The Express.
London, England, 1855-01-26 00:00:00

THE " EXPRESS', FRIDAY EVENING,' • JANUARY

tie to redoes the army at least to half its numerical
strength. in order to increase the efficiency of the
uterine. " The millions so spent," mays one indignant
writer, "would be well spent, whilst the sum now
voted is far too small to render the marine efficient ;
and thus it may be considered u thrown away and
wasted mousy. Would we again see Holland pros.'
porous, let u give to the army what we now vote
to the marine, and to the seere what we now vote
to the army."—Daily News.

FRANCE.

A FRENCH VERSION OF OUR
CRISIS.

INDINT or MB 'LILT Mil
PARIS, TIII7IIIIDAT Eviiuio.

The following artiste, signed by the political
director of the Annotate Nationale, contains state-
ments which may very possibly be news in Eng-
land :

Letters from Landau throne se that Lord Absrdestee
ministry kes the eve et braking up. Lord dbeedeen.
Mr. Olsdstons, the Duke of Newcastle, sad Mr. /Miry
Merbert uiB retire, sad a sew admisistration will be Nerved,
St wkish Lord Jobe Russell will ha the had. 8k James Ors-
ben. who joined the existing coalition as a Polite, will sew
MOM" hie triads eat keep his portfolio. Formerly lea
sunset would ham appeared strange is Reglead ; hut, la
Mie eoefesiss of parliamentary parties whisk new prevails,
silkiest esulatency is a virtue somewhat out of fealties.
Or Jaime Graham, moreover, is ao nooks l• the art of sud-
denly wheeling about. Is 1834 he left Lord Grey's eabiset
M booms a tory, end Ito sew returns to whiggientitter
bevies passed through every latelmediate Siam of the
essesrvative party. If we are rightly hatessard Lord Alia-
gess es& his eollessses de rapt retire es amount of the
*arses made spied t►em respecting the way is which the
tear has bees cesitheted. The division to which their re-
Meat is to be attributed, is sore serious and important. It
appears that Lord Aberdeen has not base able to apse with
the whip about the end premised to be attained by the
present war. In the opiates et the First Lord of the
Treasury, the war should Goalless to maintain the thum-
b, whisk it had at the begineing, that is to say, it should
ho Baited to the obtaining the four pellets mad die taking of
Sebastopol. These two objects attained, Lord Aberdeen sad
his friends think that English policy should be a policy of
wee, without miming at any obaage is the territorial
sileskim of Esreps. Os the Mbar bead, Lord Joke Russell
mid Lord Palmerston are of opiates that the object of the
war must not be restricted beforehaed, Lad that s door
should be left open for every combination which the fortune
of war any brim shoat in the present state of Estop'.
We have no latestioe to examine the new situation result-
Ms to as (as Frenehaten) frost this change in the English
misistry. It is probable that the ministerial question will
tlMiYy be openly debated in parliamest, and then the
Impeeteace to Frames tad Ramps of the retreat of Lord
Aberdeen, and the triumph of Lord John Rumsli's and
Lord Palmerston's policy, will appear In broad daylight.

News has been received that the Frankfort Diet
met the day before yesterday, to deliberate on the
requisition made by the Austrian minister for the
mobilisation of the federal contingent. M. Bismarck- '
Schoenhatmen, the Prussian minister, was present at
the sitting, the results of which are not known. To-
day M. Alphonse de Rothschild, the eldest son of
Baron James de Rothschild, was chosen to succeed
the late M. Lebeuf u regent of the Bank of France.
He was elected by a large majority of a meeting con-
sisting (according to the statutes) of at least 150 of
the largest shareholders who had held their shares
for six months and upwards.
The Bourse opened with flatness under the influ-
ence of a fall of 1 in Consols, recovered rapidly from
the first impression in consequence of numerous
purchases in the Recto, and then became again
heavy. The Three per Cents. opened at 68fr., rose
to 68fr. 250., and closed at 67fr. 90c., with a fall of
200. The St. Germain Railway rose 12fr. 500. owing
to rumours very much talked about of the probabi-
lity that the fusion of the Norman lines would soon
be effected. A good deal of business was done in
the Grand Central, the general opinion bt•iog that
this company will come to an understanding with
government. The shares, however, participating in
the general flatness in the afternoon closed with a
fall of Ifr. 260. There was little variation in other
lines. . _

' 26, 1865.

FRANCE AND ENGLAND AS MILITARY

POWBIte.

