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Leader (1850-1860), 24th March 1855, Edition 1 of 2, Page 279, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      giilt beiiig many . Lands- out of work ,- and lavrer wagQS . ~< How-was it that the manufacturera 'were « betrayedr -into that' erroneous niiticipatibn of business ? It arose from the fnfet'th ' at each man tried to anticipate the market , and kept his movements secret from hiafellott-s , although he might have known beforehand that the same impulses would be influencing others equall y with himself . So it proved , every man making as much as he could , sending out as much as he could . All made too much , and bankruptcy came home to the manufacturers—want of work to the

      men . ] NTbw the working hands themselves assist in piling up this evil . If the cottontrade can be rescued from that condition in which its producing power exceeds the consuming power of foreign markets , it must be by rendering its products yet cheaper , and thus spreading to wider markets ^ and at the same time by so improving its methods as to require less ^ hand labour . The working classes will assist in this reform by withdrawing their labour from the factories ; and hence their advantage and safety in that

      process which we have already recommended to them as the true substitute for the suffrage at home—it was Mahomet ' s process- ^ -to go to the suffrage if the suffrage would not come to them . Let them emigrate . Every man who goes to America or Australia may , after a first trial of difficulties , become a landowner himself , or the father of landowners , and see his family continually rising in wealth , comfort , and intelligence . He ceases to become the half-pauperised maker , and becomes the consumer ; thus helping the fellows whom he left behind .

      Those who remain at home , however , would still need something to strengthen them against the overwhelming power which wealth _» nd combination amongst similar numbers places at the command of the millowners ; and it is to be found , we believe , in the same thing that is wanting throughout all English public action just now—a stronger regard for each other ; a greater fidelity to the interests of class , a great firmness in combining , a more powerful feeling of personal regard for their fellows and their leaders .

      Untitled Article

      LORD LUCA 1 SL Loed Luoan ' s ease is not one whit improved by Xiord I / Oman ' s pleading in his own behalf in the House of Peers . There were two questions : whether he behaved with that judgment which should characterise an officer in command of cavalry ; and next , whether he

      deserved a court-martial ? "With the latter point we shall not trouble ourselves , as the obstacle was the military law ordaining that no officer or soldier shall be tried upon any charge if he served after that charge should have been made . Upon the first question we may add a few words to our former statement .

      There are ' several minor questions in Lord Lucan ' s defence , but the turning point of the whole affair rests upon his interview with Captain Noj ^ an . According to Lord Lucan ' s own statement , Captain Nolan brought him the written order which we placed before our readers a fortnight ago . That ordor , as we concoivo , and our opinion is sustained by Lord Cardigan , Lord Hahdinge , and the Duke of Richmond , directed the commander of cavalry to malco a tentative advance to test the practicability of saving the guns which Lord Ragljiit believed the liussians were

      removing from the redoubts . Captain Noian delivered the order , and went beyond his duty in accompanying it with a verbal explanation , that it meant Lord Luc an should attack immediately . Hero lies the pith of the case . Should Lord Xtjcan have obeyed Captain

      ISToiiAN ' s interpretation , or Lord Emian's written order ? There can be no doubt that when an aide-de-camp brings a verbal order from the commander-in-chief , the officer to whom it is addressed is bound to obey it , quite as much as if he had it from the lips of the commander himself . But military authorities and common sense agree that when a written order is sent , the writing , not the

      speaking , is to be < followed . Lord Lucan lost his temper ; obeyed Captain NoiLAN , and justified Lord Rage an ' s rebuke to him on the evening of the day , when "he said , " Why , you have lost the Light Brigade . " " Wio may say , with the Duke of Richmond , that if verbal interpretations are to be regarded , " what , in Heaven ' s name , is the use of a written order ?"

      As we have said before , the order was eminently discretionary . And the minor questions introduced by Lord Lttcaist only sei * ve to show that he lost his discretion . He says the guns were not being carried away * that Lord Raglan was mistaken in thinking they were . Well , if that is so , was it not stronger ground for a discretionary execution of the order ? Lord Raglan informed him

      that the French cavalry were on the left : As he had interpreted the order , or rather as he had adopted Captain Nolan ' s interpretation , he thought that the information about the French cavalry did not mean that he might combine his operation with theirs , but that the French cavalry , had been already ordered to advance . Therefore , he says , he had no time to communicate with them , and had-he not charged he would have

      left them unsupported before the enemy . This" was another ^ blunder . It is clear , that the intimation given by Lord Raglan , as to the French cavalry , related solely to their position in any combined movement . The fact is the French cavalry ^ did not take part in the charge of the Light Brigade , but charged afterwards , in order to silence a portion of the Russian fire , so fatal to the Light Brigade .

      Lord Litcan made an ex parte statement of the events of the day ; and we are not in a position to test its accuracy . But one fact , not an unimportant fact , comes under the test . In his speech Lord Lxjcan said that Lord" 0 abdigan had sent him . a message to say that he found the enemy so numerous as to make it difficult for

      him to hold his ground . Lord Cardigan promptly supplies the correction . He sent no such message ; the message he did send was sound information , to the effect that the hills on both sides of the valley were occupied by Russian artillery and riflemen , with cavalry drawn up behind . That is the information ¦ which should have prevented Lord Lucan from ordering 700 horsemen to attack the Russian army . AVe see no reason to alter our opinion that Lord Lucatst alone is responsible for the loss of the Light Brigade .

