The Press. — London, England, 1857-12-05 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 5,1857. sending out the troops in steamers instead of sailing vessels, did not Lord PANMURE and Sir CHARLES WOOD solemnly assure us, with all that modest confidence peculiar to both Ministers, that the notion was not to be entertained, for the season of the year was peculiarly favourable to sailing ships, and that there was no reason to doubt that the sailing ships despatched would make quicker passages than any steamer ? To be sure, the facts have been all the other way, but that is nothing to either Lord PANMURE or Sir CHARLES WOOD. But the point we wish to insist upon is, that there never was any material obstacle to the despatch by screw-steamers of the greater, and certainly the earlier, por tion of the army of relief. The screw is a mere auxiliary power in what are called " screw-steamers." The ship, in fair and leading winds, is as clever under canvas as any clipper, and it is only in foul winds and calms that she applies her steam power. It would be in structive if we could discover what number of these screw steamers despatched with troops have called at any of the usual coaling stations between Spithead and Point de Galle, and what were the supplies of coal at those stations. This would test the validity of the excuse offered for not despatching more troops by steamers—viz , that there was not sufficient coal at the different stations to meet that extra de mand the adoption of such a plan would have imposed. When Lord JOHN RUSSELL on Thursday entered the House of Commons, great surprise was felt by many observers on the Noble Lord's taking his place below the gangway, and sitting in close proximity with some devoted adherents to the memory of the late Sir ROBERT PEEL. Not for the first time the question was raised—" What " could Lord JOHN mean by his new move." His long-continued absence from Brookes's Club gave piquancy to the inquiry, for the visits of the Noble Member for London to one of his favourite haunts in days of yore have, during the last two or three years, become in their rarity at least like the appearances of angels, " few and far be tween." But curiosity was set at rest by the Noble Lord's shortly moving up to his recent place towards the back of Lord PALMERSTON— " that dreary solitude of the back benches," so pathetically alluded to by Mr. RkLPH OSBORNE in his speech at Dover. The Noble Lord, however, has a good literary excuse for his never appearing at Brookes's, and for the difficulty of finding out his address in London since he has given up his residence in Chesham-place. He is actually writing a life of CHARLES JAMES Fox, and that is the main work which now engages his attention. He feels that having sadly mismanaged the first Reform Bill, the country is not likely to repose much confi dence in a second attempt from him. He must do something; he must at least ring the changes on his old text of " the great Whig party," and he will be retrospectively profound in celebrating the gloi ies of one of the chiefs of his connection. That the Noble Lord is actually writing the life of Fox there can be no doubt; and after the nay that the late Lord HOLLAND, and Mr. ALLEN, and Lord JOHN RUSSELL himself, have mangled the correspondence of Fox, it shows good feelings on the part of the Noble Member for London to attempt doing some justice to the fame of Fox. It is announced that Earl GREY is writing a history of Reform, but we cannot vouch for that fact; yet it would be a strange coincidence if two of the recent chiefs of the Liberals had, either in disgust or despair, ceased to seek fai Parliamentary leadership, and applied themselves to the labours of the biographer and the historian. A correspondent from Bristol writes that considerable discon tent exists in the neighbouring barracks, at Storfield, among the newly-raised battalion of the Militaty Train, in consequence of the men composing it (250 in number) never having receiv ed any clothing from the War office, although enlisted in June last. It is understoo d that the commandant of the corps, Colonel 111‘Muano (sou in-law to the late General Sir CHARLES NAPIER), has made repeated representations to the authorities of the state in which his men have been left. But, be that as it may, it is certain that the only clothing they have had since their enlistment is the shell-jacket and pair of overalls, paid for by the stoppages from their pay. As Parliament is now sitting, we trust that means will be taken to discover the cause of this disgraceful neglect on the part of the War Department. The decision pronounced in the Court of Chancery yesterday morning on the subject of marriage with a deceased wife's sister seems, at all events, consistent with common sense, whatever objections may hereafter be raised to its technical validity. Marriage, and the forms by which marriage is solemised, aro two totally different things. When two persons not within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity are united in holy matrimony according to Christian rites which are esteemed valid by those among whom the dwell, though not the same as those celebrated by the Church, the law has, we think, exercised a wise discretion in electing to accept such a ceremony as a binding contract. But when the parties to the cohabitation are not such as either the Scriptures or the Church nor the Civil Power permit to be united in wedlock, it is clear that we can take no cognisance of their case. They are ipso facto out of court. We are stopped in Igraine. It is useless to inquire whether persons are lawfully married when, ou the face of the inquiry, we per ceive that they never