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    iO72 . T HJE_ LE\DEB. [No. 294, Saturday...

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    MR. COBDEN ON THE WAR. Mb. Cobdek has ad...

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    ANOTHER GALE. The eastern coast of Engla...

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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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    War Miscellanea. Kinbukn.—Letters From C...

    ine attd the autumn nights , occasionally very dark . Almost all of them were stopped , and the number of our orizes on all the points of the coast amounted to sixty , forming a collective total of 900 tons . Not one of these vessel * could have made the passage to France , and they were all destroyed . .... Since the beginning of October ^ every day brought a remarkable increase in the Intensity of cold ; for a long time past the ground has been plentifully covered -with snow , and as the thermometer fell on the 9 th to seven' degrees below zero , at the same time that masses of ice floated continually past the ships , we considered that the season when navigation ¦ was on the point of being completely interrupted had arrived . We therefore decided on taking our final departure , which we did altogether on that very day .

    Thb English Army in the Ckimea . —The Globe furnishes some statistics of the present condition of prospects of our army in the Crimea . We append the principle points , with the proper caution that the source is a Government journal , disposed , of course , to put the highest possible shine upon matters : — "On the 16 th of October , the strength of the whole British army in the Crimea was , in round numbers , 56 , 000 men of all ranks , of whom the number of ineffectives , from wounds and sickness , was obout 4 , 500 . It was composed of 14 regiments of cavalry , numbering nearly 5 , 000 ; of 52 battalions of infantry , of various numerical strength , but a pretty accurate average of which would be 640 each , or

    something over 33 , 000 in the aggregate ; 14 batteries , and some troops of artillery , and nine companies of Sappers , not far short of 9 , 000 men in all . The remaining 10 , 000 are made up of Commissariat , Land Transport , Army "Works , Medical Staff , and other ancillary corps . Calculating the mortality among these men as 100 aweek for six months , and the sick list to be as numerous as at present , there would be of the soldiers at present in Crimea 49 , 000 effective on the 15 th of April ; adding as reinforcements , 2 , 800 cavalry and 20 , 000 infantry , we should have at the commencement of the campaigning season , say about 70 , 000 Brittish troops in fair condition , to maintain the honour and interests confided to their

    keeping . Other important English forces , although containing but a small numerical proportion of Englishmen , will henceforward be available . Of the Turkish Contingent we hear most encouraging accounts . They will number 20 , 000 , and this force will be further materially increased . "We shall put down the different Foreign Legions at the more than moderate estimate of 5 , 000 men , and , omitting the Sardinian army , we calculate the total strength thus : —British troops , 70 , 000 ; Turkish Contingent , 20 , 000 ; and British German and British Swiss Legions , 5 , 000 ; making altogether 95 , 000 men . Thanks to our two years' experience and our transport service , we may reasonably hope to keep this army in health and efficiency ; in fact , worthy , in point of condition as veil as numbers , to take their place beside those of our great ally . ' '

    American Sympathy with Russia . —The Boston correspondent of the New York Herald , says , that saltpetre , gunpowder , and firearms , havo been sent out from America to Russia in vast quantities . Nicholaiekf possesses twelve dockyards , six for ships of the line and six for smaller vessels ; also immense arsenals , and almost exhaustless materials for shipbuilding . It employs 600 workmen in ordinary times , and 12 , 000 on occasions of emergency . At present , the number , according to German accounts , is not less than 21 , 000 . —Journal de Constantinople .

    The New Russian Levy . —The manifesto of the Czar relative to th « new levy produced here the most painful impression . Since 1886 no levy of 10 men in every 1 , 000 inhabitants had taken place throughout the empire , for you must have remarked that seven governments only have been exempted from the measure . I do not exaggerate by estimating' at 200 , 000 men the numbers recruited in virtue of the new decree . That maximum , however , will scarcely suffice to complete the effective force of tho different corps and fill up the vacancies occasioned by the war . Every man is worth about £ , 000 roubles , so that a landed proprietor who owns 1 , 000 eerfd pays to the State 50 , 000 roubles . You may consequently judge of the enormity of the sacrifice Imposed upon him .- — -Letter from St . Petersburg in the Constitutionnel ..

