The Press. — London, England, 1855-04-14 00:00:00

bore testimony to the efficiency of the Militia :—" In the last war," he said, "we had 1 "in service several regiments of English " Militia, and they were in as high a state of " discipline and as fit for service as any men " I ever saw in my life." The numerical strength of the force was continually aug mented, until in the last six years of the war it numbered 450,000 men. Of these 90,000 were regular Militia, permanently embodied and liable to service in any part of the United Kingdom ; and 360,000 were local Militia, em bodied for limited periods, and not serving beyond the limits of the neighbouring coun ties. Nor was this vast establishment too large. It was only sufficient to afford the requisite re lief to the regular troops, and to furnish the necessary number of volunteers for the army on active service. But the results were immense. From 1799 to 1815 the Militia gave no less than 150,000 volunteers to the Line, and thus mainly contributed to the success of the war. A few years after the peace the Militia Acts were suspended. Many attempts were made for their revival, but always without success. At last came the apprehension of French inva sion. In March, 1852, Lord JOHN RUSSELL proposed to reconstitute the local Militia. He was opposed by Lord PALMERSTON, who righty gave the preference to the regular Militia. Lord JOHN was defeated, and Lord DERBY as sumed the reins of Government. The first act of the new Ministry was to organise the regular Militia. They did not alter its con stitution further than to suspend for a time the operation of the ballot. The act of 1852 merely carried into execution the act of 1802, and regulated the quota of men to be raised, and the number of days of annual training. It contains no enactment respecting embodiment. Until the act of last May the liability to em bodiment was settled entirely by the 111th section of the act of 1802. It is important to mark the circumstances and the state of public feeling which led to the act of 1852, as Lord PALMERSTON can only excuse himself for not having earlier em bodied the Militia, and given it permanence, by alleging the limited scope of the law under which the men were enlisted. In his speech of the 26th of last month he endeavours to throw on Lord DERBY'S Administration the responsibility of that delay and mismanage ment which properly attach only to himself by alleging that the act made no provision for offensive warfare. Of course it did not. The country and the Legislature demanded the old constitutional force of the Militia as a safeguard against invasion, and against that only. No other danger was contemplated at the time Parliament would have objected to any extension of the old terms of service, and, having not the remotest anticipation of such a war as that in which we are engaged, it would have felt the strongest repugnance to the formation of an army of reserve under the name of a militia. This is perfectly evident from the debates in Parliament upon the act. They were of great length, and on one point there was remarkable unanimity of opinion among the speakers—that the only contingency to be discussed was the danger of invasion, and that the sole purpose of organisint , the Militia was to guard against that danger. A Minister who should then have spoken of the Militia to aid in waging offensive war against a distant Power, and above all against Russia, would have been regarded as insane, and would instantly have seen a majority arrayed against him. The Militia Act of 1852 provided against what seemed the danger of that day; and the charge against Lord PALMERSTON is, that when the circum stances altered, and the military force of the country required to be organised, not to repel invasion, but to carry on war in a distant ter ritory, he delayed to take necessary steps for placing the Militia on a different footing, and thus lost the opportunity of rendering it really serviceable to the country when the pressure for troops became urgent. It is vain for Lord PALMERSTON to allege that the act of 1852 gave him no power to embody the Militia. It was his duty to have demanded such power as soon as the war appeared pro bable, and still more when it was known to be inevitable, and when it became a fact. That THE PRESS. time and opportunity were afforded him will be evident from a recapitulation of leading facts. In December, 1852, Lord PALMERSTON ac cepted the seals of the Home-office and the management of the Militia. In a very short time he must have become acquainted with the designs which the Emperor of Russre. disclosed to Sir HAMILTON SEYMOUR. More than other man, he must have been aware of the deep significance of the proposals, and the danger which threatened Europe. The horizon darkened apace. On the 3rd of May, 1853, Prince MENSCHIKOFF gave in his ultimatum. On the 4th of June the British fleet was ordered to Besika Bay. On the 2nd of July the Russian armies entered the Principalities. On the 27th of September the Porte declared war against Russia. On the 4th of November oc curred the battle of Oltenitza, and on the 30th the massacre of Sinope. On the Bth of Febru ary, 1854, the Russian Ambassador left London. What was the effect of all these warnings ? They were lost on Lord PALMERSTON. Even the declaration of war could not rouse him from his apathy. It was not till May that he discovered that the powers of embodiment in the Act of 1802 did not apply to the present war, and that it was necessary to extend the conditions of militia service. The act should have been amended long before. Warnings had been given by the Conserva tive party. On the 6th of February, 1854, Lord PALMERSTON was interrogated by Mr. BAILLIE and Colonel DUNNE respecting the Scotch and Irish militias. He announced his intention of bringing iu bills for their organi sation, but would say nothing respecting the period of their enrolment. On the 2nd of /starch, 1854, Lord ELLENBOROUOII made a motion respecting the Militia, pointed out the deficiency in the number enrolled, and en treated the Government to take measures for their embodiment. Lord ABERDEEN replied that the number of men raised surpassed ex pectation, and that there was no present in tention