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to conduct a distant expedition with is p iecemeal system of supplies . EVerying comes by bits - and morsels ; cannon fchout their carriages or horses;—horses , thout carriages or cannon . Thave fortyo teams instead of a hundred- —a thousand matched horses instead of three thousand .- ' is picture of " destitution , " resembling the rsfc evidence before the Sevastopol Commiti , is shaded down by the phrase " more easily be regretted than avoided ; " yet the
Mard proves , by his own discontent , that the perial purveyors of the ~ svar were scarcely apt at their tasks that they could with an hands satirise , in official papers , the msiness of our constitutional operations . Up to the end of May , 1854 , the Crimea 3 , in the mind of St . Aunatjd , a distant iam . The idea of bearing to its shores an ly fully equipped , " terrified" him . He 3 W that , if the Allies ventured on the empt , they must be imperfectly provided , aile an open arena remained on the uube , he was satisfied to count the
con-> st of Sebastopol among things barely pos-[ e . When , however , the Bulgarian lioril had been closed , he resumed his scheme " a grand coujp-de-main" and pressed it on British commander . Already the pains death approached him . The long malady bis life became more afflicting ; lie feared ; fever should intercept his march , and n hoped that the activity of a real camjn would produce a favourable reaction . i armies , therefore , half clothed , and pro-? d only for a summer campaign , were ivded on board vessels of war and
transts , hurried across the Black Sea , and deitod on the coast of the Crimea . At . Fort , three days before the battle of the ria , Lord Raglan waited , apparently , to ¦ ngthen his field-trains , and to fortify the ious anna of the service . But St . tfAUD , sleepless and in torture , urged on , li desperate importunity , his more
promt allies . He despatched mccssaut rests to the British head-quarters to march once , to attack the Russians , to push for-• d to Sebastopol . His letters breathe an > atient frenzy . At last , in the agony of ? ase , he threatened Lord Raglan that , ess the English forces were ready within a hours , he would advance with the lYeneh le , " and that nothing should intercept
i . " Chis , then was the tone of councils in the ied Camp before the united advance on Alma . Lord Ra . glax was unprepared ; rshal St . AitNAuw was eager ; and Marshal Abnaud ' s eagerness overcoming Lord olan ' s caution , precipitated the two lies , first ou tho Alma , and then on Sefcopol . it is a characteristic of this corresponde , that it ignores altogether the
sor-? s of tho British generals , both in the position of tho enterprise and in the buttle the Alma . St . Aunaud , who eulogised public the " antique valour" of Lord Glan , described tho victory , as well as nned tlio future course of tho war , hout mentioning his name . " . / shall be Sebastopol "— " I may attack it on the th side "— " I completely defeated the 3 sians "—such is his invariable language . tho English troops ho pays , indeed , the mto duo to their steadiness and
soty , but to their veteran chief he does not 0 refor . On tho contrary , tlio '' antique mr" is claimed for himself and hiw friends . fo shall surpnBH Aoaikkmnon ; but our jo will not bo prolonged , like that of Troy . 1 havo in our army more than one A oiiii . iyhs , ay . an Ajax , and many tlio equals of Pa-> OJ , tjs . All gocM well ; my orders are m , twad , ( Sod . aiding ufl , [ Franco will in
October register one of the most splendid and intenepid feats of arms recorded in her military history . " " My orders are given , " and " Prance will register "—where was Lord RAeiiAN , where G-reat Britain ? The character of Marshal St . Abnatjd , represented by his own pen , is that of a dashing , unscrupulous * egotistical soldier of fortune , thirsting to cry havoc , and disdaining all suggestions of policy or caution . It seems to be established , also ,
that the Crimean expedition was proposed by him , carried forward by him in opposition to Lord Raglan's cooler judgment , and aimed by him as a series of rapid blows at the Russian power in the Crimea . At the siege of Constantine , in Algeria , he tells us , he led his soldiers through the breach into a gulf of ruins , in which , " on his conscience , " he expected a mine to explode . One had exploded already , throwing an entire company into the air . Such was
the French Commander-in-Chief , whose impetuosity—that of a hound in the leashled forward the British troops and their more prudent Chief to the deadly Crimean campaign . In his mind , considerations of policy had no weight . As the " War Minister of December , 1851 , he yearned to embroil Europe in a "war . He had written , long previously , these remarkable words : " It has always been my dream to make war , on a grand scale , in " Europe . " He . had watched the Italian revolution , praying for an opportunity to dash in , at the head of a legion ;
and he had imagined a Russian war , as a superb satisfaction , for his insatiable martial appetite . " I should-. like , " he wrote in 1849 , " to strike a blow at Russia , incompany with England . " How far these aspirations—these Zouave passions—aflected the policy of the French Cabinet , the mutilated , correspondence does not reveal ; nor are we inclined to lay too much stress on the sanguinary enthusiasm of St . Abnaud ; but his acts , throughout his life , corresponded with these sentiments , and marked him , in the eye of the sworn President , as the desperate hero of the coup d ' etat .
