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    ments 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 dbing 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 ; but the fact remained unaltered that Sebastopol was besieged by a force altogether unprepared . 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 toluch 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 . — — - '

    From the first the difficulties of the campaign began to appear ; it was remarked that the 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 ; they had to roast their 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 . . No one helped the soldiers , and they had no means of hel p ing themselves . Some of them , in the freezing cold , bound sandbags on

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    THE TORY PARTY . Tiiebe is n great appearance of disunion among the Tories , but wo believe it to bo merely superficial . It extends only to questions of principle . On questions of party , a complete union still prevails . There is a little difficulty about accepting the Uadical 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 JBress and the Herald quarrel like man and wife ; but Mr . Disraeli still votes with Mr . Spooiteb for Sabbatarianism , and Church-rates , and so ha will continue to do , unless he can succeed in converting the Spoonerian intellect to a more practical line , Lord Stanley may safely be allowed , not only to talk and write , but so metimes 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 , tftt are ravished at the condescension of the h eir

    of Debbt . 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 the 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 . Disraeli and his followers hold out to them . Even if their liberal tendencies were sincere , why should we be picking up the crumbs that fall from the table of Toryism ? We are not 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 TsTobthtjmbebIiAITd and Mr . Staproni ) . 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 m 6 st 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 . power— . when they have once gained power they will use it for their own ends , or , rather , for the 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 DiSBAEiiiTES 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 thoreioro 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 . Disraeli ' s youth , which in his

    maturity he is struggling to realise , and there is a world of roguish wisdom in the idea . Nothing is more disorganising than "i " " pendent thought , unless it is controlled by a very rare degree of disinterestedness and self-command . The Tory ranks nro almost entirely free from this inconvenient influence . They aro almost equally free from the jealousy and insubordination which is caused nmong the Liberals by personal ambition . In | the first place , the country gentlemen ftro seldom so constituted by nature as to be subject to

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    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 printed forms , " 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 tp 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 , without 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 beneath a sick ward ; and in many the arrangements allowed not even the privileges 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 j soldiers . who had ^ survived InKerjtna _ n _ jiyere __ placed _ on the wet beach to await removal , and " to be drowned by the next tide : " in the wards numbers 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 principle 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 .

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    324 . THB 1 * 3 A DB R . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 7, 1855, page 324, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2085/page/12/