The Press. — London, England, 1855-02-03 00:00:00

EBRUARY 3, 1855. Vatt6ings in V arlianitnt. ORGANISATION OF THE WAR DEPART MENT. In the House of Lords on Monday Earl GREY moved his resolution on this subject. His object was to bring the administration of the army under a single and well-organised department. For this pur pose he proposed to establish aboard, with a Cabinet Minister at its head, and the Commander-in-Chief one of its members. The head of the department would be responsible for its actions, and the entire business of the army would be carried on under a single management. The patronage of the army should, necessarily, he thought, be vested in this board, for it was impossible for any men to be responsible for actions committed by those whose appointments were altogether out of their control. The Duke of NEWCASTLE, in reply, entered into a laboured apology for his own administration of the war. He could not deny that many evils existed, but said that the economies and inexperience of a long peace had placed us in a disadvantageous com parison with the French, Who bad had for five and twenty years the experience of a complicated warfare in Algeria. He detailed the working difficulties of many departments of our administration, and ad mitted the necessity for great alteration. As for the motion, as far as it went to recommend greater cob solidation in the War Department, he could not oppose it, though he appealed to the noble-lord not to press it at the present moment. If it was meant that greater harmony and connection between the different departments ought to exist, he fully acqui esced, but he did not think that any single organisa tion could do the work. It would be overwhelmed by detail, and have no time for attention to greater matter. As for a board, he objected to it for many reasons. It was cumbrous and difficult of manage ment. He had tried some such thing practically by meeting the chiefs of the various departments him self, but he did not think the system would work well. For further improvement three commissioners had been sent to Paris to report on the system pursued there, and Lord Raglan had been requested to insti tute similar inquiries in the camp of our allies. Viscount HARDINGE detailed the improvements that had been introduced within the last few years, especially in ball practice and in the arms with which the troops were furnished. There ive.te many points in which our systeni was superior to that of the Continent. The French had themselves borrowed many things from us, and he thought that our mili tary schools did not deserve the censure that had been cast upon them. A very large proportion of the inventions of late years bad been made by the officers of our own artillery. He had, on accepting his present office, placed the materiel of the ordnance in a much more efficient state. He praised the regimental system of our army, as perfect in drill and discipline, and productive of rare affection both in officers and men for each other, as a proof of which he instanced Balaklava. He did not think that an organisation like that proposed would remedy any of the existing evils. Lord CAMPBELL urged that the resolution should be placed upon the books. The Earl of ELLENBOROUOIL after adverting to the inconvenience of such a resolution in the actual state of the Ministry, questioned whether the con fusion of our military system had been the cause of the Crimean disasters. He had accused, and did accuse, the Ministers of many faults ; but in justice to them he stated his belief that the greater part of the mischief originated in the Crimea itself. He placed no faith in the creation of a board which would be iucumbered with detail and minor questions. The Indian system worked well because it was not so in cumbered. He objected especially to placing the entire patronage of the army in the bands of the Crown. _ Earl GREY, after a brief reply, withdrew his motion. THE ADJOURNED DEBATE. The debate on the committee of inquiry was re sumed on Monday by Mr. A. STAFFORD, who detailed in a long and instructive speech his own experience in his visit last autumn to the neighbourhood of the war. his details referred chiefly to the mismanagement of The sick and wounded, of which he gave several melincholy examples. He bore testimony to the immense services of the private individuals who had gone Out either to administer funds or to take per sonally care of the men in hospital, and declared that it was due both to them and to the unshaken loyalty of the men to constitute a searching inquiry into the causes of the official mismanagement every where visible. Mr. B. OSBORNE made from the Treasury bench the most sweeping attack upon the entire military system of the country that the house had yet heard, congratulating himself at the same time TH PRES that his own department of the Admiralty had escaped censure. Our military system, he said, be longed to the middle ages. The staff was utterly in capable; the system of promotion ruinous to the public service. No operation could be sucoessful till the Horse Guards had been