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¦¦ s' March 22, 1856.] THE LEADEE. 267
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WAR MISCELLANEA. An Accident at van Expl...
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THE PEACE. Peace has at length been safe...
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THIS DESTRUCTION OP COVENT-GARDEN THEATR...
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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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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The J^Ar. Tjhttfc Is Probably The Last W...
" Fresh meat : — " The return shows that the average quantity of fresh meat supplied by the Commissariat during the five winter months , from November to March , was nearly 101 b . per man per month , exclusive of that furnished for the troops on board hospital ships in harbour , the aggregate force being 158 , 617 , and the qtiantity of fresh meat issued by the Commissariat , 1 , 525 , 9491 b . The issues in December fell greatly below the average— that is , to 6 £ lb . per man , in consequence of the cattle vessels , which had been damaged in the hurricane , beiug still under repair during that month .
" I at no time ceased to make every exertion to increase the supply of fresh meat , and before the month of August last , when I was obliged to resign tie charge of the Commissariat on account of ill-health , I had brought the issues to five times a-week , which is as much , considering its inferior quality , as the military authorities think desirable . Lime-juice : — " Lime-juice had never been supplied by the Commissariat for general issue to the troops , nor had I received any intimation that it was to be so for the future . " Dr . Hall , adds Mr . Filder , had the regulation of the lime-juice in the early months of the siege . It was not till the 29 th of January that the Commissary-Greneral received letters from the Adjutant-General and from Dr . Hall , ordering the general issue of this anti-scorbutic .
Fresh Bread—Fuel : —" The demands for the army hospitals being unlimited and uncertain , the Commissariat only provides supplies for that service on special requisitions . When a requisition for bread for the General Hospital at Balaklava was first presented to the Commissariat , immediate arrangements were made for supplying it to the full extent of the demand . " The want of portable ovens and military bakers greatly impeded the supply of fresh bread ; but this want was afterwards supplied from England . As regards fuel , Mr . Filder says that , as it had never been the custom to supply fuel to an army in the field , he was not prepared with transport for its conveyance
but he pointed out the peculiar circumstances under which the Crimean army was situated . "Eight hundred thousand rations of charcoal , which had been brought up in steamers by the navy , at the request of Lord Ra , glan , and given over to the Commissariat early in November , remained untouched up to the 4 th of December , when the order was given to commence the issues . " The Commissary-General then immediately tool all the means in his pow-er to keep up the supply , and he states— " There was never , at any time , a want of fuel at Balaklava : the only difficulty was to find the means of conveying it to the front . "
^ Forage : — " In answer to the alleged omission of timely arrangements for the provision of forage , I have to state that , so early as when there was full expectation of the army advancing to the Danube , I made a contract for about 3 , 500 tons of hay , to be delivered loose at different places in the neighbourhood of Constantinople ; and I also desired the Commissariat officer there to form a depdt of chopped straw , in case the army should re & urn and occupy cantonments in Turkey during the winter . Subsequently , when it became known that we were to proceed to the Crimea , the contractors , at nay request , were willing to engage to deliver about 500 tons of the hay pressed instead of loose ; but learning in the
early part of September , when the army was oa the way t > tbe Crimea , that I could not rely on the fulfilment of this contract , I wrote to England , requesting that 2 , 000 tons of hay might be sent thence . Of this demand , only about one-tenth was forwarded , and that portion reached Balaklava on the 30 th of Novuiuber . " Replying to the M'Neill and Tullooh Hepoit , Mr . Filder says : —" Tho Commissioners have assumed that I obtained no supplies , except by means of contracts and lenders , and that I had only followed the bonbon tract . I am unable to say whence they
have derived the opinion , but , however derived , it is inconsistent with tho fuot . I obtained supplies by ovory variety of mode in which it was possible to procure thein , tliafcis , by means of agents having a knowledge of tho resources of tho country and of the language and habits of tho people , by direot l > urchases nmde by Comnaissarmt officers from tho parties holding the supplies without either written tender or agreement , by public competition and by special teudor , and , whou necessary , by requisitions on England . "
llio Com missary . General , in summing up his onse , BayB ho trusts lm has shown that it did wot lie within lua power to alter or amend the arrangements of tho imny ; tlmfc , when tho army was Buffering from tho waul , ol ; various articles , ho had n ot boon authorised to proviclo thorn j that ho always took the utmost pains to curry out tho orders of hia superiors ns soon an ho received thoir commands ; and that tho failures which occurred resulted from onuses over wltfoh ho hud no control .
¦¦ S' March 22, 1856.] The Leadee. 267
¦¦ s ' March 22 , 1856 . ] THE LEADEE . 267
War Miscellanea. An Accident At Van Expl...