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      HOSPITAL BOATS . We invite the particular attention of our readers to a letter which we have printed this week in another pavt"of our journal , under the title of " Hints to the Admiralty . " The letter proceeds from a gentleman whose statements ai'e in the highest degree deserving- of our respect and confidence . While we are horrified at the revelations before the Crimean Committee as to the transport of the sick and wounded at Scutari and Balaklavn , it is important that the public , should be aware that at this very time , and upon our own shores , the sick are conveyed from our ships to the hospital , * in the most cruel , and careless manner . Even at Spithead wo

      find the alternative of Imen belng ^ . laid -up in a confined cockpit . and spreading " , infection through a ship , perhaps through a , fleet , , at a moment when neither ^ , ship nor a man can be - spared , or of their being , pulled on shore > - , fever-stricken and exhausted , in open boats . - Surely , at each of our great , naval ports there' ? should be a service of hospital-boats . Toarrest the chances of infection in-the ships / « and to convey the sick to the hospital « witb f as much ease * comfort , and .- celerity as pos- * - sible , seems to' us to be a question of the ** - simplest duty and of the first necessity .

      Untitled Article

      AN EXPLANATION . Ir is too bad of a -semi-official paper , such as our inestimable contemporary ; the Globe , to mystify the foreign press with feeble , but ' not 'harmless ; pleasant- *' ries . A journal that enjoys the happy privilege of > seeing that everything is good in every possible act ; of every possible ministry , on thiB side Toryism , hasno business -with joking . It is expected '' to be 'at least decency dull . What shall we ^ thinkbfa journal which is supposed to represent with due" * decorum the policy of the Whig Cabinet , placing at the&ead of a column usually devoted to the scrapings of

      Dovrn-ing-street , a conspicuous paragraph in leaded type , tatheeffect that *« we have been requested to'state thatpthei King of Prussia was accidentally shut out from- ' the division at the Conferences of Vienna . " We quote the sense , if not the exact words , of the paragraph . This unseemly and not brilliant burlesque of parliamentary slang is an unpardonable indis- ' cretion at such a crisis . It ia not only a clumsy an « fr misplaced insult to that king , who , however weaky is still strong enough to be courted by the Western - Powers , it is an unjustifiable deception practised - upon the good faith and simplicity of the continental " journals , who have reasonable grounds for consider- '* ing a journal- like the Globe to be serious andJ ;

      circumspect . What would be thought of the Moniteur inserting-a paragraph , a la Charivari , ' -at the head of its " Partie rion qfficielle" immediately under a batch of Napoleonic decrees , or a state paper of M . Drouyn de Lhuys ? Why , it would throw ' every Bourse of Europe into hysterics , and frighten even Powning-street from its propriety- Here is the careful and judicious Debats gravely accepting this paragraph of the Globe aa if it were a sort of semi-official sop to the dignity of his Prussian Majesty , who is still to be coaxed . Here is La Pr ' esse , habitually keen and wide awake , - solemnly taking note of this- paragraph in the Globe , as an unaccountable postscript to Lord

      Lyndhurstfs debate , which defies explanation , and which it does not pretend to solve . We can only request our French contemporaries to believethat the Globe is an after-dinner organ of the-Ministry . Unfortunately this paragraph was perpetrated on the "Day ' of Humiliationr Perhaps a fastday for the Globe is a day of fast writing . We would , however , suggest to our semi-official friend to desist from this species of " fast" paragraphs in future . They belong to the facetious columns of young Toryjournals , to whom is permitted the desolate liofficeNevertheless

      cence of Disraelites out of . , we cannot help suggesting , that if the Debats had called iu . M . John Lemoinne , and if La Presse had consulted At . Alphonse Pcyrat , this ridiculous mystification ( the King of Prussia at the Vienna Conference !) would have been , impossible . Either of these distinguished journalists would have easily seen through , the Parliamentary slang pf this sorry nonsense . But French journalists have , we fear , forgotten even the blague of Parliamentary institutions .-

      Untitled Article

      " THE STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . [ Tho responsibility of the Editor in regard to these contributions is limited to the act of giving thorn publicity . Tho opinions expressed are those of the writer : both tho Leader « nd " Tho Stranger" benefit by the freedom which is loft to his pen and discretion . ] The nation seems quite proud of its Day of Humiliation , in the belief that tho sitting of Parliament down at St . Margaret ' s , on last Wednesday , has placated Providence and induced tho favourable turn now visible in the news both from Balaklava and Vienna * It is such a struggle for that highly practical assembly , tho House of Commons , to put on a pious air , that

      one may naturally look for surprising consequences , once the operation of going to church has been 4 W * . complishcd . Lord Palmerston , with hie views about tho Kcdctnption—which ho think * the Home Minister of tho period ought to have discouraged—could not . bo expected to seo with any great . acutwiess the-necessity of his spending a . mominff'AnMtbijtJud « ou

      Untitled Article

      MabCh ^^ 1855 . J THE JfJ $ A * D ® lL 2 im

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 24, 1855, page 279, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2083/page/15/