The Press.
London, England, 1858-02-13 00:00:00

THE PRESS, FEBRUARY 13, 1858.

ARMY MORTALITY.
WI; are glad to learn that the Report of the
Royal Commission appointed to inquire into
the sanitary condition of the Army is con-
sidered to be of too great importance to be
intrusted even in the slightest degree to the
management of the Under-Secretary of State
for War•. In reply to a question addressed by
Mr. LAURIE to that functionary on Thursday
evening, no less a person than the Prime
Minister assured the House of Commons that
" the matter was far too important to the
" country to remain long without due atten-
" tion from the Government." It thus appears
that the Government has been as much taken
by surprise as the public by the tenor of the
Report, without, however, the same excuse
Considering that Lord PALMERSTON held the
post of Secretary-at. War for twenty years,
and that Lord PANMURE occupied the same
office for some years before he was placed
at the head of the War. Department, having
previously served for twelve years in the army,
it would hardly seem possible that they should
need to be told that barracks were imperfectly
ventilated, that the soldier was ill-fed, and that
the mortality among the troops in general was
frightful. It is simply absurd to lay the blame
upon the three colonels of the Regiments of
Foot Guards, upon the lieut.-colonels of those
corps, or upon Sir RICHARD AIREIr. So far
as Sir RICHARD AIREY is concerned in the
matter, it is only t 2 the extent of having
repeatedly advocated an im) roved mode of
cooking the soldiers' rations, to be ever
met with objections from Government, on
the score of expense. Plan after plan for
new cooking-stoves has been submitted to the
War Department, containing means for baking,
stewing, and boiling the soldiers' dinners, and
so providing the requisite change in their
meals ; but the answer of Lord PANMORE has
invariably been that he was not disposed to
alter the existing system—in other words, that
he, an old soldier• and the Minister responsible
to Parliament for tha efficiency and well-being
of the Army, after due deliberation, deemed it
most expedient that the British soldier should
subsist on boiled beef for twenty-one years
without variation ! In this opinion it appears
that Mr. HERBERT TAYLOR, C. 8., Deputy
Inspector• General of Hospitals, entirely coin-
cides ; and if It be true, as is stated in the
Times, that the services of this gentleman ar•e
of singular value to the British Army, we can-
not but consider that at least equal credit
should be assigned to those of Lard PANMCRE,
K.T., G.C.8., her Majesty's principal Secretary
of State for *War.

In the same manner we venture to assert
that the bad ventilation of the barracks
and its consequent evils arc entirely
chargeable to the Government. Officers in
command of the troops have repeatedly re-
presented to the authorities that the stench
of a barrack-room at night and in early morn-
ing is perfectly overpowering, and must be
most deleterious to the health of the troops.
To all these warnings a deaf ear has been
turned, or the usual answer given, to the effect
that "no expense can be incurred ; " Govern-
ment actuaries having probably computed to
their own satisfaction and that of their supe-
riors that it is true economy to allow an
effieient soldier to die from constantly
breathing a vitiated atmosphere, and to train
a recruit in his place at a cost of 30/. rather
than expend 101. in measures which nould
secure the health of his predecessor.
It may not appear evident at first sight why
barracks should have been constructed with so
total a disregard to health ; but here as before
the blame is imputable to Government, who,
instead of having employed civil architects
of repute to execute their works, have in-
trusted them exclusively to the care of officers
of the Royal Engineers. We do nat desire to
breathe one word against this gallant corps,
but ventilation is a science, and we should be
glad to know how the study for three years of
the theory of artillery and fortification, and
how a course of practical instruction for one
year in the art of marking out parallels, run-
ning a sap, and constructing a bastion, can be
held sufficient to qualify a man for duties of a
purely civil character. We should hardly
select Mr. GILBERT SCOTT to fortify Woolwich

