The Press. — London, England, 1855-02-17 00:00:00

FEBRUARY 17, 1855. in those very garrisons, ready on the first emergency to be poure 1 into the Crimea. But the Militia Act fills up these barracks, absorbs a great part of the available accom modation, and prevents useful troops from finding quarters. Troops should with all pos sible speed be sent forward to hold these for tresses, and our only fear is that the accom modation will not be sufficient for their wants. In a few weeks, on the opening of spring, the Czar will be pushing down enormous rein forcements, the whole disposable resources of his empire. It will require a gigantic effort on our part to meet him. No profusion in ob taining men, or economy in employing them, can be too great. THE WAR-OFFICE AND ITS BLUNDERS. IN a previous article we have assigned some reasons why the Committee of Inquiry voted by the House of Commons should be actively prosecuted, and we particularly alluded to the case of the War Department. Let us now in more detail, look into the different branches of that department, and show the use of in quiry to ascertain who were the authors of the disgraceful omissions of absolute requisites in the various branches of " The Sick and Wounded," " Food," " Fuel," Clothing for the Troops," " Transports," "Ammunition." 1. We want to know the reason why the Medical Department was ill-supplied with surgeons, ambulances, and the most common drugs ? In the last week there is authentic evidence to show that at Balaklava there were no specifics for inevitable cases of disease. " We haven't got any," was the stereotyped reply to surgeons asking for anti-choleraic drugs Iv ho are the parties to blame for the absence of ambulances, and for the other in dispensable necessaries wanted in the Medical Department? 2. Who was it that sent the old pensioners, in firm in limb, and drunken in habits, to attend upon and carry wounded British soldiers Give us a committee to know the whole truth there. 3. It was positively denied ex officio that lint was wanted. Yet, when Miss NIGHTINOALZ arrived, that lady found that the charge was not only true, but, after several weeks had elapsed, nothing was done to remedy so horrible a neglect. Is a British people to be told, forsooth, that " nobody" is to be held responsible, and to be punished for such scandalous neglects, and equally shameful perversion of the truth? 4. So long since as the 4th of December it was stated by the Times correspondent :—" The " articles which are arriving to-day by the " Belgravia should have been here long ago." In the same letter Mr. RUSSELL gave many in instances of how the army bad suffered from 1. Want of clothing; 2. Want of fuel ; 3. Want of shelter ;4. Want of FOOD Lord GREY said in the House of Peers that " the absolute ne " eessity of a winter campaign should have " been foreseen." But Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT took credit to himself that in the session of '54 he warned Parliament that Russia would defend its dominions with its old hardihood. Very well ; let us have a committee to discover how the four wants—clothing, fuel, food, and shelter—were grossly neglected by the proper authorities, until the army starved and rotted. 6. Who were the officials that sent out green toffee to soldiers in the Crimea ? Are the parties who committed such outrageous blunders, as sending coffee, in the green berry, to men who had no means for grinding or roasting it—are these parties, we ask, still in the Queen's service 6. The want of transport for baggage, &c., &c., has caused dire evils. Cavalry horses hid to be given up to the Commissariat, and the men toiling in the trenches had to fag after• 151 winner of the " Newdegate" is a Prize Poet. His mind and his office are models of " order," a word which comprises his ideal of adminis tration. it is the triumph and the defence of his " department." When real work has to be done, he " takes order" for it. It its non performance is detected and censured, he vindicates himself by glibly proving that order has been taken. The most notorious and disastrous failures in the result are altogether immaterial in the presence of such a plea. Official precedent has been followed, official routine religiously observed, and who shall blame the department or the functionary? Other departments echo tho defence. From Pembroke-house to head-quarters in the Crimea there are orders everywhere, even though performance can be found nowhere. If Sebastopol could have been taken " by order," the tale of the wandering Tatar would have been true at the time. _ Last session Mr. FREDERICK PEEL delivered one crack speech while defending the Colonial office in re the " Orange River Sovereignty." There could be nothing neater than the array of the documents which he " held in his hand" on that occasion, excepting the arrangement of his arguments ; and these were unanswerable—upon Downing-street consi derations. True, the prestige of England had been forfeited in the Cape colony by an osten sible occupation of territory which was subse quently abandoned. True, the loyalty and prosperity of the frontier population were sub jected to a rude shock. True, that many hun dred families were induced to settle in a dis trict sheltered as they supposed by British protection, afterwards suddenly withdrawn. But notwithstanding all this there could be no flaw discovered in the Under-Secretary's vin dication of his department. Every proceedinf had been undertaken " decently and in order,' according to the strictest proprieties of the bureau. No tradition of the office had been violated, and no despatch strayed into the wrong pigeon-hole. And this is the Minister who, in the crisis of a great war, is appointed to take an important share in the administration of the War Depart ment. He is preferred to Mr. LsvAan—who, we suppose, is deemed too " disorderly "—and supersedes Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT, genteelly dismissed by pzomotion to the Home-office. Taking the appointment as the symbol of the new Ministerial policy, it shows that the re cent shuffle of cyphers on the Treasury bench has produced no change in the ultimate resultant. At a time when the national glory is sacrificed to routine, when our noble army is bound down amidst its want and despair by fetters of red tape, the management of military affairs is in great measure committed to an official to whom routine has become an idiosyncracy—who has been well said to have been born, and not made, a red-tapist ! Among the whole array of coalesced placemen on the Treasury bench, or back bench, it would have been