The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-05 00:00:00

Lord GRANVILLE, in replying to Lord DERBY on Thursday night,
took occasion to correct Lord DERBY'S apprehensions ad regaaded our
foreign relations that, on the question of the Danubian Principalities, the
European Powers were notagreed in their policy. Lord GRANVILLE said
that the question of the Principalities had no real reference to the
point at issue ; and then the Noble Lord, with an air of egre-
gious self-eatisfaction, endeavoured to sustain his position by congra-
tulating the House that " if France and England united together" he
had no doubt " all the European Powers" would concur, and the ques-
tion would be arranged. Why, this " if" is the very obstacle Lord
DERBY feared, and rightly feared, did exist. We do not need to be
told that " if England and France unite together" the Danubian ques-
tion will be satisfactorily settled. Lord GRANVILLE, iu delivering him-
self of this truism, had no reason to congratulate the House upon the
fact, for his very words implied the distrust of Government that any
satisfactory solution would be resolved on, and justified the apprehen-
sions of Lord DERBY that none had been arrived at.

We know not what was the origin of that popular phrase, " The
Queen's English," or to what extent an analogy between that and the
" Queen'a picture" may he conceived to exist. It is clear, however,
that it does not extend to the Vreservation of the former from mal-
treatment and deformation. Few persons can have read that choice
specimen of composition with which the world was favoured on Thurs-
day last, in the shape of a Royal Speech, without having reflected that
it was adding insult to injury to compel our Sovereign Lady the
Queen to read it with her own lips. Honourable Members of Mr.
COBDEN'S way of thinking would for once have found the benefit of an
acquaintance with THUCYDIDES while endeavouring to puzzle out the
grammar of our Gracious Monarch. The style of that voluminous
writer hears no small resemblance to the fourth and fifth paragraphs of
her Majesty's Speech. But her Majesty could hardly have had the
same motive for complexity of language which is said to have actuated
the Greek historian—namely, a wish to disguise her meaning; and
what, therefore, could be the object of those clumsy and involved sen-
tences, we cannot comprehend. The English Government is not very
favourable to the patronage of literature. Bu t public opinion will in-
sist on the appointment of a Composition Minister if this slipshod
and inelegant style become the fashion of Government documents.

One great point in the Indian intelligence brought by the last
mail is the utter want of transport for the expected troops, and the
complete disorganisation of the country through which these troops
will have to pass before they reach the great field of battle, Oude.
There is literally no transport for the army. Mr. DISRAELI truly said
on Thursday night that the transport of the army depended upon the
Parcels Delivery Company of Calcutta. The following paragraph,
from a Bombay paper, shows the method in which the army is being
moved up country :
Her Majesty's 23rd Foot, at present in Calcutta, are to be sent up country in daily
batches by bullock•train. The first batch has left.
At first sight this looks effective, but what is the " bullock-train," and
what is a " batch"? The bullock-train consists exactly of a service of
bullocks stationed along the Trunk-road for the transport of up-
country goods by waggon on certain days of the week. Like the
suburban carriers about London, these carts leave the metropolis
loaded with goods, and in peaceable times they traverse the country
from Calcutta to Lahore. We can estimate very fairly, then, the sort
of transport at the disposal of the Calcutta Government at the present
moment, if we suppose the Horse Guards authorities in times of great
public disorder desirous of transporting to Birmingham 30,000 men ren-
dezvoused in London, despatching these men ten or twenty at a time
in the carrier carts drawn by oxen. The Calcutta carts can carry about
five men and their baggage at a time. We will suppose—and it will
he a great stretch of imagination—that ten carts a-day go out of Cal-
cutta with fifty men : it is a simple question in one of the first rules
in arithmetic to ascertain how many days will elapse before the
30,000 men will he moved from Calcutta. Given 30,000 men
with so many carts, each holding so many men, and a wide margin
for stoppages. But why not transport the troops by river to
Allahabad ? Simply because five months do not give suffi-
cielit time to the Calcutta Council or the Calcutta ship-
masters to construct rafts or small steamers. Captain PEEL, it is true,
made in two days a raft which took him to Alls.habad ; but Captain
PEEL is notunder the influence of the Council. Then, again, the Ganges
is falling, sandbanks appearing and shifting, and the river navigation
is becoming difficult and dangerous, besides the few vessels, two
steamers and a raft, at the disposal of Sir COLIN CAMPBELL are required
for the transport of stores, so that the army has no choice but to go in
" batches" by bullock-train or to march. As for the supply of stores
in Calcutta we have reason to believe that there is scarely a round of
Minie amunition in Calcutta; there are no carriages for the field guns,
very few horses, and no harness. Upon the whale, then, we must not
he too hasty to accept. the Ministerial assurances that troops are
"pouring up the country." They are doing no such thing. A good part
of the army is yet " knocking about " in tho Bay of Bengal, we may
Idepend upon it ; and that portion which has arrived is—to use au
expressiou of Sir COLIN CAMPBELL'S—" ping up in driblets."