The Press.
London, England, 1854-12-16 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

was still as fiercely martial amidst every cir-
cumstance that could deaden the emotions of
ordinary men. But our heroes in the Crimea
are not of ordinary mould. They are not like
the serfs of despotism, flogged into skill and
intoxicated into courage. They are militant
freemen, with self-respect and reverence for
duty. Our soldiers see before their eyes the
favourite sons of the flower of the English
gentry—absent from castle, park, and hall—
braving the tempest as they dared the perils
of the field, courting death in the service of
that land of old and just renown, with whose
annals many of their names are immortally
identified.

Ay ! truly there is one heart-cheering re-
flection suggested by the Crimean campaign.
The old blood of England has not degene-
rated in its sons. Sustained hardihood under
trial still continues to be the manly charac-
teristic of our name. We have assimilated
into one great British race the stalwart prowess
of the Norman and the patient spirit of the
Saxon, and happily qualified the generous
mixture with the freshness of the Gael. In
spite of crowded factories and teeming alleys,
of the depressing toil of trade, and of the
corrupting influences of piles of wealth, the
manhood of the land joyfully advances to the
struggle against gigantic difficulties. With
uncowering front it hearkens to the roar of
the battle and the tempest, it mocks at certain
perils, and is undismayed by the terrors of the
instant, shipwreck, or the agonies of the
lingering hospital. Yes! when the hurricane
broke over the Crimea on the 14th of Novem-
ber last, Nature's spectacle was sublime in its
wierd magnificence. But the hold army that
braved its wrath, that beat back the multi-
tudinous enemy, and did not succumb to the
wrath of the elements, present a sight far
more sublime. The tempest has past and has
done its worst. Our army survives to add to
glories which shall never pass away.

THE FOREIGN MERCENARIES' BILL.
NEVER, since a vote of the House of Commons
compelled the removal from England of
WILLIAM'S Dutch Guards, has so unanimous,
and, as far as we can judge, so universal a
feeling of patriotic indignation pervaded the
community as that which now prevails
wherever the debate of Thursday night is
known. The Foreigners' Enlistment Bill, as
it stands, is a gratuitous insult to the English
people, offered without cause or excuse, at a
moment when rich and poor, Tory and Radi-
cal, soldier and civilian, are exerting them.
selves alike to maintain inviolate the honour
of that nationality which is common and dear
to all. We say an insult, for Ministers thereby
tell friend and enemy, France and Russia,
NICHOLAS and NAPOLEON, in the face of
astonished Europe, that the internal resources
of this country are inadequate for its protec-
tion. We say a gratuitous insult, because, by
the confession of all parties, no war recorded
in our annals has been more popular than the
presant. None has been more heartily taken
up by the nation as its own ; at no time has
private munificence been so largely displayed
in succouring the wants of our soldiers. That
there is a real lack of recruits in England %sill
not be easily credited. Lancashire, whose
population is principally urban and manufac-
turing, is perhaps less possessed with the
military spirit than that of most other coun-
ties ; yet in Lancashire, as we personally know,
operatives earning 30s. weekly by the ordinary
amount of labour have left their occupations
and their homes to join in the hardships of a
Crimean campaign, and that, too, not ignorantly
nor unthinkingly, hut with a full foreknow-
ledge of the nature of the service for which
they volunteered. Talk, after this, of the im-
possibility of finding soldiers in England !
Why, if there be any momentary difficulty
(though even that we doubt), let a circular be
sent to the lord lieutenants of the counties, to
the magistrates, to all half pay officers, to
every private gentleman of influence and sta-
tion, to every one, in short, who can and will
help on the good work. Raise the bounty,

1179

increase the pay—above all, lot promotions
from the ranks be granted with no sparing
hand. Depend upon it, English officers and
gentlemen will not quarrel with comrades,
however humble their origin, who have won
their honours on the field. The conventional
distinctions of peace vanish before the stern
necessities of a campaign. Ceremony is a
dress too cumbrous to fight in. Such measures
may do something to aid the recruiting ser-
geant—the roused enthusiasm of the nation
will, we believe, accomplish the rest. If other
sources of strength can be indicated, let none
be refused.
Possibly we may find it expedient, next
spring, when the Baltic opens, to deal less
tenderly than heretofore with Russian com-
merce. Possibly a judicious hint about
Polish independence may not be without its
effect. We shall not be inclined to question
too nicely, in this great life and death struggle,
whether the result of our policy may be to
upset a continental throne or two. Such a
mishap, should it chance, is not irreparable.
But that while the militia, the constitutional
and customary defence of England, is sent
out of the country, our strong places should
be held, our barracks filled, our very towns
" occupied " the word is understood in
Europe—by a cut-throat rabble of German
mercenaries, hired for the occasion, as in the
American war, from Hesse, Baden, or Belgium,
will not for an hour be endured by a proud
and sensitive people. This is a matter in
which reason, and what philosophers call pre-
judice, point the same way. Deep will be the
disgust, and loud the remonstrance, among the
heroes of Alma, Inkermann, and Balaklava,
when it becomes known in their camp that
they are henceforth to admit on terms of social
quality—to fraternise with—any ragged ruffian
whom despair, poverty, or a taste for brigand-
age, may incline to the honourable vocation of
doing slaughter for hire. We shall not be
misunderstood if we say that this prejudice
(let those who will call it so) is supported
by reason, an.l based on the deepest principles
of our human nature.

