The Express.
London, England, 1855-03-06 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-110111DAY, Maws &
Tbs LOILD CosmosLioa took ►is seat oa tbs wools's& at
Ass o'clock.

NOTICE OF NOTION.
The Bishop of EXETER gme sodas for this day to
sere for espies of the sphokes Ihe Irish law When of
the Crows, resportis, the Iworarliparw Lot, es also *Mr
/*aloe rospeeskse the *pity of au=s6 at Nile-
wawa by th• lespiss Mew

CIVIL BERM" CIF DWI&
Lord XONTNAOLII soond sem formillefilesos
Isissisias is
of arsibiliss fur Ibis olio of
enbluot.asoisun fa Ms lot Ills Oinsposy's levier.
Ms solarised assessponisol Yt ninths b away nosmonts
upon the dlisoltioewbbb h Wes limn In *be wry of
Ow satins of India whoa seadle fee mils--V under
tbe asselses of the Bast Indio bletssiesa.
Lord ASHBURTON nstalloillbasanniniss tbat bad bon
adopted to remove the disubllldss maw which the Indiaa
natives had haretokire laboured is die num.
Aber some farther remarks free Htelarl of Atauretezz
and Earl OnaxviLcs, tea V* terse Wen &PHA M.
ARHY IN T/111 ORDINAL
Lord VIVIAN, who had a reds* upon the paper for a
return with reference to this sublimes. said that he shodld
not sore for the return which steed against his a
the paper, as he had been intones& that the g eeeee meat
intended to send out to the cavalry nolunessa la the East a
proportioaste number of ezpsrisamed so:diera to every
squadron of recruits.
The house adjourned at 10 minutes to 7.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—MONDAY, Mesa' 5.
The SPIRAUR took the chair at the usual hoar.

PRIVATE BUSINESS.
SECOND READINGS.
The following bale were read a second time: Dagenham
Docks; Fibre Company ; Fife and Kinross Railway; Pur-
nell@ Railway ; Medan' Benevolent College ; Mid Kent and
North Kent Railway ; Severn Valley Railway ; Stockport,
Dailey, and Whaley-bridge Railway ; Wem and Bronygarth
tads; Woolwich Egotists', Gas; Bombay, Berods, Cen-
tral India Ra-Iway, Caledonian Railway, and Edinburgh
amit GlsogtoW Railway Bills.
PUBLIC BUSINESS.
NEW WRIT.
On the motion of Mr. Harris, a new writ was ordered
to Issue for the borough of Barnstaple, in the room of John
Laurie, Esq., whose election had been declared to be void.
NOTICES OF MOTION. •
LOCAL MEMBERS ON COMMITTEES.
Mr. EWART gave notice that this day week he should
propose a reeolutioo, that in all cases of committees on pri-
vate bills no member or members for the borough from
whence the bill originated should be allowed to sit on the
said committees.
THE TRANSPORT SERVICE.
Mr. HUTT—That the petition presented to this boon oat
the Sib day of February, from the Vice-President of the
Chamber*, Commerce of Newcastle and Gateshead, praying
the boon to reform the system under which the Transport
Service is conducted, be referred to the Select Committee on
Army before Sebastopol.
THE CRIMEAN MEDAL.
Mr W. 0. STANLEY gave Indies that he should to-
morrow (this day) oak the noble lord at the head of the
government, or the Under Secretary for War, whether in
cane in which the medal for services in the Crimes shall be
conferred, two years' additional movies would be granted to
the wearers, or any other advantage bestowed sack as was
conferred in the cases of soldiers to whom the Waterloo
medals were given ?
THE WAR-OFFICE AND THE HORS&GUARDS.
Mr. 111/ IT said that having seen it stated that the Duke
of Newcastle, whoa about to recall the Earl of Lena from
his command in the Crimea, was compelled to seek the in-
tervention of Lord Harding. for the paint% hehajeght
ask the noble lord at the head of the isosematrg
is any menu, a for the reform of the anahneradoa la the
army, which it was proposed to take, he bad contemplated
any step for relieving the Secretary for War from each a
position of subordisation to the Hone Gaud.?
