The Press. — London, England, 1855-01-20 00:00:00

52 to those of regular hospital attendants ; and when Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT defends himself by alleging that only a small number of nuns and sisters accompanied the staff of nurses, he furnishes ground for his condemnation by exposing the animus which led to their selection, and by showing how he knowingly perilled the success of a great and benevolent experiment, and aggravated all the difficulties of Miss NIGHTINGALE'S peculiar position, merely for the sake of gratifying his peculiar religious sensibilities. A graver wrong, or grosser folly, was never committed by a gen tleman in high official station. INDIA-HOUSE OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE WAR. Ir one vitiating quality more than another has always characterised the India-house, and converted into a public nuisance what should be an,efficient agent of Government, it is the re sistance which that body offers invariably to every measure proposed that has for its object, not the extension of Directorial patronage, but the furtherance of the public good. Particular proof of this assertion may be found in the conduct of the India-house in reference to a question of the deepest importance both to this country and our allies, and having special re lation to the carrying on the war in Turkey. It does so happen, in consequence of the paucity of available engineer and artillery officers in the Royal service, and the small number of officers of the line experienced in the various details peculiar to Eastern war fare, that it has long been felt desirable to em ploy a number of East India Company's officers in Turkey on various duties connected with the army in the Crimea, the Turkish army in Asia Minor, and the Turkish contingent about to be raised, but which ought to have been raised and made fit for service nearly a year ago. At the same time it also happens that there are a great number of Indian officers in England who, with a true soldierly feeling, are most desirous of rendering their aid where it is admittedly so much wanted. Under these circumstances it would be but natural in the Directors, if the, had either the wel fare and honour of their own service or the true interests of the country at heart, to do all in their power to respond to an appeal so flattering to their officers, and encourage in every way volunteering to the extent that the public wants might make desirable. But neither the honour of their own service nor the welfare of the public are matters which the Directors have ever cared for ; their whole faculties have always been absorbed in jobbing , and because the appointments in question will rest with the Crown and not with themselves, they throw every possible obstruction in the way of their officers accepting them. Constituted as the Indian service is, the Di rectors have, unfortunately, great power of carry ing out their purpose without raising such an open and active opposition to the plan as to bring down upon their heads the indignation of the country. They know that their officers are mostly poor men, dependent entirely on their pay, and they know that the pay of the Royal army is so much less than the pay of the Indian army, that it is only at a great pecu niary sacrifice that au officer of the Indian service can accept service with the Royal army at all. Unless in doing so he were allowed to draw the subsistence of his rank from the India-house—an item which forms but a small portion of his Indian allowances, and which, under every circumstance, he has hitherto been allowed to draw---he would be serving at a loss of half his income. Even with that subsistence he would still serve at a loss, but not at a loss nearly so great as in the other instance. On this hint, therefore, the Company have acted, and, while not directly refusing to allow their officers to take tempo rary service with the Royal army in the East, they have enacted that any one doing so shall forfeit for the time all the pay and subsistence to which he is entitled as a member of their own service ; or, in other words, that in addition to the hardships and dangers of a campaign ho shall bo subjected lIMIN THE PRESS. to a pecuniary loss amounting to more than half his income. Thus, while other Indian officers holding civil and military appoint ments out of India—appointments, however, of which the Company have the patronage—are allowed to draw not merely their Indian sub