The Press.
London, England, 1854-12-02 00:00:00

1130

-
A WAR CABINET WITHOUT A MILI-
TARY MIND.
APART from the incapacity of the Duke of NEW-
CASTLE, there are cett4lin special ill conse-
quences resulting froth tllli present 6144anisatli
of the War Departmentivhi4 revite lit be in -
cated. In few ways its the C 8 illiiiin given
more cause for aniftlildversion i ap by the
Ali
paltry jealousy which ltejit Lof ilitintrios
out of the Cabinet at the very time when the
whole plan of operations against Russia had
to be considered with especial reference to
military details.
The jealousy shows towards Lord HAEDINOE
is more remarkable for two reasons, firstly,
because the Peelites have engrossed for them
selves the whole control of the campaign ; and,
secondly, because there is not a single Minister
in the present Cabinet with personal experi-
ence of military life. Thus the Duke of NEW
CASTLE is Secretary for War, and Mr. Sins EY
HERBERT Secretary at War. The navy of the
country is under the control of Sir JAMES
GRAHAM, as First Lord of the Admiralty, and
the office of raising finances for carrying on
the contest is entrusted to Mr. GLADSTONE.
Nor is this a merely fortuitous distribution.
The Premiership, which gives the tone to a
Cabinet, and the Viceroyalty of Ireland (with
its serious responsibilities), are also held by
Peelites. Not one of the contemned Whigs is
permitted to raise a finger in directing opera-
tions against the Czar. There was deliberate
intention in this extraordinary arrangement.
M. KOSSUTH talked on Wednesday of the
policy " which facilitates the plans of
•`• Russia, insults the allies, and counteracts
" the combinations of England," and for carry-
ing out such a scheme the allotment of our
Ministerial offices is only too appropriate.
Lord ABERDEEN knew well what he was doing
when he committed the whole management of
the war to his own clique. A weak foreign
policy required feeble heads for the War of
We can easily understand, as the Cabinet
offices were distributed with special regard for
the vanity of the Peelites, that Lord Hail-
DINOE should have been deliberately excluded
fr mi. a seat in the Coalition. If Lord HAR-
DINGE had been in the Cabinet the whole
public would have looked to him as the real
War Minister, and the vainglorious ambition
of the Duke of NEWCASTLE would have been
stripped of all its gilding_ The long services
of the Noble and Gallant Viscount, his promp-
titude in emergencies, his extensive official
experience, would (with a seat in the Ca-
binet) have clothed him with an authority
that must have reduced to subaltern rank the
vaunting pretensions of those pompous Peel-
ites who have loudly boasted of the admi-
nistrative abilities in which they have proved so
lamentably deficient. The exclusion of Lord
HARDINGE is necessary forarticular euhancingon the o
the
-
cial pretensions of a p secti of
Ministry.
But the exclusion of Lord HARDINOE is more
injurious, as not one of the Ministers in office
was educated to the profession of arms.
Hitherto, as we shall show, the custom has
least one Cabinet Minister should
special military experience. Thus
''ERPOOL'S Cabinet, the late Earl of
highly distinguished military
as one of the Cabinet ; and when
his pest in 1820, his place as
(era of the Ordnance was imme-
I by the Duke of WELLINGTON,
seat in the Cabinet, which he held to
that Cabinet in 1827. Again, in the
when the Goderich Cabinet
the late Marquis,of ANGLESEA was
to a seat in it. In the ensuing
Cabinet, along with its illustrious
' GEORGE MURRAY also had a seat
for War and Colonies. In the
utry, even during the Reform excite-
rule was not violated, as the Duke
ID had considerable military expe-
held high rank in the army. In
Cabinet of 1834-35, the Duke of
N, Sir GEORGE MURRAY, and Sir
Lamson, were sworn as Cabinet
and subsequently, in 1641-46, Sir

THE PRESS.

-
HENRY HARDINGE (always with the Duke of
WELLINGTON) was a Cabinet Minister.
But now let it call particular attention to 1
a most important. fo.q.
There was a 641rtaid iiiistry which violated
1 th 4. * . tsomii ulet .$ having at least Atit
Miliia an iti the inet. It was the
bourne inistry,(lB3s!:tander, which the Galati
disaeterairl thp .4 • Istan reverses took place.
Is it 141 sot Ail inqst remarkable t4al
co
ohr great radian
no , a kiould have occurred
when there was no hi tat man in the Cabi-
net competent to cHtieise the secret policy
then inaugurated for our Eastern empire?
terd MELBOURNE s Cabinet had its Cabtil, and
Lord ABERDEEN'S Ministry has its Sebastopol.
The cases resemble each other in the absence
of a military mind from the councils of the
Sovereign. They differ from each other in the
fact that, while there was grievous error in the
Indian generalship, our expedition to the
Crimea has been led by the gallant and ac-
complished Lord RAGLAN, with a staff of gene-
ral officers whose praise is pronounced by a
whole army. But brilliant strategy and match-
less bravery have been defrauded of their due
results because the Cabinet of England has at
present no military mind.
Had Lord Haanisoz been in the Cabinet it
is most unlikely that the expedition to the
Crimea would have been undertaken without
the organisation of au army of reserve.
All our own personal information from the
Crimea is conclusive as to the grievous conse-
quences resulting from want of such a re-
serve. It was that most vital deficiency which
prevented Lord RAGLAN from acting after the
battle of the Alma with the rapidity urged
upon him by Marshal ST. ARNAUD, Sir .DE
LACY EVANS, and the lamented Sir GEORGE
CATHCART. Authorities equally distinguished
and experienced, concurred with Lord RAGLAN
in thinking that an attack on Sebastopol,
without a reserve to fall back upon, would be
precipitately hazardous. Our Ministers had
timely notice of what would be required, and
yet they failed in their most obvious duties.
We can add on this point some new parti
culars to those which have already appeared
in print. For example, there has been some
most improper remarks on the alleged neglect
of not fortifying the right of our position at
Inkermann ; but what are the facts of the
case ? Not only Sir Ds LACY EVANS, but every
one else, was perfectly aware of the weakness
of our position. Lord RAGLAN saw it himself,
but he was unable to spare the men which were re-
quired to throw up the necessary works. We
have it, further, on distinguished authority,
that we owe our comparative safety to the
want of strategic ability displayed by the
Russian generals. We have read the private
statements of a most eminent officer, present
at all the operations, who gives it as his
opinion, that with the few troops at the dis-
posal of Lord RAGLAN our brave general could
not have held his position against the French,
and our gallant allies have confessed that
none but English troops could have held a
position defended by so few men.
And shall this state of things be allowed to
continue? In order to prevent the Duke of
NEWCASTLE. being overshadowed in office shall
Lord HARDINGE be still kept out of the Cabi-
net? The Noble Viscount, during times of
peace, repeatedly sat in the Cabinet, and is he
to he kept out at the very time when military
foresight and strategical experience are es-
pecially required in Downing-street? In a
question between the jealouis ambition of the
Peelite military amateurs and the pressing exi-
gencies of the Crimea expedition we trust that
the voice of the nation will make itself em
phatically heard.
was

