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

Denbighshire Devon Artillery Hereford sth Lancashire 3rd Middlesex -- • • 136 Radnor Rifles If we omit those regiments which onif figure in one of the columns, and add up the numbers of the remainder, we find that in twenty-six regiments 4,833 were reattested, and 6,868 returned home. Of course the recruits since the 12th May are not included. It is worthy of remark that the regiments which have been longest embodied present the 14mallest number of attestations, and the largest average of discharges. The regiments which have been embodied for the shortest time give the contrary result. The inference is that we lose a larger proportion of the must valuable men. Could the loss have been prevented? To a very great extent undoubtedly it could ; by taking proper measures at the proper time. Last spring the Militia was full of enthusiasm. Wo heard of nothing but volunteering for embodiment. At that time, had they been asked to reattest, there would have been no difficulty in obtaining all the best men. The numerical loss is great, but it is not all. The total disorganisation of the regiments is a worse evil. The remaining men are un settled, and many of them discontented. The officers are thoroughly disheartened. The morale of the service is gone. It is a disaster unknown in the previous history of England. LORD CLARENDON. IN the foreign policy of this country there has been for the last two years a most remarkable, and, as some would say, a disgraceful want of energy. England has pursued no distinct course of her own, but followed at the corn mencement the advance of France with an ap pearance of timidity and constraint. Subse quently she resigned herself to the lead of Austria with undisguised deference, even though the views of the Emperor of the FRENCH and of the head of the house of Hapsburg were, in some important particulars, not identical. It is obvious that we have acted on no system, —plain, firm, and decisive. Prolonged vacilla tion and habitual " drifting " have marked our interference in the affairs of Europe. It might be difficult to determine exactly how much of this fluctuating conduct is to be attributed to our ostensible Foreign Minister, the Earl of CLARENDON. It is only fair to pre sume that some of his colleagues in the Cabinet exercised a considerable influence in every step taken upon the Eastern question. The peculiar relations of Lords ABERDEEN and PALMERSTON to each other, and of Lord JOHN RUSSELL to both, must have often seriously embarrassed a politician like Lord CLARENDON, of an excessively nervous temperament, an undecided cast of thought, and delicately situated in his own personal connection with the " Old Whigs," by many of whom the Noble Lord is looked on as a merely professional statesman. At a time when boldness was em phatically required, f is to be regretted that a Minister with more ascendancy of will than could be expected from the dangerously ductile nature of Lord CLARENDON did not preside over the foreign policy of England. _ Seen in society or in the senate, Lord CLA BENDON cannot fail to arrest attention. That tall attenuated form, with the stooped shoul ders, and mingled appearance of feebleness and grace, might of itself suggest an inquiry as to who was that elegant invalid, so frail in body and so fashionable in appearance. The haggard, worn face still retaining the handsome traces of the " Mr. GEORGE VILLIERS" of thirty years ago ; the smile still sweet and winning, even in spite. of a certain insincerity ; the voice in conversation so pleasingly modulated; high bu' itin; tout _tlkepe4sad high but narrow, suggesting acute land that a statesmen of his timid na- native regiments, which would, as regards tne TUE IW•°°e4t.* ithout massiveness—combine to in ture should have at the present time been British army, be most injurious to discipline, „,,,,...._ . itn even prepossess, an observer. The placed in the Foreign-o ffi ce. His Viceroyalty and as regards the native army utterly de- -6 iS , 7N - 7 c iti • look, with its airy and animated of Ireland caused ridiculous delusions about structive of it. An officer accustomed to the ;17:1 1 .1, • Ej . ; " ii,t , , nee suggests the presence of the abilities of Lord CLARENDON. He had lax discipline of the native army would have , : ', 46 1:: !s :: .: ,, .0, en though the rapidly succeeding thirty thousand British soldiers and some everything to learn if transferred as captain 4' - - .. s . ' is ) -•' ' stiun reveals that we were not sixteen thousand police, aided by all the Pro- or major to a European regiment; while if a -AIL - ~C. le 17 ~IS Al , _ . THE PRESS. looking upon a man of real power, and that however interesting in appearance, or accom plished in qualities, the slender personage before us was never meant by nature for one of the rulers of men. Close acquaintance would soon prove that, in spite of his courtly' graces, his skill in modern tongues, and kis undoubted knowledge of political economy the Earl of CLARENDON is not equal to origi hating a policy or deciding great events. In saying this we are far from undervaluing the personal pretensions of our Foreign Minister. He is beyond question a highly intellectual man, and as President of the Board of Trade would probably reach his cul minating point. Beginning life as a Commis sioner of Customs at Dublin, and afterwards Ambassador at Madrid, he has seen the world under various aspects, and learned much of that social actuality on which the condition of countries so much depends. But it is the habit of such minds to distrust the existence of national passions. The mere economist believes that mankind can be manipulated by budgets and tariffs. The pride of dynasties, the traditions of empire, and even the passions born of religious subtleties, are entirely beyond the appreciation of a nature like that of Lord CLARENDON, which can most readily compre hend the tangible and obvious. It is, also, characteristic of such minds that when they are compelled to become diplomatic they exaggerate the parts of astute intriguers. They would govern Little Pedlington with the elaborate statecraft of a Richelieu, and in taking even an ordinary line of conduct they assume an air of profound policy. Much of this weakness is