The Press.
London, England, 1855-01-27 00:00:00

OUR WAR ADMINISTRATORS.

Ws have now reached a point in the present
war at which every post brings us fresh testi-
mony to the incompetence of those who affect
to conduct it The evidence of one blunder
succeeds that of another with such rapidity
that we scarcely remark it before it is lost in
an accumulating chaos, which taxes analysis
at the same time that, for the present, it defies
remedy. As it is no longer possible to deny
facts, it only remains to shift responsibility,
and therefore we are pressed with efforts to
shield Ministers by attacking generals who
have no opportunity of defending themselves.
At the same time the circumstances of many
of these failures exclude this reckless mode of
accounting for them by being brought incon-
testably to the home authorities.
We learn, for instance, that the hospital
stores at Scutari contain no tea and sugar.
Yet, why are these indispensable comforts not
forthcoming? On the assumption that they
already existed in store, the Government some
months since rejected an offer from the tea-
dealers of the metropolis to supply such tea
and sugar gratis. Now that they have de-
prived themselves of this gratuitous aid on the
ground of the adequacy of their own provi-
sions, it is found that the sick have been
sacrificed to the official dignity of the War-
office. This, then, is one instance of many
which are commonly known ; but to this we
will add one or two others, of which we have
ourselves obtained information.

In no respect has greater hardship been
inflicted on the army, according to the ac-
counts which have reached us, than by serving
out to them rations which they had no oppor-
tunity of cooking. Yet for this Ministers are
answerable solely from their own obstinacy.
It singularly happens that the remedy for
this state of things, and which was pressed
upon their acceptance, is derived from the
Russian experience of the Emperor NAPOLEON,
in 1812. To prevent the scurvy and other
diseases which then afflicted the French army
from the use of salted provisions, the Emperor
offered a reward to the French chemists to
devise a better mode of preserving meat.
This led to the discovery by APPERT, the
chemist, that if meat be boiled in tin canisters,
as the steam escapes, it may be hermetically
sealed, and the meat, thus preserved in a
vacuum from the action of the air, will remain
wholesome food for years. Meat ready cooked
and thus preserved has been long extensively
used by the mercantile marine, and even by
the navy, till GOLDNER, the Hungarian Jew,
then established at Galatz, brought himself,
rather than the process, into deserved disrepute.
Our Ministers were aware that there was no
better means of aresting the evils arising
from salt provisions and the want of fuel,
and, accordingly, several months since in-
vited tendors from provision merchants for

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the supply of 600,0001b5. of this very meat,
but, under the influence of the panic occa-
sioned by GOLDNER, they imposed such ex-
traordinary conditions as made their offer
nugatory. We have not space to mention
their impracticable terms, but the consequence
was that from the whole body of provision
merchants only a few insignificant tenders
were made as an experiment. Shortly after this
failure, one of these, at least, offered the
Government to purchase meat subject to the
approval of their own inspector, to preserve it
under similar conditions, to accompany it to
the Crimea, to deliver it himself to the Com-
missariat at Balaklava, and only to be paid
on its examination and approval there. To
this offer, made some months ago, he had not
a few days back received any reply, and in
the meantime our army have been rotting on
raw pork which they had not the fuel or the
apparatus for cooking. Diarrhcea and dysen-
tery, as far as this cause has contributed to
them, are thus distinctly traceable to the pur-
veyors for the war in London.
Another instance occurs in their failure to
supply, in the absence of cooked meat, a ready
means of cooking it. No use is made of the
admirable invention which it is said that Mi-
nisters individually approve, for supplying
each tent with the portable stove and oven
which we have ourselves seen in operation,
and which may be put in use or extinguished
as easily as a gas-jet. No answer comes to the
public-spirited company who offer to supply
them in the needful quantities at the cost of
labour and materials, and whose honourable
status is a guarantee of their perfect good
faith. In consequence of official folly or neg-
ligence in this and other instances, we hear
those incessant details of misery beneath
which our soldiers droop and die ; and for this
folly or negligence some one must be answer-
able. But it is not in these instances Lord
RAGLAN or his aide-de-camps, or the autho-
rities at Balaklava, or at Constantinople.
We have not the shadow of a pretext hero
for attacking generals abroad to ward off
indignation from Ministers at home.

MILITIA FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN.
A CIRCULAR, dated Jan. 15, 1855, has been addressed
by the Duke of NEWCASTLE to the colonels of a
certain number of militia regiments, asking them to
volunteer, under the provisions of the last Militia
Act, for service in Gibraltar, Malta, and the
lonian Islands, and stating the conditions under
which the volunteering shall take place. The
privates are to receive a bounty of 81., given in
the following manner :-21. in cash on taking
the oath, U. to he expended in necessaries, and
Si. to be paid in quarterly sums of ss. during the
five years for which they are enlisted. Each company
is to consist of 85 privates and 5 non-commissioned
officers, and will have the usual complement of
officers, viz., a captain and two subalterns. One
field officer is to accompany every 300 men. We are
informed, on semi-official authority, that this Circular
has been sent to fifteen regiments of those which
have been the longest embodied ; and that they will
go out with six service companies, leaving four at
home as a depot. Each service regiment will, there-
fore, number 540 rank and file, and the total force
sent out will be 8,100 men. It is added that these
fifteen regiments will relieve an equal number of
regiments of the line, which will be immediately
available for service in the Crimea.

As line regiments are stronger by two companies
than these militia regiments, it follows that a force
of 10,000 men will be set at liberty to reinforce Lord
RAGLAN'S army. Such a reinforcement is of the
utmost importance. But, as this is the case, how
comes it that the Dnke of NEWCASTLE'S Circular has
been so long delayed ? Parliament was called toge-
ther to pass measures with the utmost rapidity. The
provisions of the Militia Bill had received full dis-
cussion, and were understood to be settled, on the
19th of December; and the bill received the Royal
assent on the 23rd. Every one expected instant
measures for carrying it. into effect. The Circular is
a mere transcript of the Act, and might have been
ready lithographed, and sent by the post of the 23rd,
to every militia regiment that was to be asked to
volunteer. Three weeks and two days elapsed, from
the 23rd of December to the 15th of January, before
the document appeared. Such are the dela)s of the
present Minister of War.
The question arises—Will the fifteen regiments
go ? Can a sufficient number of men and officers be