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Leader (1850-1860), 10th February 1855, Edition 2 of 2, Page 14, ¦feS** IKffim fr^AffiBflft [S&otrdayj

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      To Bomarsuxd And Back. What Is The Truth...

      and after some delay returned home . Such az » the » main-events * •»•/ '¦ Tho-complaint against Sir Chables JSabieb i % tliai he has not attempted' to take Cronstddt , Helsingfors , or Revel . Now , has the > attack on Sebaatopol heen so completely successful as to enppurage similar attacks ? Formidable as the defences of Sebastopol ajK pear , we do- nob conceive that they can for a » Gronstadt

      moment be compared to or Swea--borgv As foritevel , we-long believed that the fleets might have battered the town down ,, though an- occupation , of the town without a land force would hav : e * been impracticable in the face of the troops encamped on the heights outside . General' Need is reported to- have declared ; after reeonnoitering it > - that . it- was stronger than Sweaborg ; but we must have evidence before we can believe it . But Revel , 1

      in-itself ' wouldhave been a poor conquesti AtkoiJter compliaint is that Sir GharkeSj di & not take Bomarsund earlier in the campaign , so ; that- the work might have been done without toe French troops . Bomarsund ; indeed / has been the reverse of Sebastopol . " With sufficient means , the former was attacked and captured almost without loss . Sebastopol has 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 undoubtedly been . Oiiij spy department has been in a wretched state . - With the Swedes friendly , a little money judiciously scattered at Stockholm would have ensured us a complete acquaintance with Sweaborg and the state of the garrison- j yet to the last it was = uncertain whether the forts commanded the town or vice versa . The unity between the Trench 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 ostentatiousl y named the " First Division / ' and we all expected an ; army bfSOjOOO torbe-sent -oufrrby-September . May not the Russian Government have- been equally deceived p It is probable- they were j for our troops having * passed the Belt at the beginning of September , on the l ^ Jth the Emperor reviewed part of his guard and-two regiments of hussars , and then sent them southward . If it had not been for

      the " First * Division" of the Baltic army these 15 , 000 men might have struck with fatal effect afr 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 faultwant of a purpose sufficient or distinct .

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      General Guyon And Sergeant Sullivan. The...

      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 Suilivan , ¦ who was in nil the actions , distinguished in all , and roarticulprfy distinguished , with some ¦ officers ^ ih arresting the advances of the Russians upon- Balaklava on the 26 th of October . He was one of a picket which personally contested the field , and . performed prodigies of

      wlou * . 'Mftiiy sergeants have been put * moted < sine ** that date , \ nti & iji *™* s a . name , although mentioned by brave old . Sarde . IiAOY EvJjffS , 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 of a sergeantr . majoar ? . . There is another brave man- ^ a true

      Jsnignterrant in fche . highest sense of the word—who has been unjustly treated ,- and as the-mjustice ^ is not . perpetrated by our own Xstovemme ^ we might : expect that his official countrymen—if such , a phrase as official countrymen can he allowed—would advance in . his defence , The east * is stated in a letter to ourselves , from a gentleman whose name is sufficient voucher :- ~

      ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Weston-Super-Mare , February , 1855 . SHJr-r . The Ereneh . journals report the aniyal of General Guton at Constantinople , and the Times , a , day or two since , 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 friend of oppressed nations , the hero of " Briajaiszfco" andt " Temeftvax * " the commander of the fortress of Comorn , and whose , heroic deeds haVe given him a European feme , and caused his very name to be fearedin the Russian camp , deserves-a better fete ? I * it- Austrian , Buesian , or

      Turkish infaiguewMch seeks , tocrush the energies , and to rem . oye ; 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 : bis influence to obtain for General Guyon some prominent command in- the Grimea . Such a man , with no sh ' ght experience , in , Russian tactics , acquired both in Hungary and Asia ,, would Jbe of the utmost value to IiOrd Raglan or Omar Pacha at a time when death and illness have deprived us of our besfc generals . It cannot be too of General

      generally known , for the honour , Guyon , tha i in-the , early stage of the present war he had been urged by the Turkish Governmentrto embrace the Mahometan 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 deady and used so nobly , than be branded with the name of apostate . I am , Sir , your obedient servant , A . KlNGLAKE .

      The Thief Factory. Jsomb Day, We Presume...

      THE THIEF FACTORY . jSoMB day , we presume , " the Government , 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 pollute * 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 little 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 . Adjdebley 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 a 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 ent 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 window with 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 ip . the streets , to be impertinent in some

      walks of life , are only specimens of the new offences which may be treated penally . The prison is a college . of crime , with the advantage of board and Ibdgingj 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 atMettray and atRedhitt have proved that youths may be trained out of criminals into reasonable members of society by much more natural means—by proper cultivation of their physical && well as their moral and intellectual position- —by

      giving them decent home * wholesome diefc , and industrial education ; in short , by placing the involuntary criminals on a level with the involuntary virtuous members of society . jForvlet us never forget that he who is well taught may bless himself for his good fortune , but has no right 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 . Him ., 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 dut ies the neglect of which entails a bad consequence , not upon the real culprit but upon somebody else . The parent commits the wrong , and the child suffers the penalty . Mr , JHx ^ way to correct that want of connexion between motives and results ; but it would by no means do all , nor does Mr . Hill 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 the 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 the right working of parental responsibility , you beg the question that the parents of the young shall themselves be on educated class . Xou cannob 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 the blessings of education , or oven hope that

      he will go to the right 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 the school to teach right conduct , is , in fact , to establish for an uneducated class of society a school which is all flogging .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 10, 1855, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10021855/page/14/