The Express.
London, England, 1855-05-05 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, MAY 5, 1855.

On the mooing of Monday last Lord PAT sonsrott
promised that the preteen's of the Coaferesess of
Vienna should be laid on the table of the House of
Commons without delay. On the evening of Thurs-
day, a similar promise was made in the House of
Lords by the Earl of CLAZENDON. Bat last night,
when Mr. DISRAELI inquired why the promised
mien had not, in conformity with all precedent,
been laid before the House immediately on the ter-
mination of the Conferences, Lord PALMERSTON re-
plied that they could not be communicated because
negotiations are not yet at an end. On Monday
Lord PALMERSTON, by engaging that the papers
in question should be produced immediately,
intimated that the Conferences had been
brought to a close by the departure of the
English Minister specially appointed to take part in
them from Vienna; on Friday his Lordship declared
that the Conference were still in progress, simply
because the Austrian and Russian Governments
have commenced a new negotiation, without obtain•
lag the consent of the English Government to take
part in it. Lord Pautaarrox allowed four days
to elapse before he thus contradicted himself. The
Earl of CLARENDON did not wait so long; for ha
contradicted himself on the same evening, and in the
same speech. He first declared that were the Con-
ference to meet again, without a specific object, it
" would give an erroneous notion that negotiations
were being carried on when they were not ;"
and only a few minutes later he said, "at
this moment proposals made to the members of
Conference are under discussion." We believe that
the whole Parliamentary annals of England may be
ransacked in vain to find • parallel case to this
shameless mystification of Parliament by • Ministry,
and we do not believe that there has ever been a
Parliament in England that would so tamely have
endured being trifled with and laughed at in this
audacious manner.

The simple truth is that Parliament has abdicated
its functions as the great Council and Inquest of
the nation. At the moment when an arduous war
must be prosecuted to a triumphant issue, or the repu-
tation of the country for resources and intelligence so
diminished as to invite hostile encroachments from
all quarters—when Ministers by their alternate
moody silence and self-contradiction betray their
consciousness of their own incompetence to the task—
Parliament supinely allows events to take their
course. In suck circumstances there is nothing for
it but for the people to take the business into their
own hands. Public opinion must be expressed in a
manner so unequivocal as to show Parliament the
urgency of acting with more decision, end Ministers
the necessity of being more frank and truthful in
their communications, or of making way for more
reliable advisers of the Crown.

Every day adds to the proofs of the disgraceful
want of business talent and system that pervades all
our Government offices. Yesterday, Sir THOMAS
Hantriros told Mr. ROEBUCK'S Committee that when
the change took place in the management of the
War Department, on the appointment of a War
Minister, the Ordnance-office received no informa-
tion on the subject beyond what it gathered from the
public newspapers. Sir THOMAS added that a
written application which he made for an interview
with Lord PARMURE, on that nobleman's accession
to office, and a subsequent personal application
to Lord PANMURE'S private secretary to the same
effect, were both allowed to remain unanswered,
and that a letter he wrote in consequence
received no reply. Sir THOMAS also stated that on
one occasion the SECRETARY at WAR and the SECRE-
TARY for WAR were actually bidding against each
other in the market for a supply of fur caps. Sir
Tuomes moreover told the Committee that the requisi-
tions for warm clothing, made in June, by the Board
of Ordnance to the SECRETARY for WAR, were partly
verbal and partly in writing, and that the verbal
requisitions were not reduced to writing till some
months later. The scandalous absence of all syste-
matic arrangement in the War Department, and the
equally scandalous irregularities of the Board of Ord-
nance revealed by these admissions, cannot but im-
press upon the minds of all men conversant with busi-
ness transactions the urgent need there is to have the
functions of Administrative Government transferred
from the present holders of office to men capable of
introducing something like system and regularity
into the various departments.

It is for this reason that we are so anxious the
meeting to be held in the London Tavern this day
should be numerously attended by the sagacious and
intelligent merchants of the City. They, more that.
any other class,:are competent to explain what is de-
fective in our administrative arrangements and sug-
gest remedies. The mere fact of such a meeting
being held in the City will produce a most
beneficial effect throughout the empire. Men are
everywhere convinced of the necesaity of Administra-
tive Reform, and are only waiting to see who will set
the example of moving to obtain it. Our readers
may have seen a cup of water exposed to the open
air on a frosty night. So long as it is unmoved the
water will remain in its fluid state, although its tem-
perature has sunk below the hauling point. But if
it is stirred or shaken spicule; will be seen shooting
forth oa all sides, and is a few moments the cup will
be filled with a solid mass. The present state of the
public mind with regard to Administrative Reform is

exactly analogous. It needs only to be stirred by
some such demonatration as that contemplated for
to day to convert it into a solid phalanx of agitators
foe Administrative Reform.

So far u we can learn, the resolutions to be moved
at the meeting are most unobjectionable. The dis-
asters to which the country has been exposed will be
traced to the inefficient and practically irresponsible
management of the various departments of State. The
necessity of enlisting in the service of Government
the official aptitude of the country in whatever
grade or section of society it may be
found, will be advocated. An Association will
be formed to promote Administrative Reform,
the first steps of which will be to collect funds and
to prepare an address to the constituencies of the
United Kingdom. Such an appeal to the electoral
body is the true constitutional method of going to
work. The subsequent operations of the Association
must, of course, be dictated in a great measure by
events. We shall watch its proceedings with atten-
tion and interest ; and what we, in our sphere, can do
to promote the great object of Administrative Reform
shall at no time be wanting.—Deily News.

