HOUSE OF LORDS, MONDAY, MARCH 19.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 285, 25 July 1855, Page 3

HOUSE OF LORDS, MONDAY, MARCH 19.

Lord. Lucan an» the Cavaluy Charge. —Lord Lucan, in moving for-a copy of Lord Raglan's report of the cavalry charge at Balaklava, said that although it might be objected that a court-martial in such a case as this would be unprecedented, yet it was equally unprecedented that an officer high in -command should be summarily recalled on grave charges, without any opportunity being afforded to establish or to refute them. The noble lord then proceeded to say that he would describe the battle of Balaklava. At eleven o'clock in the morning a spy reported to Sir C. Campbell and himself that a Russian army of 20,000 infantry and--5000 cavalry were marching on Balaklava upon our division from the south and southeast; Lord Lucan instantly wrote a letter to Lord Raglan, and sent it by his aide-de-camp, who happened to be his own son, who delivered the letter to General Airey, and subsequently, Lord Raglan sent word to report to him if any thing new occurred. At dawn of day forts 1, 2, 3 and 4 Were attacked by the Russians. At fort la respectable resistance was made, and he must say that the Turks deserved more credit than they had got on that occasion. When the Turks had evacuated the forts, lie, in concert with Sir C. Campbell, brought his cavalry close to fort No. 5, a good position, from whence to charge in flank any Russian corps from the east: but,'to <h*is surprise, he received an order from Lord Raglan for the whole of the cavalry to take ground to the left of the second line of redoubts occupied by the Turk1;. Thus the whole of the cavalry were moved west of fort No. 6. He then saw through the orchards a mass of Russian cavalry moving over the hills. He (Lord Rag'an) ordered his eight squadrons of the heavy brigade of cavalry to attack these Russians, and, though the Russians had'3,soo men, he with one-fifth of that number repulsed them. At that moment 25,000 Russian infantry were moving in masses up the valley, arid having taken 1, 2, and 3 'forts, were marching on Ralaklava. But when their routed cavalry'fell back, the infantry halted ; this showed that our heavy cavalry bad performed a most important feat. It had been asked, why did not the heavy cavalry do more after that charge, and why not have made more, use of the light cavalry. His (Lord Lucan's) answer was that Lord Raglan had placed them out of his reach. He had at that time received order No. 3 from Lord Ra'ghm. It.'was-as follows: " The "cavalry to advance and take advantage of any opportunity to recover the heights. They will be supported by infantry, which'hare been ordered"— not to " advance" as Lord Raglan's copy of this order says, but with a full stop after the word "ordered;" and here is the whole difference between the original order on which he (Lord Lucan) acted, and the incorrect copy of that order which Lord Raglan has subsequently cited. At the word "Ordered" in the original", there is a (till stop, and the word "advance" followed with a'capital " A," and the concluding words are—" Advance on two points." On receiving this order (No. 3), he'waited anxiously for 40 minutes.for the infantry which he was told were to come up'; when Captain Nolan gallopped up with a new fresh order, perfectly independent of the above order No. 3. This hew order said, "-Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front, follow the en°my, and try to prevent them carrying off the guns. Troop of hoise artillery may accompany. French cavalry is on the left." '"Lord-Raglan was then on a height a quarter of a'mije distant, and supposed that Jie saw the enemy moving off the guns from forts 1, 2, and 3, anil therefore it was that he Sent this new order.

■A noble Lord : And were not the Russians removing tlie grins'?

Lord Lucan ; Not a bit of it. The whole thing was a misconception. The noble lord 'then proceeded to repeat the conversation which place between Capt. Nolan and himself on '■the'presentation of this order. No. 4, and said that Capt. Nolan eventually explained the order in the sense of ah order " to attack," and as an 'aide de camp's explanations of written instructions are held to be authoritative, he (Lord Lu,can) felt that he would not be justified in disobeying the order thus explained; and that if he had hesitated one moment he should have failed in his duty. The noble lord, after some further 'details, said that on the day after this brilliant but 'unsuccessful charge of the light cavalry,

