The Press. — London, England, 1854-12-16 00:00:00

1180 the nation will still have its duty to perform. A resolute display of patriotic spirit, in which town and country shall alike take part—in which, on the one hand, English aid shall be proffered without stint ; and, on the other, a full determination expressed to allow no fo reign garrison within the four seas—such a moment may at once save us from the threat ened pollution, and possibly lead to the for mation—late, but lasting—of au united na tional party. _ _ FOREIGN ENLISTMENT SCHEME. TuE proposal to enlist foreigners in the English army reminds us how the Revolution Parlia ment refused to entertain the earnest entreaty of King WILLIAM the Timm for permission to retain his Dutch Guards. The very name of them was offensive to the national spirit, and the Legislature would not consent to the Ding's request. It was in vain that the hero of the Protestant cause pleaded the personal services of his troops to himself and to the nation. Parliament was peremptory. We take from its records the following anxious entreaty from W:LLIAM the Tmno. On the lath of March, laag, the Speaker read the following message : WILLIAM REK, Hia Majesty is pleased to let the House know that the necessary preparations are made for transporting the Guards who came with him to England; and that he in tends to scud them away immediately, unless out of consi deration to him the House be disposed to find a way for continuing them longer in his service, which his Majesty woad take very kindly. And how did the House reply to that en treaty ? On a question being proposed, " that " a day be appointed to consider of his " Majesty's message, the question that " that question be now put, and it was decided "in the negative." And afterwards, on the 20th of March, on the motion of Lord Nome's, the House addressed the Throne, assuring King WILLIAM " that it was an unspeakable grief " that anything should be asked to which they " cannot consent without doing violence to that "Constitution your Majesty came over to restore " and preserve." And all the historians who have treated of the subject concur in the pro priety of the course followed by Parliament. It is moat remarkable that the learned editors of Bishop BURNET'S curious history, writing in the last century, have inserted a note, which is highly suggestive at the present hour : " They (the Commons) rightly felt that the Onards of England should be Englishmen, " not only for the sake of the national honour, " but because otherwise it would be a precedent for " the permanent employment of foreign troops, " the most effectual mode of enslaving and " enervating a nation. Rome declined front the " moment that she employed mercenary legions." Aud so must every other power wither, when military glory is sought for vicariously, when national spirit is suffered to languish, an , ' foreign troops are hired to fight battles. THE " TOO LATE" DUKE'S ADMISSIONS. IT is evident that the Duke of NEWCASTLE is becoming painfully conscious that he is not equal to the exigencies of his position. MI England asks—" Is our War Minister capable " of great measures ?" And his Grace, without intending to do so, answers negatively in the House of Peers. On Tuesday his speech was confused in manner, inconclusive in argu ment, and full of fatal admissions against himself. !n many respects it was an acknow ledgment of the charges brought against him, for there was one constantly recurrent phrase, which grated harshly in the ears of his audience, and appears oftener in the parliamentary re port than we have time to count, namely, 6 ‘ Hoe, again, I am about to (ulnae." He did this thing, and he did that, and he was going to do the other ; but, as Lord DERBY told him, it was all " too late." And with the specimens of parliamentary debate to which his Grace THE PRESS. has treated us, we think that his attempt to become an orator is also " too late." On Tuesday, however, the Duke preserved with much effort a decent show of temper; but on Thursday his feelings betrayed them selves. When Lord DERBY followed up Lord ELLENBOROUGH'S vigorous speech by a keen exposure of the shortcomings of our War Minister, the Duke of NEWCASTLE lost 841 self control. He writhed under the infliction of criticism, to which he had neither facts nor eloquence to oppose. He got more tidgetty and fussy than ever, and tried to conceal it under an ill-assumed air of disdain for his assailants. As if it was not enough for him to encounter Lord DERBY, he saw Lord MALYiss. BURY also preparing to address the House. It was positively painful to look at him, and even those most ready to condemn his blunders could not help feeling compassion for his piti ful condition. Several have thought that the Crimea expe dition was a late, and comparatively neat, de sign on the part of the Cabinet. His Grace has undeceived them. He tells us " that it " was determined on from the very first." Then why was there not more foresight into the requisites for such a plan ? Why was there not some anticipation of the wants of the me dical department ? His Grace answers, " Here, again, I am compelled to admit," &c. &c. Again his Grace pleaded, that " with the " exception of Lord HARDINGE, he hud scarcely " any experienced military authority to con " suit." The assertion is offensively absurd. Lord SEATON, Lord STRAFFORD, Lord Goucu, Sir JOSEPH TiLtexwEtt, and other distinguished authorities, were all within his reach. But observe the offensiveness of " except Lord HARDINOE." Such a style resembles his Grace's discourteous allusion to " the present character of the Emperor of the French." Really the Duke of NEWCASTLE should measure his language with a little more care. If he cannot be eloquent, or brilliant, at least he might consider what is due to the decorum of the House of Lords, and to the dignity of her Mtkjesty's We can tolerate a bad speaker if we find that in office he shows himself fertile in re sources, and practically successful in his measures. But insipid and incoherent speeches are bad methods of making people forget the blunders committed, and reluc tantly acknowledge by presumptuous vanity. Nature never intended the Duke of NEWCASTLE for a great Minister, as even a slight know ledge of his Grace might teach the least oh ' servant. His plans are industrious demon strations of his mental defects, while his speeches are reckless exhibitions of his per sonal deficiencies. His Grace will one day awaken to the folly of his ambition, when, like that of his other perceptions, it will be ", too OUR HOSPITALS AT SCUTARI. IT must be