thoroughly recon structed, and without a new system everywhere nothing but reverse could be expected. The seces sion of Lord John Russell had destroyed the present Government, but would make that of any other hazardous and difficult. He trembled for the conse quences when the report reached Petersburg and Vienna. Mr. HENLEY said that the Government was con scious of all that was wrong iu our system, but made no attempt to ;remedy it, and acted just as if no evil existed. We could transport sixty thousand persons to the Antipodes, and could not get thirty thousand properly provisioned to the Black Sea. The Government had not made use of what opportu nities they had; they had grossly mismanaged those opportunities, and then laid the fault on the system. It was a libel on England t 3 charge it with want of organisation. The immense private enterprises of the country were admirably conducted, and why could not Ministers du as well ? He supported the motion, which was demanded by the universal feeling of the country. Admiral BERKELEY, with much warmth, vindicated the transport service from the objections of Mr. Henley. He had engaged every available transport in the country, and was cotnpelled to seek transports for the cavalry in foreign vessels. The difficulty of supplying the army was due to the smallness of the port at Balaklava, where the ships were obliged to lie singly. The transports from this country to the Crimea had been admirably managed. Mr. BERESPORD Raid that if the army of England was a rotten one, he hoped it would continue so, if it performed deeds such as those of the late campaign. He then entered into a long vindication of Lord Raglan, who had been unwearied in his endeavours to provide for the comfort of the soldiers, though, perhaps, some officers could not., and newspaper correspondents would not, see him. Lord Raglan would come triumphant out of any investigation. He endeavoured to prove the statement of the inexperi ence of our commanding officers to be erroneous, and charged all the evils on the deficiencies of the means of transport and the commissariat. He thought an inquiry imperatively called for. Mr. Rice opposed the motion, as not inquiry but prompt remedy was what was wanted at the present moment. Mr. MILES, as he now found the incompetency of the Government, saw no remedy but in inquiry. Sir. F. T. BARING said that immediate energy was the thing required, and would be totally anni hilated by a committee of inquiry. He detailed the inconvenience of the process of inquiry, and should oppose it, though he could not approve of the pro ceedings of the Government. Mr. BENTINCK saw all the inconveniences of a committee, which he did not think could possibly work under present circumstances. But, as he con sidered the present motion one of want of confidence, he should vote for it, only regretting that it was nut more explicit. Mr. RICH said that similar objections of public in convenience had been made to all inquiries, but few inquiries could be required with greater urgency than the present. Sir E. B. LYTTON did not see the objection to the motion as a precedent, for be hoped the same cir cumstances would never again recur. The Ministers had said that the vote was not one of inquiry but of censure. Let them take it so, and hand down the precedent in that sense to posterity. By refusing to vote for inquiry they would be accomplices in the evils which had been so forcibly detailed, and from which even Lord John Russell shrank, and chose rather to incur the pangs of separation from his col leagues. He bad nothing to say to details of diffi culties on which the Ministers rested their defence. He accused them of entering hastily on the greatest enterprise of the generation without thought, without knowledge, and without inquiry. He scrutinised the conduct of the war, and demanded why Odessa had been left to be the storehouse and depot for the enemy. He read several letters to show the mis management of affairs at the seat of war, and asked if the Government were not aware that rain, snow, and hurricane were the common appendages of winter. The Government had been charged as a coalition, but coalitions bad not always been so un fortunate. He observed --- that many of the most popular and powerful Adminis- trations bad ben coalitions. Some of the Administrations of Mr. Pitt were coalitions, and the last was a very remarkable one ; for Mr. Pitt, having first ejected the Addington Administration, coalesced with three of Mr. Addington's men. Nay, he was not content until he had made the expelled Prime Minister himself his Lord Presi dent of the Council. But one essential element of a Coalition is, that its members should coalesce. That, however, is the element which seems to be wanting in the present Government. It has been a union of party in• tenets, but it has not been a coalition of party sentiments and feelings. A man of very obscure family having married the daughter of a lady who had attracted a large number of not unsuccessful admirers, Lord Chesterfield said that Nobody's son had just married Everybody's