The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-05 00:00:00

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

Blackwood this month, though not deficient in
entertaining matter, offers some solid reading upon
solid subjects. Military Education, Genesis and
Geology, and the Bengal Mutiny are assisted by
some lively chapters from the eloquent pen of
Fisistratus Caxton, the continuation of the " Scenes
of Clerical Life," an instructive paper upon " Sea.
side Studies," and some pleasant and entertaining
" Memoranda from the Manzanares " by the welcome
pen of Vedette. The article upon "Military Educa•
tion " is a careful analysis of the report of the commis-
sioners upon the reorganisation of the scientific
corps of our army. The principal object of this
commission was an examination into the chief
military schools of the great continental powers,
Austria, France, and Prussia, as well as of Sardinia.
Of the educati final systems followed by these powers,
that of Austria is considered the best. It is curious
VI contrast the amount of money granted by our
Government for the education of its military officers
with the stuns paid by the continental Govern-
ments :

To maintain and render effective the several establish-
ments here enumerated, the four countries visited by the
commissioners submit to a very large outlay. Austria, as
we have shown, expends about 400,0001. a year in this
manner ; of which enormous sum 127,0001. appears to be
devoted to the education of officers exclusively. In France
the annual expenditure amounts to 72,0001., of which
4'2,0001. is absorbed by the education of officers alone ;
while in Prussia, a much poorer country than France, the
training of officers requires the outlay of 26,0001. In Eng-
land we have our two departments at Sandhurst—the
junior far cadets, the senior for officers—with Woolwich,
and Atidiscombe, and Chatham, wherein young men are
trained for the artillery and engineer services by the Crown
and by the East India Company. Yet the total annual
outlay incurred by the nation (we put out of view the
arrangements made by the Company) falls something
short of •'a,MAII. Is it to be wondered at if, in the Crimea
and elsewhere, our armies, victorious in the field, break
down for lack of skill and resources in military adminis-
tration?

Next month the reviewer promises us to continue
the subject in detail, and to state original views upon
what the country can and ought to do towards carry-
ing into effect a great plan for the better education
of officers of all arms. The article upon the Bengal
mutiny, though necessarily written in the face of
important changes in the position of affairs announced
by every mail, displays great skill in its careful
detail. The writer indicates his estimate of the
ability of her Majesty's Ministers to meet the crisis
with success :

The disaffection which, long smouldering in the Bengal
army, began to show itself in action as early as January
last, attained to a crisis in the second week of May. An
official narrative of its rise and progress was despatched
from Calcutta on the 18th of that month. Lord Ellen.
borough. with his usual vigilance, adverted to the subject
in the House of Lords on the 4th June, and was answered
by Lord Granville, that he hoped the accounts were exag•
gerated ! Two days alter, Mr. Vernon Smith, in opposing
the petition of some missionaries in Bengal, told the house
" it could not he disguised that considerable disaffection
prevailed among the troops, in consequence of a prevalent
notion that a compulsory conversion of the natives was
intended." He added, that. "it was not his wish to alarm
the house or the public—the agitation, he trusted, was
limited to a few of the troops, and would speedily be
repressed " ! The I'resident of the Board of Control was
at this time in possession of despatches announcing the
disappearance of six regiments from the strength of the
Bengal army, the commission of horrible atrocities by
the sepoys on their officers, and the seizure of Delhi with
the proclamation of a Mussulinan emperor! To Lord
Ellenborough's suggestion that a proclamation should be
issued to tranquillise the angry suspicions of the native
soldiery, Lori Granville replied—for there must always be
a reply—that the Indian Government had acted judiciously
in not taking any such step. Yet, if his lordship had read
his despatches, he would have found that a similar mimes.
Lion had proceeded from the Lieutenant Governor of the
North-Western Provinces; and the proclamation was
actually issued by the Governor General on the lOth of
May!
So unequal, too, was the action of the home authorities
to the emergency reported, that, notwithstanding the loud
cry from India for the immediate despatch of every English
)Idier that could be spared, it was thought enough, as
late as the end of June, to have placed four regiments
under orders to embark for India. Happily 10,000 men
had returned to Bombay from the Persian expedition, and
the force despatched from this country for China will have
been diverted to a duty more consonant with justice and
. . .

the security of the Ilritish empire. For these* reinforce-
ments, however, the Indian Government is no way indebted
to the foresight or judgment of the Cabinet at home. Their
mouthpiece in the House of Lords again assured us, on
the 29th June, that the disaffection in India was " exag•
gerated by the noble earl. There was no occasion for
alarm. and it was quite unnecessary to call out the militia."
On the same evening the President of the Board of Control
told the other house that the additional forces were sent
out simply as a measure of security, not at all as believing
the empire of India to be in peril.