of permanently embodying the force. What was the use of the Home Secretary— the Militia Minister—unless he exercised fore sight over the force committed to his charge, and introduced the changes in its constitution which were necessary to adapt it to the altered circumstances of the nation ? How little at tention Lord PALMERSTON paid to the Militia may be gathered from his own statement. In his speech of the 26th ultimo he stated We embodied a certain number of regiments as soon as war broke out ; and how did we embody them ? Not by any power which the bill gave us, but by voluntary offers of these regiments which, with no power to compel them to serve, gallantly and voluntarily tendered their services in aid of the national efforts to carry on the war in which the country was engaged. In all sixteen regiments were embodied at a time when we had no power to compel them to serve, and when the bill of the right hon. gentleman op- posite had given us no power of ordering them to be embodied. Well, we then brought in a bill to enable the Crown to embody the Militia in time of war, and when that power was given to us we proceeded to embody a number of other regiments. _ What, in opposition to this extraordinary statement, are the facts? The new Militia Bill of which Lord PALMERSTON speaks was passed on the 12th of May 1854. The following statement of the periods when militia regi ments were embodied is made up from the best authorities : MAY 13 TO MAT 81, Mt Six Regiments :- Ist Stafbrd Royal Bucks Royal Wiltshire. JUNE. Essex Rifles 3rd West York Royal Monmouth Four Regiments :- 9nl West York South Devon East Kent Ist Somerset. JULY. Three Regiments : liampsliire Bedfordshire tat Lancashire. AUGUST. Four Regiments :- 4th Middlesex Cambridge. SEPTEMBER. One Regiment :-2nd Somerset. OCTORER.—None. Total—Eighteen Regiments in six months. Northampton South Lincoln Not one regiment was embodied before the passing of the new bill. These plain facts show how little Loid PALMERSTON can know of the embodiment which ha ought to have su• SATURDAY, perintended ; how ignorant he must be of the most important transactions of his depart ment; and how little attention he could have paid to the duties for which he was respon sible. We have a right, in the words of Sir JAMES GRAHAM, to know the reason 1. Why the regiments were embodied so slowly, six in May, four in June, three in July, four in August, and one in September? No extensive embodiment took place until the end of November. Why was it so long delayed ? 2. Why the militia regiments were not recruited to their full strength during the spring and summer? It was well known that they were below their complement. In May and June their numbers were thinned by volunteering into the Line; and the embodied regiments sustained a serious diminution from the number of married men whom they were obliged to discharge. Yet Lord PALMERSTON made no move, and it was not until the beginning of the winter that he gave permission to send out recruiting par ties. The neglect has probably cost us 10,000 men. And as the majority of these would have been enlisted after the 12th of May, there would have been no defect in their obligation to serve. 3. Why the act of last December was carried out so feebly ? Parliament was called toge ther at an unusual time, and with extra ordinary haste, in order to pass two bills of urgent importance, of which this was one. It received the Royal assent on the 23rd of De cember. Two months elapsed before a single regiment was sent out. In the third month three regiments were despatched ; the Ist Lancashire, the Wiltshire, and the Ist Stafford Three more, the Northampton, the 2nd West York, and the East Kent, are to sail during the present month. Several other regiments had volunteered and had completed their complements, but their attestation was un necessarily delayed. At last Lord PANMURE'S circular came down, and the men demanded to return home. The regiments are unable to go out. Great delay will be caused in the relief of the Line regiments in the Mediterra nean garrisons, which were to have been sent on at once to the Crimea. The country is now paying the penalty of Lord PALMERSTON'S neglect; and, as a commentary on his oft repeated declaration to use all possible means for the vigorous prosecution of the war, we see the only force thrown into confusion on which w• could rely for reinforcing our army abroad, and for doing garrison duty at home. OVERLAND MAIL. The following has been received from Trieste by telegraph, in anticipation of the overland mail The India mail left Alexandria on the 6th inst., with intelligence from Calcutta to the 10th ; Madras, 14th; Bombay, 18th March. Mr. Lawrence has gone to Peshawur to negotiate a treaty with Dost Mahomed. Lord Dalhousie was at the Nielgherries. The reorganisation of the mili- tary departments is complete, and the system works admirably. All usury laws throughout India have been abolished. The natives are petitioning the Council for an act to prevent polygamy. Trade in India is dull. There is no intelligence from China. Paris letters of yesterday's date mention a rummy that there is to be another levy of 100,000 men in France, and that from 60,000 to 80,000 troops will be placed at the disposal of Austria, should war be the issue of the Conferences of Vienna. It is also said that a modification in the military operations is shortly to be announced, which may necessitate a removal of a considerable portion of the army from before Sebastopol. Already people are beginning to talk of strongly fortifying Bala klava and Kamisch with from 12,000 to 15,000 men each, supported by the squadrons, and transferring the mass of the army to some part of the southern provinces of Russia. They may either proceed to the attack of Odessa, or with the Imperial Guard and the Sardinian contingent enter Bessarabia. Advices from Constantinople state that the Otto man Government has determined that in future all Christians may have rank in the Turkish army up to that of colonel inclusively. An accident to the electric telegraph between Duna• burg and St. Petersburg, has added forty eight hours to the time necessary for transmitting the briefest communication from the Russian capital to Vienna.