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Leader (1850-1860), 27th December 1856, Edition 2 of 2, Page 16, .... THE LEADER, [No. 353, Saturday^

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      The: Early Flemish Painters. The Early F...

      know from hi ^ efforta to oDKuu g ^ task was then entrusted to a 2 S ££ S ? 2 ? M * . ° S * d Sl ^ " as 8 et » side > SAvena 3 rouc ^ andC « Iin d' ^ ! "A m ^ ava Gateniferes , addressing an older from Us master " to tie SK ? , ^^ F l ^^^^^ high , as you well know r and you must not make him bald . Your order , therefore , must be this : — / The nose aquiline ; The hair a little long behind ; The collar somewhat low ; ^ ^ The order very long , and St . Michael well made out . Item , the come * scarfwise ; '¦' ¦ The sword a little ' short , in fashion of arms- ¦¦¦¦ ¦ :. Item , the thumbs erect , and the hat well down . l ^ m anSr pEfof the work we transcribe the legend . whichrwa , des- tinedtSremindt £ e burghers of Brussels that their town-hall was thehall of iustice . Van derWeyden had to illustrate the legend : — . , " Herkenbald the magnificent , the powerful and illustrious , excepted no one when hesatTfludgment ; anfever tried , with equal justice , the cause of richor poor , ofa ^ ^ ^ one day , he heard a tumult in a neighbouring mmsmmmii to " hS toSiTstantl y hung . But the seneschal , to ^ hom the order was transmitted M-ned obedience , and set the culprit free , charging him tojseek a hiding-place ; then S ^ to Herkenbald , declared the sentence to have ^ been earned out . On the fifthly , however , the youth , thinking that his uncle had forgotten his offence , came itohfa open door The judge , on seeing him , beckoned him with kindly words ; and S ? Mm bythe hair , ind ^ with a knife in Ms right hand , severed the head from the ^ d y ° ln Ms zeal ^ justice he killed him . Herkenbald then perceived that his health was failing ; and sending for his bishop , confessed to him all . his sins . ^ h many tears , and | reat contrition ; omitting , however , . the act by . which * e had ; . de privedhis nephew of life a few days before ; upon which the bishop saidr < Where fore dost thou conceal the homicide by which thou didst deprive thy nephew of life ? ' The old judge retorted : ' I consider this no sin , nor that it is a crime ^ to remitted by Heiven . ' On which the bishop replied : < Confess ^ enme , ^ cV _ God will take compassion on thee ; else canst . thou not partake of the . Sacrament of iord , ' But the noble man said to him : VI take God to witness that no hatred but zeal for justice made me kill my nephew , who was dear to me ; and though thou deniest me the viaticum on that account , I hope to have communion by the Spirit bearing this , the bishop then retired , without administering to the dying man consolations of religion . Being soon recalled , however , the . judge then said to him < See if the Sacrament of the body of Christ be in its resting-place ; and j heni appeared that it was not in the open pyx , the sici . mansubjoined : ; < Behold that which thou broughtest with thee and deniedst me hath not been refused ; and then showed him openly , before all , the host , which he held in his mouth and between teeth ; which , when the bishop saw , magnifying God for so great a miracle , he longer doubted that it had taken place as the reward of justice . Many curious details will be found in this volume , some of them such would tempt us into comment were our limits wider ; such , for example , the remarkable fact that painting was a guild in the Netherlands ; young aspirants were bound apprentices to painting as to any ordinary trade ; this close corporation the secrets of the art were jealously preserved , and secret of oil-painting was withheld from the Italians till Antonello came Bruges , and Van der Weyden went to Italy . " . ' ¦ . . ¦ , .

      .... The Leader, [No. 353, Saturday^

      .... THE LEADER , [ No . 353 , Saturday ^

      . . Letters From Head-Quarters. T Letter...

