The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-07 00:00:00

1084 THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 7,1857. THE WEEK. WE certainly cannot congratulate the present Ministers on any profi ciency in political oratory. They have boasted, indeed, more than once that at the last election they gained a majority with all the orators of Parliament against them, and we have read smart essays in the Ministerial prints mocking at the use of eloquence. The effects likely to follow from the diffusion of Lord GRANVILLE'S unfortunate apology for Lord CANNING may teach some persons that oratory, after all, is of some use. An orator understands the necessity of timing his explanations with caution; he knows that assuming awkwardly a defensive air is the method to make others act offensively, and he is cautious of dealing with accusations to which he can only offer feeble excuses. Lord GRANVILLE knows none of these things, and his speech amply proves that his Lordship is no orator. He is garrulous, not eloquent—loquacious, not convincing. Because he likes to hear him self talk, Lord GRANVILLE fancies that other people possess his own complacency of ears when his tongue begins to play. His Lordship's speech on Wednesday was apologetic towards Lord CANNING and panegyrical towards nearly everybody else. In fact, his Lordship's laudations came down in a shower, as if to be in season with the torrents out of doors. Nobody would censure him for beginning with a panegyric on the Duke of CAMBRIDGE, but his Lordship then dilated enthusiastically on Lord ELGIN ; and his remarks on Lord ELGIN will show people what degree of weight is to be given to Lord GRANVILLE'S words of praise. It scours that Lord ELGIN by denuding himself of his troops " was " deprived of any immediate chalice of that personal distinction which he " had a right to expect that he would win very easily and very rapidly." The idea of winning " distinction " so very " easily " is a novel thought, and the notion explains Lord GRANVILLE'S conception of public fame. Associated prominently with the first Crystal Palace, rd GRANVILLE obtained " very easily " a European notoriety as brilliant, but as brittle and ephemeral, as glass. His Lordship's " distinction" is not associated with toil or difficulty and results of perseverance. Having praised the Duke of CAMBRIDGE and Lord ELGIN, the panegyrical President of the Council then lauded the American Minister; next Mr. COLVIN was exalted for "having shown great " energy and admirable judgment in his administration," although the Noble Earl confessed that Lord CANNING subsequently " repri manded " Mr. COLVIN for the too-celebrated proclamation. General WILsoN and Sir JOHN LAWRENCE next came in for special praise, and then Sir COLIN CAMPBELL received honeyed words. " The cautious "tactics of the old soldier Sir PATRICK GRANT" were illustrated with a comic anecdote, and the peroration of the speech dies out in a con cluding panegyric on Lord ELPHINSTONE. We are only astonished that the King of DELHI and NANA SAHIB did not come in for the courtly effusions of Lord GRANVILLE. The speech was composed of an elaborate special-pleading apology for Lord CANNING, and. a string of panegyrics on the Duke of CAMBRIDGE, the Earl of ELGIN, the American Minister, General WILSON, Sir JOHN LAWRENCE, Sir COLIN CAMPBELL, Mr. COLVIN, and Lord ELPHINSTONE. It was rightly observed, when Lord BYRON published his " English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," that the severe attack on JEFFREY was completely neutralised by the indiscriminate censure heaped on the first authors of the day. So with Lord GRANVILLE'S praise of Lord CANNING. When the Noble Earl holds his words so cheap, what would anybody give for them ? At a joyous feast iu honour of our illustrious Prince the Noble Earl had the rare indiscretion to address his audience on the politics of the time, and he had the bad taste to speak to the assembly as if it were a deliberative one, assembled to weigh the conduct of Lord CANNING. The Noble Lord talked of giving "fair play" to Lord CANNING, and he frankly admitted. that " sometimes the " Governor-Generals conduct was very fairly weighed." But was it " fair play" to the English public for a Minister of State, without anyone to reply to him, to turn the Mansion-house table into a rostrum, and hold forth a prepared speech for the purpose of influencing the public mind ? Was it " fair play "to his own colleagues for Lord GRANVILLE to " make so much" (as Lord PALMERSTON would say) of a City audience as to treat it as if it were a:. assembly of Peers of Parliament, and representatives of the commonalty of the realm? Was it " fair play " to the authorities at the India-house for so maladroit an advocate as Lord GRANVILLE to have thrust himself forward so precipitately, and actually concentrated public opinion on the critical question of Lord CANNING'S capacity for his post? The admissions of this most foolish and clumsy speech are of im portance. Lor d GRANVILLE says that Lord CANNING " did not solicit " the office of Governor-General." Be it so. Then Lord GRANVILLE, by admission, increases the responsibility of the Cabinet in having chosen Lord CI.NNING• On the other hand, Lord GRANVILLE, indis creetly for his purpose, records how Lord CANNING accepted the post " after very mature reflection." Significant words ! As if the Go 'rernor-General had many qualms and hesitations about leaving the General Post office for the Rulership of India. Well, indeed, may Lord GRANVILLE say that no subject of her Majesty had a heavier responsi bility cast on him than Lord CANNING. With such an advocate as Lord GRAN VILLIC, the reputation of the greatest statesman might be endan• gerod. Imagine the indiscretion with which the various charges against Lord CANNING were elaborately pointed, in tins fashior.:—" There is one charge, which appears to me one of the gravest that could be made " against