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1142 THE LEADER. [No. 297, Saturda y ,
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THE WAR. The position of General Vivian ...
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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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C Heckered Is The Character Of The Intel...
were in direct communication . la the meanwhile , how ever , war ships of both nations have been sent to the West Indies , with instructions , no doubt , that will stimulate their jealous vigilance . Sea captains in Loth countries are addicted to rough language and conduct : shots may be fired even in mistake—a few timbers may be splintereda flag may be damaged—bkiod may be shed ; and who could then stop the conflict ? ' . The only chance of stopping it-wouldIbe a much hetter ( means of communication between flfihe peoples of England and America than is furnished by the Governments either in St . James's or in Washington .
As to the American . invasion of Ireland , it is really a bad j ( 3 ke , which ' the respectable Irish in America have been anxious to repudiate . We have had another invasion of a more pacific kind than any which America could furnish . A Roman Catholic priest lately made a vehement assault upon Protestant adversaries , * and ] burned their books before his auditory . It is ^ affirmed that amongst these books were parts , if not entire copies , of the New Testament . The Protestants were up in arms . Mr . Attorney-General Keogh has been driven to instigate a state prosecution ; the priest is criminally arraigned . The Romanists take fire at this prosecution , and are declaring , from Dublin to Meath , that they desire nothing better than to burn the Protestant version of the
Bible ; and a very pretty quarrel is thus established . The priest is a Russian , his Christian name is that of a Russian saint , St . Vladimir , and the coincidence of his Russian birth , his Roman faith , and his discord-breeding zealotry is at least curious . Another scandal that may strike the foreign visitor is the great industrial dispute which is proeeeding at Manchester , and which has its ramification in the collierv districts . In both cases the
masters appear to labour under perplexities , not less than the men . There can be no question that the cotton manufacture generally has not returned a profit ; and although the masters have laid themselves open to the reproaches of the men , that they have not acted together , and have not sought the general interests of the trade , those retrospective censurers do nothing to cure the present difficulty . Partly from some disturbance in the market of the raw material , and partly from want of demand in the market , profits are reduced
to nothing , and wages have to he paid out of capital . It is not exactly the same in the coal trade , though it is probable that the masters of different districts , in . the endeavour to secure the great markets of the country , have brought prices below the real paying level , —one proof , out of hundreds , that competition often makes enterprising trade overreach itself . In both these great instances , the true cause of the difficulty is want of understanding between the contending parties ; it is civil war scarcely less destructive than that waged with armies .
There is another kind of civil war constantly going forward . Its character has been exposed some time since by the Lancet , and the smothered conflict is again brought to light this week by a case in the law courts . Dr . King , the well-known Arctic traveller , institutes an action for assault against Mr . Savory , a chemist , and Mr . Savory brings liia action for defamation . Dr . King ' s story is curious : —He reports that he purchased a " drug at the chemist ' s sliop , which he found unfit for medical Use ; and that a friend of his purchased a gazogene equally unsuited to its purpose . On tliis , the Doctor constitutes himself a judicial tribunal , and summons ]; Mr . Savory before him . After the judge has stated the case against the chemist , the defendant replies by various assaults and
recriminations ; the controversy ends in a scuffle , and in an appeal to the regular law tribunals . It is unfortunate that the judicial inquiry did not settle tho question of the drug and the gazogene . It is unfortunate nlso that Dr . King has before been conspicuous as an accuser . According to hints which he threw out years back , all other Arctic voyagers were humbugs—their fur a dramatic costume—their hardships pretences ; for he found that , in a simple shooting-jacket , he could endure the rigours of the winter . The fnct is accounted for , perhaps , by the volcanic heat of his temper . Transcending all other commercial or personal scandals for the week , is tho report of the Cominmee Appointed by the Shareholders iu tho Eastern Counties Railway Company . Was not this one of Hudson ' s lines ? Did we not think
that it was completely reformed and purged of all such " management ? " Yet , what do we fin ( ir # e find ^ an entire railway company befooled—iijts 'ifuiids msed to establish branch lines , leased to private contractors — to give wagons : and the use of capital , and a practical monopoly to a coal company—to engage in naval enterprise , by aaopting establishments of steam-boats—to assist the pushing proprietor of a tea-garden by helping him ^ to build a
ilancing saloon , andlay-shaaing with him-the traffic of tfhe line itself . "We find iit furnishing -drolling stock forefcbis or . that , off-lying company , supplying money rto renew stores df which there were no vouchers , and leaving its own mai n line with a modicum of provision for repairs ; its directors mystified , not enlightened , by the accounts habitually presented . But no justice can be done to the case in a hasty and summary notice . It is a mine which . we shall have to excavate , and certainly no geology in the land promises to disclose to us stranger monsters of the past than this new cutting into the affairs of the Eastern Counties .
