The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-16 00:00:00

AUGUST 16, 1856. SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON ON THE TOPICS OF THE DAY. SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON, while On a visit at Seaham ball, delivered an address upon the late war and other topics of the day, on Monday last, in the Me chanics' Institute. Lord Adolphus Vane, M.P., in a brief and appropriate speech, introduces the learned baronet to the assembly. Sir Archibald Alison prefaced his address by ob serving that there were three points out of which he should endeavour to educe lessons of experience from passing events :—First, that the country— and, above all, the middle classes—should be im pressed with the imperative necessity of main tainiug our national armaments on an adequate scale, if we would avoid, not a repetition of our late Crimean disasters, but the advent of disasters infi nitely greater, and perhaps the ultimate and not dis• tint ruin of the empire; secondly, the great and important change taking place from the discovery of the vast gold-mines of California and Australia; and lastly, the effects which those changes would have on smiety. In reference to the first point, Sir Archibald Alison alluded at length to the dangers we bad run during the last twenty years in consequence of the reduction of the national forces. In India, in 1835-6, from our reduction of our Indian army from 250,000 to 150,000 men, we permitted the extension of Russian influence in Northern Asia, brought on the Affghanistan war, costing ten mil lions and 25,000 lives, and rendered the conquest of the Punjatib ultimately so difficult, as the men we had disbanded in '35 entered the Sikh service and then fought against us, that for the time our very rule in India was jeopardised. At the same time our home naval and military forces were in a deplorable state. Sir Charles Adam stated, in his place in Parliament, in 1837, that England had only one frigate and one liner afloat to guard her shores, while at the very time the Russians had thirty, and the French had twenty, ships of the line perfectly ready for sea. At the time of the Syrian war, in 1840, we were twice on the very verge of hostilities with France, and once with France and Russia united, and we had the authority of Lord Hardinge for saying " he could not, if England had been invaded, have got more than 10,000 men toge ther, and only 40 guns, the greater portion of which were so crazy that if they had been put into a clay-field they would have gone to pieces":— At the conclusion of the last war (said the learned baronet) there was no person ventured to show himself upon the hustings to solicit the suffrages of a constituency who did not begin directly by saying that his principles embraced unflinching economy and unsparing reduction in every department of the State. That was the universal cry. No one ventured to gainsay it. The advocates of retrenchment were entirely successful, and they reduced the armaments of the country to the very lowest point. The question was not one of party : I would be the last person to urge anything here which could occasion any division among any of my hearers ; but there are some points of national policy which are not matters of party, but matters important for public salva tion. If there is any one point upon which, I trust, the whole community of Great Britain will be ever united, it is the maintenance of those measures which are necessary to uphold our influence and independence, and to preserve our national freedom. I hope, therefore, the time will never come again when, relying upon the shadow of former victories, England will neglect present preparations. Re member, the best foundation for the continuance of peace is to be prepared for war; and a certain way of inducing war is to g:ve over the preparation of the means by which it is to be resisted. Upon the effect of the gold discoveries upon prices Sir Archibald Alison observed : One consequence of this great discovery is, that the price of all articles of life will be permanently and lastingly raised Attend to this ; you are all concerned in it. People say that prices were raised in consequence of the war with Russia. That had some effect, no doubt, but it was not the great thing. It was the gold of California and Australia that caused the rise of prices. Gold became cheaper in consequence of being more plentiful, and as gold becomes cheaper every article of life will, of course, rise in price— price being measured in gold. Now, that is of the greatest possible benefit to a commercial community, where almost every is dependent upon industry ann commerce, and where the great elemeut of prosperity is a regular and pro gressive rise of prices, for a rise of prices is beneficial to every person —to the highest as well as the lowest. In contrast to this we all know what was the distress of the country during the thirty years of low prices. But what has since taken place? Since that time gold has come more plentifully into circulation, and the price of every. thing has been raised. And what is the consequence ? Do we nut see it in the most unequivocal marks of prosperity, and do not all the public journals boast of the immense increase of our exports and imports, and the greater ease with which we bear increased taxation, raised as it has been from fifty