The Press.
London, England, 1855-02-17 00:00:00

FEBRUARY 17, 1855.

in those very garrisons, ready on the first
emergency to be poure 1 into the Crimea.
But the Militia Act fills up these barracks,
absorbs a great part of the available accom-
modation, and prevents useful troops from
finding quarters. Troops should with all pos-
sible speed be sent forward to hold these for-
tresses, and our only fear is that the accom-
modation will not be sufficient for their wants.

In a few weeks, on the opening of spring,
the Czar will be pushing down enormous rein-
forcements, the whole disposable resources of
his empire. It will require a gigantic effort on
our part to meet him. No profusion in ob
taining men, or economy in employing them,
can be too great.

THE WAR-OFFICE AND ITS BLUNDERS.
IN a previous article we have assigned some
reasons why the Committee of Inquiry voted
by the House of Commons should be actively
prosecuted, and we particularly alluded to the
case of the War Department. Let us now in
more detail, look into the different branches of
that department, and show the use of in-
quiry to ascertain who were the authors of the
disgraceful omissions of absolute requisites
in the various branches of " The Sick and
Wounded," " Food," " Fuel," Clothing for the
Troops," " Transports," "Ammunition."
1. We want to know the reason why the
Medical Department was ill-supplied with
surgeons, ambulances, and the most common
drugs ? In the last week there is authentic
evidence to show that at Balaklava there were
no specifics for inevitable cases of disease.
" We haven't got any," was the stereotyped
reply to surgeons asking for anti-choleraic
drugs Iv ho are the parties to blame for the
absence of ambulances, and for the other in-
dispensable necessaries wanted in the Medical
Department?

2. Who was it that sent the old pensioners, in
firm in limb, and drunken in habits, to attend
upon and carry wounded British soldiers Give
us a committee to know the whole truth
there.

3. It was positively denied ex officio that lint
was wanted. Yet, when Miss NIGHTINOALZ
arrived, that lady found that the charge was not
only true, but, after several weeks had elapsed,
nothing was done to remedy so horrible a neglect.
Is a British people to be told, forsooth, that
" nobody" is to be held responsible, and to be
punished for such scandalous neglects, and
equally shameful perversion of the truth?
4. So long since as the 4th of December it
was stated by the Times correspondent :—" The
" articles which are arriving to-day by the
" Belgravia should have been here long ago." In
the same letter Mr. RUSSELL gave many in-
instances of how the army bad suffered from-
1. Want of clothing; 2. Want of fuel ; 3. Want
of shelter ;4. Want of FOOD Lord GREY said
in the House of Peers that " the absolute ne-
" eessity of a winter campaign should have
" been foreseen." But Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT
took credit to himself that in the session of
'54 he warned Parliament that Russia would
defend its dominions with its old hardihood. Very
well ; let us have a committee to discover how
the four wants—clothing, fuel, food, and
shelter—were grossly neglected by the proper
authorities, until the army starved and rotted.
6. Who were the officials that sent out green
toffee to soldiers in the Crimea ? Are the parties
who committed such outrageous blunders, as
sending coffee, in the green berry, to men who
had no means for grinding or roasting it—are
these parties, we ask, still in the Queen's service
6. The want of transport for baggage, &c.,
&c., has caused dire evils. Cavalry horses
hid to be given up to the Commissariat, and the
men toiling in the trenches had to fag after•

151

winner of the " Newdegate" is a Prize Poet.
His mind and his office are models of " order,"
a word which comprises his ideal of adminis-
tration. it is the triumph and the defence
of his " department." When real work has to
be done, he " takes order" for it. It its non-
performance is detected and censured, he
vindicates himself by glibly proving that order
has been taken. The most notorious and
disastrous failures in the result are altogether
immaterial in the presence of such a plea.
Official precedent has been followed, official
routine religiously observed, and who shall
blame the department or the functionary?
Other departments echo tho defence. From
Pembroke-house to head-quarters in the
Crimea there are orders everywhere, even
though performance can be found nowhere. If
Sebastopol could have been taken " by order,"
the tale of the wandering Tatar would have
been true at the time. _

Last session Mr. FREDERICK PEEL delivered
one crack speech while defending the Colonial-
office in re the " Orange River Sovereignty."
There could be nothing neater than the array
of the documents which he " held in his
hand" on that occasion, excepting the
arrangement of his arguments ; and these were
unanswerable—upon Downing-street consi-
derations. True, the prestige of England had
been forfeited in the Cape colony by an osten-
sible occupation of territory which was subse-
quently abandoned. True, the loyalty and
prosperity of the frontier population were sub-
jected to a rude shock. True, that many hun-
dred families were induced to settle in a dis-
trict sheltered as they supposed by British
protection, afterwards suddenly withdrawn.
But notwithstanding all this there could be no
flaw discovered in the Under-Secretary's vin-
dication of his department. Every proceedinf
had been undertaken " decently and in order,'
according to the strictest proprieties of the
bureau. No tradition of the office had been
violated, and no despatch strayed into the
wrong pigeon-hole.
And this is the Minister who, in the crisis of
a great war, is appointed to take an important
share in the administration of the War Depart-
ment. He is preferred to Mr. LsvAan—who,
we suppose, is deemed too " disorderly "—and
supersedes Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT, genteelly
dismissed by pzomotion to the Home-office.
Taking the appointment as the symbol of the
new Ministerial policy, it shows that the re-
cent shuffle of cyphers on the Treasury bench
has produced no change in the ultimate
resultant. At a time when the national glory
is sacrificed to routine, when our noble army
is bound down amidst its want and despair by
fetters of red tape, the management of military
affairs is in great measure committed to an
official to whom routine has become an
idiosyncracy—who has been well said to have
been born, and not made, a red-tapist ! Among
the whole array of coalesced placemen on the
Treasury bench, or back bench, it would have
been difficult to make a more inappropriate
selection. Any one of his colleagues, past,
present, or expectant, would have been fitter,
under existing circumstances, for the post
than the present Under Secretary-at-War.
For " Peel's clerks " some useful function
might be found in the lower departments of
administration, But what can be made of his
son ?

THE NAVIGATION OF THE GODAVERY.
A PUBLIC MEETING was lately held at Man-
chester on the subject of the navigation of OP
Godavery, which we think will be productive
of a great amount of public good. It was
attended by the Members for Manchester and
by many of the principal manufacturers there,
and was addressed by Colonel Corms, so well