    Admiral Boxer . —The following testimony to the services of the late Admiral Boxer , is from an able and interesting paper in the current number of the United Service Magazine ;—• " Admiral Boxer's situation at Constantinople might be likened to that of one in a nethis duty lying before , and resolution in his heart to Btruggle through , or die . Once free of the cobwebinfluence that stayed him , he showed at Balaklava what he would have done elsewhere , had the moral support of a fleet ' s presence given its prestige , or the help allowed him which Admiral Grey has since found to be indispeneuble . Well did he accomplish the Herculian task of clearing that Augean stable , the said Balaklava ; and , by the activity ho displayed , the life he infused into others , nd the order he brought out of a chaos of ships and v « Mols indescribable , proved what might have been enroled last winter , had the right man then been , in the right place—tha ^ ia the head of the tranaport service with tfca Army . "

    Io72 . T Hje_ Le\Deb. [No. 294, Saturday...

    iO 72 . T HJE _ LE \ DEB . [ No . 294 , Saturday ,

    Mr. Cobden On The War. Mb. Cobdek Has Ad...

    MR . COBDEN ON THE WAR . Mb . Cobdek has addressed a very long letter to Mr . Edward Baines , Editor of the Leeds Mercury , on the subject of the war . The chief argument against the continuance of hostilities contained in this document is derived from the great difficulty experienced by Government in obtaining a sufficient number of recruits , those who are obtained being for the most part raw lads unable to bear the fatigues incidental to a long campaign . The history of the siege of SebaStopol is briefly traced by Mr . Cobden , who asserts that , owing to our having at its commencement a force

    equal to , if not larger than , the French , and to Lord Raglan , after the death of St . Arnaud , being the senior commander , we injudiciously took upon ourselves the same extent of field work as that allotted to our ally . But our army soon dwindled , from the effects of sickness and slaughter , until at one time it was as low as 12 , 000 ; while the French forces were largely augmented . As a necessary consequence , we were feaifully overworked , and were at length obliged to give up part of our position to the French— " that part which has been the site of the final triumph' — " and , from that time to the present , our force has been gradually assuming the character of a contingent to the French army . "

    Having quoted some statistics showing the number of sick and wounded during October , November , and December , 1854 , and January , 1855 , Mr . Cobden compares the total with the number of recruits obtained during the same period , and in the additional months of February and March of the present year , the latest period up to which they have been published . He observes : — " It will be seen by a comparison that while oar sick and wounded , exclusive of killed , averaged for the four months , October , November , December , and January , nearly 18 , 000 a month , the recruiting was going on . the rate of only 5 , 100 a month . It was admitted by

    Lord John Russell in the House , last December , that the recruits fell short by 20 , 000 of the number voted by Parliament : and in . the session of the present year an independent member of Parliament asserted in the presence of Ministers , without contradiction , that the deficiency amounted to 40 , 000 . And during all this time , when our army was wasting away from want of that succour which the Government could not send , ' owing' — to quote the evidence of the Duke of Newcastle—* to the unwillingness of men to enlist to the extent to which , the House of Commons had increased the English army , 'during all this time ( I say it only as a warning for the future ) our war journals and orators were assuring us that the people were far more eager for the war than the Government of Parliament . "

    Mr . Cobden quotes , from the evidence of Lord Hardinge before the Sebastopol committee , an assertion that " the thoughtless boy enlists ; the < rjrown-up man of twenty-five will not , or seldom . " the writer also cites , as proof conclusive that a large standing army is not needed , the opinion of the Commander-in-Chief that" a good stout man , " with sixty days' training , will be " as good a soldier as you can have . " Coming to the

    consideration of the means of raising recruits , Mr . Cobden alludes to the plan of increasing the bounty , and adds : — " It is liable to the objection that in these days of cheap locomotion you would not be sure of keeping your recruit after he had pocketed the bribe . ' We find , ' says Lord Hardinge , « that the more you raise the bounty , the greater the number of desertions ; they make a trade of it . ' " On these data , Mr . Cobden ects his theory that the war is not in reality popular among the

    masses . " There is nothing for it but an appeal to the manhood of England . To tliia end , tho press and tho orators and leaders of the party opposed to ponce , who tell us they have all England at tlioir back , must now address themselves . If , as wo have been told , this war , in defence of tho ' liberty and civilization of a continent which does not think it nocessary to defend itself , is tho people ' s war , there will bo a . response to tho appeal ; if , on tho contrary , it bo a war of diplomatists and newspapers , it will fail . '

    The example of the United States at tho time of tho Mexican war , when members of all classes rushed into the ranks of tho army aa simple privates , is referred to . We aro reminded that , by invading tho territory of Russia , we have become " now the aggressive party ; " that *' no forma of peace are possible which do not involve the -withdrawal of our armies from her territory ; ' * that neither Turkey , nor tho absolute * governments of Europe , nor domocrrtcv , can profit by the continuance of the war , which ia described

    as being , for the visionary nature of its objects unparalleled since the Crusades ; that most of the Governments of the Continent are opposed to our quarrel ; that the chiefs of the Republican party have denounced it as " an aimless waste of human blood , in which they have no interest ; " and that even the French Government , according to report , "is now again disposed for peace . " Mr . Cobden concludes by alluding to the war doctrines preached by the Laureate and some other writers of the day : —

