The Press. — London, England, 1856-07-26 00:00:00

708 THE WEEK. THE coup d'itat in Spain seems thus far to have been completely suc cessful. The Government expected resistance, and matured measures for crushing it the instant it broke forth. In Madrid, the fighting must have been very severe, from the losses sustained by the troops. At Barcelona, the insurgents, after three days' fighting, gave way, and fled into the open country, where they were pursued by the cavalry and sabred. A considerable force was being concentrated against Saragossa ; and as the revolt has been suppressed in other places, and ESPARTERO is reported to be still in Madrid under surveillance of the Government, it is not unlikely that the Captain-General of Arragon may make his submission. The conduct of the French Emperor excites much speculation. An army of observation has been formed on the Spanish frontier, and the belief is current in Paris that the duty will not be confined to simple observation should affairs in Spain take a turn adverse to the general tranquillity of Europe. An important question was raised last night by the speech of Mr. DISZAKLI. To what cause are the legislative failures of the session to be attributed ? Of the measures introduced by the Government, only two of any importance have been carried; and one of those was of so exceptional a character as to be rather a private than a public bill. The Right Honourable Member for Bucks showed that the causes usually alleged for this Legislative failure were insufficient to account for it. The true explanation was to be found in the Ministry being unable to command the confidence of the House. It represented no principle, and could therefore claim the allegiance of no party. As the natural result it was suffered only to get through routine business. While this political chaos subsists, all measures of practical improvement must of necessity be delayed. The orator sketched out the true remedy for the evil, and gave an exposition of Conservative principles which will sink deeply into the mind of the nation. The speech was most remarkable for the calm dignity of its tone, for its statesmanlike principles and practical truths. Two cases of hardship in relation to Lord PANDIIIRE'S administra tion of the War-office are at present before the public. Ths first relates to army surgeons. When in January, 1855, the Government determined to establish a military hospital at Smyrna, a proposition to the medical profession was mode that a year's service should be re warded with six months' additional pay as a gratuity. Before those who accepted this offer had left the country for Smyrna, more liberal terms were proposed. Lord PANMURE wrote that, to meet the case of private practitioners, the salary should be continued for a year after the termination of engagement. In the same letter his Lordship said the terms should be the same as those of the Smyrna Hospital, and as the senior medical officers of this hospital had given up private practice to proceed to the East, they in ferred that they should have a claim to this more ample remunera tion. After nine months the Smyrna Hospital was broken up, and the services of the medical men, who offered to complete the term of their engagement wherever the Government thought proper to employ them, declined. Because the year's service, through no fault of their own, was not completed, they are refused the six months' pay on which they had relied, while surgeons who went out later to Scutari, and are unable to plead the loss of private practice, will re ceive a full year's gratuity ! The justice of the case would surely be better met by au equitable consideration of such claims than an obstinate adherence to the strict letter of the original engagement. The second case relates to the treatment of the Militia captains. Up to the commencement of the present war, captains in the militia were required to possess a property quali fication of 2001. year. On that occasion the Act of Parliament was repealed, and these officers placed on the same footing as subalterns. Now the regiments are disembodied, the Government, while granting a certain gratuity of so many months' pay to the subalterns of the Militia, refuse any compensation to the captains on the ground of their "property q u alification." The condition which Government itself abolished is brought forward as a plea fcr refusing a just claim. In former times a lieutenant in the Militia was required to possess a property qualification. Why, therefore, does not Lord PALMERSTON refuse him his gratuity on the same ground? The same reason would hold good in the ono case as in the other. But Lord PANMURE has too often shown that his administration is independent of reason for his conduct on the present occasion to excite much surprise. Mr. ROEBUCK'S motion for a censure on the conduct of the Under- Secretary for War, though negatived by a considerable majority, very clearly established the one simple fact on which the motion was based e., that a secret inquiry had been instituted into General BEATSON'S conduct upon anonymous information. Mr. PEEL contended that although he did not know from what source the accusation emanated, General VIVIAN, his informant, did. But is this the system on which a Minister is to conduct the business of his department? Is it on this sort of second-hand evidence that charges are to be entertained against & officer involving his reputation and even his life? Mr. PEEL and the War Minister were under the most imperative obligations to ascer tain w'- '-• "hat degree of credit was to be attached to the Wormer kh,. THE PRESS. SATURDAY 1 before giving orders that any furtherinquiry should take place. General BEATSON was privately accused of no less a crime than fomenting a mutiny among his own troops and against his successor in the cotninand. For this alleged offence, that officer is not brought to a Court-martial, or taxed openly with the misconduct imputed to him, but a secret inquiry