The Express.
London, England, 1855-02-26 00:00:00

'G, FEBRUARY 26, 1855.

siege artillery, and our field artillery, to be deplore-
defective In 1854 P How came, too, all
the artillery traine, and the driver corps,
which properly belong to that department,
to be a rain? What he did at ,the Ordnance—
;wording to the bout of his friends, and his own
boast—was to restore a portion of the field artillery
which had been suffered to fall utterly into decay.
Bat supplies for field artillery were never withheld.
Money was voted for it in the estimates year after
year; and if it were not kept up to an efficient state,
there must hays been in that department great neg-
ligence or great corruption. Lord HARDINGE con-
caged or screened it; and instead of having done well
at the Ordnance, he neglected at the Ordnance his
duty to the country. He is now accused of neglect-
ing a still more important duty at the Horse Guards;
and he must be taught that the committee
and the country will not screen him, if he
has helped to cause the present mournful waste of
the national treasure, the national blood, and the
national renown. If he should take refuge behind
the SECRETARY TOR WAR, and plead that he fulfilled
the instructions of the Ministers—that he had nothing
to do with the equipment of the troops and the ap-
pointment of the officers, and that he is in reality a
powerless dummy—the nation will learn that the
nominal head of all its military establishment, and
his staff of four aides-de-camp, and Adjutant-General,
and Quartermaster-General, with scores of clerks,
messengers, itnd assistants, is altogether a great sham,
except the huge salaries. Falsities, everywhere fatal
to continued success, will certainly not do in the
military service; and if the General Commanding-in-
Chief be a great sham, and not responsible for all the
equipment of the army, the sooner such a scanda-
lous and costly delusion is got rid of, the sooner we
shall make an approach to an efficient military
system. For stocks, and pipe-clayed belts, and Albert
hats, and such despicable trumpery, it is not denied
that the General Commanding-in• Chief should be
responsible; such things have occupied the attention
of the department, and why, then, should it not be le-
-1 sponsible for great-coats and all kinds of sufficient
clothing P—why not for tents and arms and accoutre-
, meats of all kinds required by the-troops to carry on
war? Title and character hold Lord HARDINGE up
to the country as responsible for the fate of the
army; he is required now to satisfy the public that
he is not at this moment the mast culpable man in the
; empire; and the Committee should summon first
before it, as the head of the chief department, bound
to minister to the wants of the army, General Lord
, HARDINGE. The Horse Guards, the seat and centre
, of all the military power of the nation below the
Crown, should first be called on to answer for the
collapse of our military power.—Daily News.

ACCOUNTS OF THE BOARD OF TRADE.
TO rut NOITOR OF THZ DAILY 2111W11.

consequence of the complaints which are
often made of delay in the preparation and issue of
the Board of Trade monthly accounts, I beg to offer
some short explanations, which will, I trust, show
that no exertions are spared to furnish the accounts
In the shortest practicable time.
It is to be observed, that in order to frame the
Trade and Navigation accounts every port in the
United Kingdom has to prepare a total of the imports
and exports of each of the principal articles in the
past month, and to transmit the return to the Cus-
tom-house in London, where the
.aggregate for the
United Kingdom is made. This is no small amount
of labour, and probably three weeks will not be con-
sidered a long period for the accomplishment of it.
In about that time after the close of each month of
account (oa the sth day) the Custom-house transmits
the accounts for the single month to the Statistical
Department, which brings the date to the 27th, or a
day or two later in the month. The current aggre-
gate has then to be added up, to present the triennial
comparime, and the whole of the accounts have to be
printed, revised, and read over, before presentation.
For these duties three days (including 24 hours at the
printer's) are very rarely exceeded in the Statistical
Department; and it will be found that the accounts
have generally been issued within from 25 to 28
days after their date. A Sunday at the end of the
month makes a difference of one day. With regard
to the twelve months' account more time is always
required, because, as is explained in a note to the
import and export accounts to the sth of January last,
the figures which have appeared in the separate
monthly accounts in the past year are revised at its
close.

The twelve months' account, ended Oth January,
hes generally been issued about the 21st of February.
Oa the present occasion it was the 22nd. And with
reference to the last date I must add, as a proof that
no time is lost in the Statistical Department, that the
Custom-house was not able to complete and finish the
import account before last Wednesday afternoon. It
was made up and sent to the printer the same even-
ing ; returned by the printer at 4 o'clock on Thurs-
day ; read over, corrected, and returned for press that
evening, and the complete accounts were issued on
Friday. I am, &c,
A. W. FONBLANQUE.
Statistical Department, Board of Trade, Feb. 23.

THE BARNSTAPLE ELECTION.

On Saturday', the committee re-assembled. Mr.
J. M. Butt is the chasir' .

been examined,
The Chairman said he had to state, for the information of
counsel, that the committee were unanimously of opinion
that the. evidence that -bad been given on the part of the
petitioner had not established the want of qualification on
the part of Kr. Guianese, the sitting member.
Mr. SerMant Hinglake mid they would proceed with the
other parts of the as on Monday.
Mr. Slade applied to the committee to co eider if this was
not a fit cam for them to give costs to Mr. Osmium.
The Chairman having moulted his colleague, said that
it was not a case in which casts should be given.
The committee then adjourned until Monday.