The Express.
London, England, 1855-01-22 00:00:00

ART AND SKILL
OF'

lomownto up the ,
M stoke a railroad from
AlLlllSlffilliffigie Docks to receive good*, sod 'Pet and
stomaitisspate them, are now to be ssot,it is said, to
that port, to restive the military stores • and firemen
Fe to be seat Um the London Brigade to watch
over the safety of the hospital at Scutari. Mr•
matriii, we are told also, is engaged at Patricroft in
manufwetnring a monster; wrought-iron gun, to mud
a huge shot four or five miles; and Mr. Wiuvworrn
is employing his great skill and scientific abilities in
constructing improved rifles, to make them more
efficacious and mon ordain instruments of dogtrot,-

tiom The Emperor of the FILEN= is, moreorer,
musing a great floating battery to be built, to carry
large guns and be itself invulnerable. This is properly
acting on the principle which has lung ago been
strenuously insisted on in this journal, without pre-
suming to suggest its appliance in detail, of bringing
all the art and skill of the civilised people of the
West of Europe to bear upon the prosecution of the

war in the most elloient Manner.
Nor can any one suppose, who looks at the pro-
gress of war in put times, that the application of
skill to construct instruments of destruction is un-
favourable to humanity and civilisation. In propor-
tion as war has become a contest of ingenuity, in
which muses of men are subsidiary as it were to the
use of powerful machinery and instruments, the
hateful passions of individuals are far less engaged
in the contest, and are less exasperated. War be-
comes in consequence las sanguinary and lees fro.
quint. When it is entirely a contest of individual
prowess, it is only ended by the death of ace of the
combatants; and thus the fights of the Indians end
in a general massacre, and are continued from gene-
ration to generation as long as any of the hostile
tribes remain in existence. But when powder, and
_ _

great pas, and ships, are employed, the damping of
the powder, the disabling of guns, the loss of masts or
the choking of a rudder, substitute the wreck of a
machine for the destruction of human life, and war

changes in a great measure from a massacre to the
destruction of wood, stone, and iron. The more
effective the instruments the more success will depend
on the skill vested in them, and the lees war will be-

come a great carnage. We cannot agree therefore
with Mr. Baia= in deploring, from a love of peace
and respect for humanity, that the great skill of Mr.
NABMITH, Mr. WinTwowra, and Mr. FAntsmate
should not be employed in rendering our weapons
of war efficient and destructive. Like the inventor
of gunpowder, they will save human life. Let
the public, therefore, bestow honour, and not die.
approbation, on these gentlemen ; and we, who
have contended that the ministers should act on this
principle, must record our approval of their present,
proceeding, though it be tardy.

We are not informed, indeed, how Mr. NAIIITTies
great gun is to be employed; but we cooties. to
Mine, notwithstanding the erection of the great
fleatleg battery at Cherbourg, that the smaller the
easels can be made to carry such a great gun con-
tingently with strength, and the flatter their floors
emmistently with stability, the better. The instru-
ment et assault should offer as small a mark to the
maw es possible, while it brings to bear on him
the greatest possible power of each projectile
conditions the very reverse of our great three-decked
ships with lofty masts and wide-spread sails such u
it has hitherto pleased the Admiralty, in subservi-
ence to old routine, chiefly to employ. Their supine-
ness in applying the skill of oar people to the
prosecution of the war, though it may have Mr,
Itirtear's approbation, is contrary to the national
honour and to the cause of humanity. The more
efficiently the war is conducted, the more the mecha-
nical power and knowledge of our people are brought
to bear on its operations, the shorter time it will last,
and the lees destructive it will be of life and social
prosperity. The generous instincts of the people,
which led them in the first instance to press for the
most vigorous prosecution of the war, and for call-
ing into activity all the destructive power of the nation,
was at once more nationally advantageous and
more promotive of humanity than the cold
reasoning of our diplomatists and the half-and-half
measures of our Ministers. Their indifference, their
negligence, their want of seal, may be explained by
their ignorance of the feelings and the power of
the society they pretend to govern; but, both on the
score of humanity and of the national glory, they
are wholly immutable. Not only will the country
demand an account from them of its noble army
wasted and its wasted treasures, but civilisation
will reproach them with having unnecessarily pro-
tracted all the horrors of war, and shed in vain tor-
rents of human blood.
For the mismanagement of the war, however,
neither the Ministers nor the Generals are exclu-
sively to blame. That the former have been ignorant,
carelese,and Lemke almost beyond example, in carrying
t ea is now, we believe, a general opinion, and had
either Mr. COBDEN or Mr. Biuntrr confined his con-
&Undies to them, and not assailed the people or the
pram, he would have received almost unanimous sup-
port. They have neither comprehended the vest extent
of the pewee they had to wield, nor applied the best
portion of it they have called into exercise efficiently.
Acting from a mere conservative love of routine, they
failed to perceive bow completely the whole military
power of the empire, from the Government and
the people being now identical, might be directed
against an enemy, and with ample forces at their
command, they sent 39,000 men to do the
work of 60,000, when, to make the matter
quite certain, they should have sent 100,000.
The small force, too, they sent was unprovided with
many, and indeed post, of the materials of war, and
for this they are deeply to blame, and must be made
to answer. That the generals, including the Com-
mander-in-Chief at home—who is surely responsible
foe providing all the materials for any Lora sent into
the isid—have misdirected the exertions of the brave
asersited to their command is now the opinion
of filierlellipetent military judges. They are charged
Ida Ed only neglecting all ordinary military preclu-
des% but with placing their troops in localities which
Jilt own authorities pronounced peetilential,and with
kiln at least carelessly sported with the lives of
lb* hoops. Bat admitting the errors and lamentable
abestennings both of Ministers and generals, the
pubs is not wholly blameless.
It does not follow out its own principles. It esta-
blishes properly and justly a control over' the
Ministers; it insists, as in reason it ought, on its
supremacy over all classes, cliques, sects, and little
minorities, of the whole united nation ; but it suffers
a few persons amongst the worst informed of the
whole to monopolies the administration of affairs. It
interferes with them now and then, to convince them
of its supremacy, but not enough to guide them, ands
make them walk by its knowledge and its will. It
regulates or calls on them to regulate publicohouses,
merchant ships, factories, cabs, and other minute
portions of industrial society; it calls on them to
provide education for the multitude and punishment
for criminals; but it leaves them, uncontrolled amis.
interbred with, to deal as they MN with the Willa!
powsmand the fogyism relations of the State. HOMO
the public finds itself unable to thread the mei* ill
diplomacy involved in a great war, and finds the mili-