    " We have been told that war , which the world had regarded as but at best an inevitable evil , is in itself a beneficent antidote to the selfishness of a mercantile ageand that the manly virtues would become extinct , unless invigorated by the siege and battle-field . There are minds so wanting in moral continence that they abandon themselves to every popular emotion or frenzy of the hour , —who , when all hearts exulted at the signs of international peace , declaimed of the horrors of war , —who now that the demon of carnage has sway for a season sing of the ' canker of peace , ' and who would be ready to mop and mow with madmen to-morrow if Bedlam could be but one day in the ascendant . Such are they who now ask us to believe that the spectacle of

    human passion and suffering which has been enacted during the last year in the Crimea , and which has converted that fair scene into an earthly pandemonium , is necessary for the social regeneration of mankind;—that the purer feelings and affections of our nature find a healthy development in an atmosphere so foul and unnatural that domestic life cannot breathe it;—that an employment where men bring every faculty to the task of destroying others , and preserving themselves from destruction—that there is the school to unlearn selfishness and to train us to the disinterested love of our species ! We are asked to believe these things . Yes , when we are prepared to pronounce the New Testament a fable , and Christ ' s teachings an untruth , we will believe them , and not till then . "

    Another Gale. The Eastern Coast Of Engla...

    ANOTHER GALE . The eastern coast of England , between Harwich and Cromer , was on Saturday visited by a storm of a moat disastrous character , from which a large number of ships and their crews have been lost . From the accounts in the daily papers , we learn that the south-west gales of the early part of the previous week having moderated , a large fleet of coasters , bound northward , which had sought shelter in the various ports , took advantage of the favourable weather and proceeded to their destinations . They were mostly colliers , in ballast , bound to the Tyne , Hartlepool , Sunderland , & c , and altogether formed a fleet of between three and four hundred sail .

    The gale which , told with such fearful consequences upon them commenced early on Saturday morning . The wind , which had been blowing rather squally from the north-west , suddenly chopped round to the east south-east , from which quarter it blew a terrific gale right on the coast , accompanied with hail , snow , and rain . A most exciting scene immediately followed the outburst of the gale among the fleet , in bearing up and making for the nearest place of shelter . A large number endeavoured to weather it oat by dropping their anchors , but these suffered the most . The fury of the gale drove them from their moorings . They came in contact with each other in indescribable confusion , carrying away rigging , bowsprits , bulwarks , and causing other serious damage .

    It was on that prominent point of the coast , the most easternmost between Orfordness and Aldborougb , that the greatest mischief was occasioned . As in the vicinity of the lower part of the Swin , a number of vessels * had brought up , in the hope of riding out the gale . Here , however , the storm appeared to be more fierce ; the vessels " were dashed from their anchorage , and were carried with overwhelming force ashore . Among them were the following : —the Swedish brig Vesta , bound for London from Norway , with a cargo of timber . She speedily went to pieces , and the supercargo , G . A . W . Clasen , the cook , and a coastguardsman named Thomas Cable , who nobly went put to save the captain ' s life , were drowned . The Charlotte Mary , Mr . Stanhope master , bound for London from Norwich , with grain , is totally lost , and tho capmate

    tain , his wife and three children , and the , perished . The bark Corregio , Mr . Hainea master , bound for Hartlopool from Poole , a wreck ; crew suved . The Waterhouse , Carter , belonging to Newcastle , from London , ashore , and a total loss ; crew saved . The Union brig , from London , for Sunderland , total wreck ; crew saved . Tho brig John Barker , belonging to Whitby , a wreck ; crew saved . The Silvuuus , Anderson , from London , for the Tyne , n loss ; crew rescued . The Albion , Bayloy , from Rye , for Sunderland , total wreck ; all hands preserved . The French ship F ' " derica Heloiso , from Nantes , bound northward , a wreck ; crew saved . The Fancy , Phillips , bound for Shields , from Dordt ; crew saved . The Jane Wrake , from Dover , Tor Seaham , reported to be a . total wreck ; orew rescued , In Holleafej Bay , the Alexandrina , Swallow , and William and Mary , all of South Shicldi ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 10, 1855, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10111855/page/4/