millions to seventy-five millions, and nnder which the country prospers even more than when the taxation was twenty-five millions less ? Therefore I think this great change, arising out of the discovery of the gold regions, is certainly one of the facts upon which the attention of all persons should be continually fixed, and more especially persons in trade, because it evinces the wisdom and bent,. ficence of Providence; for if it had not been for the mines THE PRESS. of California and Australia, the benefits arising from the great discoveries of recent times would have simply aug• mented those distresses under which the country so pain. fully laboured during the quarter of a century before 1850. The learned baronet then touched upon the result of the late war, and pointed out the peculiar provi dential character of its operations : What has been the cause of the success of the allies iu the late war? It was in the " distance " of Russia being turned against herself ; while the sea—the proper basis for our military operations, the proper homefor England—was close to the seat of war. We know what we suffered by seven miles of land transport from Balaklava to the front, but what must the Russians have suffered? They suffered thus:—Out of 20,000 of the Imperial Guard who left Moscow for the Crimea, only 4,0,10 lett Simferopol to fight the allies; 16,000 were destroyed by disease, fatigue, and the other incidents of a long military operation of that description. But there is another illustration which is still more striking than this. If we had gained in the commencement of the Crimean war that decisive success we all at one time hoped for, we should at this moment have been fighting a desperate and a doubtful war. We might have been involved in a war with Russia for the next twenty years. The Russians would have retired into the interior of Southern Russia. We never could have followed them ten miles. The strength of Russia would have been intact, and they would have retired to their deserts unscathed. But in consequence of our not suc ceeding in capturing Sebastopol at once—in consequence of the desperate strife carried on in the trenches for twelve months, Russia, unwilling to lose the brightest gem in her crown, made most stupendous and nnheard•of efforts to protect it. The whole of Southern Europe was rendered desolate to maintain Sebastopol ; and in the efforts to fight at that great distance from her capital Russia lost 400,000 men, and in an empire boasting 75,000,000 popu lation was at last forced to sue fur peace for want of soldiers. Sir Archibald Alison concluded with a strong de precation of the strikes of workmen against masters. Court no jrustan. Her Majesty the Queen, accompanied by the Royal Family at Osborne, embarked on board the Victoria and Albert on Tuesday evening last, and proceeded on a cruise off the west coast, attended by the Fairy and a squadron of four steamers. Her Majesty visited Portland and Dartmouth, and arrived at Ply mouth on Wednesday. During the stay of the royal squadron at Plymouth, her Majesty has made excur sions lip the Tamar, an'i visited the Countess of Mount Edgecumbe. On Friday morning her Majesty and family returned to town by rail. His Excellency the Ambassador of France and the Countess Persigny are expected to return to London on the Ist proximo. Baron Malaret is officiating as Charge d'Affaires in his Excellency's absence. The Duke and Duchess of Richmond and family arrived at Gordon Castle, Fochabers, N. 8., on Friday week. A select party of the noble duke's friends were to meet at the Castle on Tuesday last for grouse shooting. The Duchess of Sutherland, accompanied by Lady Blantyre, and lion. Miss Stuart, and Lord Ronald Leveson Gower, left Stafford house a few days since for Trentham, whence the duchess proceeds to Dun robin Castle. The Duke and Duchess of Bedford arrived in town last week from Endsleigh-cottage, near Tavistock, and left Belgrave-square on Thursday for Woburn abbey. The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland are at present sojourning at Keilder Castle, Northumber land. _ 1 he Earl of Derby i 3 recovering from his severe attack of gout. Viacotuit and Viscounte,ss Palmerston arrived in town on Wednesday from Brocket, hall, Herts. Mr. Disraeli is at present staying at Spa. Miss Florence Nightingale, after her arduous career of hospital service in the East, has arrived safely at her home in Derbyshire. politztal. LORD PALMERSTON is reported to have issued a circular to the parliamentary heads of each State department, requesting them to supply him, in the month of November, with the particulars of all legis lative measures which they are desirous, of being in troduced into Parliament. COLONEL WILLIAM CARTWItIOHT AND LTEVT:COL. JOHN WOODFORD have been appointed inspectors of police establishments under the Constabulary Act of the 19th and 20th of her Majesty, c. 69. Ma. J. T. WHEELER, author of " The Life and Times of Herodotus " and " Analyses of Herodotus and Thucydides," has accepted an appointment in the War.office. LORD TALBOT DE MALARIDE has been selected by her Majesty for a British peerage. The title of Tyr connell has been selected by his lordship as that 775 by which he will hold his seat in the Houseof Peers. An English coronet was bestowed by Lrd Mel bourne's Government upon the uncle of tls present peer, who was