The only trace of military policy to be diecovered in these volumes , occurs in a letter dated April , 185-1-, which begins with a candid avowal : " AV"hat we want is success . A reverse would be disastrous , internally and externally . " In the same epistle he writes : " You speak of the Crimea—it is a gem : I dream of it . ... But we must make no premature declarations . A \ e must deliberate with the Turks , and see the [ Russians a little nearer , to know what they will , and what thev can do . "
Glancing for a moment at St . Arnaud in his personal relations , it is jusrt to add , that his more intimate and familiar letters , always picturesque and vivid in expression , exhibit him as a man capable of strong and tender atlections , retaining , to tho close of Iuh lite , a certain winning warmth and simplicity of temperament , rather than of character . He was not so much a man of bad p rinciples , as of no principles .
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MRS . NORTON'S APPEAL FOR DIVORCE . Therk is a skeleton , it is said , in every house , but by a peculiar hypocrisy , almost unparalleled in tho history " of mankind , English society agrees to ignore , tho domestic mon-HtroHity , and nfleet a to disbelieve , in the existence of skeletons anywhere , except , in disreputable neighbourhoods or ill-regulated families . In the main these subjects are treated only as cases of individual irregularity ; instances that become known are pronouucod to bo " exceptional , " and tho voiy custom that discountenances tho overt
allusion to all facts in such circumstances helps to render the disclosure exceptional , although the fact is little so . There is , indeed , not a tale which comes out which does not imply , if it does not absolutely prove , that many families are implicated in each , of the so-called exceptional cases ; and sometimes they are so ramified , that you might connect in the
chain the larger part of the Peerage , a great province of the landed gentry , with no small contingents from the moneyed and . the middle classes . We need say nothing about the working classes , because it is not the custom to consider them as belonging to " society ;" and when we point to the flagrant departure from established law in whole sections of the
great bulkof the people , the answer is that such occurrences belong only to the ignorant and vulgar . It is this extraordinary substitution of presumption , instead of positive knowledge , which sanctions the perpetuation of injustice . Sometimes from the penetralia of the household comes the ghastly cry , uttered by tlie living voice before the skeleton becomes ossified into an heirloom . But the cry is always stifled , if possible , or is politely disregarded . Hence it is the practice to maintain laws that have no relation to the actual state of
society in this country , and this maintenance is obstinate , even after those who are the highest authorities on such subjects have made up their minds that the law cannot and ought not to be maintained . There is , for instance , no greater instance of flagrant injustice , violating every principle of equity , humanity , and decency , than the existing law with respect to divorce . The judges of the land , the chancellors and ex-chancellors , the
X < aw Lords , the lawyers in the ecclesiastical courts , Bishops and lay saints , agree to report that some change ought t& take place-One at least . They admit the causes of divorce existing as much amongst the poor as amongst the rich , yet , at present , divorce from the bond of marriage is not to be obtained without an Act of Parliament or the hundreds of pounds which that form of relief costs . The law is open to all men , and Jabez Stockpobt and Dinah his wife ,
the Manchester weavers , can . obtain a divorce , if they will procure the witnesses , arrange the evidence , employ the counsel , and pay for the Act of Parliament . Jabez and Dixah generally go a shorter way to work , and render themselves open to various criminal and civil proceedings . One interested victim , Mrs . Nortongroaning under a bondage where she is bound yet alone , enslaved yet protectionless in A
—has put forth an eloquent appeal " Letter to the Queen , " * that Divorce Bill with which Lord Chancellor Cranwobtii has tantalized . parliament , and the hopes of her Majesty ' s lieges . Mrs . jSTohtojt shows how in the existing state of the law a woman may be exposed to persecution of every kind . She was charged with infidelity to her husband in an action brought against Lord Melbourne , and although , as she affirms in the most solemn language , innocent , and prepared out
to establish her innocence , she was shut from the court . She was separated from her husband by consent , and after separation ho invades her separate property , examines the books at her banker's , subpoenas her publishers , and compels them to declare what arc tho copyrights they held , what tlio sums they paid Mrs . Norton ; thus making nor feel that even tho earnings of her pen are not her own in law : for , " amazing to say , an © observes , " tho copyright of my works , nay my very soul and bruins , are not my own . Olio of the trodoHiiion sued on a contract
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» ~ A Utter to the ( i , u < e » on Lord Chancdlor CramvortVs Marriage « n < t l ) ivo , le Bill Hy the Hon . Mi * . Norton . Longmans } .
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Jtoy 14 , 1855 Q THE LHAJ ) . EIt , 671
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 14, 1855, page 671, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2099/page/11/
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