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THE CRIMEA.

vileges of the Greek Church at Jerusalem, but the position of many millions of Turkish subjects in their relations to their sovereign the sultan. These demands were rejected by the spontaneous decision of the Sublime Porte. Two assurances had been given to her majesty: one, that the mission of Prince Menschikoff only regarded the Holy Places; the other, that his mission would be of a conciliatory character. In both respects her just expectations were disappointed. . . . Her majesty, in conjunction with the sovereigns of Austria, France, and Prussia, has made various attempts to meet any just demands of the Emperor of Russia without affecting the dignity and independence of the sultan; and had it been the sole object of Russia to obtain the security for the enjoyment by the Christian subjects of the Porte of their privileges and immunities she would have found it in the offers that have been made by the sultan, but as that security was not offered in the shape of a special and separate stipulation with Russia it was rejected. Twice has this offer been made by the sultan, and recommended by the four powers; once by a note originally prepared at Vienna and subsequently modified by the Porte; once by the proposal of bases of negotiation agreed upon at Constantinople on the 31st of December and approved at Vienna on the 13th of January, as offering to the two parties the means of arriving at an understanding in a becoming and honourable manner. It is thus manifest that a right for Russia to interfere in the ordinary relations of Turkish subjects to their sovereign, and not the happiness of Christian communities in Turkey, was the object sought for by the Russian government; to such a demand the sultan would not submit, and his highness, in selfdefence, declared war upon Russia; but her majesty, nevertheless, in conjunction with her allies, has not ceased her endeavours to restore peace between the contending parties. The time has, however, now arrived when the advice and remonstrances of the four powers have proved wholly ineffectual, and the military preparations of Russia becoming daily more extended, it is but too obvious that the Emperor of Russia has entered upon a course

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of policy which, if unchecked, must lead to the destruction of the Ottoman Empire. In this conjuncture her majesty feels called upon, by regard for an ally, the integrity and independence of whose empire have been recognized as essential to the peace of Europe, by the sympathies of her people with right against wrong, by a desire to avert from her dominions most injurious consequences, and to save Europe from the preponderance of a power which has violated the faith of treaties and defies the opinion of the civilized world, to take up arms in conjunction with the Emperor of the French for the defence of the sultan. Her majesty is persuaded that in so acting she will have the cordial support of her people, and that the pretext of zeal for the Christian religion will be used in vain to cover an aggression undertaken in disregard of its holy precepts, and of its true and beneficent spirit. Her majesty humbly trusts that her efforts may be successful, and that by the blessing of Providence peace may be re-established on safe and solid foundations."

We now find that the ears and eyes of our countrymen have become familiar with names of places afar off that had hitherto been scarcely noticed by schoolboys in their books of geography. Some of these knew what the Bosphorus was, and remembered something about the Chersonese, but to the great majority of Englishmen the very word Crimea was strange, and certainly Kertch, and Sebastopol, and Scutari had a very foreign sound with them. Sidney Herbert, as has been said in these pages, had beautiful estates in the very peninsula-nearly an island-which the British and French were now to invade; but it certainly was not generally known that the southern part of this country was not only rich in natural beauty, but contained some of the finest parks and gardens in the world. Here the Tartar and the Russian, the Mohammedan mosque and the convent of the Greek Church are mingled together among the rocky hills and the forests, while here and there a mouldering fortress suggests to the instructed eye some incident in the long and varied history of the country. Here grow the olive,

what England wanted was a bout of bloodshed, were "hucksters:"

"Last week came one to the county town,

the grape, and even the orange, while good | the war, but those who did not perceive that wines are yielded by some of the vineyards. Horses, sheep, oxen, honey, and silk are among the products of the southern portion of this interesting land, which was once Crim Tartary. The population is about a fifth of a million, and is very mixed, the greater portion being Tartars. This was the country in which the little river Alma was soon to give a name to one of the most important battles in history.