a man in his position, namely, that giving way to a maudlin " sentimentalism, &c." Oh ! admirable orator! Lord CANNING, when he reads this address, may regret that Lord GRANVILLE did nut stick to the Buck Hounds, or content himself with his glass-house celebrity. At talking down a luckless client, we will back his Lordship against any six of the briefless Bar. Yet this is the man who is spoken of as the future Prime Minister of the Liberal Party ! This is the " statesman " who is to supersede that Lord JOHN RUSSELL who toolc Lord GRANVILLE from the Buck Hounds, and put him. in political office ! The Liberals, having sen tenced Lord J. RUSSELL to exile in the back benches, are in great diffi culty for a future Premier when they look to the President of the Council. But, possibly, the Noble Earl has a notion of going out to India himself as Governor-General? Perhaps his Lordship was only oiling the bannisters for Lord CANNING to slide (loofa easily? The notion, however, is too improbable ; yet, if Lord HARROWRY played Mrs. Candour last week towards the Premier, Lord GRANVILLE (tots Lady Sneerwell this towards Lord CANNING with a vengeance. We have lately heard a great deal of the quantity of recruits which have been raised since the commencement of the Indian crisis, but little or nothing of their quality; and this reticence was wise, for when the standard of height was lowered the authorities neglected to pre scribe a certain amount of girth round the chest. It was pointed out to Lord PANMURE at the time, that the consequence of this omission would be that we should obtain all those men who had been recently rejected, ostensibly for being just below the regulation height, but really on account of their sickly appearance. His Lordship, however, considered that with the improved weapons of modern times a short man was just as effective as a tall one in the field, and would not hear of any alteration. This reasoning is doubtless conclusive to his Lord ship's mind, but to our ordinary intellect it presents some difficulty; for it is not at first sight easy to comprehend that because the Enfield rifle weighs one and a half pounds less than Brown Bess, therefore a man of sickly constitution and feeble frame is able to bear the same knapsack, march the same number of miles, and endure the same heat by day and damp by night, as his stalwart comrade. However, Lord PANMURE and the recruiting sergeant sing with BURNS, "A man's a man " for a' that," and so long as the recruit has no actual disease, the doctor and commanding officer aro obliged to acquiesce. The actual number of men who have enlisted during the month of October we believe to be 8,000 ; and we confidently appeal to the heads of the recruiting department to bear us out in the statement that of this number 5,000 are more likely, after they have been three months in the field, to be found in our hospitals than drawn up against an enemy; and indeed we question whether in the history of this country such a miserable batch of men has ever entered the service of the Sovereign. The numbers have, however, greatly fallen off during the past week, and from this it may be inferred that we have obtained almost the whole nf the floating scum of tha population, and now are thrown back upon our old recruiting connection If this he so, we may hope that henceforth we may gain in quality what we lose in quantity. It must also be remembered that it is in hand-to-hand conflicts that the supe riority of the British soldier has been so often proved. Mere weight of body and strength of muscle has many times gained them a victory more than their gallantry, however indisputably it might ho mani fested. Inkermanu is a fair example. But there are many in our mili tary history of a still more decided character. To return, however, to Lord PANMURE. It is but justice to his Lordship to confess that his admirable example has been ably followed by the Court of Directors of the Hon. East India Company. As we announced in our impression of Saturday last, it was finally decided by the Cabinet that the East India Company should be permitted to raise three regiments of light horse between the height of five feet and five feet five for service in India. We can picture to ourselves the raptures of Jacob Omnium on hearing the above intelligence. But "J. 0.," although in some degree acquainted with the proceedings of the War office, was not initiated into the mysteries of Leadenhall-street. He little knew that the proudest boast of the Directors, their single answer to all suggestions of improvement, was—" We follow the lead of the War Department." The order for raising the regiments was issued at the end of October, and what has been the result ? Parturiunt mantes nascetur ridiculus mus. After the lapse of a week, numbers having in the meantime been rejected by the medical officers, some fifty miserable wretches from the streets, some of whom have never been near a horse, have been passed as the nucleus of the three famous regiments of light cavalry. How these giants are to be taught to mount the tall English horse, or to sit astride a cavalry saddle, or to be fitted for the field under a couple of years, has yet to be determined. The only condition required by the Directors to render a man eligible for service is that his height should be five feet something, and nothing more. On the question of the Danubia❑ Principalities depends the stability of the present European system. It is well known that when the late Char of RUSSIA checked the military desires of the E mperor FRAY:IS JOSEPH against Prussia, he pointed to the East as a fair field for his ambition, and the policy thus suggested has ever been main tained by Austria. To the success of that policy the union of the Principalities would be fatal. Between the Rouman and the Mussul- HUM there is no tsympathy. The old government of Turkey in Mol davia and Wallachia was one of brutal tyrauny—one of corruption and