The Press. — London, England, 1854-12-30 00:00:00

I DECEMBER 30, 1854. dred and thirty-six European officers, and three corps of sappers and miners attached to them. There are three regiments of artillery, (having six hundred and forty-three European officers in all,) composed of seventeen Eu ropean troops and six native troops of horse artillery, and forty-eight European companies and thirty-six native companies of foot artil lery. There are nine European infantry regi ments, one hundred and fifty-five native infantry regiments, and twenty-one native cavalry regiments of the line, besides forty-two irregular cavalry regiments and sixty-one irregular infantry regiments, with a propor tion of artillery attached. These irregular regiments are less completely officered than the regulars, but in all other respects they are as serviceable as corresponding regiments of the line ; and in addition to all these there are police and peons in India to the extent of between three and four hundred thousand men, many of whom are now armed and trained for local purposes, and all of whom might be embodied if necessary, being quite capable of performing every duty for which militia or local troops can be required. To suppose that out of so vast a force as this, the European commissioned officers of which number five thousand five hundred gentlemen, the Indian Government should be unable to raise and equip an efficient army for service in Turkey is to suppose that India under Lord DALHOUSIE is unable to do:what India could do under Lord WELLESLEY. when we neither pos sessed half the revenues, nor the armies, nor the means of transport which we possess at pre sent, and when, in addition, we were at war with several powerful native States—States which have long since been subdued and have passed away. Indeed, it is merely requisite to cast one's eye over the stations at which the several regiments of her Majesty's troops are located to see how many of them might with perfect safety be withdrawn. The 12th Lancers at Bungalore, the 10th Hussars at Poona, the 26th Foot at Cananore, the 43rd at Madras and Bungalore, the 84th at Belgaum, the 78th and 86th at Poona, the 83rd at Dura, with the regiments which the 36th, the 27th, and 74th have been sent to relieve, might all be made available, at any rate, till the recruits now in England were sufficiently advanced to be sent to fill up the gaps thus created. Of the Company's forces five troops of European horse artillery and five batteries of European foot artillery might be very well spared ; and, if volunteers were called for from the native army, nearly all the Mahometan and not a few of the Hindoo, Sepoys (if it were thought advisable to take the latter) would be found willing to go, while officers, arms, and money might be sent to equip a contingent of cavalry and infantry to be raised in Turkey, and which might be fixed at thirty thousand men. The high pay given to our native troops on foreign service, when compared with the miserable pittance which the Turkish Government allows, would not fail to attract to our ranks numbers of excellent men. We might thus take, in round numbers, from India about fourteen thousand European and thirty thousand native troops, including a due proportion of artillery and of sappers and engineers and irregular horse; and we might take officers and arms for a contingent of thirty thousand men to be raised in Turkey, giving in the whole an army of about seventy-five thousand men. The objections that we have heard raised to this plan, as far as regards native troops and a contingent, are, first, that an attempt has been already made to form in Turkey such a contin gent, and that it has failed. To this we have merely to reply that all that has been done as yet was to send out two or three Indian officers to try and organise the Bashi-Bazouks—a set of plun derers by profession—but these officers were left without the first element of success, being unrecognised by the Commander of the Forces, and without any money for the payment of their men. Had it been otherwise, there could be no doubt that, if sent in sufficient numbers, they would have been as successful in Turkey as other Indian officers were in organising a contingent in Persia in the year 1834. The other objection was urged by a general officer, who quoted his Indian experience as a voucher for what he said ; but has Indian experience THE PRESS. was limited to commanding a brigade and a division at Poona, where he had no better opportunity of judging of the matter than if he had been living all the time in England. Ac• cording to this officer, native troops would be physically incapable of standing the fatigues of a Turkish campaign. If he means by this that native troops would be unab'e to stand the hardships which under the Duke of NEW• CASTLE'S War Ministry are inflicted on our Eng lish troops in the Crimea, we must at once admit the statement to be true, for English troops themselves cannot stand them, and when men are sent to rot away, as our army appears to be rotting, the least robust will rot off first of course. But by that rule English troops would not be fit for service in England either, for we defy any human being to survive if, similarly half starved and houseless, and tent less, and fireless, and shoeless, and nearly naked, they are made to go through the work our men have to go through daily in the Crimea. But to say that Indian troops could not stand campaigning, whether in Turkey or the Crimea, if only fairly dealt with, is to state what all experience disproves. There were many natives of India among the irregulars of the Turkish army on the Danube ; the French have an African Sepoy corps in the Crimea at present ; and Indian troops have done their duty excellently in kffghanistan, which in winter has a climate very much colder than that of the Crimea. NEGLECTS IN DOMESTIC LEGISLATION. Tun silence of Ministers on their intentions in domestic legislation would seem to intimate that we are to have no measures from the Cabinet. Government will try and escape from the difficulty of preparing well-consi dered bills, by casting upon the war the cen sure due to their own internal discord and infirmity of purpose. Several