The Press.
London, England, 1855-04-07 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

sense of the vastness of the questions which
he has attempted to decide has never dawned
on his mind. The means by which he tries to
solve them shows the limits of his views. The
line and plummet can give us the mensuration
of lakes and rivers, but to measure the starry
spheres more lofty science is required. So
there are questions within the apprehension
only of divining minds. On such complex
problems men of formal logic and finished
rhetoric fail, where more genial natures, by
their sympathies and intentions, are fertile
in suggestion. With all their wonderful qua-
lities the Jesuits have only partly succeeded.
Ephemeral good and immense evil have been
the fruit of a society of disciplined intellects,
without manly emotions, family feelings, or
national passions.
And it is impossible not to observe that
there is a parallel between Mr. GLADSTONE'S
mode of reasoning on affairs, and that followed
by the sons of LOYOLA. It is one of the arts of
the Jesuits to exaggerate the worth of logic,
and to disparage the beautiful instincts of
home, family, and country. The intellect of
Mr. GLADSTONE is eminently of that kind most
prized by the Jesuits, keen, subtle, and with
innate propensities to polemical exertions.
What their society is to the Jesuits his own
individualism is to Mr. GLADSTONE. He is an
Order unto himself, and he supports his own
interests as much from mental zeal as from
self-love. " It may be fancy," said a shrewd
observer, " but, looking on Mr. GLADSTONE and
" Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT sitting side by side,
" the latter with his rather saturnine face and
" straight black hair, and the former emi-
" nently handsome, with his bright, cold smile,
" and subtlety of aspect, I have often thought
" that I was beholding the Jesuit of the closet
" really devout, and the Jesuit of the world,
" ambitious, artful, and always on the watch
" for making his rapier thrusts."
It is these phases of his character that
must ever prevent Mr. GLADSTONE from be-
coming a great representative spirit amongst
Englishmen. His nature is alien from that
type of manhood—frank, resolute, and direct—
most prized amongst a people who recoil from
all that is tortuously refined. In English
politics, Mr. GLADRTONE stands on the narrow-
est footing, extremely eminent, but strangely
eccentric in his intellectual isolation, a Simon
Stylites amongst the statesmen of his time.

THE DISBANDMENT OF THE MILITIA.
ENGLAND is doomed to another humiliation.
It was not enough that her diplomacy had
been outwitted ; that by insincere negotia-
tions and pacific protocols and promises she
had been cajoled and deluded with the hope
of peace till the preparations of her adversary
were completed, and she found herself dragged
into war with her forces still on the peace
establishment. It was not enough that her
army had been half ruined ; that the deficien-
cies of the Commissariat, the non-existence of
the land transport corps, and the atrocities of
the hospitals had at one time reduced her
expeditionary force to a fourth of its
original strength ; so that the civilised world
resounded with exclamations of astonishment
and contempt. We still could console our-
selves by hopes for the future. Errors were
inseparable from the commencement of a war,
and soon would be repaired. We had lost an
army in the field, but we had a supplementary
army at home. Before long the Militia would
muster 136,000 men, a force sufficient for all
the exigencies of the war. It would provide
for our home defences ; it would garrison the
Mediterranean fortresses ; it would be able to
relieve the regiments in the colonies; and it
would furnish inexhaustible supplies of volun-
teers for the regular army. With so large a
reserve we could not be beaten. Alas for the
vanity of human expectations ! The ground
is suddenly cut from under us, the staff on
which we were leaning snaps like a reed, the
force on which we relied is fast vanishing from
our sight. The Militia has had a double
share of mismanagement. A crowning blunder
has made it necessary to release the men from

319

their engagements, and at this moment num
bers of militia regiments are virtually dis-
banded. The Third Staffordshire Regiment
has suddenly become disembodied. Six hun-
dred and sixty were entitled to claim their
discharge, and only 89 would remain ; 570 re-
turned home. In the West Essex regiment
192 were reattested, and 200 were discharged.
In the West Kent 120 were reattested, and
nearly 250 were released. The North Durham
lost 175 out of 200. The South Durham,
which had attained a high degree of efficiency,
and was under orders fur the camp at Alder-
shott, has only 100 remaining. The full com-
plement of these two regiments is nearly
15,000 ; and their total strength only 185.
The Suffolk Artillery retain 30 out of 140.
The Royal Sussex is one of the best, having
lost only 150 out of 400. Plymouth and
Devonport are garrisoned by the Ist Somerset
and the South Devon. The former is reduced
from 600 bayonets to 180, the latter from 600
to 200. Fresh regiments have been ordered
to proceed immediately to complete the garri-
son, but these are scarcely in a better state
than the corps they join. Conceive the con-
dition of garrison towns and important
arsenals, with only 380 men on duty, each of
whom has a sovereign in hie pocket, and every
temptation to spend it with his comrades in a
mob of 830, just freed from all the restraints
of discipline. We might multiply instances,
but the above will suffice. They show the
disorganisation which has taken place, and
the total disruption of the regiments.
This news will be welcome at St. Peters-
burg. It will lessen our influence at Vienna.
The Czar will laugh at the proud nation who
arrogated superiority over the armies of
Russia, while unable to feed their regular
troops or to keep their militia to their colours ;
and Europe will deride the weakness of
our measures and the incapacity which insures
their failure. England has a different duty.
She must adopt vigorous means to repair her
losses. She must exact retribution for the
past. She must take a guarantee for the
future. What is that guarantee? Greater
power, more boundless means, more unlimited
confidence it is impossible to give. They
have already been granted to the utmost, and
they have been misused. It is no use voting
millions when they are to be wasted, raising
men when they are to be disbanded, or in-
trusting the resources of a country to Ministers
who cannot wield them, and who, after all our
efforts, after all our taxes, after all the lives
that have been sacrificed to the desolation of
thousands of hearths, paralyse the national
strength, render impotent the national enthu-
siasm, and, in place of a harvest of glory, reap
for us ridicule and disgrace.