WAR MISCELLANEA . An Accident at van Explosion of this Whotb Wouica , —Major Goorgo ltanlcon , of tho ltoyal Engineers , wan killed in tho aoaloue < UBoharge of hie
duty at the explosion of the White Buildings on Thursday evening last ( Feb . 28 th ) . The accident occurred at the south-western corner of the edifice , and has been related as follows : —A mine having failed to explode , and some minutes having elapsed , Major Ranken sent his men to a distance and himself entered the place to renew the train , scattering loose powder over it . From the position in which his corpse was . foundj it is supposed that he had completed his perilous task and was about getting through a window when the explosion took place and the building fell in . His arm was broken , and there were injuries to the skull and spine which must have occasioned instant death . Army Works Corps men dug for his body until midnight on Thursday ; they were then relieved by Sappers . The body was not extricated until past eight o ' clock on Friday morning . —Times Correspondent .
Ismail Pasha ( of Kalafat celebrity ) has been appointad Commander-in-Chief of the army of Anatolia . General Kmety will accompany him . Three Russian OFFiCERs ^ have entered the regiment of Ottoman Cossacks ,, The Polish Legion . —General Count Zamoyski has proceeded to Constantinople to complete the organisation of his legion of Cossacks of the Sultan . Several very eminent officers have tendered their services . The existing body of men is to be formed at once into four regiments of infantry , two of cavalry , and a battalion of rifles . The General was recently at Paris , when he had an interview with Lord Clarendon , who urged him to press forward the organisation of the corps .
Sib , Edmund Lyons . —We find it stated by the Marseilles correspondent of the Times that orders have been received from the Admiralty to land the baggage of Sir Edmund Lyons , which has remained on board the Caradoc since the arrival here of the gallant Admiral from Constantinople , as it appears he is not to return to the Black Sea .
The Peace. Peace Has At Length Been Safe...
THE PEACE . Peace has at length been safely arrived at , and we believe the treaty will be signed this day ( Saturday ) . The precise nature of the terms which have been agreed to by all parties is , of course , at present a secret ; but it will not be long before the patient public will be enlightened . The Russians , it is said , have presented no serious difficulty , but have conceded the neutralisation of the Black Sea , the transformation of NienolaiefF into a purely commercial port , the neutrality of the Aland Islands , and the rectification of the Moldavian frontier , based on the report of a commission . Le Nord believes that the question of the Asiatic frontier is solved as far as concerns the
restitution of the districts occupied by the Russians . The latter will restore Kars , the Turks will evacuate Mingrelia , and so the status quo ante will be restored . " Only the presence of M . Manteuffel is waited for , in order to the signature of the first protocol of peace . " All parties , however , are not likely to bo satisfied ; and already we hear of the Moldo-Wallachians petitioning the Porte to cause the . restitution of Bessarabia , which they contend was originally a part of their territory . The line of frontier now proposed will not , they assert , proteot them from invasion , since it consists only of a line of low hills , not mountains , sinking at last towards the south into a flat mornsa .
A commission composed of the following members , has , it is said , bean named to draw up the treaty : — Lord Cowley , for England ; M . do Bourqueney , for France ; Baron de Brunow , for Russia ; M . de Hubner , for Austria ; and Aali Paoha , for Turkey . Sardinia and Prussia are xinreprosontod . The Jndependance JBclr / e states that , when the treaty shall have been signed , it ia intended that the Conference shall bo dissolved , but that a committee shall be loft sitting to carry out tho details whioh there is not now time to arrange . Tho question of tho Principalities and of the Turkish Christians will probably receive tho attention of this body ,
At tho conclusion of the poace , conferences will bo hold at St . Petersburg for the purpose of oxairrining mid discussing projects of reform in commercial policy .
This Destruction Op Covent-Garden Theatr...
THIS DESTRUCTION OP COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE . T » u inquiry into tho cause of this firq wan resumod last Saturday , when one of tlio witnesses was Mr . Sidney Smirko , brother of tho original architect of Coveut-gardon Theatre , who said that , on searching his brother ' s drawings of the theatre , ho found that over the proscenium thoru hud boon a thick wall , ho that a fire ocourring at one ond of tho roof would bo out o ( f boforo reaching tho other . That wall had boon removed , to whioh fact he attributed the oxtensivo progress of tho fire . Ho could not form any idea' the cnuao of tho fire , but ho thought there wo » a laxity in respoot to acooaa allowed to tho carpenter ' s ohop .
