The Press. — London, England, 1855-02-17 00:00:00

THE WEEK. Tin new M'n'stry is in harness, and, under a septuagenarian Premier—" and something mord "—septuagenarian and octogenarian appointments are the order of the day. " Waterloo " and " Peninsular " officers, after forty years repose, aro looking up. Flesh and blood, like wine, is at a premium through age, and the glorious time has arrived when old England is to be represented only by old generals, old admirals, and old Ministers. Lord SEATON, in his eightieth year, is just named Commander-in-Chief of the army in Ireland. General SIMPSON, " well known for his services in the Peninsular campaigns," according to the statement of Lord PALMERSTON last night, is going to the Crimea to assist Lord RAGLAN as chief of the staff: true, he is but a boy, only 64, but then, it is stated, he is " of feeble health and con " stitution." Is there no veteran to be found who took part in the seven years war, a century ago? Such a fuss is made of routing out Peninsular and Waterloo men, that we fear people will get tired of the words, glorious as are the memories they revive, and there really seems danger, from the growing dominion of routine and senility, that our naval commanders will be chosen on the principle that an E 34 and a 90 may represent both the years of the captain and the guns of his ship. We are seasonably reminded by the report of a military commission of no later date than May last, that our Peninsular and Waterloo men, when they won their fame and achieved the glorious deeds which have made their names immortal, were in the very vigour of early manhood. " The Duke of WELLINGTON," as the Times states, " was a Major-General " at 33, the Marquis of ANGLESEY at 34, Lord DALHOUSIE at 38, Lord " STRAFFORD at 36, Lord HILL at 33, Lord BERESFORD at 39, Sir GEORGE " MURRAY at 40, Lord COMBERMERE at 31, Lord LONDONDERRY at 32." Apart from the impolicy of the act, it is cruelty to expose the veterans whose work should now be done to trials from which, indeed, their heart may not shrink, but which assuredly their frames have not strength to sustain, nor their minds the alacrity and quickness to dis cern a way to overcome. The new appointments, with rare exceptions, have been regarded with surprise and foreboding. Nor is the policy shadowed out in the Ministerial statements of last night calculated to inspire confidence. Ministers, it is said, will be the committee of in quiry desired by the Commons. Sir J. M`NEILL, Lord Parini:RE stated, would be sent to Balaklava to inquire into the alleged mismanagement of the Commissariat Department, but he is to be armed with no sum mary powers ; there is to be no interference with routine, no provision, as in the military system of India, for " emergent service." When Sir J. M`NEILL has gone out and has concluded his inquiry, and has made his report, and has sent it to the Government, and the Government has read it, and considered it, then they will act on it—not a moment before. Plainly this dilatory process has all the disadvantages which it is expected would attend a parliamentary inquiry without the stimu lating and wholesome effect it would be sure to produce. The discussion last night turned substantially on the question whether the Committee should be allowed to proceed. Lord PAN )IURE in the Lords, and Lord PALMERSTON in the Commons, endea voured to make out a case against it. The latter intimated that Go vernment were prepared to resist any other inquiry than what they thought fit to make themselves. The new Ministry, will, therefore, be inaugurated by a new political crisis, and members will be com pelled to vote against their conscience and the wishes of their consti tuents, or be forced to incur all the evil of a dissolution, with its inevitable party contests and governmental weakness, at a time when the strength of the whole empire should be concentrated to carry on the war. Why should there be this dread of inquiry ? Why must it be left to Government alone? Will Government, constituted as it is, be able. if it were willing, to conduct it with the freedom and fulness which the circumstances demand? The words of Lord JouN RUSSELL—a member of the Cabinet—are yet sounding in our ears. He could not find out where the blame lay of faults and errors which were too glaring to be denied. The course taken by Lord PALM EUSTON is intelligible on one ground only—that he is adverse to the inquiry because it may in culpate persons he would shield from blame. How can the present Government afford to let an inquiry proceed which may result in a condemnation of the late Government? Should the House unfor tunately stultify itself by reversing its late vote, the effect may be most disastrous. Those sullen murmurings of discontent, now rapidly gathering in force, are not to be conjured down by a vote of to-morrow reversing the vote of to-day. The necessity of inquiry having been conceded, nothing short of its vigorous prosecution will satisfy the public that culpability does not attach to those who shrink from it. Mr. ROEBUCK has named Thursday next for the nomination of his committee. The telegraph is again at its lying work. For a time false reports ceased, as no one was found to believe them ; but now they are revived, as the public again began to attach credence to the tele graphic despatches published in the newspapers. The reports of the mutiny of the Zouaves at Balaklava turn out to be wholly unfounded, though it was stated, perhaps with suspicious particularity, that 400 Zouaves were in chains on board a vessel lying at Constantinople. The last report, bearing with it, we are afraid, a stronger colour of probability, is, that the British force before Sebastopol was retreating from its lines, leaving them to be occupied by the French, and was about to garrison Balaklava. Mr. GLADSTONE lately stated our effective force about Sebastopol to be 30,000 men. A message was sent off to Lord RAGLAN for the exact numbers, that the statement might be THE PRESS. SATURDAY, made on the higest authority, but the answer did not arrive