Lord PALMERSTON.—The Secretary at Was um
stood in any relation of subordination to the Hone Owde,
es I know, having had tte honour of holding SWAN
for many yam.
Mr. RU FT-I did not say the Secretary at War, but the
Mioi.ter for War.
Lord PALMERSTON—If the Secretary at Wee lo sot
so subordinate a fortiori, the &menu of State Ilit wile
cumin be. (Hear, bear.)
THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT IN THE CRIMEA.
Mr. LAYARD begged to ash the Under-Secretary of State
for War whether say brigade and divisional orders had been
Wind in the army before Sebastopol, to the effect, " That
se gentiles mast be answered by medical men attached to
the forces, without permission from headopserters•"
whereby medical men attached to the army are preslaiLl
from giving complete evidence to the commission Nat an
is the East to inquire into the stets of the utedleal
meat. Also, whether it be tine that Dr. Lawson
appointed to the superintendence of, or to any other WO
employment in, the hospitals of Scutari, &pyres, or Rhoineo
and, if so, by whose authority such appointment was sad%
and whether it has been sanctioned by the authorities; Id
home.
Lori PALMERSTON said he would answer On find
question, and his hon. friend the Under-Srcretary for War
would reply to the second. The government had received
no official information of any such divisionsl or brigade
orders haying been issued as those alluded to by his hon.
friend ; but toey had received information from a privets
oorrespoudent that some such orders had been issued. He
assumed that the meaning of the orders must be that the
medical officers were not to plan themselves is commu-
nication with the commissioners without having received
authority to do so, as be could not possibly conceive that
the olden could go to the tenni of Interfering with the
ft/actions of the commissioners, or prevent them from ob-
taining information. His noble friend the Secretary for
War bad written out to obtain accurate information on the
subj.et, but all that the government at present knew was
obtained from a private letter which might not be accurate.
Mr. PEEL said that with regard to the second question,
he bad to say that Lord Rsglan had ordered Dr. Lawson in
the beginning of January last to Scutari, where he held a
subordinate office under Dr. Cumming, the head of the
hospital there. There was no intention on the part of the
government to place Dr. Lawson at the head of any hospital.
Mr. LAYARD—Was ha n..t in charge of the hospital at
Senteri
Mr. PEEL—He received a rural order to proceed to
Sentori and report himself there ; but he was 4ot given the
charge of the hospitals in any way.
Mr. LAYARD—Was he not sent from the Crimea to
&uteri. after he had bees charged with misconduct ?
Mr. PEEL—He was erne from the Crimea after he had
been censured in general orders by Lord Raglan.
RECONSTITUTION OF POLAND.
Lord PALMERSTON said, that seeing the bon. sad
Is need member for Bath (Mr. Phinn) in hie place, he
gged to ask whether be proposed to bring on the motion
of which be bad given nodes for to-morrow evening (this
4 y), on the subject of Poland) He
,would submit to his
Bun. and I d 'moil, that in the present state of affairs
—(bear, hear)—and considering the negotiations which
were going on—(hear, [34l.o—whether be ought not, in the
exercise of his discretion, to postpone that motion ?
Mr. PIIINN had so objection, believing it to be the wish
of the house, to accede to the request of the noble lord;
but at the same time he must say that it was • subject
which tutted great interest, sod one which the house, at
the proper time, he hoped, would think fitting for dis-
cussion.
VOLUNTEER RIFLE CORPS.
Mr. W. W/LLIAMS begged to ask Sir Georg* Grey
whether he or his predecereor in the Home Deportment had
received applications from any part of the country to sanc-
tion volunteer tine corps, and if so, what answer Wad been
returned ?
Sir G. GREY said his noble friend who preceded him
had, be believed, received one or two applications, and he
had received one ; but none of them had been accepted.
The applications were not for volunteer rifle corps to serve
abroad. (" Hear," and a laugh.)
THE APPOINTMENT OF DR. MEYER.

