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

THE PRETS.

!SATURDAY,

Evidence has unexpectedly come to light to establish the falsity
of much of the clamour against Lord RAGLAN. It was said that he
neglected the comfort o F his troops, and made no inquiries into their
condition and treatment. A " General Order" shows that he had
directed a Court of Inquiry to take evidence as to the state of the sick
and wounded on board the Avon, that he had carefully gone through
the whole case, had dismissed the chief medical officer at Balaklava,
Dr. LAWSON, for neglect, and had severely censured the conduct of
other medical officials. The Order shows the careful and vigilant
supervision of an active commander. We learn, too, in contradiction
to the report that he was never seen, that he visited the French camp
on the 19th of December, " riding well, not appearing to feel the loss
" of the arm he left at Waterloo, entering without ceremony, and
" wearing a cap covered with oilskin ;" and also that he is frequently
seen in the camp, visiting the outposts, trenches, &c.

Everyone is wondering how the 30,000 foreign troops will be
raised, for which provision will be made in the army estimates. The
experience gained lately in the home-recruiting service shows that any
number of men required, and of the best sort too, could be raised, if
adequate inducements were held out to the men to enlist. The num-
ber of recruits raised last year was 35,000; but it was not till the
autumn that recruiting became active through the bounty being raised,
the standard lowered, the militia being called out, &c. Had proper mea•
sures been taken early in the year, 100,000 recruits might, we believe,
have been raised without difficulty. The number of men who died
in the army during the year was between 7,000 and 8,000.

The rumours and reports which have been flying about the town,
relative to Sir CHARLES NAPIER and Sir James GRAHAM, are assuming
a somewhat definite shape. " I hear you are going to apply for a
" court-martial, Sir CHARLES ?" said e. friend of the Gallant Admiral
the other day. " Very likely," replied Sit CHARLES. " The trial would be
" interesting." " Very likely," replied Sir CHARLES again. " You ought
"to have some good things to tell." " Very likely, indeed," repeated
the Admiral a third time, and the conversation ended. Sir CHARLES
is annoyed at being put upon half-pay, and at finding his reputation
rather seriously damaged. No doubt the Gallant Admiral would like
to set himself right with the public, and the public would be very glad
to hear what he has to say in his defence ; and we have every reason
to believe that they will soon hear both sides of the question.

The success of the French loan has been a great triumph for the
Government. More than four times the sum required was subscribed.
This shows both that the people must have made great advances in
material prosperity of late years, and that they have unbounded confi-
dence in the stability of the existing Government.

A certain Mr. JOHN BOWRING, LL.D. (which any one may be in Scot-
land for £ a. d.), was long known about town as a steady supporter of
the Whigs, a free-trade " Commissioner of Inquiry" for Sir It. PEEL,
and a prosy writer of very middling sonnets. Ministers generally find
agents of about their own calibre, and therefore the Whig Foreign
Secretary very naturally selected Mr. BOWRING for the honour of
knighthood, and the profit of the Governorship of Hong-Kong. Sir
JOHN seems to have gone out with very " liberal " views of his own
importance, and to have " astonished the natives" not a little. He
was responsible to the Queen alone; his influence with her Majesty
was—well, n'importe ; we recollect Lord BROUGHAM'S original perform-
ance of the part too well to admire an imitation. During the last few
years the Chinese rebellion has given rise to a question of some deli-
cacy. The English and American merchants of Shanghai, among other
places, are bound by treaty to pay certain customs' dues to the
Emperor of CHINA, in return for protection and certain other stipulated
privileges. Shanghai was taken by the rebels in September, 1853, and
the merchants, who for ten months had to take care of themselves, suf•
fered considerably. Meanwhile they deposited funds for the payment
of arrears with their respective consuls, together with a statement of
their case ; and, on the re-establishment of the Imperial Custom-house,
in July, 1854, naturally expected to be released from their liabilities for
the duties, when protection had not been, and could not, be, rendered.
The natural course was evidently to appeal to the English Govern-
ment; but not so thought Sir JOHN BOWRING. The merchants were
induced to submit a statement of their case to him. He decided
against them; their lawyers persisted in advising them that payment
was illegal ; and at last it turned out that Sir JOHN is simply an
employe of the Foreign-office, and his decision was unceremoniously
annulled by orders from home. Sir JOHN, of course, was unconvinced ;
the Foreign-office was wrong ; they had better mind what they were
about; and some rather undignified letter-writing followed. The
matter appears to have been settled at last (so far as Sir JOHN is con-
cerned) by a smart snubbing administered by Lord CLARENDON to his
subordinate. Meanwhile, the American Minister characteristically
" improves the opportunity;" assures the Imperial Government that
he should be very glad that the American merchants should pay, only
" the feeling of the British Government " is against it, it wouldn't bo
quite the things, &c., so—the "citizens" will keep their cash; finally,
Mr. M'LANE proposes to set out for Pekin, and carry Sir JOHN with
him as evidence of the sentiments of the British Government ; and
people on the spot say, the chances aro that we shall soon be at logger-
heads, either with the Emperor if we don't pay the duties, or with the
insurgents if we do. For the sum itself is important to the belli-
gerents—somewhere about half a million.