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    as y ^ ri ^^?^ . & f gi SsM ^ i & ? irSr ^ ^^ r £ lt ' f- | Cl ' ' ^ t ^ liJOP ^ ED DESERTION OF THE > : * W ^* ^ ^ BRITISH FLAG . f ^ 'f ^ C ^ g ^ SE il *—Who first used that word as the V' * : * * a ' a * tti £ *> f . idthing that is at hand ? Lord John y > ^ Rtfesell . Others have talked of it as the end of all legitimate war ; some few members , of a peculiar sect , regard Peace as a thing that ought never to be broken ; some very few men , who would not perhaps understand the feeling of pride in being called " an Englishman , " have counselled Peace on Russia ' s own terms .

    But Lord John , our Englishman , a statesman , a man professing to represent his country , a Minister of the Crown , he has first used the word with a practical hint that propositions might be accepted from Russia . . Ay , he used the word now , when Russia is strengthening herself in a way that indicates an obstinate pursuit of her malignant war . Now Lord John did not use the word in a hasty speech . ; it came out in a short speech on the last evening before the adjournment , *—a declaration intended to correct his remarkable anti-Austrian escapade on the first night of the session . What does this mean ? If Lord John was tired

    on the first night of the session , he did not seem so on the last . Even-in this avowedly revised speech , he spoke of Austria with reserve and doubt , of Russia with an admission of hope that no one can entertain . Is there then a section of the Cabinet which , mistrusts the Austrian alliance , and thinks a Russian reconcilement not impossible ? There are some reasons for apprehending as much . The Duke of Argyll had spoken with indignation of the idea of restoring the nationalities . Lord Carlisle , one of the best

    specimens of the Whig species , was shocked at the barbarity of attempting to humiliate Russia . Lord John himself was the one to proclaim that the war would not end in abridging the territorial possessions of Russia . Thus the Whigs hold out the probability of a war for nothing , or one only to keep Russia from Constantinople . What may be the reasons foi such a course ? Two , at least , occur to us . "

    The Whig Ministers are not alone in desiring to have done with the war against Russia . There are persons in the English army of the Crimea who are equally anxious to be quit of a . disagreeable dtity . Two hundred officers , it is affirmed , have desired to resign their posts . And why ? Is it the fear of the danger ? No ; we believe that personal timidity is rare among Englishmen of any rank ; but it is the hard work , the tedium , the mud . Two hundred officers want to resign' their posts , because the war calls them from the pleasanter pursuits of life . There may be—we believe there is—another reason . As the war

    advances it becomes necessary to reward the gallantry of the non-commissioned classes , and sergeants are obtaining * commissions a score in a month . This , from the carpet knight point of view , renders war ungentlemanly as well as muddy and laborious ; nay worse- —" subversive . " A war , therefore , which loads gentlemen into mud , which elevates common

    sergeants to the mess , and might end even in promoting Italy to be a nation , or in reviving Poland , is distasteful to the commission-bearing class . Some of them want to como home ; some , wlio have a little respect for public Opinion , wish to bo recalled : and for that aim they wish the war at an end . They seo the claims of Russia in a new light , since resistance to the Czar hazards the restoration of

    I oles , and elevates sergeants to the messtablo . There would indeed bo ono short act to tho relief of those poor gentlemen now in tho Slough of Despoud—id cst , Balaklava : that would be , to let them como home , and to loavo t «© two hundred commissions vacant for officora in marching regiments—which are

    working regiments—or for sergeants . But , from the Conservative point of view , that course would be open to the serious objection of exposing the fact that the chivalry of England is effete , or that it must be sought in lower grades than that which claims to be the hereditary chivalry . Russia then is

    rehabilitated as the Grand Protector of British chivalry from the pains of exposure to real vulgar war ; and the part of the Cabinet , or extra-Cabinet , which represents these Russian preferences , begins to talk of retiring from the Crimea without conquest , and of concluding peace with Russia unbought by any cession of Russian territory !

    The only hope of success for such a party , which may be found in the Cabinet , in the camp , and in the journals , lies in equivocation . The country at large is untainted by such cowardice , such unchivalrous and unpatriotic meanness . Nothing has been more remarkable than , the concurrence of the entire nation in the war . The interruption of the peace has had the most blessed effect upon public feeling

    in this country : —it has corrected every great national vice : the apathy into which England was sinking has been roused ; the aristocracy and the landed gentry have been called out to display liberality and personal gallantry ; the commercial classes have universally shown a spirit of patriotic chivalry and of sacrifice altogether unexpected ; the working classes have been rendered harmonious with their

    fellowcountr ymen , although their popular rights are still ungranted . Noj we are only too much forced to believe that these admirable consequences of a just war are amongst the reasons why it is disliked by the Whig Ministers . It is evident that it produces in the political world just the same effect as it produces in the regiment . It calls out the gallantry of all classes , and obliges the shams to give way , We have had sham officers in military-looking coat 9 and trousers , strutting about on parade , who dislike

    the battle-field ; and they want to retire from a post too high for them . We have had Liberals strutting- about on the political parade ; but now , wlien they see a chance that the downtrodden nations may be effectually rescued from servitude , or when they see the working and middle classes — the sergeants and common soldiers of society—coming 1 forth with every manifestation of chivalry , then in their hearts they feel afraid , and , like their prototypes in the Cabinet , they talk of giving up the war .