Personal matters have occupied no small space in public view . Admiral Bbuat , who shared in the attack upon Sebastopol , has died on his return home to enjoy his honours . Even Count Mole , the grand impersonation of old French noblesse and Conservatism , merits a passing regret . Mr . Roebuck , and other Liberals , have held a preliminary meeting in Radley ' s Hotel , for the purpose of founding a memorial to Joseph Hume . The foreseeing army-surgeon contractor became the grand economist of the English Radicals , and really procured some of the best reforms for the middle and working classes of this
country . Dukes , Marquises , Lords , and Right Honourables , have crammed Willis ' s Rooms to suffocation , with a " distinguished" meeting , to commence the establishment of the Nightingale Memorial . This is to be a school for nurses—the professional Nightingales , who are hereafter to continue in English hospitals the reformed attendance which * she began at Scutari . She did her work for love : will paid Nightingales ever do their work so well ? Yes , if , with the pay , due consideration be given to the women , a high training , and that spirit embodied in the institution which shall render the service zealous , although paid .
1142 The Leader. [No. 297, Saturda Y ,
1142 THE LEADER . [ No . 297 , Saturda y ,
The War. The Position Of General Vivian ...
THE WAR . The position of General Vivian at Kerteh has not received any veiy clear elucidation since we last addressed our readers ; but there does not seem to be serious occasion for uneasiness . The Trieste and Marseilles journals , in conjunction with the Constantinople press , state that General Wrangel has received reinforcements , and is closely pressing Kerteh , while General Vivian has been refused any augmentation of his forces , because , being an officer of the East India Company , he is not authorised to command the royal troops ; yet no intelligence of an attack by Wrangel has reached us , and , on the other hand , it is affirmed that embarkations of cavalry for the Contingent have taken place at Turkish ports , in accordance with intentions long since entertained .
The writer of a letter from Kainiesch , published in the Courrier de Marseilles , ridicules the idea of the Allies contemplating the evacuation of the Crimea , and supports his views by referring to the " stupendous works" now being executed by the English . Why , asks the writer , should magnificent roads be laid out , a new town in the neighbourhood of Bnlaklava he built of stone , and the railway be extended , if the country is to be abandoned ? He adds that six thousand men nre every day employed on these works . By the side of this stupendous and rapid creation , an equally vast destruction is going on . The demolition of Sebastopol has been determined on , and each army corps lias received its portion to work upon , According to communications from Constantinople , all the- four armies nre at once set loose on this
employment ; nnd from morning to night tho thump of the engines of destruction is heard echoing through the streets of the fortress city , followed by the crash of falling stones and timber , The engineers , also , have resumed their mining works , in order to blow up the military and maritime establishments ; nnd the cannon-balls and shells arc piled into huge pyramids . The random firing between tho Allies and tho Russians in the northern forts continues ; but to
little effect . We begin to hear some talk , however , of an attack on this last stronghold of the ( Czar in Sebastopol . A correspondent of the Gazette = du Midi says : —• " The last-intelligence which I received from Sebastopol announces that the long range guns and mortars intended 'fortilie batteries have arrived at their destination . The artillery officers are of opinion that the general fire against the northern forts will be opened at the end of the present month . " Announcements . of this kind , however , are so often imade with no . better authority than mere sgossip , that we must not place too much faith in the promised bombardment .
