The Press. — London, England, 1854-12-23 00:00:00

-~ -- -....-.....,---- mr...-.-- „ .. . ... • 1 ..e..‘.1.a...i. _...i.:11H" .. • . - --------- --_---L---- .. . , . . I .et ..• , , . 0 . . l• 00 . . *egio ' 1 ki ) ,t( - t , . .. f . .... i ', •,. ~~. No. 86.—VoL. 11. LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23,1854. PRICE SIXPENCE. and to save the officers and men from shiver- ments for giving it practical effect. In this case it is avowed that there has been no pre paration, no arrangement. Lord PALMERSTON raised a laugh by his allusion to the folly of putting the cart before the horse. Why, to pass a bill without considering how it is to be carried into effect is exactly to commit this blunder. Credit was given to the Ministry for some plan, some forethought, in introducing this measure, when up starts the Secretary-at- War and says there is no plan, no forethought in it. The Opposition declares that it is most reluctant to sanction a bad principle even for the sake of a certain advantage, and Mr. S. HERBERT replies, " You shall sanction a " bad principle for an uncertain advantage.' The contradictions of the men who sit side by side aro positively amazing. Lord PALMERSTON says that the bill is wanted to afford immediate aid to the army at Sebas topol ; Lord JOHN RUSSELL that it is a measure of preparation for next year; and Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT is not sure that it will afford auy aid at all, though he thinks it may. There are persons distinguished for sound sense and practical ability who care nothing for the constitutional objections to this measure, and who would be ready to approve it, did they think a serviceable body of troops would be forthcoming. Their argument is intelligible. It is the same which formerly, in the mouth of Lord &MOLL called forth the indignant remonstrance of CHATHAM. "We " have a right to avail ourselves, against the " enemy, of all the means which Gon and " Nature place in our hands." They would willingly see a German legion in our pay, but they aro confounded when they hear that the first thing to be done towards forming the corps, is like that celebrated prefatory direction for dressing a hare—" First catch your Ger man." They listen with dismay to the sug gestion that our recruiting officers are to look out for emigrants, whose term of mili tary service in their native country has expired, and who have booked themselves for New York or Quebec. Mr. COBDEN'S description of the German emigration is perfectly correct. Whole communities move together, with their women and children, their clergymen and their doctor. The men are thrifty labourers and mechanics, no doubt, but all are of the most unlikely class to he caught by our recruiting sergeants, or, if caught, to be of the stuff from which good soldiers are mad 4 When enlisted, they must be lodged, and drilled, and formed into regiments. An 4 when this is done, when battalions are formed of the outcasts of every continental State, what, as compared with British troops, will be their value? Is it likely that the unsettled. habits which have brought them to our stan dard will at once give way to the strict disci pline of our army? Without one tie of home, or family, or national feeling, must we not expect them to desert as often as they think they can do so with advantage ? Whoever heard of mercenary troops that were not willing to take service with the State which would pay them best? The Government complain of misrepresen tation when this proposal is treated as one 9f their principal measures for carrying on the war. They forget that they have themselves made it a principal measure ; that they regard it as so essential as to call for their resigna tion if it be rejected. It is merely an aid they say ; one means out of many. They are i willing to avail themselves of every other EEt Vress. ing in rags exposed to the winter blasts of the Euxine, or from perishing through want of shelter and firing. ^ LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, IMI. The speechesfrom the Ministerial bench were little calculated to inspire that confi dence in the wisdom of Government which the House was so urgently pressed to grant. Previous to the address of Mr. SIDNEY Han- BERT on Tuesday, it was supposed that the Government had some scheme settled for raising the force which they introduced this bill to sanction. It was imagined that they had entered into some negotiations with foreign princes for the hire of troops, or at all events that they had some definite plan for raising foreign battalions. No one conceived it possible that the Ministers would, at this crisis, so trifle with the patience of the Legis lature and the greatness of the exigency as to introduce this measure merely as an experi ment—a leap in the dark —which might produce results or might not, might augment the military force of the country, or might leave it exactly where it was. But the Secre tary-at-War, in the heat of debate, with school boy petulance, knocked down