      . . letters from head-quarters . t Letters from Head-Quarters ; or , the Realities of the War in the Crimea . By an v Officer on the Staff . 2 vols . With a Portrait of Lord Raglan ami Plans . j Murray ., s These are two volumes of letters addressed from the Crimea to friends of j t the author in England . The position of the author at head-quarters gave ] him great opportunities of acquiring sound information . He stood in an 1 intimate relation to the commander- in-chief , and necessarily became aware t of matters that were concealed from the public and the general corre- ( spontlents of the camp , both lay and military . It is , therefore , for that f kind of secret information which we should look in these volumes ; and in that information the StafF Officer hopes we shall find facts that refute many , , if not all , of the accusations showered upon Lord Raglan in 1854-5 o . Jno , purpose of publication is a fair one . It would , however , we conceive , have 1 Wen more effectually answered , if the writer , instead of publishing letters that necessarily contain a host of trivialities , had written an original work from the authentic data that must be within his reach ? In that case the book would have been half the size , the vindication of Lord Raglan relieved from the insignificant details that overlay it now ; and the author would have made a contribution to military history . As it is , the Staff Ofheer has only made an addition to the materials—a valuable addition , it is truewhich are accumulating for the use of the historian of the war . One of the prevailing ideas in 1854-55 was , that the French were our superiors in all but actual fighting—that their arrangements were better , their military skill greater , that in promptness they far surpassed the Uritish , and so on . What are the facts ? Why , until the 7 th June , 1855 , when Pelissier carried the Mamelon , the operations of the French were comparatively a series of failurea . and shortcomings . Neither their military skill , nor their administration , nor their promptness were equal to ours , lhese assertions , we admit , require proofs . Very good . What was the staite of things in Bulgaria , on the eve of the Crimean expedition ? That expedition was resolved upon at the end of July . " The French , gqid . they would an W » y- of I five an are 're- hat >» ¦ ny , l'he avc ters ork the ZS ^ 3 > ul ( 1 hftS lc ~ . f ur S ft 'hon > arft- > nor hese e Of nedi- -ouia

      pare ^ t men thei , - ¦ hosr , / hut ^ ¦* . fl thai ™ m t ing the Ly ha , Ian , = So Se ] hig tiv las - Jh - the his ma be me me certainly be ready by the 8 th of this _ month ( August ) . Lord Raglan said bethought the 14 th ( to-day ) the earliest period at which he could be prepared . A few days ago the Marshal sent to say that he must have ten days longer , and said that their arrangements could not be completed until the 20 th instant . Yesterday , " that is , on the day named by the English chief , " it w as officially reported to Lord Raglan that everything was- ready for the embarkation of the English troops . " So much for promptitude and superior administration . In the meantime came the cholera . There is a strong opinion that we suffered more than the French from that visitation . What says our Staff Officer , writing on the 6 th of September ?—The French ( I was told by one of their officers high on the staff ) have lost nearly 7000 men dead of cholera and fever , and have at this moment from 12 , 000 to 1 5 , 000 men in their various hospitals . This number of sick men require upwards of 4000 effective men as extra hospital orderlies and . camp guards and cooks , & c . & c , so that their army is probably 25 , 000 , men less than on its leaving France . The English have lost under 700 men altogether , ami we have at the present time in our various hospitals 1000 men under medical treatment ; "but I am glad to say many of these are but slight cases . For instance , a week ago , we had 2400 men iu hospital , ami since that period 500 have returned to their duty . And what is more remarkable , the greater part of this loss was incurred in that expedition to the Dobrudscha which was so utterly useless from any point of view . Marshal St . Arnaud -was a brilliant but flighty soldier . lie sadly wanted persistence and punctuality . In July he was for the expedition , but in the middle of August lie seems to have altered his mind . " The following are said to be the opinions of the ' chiefs , ' " writes -the . Stall" Officer on the 14 th of August . " Lord Raglan , Sir George Brown , Sir Edmund Lyons , Admiral Bruat , . for ; Marshal St . Arnaud , Admirals Dundas and Hamelin , against it . " Norhad the vacillation ceased , even when the troops I had put to sea . On the 8 th of September , Marshal St . Arnaud proposed to ' adopt that plan which afterwards became known as the Emperor ' s , namely , B to land at ICail ' a , seize Arabat and Kertch , and if a march on Sebastopol were I impracticable , to winter at KaffU . Of course the adoption of such a . plan r was then out of . the question ; Lord Raglan prevailed , and the expedition i landed in the Crimea . m . i ' ¦ ' . ' " French losses" is another topic on winch much ignorance lias prevailed , e Some people have appeared to believe that the losses of the French before e Sebastopol in the " winter of 1854-55 were comparatively fewer than our own . d I took the trouble yesterday [ January 22 ] to make inquiries of two or three officers ie high in the Etat-major ; one told me they [ the French ] had about 23 , 000 noTi-eflecis five men a month ago ., but that he believed it had since increased . Anothersaid that h last week they had 27 , 000 men sick in the army in .. tlio East ; and the third stated > - that they had 7000 men in the field hospitals in the Crimea ,, and about 10 , 000 m - their different hospitals in Turkey . It is a well-known fact that the 1 ' rench always is make out their sick in as small numbers as they possibly can , so , if one takes the , e medium of their statements , one may fairly put the French sick at upwards of 24 , 000 »* 1 * v » on ¦ . ¦ '' " ¦ - ¦ ¦ . . ¦ : ¦ ' ' ¦¦ . ¦ "¦ " . ' ¦ ¦ ..

