Crimean War
the struggle between England, France, and Turkey on the one hand, and Russia on the other, to prevent the undue preponderance of Russia in the E. of Europe, which occurred in 1854 to 1856. The old plans for the extension of Russian power conceived by Catharine II. and Potemkin were resuscitated by Nicholas I., who, believing that he had secured himself from interference on the part of Austria and Prussia, and that an Anglo-French alliance was impossible, prepared to carry them into action. Servia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, and the principalities of the Danube were to become Russian protectorates, and Constantinople was to be provisionally occupied by Russian troops.
The first markedly aggressive step-the demand by Russia for a protectorate over the Greek Church throughout the Turkish empire-brought matters to a crisis. An ultimatum presented by Menschikoff in May, 1853, was rejected by the Porte; the Russians occupied the Danu- CRIMINAL LAW bian principalities; and war was declared by the Porte in October, 1853; by France and England in 1854, and by Sardinia in 1855. A French and English fleet entered the Baltic and captured Bomarsund and one of the Aland Islands, and in the S. the allies landed at Varna, under Lord Raglan and Marshal St.
Arnaud as commanders-in-chief. While the allies were making preparations Prussia and Austria demanded the evacuation of the Danubian principalities, and an evacuation being ordered by Nicholas, "for strategic reasons," the principalities were provisionally occupied by the Austrians. It soon became obvious that the Crimea must be the seat of the war, and 50,000 French and English troops with 6,000 Turks were landed at Eupatoria (September, 1854). Five days later the battle of Alma was won by the allies (Sept. 20), and the march continued toward the E. side of Sebastopol. Soon after St. Arnaud died and was succeeded by Canrobert.
The siege of Sebastopol was begun by a grand attack which proved a failure, and the Russians under Liprandi retaliated by attacking the English at Balaklava (Oct. 25), but were defeated with heavy loss. It was at this battle that the famous, but useless, charge was made by the Light Brigade. A second attack at Inkermann was again repulsed by the allies, but the siege works made slow progress during the winter, in which the ill-supplied troops suffered great privations. The death of Nicholas and succession of Alexander II., in March, 1855, brought no change of policy. Canrobert resigned in favor of Pélissier; and shortly after an unsuccessful attack on those parts of the fortifications known as the Malakhoff and Redan Lord Raglan died, and was succeeded by Simpson. The bombardment was continued, and in September the French successfully stormed the Malakhoff, the simultaneous attack on the Redan by the British proving a failure. The Russians, however, then withdrew from the city to the N. forts and the allies took possession. The chief subsequent event was the capture of Kars in Asia, by the Russians after a splendid defense by by the Turks under General Williams. By this time, however, the allies had practical possession of the Crimea, and overtures of peace were gladly accepted. A treaty was accordcapture CRIMINOLOGY have rested on a principle of private vengeance, and to have taken shape in the lex talionis, the law of retaliation formulated in the familiar passage in Exodus which lays down as a fit punishment an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The severity of this doctrine was mitigated when the right of personal vengeance was satisfied by a money payment, a custom which can be traced in the early laws of the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, and which is particularly characteristic of early Teutonic systems of penal law. According to these a family is made pecuniarily responsible for the offenses of its members, or accepts a fine as a compensation for the life of a lost kinsman. When a man was killed, a part of this fine was paid to the king or head of the community to compensate the clan's loss of a fighting member; and in the distinction established between injuries done to the individual and injuries done to the community, the foundation of a system of criminal law was laid. The sovereign power in a community or state took up the wrongs of private persons and exercised a right of public vengeance. Legislation upon this principle had for its object the intimidation of the wrongdoer, and was specially characterized by the great variety and severity of its punishments. It was not until the 18th century tury that a more enlightened jurisprudence prevailed. Beccaria's work, "On Crimes and Punishments," published in 1764, has exercised a strong influence on criminal legislation by urging the claims of criminals to humane consideration, and examining the basis in morals upon which criminal law rests. The modern view gains ground that crime is to be looked upon as a disease of the social body, and that the remedy is to be looked for rather in improved education and social well-being than in a repressive system of arbitrary punishments. The criminal law of a particular state is the body of legal rules affecting the commission and prosecution of crimes.