Something has already been said concerning the existence of what may be called the poetic English party, whose voices were for war at this time. The feeling with these politicians had something romantic and even ethereal about it. They seemed to think that England was reading the whole world a lesson by standing forward in defence of the weak, i.e. Turkey. Was "the sick man" (as Turkey was by that time currently called) to be quietly smothered by the "Colossus of the North?" No; we had neglected our duty with regard to Italy, Hungary, and Poland-it was now time to make what amends we could to our consciences. Such was the argument of this party. They also laid great stress upon the question of the education of the nation in manliness, upon what Florence Nightingale called the "re-tempering of peoples." The half-mad lover in Mr. Tennyson's "Maud" very nearly advocated war as a cure for social ills. Here, said he, we have been having for many years "the blessings of peace," but "we have made them a curse." Women poison their babies for the sake of the insurance money. Men, having lost the sense of brotherhood, for want of social strain (such as war creates) have made life rotten from end to end with fraud and selfishness. "Peace in her vineyard? Yes! But a company forges the wine." The inner heart of the nation is being eaten out by commercial fraud. Is not this war? It is war, "the viler, as underhand, not openly bearing the sword." Far better open conflict with a strong foe. Let us get rid of "the long, long canker of peace," and welcome "the blood-red blossom of war, with a heart of fire." Mr. Bright, Mr. Cobden, and a good many more were opposed to

To preach our poor little army down,
And play the game of the despot kings,
Tho' the state has done it and thrice as well.
This broad-brimmed hawker of holy things,
Whose ear is stuft with his cotton, and rings
Even in dreams to the chink of his pence,
This huckster put down war! can he tell
Whether war be a cause or a consequence?"

There was of course no lack of popular outcry for war-the mob are always for fighting. Those who dreaded and hated the idea of a French alliance were not numerous enough or well-informed enough to outrote the rest; the newspapers cried "War, war!" Lord Palmerston was devoted not only to the old idea of the balance of power, but to the old policy of keeping Russia not only away from Constantinople, but right away, as far as possible, from access to the Mediterranean; and everybody hated the Emperor Nicholas -everybody out of courtly or high-commercial circles. The newspapers made ludicrous capital out of the "movements" of our fleet in the Mediterranean under Admiral Dundas. Day after day the "bills" displayed such lines as, "The fleet preparing to advance!" and "The fleet in the Dardanelles!" until at last, after long waiting, came the announcement, "The fleet has passed the Bosphorus !” The street songs that celebrated this event were endless, and were in this style (we quote from an original):—

"Old Nick will soon be made to quake,
His troops will wade in gore;
Prince Menschikoff and the Russian Bear
In misery do deplore.

"The fortress of Sebastopol

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Will soon come down, alas! Surrounder'd both by sea on land By Raglan and Dundas."

Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, was vulgarly called "Old Nick" of course.

Manifestations of an intention to prepare for a probable war had not been wanting on our part, although the opportunities for negotiation had avowedly been kept open as long as possible. The camp at Chobham

THE NAVAL REVIEW.

Common could scarcely be deemed a hostile movement, as it had been proposed early in the year, and was part of a scheme for increasing the general efficiency of the army by training the troops to field operations in accordance with modern manoeuvres; but when the various brigades were assembled the spectacle presented was not without significance. A party of sappers and miners went down to prepare the camping-ground, dig wells, clear away obstructions, and erect the more important stores and buildings; and on the 14th there arrived from various quarters four regiments of cavalry, three battalions of guards, two brigades of infantry each comprising three regiments, a troop of royal horseartillery, and three batteries of horse-artillery. A company of sappers was there, and a pontoon train formed part of the equipment. Prince Albert went with the Duke of Cambridge to visit the camp on the arrival of the men, and remained there for two or three days in command of the brigade of guards. He took deep interest in the operations, and would have continued actively employed, but on his return to town with a severe cold was seized with an attack of measles, from which the royal children (except the two youngest), and finally the queen herself, afterwards suffered. The infection also reached the guests at Buckingham Palace, the young Crownprince of Hanover and the Duke and Duchess of Coburg, who had left England before they discovered that they had incurred the disorder, which they in turn had carried to the Duke of Brabant and the Count of Flanders, whom they met on their homeward journey. This, however, was after the review and the trial of field operations which took place before the queen at Chobham on the 21st of June. The queen had been staying at Osborne, whither she had gone a fortnight after the birth of her fourth son (Prince Leopold) on the 7th of April, and had returned on the 27th of May, so that this was her first appearance on any special public occasion after the event; but early in the morning her majesty and the prince, with the King of Hanover and the Duke of Coburg, were on the ground; the queen, on horseback in a military riding-habit,

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rode with the prince and her guests down the lines, and afterwards witnessed the manœuvres from a neighbouring height. The spectacle was realistic-for the country was open, but broken by hollows, woods or thickets, streams and marshes-and a hundred thousand spectators had assembled to witness it. The real value of the camp was to be found in the daily exercises, and though the weather for a great part of the two months during which the troops were under canvas was exceptionally rainy and tempestuous, the men showed themselves to be remarkably efficient and enduring.