Mr. PERCY begged to pot a question to the government,
with eieresee to the appointment of the gentleman whir had
been sent out to take charge of the hospitallat Smyrna. He
bond the following matement in one of the public papers:—
. We announced 10 MO Mir days beck the appointment of Sir
J. Forbes, an salable and learned, but no longer youthful,
person, as head of the proposed civil hospital at Smyrna.
This, however, he soon resigned, wisely taking the hints
offered by ourselves and some medical contemporaries. His
principal assistants, Milers. Welts sad Coot*, are new oa
the road to Smyrna; but • new chief being reqnirisd—al-
'Snitch the ink et Lord Femurs's appeal adasieerieorikosis
to the Londun hospitals was not yet dry—we fled that, as •
compliment to the prof. esion, an inducement to volunteers,
and a rebuke to our:elves end other bitsylsodits, •
Gamin gentleman has received the appointment, with
Vie salary of 2,4001. per annum, and that he is not
connuted with or educated at any of our hospitals,
Of a member of any of the bodies whose diplomas
are the only legal title to practise the heath', art in this
country. We inquire, then, what are the known or sup-
posed qualifications of this admirable pawn, who is to tak•
the command of a body of sea to bees frem thearesas
of the medical profession, established as chime hem, and
all making greater or less sacrifices, without a &eta, la
i iitiag this proposed espeditios t The answer is vague.
He is believed to have managed a lunatic asylum abroad,
end to have attended with some regularity the levees of
HA 11. the Priam Albert. We will &email' peso over
this last sad instance of entelonnie in high places, with the
simple nillecticia that the neighbourhood of the government
allots here might have found Dr. Mayer ample field for
his exertions in his peculiar **kW, sad the hope that
them who invented him will find it an woolly easy matter
to obtain for him a competent staff of British assistaats :
jaditiog, however, Irma the resignation, sad vehmals
ahead', we apprehend they may aut." He begged to it
quire If that statsmeat wee Use.
Mr. 8. EiliKßltia said Iss wined WWI/ the lineetiee,
aa he was partly ampemsills he the appolatment of Dr.
Mayer. hulas emimeamodei Wm Mimed Pusan after
be bed left the Warmillaa. There ems eartandy • valeappm-
levies with regard es Dr. Wayer's Whig • German, for he
se he as Sagishasan, having lima hen at Nor-
(. Leafless, was odusied at Hammeramith sad
hisee sad keilder)-1•1 stedisi

hid»
WS*
lage *I Suipures. Ober ' had r
the bead of meditel k
Vas Dismeasslamdtemi Irk . t
Osiotial.elkes mad as hod
ban) that be sever the- 4.•
pleasure of eaglet hi "a( ; Wage Al
life. (Chess% sthl
EDUCATION BILL. _
la noraria Mr. Anniaothit;
Sir 3. PAILDIOTON mid that he should mine for leave
to bring in Ohs bill of whisk he had given notios for the
bean peakedea ef edasalka ea Friday week, the letir
imam% kakis *al the wields lord at the head of die
oadireleg the ausber 6f times; his =elks
lad Eve e'potputiol, would give him preeedowe as that
day.
Lord PALMERSTON said he would give premise» to
the right boa. padres».
EDUCATION IN THE ARMY.
On the male kr piss into esamitte• of supply,
Mr. RIOS nee, prowasat M melee, to move, that it
is es pedieat Oat meow» be takes for promoting the effi
Hersey of ON Wan staked» and other established
prervialime ka IC dims hr regimental and staff
bea. pathos. urged that it wee de-
VAllittbilir"thina be a reform Is the administration of
the army, and be that a part of that reform should
include the eiwllua of the officers. It was im-
possible without that education that officers could
be fitted fer their duties, and enabled so to do them
au le saabk the array to keep pain with the scientific
be-
pewsweste which ought to be applicable to it, and with
regard to which it had fallen far behind the age in con-
pubs. with the advises in civil life. He urged that, with
the sseepdaa of the Duke of Wellington's oampaigos, and
age es We britsasss, the history of our army from the
time of amigemsli, in all our wan, was one of blunder
and disaster, whines as regarded the navy, its history was
one of great aeltinsments and brilliant nooses. Why was
that differences? Was it not that in the navy every Wheel
imbued it as a prolsoke, and was duly sad professionally
viand begin he was advaaced to the rank of an officer?
