The Express.
London, England, 1855-08-14 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 14.

Ir poor dear Madame DE SIB ONE were to be
restored to life at this moment, she would be sorely
seand.liaed. Madame does not often get political
in her charming letters ; hut there are exceptional
eases, and the exiled King of ENOLAND is one of them.
Madam., De &stoma never wearies of eulogising
that Royal saint, and expatiating on the hospitality
afforded him by Lotus XIV., and offering op vows
for his restoration to his throne. How she would be
shocked, on revisiting this nether world, to find pre-
parations making at St. Cloud for the reception of
the representative of that heretical dynasty which
took, and has kept, the place of the descendants
of him who lost three kingdoms for a man.
And wore, than that,—she would find the
Frer ch dynasty which patronised the Royal family
vomited forth by indignant Eugland swept away
in its turn. Her own France would be iu the eyes
of Mad :me no better than England.
The change from a pretender to the English Crown
holding a mackery of a court at St. Germain, to a
real bona fide English Queen residing, for however
brief a period, at St. Cloud, may appear to some a
trivial matter ; a theme for fine writers to turn smart
sentences about: it has a deeper meaning. The
desire to be Lord Paramount of Europe, which
prompted the whole foreign polley of Louts XIV.,
was never wholly abandoned by his successors. With
a view to realise it they extended a cold and shabby
hospitality to the successive English Pretenders,
until the last 13y man of the raca became too hopeless a
sot to be of any use to them. When this card be-
came too dirty for them to play any longer with
c3mmon decency they betook themselves—they the
absolute monarchs—to coquetting with democracy.
They rocked the cradle of the young American re-
public ; they subsidised the ultra-demonrate of
Geneva; they became the ringleaders of the demo-
cratic opposition to the House of ORANGE in the
United Provinces. The tools used by the BOURBONS
at different times were tliffereut ; but their aim in
using them was the same throughout—to put down
the Engli.h constitution—of a monarchy with a par-

liameotary title—which rendered England too
powerful to be brought under the influence
of any foreign power. In those days there was
no French nation ; there was merely an aggregate of
provinces subject to a king, a:.(1 an army officered by
the nobility. That nobility—the only portion of their
subjects whose existence the BOURHONS condescended
to recognise—took its tone from the monarch, and
thus hostility to England became the conventional
sentiment of France—a sentiment which the French
clergy, in their hatred of heretics, did their best to
confirm. In those days, therefore, there was and
could be no peace between France and Eng:and ;
brief and hollow truces were the only lulls in a war
which, when not actually waging, was in preparation
for renewal. A friendly visit of a King or Queen reg-
nant of England to the court of France would in
such circumstances have been a mockery, if not unsafe.

