The Press. — London, England, 1854-07-22 00:00:00

678 it was from such convictions on the part of the Government that his noble friend had been appointed to the new depart ment. With regard to the vote which would be asked from the House of Commons that night, he begged honour able gentlemen not to suppose that the only thing done or to be done was the appointment of a new War Minister. The appointment was to be followed by certain arrange ments and consolidations which had been long ago recom mended by various authorities ; but those arrange innts e an cdourse consol of a idationsfew days.ld cou not be carried out th They must be the work of time; and, although they had been recommended by two parliamentary committees, Lord Grey and Lord Melbourne, who in their time gave the subject much con sideration, found the difficulties so considerable that they abstained from undertaking it. The Government, how ever, had already prepared the outline of a scheme for this purpose, which he should probably explain to the house that night; but he might say then, that one part of it was that the commissariat, which was now entirely directed from the Treasury, should hereafter be placed under the Minister of War. Then there was the department of the Ordnance. The Ordnance Department had had a great many duties added to it within the last few years; and he was aware that great difficulties had arisen in it from the want of central power upon many important matters. He referred especially to the erection of barracks and other military buildings in this country and in Ireland, but espe cially in the colonies. It was, in many cases, owing to the want of central authority, doubtful whether a certain ex penditure for a given purpose should or should not be un dertaken ; and, after the subject had been dismissed in one department, it was handed over to another, which in its turn referred it to a third, which referred it back to one of the others, because there was really no proper authority which could decide these things. It was therefore ex tremely likely that great errors of judgment had been committed. The Government, however, hoped to be able to make arrangements for next year which would put these matters upon a more complete footing, and by which the action would be uniform. Passing on from the War Ministry to the war itself, Lord John Russell said there was nothing known certainly as to the ultimate resolution of Prussia and Sweden, but that Lord Clarendon had told him that the answer which Russia was likely to make to the demands recently made upon her by the Ger man powers must be one of these three--either a negative, or an affirmative, or an evasive answer. He need not say that there was great probability that the evasive form was the one which would be adopted. He might further state that it was the opinion of his noble friend, Lord Clarendon, that, if the answer from Russia was not satisfactory, there could be no doubt whatever that Austria would at once go with the maritime powers. The noble lord then said that the events of war were uncertain. This being a great struggle with one of the first military powers of Europe, it would necessarily involve this country in a very great and very serious expenditure; and he should be obliged to give notice, on the part of the Government, that in the course of the next week he should apply to the House of Commons for a very considerable sum. The Government, of course, must trust to the house placing confidence in them with respect to this necessity. He did not for a moment mean to imply that no other Government was possible but the present. He did not know what combinations might be formed. He did not know whether Lord Derby and his friends, or any other persons, might be able to form a Go vernment. But so long as himself and his colleagues con stituted the Government, and had upon them the respon sibility of the war, of course they must appeal to the House of Commons for its generous confidence and support, for no Government which had not the support and confidence of the House of Commons could hope to carry on a great contest like the present to that successful issue which every person in the country most anxiously desired to see." Lord John Russell's speech elicited considerable cheering from his supporters present, who neverthe less seized the opportunity of taking him to task upon sundry points of policy. Mr. Venivoti SMITII dwelt upon the conduct of the Government with regard to the admission of dissenters to the University of Oxford. Their proceedings on this question, he thought, were as damaging to their character and position as anything could be in the eyes both of the house and of the country. He added that those persons who wished for the establishment of a War Ministry were quite as anxious to have a particular man to be at the head of it. They were just as anxious to have the depart ment created as to appoint a particular individual to it. That individual was his noble friend Lord Palmerston. He ( Mr. V. smith) was not disposed to find fault with the Duke of Newcastle. He merely expressed the opinion of those who had asked for the new department to be estab lished. But he thought the office of Secretary-at-War ought to be done away with, and he hoped the noble lord would not allow any regret, at having to discharge what might be a painful duty, to deter him from taking that step at the earliest practicable period. Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT came to the rescue of his assailed functions. He had given a great deal of labour to the duties of the office which he had now the honour to hold. He had twice held the office of Secretary-at-War ; and, without presumption, might venture to say that he was pretty well acquainted with all its duties. When the changes now under discussion were first spoken of, he placed himself unreservedly in the hands of Lord Aber deen, being perfectly willing to submit to anything, or to do anything that might be considered best for the interests of the country. No personal feelings of his own ever should, he stated to his noble friend, hinder him from ac ceding to any step that might appear wise to be taken in the interests of the country. The office he held was now one of reduced dignity, and he, might, for that reason, have given it up without reproach ; but he believed he THE PRESS. was best consulting the interests of the country under present circumstances by the course he had taken of re maining in it ; but he assured honourable gentlemen that no personal object, no personal ambition should ever for one moment stand in the way of an y rearrangement these offices that could be made for the benefit of the service and the advantage of the country. (Cheers.) Mr. HORSMAN broke new ground, with the pre liminary remark that they had met there, not to exchange compliments, but to do business, in which " plain speaking " was not to be found fault with He then referred to the religious questions continually coming before the house in one shape or other ; and said this subject was one upon which it was evident the Govern ment were not agreed in their policy, and that they differed largely in respect to it from a very important class of their supporters. He afterwards adverted to the fact that many objections were taken by their own supporters to Lord Aberdeen ; and, without expressing his own opinion on the subject, he must say that a large number of Lord John Russell's usual friends were of opinion that, under the circumstances of war, it was unfortunate that Lord Aber deen should be in the situation of Prime Minister. They could not, from Lord Aberdeen's well-known views, antici pate that the war would be carried on in a manner con sistent with the power and dignity of this country so long as the noble earl held the chief place in the Government. He also said that it was the opinion of another consider able section of Lord John Russell's party that the noble lord, in taking a subordinate office under Lord Aberdeen, had rather let his party down—that in so doing he had scarcely consulted either their position or their interests. Mr. HUME was more clement and hopeful, but still dissatisfied He approved of the position of Lord Aberdeen in the Government, and was very glad to see the manner in which the Peelite party had joined the old Liberal party. It said a great deal for their patriotism, while it gave them a great deal of strength with the country. He told Lord John Russell, however, in plain terms that when he went against three-fourths or more of his own party, as he had on some occasions, and found himself in the same lobby as those who were called his opponents, he might be quite certain he was wrong, and that he was taking the most effectual course possible to break up and destroy the Liberal party. There were, further, many little matters of concession, things proper in themselves to be done, which the Liberal party could not get either the Government or Lord John Russell to consent to do. He would certainly give the Government what supporthe could in the course they were taking with respect to the war, and he would consent to vote them all the supplies they might deem necessary ; but he must urge upon them the absolute necessity of their keeping more at one with their supporters. If they were a liberal Government they ought to act in these respects more in a liberal spirit. Mr. BRIGHT, who seemed very doubtful of his right to be present at all in the character of a Ministerial supporter, yet, having been invited to come, felt justified in offering a "few observations," all of which related to points whereon he believed that the Government were sluggish, faithless, and divided : Alluding to the actual position of the Government, he thought a great part of its evils arose from its constitution. They had overthrown Lord Derby's Government, and es tablished one of opposite politics, while they offered office to several members of that Administration. They never decided upon any policy which they ought to pursue ; and he could not understand how the differences which neces sarily arose in consequence could be called misapprehen sions. The speech of Lord Palmerston upon the ballot and Lord John's speech on church rates were not only not difficult to be understood, but it was impossible to misun derstand them. The two noble lords might be quite right, and their supporters quite wrong; but they differed entirely from many of their supporters. He further complained of the course of the Government with respect to the adver tisement duty and the newspaper stamp, and said that, unless they consulted their supporters, they could not expect their supporters to consider their convenience. No Government could exist which disregarded the wishes of its supporters. He would not go into the question of the noble lord the member for Tiverton being the new Minister of War, for that was a question rather for the House of Commons than a meeting like the present. He then referred to the war; and hoped Lord John would be able to tell the house what the war was for, and upon what terms peace would be accepted. If Turkey was cleared of the Russians, and certain treaty guarantees agreed to, would the war be brought to an end? If it were to be carried on with a view to the dismemberment of Russia, no man could foresee the end of it, or the calamity in which it would involve both this country and all Europe. As to Lord Aberdeen, he had, for his part, great confidence in the noble earl ; and was extremely sorry to see