sistence, but all their large Indian allowances into the bargain—while the Directors can throw away thousands of pounds of the public money annually in stuffing themselves and their friends at the London Tavern, and can waste scores of thousands more in sinecure offices for their relatives and friends about the India•house and in India—the most rigid views of economy at once seize them when they have to consider claims of the deepest importance to our army, but which have nothing, unfor tunately, but the public benefit to recommend them. _ _ . It is, indeed, purely on public grounds that we take up the question, and not on that of in justice to individuals, for these can easily avoid the injustice by declining to volunteer and remaining at home. More than one first rate officer, whose services would be invaluable at the present juncture, has we know done so. Their argument has been, that it was not fair to ask men to serve in the Crimea for less than half of what they were actually receiving with their own regiments, and that if under such direct discouragement to volunteering the coun try lost the benefit of their services it was the fault of the India-house and of the Board of Control, and not their own We du not our selves concur in that opinion, we take a more enlarged and patriotic view of the duties of all at the present crisis; but to whatever extent such officers may be to blame, the Directors and the President of the India Board are to blame in a far higher degree. We do hope, therefore, that when the present disgraceful state of our War Department is made the sub ject of inquiry by the Legislature, as we have no doubt it will be, there will not fail to be made also a strict investigation as to the ex tent to which the India-house and the Board of Control have thrown obstructions in the way of Indian officers, being employed in Turkey, whose services might prove of the greatest value in the prosecution of the war. THE " EDINBURGH REVIEW " AND THE OPPOSITION. As the hour approaches when Ministers must be called to account for the mismanagement of the war, there are obvious signs of trepida tion amongst their supporters. Already a flag of distress is hung out by the Edinburgh Re view. The attacks of the Opposition are de precated, and a pedantic essay in disparage • ment of parliamentary government is the first article in the old organ of the Whigs. It would seem that the Coalitionists anticipated condehmation, and before they are tried and convicted they seek to vilify the tribunal be fore which they have to answer. Thus the Edinburgh Review tells us that opposition is to be distrusted because its leaders are men of ambition, just as if that passion were entirely dormant on the Ministerial benches, and as if no desire of self aggran disement had ever flitted through the virtuous breast of the self-denying Duke of NEWCASTLE In disparaging the nature of parliamentary opposition, the Ministerial writer in the Edinburgh seems to have taken his illustra tions from the history of the Whigs out of office, and it would have been well if his lec tures on " ambitious men" had been pointed with examples from some of those intriguing personages who acted towards Lord DERBY'S Cabinet after a fashion that we shall not describe. The article itself is a curiosity in writing. Addressed to politicians, it cln only be read with the help of " Todd's Johnson," and a good encyclopaedia. But one result has certainly been shown by the writer of the article. Ho has furnished us with evidence of the anxiety with which Milii£3 ters dread " the vehement invective, pointed sarcasm, and brilliant ridicule" of the leaders of the Opposition. Fear of the scathing eloquence of Lord MUM and Mr. SATIJRDAV o Daiwa'. has seized upon the Ministerial ranks, even before the fray has commenced. The elaborate attempt to conceal their alarm makes it appear more ridiculous. Thus it is sought to diminish the moral power of a leader of Opposition, by asserting that his business " is to sustain the part of an advo " cat us diaboli"--a strange retrospective tribute to the memories of Fox (who was in office for only a few months of his life), and GREY, and TIERNEY, and all the rest. Then we are in structed that all ambitious men are envi ous"—a maxim supported by a quotation from a classical historian, the reviewer not caring to inquire whether a score of glorious names, from SIDNEY to NELSON, might not be quoted in refutation of his calumnious and superficial