When in 1/89 the French made themselves a nation,

on both sides of the

Channel for a time prevented this Mate of affairs
from changing. Tho earlier leaden of the national
movement were, indeed, most of them Anglo-maniacs,
but the habit of railing at England and the English,
which had been encouraged for centuries, was too
powerful to be overcome in a day. Then it pleased
the KING and borougbmongers of England to set
themselves up as the champions of the principle of
absolute monarchy, and that made matters worse.
England and France, the only two nations in
Europe deserving the name—whose interests as
opposed to the politics of the old despotisms, by
and ecclesiastical, were identical—were involved in
an internecine war, which lasted for
thirty years, and left behind it rancorous feelings,
which it has taken nearly the same time to simusa.
The terms on which our SOVEREIGN has lived with
the present Monarch of the French and his pm&
censor show that these unnatural relations between
the two greatest and most enlightened nations in thel
old world have ceased to exist. We believe, indselle
that the occupants of thrones are quite as asps*
of friendship as private citizens. We believe
that the well-acted bonhommie of Louis PIIILIPPIR
did make a deep impression upon Qui&
VICTORIA, and that the tact and talent of the
EMPEROR have inspired her with a personal atom
for him, while the fascinating qualities of his sese•
sort have awakened a warmer interest. Bat a
thrones personal feelings must give way to resales
of state. And that our SOVEREIGN is able to
indulge the desire—innate in all human beings—to
live on a footing of familiar friendship with her
nearest neighbours of equal rank, proves that such
intercourse between their rulers is equally swept-
able to both nations. The visit of the QUIPS of
ENGLAND to St. Cloud is an additional proof that
the foolish hereditary antagonism of France and
England is over and gone.
Our Quzati and her royal Consort are well read in
the literature of the Continent as in that of their own
land. To their cultivated intellects a visit to Paris
and St. Cloud will be replete with interest. And
their accomplished host, with his taste for elegant
display, will know how to cater for them. This is a
matter of no slight consequence, for if anywhere in
England relics of the old antipathy to France can be
supposed to survive, it may well be supposed to be
among the high aristocracy to whom the revolu-
tionary origin of all existing French institutions b
perhaps still a little repulsive. There never can be
a securely established harmony until sentiment is
brought into entire accordance with rational con-
viction. It is of consequence that a class which still
possesses, and will, in the ordinary course of nature,
long possess, great political influence in England,
should be as entirely reconciled to France and
Frenchmen as the great body of the English people
already are. We should belie our convictions were we to
pretend that the existing constitution of government
in France is in all things to our taste, but that is the
concern of the French nation—a question in which
foreigners have no right to a voice. Enough for as
that upon the continued good understanding of
France and England depends the suocessfel
assertion of national independence and bye
civilisation in Europe. These nations are at
this moment the nucleus of a growing league
against the encroaching propensities of the lid
despotisms. Their Governments are, perhaps, not,
aware of the full importance of their high vocation,
or of the extent to which they stand committed to it.,
Bat they have entered upon a coarse from which they
ssnaot recede, even though—which we do not believe
—they wished to do so.

IT seems certain that our army will have to spend
at least • portion of the next cold season in the
Crimes. Even should Sebastopol be taken before the
more severe portion of the winter' commenees,ihe
troops must pass some weeks, if not months, exposed
to a very rigorous climate. By the end of September
the change of seasons will have begun in earnest, and
ere October is over, the alteration from extreme heat
to rain, sleet, snow, sod wind, will be most trying to
the whole force, more especially to the recruits end
reinforcements lately arrived from England. On
all accounts it therefore be) one Government to be
in time with the huts and warm clothing destined for
Sebastopol, and not to allow our brave soldiers to
suffer all the honors of a second winter's starva-
tion from cold and hunger. The fact of contracts
for the supply of hub having been entered into by
several respectable firms has been pompously set
forth of late, but how comes it, after all that was
said and written, respecting the past cold season and
the mismanagement of every department connected
with the supplies for the army, there are not now
in the Crimes sufficient huts to house the whole
force assembled before Sebastopol? That not one-
tenth of the army is under any other cover but the
most wretched tents, is a perfectly well-known fact.
Even the sick and wounded have not room for all
their number in the hospital huts. To this nearly
every private letter from the camp bears witness.
What has become of the materials for hundreds of these
wooden buildings which were last year sent—or said to
have been sent—from this country for the use of the
army ? Were they despatched at all to the seat of war ?
And if they were,why do the troops not have the bene
fit of them ? If not sent, where are they—and what is
the reason they were kept in this country P All these
are questions which will be asked, and which Minis-
ters must answer, should the next two months prove
that our troops in the Crimea have not a very different
prospect before them for the winter than happened
during the past cold season.

But this is not the time for etimination. What
has passed should serve as a warning for the future,
although we cannot Low help former errors. The
housing of the troops is not the only matter of health
and comfort which should be looked to forthwith.
It seems to be much doubted in the camp whether
even half the supply of warm clothing which was
put aside when the warm weather commenced will
be forthcoming for next winter. The almost total want
of anything like store-rooms, in which the blankets,
boots, and fur coats can be placed for safety, will cause
much—if not all—the bales to be more or less de-
stroyed by damp or vermin. These are no vague or
idle conjectures, but positive facts mentioned in pri-
vate communications from the camp. Officially

speaking, Ministers and their subordinates would
be absolved from blame, if every particle of warm
clothing was found to be spoiled when next
wanted for issue, but would the country pardon them
if our troops were left again a whole winter, starving
from cold, and dying from neglect? The late Lord
IRAotew issued orders at the commencement of the

