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Leader (1850-1860), 5th June 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 543, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      Seas , lie passed his examination , in 1844 , and received suchlngheulogiumsfrom Sir Charles Napier and Sir Thomas Hastings that he was immediately promoted to the rank of Lieutenant . Tvro years later , he was promoted to the rank of Commander , and appointed' to . the ' -Daring-on the Nortli American and West . Indian station . At the outbreak _ of the llussiau war he was in command of the Diamond , 28 , in the Black Sea fleet . The services of lite Naval Brigade in the Crimea , and before Sebastcpol especially , were in every way so extraordinary , that they are not likely to have fceen forgotten . Captain Peel was the life and soul of the party ; and the doings of the " Diamond battery " ave among the . most , interesting , as they wore , among the most picturesque ; , details of the memorable

      siege . Wounded and obliged to return to > England before the fall of the great fortress , he was decollated with the Victoria Cross , and admitted into tke rank of " bravest of the brave . " When the Chinese difficulties , in 1 S 5 G , reached the point at '¦ which ' , it "was determined to make war . upon the Brother to the Sim , Captain Peel was appointed to vhe Shannon screw-frigate , 51 ., and despatched to the China station ; but he had scarcely reached his destination ere he-was ordered by Lord Elgin to carry spare troops to Calcutta , to assist in suppressing the Indian mutiny . . " .-No-sooner had he

      landed his charge- ' . hi the Hooghly , thau he - ' proceeded-to--land his ship ' s guns and men ,, with astonishing speed , pushed tip the country to Allahabad , and ultimately into Lucknow , witli . Sir Colin Campbell . The charge of the sailors among the skirmishers , when attacking the enemy ' s position at Cawnporo , filled the Commander-iii-Chiqf with aclmiratioii and surprise . As at Sebastopol' Captain Peel and his wonderful men seemed to find positive enjoyment in the land-service they were performing . But the sport , was a deadly game to play " at , and a . t "the siege at Lucknow the dauntless commauder was wounded bv a musket-ball in the thisrh . We |

      have alluded to the grief which , that mischance caused to his men . Captain Peel never went out for service again ; and when he died his country lost a sea-captain , -whom she could-point to with pride as the type and beau ideal of her naval commanders . Captain Peel was made a Knight Companion of the Bath for his Crimean services , ami a Knight Commander of the same order for his- services in India . He was , also , an oftieer of the Legion of Honour ,. and of the Turkish imperial order of the Medjidio . Scarce ! v thirty-four years of age , his rapid career has Vjecn marked step by step with brilliant actions ; had lie , fortunately , lived to the age of his heroic model , the 3 iamc of Sir William

      Peel might have been written in-the list of England's greatest naval captains ; as it is , it will be found amongst her bravest , lie showed that " the age of chivalry , had not departed ; " for although he could take his place in modern society with the most cultivated , —was , indeed , distinguished by personal grace , even in the ungraceful costume of this prosaic age , — -not a tale of chivalry tells of more dauntless bravery . Whether it was joining in a charge of dragoons , carrying ; a ladder , o ' picking up shell to throw it beyond the reach of doing harm , he thought no service too dangerous , too hard , or too humble , so that it was to clo good , to serve his country , or to spare his comrades . But it is not bravery alone that can make the commander like

      Peel : he must have the power of speaking to the hearts of his followers , of Looking into their souls , and making them love him enough to rise to the standard of // is devotion ; for he is the true commander who , like Campbell , Havelock , or Peel , makes the common soldier feel the soul within him , and con verts tho men who arc known by the numbers in their ranks , into anonymous heroes , fighting for Coil and the right more devotedly thau ever they cared for pay or plunder . _ And ho is gone ! Wo mourn him , and think over Ins vutiies and lovable qualities as if they made ins c enth worse . We almost wish ho were ' mo / so

      precious ; forgetting the profound rebuke of Socrates when his wife regretted that he should "din innocent . Peel ' s exertion and wounds no doubt aided disease to carry him oil '; but would ho have been | , ] U ) richer deprived of the qualities , the instincts , the impulses which made him brave death ? Assuredly not . Few of the nmlliitiulo . s who live the allott e < l lifts of man have , oven in tlum-expmuledl . eriu so wrtcf ,. of life us Peel converted Into his half tUc threescore ' years and ten . And who l >« liovos that 11 ) 0 existence of such a Icing closes in lii . s Indian

