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filthblanketThe sick - . ¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ * T...
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IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT. KOUT OF MINISTERS. ...
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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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"Painful Is The Story Of The Last Days O...
the multitude maybe led . wrong by very superficial mistakes , and under a popular impulse great disasters may be precipitated which the multitude itself will be the first to repent . It is not , however , to be supposed that men like Djmmjxn de iawiTS , Pebsignt , or Louis ; NA *© tEos--1 BcoL , Bach , or Bbuck— are so totally ignorant of the real meaning of Parliamentary business in this country as to suppose that the action of our Government-will be suspended ov reversed because the personnel of the Cabinet is changed , because the administration of the war is changed for wanfof energy , or
because our military authorities are embarrassed in their supine slowness by an angry inquiry that may introduce greater activity into our politicorailitary operations . Austrian and French statesmen , we say , will be able to weigh and measure these considerations with a cooler and more foreseeing judgment than great numbers even in this country ; and we may suppose that they will continue the movement as they have hitherto carried it on , calmly waiting to take up the British Governat the next stage when it shall have been reconstituted . If the Crown should appoint a bad
Government , if Ministers should enter office for the purpose of betraying the country—then , indeed , they may perform that part in the Alliance ¦ which Lord John Russell has performed in the Cabinet . But the simple Ministerial crisis , we insist , is not likely to have any serious effect upon the Alliance , while a really improved Government would have a beneficial effect . The constancy with which the larger movements on the Continent have been proceeding , is marked by some of the latest incidents . The secret
despatch accompanying Count Buoi / s published despatch to the German Governments on the 14 th of January has been published , and in it we find the Austrian statesmen inviting the German States , should the Bund not affirm the Austrian proposition , to unite their fortune with the Empire and share " the gains of the war . " The gains of war ! Austria , then , contemplates a warfare , in which one side or other shall have " gains" to divide . ' The Confederation has refused the Austrian proposition for mobilisation of the Federal
troops , and hasjidopted the Bavarian compromise —that of jplaeing the troops on _ a warfooting . This will strengthen Prussia , who , in her last published despatch , on the 21 st of January , is still tracing her mystic nonsense , claiming admission to the Conference in Vienna , while practically operating as the ally of Russia , although abstaining from an avowal of that character . Switzerland , it is said , has imitated Piedmont in permitting the passage of French troops . To strengthen the military resources of Austria , the little Republic , it is understood , will lend a
contingent of 15 , 000 men to that force . The war movements on the Continent , therefore , are marching . " Justice ' * has been at some of ifs odd work . The Court of Admiralty has been gravely instructing ship-owners , that if they attempt to break a blockade they do it at their own peril . Air . Justice Cojcbbjupiisib has been gravely telling the publisher of the Times , that public journals may canvass the public conduct of men , but not their private conduct—a remark drawn forth by
animadversions on the public conduct of the Chairman and Directors of -a railway company , which the great journal considered open to grave suspicion . Push Mr . Justice Co-Lehidgjs ' s rule home , and it ¦ would teach us that we must not suspect public men , but only judge them by acts and public professions ! While a very young girl is convicted of tl concealing" the birth of an infant whom she
was accused of killing—the usual cose of tho Mabgabet of some unknown Faust—and is sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour , a man , convicted of killing his intemperate ¦ wife Jt > y kicking her , is sentenced to one year ' s imprisonment with hard labour . The jury were not young girls , perplexed by tne delirious problems of a premature maternity ; but probably they were all husbands , and knew what provocation was . To conceal the life of an infant is
There are counter orders and w ; policemen * md parish constables fall to personal contests ; there is a race of cabs from the hospital -where the inquest was held to the station , fair Richard Mathb , consulting his own dignity , leaves his august rival , Coroner Wakxey , to carry out his victory in war with the Peelers ; and thus it is that "justice" conducts its procession from the judicial chamber in the first instance to Newsrate !
counter arrants twice as great a crime as to kick a woman to G Some ramlts are remarkable in their collateral incidents rather than their direct issues . Bubvneixt , committed to custody , on a coroners warrant , becomes , by » burlesque of ^ tragedy ludicrously disgusting , the object trf a conflict between a Coroner and Police , both of whom claimed ths right of-holding him m custody .
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- . ¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ * THE LEADER . [ Saturday , . . y 8 . ¦ _ —_^——^— t——————¦—^———¦———— p
Imperial Parliament. Kout Of Ministers. ...
IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT . KOUT OF MINISTERS . The fate of the Aberdeen Ministry was determined , on Monday night , after ' . a long debate full of interest and animation . It will be remembered tbat Mr , Stafford moved the adjournment last week , and the duty of renewing it fell upon him this week . He did not make a speech of the usual Parliamentary stamp , but he gave an unvarnished and affecting narration of facts that had come under his own eyes in the hospitals of Scutari and Balaclava . . , Glad to hear that Government had determined to open a large hospital at Smyrna , he described that at Scutari as situated in an unhealthy position , between two seas , while the atmosphere of Constantinople was unfavourable to the healing of wounds . The hospital at Abydos was situate in a . well chosen spot , and would succeed if the stores were ready . Passing on to the Scutari hospitals , he dwelt on the benefits which had accrue _ d from the Times' fund , so delicately yet boldly distributed By the gentlemen in charge of it ; The hospital at Scutari had been greatly improved ; but it has radical defects which can never be cured . It had never been anything else but unhealthy . He had found that the corridors and w ards were floored with porous unglazed tiles ; on these mattresses were placed ; and in the absence of vessels of all kinds the tiles had become saturated with feculent matter , which could not
be washed away without endangering all the patients . It was swept repeatedly , but the original stain remained , surcharging the atmosphere with its noxious exhalations , so that all who entered caught the prevailing disease . The doctors are not entirely to be blamed ; there was a want of proper instructions from home . Next he described the condition of convalescents on board a ship bound for the Crimea . There were three hundred , nearly all withont- their knapsacks , the knapsacks being in .. jtk . eJi . oldjof _ a .. sW of cargo . They had made four voyages to and fro in the Black Sea , since the troops first landed . He took a boat and tried to get them , but could only obtain two ! On visiting the hospital at Balaklava , now greatly imt
proved , he found no cleanliness , no ventilation , noa single sheet , not a mattress , not one medical comfort . There were nine men lying on the boards in one room and fourteen in another ; yet there were bedsteads in the passage between the two . The men said all was done for them that could be done ; but the orderlies denounced tho doctors , and the doctors denounced tho orderlies ; whilo between the two the patients were dying . The sarao day he found one of the convalescents sitting in tho street , ready to drop with fatigue and hunger , and nobody to show him the way to the hospital . Mr . Stafford took him thither , and insisted on his being put to bod . The next day tho man died i * delirium . Another man , who could only eat sago , was not allowed to have more
than his allowance of that instead of other food , and ho left him sinking more from starvation than disease . Riding out ono morning towards the camp , he passed a man lying down by tho roadside in the lust atage of dmrrhcoa As ho passed he heard tho man say , not addressing nny one in particular , "Will anybody take mo away or kill me ?" On tliis ho dismounted and asked tho man how ho came thero ? " They have been moving me down from tho camp , " he anid , " to put mo on board ship , but they have left mo hero , and I don't know what they are going to do with mo , but I wish they would cither kill mo or take mo away . " Thero were four or iivo others closo by in oven a worse condition , inasmuch as they could not sneak , whilo this man
could ; and , on turning towards the camp , ho saw coming towards him a long procossion of our wounded soldiers , being brought down from tho camp on French mules and in French ambulances . He would do tho French soldiora tho justice of saying , that no countrymen could hnvo behaved with greater kindness to theso poor follows . ( Loikl cheers . ') Thoy lifted them gently from the pnnniora in which they were placed , but there were no arrangements mado to receive them , and thero they lay on tho shore until tho two boats unpointed to recoivo thorn carried them on board tho ships . So bad wore tho roads , that somoof tho woundod , lie boliovod , had been all night on tho way , with nothing tocovor thorn but u great cont tmd a blankest , stained and rotten with orduro . So ho found them on board the Avon , lying on the bare boards—no mattresses , no aheota , no bcadateada of course—with nothing
to-CTverHiem there but the same filthy blanket . The sick in the Avon wereWHflted with soup made of whole peas ! They Lad only BKIiy blankets ; at his urgent request the doctor wairwl romine , -wad at his order the captain issued ninetysix blanke t * , "winch Mr . Stafford and his servant gave out to the 6 ick . | Tie first indication he witnessed of the arrival of tliesidk . fend wounded in the Bosphorous was preceded by dead bodiee , rolled in blankets , washed ashore near The quay at Scutari . They had been thrown overboard without a cannon-ball to sink them ! He had visited the French hospitals , and had found-them so clean and wi-11 ventilated that ft was observed , it seemed as if the French had been there ten years , find that the finglish had come tho day before . Gloomy as was the picture -he was now drawing , he must congratulate the Secretary at \ faar on the sending out of the