if we wore in fear of an invasion; why then
should we choose a colonel of engineers to con-
struct buildings which above all others demand
the highest application of a particular science
to provide for the health of their numerous
occupants? But the engineer officer is not
even permitted to exercise his own discretion;
for, after having prepared his plan with the
utmost care, he is compelled to forward it to
head-quarters, and then, with a view to save
expense, it is probably altered in every pos-
sible way by men who have never seen the
proposed site, and have no means of being
aware of the reasons which induced the officer
to make the different arrangements. Finally,
the mutilated design is returned, and must be
carried out to the letter, the engineer being
allowed no latitude whatever, and not daring,
however urgent the necessity, to exceed his
estimates a single shilling. If civil architects
were so hampered, we may safely assert that
not an edifice worthy of the name would be
erected in the kingdom.
We have as yet enumerated but two of the
causes of the fearful mortality among our troops
—space forbids us to enter upon a further di-
vision of the subject ; but enough has been
stated to remove any surprise at the statement
that the soldiers of the British army die off twice
as fast as the men of any other class of the
population. We trust, however, that if the
evil is now apparmt the remedy is also evi-
dent ; and we are confident that if the House
of Commons will follow out the course indi-
cated by Mr. LAURIE, and insist upon the
Minister for War encouraging some of the
many schemes for new cooking-stoves, and for
improved ventilation in barracks, the com-
paratively small expense which at first must
be incurred will be • saved over and over
again in the increased health and efficiency
of the men, putting aside all considera-
tion of their comfort and moral improvement,
and resting the question solely upon econo-
mical grounds.

tion as closely as he might, and it might bo
invidious to do so ; but his testimony as to
the non-success of large constituencies in
introducing young statesmen to the Senate is
deeply important and worthy of particular
note.

It cannot be denied that the word " Reform"
has a great amount of illusive influence over
some classes of the public, and it must he ad-
mitted that Mr. DISRAELI was fully justified
five years ago, when the Right Honourable
Gentleman pointed out the necessity for "Ad-
mini,itratire Reform." The idea was happy
and the principle then enunciated was a sound
one ; but the Liberals did not wish that public
opinion should be directed to practical objects,
because by doing so they would have lost
their " platform." and their alliance with that
portion of the populace which they so adroitly
employ to counterfeit " the people." The view
then urged by Mr DISRAELI is now indirectly
assented to by Earl GREY. The Noble Lord
thinks that one of the defects of the Bill of
1832 " was that it failed to provide adequately
" against the danger that the removal of abuses
" might incidentally weaken too much the
" power of the Government in Parliament."
The Noble Lord then proceeds to argue that
a Government, such as administration has
apparently been since the Bill of 18:32, has
" a natural tendency to become corrupt." Its
want of inherent power, and its feeble grasp of
the Executive, must place " Government,"
according to Earl GREY, under constant
temptation to become corrupt. It would,
indeed, appear that the abuses of patronage
against which the public have so loudly ro-
monstrated were to a considerable extent
produced by the weakness of the Executive ;
and for those abuses, which cannot be denied,
"Administrative Reform," so powerfully urged
by Mr. DISRAELI, could be the only true cure.
Enlarging constituencies, deteriorating the
suffrage, destroying the constitutional rela-
tionship of hereditary parties, and annihilating
prescriptive territorial influences, supply the
means for making the evils eloquently de-
scribed by Earl GREY become still worse and
worse.

The pamphlet of Mr. RICH, the Member for
Richmond, the author of " What will the
Lords do ?" is entitled "Parliamentary
Reform; What and Where?" and, according
to its writer, we should have Reform in
everything and everywhere. It has been said
of this production that the reputation as a
pamphleteer gained by Mr. RICH in the crisis
of the old Reform Bill has been lost by his
recent literary venture. On this occasion the
Member for Richmond has not achieved a
success. His essay is like the synopsis of
the contents of a book ; his observations
strike right and left. He goes round and
round his subject, but he never goes through
it with the trenchant logic and incisive style
that one expects in a pamphleteer of repute.
Mr. Ricii admits that since the Reform Bill
" Public expenditure has not been reduced ;
" peace has not been preserved ; official responsi-
" bility has become a dead letter" (pp. 8,9). These
are strong admissions from a candid Liberal,
and they show that in the present state of
things " Administrative" Reform would be the
fit remedy, and that the reckless scheme of
disfranchisement, as contemplated by the
Cabinet, ►will not meet the evils described by
Mr. Rico with such a fatal frankness.
The whole truth about " Reform" is that the
country does not want Parliamentary changes
which would only force on the necessity for
further movements, until the whole Constitu-
tion would be placed on a sliding scale. Social
improvement, judicious official alterations,
and practical ameliorations, are certainly most
desirable ; but these are not to be looked for
from the Liberals, who substitute claptraps in
their stead. The " Reformers" may, now-a-
days, be divided into three classes. First,
there is the old " Radical Menagerie," which
has exhausted leaders for its chiefs, mere de-
claimers out of doors, and not administrators
inside Parliament ; secondly, there is an ano-
malous class of pamphleteering system-
mongers, whose views end where they begin—
in a profuse expenditure of printer's ink ; and
thirdly, there is the " Palmerston Tail," which
will use the foregoing classes as convenience
dictates, and for the sake of acquiring politi-

MI

140

cal capital play fast and loose with " Reform."
At present the third of these classes is the
most dangerous, because the most deceitful,
and because it is in power.

tartign 6 out spoubture.