spring, to the effect that all the warm clothing was
to be returned by the men to the quartermasters of
regiments, and that these officers were to store it
up in case of its being wanted again. To a great
extent—indeed, as far as possible—this has been
done; but the late Field-Marrhal could neither
erect proper store-rooms to preserve the goods,
nor himself ere that his orders were carried into effect.
Those who know all that the quartermaster of a regi-
ment has to do, whilst his regiment is in camp, will per-
ceive how utterly impossible it must be for either these
men or their few hard-worked subordinates to look
properly after immense stores of clothing which
from its very texture is most susceptible of injury in
a warm climate. "In my regiment," writes a cap-
tain of a regiment now serving before Sebastopol,
" there are at least from three to four thousand articles
of warm clothing—boots, fur coats, blankets, caps,
gloves, and comforters—in store. To look after them,
and keep them clear from vermin, and fit to wear next
winter, there ought to be at least a dozen men con-
stantly at work airing and brushing them. But where
or how can we spare so many, when we are so hard
pressed for men to take the ordinary duties of camp
and trenches. The whole of last winter's clothing—
much of it never having been worn—is now fast
spoiling, and I am told that what the Quartermaster-
General's Department has in charge is still less ser-
viceable than what is stored by regimental quarter-
masters. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof ; '
and no sooner was the cold weather fairly ended
than every person in camp seemed only too glad to
get rid of all thought and can concerning
the warm clothing." This is a bad look-out
for the future, unless steps be immediately
taken to find out the deficiencies in the win-
' ter clothing, and to remedy the evil without delay.
Ministers will not again be allowed the excuse that no
official report was made to them of the wants of the
army. Here is a clear and explicit warning of what
will happen when the inclement season commences,
unless care be taken to prevent it. If the War
Department be in earnest, a fall and complete state-
ment of the condition of the winter clothing might
be known in London by means of the electric tele-
graph, in less than four days, that time being amply
sufficient for officers in the camp to inspect minutely
the stores in their charge, and to make a detailed report
upon them. A week hence, and the various manu-
facturers might be at work, making up supplies
to take the place of what has been spoilt, used, worn
out, or otherwise rendered unserviceable. The nation
will pay cheerfully for whatever comforts the army
requires, but it will not allow that army to be again
decimated by official incapacity, or pretended igno-
taco of the true state of affairs.
In addition to the huts and clothing, immediate

care should be taken that a proper supply of food
(with the means of cooking the same) should be emit
out for use during winter. Unless this is done, we
shall most likely have a repetition of all that
happened during last November and the four
following months. The facilities for procuring
every sort of preserved meat and vegetable are
now so great in England that there can be no valid
excuse whatever for a depot of these provisions not
being continually on hand in the camp. The prac-
tice, so pernicious to the health of the men, of sup-
plying troops with salt meat day after day should be
at once abandoned. Continuing it in the present day,
when means of taking fresh provisions to any cli-
mate and distance are so common, is about as sensible
as it would be to arm our fighting men with bows
. _ _

and arrows instead of Minie rifle; One half of on

soldiers who during the last year died in the kepi-
tale of theaamp, Balaklava, and Scutari. were first
made ill by having nothing but nit meat to feed
upon.

And lastly, Government should take care to pro.
vide for the army a proper supply of wholesome
liquor for consumption. There is no reason what-
ever why good porter and beer should not be sold in
the Sebastopol camp at a very slight advance upon
London wholesale prices. If migrants were made
with respectable firms in this country,the soldier in the
Crimea might have a better pint of malt liquor—and
for lees money—before going on duty in the trenches,
than be could procure in the ordinary run of publio-
houses in England. All these may seem individually
matters of small moment, but when taken together
they make the soldier's comfort and health, or the

contrary, according to the way in which he is or is,
not supplied with them. With men who have these
comfortaaupplied them, we shall have a healthy and
—what is more to the purpose—a contented and a
fighting army. Brave our soldiers undoubtedly are,
but no man an do his duty properly if unhoused,
ill•clad, and badly fed throughout a severe winter.
The powers that be have now been warned in time,
and should a mood cold season find us again unpre-
pared for the climate of the Crimea, the consequences
will be felt in 17.7.-I,NI as well as before Sebastopel,
although in a very different manner. The country
will not stand a repetition of last year's dins :!era : of
that, Lord PAIIIIURE and Lis colleagues may rest
assured.