female nurses- la » -t autumn . Success more complete never attended human effort than that which had resulted from this excellent measure . They could scarcely realise , without personally seeing it , the heartfelt gratitude of the soldiers to these noble ladies , or the amount of misery they had relieved , or the degree of comfort—he might say of joy—they had diffused ; and it was impossible to do justice , not only to the kindness of heart , but to the clever judgment , ready intelligence , and the experience displayed by the distinguished lady to whom this dimcnlt mission had been intrusted . ( Cheers . ') If Scutari was not altogether as wo would wish it to be , it was because of the inadequate powers confided to Miss Nightingale ; and if the Government did not stand by her and her devoted band , and repel unfounded and ungenerous attacks made upon them—if it did not consult their
wishes and yield to their superior judgment in many respects it would deserve the execration of the public . A French officer , alluding to our commissariat and other departments , remarked to him that we seemed to follow the system of the middle-ages rather than the principles of modern science , and that his nation regretted our backwardness the more because they saw what noble lives it caused us to sacrifice . This observation was perfectly true , and was made'hi no hostile spirit . . . . With regard to our own officers , lie must say that , while engaged in writing soldiers' letters in our hospitals , he never heard , much less was he asked to write , a single word of complaint against any officer . Indeed , the men ' s expressions of gratitude to their officers were highly -honourable .-to the men themselves , and no less so ^ tp their officers . One name in particular was mentioned with
enthusiasm , admiration , and gratitude—he meant that of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge , who seemed to possess the happy arty even in the-din of battle , of saying a kind word m- doing a '' kind . act , which his men would remember to the latest hour of their lives . But how should he de-• cribe to the House the loyalty of these brave and suffering fellows towards their Sovereign ? When the news of the autograph letter of her Majesty reached the hospital at Scutari , he believed there never was spent , within the walls of such an 'establishment , a happier night than that which followed the proclamation of the cheering and consolatory tidings of their Queen ' s sympathy and concern for their affliction . He saw one poor fellow proposing to drink the Queen ' s health with a preparation of bark and quinine , which he was ordered to take as a medicine , and when Mr . Stafford remarked that the draught was a bitter one for such a toast , the man smilingly replied— " Yes , aud but for these consoling worda I could not get it down . " ( Laughter . ) This anecdote was told to his fellow-sufferers , and this was the way in
which' they sweetened their bitter draughts . He had no notion of the noble qualities possessed by these brave men until he lived and laboured among them . Fervent exclamations of humblejjioty and sincere _ pcjnitejjco _ we from their dying lips . ' Unceasing pain and approaching death failed to unman those gallant spirits , and it was only when charging him with their last message to those near and dear to them that their voices were noticed to falter . Once , indeed , a bravo fellow , who bore the highest character in his regiment , when on his death-bed , uttered to him these words : — " Had I been better treated I might have gone back to my duty in the field , and there I should have be'en ready to meet tho soldiers of the enemy ; but England has not cared for me . " Theso words caused to Mr . Stafford ' s mind tho deepest pain , but he felt convinced that England did care for her soldiers ; indeed , from what he had seen of tho feeling of this country since his return , ho believed that there was comparatively nothing else for-which the peoplo of England now cared as much as for tho welfare of them who fought their battles .
Mr . Stafford defended the press , and said he could endorse the statements of the Times . The question before the House was , whether the system which had engendered such disasters should continue or be abolished ? The thanks Parliament had voted would bo a mockery if they did not burst the trammels of routine and save an army . Tho question thus clearly put by Mr . Stafford was taken up by tho Secretary of tho Admiralty in a way that astonished the House . . After declaring thut thero had boon no charge mado against the Admiralty , Mr . Ralph Osborno Baid ho would not rest his vote on thnt , and then launched into an assault upon tho military system . Does it tend to
dovelopo military talent ? No . Look how the . staff of tho army is composed . Talk of consolidation ! You must reconstruct yonr system—you must have » n army that enn not only win battles but go through a campaign . You must lay an unsparing hand upon that building adjacent to theso promises—you must sco whether you can find a Hercules to turn tho Serpentine through tho Horse Guards and all tho ramifications of tho War-office . [ Those assertions were frantically cheered by tho opposition . 1 Interest and connexion , , not capacity and knowlcgo , obtained appointments on the stafl ' . Not ono-third of the staff in the Crimou can speak French or draw a common fleld plan . How can you got generate wlion every stop in promotion must , bo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 3, 1855, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03021855/page/2/
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