[The fallowing extract is from a eery remarkable
uncle os the preset political state of Europe, aid of
Frees in penicillin, which will appear is the fort/nosing
numbs of the North British Review. The whole paper is
rook& with informatics and origisal remark, sad suggestive
et fillsteght. • We has been inesend is our solution of
elte'pessage which we sow submit to ear readers, by its
eggentesese he the imprint diocesans sow impending is
parliamest.—Ed. of Dons New.]
" The abuses of an aristocreey, to which we have alluded
=2. to the polities& enmities of Frans, is eminently
bet silitary power. We are opt, in England,
leethlplais that *smut impeetest paste in the pub& ler-
=OM by pusses sebeemiaim to them was birth,
,or wee M, end thee the result is Resent' me-
dieenty and frequent ineospeessee. The assertion, that we
sea It our higher polisleal fuselthisaries from the compara-
tively small assisted saes wire pewees rank or fortune,
tree ; but it is m=4 doer teat this is en evil, or that
es itavoidable. lithe is general, and, more than
soy ctiestblentheee 11, perliethessu7 life, is costly, sneer
Sin, Gal thenewtheative • nitwits, more than any other
Sue, ammo die names to it, it esquires early appren-
ticeship. Of line then, d equal taints and diligence, who
eater the geese ed Omeeens, PM at the ego of 25, ono at
$6, and the Pied at 44 we any predict that the first will
Meese menus* ethethage over the second, and that the
third, wales be ban prefrionely prettied a profession to
which patine speakinglinetheratel, will fall. The prises of
political life, thorax% en, by the very nature of the con-
test, reserved for those who, by moonset their own wealth, or
that of their friends, can devote themselves is early life to the
arena, and support is long and exposing training. Nor, we
repeat, is it clear that this is as evil. It is perhaps as evil
that trowels of debate give as undue prepooderance to their
poseesee, hot this is cot an aristocratic thoonveniesee ; it is
coo inoperable from free instituting's. Those who feel, as
we a% this without such institution life would eat be
worth baths& mut submit to be ruled by rhetoricians. The
neeeeeity that a Mateeinas should be a speaker, and the
probability that the beet speaker of his party will become
its leader, may exclude seine mss whose wisdom, know-
ledge, and esperieses, we can ill afford to loss ; it may put
others, when judgment or industry or honesty is dee, lent,
into station is whisk their faults may be mischievous in
proportion he their rhetorical ability ; but it is unavoidable,
and it seeufel. at lest, that sue parliamentary chiefs shall
has high hies % though sot always the most useful ones.
It lets in sasepiels, but it esuludes dunces. And if we com-
pare our statesmen with those of the countries which are
governed either despotically or democratically, with them
of Belgium, or of Holland, or of Prussia, or of Austria, or
of Rune, or, to tad the country which most resembles us
in every respect, inapt its democresy, with those of the
United States, it would be false modesty if we were to limit
our claim to that of are equality.
"Bat this reasoning does not apply to the army. That
is • profession which ail who einsee it enter at an
early so : the poorest perhaps at the earliest. Instead of
being, like politics, necessarily the nenopely of the rich, it
is neurally the refuge of the poor. The cheapest way to
provide for a son is to get him • commission. It requires
no expensive preparation. Any young man of talents and
energy eau procure, or can give himself, at little cost, a
good military education. There appears to be no rema—
in fact there is nose, unless one be found in our aristocratic
institutions—why the highest ranks, or why all ranks, in
the army, should not be open to merit, though low-bora,
sad sees though indigent. It might then have been
expected, a priori, tint our highest military poets
would be as well filled as our highest political employ.
means,—ladeed better, sines there is a far wider field
for seleetion. And if the military leader were
selected, like the political leader, by those whom he is to
command, such would be the case. Unhappily be is not so
selected ; perhaps cannot be so selected. The men on whom
the fate of an army, perhaps of • country, perhaps of the
civilised world, may depend, ere chosen by those over whom
their subsequent conduct has no immediate influence. lf,
through the &tepidity, or the ignorant., or the rashness, or
the 11l temper, or the false shams of a superior officer,
Ilarlub soldiers are uselessly massacred,—if, through the
lelly or the timidity of another, they are kept disgracefully
▪ fteeene,—if men are ordered to form snare when they
then to thugs, or to relent when there is no salvation for
lbws bet is advanalag,—if they are left without orders,
Immo the officer who ought to gin them has lost his pre-
tties* se mime aid self-command,—thoes who appointed
these ithesigthliest funetionaries do not see the results
d their pplidelaeute, do not bear of them for
weeks, bequently do not hen of them at all.
If they do bear of them, they may suffer remorse,
bat they neaps punishment—Mites, indeed, blame. On
whom has the ignominy of the appointment which produced
the calamities of Cabal fallen? On no one. Who is re-
sensible for retaining in high commands men who, be it
their fault, or be it their misiortune, escape from services of
danger because they have loot the confidence of their supe-
riors and of their subordinates, and are not employed by
the one, because they might not be obeyed by the others?
Who is reeposeible fur the appointments which have elides-
wend oar army In the Crimea, and chick, in contingencies
ben which H protect us, may ruin it? Who is ulti-
