The Express.
London, England, 1855-02-20 00:00:00

beads their blood weuld be. He was told by the right hon.
gentleman (Mr. S. Herbert) that our army, forsooth, had
not been accustomed to great campaigns, and was therefore
unable to do se the French did. That was not the case ; I
that assumption was false. Were not our great campaigns
in India far greater than those in Algeria ? Had the French
may battles to compare to Sebum, or campaigns like that
of Affghanistan ? But there, again, our government wen
fettered by a mean spirit of jealousy. They would set
employ the men who could save us, who could maintain oar I
dignity and preserve our army, and why ? bemuse them
men were not in the service of the crown; because they
took:pay from the But India Company. (Hear.) The
people would not tolerate that much longer. Had we not
men in India ? Could we forget the names of Outran and
other men, who had experience of the realities of war,
whilst we sent out thou who were unequal to its conduct,
because they had family coupe:ions, or because they com-
mended votes in parliament, or votes in • constituency ?
That each should be our selection, at a time like this,
was monstrous. Ile might be told that using this language
was to pull down the venom-soy. Why, he wanted to save
the aristocracy. (Cheers.) It wee the system he opposed that
would pull them down. What did one of the ablest men
in this country, and one who knew well the signs of the
times, say to him the other day ? He said—" If this army
in the Crimea perish, depend on it, that will be the heaviest
blow the aristocracy ever sustained." They would nit
allow to come, betwixt the army and their nobility, the
men who could serve them, and so they would raise the
voice if the country against them. He was told the Timm
excited all this outcry. What a notion. Was there any
magic, then, in Printing-house-equare ? He dared say, in
like manner, Charles I. used to accuse the Puritan
preachers of exciting the Revolution, whereas it was the
spirit of the Revolution that made the preachers
influential; and it was act Voltaire and ROW/MU
who made the Revolution in France, but the
feeling that afterwards effected it was that which
made Voiteire and Rousseau. 80, it was the public indig-
nation of England which made the Times what it now
was, the feeling which misgovernment had produced in the
sunny. (Cheer.) Would the Times be that which it
was, if it were to comply with the views of government
upon this question, and were to deceive the country, as the
government would deceive it, about the management of the
war? No, and if the ministers wanted to have the position
which the Times poperesed,lif they wanted to have the
people at their back, let them do what the Times did, oome
forward and say that which the people thought, not what
they wished the people to be made to think. (Cheers.)
There were many other things on which he should like to
have had the opinion of her Majesty's ministers. The bare
fact was stated, that Lord J. Russell was going to the conti-
nent, to take such a place as that of Cutlereagh. Was he going
upon the same principles as actuated Lord Cutleresgh ?
Were we to gs upon the four points ? Was the intention of
government such u it was a few weeks ago, suck as might
be expected of those in the cabinet who represented the
principles of its late head ? Surely the noble lord (Pal-
merston), when the whole country was hanging on his
every word, might have told us a little about that—whether
we were approaching a chance of peace, or going on into a
great war—whether Circassia was to be sroused, and whe-
ther, if so, we were afterwards to desert Circassia. He did
not want the noble lord to give any details, but some sketch
of the foreign policy intended. These questions were so im-
portant, that the people had a right to plain and distinct
Information. How did we stand new ? What was our
position with France ? He would not enter on discus-
siou which in a public assembly might be improper and
dangerous; but he would ask, were not the government
now placing us in • position to be somewhat despised by
our neighbours ? It might be that, one day, we should
bitterly rue what had now happened, by which England
made each an unfavourable impression on those who were,
perhaps, at heart her enemies, and but for a period her
friends. Did the government forget that England, in the
situation she now was, had the eyes of all Europe on her?
and would they hesitate, for any private family or party eon-
sideration, to remove her from that situation where she
became the laughing-stock of the world, as a nation de-
clinieg from her former high place, which had failed,
which had disgraced itself, and would be an easy prey to
, Wee who might seek her destruction ? Did these consi-
derations never occur to the minds of the govern-
meat ? lie would appeal now to the noble lerd at its head.
la what a position did he (Lord Palmentos)
Mad but a few days ago. No man who ever undertook
the guernment had more general sympathy and confidence.
He (Ms. Layard) had once told the noble lord that he had
Meld the name of Palmerston repeated among tribes of
whew the noble lord, with his great knowledge, had perhaps
sat even heard. In Europe that name was a spell of magic
it represented great principles—however justly, such was
the fact—it: represented the cause of liberty. That repu-
tation was so bright that even the betrayed Sicilians of
1848, and the fate of Italy, could not tarnish it, although
he formed a member of the government who betrayed their
cause. That reputation endured through every storm;
and he rose in the house, as no other man ever did,
with the house and the people of England to support him,
because they felt that he, in moments of great national
difficulties, had undertaken great and arduous tasks; bat
let the noble lord ask himself now whether the people of
England would be satisfied with what he had done ? He
(Mr. Layard) thought not. That people were forbearing
and long patient; they would pat up with indignities and
suffer wrongs rather than by their movement old institu-
tions should be overthrown ; but yet the time did come
when like a torrent their indignation must burst forth, and
sweep away the obstacle. They were so with Catholic
Emancipation, they were so with the Reform Bill, they
were so with Free Trade. On those questions, night after
night, members rose in the house and enunciated truths
which every mind mast have admitted ; but the grievances
remained, and the people suffered, until they felt
that the wrong was intolerable, that parliament was
betraying them, and in one short year the thing was
carried. (Cheer.) And so it was now ; the people seemed
to be quiet, the lake appeared still; bat let us not sail upon
it in false security, for the waters would rise if the evil
were trifled with, and we should suffer unexpected ship-
wreck. The present state of the country was • matter of
deep and painful anxiety. The nation were not satisfied.
They wanted, irrespective of the qualifications of particalar
men at this moment, to see whether they could not be
governed by something new; they would not have this
same partite over and over again. (Cheers.) No doubt, a
Cavendish in the cabinet was very important ; but the
people thought more of 20,000 gallant lives than even of a
Cavendish in the cabinet. (Cheers) The people wanted •
complete and thorough reform ; let the noble lord consult
their wishes. Hp entreated the noble lord once more, for his
own sake and for that of the country, to reflect ; the coun-
try as well as that house were ready to support him, if he
adopted a course by which his own reputation would be, ea-
haaoed and this great nation saved. (Cheers.)
General PEEL said he was not surprised at the general
indignation when he read such horrible accounts of the
state of the army, for the army was the property of the
country at large. A Secretary for War had been sacri-
ficed, and he did not understand why the whole cabinet
had not followed. He (General Peel) voted against the
motion of the hon. member for Sheffield ; but it was net
that no evils existed, but that he had no confidence in a
committee of the house as a tribunal to reform them, for it
was the worst they could have—unconstitutional and im-
practicable. He blamed the government for having com-
menced • great war with inadequate means. He said the
first fault in Its management was in sending out too many
troops, without a correeponding force in the commissariat
and medical departments. It would have been better to have
sent only 10,000 or 15,000 at first, and to have restricted
the operations to what they could perform, instead of
sending every available man, to rival the French. After
the battle of Alma, the victorious armies should have
made the attack on Sebastopol, without giving the Rue-
clans time for reinforcements. He did not oppose the en-
listment of foreigners, if absolutely necessary. He thought
our regimental officers and regimental system were
good; and surely those men would make as good
general officers, if the opportunity were afforded them.
If they were going to rival the warlike nations on the con-
tinent they must set about it in a different manner. He
thought every exertion ought to be made to carry on the war
so as to make a safe and honourable peace, and that once
done the sooner the people resumed their peaceful punsits
the better.