the bitter and malignant attacks which were made upon him without justification. Lord D. STUART strongly eulogised the merits of Lord Palmerston, and said that the noble lord ought to have been the new War Minister. Mr. LAYARD expressed some apprehensions with regard to the conduct of Austria. Mr. V. Scl:T.Ly opened on the question of tenant right, but the meeting rapidly melted away, and Lord John broke up the conference. Lord Palmerston watched through the whole proceedings in silence. THE BALANCES IN THE EXCHEQUER on the sth inst. amounted to 1,008,0871. On the sth of July, 1853, they were 5,112,6391. • 1111••••••••iww•m SATURDAY I Sortign 10 Colonial 4uttllignut. FRANCE. The Emperor, who returned to Paris from Calais late in the night of yesterday (Friday) week, left St. Cloud in company with the Empress on Wednesday for Biarritz, in the Pyrenees. The Emperor will return in about a fortnight probably, and afterwards proceed to the north, to take the command of the camp near Boulogne. The Empress will not revisit Paris until the fetes of the " St. Napoleon" in August. Various announcements of interest have appeared in the Moniteur. The blockade of Cronstadt and the Russian ports in the Baltic is stated to have been established ; that of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azoff ports is to commence at a date to be hereafter notified. By imperial decree a Council of Prizes is established in Paris with duties analogous to those of the British admiralty courts. Another decree grants an extraordinary credit of 55,405,000 E to the Minister of Marine, for the purpose of in creasing the naval armaments of France. The budget of this Minister for 1854 is thus raised to 174,286,000 f, which is, however, only 16,000,000 E more than 1847. The Moniteur has also published the official ap pointment of General Baraguay d'Hilliers to the command of the expeditionary division of the Baltic, General Niel to the command of the engineers, and Generals d'Hugues and Grisy to command brigades of infantry. General Count de Schramm replaces General Baraguay d'Hilliers in the command of the Ist corps d'arnthe of the camp of the north ; ana Generals de Liniers and de Gerandon replace Gene rals d'Hugues and Gresy. An article published in Wednesday's Constitv - tionnel has removed all fear of any intervention n Spain by the French Government , This pntdel_t abstention is generally approved of in Paris. The harvest has commenced in the Drome. The wheat is in the finest condition, and abundant; the vines promise a large crop, and the walnut.trees are loaded with fruit. The Union du Var states that the oldest farmer does not remember the crops to have been finer than the y are at Cannes and at Draguignan. The harvest is forward near Arles. At Marseilles the crop of wheat hen been most satisfactory. At Aix the wheat harvest has commenced, and the general opinion is that the produce will be very considerable. In Gascony the crops ail.l turn out excellent. The Memorial de t'aucluse gives similar favourable accounts of the crops in that quarter. The produce of fruit will also be more abundant than has ever been remembered : all the trees are bending beneath the weight. The vines also look remarkably fine and healthy. Terrible thunderstorms have, however, com mitted serious injury in some localities. The Gazette de Lyon announces that on the 12th inst. the whole of the country round that city was visited by a terrible storm, which in five minutes utterly destroyed the most splendid crop. The corn was so much battered down that it wilt not even yield litter for the cattle; the vines were stripped of their leaves, the clover and lucerne literally beaten to a pulp, the fruit had fallen, very large trees were torn up by the roots. The disaster was complete, and the hope of any harvest annihilated. The same paper says that at Vaise and other places enormous hailstones fell which did great damage. AIM GERMANY. The Austrian Correspondence says that as repress the present phase of the Oriental question, and tl e answer brought by Prince Gortschakoff, the demands of Austria and Prussia are but imperfectly satisfied; but there are some materials which might possilly serve as the basis for peace negotiations. These ale left to the decision of the Western powers. Upon receipt of their answer, Austria, acting upon her con vention with Prussia and with Turkey, and upon a. cordial understanding with the Western powers, will take all the measures requisite for the re-establish ment of the balance of power in Europe, and of the integrity of Turkey, and of general peace upon a safe basis. Colonel Manteuffel arrived in Vienna from Berlin on Tuesday, for the purpose of enforcing the vies* of the Prussian Government respecting the tree y between itself and the Government of Austria. TI e Prussian Cabinet is satisfied with the advances made by the Czar as a beginning, and intimates that the aid stipulated for in the treaty would not be due from Prussia should Austria now enter into hostiL_ ties with Russia. The Emperor of Austria, it is stated, will soon leave Vienna to inspect his armies. All the Austrian reserves are to be called out and made mobile. /so orders had been transmitted for the forces to enter Wallachia up to Wednesday last. The Servian Government has given perfectly satis factory assurances to the Vienna Cabinet. Count Buol de Schauenstein gave a dinner on tie 13th in Vienna. Among the guests were Print e Gortschakoff, the Russian Minister; M. de Fontor, a Russian Councillor of State ; and other womb , in of the Russian Legation. No diplomatists of other States were present. Letters from Baden state that the Pope has .ael dressed to the Baden Government a protest against any interference with the ecclesiastical immtuuty to 3