The Press. — London, England, 1855-01-27 00:00:00

:- - • 04 . No. 91.—VoL. LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1855. PRICE SIXPENCE. Ot rtss. and the restrictive orders imposed on our naval commanders. The object has always been not to impair the power of Russia, but to avoid a final rupture with her. Hence the continued admission of her produce, the sparing of Odessa, and the refusal to blockade the ports of the Black Sea, neglects to which Russia owes at this moment her power to maintain the contest in the Crimea. LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 18.54. THE explanation of Lord JOHN RUSSELL last night must tend to raise his character in the estimation of his friends and the country. Disapproving of the constitution and conduct of the Cabinet, he has taken the only course open to him, and withdrawn from an Adminis tration which he conscientiously believed was not equal to the exigencies of the public ser vice. We learn from his own lips that he has for some time past been dissatisfied with the feeble conduct of the war, that he was opposed to the appointment of the Duke of NEWCASTLE as War Minister, and that he has frequently remonstrated against that deplorable mis management which has proved so fatal to our army. Satisfied from personal knowledge of the grave errors committed, ho could not resist Mr. Roxancx's motion for inquiry. He was unable to affirm that there had been that vigour and vigilance at the head of the War Department which were imperatively demanded at the present time. Holding these views, he had no alternative but to resign. Lord ABER DEEN loses a troublesome colleague, and the country the only Minister in whose resolution and manliness it had the slightest confidence. It is impossible to view his retirement in any other light than as a protest against the inefficiency of his colleagues. They were per fectly satisfied with existing arrangements, and content to let things remain as they were. The War Administration worked admirably in their eyes. If there is now to be any shifting of places, any transfer of the Duke of NEW CASTLE to this department, and of Lord PALMERS TON to that, it will only be because Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S exposure has rendered some change inevitable. But that change cannot be for the better while the constitution of the Cabinet remains essentially unaltered. It must, in deed, be for the worse, as, in losing Lord JOHN RUSSELL, it loses the only man who, it now appears, consistently and strenuously urged the more vigorous prosecution of the war. The great necessity of the country at this hour is a War Cabinet, constituted with the single purpose of prosecuting hostilities with energy, of repairing past errors, of saving the remnant of our army, of sustaining the repu tation of our arms, and of grappling with our foe till he confesses himself vanquished, and sues for peace on terms which will effectually save Europe from his further aggressions. The greatest calamity which could now befal the world would be an accommodation which would leave Russia unchastised, and England humiliated by a sense of unretrieved disaster. No terms can be satisfactory which do not pluck from Russia her fang. We would cheer fully leave her a first-rate Power for all pur poses of social and industrial advancement, but not a first-rate Power to assail the tran quillity of other nations. The practical question before the Com mons is, whether it will longer leave the con duct of the war in hands which have so grossly mismanaged it ? If confidence is really felt in the Administration, all discus sion and all inquiry must needs be useless. But before a decision be pronounced in its favour there is this point to be considered— that the practical effect of such vote would be to secure the ascendancy of Lord ABERDEEN in the Cabinet. What his present views may be we do not pretend to know, but his predilections are notorious, and it would be mere idiocy to expect that he will ever engage in the contest against Russia with the spirit which the country requires. The retirement of the President of the Council is a proof of the skill with which the chief of the Coalition is playing his subtle game. As the head of a party Lord JOHN RUSSELL was to be conciliated ; he was offered a principal share in the Government, and he was treated with some consideration until his friends and followers were detached from him. That object accomplished, his resignation is received with secret pleasure ; the Govern ment organs combine to sneer him down ; and he finds to his cost that the sacrifice of his party has been the prelude to the sacrifice of himself. The Coalition, by its unscrupulous arts, has obtained so large a numerical following in the Legislature that it may possibly be able to escape a vote which would expel it from office. But the country will not be thus satisfied. It has remained quiet so long under the im pression that the Legislature truly reflected its sentiments. Should it be undeceived, we believe and hope that it will make its voice heard, and carry its prayers to the foot of the Throne. The vice of the present Cabinet lies deeper than in the distribution of its offices. It is systematically feeble. It committed the great error of entering into the war reluctantly, even when it acknowledged the war to be in evitable. To this cause may all the disasters of the Crimea campaign be traced. Prepara tions were tardily made, and when hostilities began it was hoped that each week of warfare would be the last. How could it be expected that a Ministry would in autumn provide its army with the necessities of winter, when it daily expected some terms of pacification from Vienna? To this hope, and to the delay it engendered, our troops have been sacrificed as effectually as if they had been delivered unarmed into the hands of the enemy, though unhappily their death has been more linger ingly painful than if they had fallen by Rus sian lead or steel. To this same clause may be traced the dilatoriness of all our departments THE CAPITAL CHARGES AGAINST THE CABINET. WHEN the glory of an ancient country is at stake, and the fate of its only army is trembling in the balance, it becomes the duty of every public writer to look closely to the grounds upon which he impeaches an Administration of fail ing in its duty. Fully sensible of the gravity of the task, and thoroughly penetrated with the solemnity of the present crisis, we shall proceed to state four capital charges against the existing Cabinet, which no audacity can gainsay, and no ingenuity refute. 1. In proving the truth of the first serious charge against the Cabinet, we have the unin tentional assistance of the War Minister him self. The Duke of NEWCASTLE boastfully confessed in the House of Peers " that " from the first the Government had resolved "on the expedition to the Crimea." The fact is beyond dispute, and out of it arises the question, pregnant with the greatest import, " How happens it that Ministers did not im " mediately embody the Militia ?" The reserve for a British army can be procured only from the Militia, and let our readers mark the criminal neglect of the Ministry. Oh the 6th of February, 1854, Lord PALMERSTOPt told the House of Commons that the Militia would be organised in Scotland and Ireland. Febru ary closed, and time was pressing. On the 28th of March war was declared, and the month closed without the least hint of preparations for embodying a reserve. April passed away, and still no measures were taken ; and it was not until Midsummer that Parliament was asked for the necessary powers. Yet the Ministers, if they had the least reflection, must have known that every spare man would be wanted. For as the line regiments were transported to the East, their places in Ireland had to be filled by the English Militia. The country, therefore, would be left defenceless; and yet with this fact before them they never until the last moment took means for raising the Militia either in Scotland or Ireland. In fact, they never took thought upon a reserve at all, or upon the absolute necessity of con• stantly adding to the army in the field. And upon this grave charge it is worth remarking that, if Ministers had calculated upon the necessity of a reserve, they might, by proper organisation, have disciplined and officered a formidable auxiliary force of Turks of a far superior kind to those which the Sultan sent to the Crimea. We know what invaluable assistance was found in the Portu guese, when Field-Marshal BERESFORD reduced them into discipline ; and the exploits of the Turks, when well trained and led, shows what they might be made. But, as the necessity of " a reserve" never entered into the heads of the Ministry, so it is not.to be wondered at that they overlooked the valuable aid which, with forethought, they might have procured from a British organisation of Turkish troops. 2. Entering upon the war in this reckless fashion, they then committed a second grave error, for which it is obvious that they alone, and not the military authorities, must be held entirely accountable. The responsibility of the original resolution to invade the Crimea was clearly Ministerial, and not military. The Duke of NEWCASTLE has confessed as much, and it is upon the Cabinet that must rest the weight of having had no proper know ledge of the prodigious resources of Sebastopol. The ignorance of the Government upon this point seems to have been wonderful. They had various resources at their command for obtaining ample information upon the strength of Sebastopol. France had no extensive com merce with the Black Sea ; and, with the aid of our diplomatic body throughout Europe, aided by our mercantile and consular sources, and