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Cathedral and Coixkoiatk Churches.—The r...
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THE WAR. Disaster and temporary reverse ...
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The Report Of The Sebastofol Committee. ...
no , proper arrangements were made to furnish this fliiDDly . ^ The absence of Lord Raglan from his post ofltfaster-General of the Ordnance the Committee consider to have been the cause of much mismanagement , since the Lieutenant-General , appointed for the occasion , though believed by the Government to Dossess all the powers of his superior , had not in fact equal authority . The Surveyor-General of the Ordnance was also employed abroad ; so that , in time of war , " two officers were wanting whose functions the most economical administrations had beeu unable to dispense with in times of peace . ' The evidence is then referred to for instances of the disorganisation which resulted from this absence of the legitimate head of the department—Mr . Monsell interfering with Sir Thomas Hastings , and the work of one member being often thwarted by the will of
another . "In noticing the unseemly conduct of this board ( that of the Ordnance ) , and the differences which were brought prominently forward in the evidence , your Committee observe with regret that the public service has suffered from the want of judgment and temper on the part of officers who were entrusted during a critical period with important public duties . " The Committee are further of opinion that " a vague intention of remodelling the Ordnance Office affords no justification" of the maintenance of Lord Raglan at its head when lie could no longer discharge the duties . The contract system of the Ordnance is also condemned ; and the wretched character of
the tools supplied to the army is pointed out , without any person or department being charged with the blame . Side by side with this , however the Committee acknowledge " the admirable equipment of the corps of the artillery , " and " the efficient armament provided for the navy . " With respsct to the transmission of stores to the East , various instances of mismanagement are quoted from the evidence , and " the unnecessary sufferings of the soldiers" are held to be " directly referrable " to these causes ; " but on what department the blame should rest—whether on the office of the Commanderin-Chief , or of the Secretary at War , or of the Secretary of State for War—the Committee are unable to decide .- " Dr . Menzies , and Dr . Andrew Smith both called attention to the subject of transport ships ; and the Government , about the end of
October , directed Admiral Dundas to confer with I / ord Raglan about having two large steamers fitted for this service . But the Admiral did not act upon this direction , because , as he stated , " every one expected to be in Sebastopol in a few days . " " Thus , " says the report , " it appears that the preparation of ships for the conveyance of the sick and wounded wjis at first forgotten , and subsequently neglected . " It is thus shown that the deficiency of transport ships in the Black Sea was owing to the inability to decide who was responsible for their management . In the Bosphorus , Admiral Boxer , who had the ordering of all transports in that water , applied , as early as the 8 th of September , for the services of a ship with artificers and mechanics ; but the Admiralty refused the request . Some months later , they altered their determination ; but it was then too
. Inte . ' " Sir James Graham says he regrets ^ that the first api plication was not acceded to ; and when the hurricane of ¦ the 14 th of November , with all its disastrous conse-• quences , is remembered , it is obvious that this unfortu-¦ iidte decision may have increased the difficulties of that > deplorable crisis , and may have subjected Rear-Admiral / Boxer to some of the charges brought against him . > ¦ ' f ? Your Committee are of opinion that there was some
• unnecessary detention of transports at Constantinople , ; and that the arrangements for coaling were very deficient ; but , aa they hav « not been able to examine Admiral Boxer , they cannot pronounce an opinion as to ' his share of the responsibility . His letters in the Appendix show that he exerted himself strenuously to discharge duties for which it is admitted that his means i : were inadequate , and , if he failed under these difflcul-> tiea , his subsequent endeavours in the harbour of Balaklava , appear to have been successful . "
With respect to the land transport , the Report observes : — ¦ ¦ " The army landed in the Crimea without the animals - necessary for the conveyance of the baggage , or for the removal of the sick and wounded ; much inconvenience and Buffering resulted from this deficiency ; but If , as stated to your Committee , every available vessel was 'employed for other purposes , the Commissariat cannot be ' hold responsible . " The want of a proper toad from Balaklava to the camp was partly owing to the contraction of our Jino of * operations after the battle of Balaklava , owing to which wo were obliged ' to abandon the fine Russian road called the Woronzoff-road . The Committee , however , think that , if a military force could not ¦ hove been spared to crente a new road , " measures should have been takun to obtain other labour in the
