to

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 7, 1855, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07041855/page/12/