in time. Now it is received. On the 15th of January the total of our effective force, according to Lord RAGLAN was 27,000 men. But it is certain that a large proportion of this number was unfit for active duty, and the force of bayonets which could be mustered would probably be not half the strength stated. It is not improbable, there. fore, that the despatch may be substantially correct, and if it be, how deplorable is our state ! Our army lost, no reserve provided, England drained of regular troops, and our gallant ally left alone to brave the perils of the enterprise in which the two nations embarked together. The military annals of England present no example of discomfiture so extensive and complete. If " estimates" could save us, we might derive some comfort from those before the House. The army and navy estimates amount to 24,437,0001. To this amount has to be added the enormous sum of 5,181,0001. for the transport service, and an amount yet unknown for the Ordnance Department. How is this vast expenditure to be met? If Mr GLADSTONE remains true to his principles, by a very con siderable increase of taxation. But could such increase be borne? Accounts from the manufacturing districts speak of stagnation, and trade is everywhere depressed. A loan must be the resource, and for that capitalists are preparing, while the funds in anticipation of it decline. Last night Sir J. GRAHAM was well enough to attend in his place in the Commons; and nearly sixteen millions for navy and transport estimates were voted with wonderful despatch and unanimity. From Lord PALMERSTON'S speech last night it would seem that he has really some idea that peace may result from the Congress about to be opened at Vienna. Lord JOHN RUSSELL, who, it is said, will be in vested with full powers as Plenipotentiary, was to have left town for Vienna to-day, but he is seriously indisposed, and will not, it is imagined, be able to quit town for some days. If a pacific settlement were really expected from this Congress, it is surely to be regretted that it was not instituted sooner. The arrangement which removes Lord JOHN from the House is no doubt a convenient one for the Ministry; but it is impossible to look on the negotiation itself in any other light than as a new devise of Austria to avoid deci sive action. The War Ministry is settled. Lord PANMURE, a nobleman in infirm health, is thought equal to transact the duties which the Duke of NEW CASTLD and Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT declared were more than their united exertions could fulfil. " The public have had every hour, every minute "of my time," said the Duke. "To not one hour of amusement or "recreation have I presumed to think I was entitled. It was not my " good fortune to be able to resort, for the purpose of health, or for any " other purpose, to the country ; and day by day, and hour by hour, " during the whole of the year 1854, it was my duty to remain in town "aud exert myself to the best of my ability." Mr. S. HERBERT, by his own account, was not less industrious. This gentleman is certainly not wanting in intelligence ; he must have gained some knowledge of the affairs and management of his office, and the only ground on which the retention in place of the members of a condemned Cabinet could be justified is, that it would be imprudent, at a critical moment like this, to run the hazard of dislocating departments by putting strangers at the head of them. Yet Mr. HERBERT is transferred from a post which he held in 1845, and again since the formation of the Aberdeen Government, and sent to a Ministry (the Colonies) in which he has had not the slightest experience, while Mr. FREDERICK Pzen—a red-tapist manufactured to order—will, as Under-Secretary of the War Depart ment, be substantially intrusted with the duties Mr. HERBERT was accustomed to discharge, though Mr. PEEL'S official life has hitherto been passed in routine of a totally different kind. This causeless changiLg—as if the responsibilities of Government were to bo shifted like a masquerade dress, for the amusement of the performers—is dis heartening. If Mr. HERBERT had any real official ability, why shift him from a department to which he had become accustomed ? If he had not, why prclnote him to a higher station ? He is so fond of boasting of his disinterestedness, that we can hardly suppose the elevation was at his own desire, and those who think most meanly of his capacity would hardly pretend that Mr. PEEL is his superior. This, after all that has occurred, is the altered organisation with which we are to open a new campaign. The difficulty—yes, the very crisis of constitutional government—is to be tried this present year, and tried in the field. All through Europe it is being said that con stitutionalism, parliamentism, respectable in peace, is babyish or paralytic in war; and it rests with us (far more largely than we at present fancy) to show that our parliamentary constitution can stand the test of an European war. Autocratic monarchies, we feel, have au immense advantage in the concentration of their powers, and the unity of their action, and the sharp electric stroke that one will gives. There is no reason why our own military energies should not be equally concentrated. We only want one head. We should then have all the advantage of n despotism with none of its disadvantage. The one head, the " imperium " of war, would in our own case be answer able to the nation for its " place :" in despotisms it is answerable with its life. We believe, and thoroughly believe, that parliamentary government is the best government; only, in time of war, it must be government. And this, as yet, we lack. Some minor offices in the Ministry are not yet settled, but Sir FRANCIS BARING, whose ill-luck in fishing for a budget was one of Peet's best jests, is now to become the colleague of Peelites as Chan• cellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Irish Government, if we are to believe the Morning Chronicle, has only been prevented this week, by its ignorance, from committing '~ 160