The Express.
London, England, 1855-02-22 00:00:00

SIR JOHN WNRILL, G.C.B.

There will be but one opinion in Scotland as to the
choice made by her Majesty's ministers of a distinguished
public officer to preside over the commission of inquiry Iwo
the administration of the commissariat of the army in the
Crimea.
.

Sir John M'Neill has many eminent and some peculiar
qualifications for the duty to which he hu been appointed
by the unsolicited act of Lord Palmentoa's government.
Daring the fourteen years which he passed in the East—
first as Aseistant•Envey, then as Secretary of the Embassy,
and lastly, from 1896 to 1844, as Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary to the court of Persia—he became
thoroughly aoquaintsd with the habits, policy, an d resources of
the Asiatic nations; and the signal ability with which thus
early be denounced the aggressive designs of Russia was
acknowledged even by those who were unable to share all
his apprehensions of danger.
Soon after his return from Teheran, Sir John
was placed at the heed of the board appointed to snperin.
tend the working of the new Scottish Poor-law Act of 1515 ;
and the prudence, energy, and complete SUMO with which
he has discharged' the duties of this arduous and delicate
aloe are known to all Scotland. The special inquiry into
the condition of the Western Highlands and Islands, which
he:conducted in the year 1861, abundantly demonstrated his
fitness to discover the true springs of mischief in
system, however they might be perplexed by multitudinous
points of detail, or confused and obscured by partial or con-
tradictory assertion. The circumstances of the case mast
be fresh in the recollection of almost all our readers. That
there was considerable suffering in the more remote shores
of the Highlands was agreed on all hands; but there was a
wide diversity of opinion not only as to the causes, but also
as to the extent of that suffering. The popular ear was
startled on one side by stories of the wholesale cruelty
and barbarity of landlords and factors, and harrowed
on the other by individual instances of privation, dis-
use, and death by famine. Sir John lelleill was not
lees successful in applying a prompt and effectual
remedy to every case of real distress, than in expleding the
mass of fiction and delusion by which the qustion at issue
had been well nigh overwhelmed. While his brief and
masterly report suggested measures of permanent redress
for all that could be redressed, it swept away at once and
for ever all the picturesque exaggerations of "our own rev
roopondent," the hearsay horrors of credulous philanthropy,
and the impudent frauds of interested imposture. •
Su John who is now in his sixtieth year—being
one year younger than his distinguished brother, the Lord
Justice-Qeneral of Scotland—received the Persian order of
the Lion end Sun in 1834, and in 1839 was created a civil
Haight•Orand Cross of the Sub.—Edinburgh Courant.

CRYSTAL PALACE, FIB. 21.—SHILLING DAT.
—Admission at the Goon, 706; admistion by MY=
deems, 266; total, 971.
BEATII4O AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE.—The lower
lake at the Crystil Palace has been earefully swept, cleaned
of snow and rough ice, and watered ; and is now one of the
best pisses of water mosesible from London. Refreshments
and attendants to put on skates are provided. Yesterday
some hundreds availed themselves of them advantages,
which are free From the unlashes of a riotous crowd.