TAYLOR'S ADVENTURES WITH THE BRITISH ARMY.*
GEORGE CAVENDISH TAYLOR was an officer in the Ninety- fifth Regiment, but he sold out just before matters began to look threatening with Russia. February 1854 found him at Alex- andria on his return from Upper Egypt ; and while waiting for a passage to Malta, he learned that troops were about to be sent to the East. With something like a Julian promptness Mr. Taylor at once started for Constantinople, reached that city before the soldiers, and witnessed their successive arrivals. Foreseeing " that sooner or later an irregular corps must be set on foot," he made application for employment, but got what he calls an " eva- sive " answer. He missed the battle of the Alma by going to England, on his own opinion, confirmed by that of an aide-de- camp, that the army would not take the field for some time ; and he returned to the seat of war just too late for Balaklava. Mr. Taylor remained in the Crimea and at Constantinople during the rest of the campaign. Throughout the period he kept a journal; of which these volumes ma • ly consist, though there are some additions and a good many omissions.
There is little new in Mr. Taylor's diary, from his work ap- pearing so late. The correspondence of the daily press has told the story of the siege more consecutively and graphically. Several books, especially Our Tent in the Crimea and Mrs. Duberly's journal, have given better sketches of individual im- pressions and camp life. Nor does the author's previous regi- mental experience and sojourn at the seat of war do much for him. He was only present at three of the great events of the cam- paign—the battle of Inkerman, and the two assaults on the Mala- koff and Redan on the 18th June and the 8th September. The account of Inkerman, at which battle the author assisted with his old regiment, does not amount to much ; though we dare say it is a truthful picture of the hurry, confusion, limited view, and succession of almost petty details, that a battle must present to an individual only taking a subordinate part. At the assaults on the Malakoff and Redan Mr. Taylor was so placed as to see much less than one of the authors of Our Tent ; and the information he collected as to the cause of the failure in the attack upon the Redan throws no new light upon the subject. To the question of questions, the maladministration of the army—the condition of the troops, and how much of their sufferings was inevitable, how much chargeable upon the administrative departments, and how 'tench upon themselves or their regimental officers—he adds no- thing ; perhaps because there is nothing to be added, at least by an individual. In fact, during the two worst months of the time he was not with the army. After the winter came on with the great storm of the 14th November, he sailed for Constantinople ; and up to the day of his leaving camp, the 23d, the troops had "been well rationed, which has covered a multitude of other evils," and he did not return till the end of January. Even during the great storm itself he was on board the Agamemnon, which had steamed to Kamiesch and anchored there.
"I cannot say I felt uneasy ; indeed, I did not know how very bad the weather was until the gale began to abate. While it was at its height, I was at my breakfast in the ward-room, where I staid most of the day, ex- cepitvrhheen I went near the funnel to warm myself—for it was very cold. pitched and rolled like a Calais mail-boat. The water poured in at the hawse-holes, and flooded the lower-deck at every. plunge she made • and as she again rose to the seas, the wind was driven with such a blast against the hatches over the screw-well, which is beneath the ward- room, as almost to tear them from their fastenings. Some midshipmen ex- pressed their surprise to me that I was not sick. It is a weakness to which I seldom give way ; but they did not consider that even in this heavy sea, the motion of so large a ship as the Agamemnon is not nearly so great or so distressing as that of a small one in ordinarily bad weather."
It is, however, not so much want of opportunity as want of trained capacity for observing, that is the drawback to the Journal of Adventures with the British Army. There is a frank, easy, off-hand style about the author, which renders his book read- able ; nor is it without interest from the continual change of Beene and topic. But he wants skill for an effective transcript of the many- tstartling and striking scenes that must have passed before him ; much less has he the artistical power to select and combine them into a finished piece. Either he has some notions that are pecu- liar to a few, or if general in the army are very judiciously kept secret. " Loot," as he continually calls plunder, is too promi- nent a topic. The hardship to which the English were subjected in not being allowed to ransack Sebastopol at leisure is a leading subject with him on his first visits. If we put aside the notion of soldierly propriety, it is probable that his arguments are valid to show that the order was doubly unfair to the British soldier. In • Journal of Adventures with the British Army from the Comattneemma of the War to the Taking of Sebastopol. By George Carendish Taylor, late 95th Belt- Men te In two volumes. Published by Hurst and Blackett. .
the first place, the French were allowed to plunder ad libitum; in the next place, sailors, amateurs, " minions of the moon," every one in fact who was not under martial discipline, could evade the order, by starting late after the sentries were withdrawn and leaving Sebastopol early before they were posted. Mr. Taylor has not only sympathy with the lovers of booty—he is no mean artist himself. He accompanied the fleet to the Sea of Azoff, and he gives an edifying account of his amateur proceedings oft' Yenikale on an element professionally alien to the soldier.