East , or application should havo been made to t ) io > DC £ J 0 » e , Government , who might have sent labourers from England . ., Th © pro-bable failure of tUo commu - nication was not , however , brought to tho notice of
the Duke , of Newcastle until too late to enable him to take measures in England to prevent the serious calamities which subsequently arose . " As regards the transmission of fuel and other necessaries , Deputy Commissary-General Smith is not held responsible , as lie was unable to obtain transport vessels . The Report sketches the chief deficiencies in the supply of rations , and pertinently remarks that " any result derived from an average of rations issued is delusive , because privation on one day is not compensated by superfluity on another . " " To what extent the Commissariat is responsible for the deficiency in . all these supplies is a question to which it is not easy to ffive a definite answer . ? ' * * * * * " Your Committee have not been able to examine Commissary-General Filder or Rear-Admiral Boxer ; and they cannot therefore decide upon whom the blame should rest . "Before closing their observations on the Commissariat Department in the East , your Committee notice -with pleasure the -willing testimony which many witnesses have borne to the zeal and energy which some subordinate officers of the Commissariat displayed in procuring supplies , and in relieving , as far as they were able , the distress of the troops during a period of trying exigencies . "
The failure of the ambulance corps is attributec to Lord Raglan having overruled the suggestion of Dr . Andrew Smith , that the corps should consist of able-bodied soldiers ; instead of whom , pensioners were employed . The C ommittee are of opinion that a too strict economy , and a fear of incurring responsibility , led probably to some evils . In connexion with the management of the hospitals , Dr . Menzies is acquitted of a considerable amount of the blame , on account of the too heavy and complicated duties which he had to perform .
Nevertheless" Your Committee must declare it to be their opinion that blame attaches to Dr . Menzies , inasmuch as he did not report correctly the circumstances of the hospital ; he stated that ke wanted nothing in the shape of stor « 3 or medical comforts at the time when his patients -were destitute of the commonest necessaries . " Dr . Hall is also held to be reprehensible for having misled both Lord Raglan and the Government by reporting the hospitals at Scutari to be " in as good a state as could reasonably be expected , " when , at
that time ( in the course of last October ) , they were in a most wretched condition . The Committee also conceives that " heavy responsibility attaches to the Commander-in-Chief , who retained Mr . Ward in his office ( of purveyor ) after he had been pronounced unfit to discharge its duties . " They likewise refer to the apothecary ' s department at Scutari , where no accounts were kept from the 24 th of September till the 28 th of November . In connexion with the supply of medical necessaries and comforts , the Report observes : ¦—
" When the quantities of hospital stores which -were sent from England are contrasted with the scarcity , or rather the absolute dearth , of them at Scutari , and when the state of the purveyor ' s accounts is remembered , it is impossible not to harbour a suspicion that some dLshonesty has beeu practised in regard to these stores . " The instructions to the ambassador at Constantinople the Committee consider injudicious , since , " if the division and uncertainty of responsibility was a
serious evil , the evil could only be increased by the interference of another authority , having neither relation to , nor connexion with , our military nUininistration . " In conclusion , the Committee bear grateful testimony to the noble labours and valuable suggestions of Miss Nightingale and her band of nurses , of Mr . Macdonald ( the Times' Commissioner ) , and of Mr . Augustus Stafford , the Hon . Jocceline Percy , and the Hon . and Kev . Sidney Godolphin Osborne .
In the discussions which preceded the adoption by the Committee of the above Report , a motion was made from the chair to the effect that those whom the evidence pointed out as responsible for the calamities in the Crimea ought to be pointed out to the House . This was negatived by 9 to 1—Mr . X , ayard being the solitary voter . A vote of censure on Lord Raglan , proposed by the chairman ( Mr . Roebuck ) met with precisely the same fate—the one supporter being again Mr . Layard .
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Cathedral And Coixkoiatk Churches.—The R...
Cathedral and Coixkoiatk Churches . —The report of tho Commiasipnors for inquiring into tho state « f Cathedral and Collegiate Churches recommends tho erection of a now bishopric for Cornwall , to havo its sco at St . Columb-Mojor . The commissioners think that a better management of tho episcopal estates , especially those in Cornwall , would bo found to supply a lai * £ » portion of tho revenue necessary ; and tho Rev . E ; S . Walker , rector of St . Columb-Major , offers further to facilitate the oroation of tho proposed boo by resigning ecclosiuHtical preferments to tho amount of J ()()() / . per annum , and to give besides throe houses to the now bishop . Tho Bishop of Exotor cordially concurs in tho division of his diocese , and oners to givo up all patronage in Cornwall .