is set on foot to ascertain, apparently. what would be the chance of his conviction if put upon his trial! Lord PALMERSTON'S argument, that preliminary inquiries were often instituted before courts-martial were granted to ascertain if there were any ground for the latter, did not touch the question. There is nothing anonymous about the information on which such inquiries are based, or, if there be, it is not wholly withheld from the accused. Mr. PEEL'S red tape has not in this instance proved strong enough to support him. And even the off-hand arrogance of the Premier failed to let him down easy. But the most remarkable part of the whole affair is, that the day after the debate in which Lord PALMERSTON entreated tho House "not to interfere pending the result of the inquiry," General BEATSON receives a letter from Mr. PEEL, informing him that Lord PAtimmtE has no intention of carrying the inquiry any further. The fact is at least remarkable, in the face of Lord PALMERSTON entreating the House to wait till the War-office should have satisfied itself of General BRATSON'S innocence. That portion of Mr. VERNON SMITH'S speech upon India which relates to the examination of candidates for the Civil Service will be read with interest by many persons to whom India itself is com paratively an indifferent topic. The number of candidates for the examination of 1856 is exactly half what it was in 1855—this year the numbers being fifty-six, while last year they amounted to as many as 112. Whether the falling off be indicative of a growing want of con fidence in the examination system itself, or merely a kind of protest against the difficulty of the questions proposed last year, we cannot, of course, determine. It is, perhaps, a little of both. We think, how ever, rather too much has been made of the latter objection. Every young man when he goes in for a competitive examination is supposed to be at the highest possible pitch of training. If he cannot answer questions then, when will he ? When a selection is to he made out of a large number of candidates, for posts at once so valuable to the gainer, and of such great import ance in the administration of a vast empire, something more must be required than just the ordinary available knowledge of even a clever and well-educated man. Mr. VERNON SMITH tells us that the questions set last year "alarmed him for his own ignorance." We hardly know whether it would have been any proof in our eyes of the judgment of the examiner if Mr. SMITH bad found himself able to answer them. More than a certain amount of accurate information will not remain in anybody's head after he has relinquished his study for active life. But the advantage of a severe examination is, that it insures a successful candidate having travelled over a wide extent of ground, and having registered certain results in his mind, the evidence for which he can always reproduce with a few days' notice, though not able to give an extempore answer to sudden interrogations. But this is all which education can hope to effect; and if the examination system be intrinsically valuable, we must not permit ourselves to be alarmed too readily by the formidable aspect of the tests. Mr. Dova has been found guilty, but recommended to mercy on account of his defective intellect. Now, we should like to ask the jury in what they consider this defect to have consisted? Because, the intellect of every man who does wrong must he defective some where. Was the defect such as to bring him within either of the two classes whom medical sciences pronounce irresponsible for their actions? Did he reason rightly from fictitious premises, or did he reason absurdly from true premises? Was he, that is to say, the victim of delusions or phantasies on the one hand, or was he simply incapable of going through a reasoning process? There is clearly no proof that he was either the one or the other. Mere ebullitions of violence, unless they can be shown to have arisen from some illusion of the mind, are no argument for the existence of madness. When AJAX glutted his revenge upon sheep and oxen, believing them to bo human beings. lie was of course insane. But when WILLIAM Dovx cuts off a cow's tail, or burns her with vitriol, for the express purpose of watching her agony, there is nothing, strictly speaking, irrational in his conduct. It is monstrous, cruel, and malignant, but not idiotic. It is but the boy's propensity for torturing flies developed to a higher degree. And a man may easily drink himself into that state in which self-control is lost, without the knowledge of right and wrong being destroyed. Whether the frightful prevalence of poisoning cases will have any effect in neutralising the jury's recommendation, we cannot tell. If vicious propensities are to constitute valid grounds for recom mendation to mercy, it would be difficult to maintain the propriety of capital punishment in any case. The Crimean Inquiry Report has at length appeared. The five officers, the animadversions Oh whose conduct gave rise to the Inquiry, are wholly or in great part exonerated from all blame. The exculpation of Lord LucAN is the most complete of the number. In the matter of hutting, it is shown very clearly that the example of the Sappers and Miners, on which the Commissioners relied, was worth nothing, inasmuch as the shelter they provided for their horses was in a comparatively sheltered locality, in a spot where the three walls of a house were still standing, and not on the open plateau. Lord CARDIGAN is exonerated from blame in that, by having sent down horses toßala klava to convey forage, he would so far have weakened his force that their occupation of the post assigned to them would have become a mere farce. Sir RICHARD AIREY and Colonel GORDON, against whom the principal charges related to the issue of winter clothing, come out of the investigation with their characters cleared, it being shown that they made the utmost efforts to supply these articles to the troops as 71