created Lord Furnival in )339, but the title became extinct on his decease with'ut male issue in 1849. The name of Lord Talbot ct Mala hide is well known in the literary world as tie Pre sident of the Archeological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He has chosen the title of Tyronnell in virtue of his relation as heir-general to Richard Talbot, created by James 11. Earl, and afterwards Duke, of Tyrconnell, who died in the service )f that monarch while holding the post of Chief Governor of Ireland, and whose only sister married Richard Tal bot, Auditor• General of Ireland before the Revolu tion, from whom the present peer is fourth in direct descent. Since the Revolution of 1688, the earldom of Tyrconnell was conferred on the Carpenter family in DR, but became extinct in the person of the fourth earl in January, 185:1. rttronolitan. THE DRAINAGE QUESTION. THE President of the Metropolitan Board of Works last Tuesday gave the following explanation of the present state of this momentous question : The engineer was of opinion that the plan for southern drainage, if commenced at Putney, with an increased in clination to his sewer, and, at the name time, a lessening of its dimensions, would enable him at Greenwich-marshes to go under the Thames without the necessity for an inverted syphon. An inverted syphon under the Thames had been suggested at various times, and by many persons, with great confidence; but the engineer felt that it was an experiment of so hazardous a character that he would not be justified in making the drainage of one side of the metropolis dependent upon it, for if a deposit should take place in the centre of the inverted syphon, the drainage of one side of the metropolis would be completely arrested, the consequences of which must be fearful. The engineer was therefore of opinion that by the lowering of the sewer, the lessening of its size, and increasing its fall, he might take it under the Thames, and form a junction with the northern drainage at Plaistow-marshes. This would enable him to proceed, as the board might direct, further down the river with the sewage of the metropolis in one line, this line being on the northern side of the Thames, and passing through an agricultural district of some importance so far as the utilisation of the sewage might be concerned ; for the sewage passing through the marshes of Essex would be applicable to agricultural purposes over many thousand acres, down to Mucking creek. The President then pointed out to the boari the opportunity of carrying the sewage of the southern district across the river at Plaistow-meadows, so as to get rid of the pumping-station at Deptford creek, and carry the whole of the sewage down to the sea by a single line : It must be obvious to every member of the board, and it would be difficult to persuade the public otherwise, that reservoirs would be a nuisance, to a certain degree, when ever t:iey were placed ; for you could not cover a very large area of ground with matter from a sewer without gases being evolved, whatever care might be bestowed on the con struction of such reservoirs; therefore, to get rid of them, by being able to discharge at all states of the tide at Mucking creek, or towards Sea Reach, would be an advan tage which he was sure would not fail to be appreciated by every member of the board. Such a plan would be worthy of the board, and do credit to the engineer, and by adopting it the board would get rid of all opposition from the inha bitants of Erith, Gravesend, Greenhithe, and all the towns on the southern side of the Thames ; and, moreo►er, he was satisfied the more the question became one of calcula tion, that 1 they got rid of the pumping -stations, and the cost of the construction of reservoirs and their mainte nance, the additional cost would not be so large but that the board would be prepared to meet it. Mr. Bazalgette'; last report was then referred bark to him for a further report upon the whole question of the northern and southern drainage of the metro polis. Ma. W. F. FERGUSSON has addressed a second latter to the Times this week upon the subject of public works in India. He says : I have no hesitation in repeating the statement I made that, in the present condition of the police, of the courts of justice, and of the tenure of land, it is not practicable to carry oat and execute works in India, such as railways, without the direct and positive support of Government, and in this view I believe I am borne out by almost every one who has been in the country, and connected with undertakings in it. I readily admit that the Government of India has a perfect control over all its civil and military servants, and that iu good intentions it is surpassed or even equalled by scarcely any Government in Europe. It is not with the civil service that difficulties and obstacles arise ; but, as I expressly stated, with the subordinate officials, who, taking advantage of the absence of control, the inevitable consequence of districts frequently contain ing upwards of a million of inhabitants being placed in charge of only one or two European officials (perhaps in• experienced young men), of the ignorance and prejudices of the people, and of the impossibility of redress being obtained without long and tedious proceedings, turn to their own profit every attempt to introduce new works or operations. 1