The War. Disaster And Temporary Reverse ...
THE WAR . Disaster and temporary reverse have sue the successes of the last few weeks . On versary of the greatest victory ever g English arms , an attack by the Englisl Redan , and by the French on the Malako was repulsed with great slaughter . It was daybreak on the morning of that memor that the son ? of the bitter antagonists of fo ago struggled side by side at no great in distance , and poured out their blood witl ] for the attainment of the same object . W ference between 1815 and 18 . 5 ! Did the of that day cross the minds of the soldiers army ? or was the conflict too hot and b thought ? One can almost imagine the " Wellington hanging over the smoke and ) leading on his countrymen—but not this victory .
The silence of the telegraphic wires d greater part of the past week is thu 8 accoi and the sinister rumours which floated up day after day , filling the minds of most pe undefined fears , have received a painful con The worst of the business , after the immei life , is the fresh encouragement it will gi Russians , who were beginning to get dis with their recent reverses . It is not , howe for a moment supposed that we , in our tun disheartened . Disappointed and pained we but we are not accustomed to lose our spir temporary failure .
There is also a report—which , however . confirmation—of another reverse to the the shape of the recapture by the Russians < but , as the date of this rumour is Varna , J ui day earlier than the attack on Sebastopol , i probably have certain intelligence of the had occurred—unless , indeed , the Govern attempting to suppress it . From the sac we learn that the Russians have been repii attack on Kars . Altogether the war news of the week gloomy . The deliberate murder of sixteei sailors under a flag of truce ( the details will be found belowS has excited in the mi
men a feeling of horror and indignation to words can do justice . Universal history cai find a parallel to that atrocious deed ; for dere'l men were engaged in performing kindness to their murderers . " We don't ca for your flag of truce , " exclaimed the head r " we'll show you how the Russians can figri the butchery straightway commenced . accept the definition . This is how the fight . It is only a still further addition to ledge we already possessed . The massacre —the torturing and hacking of wounded lying helplessly on the ground—drunfcen s
night of men turned into fiends by rala ai cism—dogged resistance behind carthw ( stone walls , and flight before open at tad how the Russians -fight , as we already ki the murder at Hango but con / inns their o \ tion of their mode of warfare . But the c not pass unavenged . A dozen defeats ( dishearten our men so much as this act will , them to make the perpetrators repent , collection of Hango will give intensity , and venom , to our future attacks . A despatch from Marseilles , dated Ju says : —
" It appears that the Mamclon Wfl 8 defen . late attack by twenty Russian battalions . Tw battalions penetrated into the Redan and 8 guns , but were obliged to rjjtire . The Fr Turks now occupy tho Mamelon , and hav fifteen of the Russian guns upon the enemy . " In a despatch from Constantinople , of Ju we read as follows : — " ThoTurka have evacuated Batoum und Cho Nasaif Pacha baa advanced with his general Kara . Tho French Consul has quitted Uatoi Russian forces havo advanced and encam Redout-Kaleh . Tho recruiting for the 13 rit « progresses slowly . "
THE TAKINO OF TI 1 IC MAMKKON ANI > TIIK QV OIWIOIAk ACCOUNT FIU > M I . OHD ltAOI . A Dofore Sevastopol , . Juno 9 My Lord , —I have tho great satisfaction of i your lordship that tho assault which was made Quarries in front of tho Redan , from our advance in tho right attack , on tho evening of tho 7 th int attended with perfect success , and thut tlio <> who achieved thin advantage with a tfullnntrj termination that does thorn inflnito honour , in thcmaolvcs on tho ground" thoy had acquired , founding that during tho night , and in tho ni yesterday , tho enemy nuulo ropontod nttoniptfl thorn out , c » a < : h attempt onding in failure , nltho ported by lurgo bodios of troops , and by houvy d of musketry , and ovnry npucio . i of oflVnsivo «>' Tho French on our right had shortly before ro
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 23, 1855, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23061855/page/4/
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