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