      Untitled Article

      THE SUEZ CANAJj DEBATE . Mr . Uoebtjck could scarcely have expected to carry his motion on Tuesday evening . It was a virtual censure against the late Ministry , on the ground that it had not lent its sanction to a hu £ * e steam-dredging and stock-jobbing scheme , the political objects of which are purely French . It is true that Lord John Russell and Mr . Gladstone supported the intrepid member for Sheffield , who accused Lord Palmerston of " anility , " but the majority against them was enormous , and the result of the debate cannot but be damaging in every respect to the hopes of M . de Lessees . In the first place , it brought up Mr . Stephenson , who has the best right to be heard on such matters , and he pointed out so many difficulties , and so far reduced the probabilities of advantage arising from the construction of the canal , that many persons formerly favourable to the project now believe it must " be given up altogether . M . de Lesseps will not add the opinion of Mr . Stephenson to his synopsis of testimonials . But Lord Palmerston ' s statement was quite as impressive , although chiefly a repetition of the argument as he had before advanced it . He showed that the scheme was one for isolating Egypt , and , far as we are from believing that the integrity of the Turkish . Empire is or slunild be the main object of European diplomacy , we do admit that it is not , and never can be , thei policy of this country to throw Fjgypt into the hands of France . The fortifications on the coast and the Barrage Avere works of French origin , promoted to serve French purposes . The Suez Canal is a French project , with a French idea at the bottom of it . Diplomatically and politically , therefore , British statesmen are not to be blamed for opposing it . It may be allowed , however , that public opinion is not bound to appreciate all the ponderings . and prophecies of high statesmanship . If it were satisfactorily shown thsit the Suez Canal scheme was a feasible project , and , when developed , would be beneficial to eonnnerce and civilization , we confess that some otlier security might be found for Egypt and the water-line to British India . A little Gibraltar at Perini would serve as a barrier at the eastern end of the Red Sea , and it might be necessary to occupy a new position in the Mediterranean . But , supposing the actual possibility of piercing the isthmus by canalization , would the results be in any proportion to the cost , the labour , arid the burden upon humanity ? On these points we recommend persons who have been impressed by M . deLesscps ' s pamphlets to study Mr . Steplicnson ' s commentary .

      Untitled Article

      BREACHES OF PRIVILEGE . If the House of Commons has privileges , it is right to protect them . The Sovereign is prayed , upon the assembling of a new Parliament , to put / the most favourable construction upon the acts and language of every member , and it is quite as reasonable that the representatives of constituencies should not be accused of corruption by those who arc unwilling or unable to substantiate their charges . Of late years , the House of Commons has exhibited no great sensitiveness in matters of this kind , but Mr . Clivc , wo are bound to say , had a case , and his friends Avcrc perfectly justified in taking formal steps on his behalL On the other liand , it is not shown that Mr . Washington Wilks was animated by any personal malignity . He appears io have adopted the railway affair as an attractive subject for discussion in a local journal , and his contributor spiced the required " leader" somewhat highly . Probably , there was less of opinion than of a certain sort of rhetoric in j tlic argument which sent Mr . Wilks to the apartments one tiiwc tenanted — so much has English history been degraded—by a patriot of thcnge , poor Mr . Feargus O'Connor . But the scandal has ended , find we do not sec that any one is par-1 icuhvrly Io he pitied . No one believes Mr . Clive to have he en corrupt because the Carlisle JUxamincr said so , and it would be absurd to affect compassion for Mr . Wilks , who , the fee question being sot aside , has enjoyed two or three days of selfsustaining ; excitement in the genial custody of the Sorjoant .-al-Arms , under the same roof with the Itiglit Honourable Ihc Speaker , besides the opportunity of getting hit o print and having his " lateral " lineage I raced for the . benefit , of a curious world . Still , it must lie . said , that the . jTIouso of Commons is not alitlle capricious . Mr . Clivc was -undoubtedly insulted ; but what' public man is not insulted , especially by t . lic , inferior journals ? Why , ( hey tirealI of them " corrupt , " " factious , "