could be so. 1181 Lord GRANVILLE, in replying to Lord DERBY on Thursday night, took occasion to correct Lord DERBY'S apprehensions ad regaaded our foreign relations that, on the question of the Danubian Principalities, the European Powers were notagreed in their policy. Lord GRANVILLE said that the question of the Principalities had no real reference to the point at issue ; and then the Noble Lord, with an air of egre gious self-eatisfaction, endeavoured to sustain his position by congra tulating the House that " if France and England united together" he had no doubt " all the European Powers" would concur, and the ques tion would be arranged. Why, this " if" is the very obstacle Lord DERBY feared, and rightly feared, did exist. We do not need to be told that " if England and France unite together" the Danubian ques tion will be satisfactorily settled. Lord GRANVILLE, iu delivering him self of this truism, had no reason to congratulate the House upon the fact, for his very words implied the distrust of Government that any satisfactory solution would be resolved on, and justified the apprehen sions of Lord DERBY that none had been arrived at. We know not what was the origin of that popular phrase, " The Queen's English," or to what extent an analogy between that and the " Queen'a picture" may he conceived to exist. It is clear, however, that it does not extend to the Vreservation of the former from mal treatment and deformation. Few persons can have read that choice specimen of composition with which the world was favoured on Thurs day last, in the shape of a Royal Speech, without having reflected that it was adding insult to injury to compel our Sovereign Lady the Queen to read it with her own lips. Honourable Members of Mr. COBDEN'S way of thinking would for once have found the benefit of an acquaintance with THUCYDIDES while endeavouring to puzzle out the grammar of our Gracious Monarch. The style of that voluminous writer hears no small resemblance to the fourth and fifth paragraphs of her Majesty's Speech. But her Majesty could hardly have had the same motive for complexity of language which is said to have actuated the Greek historian—namely, a wish to disguise her meaning; and what, therefore, could be the object of those clumsy and involved sen tences, we cannot comprehend. The English Government is not very favourable to the patronage of literature. Bu t public opinion will in sist on the appointment of a Composition Minister if this slipshod and inelegant style become the fashion of Government documents. One great point in the Indian intelligence brought by the last mail is the utter want of transport for the expected troops, and the complete disorganisation of the country through which these troops will have to pass before they reach the great field of battle, Oude. There is literally no transport for the army. Mr. DISRAELI truly said on Thursday night that the transport of the army depended upon the Parcels Delivery Company of Calcutta. The following paragraph, from a Bombay paper, shows the method in which the army is being moved up country : Her Majesty's 23rd Foot, at present in Calcutta, are to be sent up country in daily batches by bullock•train. The first batch has left. At first sight this looks effective, but what is the " bullock-train," and what is a " batch"? The bullock-train consists exactly of a service of bullocks stationed along the Trunk-road for the transport of up country goods by waggon on certain days of the week. Like the suburban carriers about London, these carts leave the metropolis loaded with goods, and in peaceable times they traverse the country from Calcutta to Lahore. We can estimate very fairly, then, the sort of transport at the disposal of the Calcutta Government at the present moment, if we suppose the Horse Guards authorities in times of great public disorder desirous of transporting to Birmingham 30,000 men ren dezvoused in London, despatching these men ten or twenty at a time in the carrier carts drawn by oxen. The Calcutta carts can carry about five men and their baggage at a time. We will suppose—and it will he a great stretch of imagination—that ten carts a-day go out of Cal cutta with fifty men : it is a simple question in one of the first rules in arithmetic to ascertain how many days will elapse before the 30,000 men will he moved from Calcutta. Given 30,000 men with so many carts, each holding so many men, and a wide margin for stoppages. But why not transport the troops by river to Allahabad ? Simply because five months do not give suffi cielit time to the Calcutta Council or the Calcutta ship masters to construct rafts or small steamers. Captain PEEL, it is true, made in two days a raft which took him to Alls.habad ; but Captain PEEL is notunder the influence of the Council. Then, again, the Ganges is falling, sandbanks appearing and shifting, and the river navigation is becoming difficult and dangerous, besides the few vessels, two steamers and a raft, at the disposal of Sir COLIN CAMPBELL are required for the transport of stores, so that the army has no choice but to go in " batches" by bullock-train or to march. As for the supply of stores in Calcutta we have reason to believe that there is scarely a round of Minie amunition in Calcutta; there are no carriages for the field guns, very few horses, and no harness. Upon the whale, then, we must not he too hasty to accept. the Ministerial assurances that troops are "pouring up the country." They are doing no such thing. A good part of the army is yet " knocking about " in tho Bay of Bengal, we may Idepend upon it ; and that portion which has arrived is—to use au expressiou of Sir COLIN CAMPBELL'S—" ping up in driblets."