There seems at home to be a considerable ignorance of the locality of our engagements, and of the regiments engaged in them, for we read frequently of mistakes which could not be made if the facts were known, such as a soldier of the 79th being wounded at Inkermann, or a sergeant of the 30th being present at Alma and BulaJdaiHi. The complaints respecting the indiscriminate profusion with which clasps have been given are very general, and by no means unjust. As to the Crimean medal. It merely means that " the wearer has been in the Crimea," perhaps only for a few days, during which he never left Balaklava. There are Instances of officers, &c., nmning up from Constantinople expressly for the purpose of putting in claims — v.-hlch have been allowed — for the medal.
Every one has it; and I have seen " Alma," " Inkermann," " Balaklava," and " Sebastopol" clasps on breasts which I knew to be as safe from shot and shell on those days, and during the siege, as if they had been displaying white waistcoats (are there such things in the world now?) to the coryphees of the opera — always excepting Alma, where there was, to be sure, a little danger and excitement for everybody. There Is a very general feeling indeed that some specific decoration should be given for service in the trenches. Let some limit be fixed, and let every man, it is " said," who has served during the time, have some distmctlve decoration, if it be only a bit of tin or a tenpenny nail.
It is promised that something of the kind will be done; and we hear rumours of an Order of Merit of Victoria, or of some other name; but these delays create dissatisfaction. It is to he hoped that if an Order of Merit be establislied, it will bear the name of the Queen in whose reign it was instituted, and with the signification of whose royal prcenomen it would so thoroughly harmonize. There is a strong desire that bronze crosses should be prepared bearing inscriptions relating to the number of bombardments, so that each man.should bear a distinctive mark of the amount of trench-duty he has done. When Kenealy, one of the privates of the 41st, who entered the Eedan with Major-General Windham, was asked whether he would have the 5Z. or a decoration, he replied lie would much sooner have the latter; and this feeling is shared by all good soldiers: whereas, the notion with the home authorities seems to be, that money is more Avelcome to them than anything else.
December 14. The frost continues, and the thermometer marks 20° this morning; but there is a clear line sky and a bright sun above. The mud is now a rigid furrowed lake, with iron waves cast up by old cart-tracks and horses' hoofs, and the roads are crowded and blocked up by the vast numbers of fourgons, carts, horses, and pack animals so suddenly forced upon them. General Vinoy, who has been raised to the rank of General of Division for the all-important services he rendered at the capture of the Malakhoff, is also going to France to-morrow. Between this gallant officer, so well known to the English army as General of the First Brigade of Bosquet's Division, which was encamped for a long time on the heights near Balaklava, and those English generals who have been brought into contact with him, there exists a marked good will and esteem; and Sir Colin Campbell, for one, will not forget the alacrity with which he turned out his men to support the reconnaissance of February 20th, after the intention had been abandoned at the French head-quarters, in consequence of the snow-storm.
We also owe to him the road between Kadikoi and the lower ridge of the Col, past the cavalry camp, called Vinoy's-road, which was of such service to us last winter. For knowledge of his profession, inflexibility of purpose, coolness, and daring, there are few officers who surpass General Vinoy. He is yet in the full vigour of life, being barely fifty years old, and if the war lasts, he is likely to play a distinguished part in it.