The »seem at the aaq wee because it had been treated as
a profession, and Its educated for it, and encouraged
to undergo it. seven Mears by the hope of gaining its re-
wards. Than why bad sat the same course been followed
with the army ? The airy were always ready whenever
they were »gaited, at the beginning or during the progress
as Mar ; bat at* as the army. We wars told that there
was no prudent wheal for the army to learn its busineu in ;
there was some truth in that, but only half a truth. We
neglected, two years ego, an opportunity of extend-
ing that school. India was the only place in
which the military profession might be learned prac-
tically within the British dominions ; and there
we sent 30,000 troops, having, two years ago, agreed with
the East India Company to increase el:snug:her of European
troops by 10,000. And what did we do then ? Did we add
Ithat number to the Queen's trootri, which would not have
cost the government one farthing, as they would have been
all paid and supported by the Hist India Company ? bat
course war not adopted. He earnestly hoped that this error
would be rectified, and if not, that the whole of the army is
ladle, at lust that the European portion of it, would be
brought under the Crown. We might extend, by an expe-
rience like that, the practical skill of our officers, sal
make them more capable of performing their duties, what
we should inspire them with more enterprise ea
energy, by a more just system of promotions end
distinction. As it now stood, promotion and distill.,
borer in the British army came either by purchase or by
favour, by which officers were placed on the staff. He (Mr
Rich) defied any one to say that a sff appointments were net I
determined by favour and affection. It was true that the
previous services and character of the officers were required
to be taken into consideration, but that was entirely and
flagrantly disregarded. After mentioning several anecdotes
in illustration of this, Mr. Rich declared that it war
generally the fact, that officers were not appointed on the
staff for any real military qualifications ; that once upon the
staff they were usually continued upon the staff in despite
of other claims; and that an undue share of
promotions fell to their lot, so that they eventually became
the future leerier. of the army. He contended that the
talents of a military commander, being rare, should be
searched for throughout as large a clue as could be made
available, and that every care should be taken, wherever
such talents were found, to mature and perfect thus. He
referred to the education of the artillery and engineer
officers, and their practical instruction in the arsenal., at
Chatham, and elsewhere. But although oar engineer
officers were highly educated, when we hied got them we
neglected to use them. The general routine duty of an
officer of engineers, however brilliant his talents, was such
as might be performed by the most ordinary officer; he was
employed to look after buildings and barracks, end other un-
important croncerna. Some of the engineer OEMs,
too, were what was termed "seconded," and sought occu-
pation in matters quite irrel to the Queen's service.