General Airey called on him in bis tent, and he said to the General, " This is a most serious thin}?, it will cause touch talk, and create much dissatisfaction." General Airey replied, "Oh, these things will happen in war ; it is nothing to Chillianwallah." He (Lord Lucan) replied that it was a serious thing;, and that he disclaimed all responsibility in the matter, and that he would not hear any responsibility ; to which Geneial Airey answered, " Oh, rest yourself satisfied, you will be freed from all blame in Lord Raglan's rep; it." To his (Lord Lucan's) surprise, however, he found in Lord Raglan's report to the Duke of Newcastle arriving in the Crimea, the remarks made therein on the subject, and, of course, felt severely hurt. Independent of this, numerous letters arrived from his friends, saying, " Whatare you doing not to refute the accusations made against you in Lord Rftglan's report ?" In consequence of this he requested Lord Burghersh to ask Lord Raglan to give him (Lord Lucan) an interview. Lord Burghersh next day said, he had seen Lord Raglan, who would give the interview if Lord Lucan particularly wished it, but that he was very busy. On this Lord Lucan proposed to write a letter explanatory of the matter, for Lord Raglan to send to England,,to exculpate him (Lord Lucan). Lord Burghersh replied, "Oh, I am sure Lord Raglan will have no objection to that, if that is all you require." He (Lord Lucan) replied that was all he required, and he added, "if there be anything in my letter which Lord Raglan feels the slightest objection to, anything that gives hi:a the slightest annoyance, if he will point it out to me I will readily alter it." Lord Lucan then narrated the ■circumstances attending and following the writing of this letter by him to Lord Raglan, and declared that at no time was he asked on behalf of Lord Raglan to withdraw that letter, and that therefore he did |not "decline to withdraw it," as subsequently charged by Lord Raglan : and, that after writing that letter, and supposing that it had been forwarded to England by Lord Raglan, he (Lord Lucau) and Lord Raglan had no further communication on the subject of the said letter, but continued on the same friendly terms which had previously existed between them, up to the day of the arrival of the letter from England recalling him (Lord Lucan) in consequence of.the tenor of Lord Raglan's despatch to the Duke of Newcastle, in which Lord Lucan's letter to Lord Raglan was severely animadverted upon. Lord Lucan then proceeded to read Lord Raglan's despatch on this subject to the Duke of Newcastle, and said that he would read it sentence by sentence, and that he would tear it to rags (laughter.) The noble lord, in reading and commenting upon this letter to Lord Raglan, proceeded to Lord Raglan's charge that the order to Lord Lucan (No. 4) was to be taken in connection with order No. 3, which Lord Lucan must have read witli very little attention. Now order No. 3 was, " The cavalry to advance and take advantage of any opportunity to recover the heights. The}' will be supported by infantry, which has been ordered to advance on two points." I will show that the infantry never were ordered to advance.' The Duke of Cambridge never received any orders to advance, and my aide-de-camp went to General Cathcait aiid asked him to support me with his division of infanlrv, but he replied that he could not do so, for he Dad received no instructions to that effect, (hear). First as to the fact that the cavalry were to be supported by infantry. When the order was given, the infantry were not in the plain ; they were only arriving. I did all I could. I placed myself in the positiou Lord Raglan's aide de-camp indicated, and waited the arrival of the infantry for some lime, but the infantry were in the Inkertnatin valley, and covered the ground there with their arms piled. If your lordships go back to the instructions themselves, you will see that whether the previous order had been attended to or not, it could not possibly have interfered with the subsequent order. ' Well, 35 or 40 minutes having elapsed between the one order and the other, Lord Raglan being on the hiil, and in a position to observe all that took place, if the previous movement had been mismanaged, and the column was not in its proper Iplace. he might havere 7 medied the error, for he had ample time to do so. Surely I was not to suppose that my com-inander-in-chief did not know what was going on (hear, hear.) If there were :m error, he might have sent an order to remedy it : but he did nothing of the sort. He sent an'order which in effect was this—"You are to advance to your post." Now, there was but one point, and that

was to the east of the battery(hear, hear). Then Lord Raglan says, "Lord Liican must have read the first order with very little attention, for he now states that the cavalry was formed to support the infantry, whereas he was told by Brigadier-General Airey ' that the cavalry was to advance and take adrautage of any opportunity to recover the heights, and they would be suppttvted by infantry'—not that they were to support, the infantry." Now, what is meant by "opportunity?" Was I to make the opportunity (hear, hear),—or was I merely to take advantage of any opportunity arising from the advance of the infantry ? What opportunity could I make under the circumstances ? But I was to try to recover the heights. Why this is even more extraordinary than the rest, for there was not a single Russian upon the heights. There were no heights to recover. The noble lord having further detailed the circumstances connected with this matter, said I believe I have kept mv pledge with 'your lordships, and have broken this letter to shivers sentence by sentence (hear, hear, bear). Lord Lucan then cited a a letter written by the late Sir George Cathcart to Lady Cathcart," which .wae found in Sir George Cathcnrt's pocket when he was killed. That letter was written on the 2nd of November, and in it Sir George Cathcart said, " I have another opportunity of writing to you. You will hare read about the affair of Balaklava, in which the Light Cavalry suffered so severely. It was a most gallant, but unfortunate affair. Neither Lord Lucan or Lord Cardigan was to blame, but on the contrary, for they obeyed orders" (hear, hear). He continues :" My division was sent for, but they had six miles to come." This shows the distance of the forces which Lord Raglan said were ready to support me. Lord Lucan concluded by saying that he hadbeenre-' called in disgrace without trial ; that on his appointment to command he had been presented at Buckingham Palace to the Queen ; but that, since his recal, her Majesty had not received him, and there was no officer of equal rank'who had not received from her Majesty that mark of gracious condescensiou.

After some remarks from Lord Cardigan in explanation of some points mentioned by Lord Lucan, Lord Panmuee regretted that he could hold out no hope that the decision which had been arrived at would he reconsidered, as Lord Lucan's demand for a court martial could not be complied with cousistentlj with the rules of the service. He trusted that Lord Lucan, whose gailantrv' no one ever doubted, would let the matter rest. After some observations from Lord Hardinge, and ;Derhy, and the Duke of Richmond, the papers were ordered. The house adjourned at ten minutes to nine o'clock.