" Many Russian vessels were anchored in the straits. All wero deserted, and some had been scuttled. Boats from the different steamers went off to search them, and I got a passage in one. " The first prize we boarded was a Government schooner, carrying guns. She was then full of our sailors, splashing up to their waists in the water below, handing out sails, cordage, guns, shot, oandles, &c., into the boats. There was not much loot' worth having. I found nothing worth carry- ing away but a black cat. " On board this first vessel we lost a great deal of precious time. The next one we went to was a small craft, laden with oats, which did not detain us long. We then boarded a large Government schooner, as yet only par- tially plundered. We dived down the hatchways like rats into a bole, and
into to the captain's cabin, which had been handsomely furnished with sofas, walnut-wood lockers, tables, &c., and a fine mirror. Women had evidently inhabited it, for there was a lot of their wearing apparel, dresses, bonnets, and a parasol, lying about. The drawers and lockers were fastened, and with some trouble they were broken open, and then proved to be empty for the late owners had carried away with them whatever was valuable and portable. In the kitchen department we found eggs, fresh bread, maccaroni, and other provisions. "Finding nothing worth my taking away, except a new shaving-brush, and some military magazines containing extracts from our United Service jour- nal, in Russian, I went forward, where I came upon the surgery, which had already been pretty well cleared out. It was rather dark, and for some time could see nothing but broken glass and bottles of medicine. My eye caught sight of a small key in apanel. I opened it, and found the shies oratory, containing a large painting of Our Saviour, with a fine gilt frame, and a lamp hanging before it, some relics, and some pictures of saints. With the assistance of my companions I got the largo picture out, having first shoved all the small articles into my pockets. I think there ought to have been a silver cup, but owing to the darkness, and being in a hurry, it might have been mislaid, or escaped observation ; at all events I did not see one. This was a good find."
At Berdiansk his doings were, in his own phraseology, "cooler" still.
" There is a fine church in the middle of the town—as usual, with a green roof. I should have had great pleasure in depriving some of the old saints of the offerings made to them, if plundering had not been prohibited. We next went to the house of the Scotch merchant. The mamma were left to guard the approaches, and we went in. It was a very nice house, and was in the care of some servants and an old housekeeper. In the Hest room we entered, a man was at breakfast. He had before him a cold fowl, some salad, and fresh bread. As we entered, he rose. I felt very hungry, having lied nothing to eat since yesterday ; accordingly I took his place, and finished his breakfast for him. The salad was excellent, and it is a thing for which I have a peculiar weakness. I dare say he thought me a
cool fish' ' • but it was the fortune of war. I then went to the old house- keeper, and by pantomimic action endeavoured to explain that I wanted her to go and cut some more salad to take on board with me, and handed her a knife for the purpose. The old lady must have thought I wanted to murder her, for she ran in great alarm into the corner of the room. Otho, how- ever, came up and explained my meaning ; upon which she appeared greatly relieved. She started off to the garden, and brought me back a good'hand- ful. She was greatly pleased at my subsequent attentions, and, I think, wanted to kiss me, but I did not give her any encouragement to do so."
Surely if these are not strange proceedings in a man who has worn the Queen's uniform, the tone in which they are narrated is singular.
One of the freshest sections of the book has no reference to the campaign, but consists of a visit to the coal-mines of Kosloo, which are worked by natives under the superintendence of Eng- lishmen. The account of the difficulties with which the manager had to contend in controlling the mixture of labourers, and the sketch of the men theniselves, possess interest as indications of the character and habits of a rude people. They are still more in- teresting as showing how quickly ajudicious and enterprising Englishman can bring into some kind of order a miscellaneous collection of Asiatic, African and European Turks, the majority the offscourings of Constantinople. The mode was the appoint- ment of headinen responsible for the conduct of their subordi- nates. The governing spirit was the tact and firmness of Mr. Barkley, and the instinctive quality for command which some men possess.
"The murders which occurred when the Turkish authorities had the con- trol, and when, consequently, the religions differences of these fierce tribes were inflamed by. their partiality, have been hitherto avoided. In the first three years that the works were carried on by the present managers, twenty- two murders or deaths by violence occurred, and on one occasion their own lives were in imminent peril. A regular outbreak took place, which lasted for three weeks, and required three hundred soldiers to quell. " On this occasion the head of the Turkish Bosnian pledged himself to watch the men in fault closely, and come to an arrangement with them on this basis—that they should not be punished on arriving at Con- stantinople, if they would go on board one of the steamers in the bay with a pass from the managers. The difficulty was to persuade these men of the good faith of this promise, as the Turks would only employ such an assurance as a ruse to get them into their power. " In the meanwhile, these worthies, five in number, were living up in the forest, armed with the usual complement of weapons, watching the moun- tain paths between here and Kosloo to murder an obnoxious baker—a Christian Bosnian, who had offended one of them some months previously in a trifling manner. The channel of communication with these ruffians was through their compatriots, who supplied them with food. They had committed some atrocities at Bartin, to the Eastward, and had been looked for' there, and were now on a tour of crime through the country. Barkley Hays that the system of getting rid of all strange idlers, and all men out of employment, as soon as possible, is the only way to be tolerably secure • and that the system of responsibility to headmen is what they are accustomed to : these headmen are virtually elected by the workmen, but he takes care
that they are respectable and have force of character. sr • " I was much amused in riding about to see the way in which the differ- ent classes of men saluted us. With the exception of the Armenians, who are innately servile wretches, the manner of the rest was courteous and deferential, without being mean. On meeting a country Turk, he invari- ably halted, and as we passed, and as soon as we recognized him, salaamed to us after his own fashion : but the way in which the Croats showed their
respect was particularly amusing. • • During the last year, since the influx of Englishmen, Frenchmen, and others, into these out-of-the-way. glens, these men have seen that in greet- ing one another Europeans are in the habit of taking off their hats and bowing. Looking upon this as an evidence of civilization, they have adopted the plan. It was great fun to see these fellows, armed to the teeth, and dressed in their loose parti-coloured clothes, after placing a hand over each ear, with much deliberation remove their huge red turban, and place it, with a low bow, between their knees—indifferent to the fact that the action revealed a partially shaven head, with a long lock of frizzled hair matted on the crown. When their turbans were once off, they never seemed in a hurry to put them on again ; but stood, looking the wildest monsters, with their enormous coverings in their hands, till we hastened to beg them to replace them. They are by far the best workmen on the spot ; and considering they have, with few exceptions, come here to avoid punishment for crimes com- mitted at Constantinople and elsewhere, are sufficiently industrious."
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