remark. Into such absurdities fall book worms when attempting to treat of popular themes. _ _ But we are happy to record that after the reviewer's disparagement of the system under which Government is conducted by the " Outs" and " Ins," he concludes with the reflection " that an Opposition is a necessary " condition for freedom and political pro gress "—the best, though scarcely the most novel attempt at an aphorism from his pen. Possibly, when he wrote those words, lie wished to play the part of a prophet rather than a pedantic professor, and his Ministerial friends will, perhaps, prove the necessity for " progress," by exchanging the benches of the Treasury for those of Opposition—a result which would be hailed with true British cheers from all ranks and classes of the peo ple of England, disgusted with the sight of incapacity in power. PARLIAMENTARY CHANGES DURING THE PAST YEAR. • Seat vacated by death. + II by acceptance of office, or treilignation. : ~ by petition. i ft by 811101101211 to the House of Peers. + Abrdeenshire. Lord Haddo v Hon. W. Gordon § Abingdon J. H. Reed v Lord Norreys • Antrim T. H. Pakenham v E. W. Pakenham • Ayrshire SirJ.Fergusson,BLv J. H. Blair { Jo Lawrie v /Fraser, Bt. Barnstaple R. hn S. Guinness v 11. Bremridge • Bedford Wm. Stuart, jun. v Henry Stuart + Beverley Hon. A. Gordon v Hon.F.C. Lawley • Brecknock J. L. V. Watkins v C. R. Morgan Cambridge .1 Fr. Adair Macaulay Mowatt v 1 J. H. Astell C. M. Lushington v I H. P. Gipps Canterbury Sir W. Smrville., 1 lin. B. Johnstone + Cardiganshire Earl of Lisburne v W. E. l'owell • Cockermonth John Steel v H. A. Aglionby • Coventry Sir J. Paxton v Charles ()each + Devonport Sir T. E. Perry v Rt • Devon, S Lawrence Palk v Sir R. Lopes, Bt. § Durham, N Lord A. V. Tempest v Viscount Seahaiu * Fermanagh Hon. A. Cole v Sir A. Itnxike, lit. Flintshire Hon. T. L. Mostyn v Hon. E. Mostyn • Forfar • Frame Lord Dungarvon v Hon. R. E. Boyle Sir M. H. Beach, Bt.v Mrqis. of Wrcster. • Gloucestr., E. {R. S. Holford v Sir M. Beach, Bt. + Hastings * Hertfordshire Abel Smith, jun. v T. P. Halsey j Hull W. D. Seymour v J Viscnt. Goderich i W. H. Watson v 1 James Clay § Lichfield • Limerick, Co. S. E De Vere v Wyndham Goold • Limerick,City James O'Brien v Robert Potter + Liskeard + Ludlow • Lynn j Maldon G. M. W. Peacocke v ( Charles Ducane J. B. Moore v 1 T. J. Miller • Marylebone Viscnt. Ebrington v Lord D. Stuart + Norwich + Oxford Univr. Sir W. Hthcote.,Bt. v Sir R. Inglis, Bt. • Salop, S Robert Clive v Hon. R. H. Clive S Stafford, S Earl of Uxbridge a Lord Lewisham + Sunderland Henry Fenwick rW. D. Seymour + Sussex, W Henry Wyndham v R. Prime j Tynemouth W. S. Lindsay v Hugh Taylor,jun • Weatmoreind. Earl of Bective v Ald. Thompson • Wigan Joseph Acton v R. A. Thickneste Mn. GEORGE Mut:, of Glasgow, read a paper at Wednesday's meeting of the Society of Arts, " On the smoke nuiss.nce, considered historically, morally, scientifically, and practically." THE DUNDEE PAROCHL►L AUTHORITIES have ad vertised for the heirs of a travelling beggar, named John M'Kay, who died lately in a lodging-house in the Hilltown of Dundee, and was buried at the expense of the parish. The parochial officers found in the pocket of a coat which had been worn by the deceased a coarse leather pocket-bcok, containing six ba❑k deposit receipts for sums amounting in the whole to 7001. .ca Alum. LUU a necessary 'olitical pro- :ely the most • om his pen. 3 words, lie ophet rather s Ministerial necessity for niches of the on—a result true British s of the peo• the sight of IURING THE signatlon. Peers. Eton. W. Gordon Lord Norreys E. W. l'akenham J. H. Blair iir W. Fraser, Bt. R. Bremridge Flenry Stuart lion. F. C. Lawley C. R. Morgan R. Macaulay J. H. Asteli H. P. Gipps Ho. B. Johnstone W. E. I'owell H. A. Aglionby Charles ()each lit Hn. H. Ttibell. Sir R. Lopes, Bt. Viscount Seahato Sir A. Brooke, lit. Hon. E. Mostyn Hon. L. Maule Hon. R. E. Boyle Mrqis. of Wrester. Sir M. Beach, Bt. Musgrave lirisco T. P. Halsey Viscnt. Goderich James Clay Viscount Anson Wyndham Goold Robert Potter R. B. Crowder Robert Clive Viscount Jocelyn Charles Ducane T. J. Miller Lord D. Stuart S. M. Peto Sir R. Inglis, Bt. Hon. R. H. Clive Lord Lewisham W. D. Seymour R. Prime Hugh Taylor, j an Ald. Thompson R. A. Thicknesee read a paper at r of Arts, " On Prically, morally, !trrits have ad- beggar, named odging-house in I buried at the al officers found een worn by the cok, containing mounting in the .11111.1111-