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    Should the war continue , it is quite evident that alterations already commenced in the army for foreign services and the resident corps for home service , will have to bo greatly extended . Two hundred officers , it is reported , had sent in their resignations to Lord Raglan , wishing to return home . It is not , of course , to be presumed that they aro timid men ; there is reason to believe that thyy would face tho enemy as boldly as tho bravest ; but they dislike tho dirty work and tho drudgory of the military life . It is not tho Russians at Inker *

    WOUKING OFFICERS AND GENTLEMEN VOLUNTEERS .

    man , but tho mud at Balaklava , that they detest to faco . There ate men of high birth and large property wlio enter with zest into the whole trials of military business ; take a pride in roughing it , and boar tho climate of BalaUlava as bravely as they did tho assault at Inkerman . _ Such men are roal soldiers , equally with the tried soldiers in marching regiments , and Buch , of course , have not resigned . They are genuine volunteers . But there aro others who aro there perforce . Now , wo do not say that such officers will be cowards before the enemy , but wo do say that , reluctant , grumbling , shrinking with nicety from the work in

    the back settlements of the camp , they mus be bad and demoralising examples to th soldiers . They must sow the seeds of cowardice although they would not have the moral courag to reap the fruit of disgrace in the face of th enemy . Those two hundred men , therefor * are a canker in the heart of the British arm in the Crimea , and they ought to be extirpate as fast as possible . They should be allowed t come home , and punished by being forced int

    a separate corps for duty on drawing-roor days—the only duty , it appears , which the really relish . Their place can easily be suf plied . There are officers from the lmrchin regiments , there are non-commissioned officer in the regiments of the Crimea , who have xu this drawing-room view of a soldier ' s life , an would accept with gladness the duties froi which these men shrink .

    On tlie other hand , there are many reason why the general body of the home force shoul be augmented . If we are to have foreigne : amongst us , and they occasion some alarn what could be a more appropriate counte : balance , than to swamp them , as it were , wit numbers of the resident corps . How coul we stand in fear of 10 , 000 or 15 , 000 foreigne if we had 100 , 000 or 150 , 000 Englishmen But , a proper resident corps , which is the fir nursery for soldiers , cannot be moved abou

    even within the limits of the United Kingdor unless it be " embodied , "—that is , received ini permanent pay , and taken away absolute ] from the ordinai'y pursuits of its member Such a force as the embodied militia is onl another kind of standing army , not quite i permanent or convenient as the ordinary kin < A resident force should be really resident ; bi than to defend all parts of the country it mu be found everywhere . Perhaps we do not r < quire in this country that all ablerbodied men

    serviceable years shall , as m America , be ei rolled in . some militia or voluuteer corps ; and v believe that a far less stringent law—r-perha only an enabling law—would be sufficie : to garrison the whole country , if tiiat law call forth volunteers , and if there were sufficie elasticity in its provisions to let tlie voluntee enrol themselves freely , so as to find companio suited to their habits . It is a great point

    permit the banding of men whose hours business or habits of life enable them to agi in arrangements for drill , &c . If there j some gentlemen who shrink from the hard we of soldiers iu the Crimea , there are ntunb of gentlemen who would gladly undertake ev the rougher work of soldiering for the sake their country , and of the credit to be t } obtained . Invite the formation of free voh

    teer corps , under regulations to have offu approval , and we are sure that many bai would soon exist , equipped with all efficiet that modern improvement can provide . " * should probably have gentlemen sportsn forming corps of riflemen , and appointing hour of practice at times suited to their c hours of breakfast and dinner ; while some tho lmmblcr men , who have practised tl weapons in a less lawful way , would probe form companion bands , with costume ir . humble and economical , with hours of t suited 4 o their different manners of life .

    sides tho ordinary individual emulation wl would thus bo excited , thoro would be a < pom to emulation ; and we eniiuot imagin inoro healthy contest than that for aupe skill botweon the armod peasantry of a coui and its corps of g-ontlomen chasseurs . With so fine a nursery for a military ft wo should have tho mntorials for an arm picked men ; always tho boat kind of m Tho secondary effects upon the state of forcos , movable and rosidont , would per be as groat as the direct effect . Ono of most dashing letters home is written by

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    ^ S& ^ tJ&gf ^^ g . ^ T [ S ts » gij&nm" f 7 * Ofly £ HE LEADER . aturday , - •^^———^— — : .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 30, 1854, page 1236, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2071/page/12/