The Press.
London, England, 1855-05-19 00:00:00

No. 107.—VoL. 111.

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1855.

PRICE SIXPENCE.

Elt Vrtss.

with Lord PANMORE There is nothing wrong
at the Horse Guards ; all goes on well in the
Crimea. The Government team are steady.
Their pace is slow, but it may be sure. At all
events, while they are able to keep the road
they must be left to themselves. When they
stick fast, or upset the coach, it will be time
enough to think about what should be done.
Will the Commons be equally compliant?
Two motions by "independent" members
are set down for next week. That of Mr.
MILNER GIBBON affirms that the last Russian
proposals offer a fair basis for pacific negotia-
tions ; and that of Mr. LAYARD declares that
the " grave misfortunes " and " disasters"
which have befallen the country are traceable
to the general system of promotion in the
public service. In both of these motions
there is something with which we can sympa-
thise, but they are much too limited in their
scope, and joo impractical in their object, to
command our support.

less in the Black Sea, is a conception mor
worthy the statesmen of Laputa than of prac-
tical England. The negotiation should never
have been opened on the basis adopted, or
should never have broken off on so trivial a
difference. We doubt if there is on record
any instance of a great war resting on such
narrow ground of quarrel.

But the motion of Mr. GIBsoN cannot meet
with the support of the Tory party, for this,
among other reasons—that the country is in
an especial manner committed by the acts of
its Government in all matters of foreign
negotiation. To fix upon a single point in
the long and complicated transactions com-
menced by the late Cabinet, and continued by
its successor, would be vain. If now we drift
from peace as before we drifted into war, we
can only accuse our own folly in trusting the
management of our affairs to incompetent
hands. With the Legislature the question is
simply one of confidence or no confidence.
It cannot take into its own hands the task of
negotiation with foreign Powers. The whole
policy of the Government is open to review
and censure, but it is not open to reversal.
Still less will it be possible for the Conserva-
tives, as a party, to support the motion of Mr.
LAYARD. Party influences may undoubtedly
operate to the serious detriment of the public
service. But is Mr. LAYARD in a position to
unreservedly condemn them ? He was offered
—he has himself told us—an appointment by
Lord DERBY in 1852, for which his pursuits
'and tastes well qualified him. Did he then
consult what was best for the public service ?
No. He took counsel with Lord Joan RUSSELL,
and refused the appointment purely from party
motives.

In the opinion of some eminent statesmen
of the Continent, the proposals of Russia are
more essentially conservative and more durably
pacific than those which have been made by
the Governments of France and England.
Large concessions are made by Russia. She
abandons her protectorate over the Principa-
lities (one main cause of the war), and she
concedes the free navigation of the Danube.
She is ready to admit Turkey into the family
of European nations, and she will be a party
to guarantee the integrity of the Turkish ter-
ritory. To restrict her naval preponderance in
the Euxine, she is willing that the straits of
the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus should be
open to the ships of war of all nations, or that
they should be closed as at present as a ge-
neral principle, but that the Sultan should
have the power of opening them to the navy
of any nation at any time—a material conces-
sion, as under the previous treaty the Straits
could only be opened by the Porte in case of
war. The conditions would probably afford a
surer guarantee against the preponderance of
the Russian flag in the Black SUa than could
he obtained by any limitation of the Russian
fleet, while free from the vexatious super-
vision and probability of quarrel which
would attend the latter stipulation. A fort-
night back we announced, exclusively, the
modification of the Russian terms pro-
posed by Austria. It is now known that
that M. DROUYN DE Lifters, certainly ono of
the most sagacious and experienced of Euro-
pean statesmen, received the joint proposal of
Russia and Austria favorably, and undertook to
recommend it to the favorable consideration of
his Government. Lord JOHN RUSSELL enter-
tained a similar view, and, we believe, holds it
still—many members of the Cabinet siding with
him. Mr. MILNER GIBSON'S resolution there-
fore must receive the secret sympathy of a part
of the Government, even though Lord JOHN
RUSSELL should be deterred from supporting
it, by dread of the consequences which might
attend another Cabinet overthrow by his
agency.
On the policy of laying down, at the very
commencement of the war, the four points
contained in the Vienna note, as a satisfactory
solution of the Eastern question, we offer no
opinion. But obviously, if it was intended to
treat on them honestly and fairly, there is no
just ground for that rupture of the negotiation
which. has taken place. To make European
peace or war depend on the point of whether
Russia is to maintain a few ships more or

It is a fatal objection to the motion at the
present time that it is not practical. Suppose
it carried, and what then? How long would
it take to effect that kind of Administrative
Reform which it meditates ? We recently
heard Mr Lowu himself, in his place in the
House, deliver an emphatic warning on the
danger of hasty reforms in the departments.
He instanced the confusion in which the War-
office was plunged by first throwing upon it
the business of the Secretary-at• War's office,
and then tumbling upon that all the work of
the Commissariat.

If it be admitted that our departments,
through some cause or other, fall far behind
the requirements of the public service, that
corrupt influences prevail, that mismanage-
ment is impairing the resources and breaking
down the strength of the nation—we say there
is one practical remedy for the evil—the
remedy which the Constitution prescribes, a
total change in the whole command and staff
of Administration. It is to pmvide this
remedy that representative assemblies exist,
and that parties.are formed within them.
When one set of men—sated with long posses-
sion of power, and bound hand and foot by all
those innumerable links which are insensibly
contract ed with official habitudes—are found
unequal to the vigorousduties ofAdministration,
constitutional government must break down
but for the vigilance of a party in Opposition,
eager to obtain office, and tosignalise itself by
infusing fresh vigour into every department of
the State. The House of Commons will play
the hypocrite if, affecting dissatisfaction with
the existing system of government, it avoids
the only course by which that system can be
radically changed.

A
rt 5