Lord PALMERSTON—I am not at all the man to find
fault with anybody that will bring before the notice of the
house any part of our military system, whether at home or
abroad, which he thinks may have failed in performing
adequately Its functions, or which he thinks ought
in any way to be blamed ; but I do protest
against the language which I have heard this evening
from the hon. member for Aylesbury, who, while he per-
forms what he thinksn public dnty,and says what he thinks
of the mismanagement which may have existed, hat talked
of the disgrace of our army, of our being the laughing-stock
of Europe, and has declaimed against the aristocracy.
(Cheers.) Why, I lament as deeply.as any man the suffer-
ings dos: brave army in the Crimea. I am as reedy as any
man to admit that thorn sufferings have in part been
aggravated by want of arrangement, and by want of
proper management by those who had the admi-
nistration of the details by which those wants ought to have
been provided ; but I must say it is a mistake to
suppose that those sufferings have been confined
to the British troops. I speak not of our brave
allies, the French, who have endured :a great
deal ; but I know from good authority that in the
camp of the Russians there are no less than 35,000 men in
hospital, sick and wounded, in consequence of the result of
the campaign. But, I say, those sufferings, however they
may have been increased by the want of arrangement and
want of proper management, those sufferings have arisen
in a great degree from physical causes which it is to the
power of no man to coatsol—(" Rear, hear," and "No")—
the nature of the service in which they are engaged, red
the inclemency of the weather. But I say that, so far
from feeling that this country stands lower in the

estimation of the world in consequence of what has
paned in the prosecution of this war, when I
look to the matchless bravery of our troops, when
I look to the conflicts which they have sustains&
sad when I look to the share which the gentry and mis-
t macy of this country have taken in those conflicts—then
things instead of making me feel ashamed of my country,
of making me think that it stmts lower io the estimation