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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 he in the language of an officer on the spot : — The story is 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
story . We do not doubt the " good intentions " of the writer , any mow than we doubt his natural desire to gain cent , per cent , upon his journev to 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 no moie disgraces us than the three failures of the French on the same day disgrace them . The campaign was a joint one ; each army had to take the risk of its position ; we had to assault the Great Redan , and thereby com bmed 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 .
of about a thousand each , and to move out of the treacles in the same divisions , to support the storming party . At the moment of the assault there were not above tMrty Russians in the Redan : the fire was very feeble , and the storming party ran along the open space , and were over tie works -with no great loss . Two divisions of the supports were now inarched out of the trenches . There waB nothing to oppose them ; except a few dropping shots inside , 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 rim away , but they stood still . We saw their officers trying to escite them by 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 men who were inside called to them to come on , and told theni there was no one there ; but it was of no use : they stood still .
Meanwhile , Wyndham could not get his five hundred men to charge : if they bad done so , the Russians were in such small force , that even with that inconsiderable body of troops he woul& have driven them down the hill , and found time to turn the guns citywards . As to spiking the guns , he did did not want to do that ; he wanted them to defend his position . The moment of victory passed away . The Russian supports came up in vast 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 found only the five hundred men who tad first got in , and these engaged in desultory sharpshootmg with the scanty garrison which- lurked among the traverses . . ¦ °
5 l f "W ° f : « nfmies did what we ought to have done : they charged wita the bayonet , drove , the remnant of oiir 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 arid'Hhe fort They -were mowed down by scores . They turned round and ran back into the trenches , which were already fell of the men who were to have supported them After this the confusion v ^ s hopeless . Regimenta got all mixed together , and •^?! T i find hls m ? D > or . men their officer . It was then that Wyndham lSr > V ^ ^ mO / ? ' imless 7 OU can Eend «» aiW forth officered and ^ i ^ oUe todZZ ™* St " ggliKg PartieS that CaIUe ° ™ »* * - ™* - Then the shoj ; and sheU enme over into the crowded trenches , and the iDoor mwriRabies , who didn't know a bayonet from a musket , and who-W no more fit to act as soldiers than they were to act as parsons , were cut xx by balls and _ sy « nters , and-were got out of the trenches as quickly ^ possible . * This is the real history of the attack upon the Redan . "
The reader will remark that the truth about the repulse at the Redan consists ma wholesale charge against the common soldiers encaged in that ^ i contest - Foi > he will not have failed to note that the repulse is attributed to two causes—the cowardice of the supports and the cowardice 01 tfie stormers . Ihe former , we are gravely assured , actually stood " half way between the trenches and the Russian works 5 " the latter , when in the Redan , could not be " got to charge . " Now it will be sufficient to recall what sort of position that was in which ouriegal friend , for we cannot believe any . British officer ever made such a statement , placed his men . The Redan was , according to , General Kiel , two hundred yards from the British tr * n * hr *
accoidwg to Major Hamley , one hundred and fifty from the most ^ advanced trench ; according to both , the intervening space was swept by the fire of the guns on the flank of tlie Rednn . General Niel says the troops crossed that space under a heavy fire of grape , which soon covered the ground with slain 5 Major Hamley says that while crossing " the intervening space a number of men were wounded by grape from the flanks , where several guns opened faereely ; and he mentions the further proof of tlie severity of this fire that only 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 wSL « * 1 ? * i Wa « " noth ™* ° PP ° « « ie supports ; « except a few dropping shots inside , all was silent as the crave . " And xt * . »« WP l , « v «
ffiTSrff ™ $ *™ T ° f thc firRy the flank 8 uns of theRcdan sent a hurricaneof grapethrough thestormcr ^ nd . nsthosegSnscould not betouched , they were ready to send storm after storm through the' supports ; so that if as this writer makcB a British officer state , the supports stood still"half way STl ? Ji ? ^ ? * £ RuSsim works > " * W xnnst have displayed a miracle of heroism for they wust have baited in the shot-swept track where their comrades lay in death or the agonies of death . But it is nottroltfit t /? ° ? ** ° T - **** Bamley states ir > "o many words t a « LnZ t T ? ™* * dxmC ? ' *» PP « ' *» & « ditch , and reappear on the JSSP ? - ' * % , + ? * Smke and co ^«^ n" He adds that ' during the combat m the Redan the guns on the flanks continued to fire . " We have plenty Of evidence that the supports did advance , but we 1 . *™ *;™« «» m « : ™ r ^ jrJ ?
