GENERAL SIMPSON AND THE "TIMES."

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 345, 20 February 1856, Page 7

GENERAL SIMPSON AND THE "TIMES."

'; It. is. not necessary to describe the emotions which the late accounts iV«nu Sd.a.-utpol have excited in this counirv. Every body iris leit * as th;»e terrible pictures ruse with cruel vividness before tin* eye, the most di>tre=sinsr (ie»ails beiuu' brought prominently oui by careful and ininule painting, a nuin ami sickness of heart such as through mt this war we have never experienced before. Not so universal, however. i< thai eagerness tf> punish sonu'iody which vents itself, as usual, with coarse ur.\\ precipifite vehemence iv tiie columns of fiif Times — the ifreat ainbiiii'ii of that paper beinv: always to lorestai ami sjfM the le id n'i some popular iin j»nlse. and ti> i:on*tii\ite itseit' a kind of soie tribune of the people by inems of us power of loiui and ("ovciiiie exjive-sion. The truth is. that a man must have jjreat co;iti-iencf isi liis discernment wh'> thinks he sees cieariy throuirii these confu-ied and su-rmy scent-s how much of tiie failure was due to mismanagement an.! how much to tiiliiculties which no ordinary skill and cuarau'e could surmount. We ku.»w, on the one h;md, that of the Freuc-':-, ass.utlts two were tidied ;i> si^aaliy as our own. \\ c k;it)«'ais'i tint the p:':u-:;>.ii c.t .-v . 1 "itr ibsci'iufuuie w.ts the treuieud.ias lire u> w ic'i our coiuinns (uu'.ike lii- Fi-e.ic':) wsrv ivxp'.'<e-l ;i> they cro-se a the o;v>-i, wireli m> -:v,ure:'d n-id (iisoi-yaiis/.ed them ih it th.» s ; r viv,i-s forced their w.iy into the work i mere unmauay;able crowd. We know that the r-£i-mental officer- behav-.'d as ivi-iis;: oii'u'e:-? always do, imi liiit the inipr-.-svon ma-i-■>•» our allies wis iha: .>f a <jaii:)nt ait.-ok fi:i|::ed liv muniu-rs, iu-avy avniU-i}, and i.ifi'u-'il ks ut position; and v>-.' c.;:i s\- laat >■,;!■ o-! i1;-.1 ciiar^es brought a_.i;!i--l l! ueral Si;;ipsonaie irivoious, ;ii!-i ao-nrd. S :i! it must t< • - ,' ! ;h.,t putiinu .ill iin- ii.ivraiivv'- t•» ueiit ■■•r. ■••'.'... ir:;\v;:>^r o;iiv fair iu:eivni%es h >vi :iscv-rt.;::i ■■.: (;■ ires» there is real prinui /ucir •jrvonmi u,y s• • ii.• iis dissntis'acli'Ui ! there is reason !or y.a^e iHuil-t whether the result un^iit f;av ; - i«et-n diilVreui had the troops been 'namiletl wi/a -il the nsii'mtion, prouv^tites*, :n;d prt■>;•!;<•*' <*i m.'iv.l which he h;ul a vi^hi to oxnect i'ro;;: si,< \xouer.\'.i

of Division ami the annv frum its General-in-Chief. Many private letters, added to the regular correspondence of the newspapers, fill up with the colours of reality the grand outline which the first official despatches conveyed to us, of tire tiiial catastrophe of the siege. Grand it certainly is, and (like the burning of Moscow) characteristically Russian throughout ; the gigantic solniity oi she works which astonishes our ie.i'.ned engineers—the stubborn endurance which held oni during the last twenty-four hours, with the town tumbling in ruins, every inch of ground within the works searched by a vertical (ire. the soldiers unfed, the dead unburied; and the wounded left lo die, and which, even a tier the ..lalakhoii' was taken and all hope crone, heat us out of the Redan—the final de-sirucr.-in ('lot without horrible sacrifices) oi everyuiing that could be destroyed, undercover of which iiie army deliberately retired, protected by the thunder of explosions and the broad circle of lire hi its rear. The stamp of the Empire is upon every part and incident, of it, down to ihe great stores or new guns which, after all tins iuivi.L- ami consumption of the means of tie-fi-wce, were found ranged in order when the French penetrated to the quays.