gratifying to the public to know that after active hostilities have continued for nearly four months, that after three great battles have been fought, and two months of open trenches have lasted, our enlightened and energetic Government have "expressed an intention "—let that be marked—" have " expressed tin intention of contracting for a supply of " 4,000 beds for the use of those vessels engaged in "the transport of the sick and wounded from Bala "klava to Scutari, and from Scutari to England." Admirable forethought! How grateful ought our soldiers to feel for such delicate care—for we may in far (and we know, in fact) that at this moment the vessels so employed have never been supplied with beds or bedding for the wounded men, who du ring the voyage have had nothing under them but a great-coat, and nothing over them but a blanket. It is the extenuating plea of the present Government that, whatever may have been their faults hitherto in the conduct of the war, their measures ought not to bo criticised in every minute point of detail, but considered more as generally dictated by wisdom and prudence; and that their energetic anxiety to perfect details at present must be admitted as sails iaotory proof of their competence for office. But we would ask what excuse can be found for men who in the first phases of a war neglected the arrange ment of that most simple, yet most necessary, accoin s pan-latent to a campaign, au efficient hospital? What SATURDAT, wisdom or prudence can be found in those general arrangements which, after six months of declared, and four months of actual hostilities, find the great hospital for the thousands of sick and wounded, in a most lamentable state of positive inefficiency ? with neither sufficient medical supplies in use or in store, nor sufficient medical force in practice, with stores, though wanted at one place, sent out to another, and when landed in error never reshipped in earnest, but sent back, case by case, with weeks intervening, in the face of pressing appeals for a speedy transfer, and while the hospitals at Scutari, with 4,000 sick and wounded, are almost without supplies, the sheds at Varna are crowded with cases which have been sent there in mistake ? With such a system were our hos pital Arrangements commenced. Can it be believed that such things now are occurring at Scutari and Varna? Can it be believed, moreover, that our sick and wounded are embarked at Balaklave, on board vessels wholly unsupplied with hammock or out, bed or bedding, without additional supplies of medical stores, or even without additional medical assistance beyond that found in the complement of the ship? Let any man picture to himself the horrors of such a voyage, short though it be, from Balaklava to Scutari. Let him redeet upon the poor heroes, bloody and mangled, wan, suffering, and groaning in agonies of pain, shipped on board the transport, and placed side by side, upon the hard deck, with hun dreds of suffering companions. Let him imignie the horrors of such a scene : uo easy bed here, or soft mattress to rest the racking limbs; no pillow to support the aching head; no nurse to tend or minister to the agonies ur wants of the poor suf ferers ; no wife, no mother here to smooths the clammy brow or soften the approach of Death! Let any man reflect upon this, and ask himself for "the " wisdom or prudence " which is to be found in such gross neglect of wounded men? And what, may we ask, after the voyage is ended, is to be found at Scutari? Acres of lint, and surgeons by the square mile, with mountains of medical stores ? or a hos pital counting but an insufficient and overworked staff of medical men, a wretched system of internal organisation, without medical stores, without linen, without beds, without clothing, without stretcher:, without basins, sponges, operation-tabl s, or the com monest requisites of a hospital establishment, and, if it were not that the medical men supplied their own instruments, it would be without tourniquets or am putation knives. And this is the result 01 till( mouths' wisdom and prudence in the general preparations for a campaign ! It is a fitting adjunct to every other act of those energetic Ministers who prepared a summer campaign against the greatest military power of the world, and counted upon easy conquests and bloodless victories with a handful of men, with out reserves, but with a " Newcastle" on one side, and a Sydney Herbert on the other. But how long is this to last ? How long are oar brave but disabled heroes to be treated in their ship ment from the field upon which they have spilt their best blood with less care than empty coal-sacks. Shovelled on board in heaps, they are stretched upon the bare decks, and left to fever, festering, or death, and filially, if surviving the voyage awl lauding, placed in a hospital where, unsupplied with Mean linen or regular food, they lie iu their stiff and bloody rags as clothing, with foul blankets and more foul sheets as bedding ; and a hospital, too, which, without the private and patriotic aid of humble individuals, would long ere this have been found utterly inadequate to the emergencies of the day, to the wants of the suffering, or to the com monest care of its unhappy inmates. THE WAR DEPARTMENT under the Duke of New castle was removed to Pembroke-house, 7, White hall gardens, during last week. The department will be constituted after the model of the other Secretaries of State. Colonel Munday and Mr. Henry Roberts will be the Under-Secretaries of State. Mr. Roberts will be succeeded as private secretary to the Duke of Newcastle by Mr. Herbert Fisher, assisted by Lord Robert Clinton, who will serve without salary, in consequence of his having a seat in Parliament. The stall of the new department will be made up chiefly from the Colo flied-office, and completed by the addition of two clerks from the office of the Secretary-at-War, and the removal of the whole of the commissariat staff from the Treasury Chambers. A MEDAL will be promptly issued to the troops serving in the Crimea. The medal will be given to all those who have been in any part of the present campaign. A clasp will be added for the Alma, and one for lukermanu. The regiments engaged are to have on their colours and appointments di.; words " Crimea," " Alma," and " Inkermann." THE LORDS OF THE ADMIRALTY have presentedto Captain M'Clure a very handsome gold watch, with a suitable inscription, as a token of their entire ap probation of his conduct during his absence on the perilous enterprise which he has been so fortunate as to carry to a succssfal issue.