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to be performed et the Zermeer-eqoare Ream ant Wed-
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and 's siegnilisuth bi • will oleo be In.
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tnbet them. Mil spin Madam Radar
r. Kinalle. Hem Twit,lia awl Mr. Weise, are
imenseth Se primipll itheibth—Herr llolique end Mr.
Slim their mesiethed poste of waitheter and

AfitTIMCARDIV Ruz.--The following are the
amass of gestlemea wire mama Oar emaslaati^a is dm
mimes and prudes of me tee, mad resolved obstinatee
to preetire,_ea Thursday, the ird et May, 1866 :-Bamael
Treadles Fax, Fameatk ; Walter nalsoter ; Frederick
Dread Whip, Barnet, Herta ; William Gramm Jammu ;
Alliagbaar ; Bossard Chapala' Delman, Mel-
beanie, Derby ; William Harry Cooke, We/dairy, etaf-
ilaniebire ; Thomas Faramaa Jordan, Ibinalagbara ; sad
Jam Hoary Aldridge, Cltriatabarat, Haata.

gpe Court.

The (amen and Prince Albert went yterday
morning to the Crystal Palace at Bydenhana. Herr Majesty
and his Royal Highness were accompanied by the Prisons
Royal, the Primers A 11.., the Primo se of Hohenlohe
Langeabarg, the Prince,,., Adelaide and Peodon and
Princes Victor of Holmulobe, and were attended by the
Rea. Bostrice Blatt, MajorDerteral Buckley, and Captain
Da Plat
The Queen
turn party left at 20 n• Mane before 10
o'clock, and r Bnekinghamt Palace at 1 o'clock in
the etterucons.
The Princesses Adelaide and Feadore of Hohnloke
visited the Ducker of Kent yesterday at her residence,
Clarence House, St. Jamie's.
Her Majesty had a dinner party in the evening. The
company included the Duchess of }Cent, the Princess of
Holutalohe Lengenborg, the Princess Adelaide and Prince
Victor of Hohealdhe, the Hake and Duchess of Northum-
berland, the Marquis of Abortion, the Earl and Counties
Spencer, Lady Anne Maria Dawson, Baroness de Booth, the
Earl and Countess Delaware, Viscount and Viscountess
Harding., and Colonel Stephens.
The Countess de Nanny visited the Duchess of Kent
Dyesterday at Clarence House, and also paid 5 visit to the
atheas of Glencoster at Gloucester Howe.

A Cabinet Council was held at the Foreign-office,
Downing-street, yesterday. The Ministers pre-
sent were Viscount Palmerston, the Lord Chan-
cellor, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Duke
of Argyll, Sir George Grey, the Earl of Clarendon,
Lord John Russell, Lord Panmure, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, Sir Charles Wood, the Right Hon.
R. Vernon Smith, Sir William Molesworth, Vis-
count Canning, and the Earl of Harrowby. The
Council sat three hours.

Meetings of the Oxford University Commission were held
on Thanday and yesterday at No. 18, Great Queen-street,
Westminster. The commissioners present were the Earl of
Ellesmere, the Earl of Harrowby, the Bishop of Ripon.
Mr. Justice Coleridge, the Dean of Wells, and Sir John
Wither Awdry, with the secretaries.
Despatches were sent from the Colonial-081m yesterday
to the Governor of Canada and to the Governor of Hell.
Boland, and also to the Governors of Australia and New
Zealand.

ROYAL VISIT TO THE CRYSTAL PALACE.—Yesterday
morning her Majesty and Prince Albert, the Princess
anal, Princess Alin, and the Princesses Adelaide and
Fenton of Hohenlohe Lesgenbers, visited the Crystal
Palace. The Hoe. Min Byes was the Lady in Widnes.
The royal party arrived soon after tee o'eloek, and was re-
ceived by the secretary, Mr. Grote; Mr. Belehaw ; and the
traffic manager, Mr. Bonnier.

The Grand Dachau Helena of Russia has sent
?thine. Auguste Schultze into Finland, to stir up the female
population to self•denyisg eontributians to the 8.1156111
cause. In a kind of minaret* issued by Mdlle. Schultze,
at Wiborg, the ladies of Finland are told to imitate their
" sisters 'of Russia. Mdlle. Schultze is no Russian, but •
native of Darmstadt.

Owing to Lord Cardigan's numerous engagements,
professional sad otherwise, h.s lordship has been unable,
op to the present time, to tic a day on which be can attend
the banquet to be given tv him at Southampton by the
Royal Southern Yacht Club, in that town.

WRECK Di' AN EMIGRANT SHIP IN
THE CHANNEL

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY LIVES LOST.

We regret to announce a terrible disaster, men-
tioned in a telegraphic despatch this afternoon, from
our Falmouth correspondent:

" The ship John, from Plymouth for Quebec, with
emigrants, on Friday night, struck on the Manacle
Rocks, got off into deep water, and shortly went
down, 200 feet from the shore. Of 220 persons on
board, only about 70 were saved. They were taken
from her masts and rigging, and landed at St. Kevern
by the Coast Guard."