Several conflicting opinions were given as to whether . this shop could be reached b y persons on the stage or in the audience part of the house ; some being of opinion that such access was possible , and others asserting that it was not . Mr . Anderson had the key of this shop , and lost it . On the night of the bal masquti , Mr . Anderson ordered that the batten-lights should be turned on strong . These were lights suspended from the floor of the carpenter's shop ab a distance of about twenty or thirty feet , and their object was to throve a light on the stage from above . They were formed of barrels lined with sheet iron , running across the upper part of the stage , and supported by lines reaching to blocks and attached to the
flies . Two of the witnesses were of opinion that one of these lines may have caught fire , and communicated it to the floor of the carpenter ' s shop . William Dalliston , a cai-penter employed about the theatre , said that , "if one of' the battens was unlighted , but charged with gas , the gas Would ascend and nil the carpenter ' s shop with ga 3 , and , if the gas got over the front of the house under the carpenter ' s shop , it might be ignited . The flooring and materials of the carpenter ' s shop were very dry . " Richard Jones , engineer to the London Gas Company at Vauxhall ( the company employed by Mr . Anderson in preference to that already connected with the theatre ) , said he was almost convinced that esca , pe of gas had nothing whatever to do -with the fire .
Mr . Anderson gave evidence , and mentioned that there had been some dispute between Mr . Sloman , master carpenter , and Mr . Palmer , the gasman , both of whom referred the disagreement to Mr . Anderson , who settled it , and the two disputants became better friends than ever . There had been a summons ; from the police-office ; "but no threat had been held oat . Mr . Andei'son said he had sustained a loss by the fire ; but he could not as yet say to what amount . He was insured in the Sun office , to the extent of = £ 2 , 000 . This insurance expired about a week after the fire ; but he did not know whether it would extend to the
property if moved from the theatre . He was no longer liable for rent . His lesgeeship terminated on the night of the bal masque . He was aware that there had been an escape of gas , but he did not think that could possibly hare caused the fire , and he had told Mr . Sloman that , considering his" short term , he could not undertake to remedy the defect . There had been a great deal of smoking during the night , and Mr . Anderson said he had been in six fights while endeavouring to prevent itj but that it was beyond his power to stop the annoyance . The inquest was once more adjourned ; Wednesday being appointed for its resumption .
On that day , a little additional testimony was received . The son of one of tho carpenters admitted that he hod , on the night of the masquerade , lighted his father to the foot of the step-ladder leading into the carpenter ' s s"hop , and that he carried a candle , because there was no lamp trimmed for use ; tiut the candle was not taken into the shop . From the evidence of a man named Cooper , it appeared that , about five weeks ago , some carboys of what he conceived to be vitriol were hoisted on to the roof of the theatre ; from which he augured that a fire would be very likely to occur . Mr . Anderson , being asked for an explanation , said that the Electric Light Company applied to
him for permission to burn their light over the portico of the theatre , as they had done over tho Lyceum . The company used sulphuric acid ; and they had the entiro arrangement and responsibility of tho matter , Mr . Anderson not troubling himself with it . It appears , however , that his carpenter placed the acid on the roof , where it remaiued about throe weeks , and was then taken away . Mr . Andor « on said he had two private rooms , which he kept locked , because ho had properties there , tho nature of whioh he did not wish every ono to see ; but tho ftieinen had the keys , and were instructed to look into the rooms in their rounds . A portion of theso proiierties had been removed before tho firo brcTko out . Mr .
Anderson had wires communicating from tho stage to various parts of the theatre , for tho use of his galvauio batteries . Both rulplmrie aoiiland nitric aoid were used by Mr . Anderson in liics proscenium box ; but it appears lie had novor more than fourteen ov fifteon pounds in that box at one tiino . Mr . Slornau stated that , when first ho Haw tho fire , it was rising out of tlio ventilator in tho roof , whioh was from forty to fifty i ' oet frum Mr . Anderson's proscenium box .
Mr . Griovo , the soeno-puinfcor , mentioned that ho had often called attention tu tlio heaps of combustible matter whioh wore allowed to ucoumulato in tho property shop , and which ho once found siuouldurlng ; and Mr . Braidwood , tlio wuperintondout of the Firo Brigade , ooufossod h [ a luubility to state fcl ; o cause of tho fire , though ho thought the rnimt probable reason was to bo fouud in the ovor-futigita of the watchmen , sonio of whom had been on duty for forty hours . Tho jury retui'nud an open verdiot .
Mektimg oir amis SiiA . RimoiaJKttSQii' Covknt-gardei Tumatkb . —A meeting of about fifty rontoru or share holders of Coveut-garden Thontro was hold inBt Batui day , at Mr Roblna ' a uuotion-rooma in Oovont- garden for tho purpose of roooiving from tho propriotorn iu
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 22, 1856, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22031856/page/3/
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