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66 THE LEADER [No. 304, Saturday
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FOUR TRAVELLERS. Mexico and its fiehpiov...
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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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^„___ ¦ — ———""¦"""" 3^^^*^' Upon Which ...
spent one hundred and twenty pounds ; and Messrs . Chapman and Hall assure me that an appreciating public will present me with at least double that sum for an account of my wanderings . " We venture to assume that the reader has not for some time met with the equal of this for cool selfcomplacency . But although we think so lightly of this pretentious production , we have a bone to pick with the author for the sake of truth , and for the sake of that brave army which has endured so much for us in the Crimea . In the course Of his work he tells the " true story of the Redan / ' Here it is ; purporting to be in the language of an officer on the spot : — The story ia a very short and a very sad one . The storming party consisted of five hundred men : the supports were to move into the trenches in bodies
of about a thousand each , and to move out of the trenches in the same divisions , to support the storming party . At the moment : of the assault there were not above thirty Eussiaus in the Redan : the fire was very feeble , and the storming party ran along the open space , and were over the works with no great loss . Two divisions of the supports were now marched out of the trenches- There was nothing to oppose them ; except a few dropping shots inBide , all was as silent as the grave . "When , however , they got half way between the trenches and the Russian , works a panic seemed to seize them . They did not run away , hut they stood still their officers to excite them b
. We saw trying y voice and gesture to advance . Some even took hold of their coats and tried to start them , as you would try to start a jibbing horse . It was all in vain : they would not move The * nen who were inside calleS to them to come on , and told them there was no one there ; hut it'was of no use : they stood still . Meanwhile , Wyndham could not get his five hundred men to charge if they had done so , the Russians were in such small force , that ev « n with that inconsiderable tody of troops he would have driven -fchem down , the hill , and found time to turn the guns city wards . As to spiking the guns , he did did nftt want to clo that ; he wanted them to defend his position .
The moment of viotory passed away . The Russian supports came up in vaet numbers ; instead of finding five thousand Englishmen on -the top of ^ the hill protected by the Russian guns , now turned upon their former owners , the Russians fcmnd only the five hundred men who had first got in , and these engaged , in desultory snapshooting with the scanty garrison which lurked among the traverses . „ The _ fresh arr ^ y of enemies did what we ought to have done ; they charged with the bayonet , drove the remnant of our five hundred men towards the parapet and recovered the guns .
And now these guns were turned with murderous , effect upon the poor panicstricken devils who were standing irresolute between the trenches and the fort They were mowed down by scores . . They turned round and ran back into the trenche ^ which were already fulj of the men who were to have supported them . After this the confusion was hopeless . Regiments got all mixed together , and no x > fficer could find his men , or men their officer . It was then that Wyndham ^ 3 v ^ , ^ J * 0 / 6 mm ' linless y ° u can sejld an a ^ J for th officered and disciplined The few brave straggling parties that came out were only a useless sacrinee of the good men . . . * ¦ . ±
i « S + ?\^ ^ S ? , f ^ over mo the crowded trenches , and ' the poor innocent babies , who didn't know a bayonet from a musket , and wlio were no more fit to act as soldiers than they were to act as parsons , were cut up by baPs ^ to ^ ^ ' and were S ot wt of the trenches as quickly as possible . ' This is the real history of the attack upon the Redan
The reader wall remark that the truth about the repulse at the Redan consists in a wholesale charge against the common soldiers engaged in that tremendous contest . For he will not have failed to note that the repulse is -attributed to two causes—the cowardice of the supports and the cowardice © 1 the stormers . I he former , we are gravely assured , actually stood " half way between the trenches and the Russian works j" the latter , when in tlie Redan , could not he " got to charge . " . Now . if will be sufficient to recall What sort of position that was in which our legal friend , for we cannot believe any British officer ever made such a statement , placed his men . The Redan was , according to General Niel , two hundred vards from th * Ttvitish + v ,. « ,. Vo « .