mately responsible for the inaction of our fleet, during the
battle of the Alms, when the port of Sebastopol wee still
epee, and three who ought to have manned its chips and its
batteries were miles away, swelling Mentehikof's forces?
Who placed it in bands that had not enterprise enough at
least to steam towards the mouth of the harbour, to feel
their way, and, if it was found, as it probably would hare
been found, iutifficiently defended, to enter? Who is
ultimately responsible for keeping oar army, for two days
after the battle, employed in burying the dead, sod 'need-
iog to the wounded, instead of landing seamy, and marines
a service, important, indeed necessary, but not such as a
victorious army, with the pen of the campaign within its
reach, ought, when the thing might have been as well dose
by others, to have been detained to perform ?
" We predict that no individual will be held responsible.
The blasts will be thrown on the claims of high birth, on
the claims of seniority, en the routine of office, on profes•
noon etiquette, in short, on the hateful abuses and childish
pretexts whisk make the military professions the only ones
in Reigned in which merit is unproductive of advance-
ment, or demerit of dismissal.
" From all these chains, which bind the English giant,
Louis Napoleon is free. Es can choose the best man, he
eau pet him in the situation for which he is most fit, end he
eau delegate to those whom he may think deservieg of it
the absolute power of choice and rejection which he enjoys
himself. When Martin Peet was asked to take the com-
mand of the staff of the army of the East, he asked, who
was to be seder him ? The Minister of War desired him
to make oat his own list. It was adopted without atiditiee
or omission. Cserobert has the some freedom of action as
hie master. Es is not expected to distribute his doses of
praise among his deems according to their rash. He can
mention in his despatches, without apology, captains and
*shelter's, and even privet's. There is something grand,
something magnsaimous, in the unnoticed, unrewarded
heroism of the English soldier; bat Frans does not think
it wise or stagnenimou to let the heroism of her humbler
coos remain unnoticed and unrewarded.
" Some year ere, during one of the quarrels which Louis
Philippe's chamber was always picking with England, we
discussed with • French general the possibili.y of our being
surprised by an unexpected invasion from France.
" ' Those who think,' said our military friend, ' such •
surprise possible, never prepared an army for a campaign.
It is true that • warlike nation can, without many previous
ansegemests, make an inroad on an unarmed neighbour.
It would not take us long to mike a rush on Brussels. But
if a serious invents' ie to be attempted, if good troops are
to he encountered, if an army is to be got ready to which
the honour of the country can be entrusted, eix months I.
the least period of preparation.
t't First, the diffennt regiments that are disposable
suit he sifted, in order to get from each of thus two
boariliceee car diiie for foreign service. Tuese banalities must
be seised in brigades, and the sagacity of the mei.
thestal dears tested by the the e 4 bripode, in the same
as that is which thou oithaers tested that of
own privates and ana-officiars. All who
POW stand this teat are sent back to the banalities kept
nt bent. The Pigmies, again, meet be united is • division.
They meet be gemelemed to act together, to Mew bow far
the « end use brigade ass rely os assOme. The
bee Is do only with the isissals. He
asses bark WIMP areessay without eases,all wheat
be lads toe oil, er too we too *mast t, wMe
dell, for rid letting. TM nempistivelylnuable Dodd
amities el MI emsimmesi Ann% PM Pea fire.thkdo et
Mies low sliesibus lei* maim lin do so with-
eat =my. It is tbeelialif
aebeillide peones of select-
Ina end inkling, and el legs and dis-
'keen, that • divhess isle an mss of homo-
geneous materiel% the IMP, if be relied on,
ea
warily es PP of it welimeeMmeled maiden If any
Ala
seep In epoem be emitted, or eves berried ever,
the eleabine Immo aid, if it be opposed to one
that bee boss pep* It breaks its the gene al's
bands. Bet IP takes dam I said sit months, but that is
toe little. TM army that gained Austerlitz bed been sub-
jested to this training for two years.'
" ' But the army,' we answered, 'of the Hundred Days,
the army which gained the great battle of Lige', was raised
Pby Iff noises in air weeks.'
" Yes,' said the general; betty's must recollect what
were hie materials. More thee 180,000 veterans, who,
though young, had passed years seder ere whom, in his
presamptices, he had scattered over ad Europe, from
Dutsig to Alexandria, were restored to Prance, by the
pesos. He had only to stamp, and the legions sprang sp.
And, after all, what was the result? This hastily collected
way was bashes, was scattered, wu actually dissolved, as
so Freaeh army ever was before, in a sing's battle. Would
gm army of Austerlitz have thus fallen to pieces ? I will not
my that that army would have gained Waterloo ; though, If
kW been ready, as It would have bees, to attack at eight
M mends , Mama of at eleven, the chases would
Ism boss is it. favour; but it would not have bees
Ishisedriosatas. It might have tailed ; bet it ant
have bass d
" Would illsepoulessisysi.'de thus to melt and re-melt, end,
hammer, and ger red grind, end polish, to toe highest
perfectas; oteiimer. the army of an aristocracy ? Could
military perry or nitmben of tbe lions* of Cessions, or
friends of pews, or of members, or of editors, is abort,
sold asy panes salable of appealing. directly or indirect-
ly, to the public, be the treated ? Can an iasompetaat
general or plead he sent booze at the risk of • debate 1"