      the Fr . pr , the Fr : ha it he Ins no re ^ as E as ty w by ni the S ( to h j : ie On the 12 th of February , he writes : — ^ it I may mention to vou what was told me yesterday by a staff officer attached tothe > u French head-quarters , to show you that the losses of our all . es , in sick have b en , n t . ' proportion as great as our own . lie said that 117 , 000 men 9 *^} ™** *™ ™ ^ France and Algeria to form the army of the East since March , 1854 ¦ % ¦ and Miat thej . 1 : have now only 84 , 000 , and of these upwards of 7000 arc sick in the Cninea . ifc On another p : pint the ' administration of the two armies conies into con-S * trast . Here is a paragraph from a letter dated March 17 , \ 8 m : — , i 3 A very large number of men are now hutted ¦ upwards of 700 of tl ;« % « - ^ no residences have been brought up to camp and erected . They won d be capabk f ^ S some 17 , 500 men , but , as many of these hut , arc u . ecl as hospital * to . « y null » Jg J c those for officers and regimental stores , probably « ot more than M . ouO ^ i ^ of tht . aS Enclish arm y have a roof over their heads . An oflicer of the Ltat-innjor . told me as iv ^ davs ago that , according to their last return , the French . Ua . l 270 J »^« J "g which / as they crowd them rather more than we do , would be cupabl « « i 1 u » . 1 "S ^ 00 by men : however , not more than half of their huts a re eniployc cVas « l . j l Uj . « o tl «^ J « . he so many being used for the Etat-major and the military officers at their uultrcnt to head-quarters . . n ] t was the misfortune of the expedition to the Crimea that it begni ) oil a design which totally failed—the capture of Sebastopol by a co ,:,, ' [ ' ; ' ^ The sufferings of the English troops in 1 H 54-55 may be in a grout mc-amo traced to the total change in tlio " character of the operations : the nomont hen it was resolved to winter in the Crimea , and p ^ jancutj to l ou ^ a position with men and means really inadequate to the task e ^ ce . i ' » ^ lacriGco of life . But the alternative was a s ; lamcful abaudan to t ^ enterprise , probably at even a . greater loss ol life than that in . m iui ny holding the plateau during the winter with a handful ol men . l y ^ n , however , until the last moment that Lord Kaglan consented to . eli ^ t . tn i they had failed . He was more willing to assume responsibility l »»» colleagues ; he \ vas really more prompt tlum . they . Here is . in inbian * . from The battle of the Alma : — . Shortly after on these heights Lord Raglan met Marshal St . Arimiu , v Hcj « , < Ju mutual congratulations , Lord Kaglan wished very much that sonic jm . -M t bhouW U made of the retreating Russian army . Ho offered our cavalry , aiid 1 . tlm u iw three batteries of artillery , but said th « infantry hud suuered so much hut . c > couia not well advance without weakening too much the English force . M « l 1 ( lUieir naud replied that ho could send no infantry , and that his artillery u -Uxl . S « - ammunition : indeed he appeared to think that quite enough had huu J «^ , Kaglan saw that there was no help for it , and therefore inueh againj t ^ " o up the pursuit . The French liud upward ., of 12 , 000 men who hml no * er ^ I . M 6 ^ besides the division of Turks ( 6000 men ) ; whereas wo ha « l only the Ji I > ^ ^ a portion of the 4 th , in all perhaps 7000 men , that had not taken a pai t in the ii > fact , not more than sufficient for the immediate necessities of the cni » i » . The next day , when to strike an effuetmilblow the whole iivmy niu ^ » . i > moved , Marshal St . Avmiud proposed nn advance . , To this , however , Lord Raglan would not listen ; ho said he ha . ^ m «»» X wounded English and KusHians , and that , aa we wore over three iinlc . s ft i ¦ it was quite imposbiblo to move them all on board ship under two i n . y . ^ « said ho had lost over 1200 men hars da combat , and out of thut nuinu J { wounded had already been moved on board ship , or would he so l » y me ** * . 8 fty timt i 3 what the marshal said ; but everybody else said it was a rfcii ; * «•• jj ut tion . I know General Forey , who went over the whole of their Ae d of Jnt « JJ ^ thoir loss at between 700 and 800 at tho outside ; but ho also added , t » at . J " ; utc ( | Kalamita Uay thoy l \ nd lont imr \ y 000 men deml from cholera ; anU it wu

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 27, 1856, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27121856/page/16/