practical ques tions, however, of great importance are ripe for an early solution, if the powers of perform. ance were only equal to ;he extravagant pre tensions of our Ministers. It cannot be said that all the Cabinet are necessarily engaged upon military affairs, As the Peelites have undertaken the entire manage ment of the War Department, the Whig por tion of the Cabinet might attempt to originate and carry some measures on the general prin ciples of which the country has long made up its mind. Never was there a time with less acerbity between Churchmen and Dissenters, and after all that has been said and written it is evident that the church-rates question could easily be settled Nor need measures on popular education be at a stand-still be• cause the country is at war. During the Ministries of Mr. Prrr and Lord LIVERPOOL a variety of social questions, including poor laws, criminal law, Indian and colonial subjects, and Roman Catholic affairs, obtained the immediate and vigorous attention of the Legislature. To be sure, such giant natures as those of the Duke of ARGYLL and Sir WIL LIAM MOLESWORTH did not then rule the public counsels, yet people managed to get on with out them, and to conduct the 'mightiest war of ages without relinquishing attention to the domestic wants of the time. In the Queen's Speech a few days since there was no social measure of any kind men tioned, and the Cabinet thought it said enough in alluding to " other matters of great interest " and importance, which will not be neglected ;" but we know what the promises of the Coali tion are worth, and we cannot accept such mere verbiage in place of a satisfactory enu meration of what bills (if any) will be brought before Parliament in the adjourned session. Of course it would be too ridiculous to suppose that the illustrious BENJAMIN HALL'S pro mised sanitary schemes are intended by what his Ministerial patrons call " other matters " in their slip-slop style. We distrust Sir BENJAMIN'S capacity as a sanitary reformer, though there are certain phases of the Mary lebone mind which he may faithfully represent. On providing mopsticks for pew-openers, orga nising the beadles, supervising street crossings, and painting the lamp-posts with a fresh coat of Coalition whitey-brown—on such vast affairs 1235 Sir BENJAMIN may shine as a Lycurgus. He has yet to learn that a place amongst legislators is very different from one in the Government, and that to flaunt as au official is not exactly the same as to figure as an authority. Ten years of mediocrity may make a parochial notoriety ; but after half a century of little ness a small man's career may be as distant as ever from Parliamentary power. The country, also, will not be satisfied until it decisively learns what Mr. GLADSTONE is thinking about. What are the "other matters " which engage the Right Honourable Gentle• inan's attention? The whole subject of war taxation, in all its varieties, must necessarily be forced on the consideration of Parliament, and the legislative changes of recent years, along with their operations on the Money Market, cannot be overlooked by the Minister, who is to find finances for the campaign. Nor must it be forgotten that the landlord and tenant question in Ireland has hitherto been uncared for by the Cabinet, though if Lord DERBY'S Ministry had remained in power it would have been settled. The whole Minis. terial staff at Dublin Castle is Peelite, but neither Lord Sr. GERMANS, nor Sir JOHN YOUNG, nor the Irish law officers appear to care about the tenur3 of land, which has been so long debated. And of law reform what hopes? Of tho legal changes, eagerly demanded by influ ential portions of the commercial classes, we are to hear nothing from Downing-street but the stereotyped reply, "at this important " crisis, when all eyes aro turned towards &c., " &c." But people can look to tho Cabinet as well as to the Crimea, and they have sufficient clearness of vision to perceive that "more head" is certainly wanted amongst red-tapists at home, whatever be the case amongst our red coats abroad. The only practical measure which we 11l mentioned as yet is one in reference to newspaper stamp, which it is supposed Mr. GrtAnsroxx will so far abolish as to render its adoption for postage purposes purely optional. THE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. LORD Jost; RUSSELL'S rashness has become proverbial, but certainly it was never more conspicuous than during the late debates. His colleagues' laudation of the Militia Bill of Lord DERRY'S Government must have painfully brought to his remembrance his factious attempts to defeat that wise mea• sure by raising a democratic clamour against it ; yet he ventured to taunt the leaders of the Opposition with factiousness of pur pose, and to insinuate in ambiguous lan guage that they were wanting in patriotism. In recklessly taking that line, he exposed himself to a crushing reply, and he must surely still remember the overwhelming force of Mr. DISRAELI'S rejoinder to him on a memo rable occasion last session. " The Noble Lord " seams to think that no one can feel for the " glory of England unless he mouthes a 'Asti " tnde on Magna Charta, speaks an epitaph "on Lord SOMERS, and steal 3 an aphorism " from the eternal 'Mr. Burke.'" If such a delusion were merely an amiable weakness on the part of the Noble Lord, we should laugh at it, and forget it as fast as his speeches, but at times it assumes the form of invidious acerbity, and taunting disparagement of others. Since he has succumbed to the Peelites, and destroyed " the Whig party," of which he fancied himself the incarnation, his Lordship's tone has gradually become more sour. After having, as Mr. D ISRAELI told him last ses sion, " long kept his party in power by putting "big country into difficulties,' he has now lost authority, and placed himself and his party in a difficulty which becomes more serious every day. The oracle of Brookes's derives its in spiration from Argyll-house. The follower of CHARLES JAMES Fox, and hereditary leader of the Bedford Whigs, consents to be the ally of the lifelong apologist for the Absolutists of Europe ! No wonder, truly, that his temper is not serene. liimm•