More suggestive than the manœuvres at Chobham, however, was the naval review held at Spithead on the 8th of August. By that time the common impression was that war must soon become imminent, and the display of a naval force was regarded not only as a determined manifestation, but as an exhibition of the enormous development, or rather the vast reconstruction, of our maritime armaments. There were altogether forty vessels of war, of which twenty-five were of chief importance. Thirteen of these were screw and nine were paddle-wheel steamers, while three were sailing ships of the line. The steamvessels possessed a nominal total of nearly 10,000 horse-power, and an actual total of about 18,000 and of 44,146 tons, the number of hands being about 10,000. There were 1087 guns, of which 68-pounders were the chief feature, the smallest of the guns being 32-pounders and the largest throwing 84-pound shells.

At forty-five minutes past ten the royal yacht, the Victoria and Albert, entered between the leeward ships of the fleet, passing the Vesuvius and the Terrible, and then proceeding straight down the line towards the Duke of Wellington, gave an opportunity to the vast number of persons congregated on the decks of the steamers, which brought passengers to the spectacle, to welcome her majesty with bursts of enthusiastic cheering. After the queen and the royal party had inspected the Duke of Wellington, the signal was given to weigh, and her majesty led the fleet out to sea, the royal yacht occupying a central position between " the Duke" on the starboard and

the Agamemnon on the port side, but slightly | parture of troops by railway or by transport

in advance of both. A few miles below the mole the signal was given to form line abreast, and at cable length from each other the line from end to end extended for more than three miles. At 2:40 the signal was given to "chase," and later in the afternoon the review ended with a mock engagement between the principal vessels. The weather was fine, and the spectacle from the point of view of those who regarded it as a great warlike demonstration was magnificent. Most of the members of the House of Commons with the speaker went to see the great show by special steamers provided for their accommodation. It was said that a hundred steam-boats carried spectators, and the royal circle included the three grandduchesses, the Crown-prince of Wurtemburg, the Duke of Mecklenburg, and the Prince of Prussia, so there were plenty of witnesses to report the proceedings not only to the two neutral powers, but to the Emperor of Russia himself. Prince Albert afterwards wrote to Stockmar: "The great naval review has come off, and surpassed all that could have been anticipated. The gigantic ships of war, among them the Duke of Wellington with 131 guns (a greater number than was ever before assembled in one vessel), went, without sails, and propelled only by the screw, eleven miles an hour, and this against wind and tide! This is the greatest revolution effected in the conduct of naval warfare which has yet been known. Steam as well as sailing vessels will of necessity be cast aside as useless, and menof-war with the auxiliary screw will take their place. This will cost a great deal of money till the change is effected, and render many fleets, like the present Russian one, useless. We have already sixteen at sea and ten in an advanced state. France has no more than two, and the other powers none. On Thursday 300 ships and 100,000 men must have been assembled on one spot. The fleet carried 1100 guns and 10,000 men. The weather, moreover, was magnificent, and the impression which the spectacle presented sublime."

Those people in London who had not been to the naval review were soon to witness what to them came nearer in significance-the de

ships, the marching of well-known regiments through the streets, the clang and fanfare of military bands, the tramp of men, and the "shrill squeaking of the wry-necked fife" or the drone of the bagpipe. They were to have part too in leave-takings, that were sad enough, and were remembered afterwards when, during the terrible winter, there came home tidings from the British camp which made men and women wail, and utter complaints that were little short of imprecations against a government which had prepared so ill for war that while men were upon the field to fight the foe, they had to fight cold and hunger and disease also, because food and drink, shelter and clothing, and medicine, and even mules and horses, had either not arrived or were beating about on shipboard at some port where they were useless, or were landed where there were no means of conveying them to the soldiers who starved and froze and sickened, but would not yield till death itself vanquished them.