daughter—(roars of laughter)—and it might be said of the present Government that Everybody's principles have united with Nobody's opinions. He said of the eulogies of Lord John Russell on the Whigs that it only amounted to this, that the Whigs resigned a part when they found it impossible to get ehe whole, and said that, it was his firm belief, that on whatever side of the hous e a Government may be formed, that Government would be as fully alive to the necessity of popular measures, of; stead fast progress, and of sympathy with the free and en lightened people they desired to govern, as any of those great men who are democrats in opposition and oligarchs in office. lie concluded a brilliant and effective speech by remarking that : In the last century there was a Duke of Newcastle who presided over the conduct of the war, and was supported by a powerful Whig combination. The commencement of that war was indeed • series of blunders and disasters, In vain attempts were made to patch up that administration. In vain some drops of healthful blood were infused into its feeble and decrepid constitution, but at last the people became aroused, indignant, irresistible—they applied • remedy; that remedy is now before ourselves—they dia. missed their Ministers and saved the army. Mr. GLADSTONE began by an allusion to the state ment of the late President of the Council, whom he thanked for the eulogium passed on himself, but gently rebuked him for having resigned without giving his colleagues a chance of acceding to his demands, and when they had reason to believe him satisfied with things as they were. He had stated to Lord Aberdeen himself that he had no intention of pressing the changes that he once recommet4ed, and had abandoned his former views on the advise of friends in whom lie could confide. It might be thought that, deprived of the support of the noble lord, they ought not to have met the house without at least some reorganisation. But he felt that they had no right to attempt to make terms with the house in this way, or to shrink from facing its judg ment on their past conduct. If they had no spirit, what kind of epitaph would be placed over their re mains? He would himself have thus written it: Here lies the dishonoured ashes of a Ministry which found England at peace and left it at war, which was content to enjoy the emoluments of office and to wield the sceptre of power so long as no man had the courage to question their existence. They saw the storm gathering over the country; they heard the agonising accounts which were almost daily received of the state of the sick and wounded in the East. But had these things moved them? As soon, however, as the member for Sheffield raised his hand to point the thunderbolt they shrunk away conscience stricken ; the sense of guilt overwhelmed them, and, to escape from punishment, they ran away from duty." As to the motion before the house, if he thought it co* sistent with the public welfare, he should be the first to vote for it. But he was convinced it would aggra vate evils instead of alleviating them. He might state that according to the last accounts from the army it was slightly improving. Warm clothing had been furnished to the troops, the huts were about to be sent up, the railway operatives had arrived, from which time it was calculated that three weeks would suffice to conclude the railway. An arrange ment had been concluded between the generals by which 1,600 French would do permanent duty in the trenches, representing, of course, the actual assistance of a much larger number of men, lie believed that, while there was undoubted distress and great loss of life in the Crimea, the actual state of the army had been greatly misrepresented. Accord ing to the last accounts there were 28,000 English troops under arms before Sebastopol, to which was to be added three or four thousand seamen and marines, so that our effective force was at this mo ment not less than 30,000 men. It was, under such circumstances, absurd to say that the British army was annihilated. Many unfavourable comparisons had been made respecting the British and French military system. He did not believe that the ad vantages were all on the side of the latter, although it would not be in good taste or convenient to make theth a subject of public discussion. He ridiculed the blame thrown upon the Government for not occupying Odessa. Why, Odessa was an open town; it had 100,000 inhabitants, there was a hostile army of 300,000 men in its neighbourhood, and he could not think that such would have been very comfort able quarters for the British army. With respect to the War Department, he admitted the deficiencies in many points, but much had been done to improve them, and they did not deserve the reproaches which had been cast upon them. He instanced many im provements—the Minis rifle, the reconstruction of our field artillery, and the facilities secured for field exercise and manoeuvres. Ile then proceeded to vindicate the Duke of Newcastle, saying that if they thought the War Minister had in any way neglected N L.. 1