tja . t men could not have stood hesitating under it—they would either have ateSSJ ? V mU * ac ] mr 1 ' ° l they would not h ™ S ° ™ i « toit at all WhSSaVtiV Ot Z ™ " Uue stoiy" <> wp »«» e at the Redan ; £ mr * iStii r , S ** ° L ? , the P roblcm ' »* ko it ptain to .. 11 why the ¦ S SS \ uLZSZ 3 i W « y « ° « - W not take tlio Redan . So far ns we can w « nave , enters mta Uu * critic ^ to show tl , e wortUeflsncm of the " true
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FOUR TRAVELLERS . Mexico and its Meligior ,. With Incidents of Travel in that Country . By R . A . Wilson . Loir and Soa-Mr Wilson draws a vivid picture of Mexico . He has not only travelled m that country ; he lias studied its history , and its social and political condition . In this department he is more proficient than in the sphere of antiquanan research . Almost the entire body of Ins criticism of Cortes and the Spanish historians , who have described the remains of the ancient Mexican empire , is 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 ; hut the best method of correcting a statement is certainly not to reverse it . There is a zone hetween the tcrrid and the frigid . However , Mr . Wilson saw much of Mexican life and manners , and what he actually saw he describes with clearness and animation . When , also , he confines his retrospects within the historical period , and leaves TlascalaanclCholulatot . be archaeologists , he illustrates , to good purpose , the annals of the Spanish monarchy in the New World .
He enters upon an interesting discussion ou the yelknv fever . This malignant disease , in his opinion—verified by accumulated evidence—had its origin , . not in America , but in Africa . In America , it is 4 he produce of slavery , and is periodically renewed , in . intensified virulence , by the 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 trade would effect the extirpation of the 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 other 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 the mask of vice . Even the expurgated accounts of Mexico , published in S pain , represent them in every age as not much better than they are here described bv Mr . Wilson . Nevertheless , in spite of the contempt " of the enlightened classes , and the shocks of successive revolutions , they continue to thrive and to exercise enormous power . While the ' holy beggar of Mexico is a privileged person , tlie peasant is treated as an animal and watched as a thief , and mechanics also form a ' degraded caste . Tims ( says Mr . Wilson , who has an American eye for annexationable territory ) , Mexico is like a ripe penr , ready to drop into the hands of any powerful adventurer . He notices some curious
circumstances in connexion with this state , of things and the advance of Mormonism . Mormonism rose in Western New York ; it is now located on tlie shores of the Salt Lake , between the Mississippi and Alta California . But its leaders keep their eyes fixed on Mexico , and dream of the day when that vast dominion , with its cities , its monasteries , its churches , gorged with gold and silver , and its vast ecclesiastical revenue shall fall into their hands . However , the great Republic itself reckons , among calculable probabilities , the contingency of an unavoidable annexation . The Arauc < mians ; or , - Notes of a Tour among the Indians of Southern Chili . By E R Sniub - * Low and Son .
The Araucanians , improperly so named by thc Spaniards , were the most important tribes of the Chilian aborigines . Their history is singular in this respect , that , after a long and desperate conflict with the riimies of Spain , their independence was acknowledged , and they established a free native stnte in Chili . This territory is divided into four parallel provinces , lying at the foot of the main chain of t hc Cordcrillas , mid these arc subdivided into districts , each of which is governed pntriarchnlly by its chief . The obligations of t ] ie clansmen to their chief are very trifling . Tlicy refer their disputes to Him , and he dispenses justice , but no tribute or tax is raised , nor is any personal service oxneted , except in time of war . The land is common proand its
perty , produce belongs to the cultivator . Tlie chief , however , has a privilege of selling it in small portions , though to none except Indians , for the Araucanians have ordained , wisely , that t \ i \ y person disposing of lnnd to a . strang « r shall be punished with death . Hero ia the germ of a singular social philosophy ! Public affairs are ndministered by the patriarchs , assisted by general ^ councils of the nation , and though lnws cannot'be said to exist , there arc customs which have equal force . The Arnuenninn institution is very remarkable . In time of peace n Council of Peace governs , which in time of war is entirely superseded by a Council < f War , with unlimited power . Mr . E . II . Smith has written , from actual ol ) scrvntion , n lucid , and pleasant account of this interesting people .
Brazil , viewed through « Naval Glass . With Notts on Slavtry and the Slvvc Trade , My JC . Wilborforco . ' Longman and Co . Mit . WiuniSBFoBcn was « i midshipman , nnd saw lW . il , an lua title page expresses it , " through a naval glass ? ' A large proportion of his little hook is occupied by details of such adventures and excursions as midshipmen usually engage in ; but the rest contains useful information , lightly presented . Mr . Wilberforce cultinrtes «> s natural vivacity , nnd sprinkles the narrative with
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66 THE LEADER . [ No . 304 , Saturday
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 19, 1856, page 66, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2124/page/18/
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