according to > lajor Hamley , one hundred and fifty from the most advanced trench ; according to loth , the intervening space was swept by the fire of tlie guna on the flank of the Hedan . General Kiel says the troops crossed that * pace under a heavy fire of grape , which soon covered the ground with slain ; Major Hamley says that while crossing " the intervening space a number of men were wounded by _ grape from the flanks , where several guns opened fiercely ; and . he mentions the further proof of the severity of this fire that onjy six ladders were borne safely to the ditch , the rest with their bearers lay between the English trenches and the Russian works . Observe our veracious author states that there was " nothing " to oppose th e supports ; " except a few dropping shots uunde , all was silent as the grave . " And yet , as we have sh < mn , from the very beginning of the fray the flank g ,, ns of theRedan sent a hurricane of grape through the stormers , and , nsthosegunscould not betouched , * h ^ : ^ 5 Ca <] y ' ° n £ *«?* a l tei > stolM 1 rt' ^ ugh the supports : so that if ,
w ™ i" ™*™™* a Irtish officer state , the supports stood still « halfway EKSE * C tr S nclie » «» J « Russian ™>* ks , " they must have displayed a miracle of heKoism for they must have halted in the shot-swept track where rtTlnnJ ^' f q ? J I" ? W tb . f onies of death ' But ** « * ot true that t JSP ^ f ? * adv " - Majbr Hamley states in so many words that ™™™ t f & X \ VV ^ Ivance , dieappenr in the ditch , and rehear on the £ 3 f ' fc 1 + T Smokc atli } c ° n ^ s * on" He adds that" during the combat in thcRcdnn the guns on the flanks continued to fire . " We have plenty fwEft ^ Worts did advance , but we have given sufficient Woof , SkrSSf i , \ ^ re wero B « ns on the flanks , that they were used , and nt & rlTt * \ vc 8 t r ~ it « tinB « " > d « r it-thcy would cither have * £ . / ? Tnn backw < ml - or «»« y would not have gone into it at nil . althml > r « rV WC ° not hn ^ w thc " truestory" of the repulse at the Redan ; some fcw ^ ° ° T tlui ) e * liat •«» the true story . Tears henco Sush £ * T ° ? ° t thc F ™> «» d mnfce it plain to all why the t" the bnW » . ?/ ? £ thcy C 0 M ' rf not tnhc < he R « d «» - So f »* «« ™ ™» events let fc ( CVlde . li 0 S on Ul 0 "lle o { the lntter ^ el-native ; at oil aScoULC * ¦ w ? «» w * ' * cd thnt the Britiah soldiers were guilty of treSS b « t theff * - v dfty ' Tlieir ( la 8 h mny hftVC bcen impwreJ by We W ? % «?«! ¦ >» trepidity w « a not diminished . no umo cntere into this criticism to show thc wortl . lcssness of the " t . uc
story . We do not doubt the " good intentions " of the writer , any tnore than we doubt his natural desire to gain cent , per cent , upon his joumev Z the Crimea . But surely it behoves Englishmen to be careful what thev re port about that army to whom the honour of the country is entrusted and " let us add , by whom it has been sustained . The failure at the Redan Tib more disgraces us than the three failures of the French on the same day dis grace them . The campaign was a joint one ; each array had to take the risk of its position ; we had to assault the Great Redan , and thereby com bined with the French assaults on the Little Redan and the Central Bastion " both repulsed , we enabled the gallant stormers of the Malakhoff to hold their own . Had we not been in the Redan for nearly two hours , the French might not have gained a victory . That there were faults in the plan of attack upon the Redan and faults in execution , that the wrong men were sent against it , is more than we are prepared to deny ; but we steadily assert that the causes pointed out by the flippant author of " Inside Sebastopol " were not the causes that led to the repulse at the Redan .
66 The Leader [No. 304, Saturday
66 THE LEADER [ No . 304 , Saturday
Four Travellers. Mexico And Its Fiehpiov...
FOUR TRAVELLERS . Mexico and its fiehpiov . With Incidents of Travel in that Country . By R . A . Wilson . Low and Son-Mr . VVitsoN draws a vivid picture of Mexico . He has not onlv travelled in that country ; lie has studied its history , and its social and political condition . In this department he is more proficient than in the sphere of antiquarian research . Almost the entire body of his criticism of Cortes and the Spanish historians , who have described the remains of the aneient Mexican mpi \ 1 S based on a mechanical interpretation of a few imperfect facts .
