The Press.
London, England, 1855-04-14 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

looking upon a man of real power, and that
however interesting in appearance, or accom-
plished in qualities, the slender personage
before us was never meant by nature for one
of the rulers of men. Close acquaintance
would soon prove that, in spite of his courtly'
graces, his skill in modern tongues, and kis
undoubted knowledge of political economy
the Earl of CLARENDON is not equal to origi-
hating a policy or deciding great events.
In saying this we are far from undervaluing
the personal pretensions of our Foreign
Minister. He is beyond question a highly
intellectual man, and as President of the
Board of Trade would probably reach his cul-
minating point. Beginning life as a Commis-
sioner of Customs at Dublin, and afterwards
Ambassador at Madrid, he has seen the world
under various aspects, and learned much of
that social actuality on which the condition of
countries so much depends. But it is the
habit of such minds to distrust the existence
of national passions. The mere economist
believes that mankind can be manipulated by
budgets and tariffs. The pride of dynasties,
the traditions of empire, and even the passions
born of religious subtleties, are entirely beyond
the appreciation of a nature like that of Lord
CLARENDON, which can most readily compre-
hend the tangible and obvious. It is, also,
characteristic of such minds that when they
are compelled to become diplomatic they
exaggerate the parts of astute intriguers.
They would govern Little Pedlington with
the elaborate statecraft of a Richelieu, and in
taking even an ordinary line of conduct they
assume an air of profound policy.
Much of this weakness is visible in Lord
CLARENDON. Artful in petty matters, he is
really without adroitness in great exigencies.
In every phase of the protracted European
crisis of the last two years the Foreign Minis-
ter of England has been either anticipated, or
outmanoeuvred, or dictated to by the Cabinet
of the allies. Nor is there any secret in the
great capitals of Europe as to the merely
secondary course followed by England on the
Eastern question. The " Four Points " were
decided on by Austria as the expedition to the
Crimea was resolved upon by France ; and it is
a subject for grave reflection to observe the
singular contrast between the differences of
tone of Lord CLARENDON in the summer and
in the autumn of last year. He stands con-
demned out of his own mouth. No publicist
could characterise his weak line of conduct
by a more damning epithet than his own
phrase, " drifting," which critically describes
4the course of our Foreign-office under his aus-
pices.
Yet never was there a time when the
destinies of Europe, as well as the interests of
the British power, more emphatically de-
manded that the Foreign Minister of England
should be a man with a mind of minute
vigour, and an intellect equal to the grasp of
original ideas. Either on his legs in the
House of Peers, or at his desk in his office,
there are no traits in Lord CLARENDON of a
ruling intellect, no evidences of the qualities
that stamp a Minister's character and conduct
with the impress of the great. In debate he
tries to achieve his object by courtesy to his
antagonist, and by the assumption of an air of
fascinating frankness to hide his painful ner-
♦ousness. Even on the gravest subject he
stands up to address the Peers with a simper-
ing smile, and, with a graceful appeal to Lord
DERBY, deprecates any decided hostility. He
then tells us in many words what every one
knew before, and so highly does he appreciate
thoughts that are obvious that he repeats
them again and again with complacent smiles.
His diction is meagre, his arrangement with-
out the arts of rhetoric, and even his sentences
are without grammar. Pleasing in private
conversation, his voice has not the depth for
a debater; but the graces of his manner to
some extent counteract the hesitation of his
delivery.
It has been an unfortunate thing for Eng-
land tha, )f his timid

SATURDAY,

testants of Ireland, supported also by the
" Old Irelanders," fond of agitation, but afraid
of rebellion. With such means Lord CLAREN-
DON—or rather Mir Tipperary policemen—
routed poor Ehirrii O'BRIRN, and buried
" Young Ireland " Ih 4 cabbage-garden.
Thrones were toppling on the Continent. The
BouaaoNs were prostrated, but the House of
Brunswick, by means of Lord CLARENDON,
forsooth ! and in spite Of SMITH O'BRIEN,
stood firm! And political parasites were
found to praise Lord CLARENDON as a man of
might ! Risum teneatis.
Yet his extraordinary blunders in Ireland
ought to teach caution to those who suppose
Lord CLARENDON to be a man of deep penetra-
tion. It is a fact beyond dispute that ho
selected for the highest posts in the law two
barristers whose claims to official elevation
were afterwards scouted by the Whigs. Lord
CLARENDON made Mr. HATCHELL an Attorney-
General, and that Gentleman is now "ad-
vanced backwards " into a petty commissioner-
ship. And another appointee fared even
worse. Nor can we forget his sinister course
towards the Orangemen, or the infatuation of
his selecting for a confidential journalist a
person whose name can never be dissociated
from that of his viceregal patron.
In his personal antecedents we see many
proofs of the feebleness of conception and
the vacillation of purpose that have marked
his conduct in the Foreign-office. Assiduous
at the desk, acute in his mental organisation,
with many agreeable traits of character, lively,
various, and shrewd in society, Lord CLAREN-
DON is incomparably less able in politics than
either Lord PALMERSTON or Lord JOHN RUSSELL.
There is a shallowness in his character with
all its sharpness, and m want of capacity for
deep thought in his mind, at once clear but
circumscribed. The history of the last two
years demonstrates that he has been extrava-
gantly overrated, a truth that his own party is
confessing, when " too late."

AMALGAMATION OF THE ROYAL AND
INDIAN ARMIES.
WE hear a great deal at present of the pro-
posed amalgamation of the Royal and Indian
armies, and no doubt there is much to be said
in favour of such a measure, but at the same
time there are difficulties in the way of it
which are to a certain extent insuperable, and
which must ever prevent that entire and com-
plete union of the services which some
journalists appear to contemplate. These
difficulties we shall briefly proceed to enume-
rate, and the result, we think, will bo a con-
viction that while it is extremely desirable
that all the military establishments of the
country should be placed directly under the
Crown, and the services of all military officers
be made available in whatever quarter of the
globe they may be found most useful, yet that
in practice the great bulk of the Indian army
must still be local, and its regimental system
remain very much what it is at present.
The great mass of the Indian army, it must
be remembered, consists of native troops, and
can only be officered with effect by men ac-
quainted with their habits and able to speak
their language. The European officers of these
troops rise by seniority, and once posted to a
regiment are always borne upon its rolls till
they become lieutenant-colonels. It is a sine qua
non that such officers learn, colloquially at
least, the native language; and, being accuE•
tomed to deal with natives from the date of
their appointments, they are necessarily fami-
liar with their feelings and habits. Any
amalgamation of this part of the Indian army
with the Royal service, unless the system of
the Royal service were wholly altered, would
be obviously impossible: for such amalgama-
tion must necessarily lead to an unlimited
exchange of officers between the British and
• - regiments, which would, as regards the
t army, be most injurious to discipline,
regards the native army utterly de-
Fe of it. An officer accustomed to the
iscipline of the native army would have
everything to learn if transferred as captair
'for to a European regiment; while if a