Paus, Feb. 11.
THE appointment of General Espinasse to the
responsible post of Minister of the Interior is an
event of the highest importance. It is not the mere
exchange of one statesman for another, nor is it
the success of a Party or Court intrigue. It
is to a certain extent a complete change of policy.
General Espinasse is not only Minister of the Inte-
rior, but he is Minister of Public Safety. This latter
title requires some explanation. It cannot be
denied that the Red Republicans have for some time
past been actively organising secret societies, not
only in France, but in other countries, and that at
the meetings of these demagogues it had been
resolved to establish one universal republic through.
out Europe. To accomplish this, the necessity of
destroying several reigning sovereigns was primary
and apparent. Desperate fanatics, as we have
recently seen, were not wanting to carry out the
atrocious resolves of the secret conspirators, and
hence the necessity of combating these measures by
exceptional means. Ido not mean to-day to enter
into minute details of the ramifications of these

dangerous societies as at present discovered. On
some future occasion, perhaps, I will give you
some curious facts ; but at present my object is
to point out to you—and here I am supprted
by the public opinion of. France—that General
Espinasse, as Minister of the Interior and
Public Safety, is more capable to coun-
teract and suppress the plots of not only the Red
Republicans, hut of demagogues of every descrip
tion, than was plain M. Billault, Minister only of
the Interior. Objections have been made, though
certainly not in France, to the Minister of the In-
terior because he is a military man. I might reply,
in the emphatic language made use of by M. Dupin,
the celebrated lawyer, on the election of Louis
Philippe as King of the French, that this nomina-
tion was not quoique, mail parceque, it etait Gineral.
Conspirators will now know with whom they
have to deal, and the punishment that awaits
them on conviction. But why should a military man
be less Minister of the Interior in France than a
civilian hold the post of First Lard of the Admiralty
In England? But General Espinasse is not the first
military officer who has been placed at the head of a
civil department. General Carnot was Minister of
the Interior in 1815, and General Savary (Duke de
Rovigo) during the reign of Napoleon I. was
Minister of the General Police of the Empire. Of all
men the Republicans have the least right to complain
of the general's nomination, for in 1848 they placed
M. Arago, an astronomer, at the bead of the army as
Minister of War. That General Espinasse is the
" right man in the right place " is acknowledged by
every one but the turbulent and dissatisfied. He not
only possesses the confidence of the Emperor, but
from his affability and dignity commands the esteem
and respect and good opinion of all those who have
had the honour of his acquaintance. He is inflexibly
just, is possessed of great determination, and has
managed some confidential missions to the marked
satisfaction of the Emperor. General Espinasse will
be most admirably seconded by M. Cornusu, the
Secretaire-General, a gentleman of high adminis-
trative talent, sound judgment, and conciliatory
manners. General Espinasse has also been fortunate
in his choice of a private secretary, M. Leopold
Montz, a gentleman of great literary talent. M.
Billault carries with him into private life the friend.
ship of every eminent man in France. He was
beloved by all those employed in his office, and, I
may say, esteemed by everybody. M. Billault may yet
in the Senate render much service to the country
by his sound and practical judgment.
The violent language of certain members of Par-
liament in England has created a painful sensation
throughout France, and it is believed by many that
there exists a desire to break up the alliance between
the two countries. Those, however, who have
visited England are convinced that neither Mr.
Roebuck nor the peaceful Mr. Gilpin represents any
great portion of the British nation. They shrug
their shoulders, and content themselves by saying
" les maladroit.!" All the Frenchmen I have seen
capable of reasoning complain bitterly of the con-
tinual attacks made by the English democratic
journals against the Emperor and his Government,
and say that they in some measure justify the un-
reflected ardour of some military officers. It has
been said that these papers being seized at the post-
office are consequently not read in France. This is
not so; for almost every article against the Era-