Before war had been formally declared both France and Russia had sent considerable forces to the East for the protection of Turkey, and to act as might be required for that object. The British army consisted of four divisions commanded by Lieutenant General Sir George Brown, and Major-Generals the Duke of Cambridge, Sir de Lacy Evans, and Sir Richard England, and a division of cavalry under the Earl of Lucan. Altogether 10,000 of our troops left England at the end of February, 1854, and landed at Malta, where they remained till the 31st of March, when they proceeded to Gallipoli, in European Turkey, where the French were already arriving in detachments, Marshal St. Arnaud, former minister of war, being in command, and under him General Canrobert and General Bosquet; a brigade of cavalry under General d'Allonville, and reserves under Prince Napoleon, General Forey, and General Cassargnalles. The number of the French troops was at that time 20,000, or twice as many as our own. The choice of Gallipoli as a basis of operations was that of the Emperor of the French, who had

PUBLIC EXCITEMENT-PALMERSTON, COBDEN, AND BRIGHT.

determined that to fortify that place would be to prevent the Russians from crossing the Balkan; but as a basis of operations it was too far from the Turkish armies and from Constantinople. The emperor had, however, instructed General St. Arnaud that though Gallipoli should be the strategical point and the place of depôt for arms, ambulances, and provisions, that need not prevent the troops from marching forward or lodging one or two divisions at the barracks at the west of Constantinople or at Scutari; while, if, after having advanced towards the Balkans, a movement in retreat should become necessary they would regain the coast of Gallipoli instead of that of Constantinople, because the Russians would never venture from Adrianople to Constantinople with an army of 60,000 good troops on their right flank. These instructions and the attitude afterwards assumed by the French general looked a little too much like taking the initiative of command of the entire allied army for the taste of some people here, but matters soon assumed a regular course. Lord Raglan did not arrive at Gallipoli till May, when more active measures than merely protective dispositions had to be adopted. The war may, in fact, be said to have begun much as it continued. The results were attributable more to the soldiers than to the generals. The French and English worked together harmoniously in a cheerful hearty spirit of emulation in making the seven miles of line of entrenchments on the crest of the ridge from the Gulf of Saros to the Sea of Marmora, just as they afterwards fought like brave comrades whenever there was fighting to be done, and they were allowed to support or relieve each other amidst the tempest of shot and fire. When the works were finished the forces moved to the Bosphorus, the French occupying the European side near Constantinople, and our men landing on the eastern side of the narrow Strait of Scutari.

The positions taken by the allied fleets and the allied armies can only be estimated by reference to the map of Europe, and an acquaintance with the conformation of the territory where hostilities were likely to be commenced. The northern shores of the Black

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Sea and also a part of the eastern shore belonged to Russia; the southern, the Asia Minor, and the greater part of the western shore was the territory of Turkey. The Black Sea itself was therefore little other than a lake, but it was the only outlet for Russia on the south, its own sole escape being the deep and narrow channel of the Bosphorus, seventeen miles long and repeatedly contracted to not more than half a mile in breadth, but deep enough to carry large ships of war close to the shore throughout its entire course. This channel passes between Constantinople and Scutari, and, flowing into the Sea of Marmora, may be said to reappear as a westward waterway under the name of the Dardanelles, which flow for forty miles till they reach the Mediterranean. It is little to be wondered at that the sultans of Turkey had always claimed the right to exclude foreign ships of war from both these channels,-a right which was confirmed by the five great powers of Europe in the treaty of 1841, which was the latest of several treaties having the same object. By its provisions the sultan had power to close the straits against all foreign vessels of war, and at the same time was bound to exclude any such force in time of peace. In time of war, however, he might admit a foreign fleet; and this proviso enabled him, in such a contingency, to shut up the western outlet of Russia, and actually to confine the Russian fleet to the Black Sea. No other equitable arrangement would have been possible except that of leaving the straits entirely open to the navies of the world, and that would have illsuited Russia, since it would have abolished the exclusive policy which left her influence foremost in Eastern Europe, and enabled her eagerly to watch for an opportunity of absorbing not only the straits, but Constantinople itself, or at all events of holding both in subjection by her influence on the Ottoman government.

We have already tried to show that it is no part of the purpose of these pages to give prominence to deeds of war, or to show to each reader the soldier standing in front and becoming the figure

"That hides the march of men from us."

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