In the morality of almost all countries
and all ages, it has been acknowledged that
there are two causes, and two only, in
which a man may legitimately, and with ho-
nour, lay down his life: that of religious truth
and that of his nationality. In the most ac-
curate estimate of merit which man can form,
the two characters—those of patriot and
martyr—stand side by side, and very near
one another. But if the fall of the soldier,
fighting in defence of his country, abroad or
at home, be invested with the sanctity which
belongs to a duty conscientiously discharged,
how stands it with the mercenary ? Brutal
courage is his highest praise ; the consent of
mankind execrates his trade ; neither pity nor
glory wait upon his grave ; the very Govern-
ment which employs, loathes him as a neces-
sary evil , and, morally, he is a murderer. We
can admit no difference between the ruffian
who (as in Ireland not long since) undertakes
for half-a-crown to shoot a person previously un-
known to him, and from whom he has received
no quarrel, and the captain, colonel, or general,
be his rank what it may, who seeks to push his
fortune by slaughtering his fellow-men in a
quarrel which is not that of his nation, and
wherein he interferes merely as an adventurer.
We contend then, first, that, as a question of
expediency, no measure could be more skil-
fully devised for the purpose of checking the
military spirit among our countrymen than
that of this foreign enlistment. Next, we
feel that, by this confession of weakness,
the prestige of the English Government is
weakened abroad ; while, after all, we shall
only obtain an inferior article at the same price
as we paid for the best. And, lastly, as mo-
ralists, we protest—vainly, it may be, but with
earnest grief and indignation—against a retro-
grade step in morality and civilisation, a step
far less worthy of us than of that enemy who
intoxicates his soldiers to make them fight, and
encourages his officers to stab wounded men on
the ground. Let Parliament do its duty, and
this miserable measure may never be suffered
to disgrace our statute-book. But, if it should
pass—and we can appreciate the feeling of
those who find it difficult at such a moment
to refuse assistance to Ministers in any form—

..•

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the nation will still have its duty to perform.
A resolute display of patriotic spirit, in which
town and country shall alike take part—in
which, on the one hand, English aid shall be
proffered without stint ; and, on the other, a
full determination expressed to allow no fo-
reign garrison within the four seas—such a
moment may at once save us from the threat-
ened pollution, and possibly lead to the for-
mation—late, but lasting—of au united na-
tional party.
_ _

FOREIGN ENLISTMENT SCHEME.
TuE proposal to enlist foreigners in the English
army reminds us how the Revolution Parlia-
ment refused to entertain the earnest entreaty
of King WILLIAM the Timm for permission to
retain his Dutch Guards. The very name of
them was offensive to the national spirit, and
the Legislature would not consent to the
Ding's request. It was in vain that the hero
of the Protestant cause pleaded the personal
services of his troops to himself and to the
nation. Parliament was peremptory. We
take from its records the following anxious
entreaty from W:LLIAM the Tmno. On the
lath of March, laag, the Speaker read the
following message :
WILLIAM REK,

Hia Majesty is pleased to let the House know that the
necessary preparations are made for transporting the
Guards who came with him to England; and that he in-
tends to scud them away immediately, unless out of consi-
deration to him the House be disposed to find a way for
continuing them longer in his service, which his Majesty
woad take very kindly.
And how did the House reply to that en-
treaty ? On a question being proposed, " that
" a day be appointed to consider of his
" Majesty's message, the question that
" that question be now put, and it was decided
"in the negative." And afterwards, on the 20th
of March, on the motion of Lord Nome's, the
House addressed the Throne, assuring King
WILLIAM " that it was an unspeakable grief
" that anything should be asked to which they
" cannot consent without doing violence to that
"Constitution your Majesty came over to restore
" and preserve." And all the historians who
have treated of the subject concur in the pro-
priety of the course followed by Parliament.
It is moat remarkable that the learned editors
of Bishop BURNET'S curious history, writing in
the last century, have inserted a note, which
is highly suggestive at the present hour :
" They (the Commons) rightly felt that the
Onards of England should be Englishmen,
" not only for the sake of the national honour,
" but because otherwise it would be a precedent for
" the permanent employment of foreign troops,
" the most effectual mode of enslaving and
" enervating a nation. Rome declined front the
" moment that she employed mercenary legions."
Aud so must every other power wither, when
military glory is sought for vicariously, when
national spirit is suffered to languish, an,'
foreign troops are hired to fight battles.

THE " TOO LATE" DUKE'S
ADMISSIONS.
IT is evident that the Duke of NEWCASTLE is
becoming painfully conscious that he is not
equal to the exigencies of his position. MI
England asks—" Is our War Minister capable
" of great measures ?" And his Grace, without
intending to do so, answers negatively in the
House of Peers. On Tuesday his speech was
confused in manner, inconclusive in argu-
ment, and full of fatal admissions against
himself. !n many respects it was an acknow-
ledgment of the charges brought against him,
for there was one constantly recurrent phrase,
which grated harshly in the ears of his audience,

and appears oftener in the parliamentary re-
port than we have time to count, namely,
6‘ Hoe, again, I am about to (ulnae." He did
this thing, and he did that, and he was going
to do the other ; but, as Lord DERBY told him,
it was all " too late." And with the specimens
of parliamentary debate to which his Grace