THE MINISTRY OF CLERKS.
Tar last Ministerial avowal, formally assigned
by the leading Government organ as a reason
for the instant meeting of Parliament, sur-
passes in shamelessness all the previous con-
fessions of the Administration. Prepared
though the country was for the amplest evi-
dence of ignorance on the part of the Coalition,
this last admission will have an astounding
i effect. We forget all party differences in the

SATURDAY,

humiliation to which England is now exposed
in the eyes of the world. The war, states the
Gov( has hitherto been mis-
manar 04,0 Odiertiment were afraid
to sr ie, than they had said they
thou vioild cost. There is no
strei ) fattaal elite which is thus
mad the ikdrdihistration. There
is a t,riget *hill Cannot, and, if it
soul 'it, to Nil always restrained.
And Btlialt effort to discuss this
subj ,ely, when it is plainly avowed
that the Coalitionists have been purchasing
temporary impunity at the price of the life-
blood of odr best and bra:reit countrymen.
Let us be thankful that, in the indecent ab-
jectness of terror, the Coalition have called
Parliament together, even at the cost of stulti-
fying' the orders they had previously advised
their Royal Mistress to issue. That the
Houses were required to assemble on a particu-
lar day, and the urgency of the case was found
to be so great that even that day could not be
waited for, and that the assembling must be
forestalled by some hours, is a matter of no
moment at a crisis like this.
But can anything more utterly self-damna-
tory than this plea be conceived ? Does it
not make out the most perfect possible title to
the name by which the nation has learned to
know the Administration—a Ministry of
clerks. Smart, with a ludicrous exception or
two, they could, by dint of assurance and
evasion, manage, in ordinary times, to get
through the day until the hour of shutting up.
But a crisis comes, the credit of their em-
ployers is at stake, and money is wanted.
" We couldn't, really, without orders ; so much
"is loft out for petty cash,' and we couldn't
" take it upon ourselves to go further." And
a catastrophe is the result, thanks to the
wisdom of those who leave important atlitirs in
the hands of clerks.
Lord ABERDEEN himself, with characteristic
cunning, is evidently preparing to make his
escape. Zoologists know the class of creature
that is said to abandon the doomed ship or the
tottering house ; and those who have studied
the Premier's antecedents know whether, and
how often, he has manifested the like instinct.
In this ruinous confession, made for self and
colleagues, there is inserted a saving clause.
The other Ministers were incapable of recog-
nising the dangers and duties of the situation,
but " their chief was well aware of them."
Lord ABERDEEN appears to see some sort of
exculpation—perhaps a Scotch verdict of " not
proven "—in this. If, as he would have us
understand, his colleagues went ignorantly
into war with wretchedly insufficient re-
sources, what is to be said of " their chief,"
who joined in their counsels and acts, him-
self fully aware that the British army was to
be imperilled and the British name to be dis-
graced ?
Already are the Coalitionists trembling at
the impending trial. They are crying out
lustily, but they are not to be asked any ques-
tions of an important character. The Peelite
organ proclaims that it is " too soon to
" announce the grounds on which the expedi-
" tion to the Crimea was undertaken," and
that " reserve as to the past, and silence as to
" the future," will be the course of the Govern-
ment. All that Parliament has to do, in fact,
is to pass the requisite Militia Acts, hear from
Mr. GLADSTONE that his resources are utterly
inadequate, and then disperse for the festi al
v
of the Nativity. For we are one day apprised
that a loan is to be demanded, and the next
that it is not, and the third day that the CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER will not forestal his
usual statement. These intimations, and espe-
cially the latter, mean that Mr. GLADSTONE has
not made up his own mind as to the best mode
of raising money ; and, therefore, it would be
unreasonable to expect him to tell the House
of Commons more than he knows.
To pass the Militia Acts, and then separate
for the Christmas. recess. That is the whole
duty of Parliament, according to the Coalition.
It is possible that Parliament may deem that,
constitutionally, it is itself the best judge of
its duties. It is possible that the House •
Commons may require somewhat more respect-
ful treatment at the hands of the Ministers of
the Crown, and may not submit to be put to
certain taakwork, and then dismissed. In

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