The Russians profess to . doubt our power of holding "Kmburn during the winter ; and it is thought by many that , when the frost breaks up , and the ice comes dashing and grating down the Bug and the Dnieper , our ships will find it diffic ult to maintain their position . It is affirmed by the Russians that the sea between Qtchakoff and Kinburn is seldom quite frozen over , and that we shall thus be deprived of that defence ; but shipmen in the Black Sea say that ihe only point where the waters do not freeze is at the spot where the Bug falls into the bay . However , forewarned is forearmed ; and the Allied fleet will doubtless know how to protect itself . Of the Turkish position at Kars we read the rollowing in the Moniteur : —
"According to the last accounts , Omar Pacha was expecting a battle . General Mouravieff had detached a division from his army , which was advancing by forced marches on Kutais by the Akhiska-road . About 8 , 000 Turks , under Mustaplia Pacha , had left Batpum to try and cut off this detachment . Early in the month , they had reached Osurgethi . The Coinmanderin-Chief bade them meet Mm at Kutais , which will kcome the theatre of some important engagement , unless the Russians prefer intrenching themselves in the defiles which protect the advance on Tiflis . "
It is said that the Russians are hutting themselves ; which seems to indicate a determination to continue the blockade , though this is but feebly enforced . Some provisions have been received by the beleagured garrison . They were intended for the besiegers ; but the Persians who were conducting them , consented for a bribe to deliver up the supplies . The insanity of General Mouravieff is now denied ; and it is asserted that the Greeks purposely put the story in circulation for the sake of refuting it , and thus throwing doubt on other incidents of the Asiatic war . If all that is laid to the charge of the unhappy Greeks be true , they have enough to answer for .
The Morning Post — not very celebrated , it must be admitted , for the accuracy of its intelligence — delivers itself as follows on the probabilities of the struggle in the far East : — " There axe grounds for believing that the telegraphic report , stating that the army of General Mouruvieff had crossed the Arpatchai into Georgia , is correct . The fact that only some 10 , 000 Georgian niilitia have hitherto opposed the progress of Omar Pacha , shows the weakness of the Russians , and
discovers the imperative necessity which compels General Mouravieff to raise the siege of Kars , unless he would expose himself to tho interruption of his communications , the loss of Tiflis itaelf , and the risk of a capitulation . The groat victory ai Kara has so shattered tho main body of the Russians , that it is doubted whether as many as 15 , 000 men remain under the orders of General Mouravieff . Under thene circumstances , wo hope eoon to receive the certain news of the safety of Kars nnd its gallant defenders , and of the triumphant progress of Omar Pacha . " Last week we had to record tho death of General Mnrkham ; this week we arc compelled to add to the black list the name of another gallant man—the French Admiral Bruat . THE NEW AND OLD COBtMANDKllfl-IN-OIi nJF . General Coclrington assumed tho command of tho army on tho 12 th of November , when ho published tho following Order , which wan received with Hatisfaotion by tho army : — " Head-Quarters , Sebastopol , Nov . 12 . " I have assumed tho command of tho army J » obedience to her Majesty ' h ordora . It in with _ a fueling of prido and with a fooling of confkloiKO in the support which I know will bo hardly givon to any offioar honoured with suoh a oornniiawion . ,
. " Tho armies of Franoo and Sardinia ore nnitou with \ ib on this ground . "Wo know their gallantry well , for wo have Been it ; wo know thoir fricn « - Hlup , for we httvo profited by it ; wo Imvo w » area < limcultioH ; dtmgers , and bucoobsob—tho grounaworK of mutual esteem - K and all will fool it our p leasure , well ne our duty , to carry on that kindly intercom *"
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 1, 1855, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01121855/page/2/
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