visible in Lord CLARENDON. Artful in petty matters, he is really without adroitness in great exigencies. In every phase of the protracted European crisis of the last two years the Foreign Minis ter of England has been either anticipated, or outmanoeuvred, or dictated to by the Cabinet of the allies. Nor is there any secret in the great capitals of Europe as to the merely secondary course followed by England on the Eastern question. The " Four Points " were decided on by Austria as the expedition to the Crimea was resolved upon by France ; and it is a subject for grave reflection to observe the singular contrast between the differences of tone of Lord CLARENDON in the summer and in the autumn of last year. He stands con demned out of his own mouth. No publicist could characterise his weak line of conduct by a more damning epithet than his own phrase, " drifting," which critically describes 4the course of our Foreign-office under his aus pices. Yet never was there a time when the destinies of Europe, as well as the interests of the British power, more emphatically de manded that the Foreign Minister of England should be a man with a mind of minute vigour, and an intellect equal to the grasp of original ideas. Either on his legs in the House of Peers, or at his desk in his office, there are no traits in Lord CLARENDON of a ruling intellect, no evidences of the qualities that stamp a Minister's character and conduct with the impress of the great. In debate he tries to achieve his object by courtesy to his antagonist, and by the assumption of an air of fascinating frankness to hide his painful ner ♦ousness. Even on the gravest subject he stands up to address the Peers with a simper ing smile, and, with a graceful appeal to Lord DERBY, deprecates any decided hostility. He then tells us in many words what every one knew before, and so highly does he appreciate thoughts that are obvious that he repeats them again and again with complacent smiles. His diction is meagre, his arrangement with out the arts of rhetoric, and even his sentences are without grammar. Pleasing in private conversation, his voice has not the depth for a debater; but the graces of his manner to some extent counteract the hesitation of his delivery. It has been an unfortunate thing for Eng- land tha, )f his timid SATURDAY, testants of Ireland, supported also by the " Old Irelanders," fond of agitation, but afraid of rebellion. With such means Lord CLAREN DON—or rather Mir Tipperary policemen— routed poor Ehirrii O'BRIRN, and buried " Young Ireland " Ih 4 cabbage-garden. Thrones were toppling on the Continent. The BouaaoNs were prostrated, but the House of Brunswick, by means of Lord CLARENDON, forsooth ! and in spite Of SMITH O'BRIEN, stood firm! And political parasites were found to praise Lord CLARENDON as a man of might ! Risum teneatis. Yet his extraordinary blunders in Ireland ought to teach caution to those who suppose Lord CLARENDON to be a man of deep penetra tion. It is a fact beyond dispute that ho selected for the highest posts in the law two barristers whose claims to official elevation were afterwards scouted by the Whigs. Lord CLARENDON made Mr. HATCHELL an Attorney- General, and that Gentleman is now "ad vanced backwards " into a petty commissioner ship. And another appointee fared even worse. Nor can we forget his sinister course towards the Orangemen, or the infatuation of his selecting for a confidential journalist a person whose name can never be dissociated from that of his viceregal patron. In his personal antecedents we see many proofs of the feebleness of conception and the vacillation of purpose that have marked his conduct in the Foreign-office. Assiduous at the desk, acute in his mental organisation, with many agreeable traits of character, lively, various, and shrewd in society, Lord CLAREN DON is incomparably less able in politics than either Lord PALMERSTON or Lord JOHN RUSSELL. There is a shallowness in his character with all its sharpness, and m want of capacity for deep thought in his mind, at once clear but circumscribed. The history of the last two years demonstrates that he has been extrava gantly overrated, a truth that his own party is confessing, when " too late." AMALGAMATION OF THE ROYAL AND INDIAN ARMIES. WE hear a great deal at present of the pro posed amalgamation of the Royal and Indian armies, and no doubt there is much to be said in favour of such a measure, but at the same time there are difficulties in the way of it which are to a certain extent insuperable, and which must ever prevent that entire and com plete union of the services which some journalists appear to contemplate. These difficulties we shall briefly proceed to enume rate, and the result, we think, will bo a con viction that while it is extremely desirable that all the military establishments of the country should be placed directly under the Crown, and the services of all military officers be made available in whatever quarter of the globe they may be found most useful, yet that in practice the great bulk of the Indian army must still be local, and its regimental system remain very much what it is at present. The great mass of the Indian army, it must be remembered, consists of native troops, and can only be officered with effect by men ac quainted with their habits and able to speak their language. The European officers of these troops rise by seniority, and once posted to a regiment are always borne upon its rolls till they become lieutenant-colonels. It is a sine qua non that such officers learn, colloquially at least, the native language; and, being accuE• tomed to deal with natives from the date of their appointments, they are necessarily fami liar with their feelings and habits. Any amalgamation of this part of the Indian army with the Royal service, unless the system of the Royal service were wholly altered, would be obviously impossible: for such amalgama tion must necessarily lead to an unlimited exchange of officers between the British and • - regiments, which would, as regards the t army, be most injurious to discipline, regards the native army utterly de- Fe of it. An officer accustomed to the iscipline of the native army would have everything to learn if transferred as captair 'for to a European regiment; while if a - "IL