difficult to make a more inappropriate selection. Any one of his colleagues, past, present, or expectant, would have been fitter, under existing circumstances, for the post than the present Under Secretary-at-War. For " Peel's clerks " some useful function might be found in the lower departments of administration, But what can be made of his son ? THE NAVIGATION OF THE GODAVERY. A PUBLIC MEETING was lately held at Man chester on the subject of the navigation of OP Godavery, which we think will be productive of a great amount of public good. It was attended by the Members for Manchester and by many of the principal manufacturers there, and was addressed by Colonel Corms, so well THE PRESS. " to keep down that of the enemy, our ammuni " tion would have been exhausted in six days." Is it not beyond all controversy, that after a fortnight the order was passed to fire each gun only once in an half-hour 9 Could a committee not fix this charge on the official at home guilty of neglect in this extraordinary in stance ? The causes of such errors can be easily in vestigated by a parliamentary committee, and a decision can be come to, without requiring the attendance of parties in the Crimea. Let the correspondence in the War-office be pro duced ; let the late chiefs of the department prove by their official diaries, or other evidence, that they anticipated the inevitable wants of the campaign. And, lastly, if they can clear themselves, we would call on them to indicate plainly who were the wrongdoers ? We insist upon it that the people of England have a right to know from the Duke of NEWCASTLE and Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT who are the officials that have sullied the Queen's service, disgraced their chiefs, neglected their duties, and blackened the public fame of England? It is obvious that all parties cannot be innocent. It is plain to every eye that heinous neglects, and miserable fatuity, have for months been exhi bited in these departments. Complicity with such blundering would be political crimi nality. The truth must be got at. The suffer ings of a starved army demand expiation. An impenetrable veil of secrecy must not be given to imbecility, trifling with starving troops, for the sake of personal ambition. If the chiefs were the real causes of the War office scandals, it must be proclaimed. If their subordinates failed in their duties, let them be degraded and dismissed. The case is bad enough as it stands, but if the Crimean horrors can be perpetuated with impunity, and no officials to suffer for " the " something inexplicable " in such scandals, then England will sink still lower. But, no, the spirit of the country is up ; indignation is aroused from every class, and in every corner of the land. Parties outside and inside Par liament, differing in all things else, are unani mous that the Committee must go on, and it shall not be the fault of the Conservatives in the House of Commons, if the people of England get no redress for the grievous wrongs done to that army of martyrs who have perished for want of aid. MR. FREDERICK PEEL. THE new Under Secretary-at-War is known to the public—as he obtained place and pay — only by his name. Of himself or his per formances the world knows nothing, because there is nothing to be told. His father's son entered Parliament without question, and achieved a well-paid office without capacity. From the cradle he was dedicated to legisla tion and statesmanship ; and has fulfilled his destiny so far as to have become, at thirty-two, an M.P. and a placeman. In neither character has he accomplished aught which would have drawn one moment's regard upon any one who did not bear the name of Peel. The most industrious biographer would find it difficult to fill a page with what he has done. The House has never derived one novel idea or happy thought from what he has said. Yet Mr. FREDERTCH PEEL is far from being a nonentity. In the position to which he has now been hoisted, he is something worse. His official demeanour is marked by many clerkly virtues. Orderly to a fault, and carry ing punctuality almost to a vicious extent, it must be_ equally distressing to his superiors mute to sowtters in the unmea / are me parueu who committed such outrageous blunders, as from what he has said. A PUBLIC MEETING was lately held at Man- sending coffee, in the green berry, to men who Yet Mr. FREDERICK PEEL is far from being cheater on the subject of the navigation of the, had no means for grinding or roasting it—are a nonentity. In the position to which he has these parties, we ask, still in the Queen's service ! now been hoisted, he is something worse. Godavery, which we think will be productive of a great amount of public good. It was 8. The want of transport for baggage, &c., His official demeanour is marked by many &c., has caused dire evils. Cavalry horses clerkly virtues. Orderly to a fault, and carry attended by the Members for Manchester and had to be given up to the Commissariat, and the ing punctuality almost to a vicious extent, it by many of the principal manufacturers there, men toiling in the trenches had to fag after- must be equally distressing to his superiors and was addressed by Colonel Corm, so well wards in carrying guns to the heights. Did to be able to detect in him no failing, or to not Mr. Layard warn the Government that they discover one sign of genu i ne im p ulse. His is known by his book on public works in I ndia. In itself the subject was an interesting o ne, would fi nd no means of transport in Bulgaria ! one of those bloodless tempera ments that are ; Let us have a committee to see how the trans- virtuous by instinct , regular from lack of for there is no doubt of the immense advan- i port service was provided for. originality, and industrious because they can- tages to the cotton-fields and cotton trade 4 7. Lord GRANviLLE boasted of the incredible not create occupation for themselves. He with India that would arise from the opening quantity of ammunition sent out to batter never does anything wrong, nor anything up to our boats and steamers the channel of Sebastopol. Let us have a committee to know original. If the world were a college, . . whether the fact be true (as stated by Mr. and prizes were to be won by good conduct, he LAYARD), that "If we had continued the fire would carry off all its honours; and he may b© part of the meet- this no b l e river. Nor was the discussion less important as eliciting on the " opened the first day, and which barely sufficed even now considered a Prize Minister, as the ing a repudiation of the guarantee priaciple - • • • . - . , ,