      " partial , " and " base , " by turns . Mr . Gladstone says he seldom passes a day without reading something like a libel upon liirnself . Why then single out small offenders and knock them on tke head with the Speaker's mace ? Possibly it is for the sake of perpetuating old Parliamentary customs , similar to that of searching the vaults 3 now very sensibly abandoned . If , however , gentlemen who are by prescription honourable , mean in good earnest to defend their " honour , " it will be time to consider what journalists are to do when these members of Parliament bespatter them , withcliaxges of ribaldry , licentiousness , and venality . Mr . Disraeli , if lie did not break bis privilege at Sloughy bent it nearly double ; and Mr . I ) rammond is in the habit of saying much which it might- —recent circumstances being remembered—prove dangerous to retort in his ownlanguage . But , tlien , the article published by the unlucky Mr . Wilks was not of a political character , and had no public importance . It was , in fact , an imputation upon the business honesty of an individual who happened to be a member of Parliament •• andlMi ' . Wilks did the best thing he could do , both in refusing to betray the writer , and in retracting , on his own part , all the offensive expressions . He should have been aware , of course , that great interest , with much dissension , is generally excited in local circles by such local matters as the railway squabble in question , and must have known that he was disseminating insinuations highly derogatory to the character of a gentleman and a member of Parliament . We liope that the Carlisle paper will profit by the discipline undergone by its publisher , and that British freedom will survive the onslaught upon the sacred rights and liberties of the press . The House of Commons , as a . state prisou , is scarcely so penal in aspect , or so rigorous in its regulations , as the Tower , or even the Queen- s Bench ; but still there are immortal principles to maintain , and we do hope that the parochial organs of the metropolis and other large towns will— -at the low price of one halfpenny each—unite as one man—or as one paperand , . hurl' , back the aggression . The Westminster News is in peculiar peril . The eyes of both Houses are upon it . To misrepresent the coachman of a peer , if our constitutional law be right , would be a breach of privilege , but collectively , Aye think , the whole body of Parliament may be assailed with impunity . Thus , it was wrong to attack Mr . Olive ; but it would not be wrong to say that our present system of railway legislation is corrupt and infamoas in all its parts .

      Untitled Article

      SANITA . RY CONDITION OF THE ARMY . ¦ - - IV . , . ' . ; . ¦' '¦ •• The next group of causes injurious to the health of the soldier— " intemperate and debauched habits' * —like the " want of suitable employment , " just considered , may fairly be classed under the moral element . The soldier , at home at least , is an idle man , consequently , like most of us under such circumstances , he soon gets into mischief . Unfortunately , as we think , to " go for a soldier" is synonymous with many desperate acts that young men do . A man is generally put to his shifts before he listens to the glowing accounts of the gallant sergeant . He . been disgusted with lite in some form or other , probably has laboured hard and fared still harder , or been oppressed and tyrannized over , or fancies he has , which is all the same ; or been crossed in love—that suicidal state of mind which nine times out of ten drives Johnny Raw into the meshes of the recruiting-sergeant . So that the : youth , or the grown man , comes to us more or less reckless of everything ; full of his later experiences in the haunts of low life and desperate habits . To have a lyian satisfied , contented , respectable , as the saying is , deliberately offering his life for twentyone years to a service that lie thinks highly of , ami in which he has dreamt of the possibility of rising and distinguishing himself even as a general , is a very exceptional case . And so it must continue ti > be , until the authorities , becoming wiser for the country ' s interests , take some pains to consider the humanities of the soldier , and make some efforts to raise the military status in every community . We have generally Io make soldiers out of two kinds of recruits : those from the manufacturing districts , the waste and worthless oi' the mills and factories , with their associates , who havo no profession ; and the labourers , of which ft fair proportion , not , however , ko many as is frequently stated , are agricultural labourers , and the rest hodmen of some kind or other , The return showing the occupations oi

      Untitled Article

      - _ " ffo . 428 , Jtoe 5 , 1858 . ] THE LEA P E -R . 543

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 5, 1858, page 543, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2245/page/15/