in an instant all the safeguards of official reserve maintained by his colleagues. There were a great number of denaturalised foreigners in the world (on the fact of their denaturalisation he laid great stress), and why might not our recruiting sergeants pick up some of them? There were a number of German emigrants who passed through England on their way to the United States and Canada. Might not some of them be persuaded to enter into our service, and go to the Crimea? Possibly troops might be raised from those classes, possibly not. If the Opposition, who asked where these foreign forces were to be got from, would tell him where they could be got from, he should be extremely obliged to them. The bill was an experiment. When the Government obtained it they would see what could be done to give it effect. If it failed, it failed, and there would be no more to be said. By showing that the measure might probably be inefficient, he seemed to consider that he had answered the only objection to it, instead of destroying the only argument which could be urged in its favour. With the tact of an old campaigner in the Parliamentary field, Lord PALMERSTON per ceived the fatal nature of his candid colleague's admissions, and endeavoured to repair them. He sought to replace that veil of mystery over the measure which had just been so rudely torn away, but it was too late. His " good natured bluster" received as usual the cheers of the House, but inspired no conviction. He appealed to the personal feelings of members. Had they relatives or friends in the Crimean army? Would they deny them the Succour this bill was designed to afford? Then on them would rest the responsibility of the con sequences. But precisely because it was by no means certain that this bill would afford any succour at all, and certainly could afford no immediate succour, it washy many members viewed with distrust. What magic is there in an act of Parliament of itself? The Legisla ture might, if it pleased to make itself ridi culous, enact that the Emperor NICHOLAS should come immediately to England, and appear on his knees at the bar of the House of Lords ; but of what avail would be its decree ? A prudent Government, before it introduces a bill to Parliament, makes all necessary arrange- If the Government had wished to disgust the country with the war, they could not have done so more effectually than by introducing the Foreign Enlistment Bill. It is a mani ferto which all the world can understand of weakness and loss. In spite of all that sophistry can urge, it most distinctly pro claims that the British people cannot bear their part in this great war, undertaken to repel the attacks of a barbarous foe upon the rights and liberties of mankind, without the aid of foreign mercenaries. Up to the hour of seven o'clock on Tues day evening the fate of the bill was ex tremely doubtful, but about that time Lord JOHN RUSSELL declared, in his place in the House of Commous, that if the Ministers did not obtain a majority on the second reading they 'resign, and imme diately all those acquainted with the Noble Lord's desire to combine a reputation for dis interestedness and public spirit with the sure possession of office knew that a majority was secured. How many times he has thrown out the same menace—for a menace it is to the throng at his back—and has met with the like response, we cannot pretend to number. The artifice, besides showing, as he conceives, his indifference to office, answers another purpose. It confirms in their allegiance all those waverers on the Ministerial side who are inclined to hesitate between their duty to their constituents and their service to the Government. Reluctant as they may be to offend the former, they have far more weighty reasons for fearing to displease the latter ; and hence, as often as the rod is held over their heads, they submissively kiss it, and obediently walk, or are dragged, from the House to the right of the Speaker's chair. But their voices are free though their votes are fettered, and the sarcastic allusions of Mr. WHITESIDE to that "rising party in the country, which speaks " one way and votes another," and of Mr. DRUMMOND to "the charity there would be in " shielding Government from the censures of ‘‘ their own supporters," showed that the reliance of the Coalition on mercenary support was not confined to foreign enlistment, nor to the vrofession of arms. On many really independent members of • Parliament the menace this time produced the reverse of its intended effect. It is not all who have generally given their support to the Government that are to be classed with the Riches and the Seymours. Mr. M. GIBSON, Mr. PHILLIMORE, Mr. MUNTZ, Mr. DRUMMOND, Mr. COBDEN, and others, saw nothing terrible in this threat. Possibly, they said, some other Ministry might do as well, or better— none could do worse. Possibly some other Minister of War might manage to convey stores to the army they were intended to benefit, to prevent the horses from eating each other, „ , _