The Express.
London, England, 1855-04-04 00:00:00

HOW THE PUBLIC BUSINESS IS CON-

MR. ROLBUCICS Committee stands adjourned to
the 17th inst. On Friday—when the Committee

held its last sitting before the holidays- a good deal
of time area wasted before a quorum could be got to-

gather. Three or four of the members had sys-
tematically absented themselves for some days pre-
vious. These symptoms ought not to be passed over,
without comment. Our readers *moot have forgotten
how, at the time when the Committee we. nomi-
nated, several members rose in their plates in the
House of Commons to declare that, though they

had consented to serve upon it, they disapproved of
the inquiry. Those who have closely watched the
proceedings of the Committee, have been struck with
the obvious efforts of one member to turn the inquiry
in the direction of the French army, it having been
made one of the main objections to the appointment
of the Committee that it must necessarily touch upon
the proceedings of our Allies, and thereby give um-
brage to the. French Government. Nay, some who
have acct. behind the scenes do not scruple to in-
sinuate that the same member of the Committee has
been insidiously labouring to work upon the personal
susoeptibilities of some of his colleagues, with the view
to produce an explosion that might bring the inquiry
to a premature close. Without pausing to inquire how
far the symptoms of relaxed interest evinced by some
members of the Committee may be taken as forerun-
ners of a cessation of its researches, or to what extent the
reluctant participators in the investigation may
be trying to obstruct their more zealous confreres,
thus much may be taken for granted, that the Ors.
mittee is looked upon with unfriendly eyes is Idgis
quarters, and that preparations are being made to
inaugurate • system of pooh-poohing it during the
recess, preparatory to clapping an extinguisher
ppm it.

The sagacity and persevering disposition of Mr.
ROLBUCK afford good security that this huddioss
game will be played in vain. There is no
harm, however, in directing the attention of the
public to this manceuvring of party coteries,
in order that public opinion may be prepared to
support Mr. ROEBUCK, if necessary. We have felt
it our duty to remonstrate, on more than one Goer
Mon, with the Committee for the unsystematic man-
ner in which its inquiries have been conducted ; still
it meet be admitted that an invaluable mass of facts
has already been dragged to light through its buten.
mentality. Already has it been made apparent that
an attar want of system pervades the admisistratioe
of our army and of all the auxiliary civil apart-
ments. Already his it been made oppose
that men are habitually thrust into appoishomile
of the highest trust and responsibility within*
any attempt being made to test their distal
aptitude. We are engaged in a war is which the
enemy has never confronted our troops in the field
without receiving a signal defeat. Hitherto oar
operations have been confined to the sea-coast, to
wnieh our numerous transports have had safe and
uninterrupted moms, and yet food, clothing, fuel,
shelter, medicine--all have been withheld from our
soldiers to an extent that has produced disease
and death in their most hideous forma. The misma-
nagement has been as glaring at home as abroad:
overcrowded llamas have engendered disease
Moog the troops of the lies, and oar Militia
appears to be melting away like MOW Imp
before the breath of spring. The earls
of the honest members of the Committee which is
throwing light on the muss that have praised
this lamentable stets of affairs deserve the supra"
end eaeouragentent of public' sympathy and 14618.-
bake.
We can Pel4oll ow Government Adele be the
dismay with which the progress el the Oammittos's
-I.4se inspires this. Its merilsgioss hands are

withdrawing the veil which messed their Widest
imbecility. And the insight obtained Late the *IA
of the prleoa-bocce of the War Deputises% is mffiins
men to coojeetere how setters may stand in OA*
Government cares. Luckless individeals connests4
with the Cologre—West Indiana, Canadians, Arles-
liens, natives of the Cape--all, in short, who
have at any time waited for an interview
with the Secretary or Under-Secrets:7 for the
Colonies, in * the chamber of sighs." shrug their
shoulders, and matter that the War office and the
Colonial-office are et as lire ae two pees." They re-
Dolled how long the Horne Colonial Administration
was in • state of perennial feud with the Colonies;
they recollect how the representations of men long
practically conversant with the affairs of these settle-
ments were scouted because clerks, accustomed only
to oopy and register letters, could not comprehend
them; they recollect how the wayward incompetency
of Colonial-oace employes drove the Canada@ into
rebellion, drove the Cape to the verge of i•surreotion,
beggared the West Indies, and brought bankruptcy
over Australia. The recesses of the Foreign-office
have yet to be explored, but the conduct
of our diplomatic and consular agents abroad
suggests ugly suspicions that affairs are no better
managed there. Ice short, JOHN BULL is awakening,
to an uncomfortable suspicion that the whole of his
Executive Government is little better than a sham;
that his public affairs were administered he has
believed simply and solely because he never allowed
himself to examine the matter.

The growth of this opinion among the public eat
of doors is an awkward affair for those who have
hitherto enjoyed the exclusive earls to administra-
tive employment. Party divisions among them
are almost entirely effrced—only a microscopic
eye can detect any difference between their
professions of principle. The Duke of Az-
' CaLL protests that Lord PALMERSTON enter-
tains the same views, is following out the same
policy, es the Earl of ABERDEEN. The Earl of Danny
is a Whig turned Tory, as Lord Paul...mos is a
Tory turned Whig. There is nothing to prevent a
man of any party among them acting in concert with
a man of any other party. And yet no Premier can
collect a sufficient number of competent men out of
the whole batch to make up an efficient Ministry.
Government in the hands of the lordly exclusives is
waxing daily more feeble; and apparently the ma•
chine must come to a stead unless the unprivileged
classes—ClouwELL-like— shoulder the incapable.
out of office, telling them to " make way for better
mss." The recent exposures of scandalous nepo-
tism in appointments to lucrative offices have
taken from the exclusives their last argument in
defence of the system by which they have so long pro-
fited. We have been told by them that statesman-
ship is a trade which men must learn ; and that only
members of the aristocracy can afford the expense of
the long untsmonerative apprenticeship. Which
branch of state-craft has Sir Climax. WOOD stu-
died ? He is transferred from the Exchequer to the
Board of Control, and Irom the Board of Control to
the Admiralty, as lithe same education could train a
man for employments so entirely distinct. And as
for the unremunerated political adventurers of noble
families, where are we to seek for them, when peers
gorged with wealth unscrupulously quarter their
callow broods of unfledged statesmen—sons, sons-in-
...

law,- and cephews—on the public purse? Ouly the
middle-claw representatives of the people in the
House of Commons serve their country without
prospect of fee or reward : foe every appointment
that has a salary attached to it is secured in reversion
—three-deep--for the scions of the aristocracy.—
Doily News.

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