* ™ Mr . Wilson concurs with Las Casas in esteeming as " liars" most writers who pointed their pens in docility to the Inquisition ; but the best metlod of correcting a statement is certainly not to reverse it . There is a zone between the torrid and the frigid . However , Mr . Wilson saw mnch of Mexican life and manners , and what he actually saw he describes with clearness and animation . When , also , he confines his retrospects within the histozrical period , and leaves Tlascala and Cholula to the archaeologists , he illustrates , to good purpose , the annals of the Spanish monarchy in the IW World .
He enters upon an interesting discussion on the yellow fever . This malignant disease , in his opinion—verified by accumulated evidence—had its origin , not in America , but in Africa . In America , it is the produce of slavery , and is periodically renewed , in intensified virulence , by thc cargoes of demoralised life brought from Africa , season after season , and thrown upon the American shore . It may be questioned , however , whether the abolition of the tirade would effect the extirpation of thc disease . Diseases , like plants , may be naturalised , as the small-pox among the Indians of the New . World and among the islanders of Borneo , and as otlicr complaints were naturalised by the dirty colonists of Java .
The most malign of the influences affecting Mexico , is ' however * of a social nature . It is the continual multiplication of the monastic orders—a race of idlers , beggars , and gamblers , whose celibacy is only tlte mask of vice . Even the expurgated accounts of Mosico , published in Spain , represent them in every age as not much better than they are here described by Mr . Wilson . Nevertheless , in spite of the contempt of the enlightened classes , and the shocks of successive revolutions . , th cy continue to thrive and to exercise enormous power . While the holy beggar of Mexico is a privileged person , the peasant is treated as an anhr . al nnd watched sis a thief , and mechanics , also foim a degraded caste . Tlius- ( sa \ s Mr . Wilson , who Bias an
American eye for annexationable territory ) , Mexico is like a ripe pear , ready to drop into the hands of anyjpowerful adventurer . He notices some curious circumstances in connexioTr-vrkli this state of things arid the advance of Mormonism . Mormonism ros / in Western New York ; it is now located on the shores of the Salt Lake , between the Mississippi and Alta California . But its lenders keep their eyes fixed on Mexico , nml dream of thc day when that vast dominion , with its cities , its monasteries , its churches , gorged with gold and silver , and its vast ecclesiastical revenue sljnll fnlt into their hands . However , the great Republic itself reckons , among calculable probabilities , the contingency of nn unavoidable annexation .
TheAravcanians ; or , Rotes of a Tour anumtj thc Jnoians of Southern Chili . By E . K . Smith - Low and Son . The Araucanians , improperly so named by the Spaniards , were the most important tribes of the Chilian aborigines . J Their history is singular in this Tespect , that , after a long and desperate conflict with the armies of Spain , their independence was acknowledged , and they established a free nntive state in Chili . This territory is divided into four parallel provinces , lying at the foot of the main chain of tlie Corderillas , and these me subdivided into districts , each of which is governed patriarchnlly by its chief . Tim obligations of the clansmen to their chief arc very trifling . They refer their disputes to him , and be dispenses justice , but no tribute or tax is raised , nor is nn \ service
personal exacted , except in time of war . The land is common property , and its produce belongs to the cultivator . The chief , however , has a privilege of selling it in small portions , though to none except Indinns , for thc Araucanians have ordained , wisely , that any person disposing of lnnd to a stranger shall be punished with death . Here is the germ of n singular social philosophy ! Public affairs arc administered by the patriarchs , assisted by general councils of the nation , and though lnws cannot be said to exist , there are customs which have equal force . The Araucnninn institution is very remarkable . In time of peace a Council of Peace governs , which in time of war is entirely superseded by n Council < f War , with unlimited power . Mr . E . R . Smith has written , ' from actual observation , a lucid and pleasant account of tlnH interesting people .
Brazil , vitived through a Navql Oluas . With JXoUh on Slavery avdtfic Slave Truth , II } It . Wilborforco . ' Longman « iul Go . M » . WiLnrcisFoitcK wns a midshipman , nnd saw Ilrnzil , ns hiu titlo page expresses it , " through a naval glass ? ' A largo proportion off hia littlo book ia occupied by details of such adventures and excursions as midshipmen usually engage in ; but the rest contains useful information , lightly presented . Mr . Wilberforce cultivates his natural vivacity , and sprinkles the narrative with
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 19, 1856, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19011856/page/18/
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