The boo. gentleman then cited the statistics of Sandhurst
Military College, showing that the number of pupils was
On the decrease,_ and that the institution was allowed to
dwindle down, although not from any want of funds ; for it
appeared that during the last three years nn less than
2.7001. had been paid into the Treasury as a earplug from
it; and the college was not only self-supporting, but it was,
to some client, a public charity, for ten of its pupils paid
almost nothing, and forty of them were sou of office:B, sad
paid a small amount. The institution thus, besides paying
9001. a year into the public treasury, provided a free adu-
lation for many of the orphans of officers, and ought to
be well conducted. Now, as for the distribution of the
commissions that were riven away, he found that the num-
ber of them given between the years 1830 and 1847 was
1,200; and of these, during thou seventeen years, 446 were
givers to men who had shown distinguished merit in the
ranks or as non-commissioned officers • of the remaiader,
478 were given to the cadets who bad paved through the
audits and examinations of the Military College with
honour, and had been recommended to the commander-in-
thief. But what became of the rest? There were 1,269
commissions which had been given, as it was stated, to
patlemen"—that was, they had been given away by fa-
year, or they had been sold. Several of those who pro-
mired them might have been also at the Mili-
tary College, but merely as a place of resort,
without following say department or study, or passing any
examinations. But half of them, at least, were young
gentlemen who had entered the army with no maim: of fol-
lowing it as a profession, but who, being the heirs to large
estates, or the sons of peers, had been placed in the army
after having completed their school education, to get rid of
them, to keep them out of the gaieties of London and
Paris, and to occupy their attention. They had either I
purchased their commissions or obtained them by private
interest; and these were precisely the persons who got upon
the e-bff; while the 446 who got commissions after having
served in the ranks were, from their age and from their
previous habit', not qualified for the staff, and
the 476 who got commissions by their Industry,
and g rod behaviour at the college, being poor men, without
interest, had but a very small chance of any staff appoint-
ment. So it happened that the staff appointmeats fell to
the let of the sie or seven hundred gentlemen who get
their OnMalifelOal during those seventeen years by the ad-
Vantage affair fortune or social position ; and what secu-
rity was there for their knowing anything of that which it
-was necessary that a soldier should know ? There was an
security; and until 1847 theta were ao precautions takes
that these men should be acquainted with the duties of their
profession ; but at that time, or soon afterwards, an nee*
nation was instituted by the noble lord who was then Su
eretary at War, of which he (Mr. Rich) did cot say that
it was a good one, but which he believed was a
much more asocusful examination than that which had
bees prescribed by the right bon. gentleman the member
for Wiltshire. It required a knowledge of the first elemeate
of arithmetic and geometry, history and geography—a little
smattering of Latin—or, failing that, of French or Our
man, and some little knowledge of fortification ; but little as
it was, it tads.» numbers of young men, who before that
were intending to obtain commissions, to shrink from un-
dergoing that examination, and abandon the idea of enter.
log the army; and many others, who came up with all the
assistance which "creamers" could render them, wale
" plucked " two or three times before they could pass the
examination. He thought he was justified, therefore, th
saying that many officers who entered the army, one half at
them had not received an education to qualify them for its
duties, or for the cosmos duties of life ; and that the very
boys in the military school at Chelsea, or in the
Royal Hibernian School, the sons of private soldiery, would
have passed that examination, he believed, much more
readily. Could we be surprised, then, at the inefficient
character of
,our staff ? and did not that explain the cause
of our failure ? The education of our officers even for regi-
mental duty was neglected, and moth more for staff duty.
It was said that the French army bad a practical school of
war in Algiers, but he doubted whether it was so good as
ours in India. The French did not rely upon Algiers for
the training of their °Seen. The French bad six or eight
different military academies to prepare them for every
branch of the service. And what was their prepara-
tion for the highest branch? A young man was
selected who bad passed through the inferior colleges
with distinction, and wu then, for the next two years,
put through a coarse of military administration, history,
geegraphy, and topography ; statistics, mathematics, and
the sciences; mechanies, gunnery, fortification, and
modern languages. For 16 maths of the two years the
teaching was theoretical, and for the next six months he
was learning to apply his knowledge practically, and in the
other two maths he was subjected to a very seven era-
urination. After that he was attached for two years to
some regisseat or the line, then for another two yeah to a
regiment of cavalry, and tuba quietly for two years more
to the artillery ; and, at the end of thus eight years he
was a perfect and aecomplished officer, and might serve on
the staff with honour to himself and advantage to his
country. (Cheers.) But what was ear ensue ? The lucky
son or nephew of some Roods:stunt ma, or of a good-
natured man's lucky friend, was assoptsd, a youth initiated,
no doubt, in the mysteries of dealing aad carving, who
had learned bow to write a sets of levitates, sad Gould slag
a peed Nag PAW; be Oasiaal a acamelmise, be we
Weaved Celt promodon i be opoedOy booms soijor of brie
rowitisad a pock, * deputuirets of the Oairtersisetete
or Of Se Adjutact-Osarral, sad thee be bad
*already rhea high is the stay, but acquired no Whim,
lisewledire, whoa earidealy a war broke out, and thee the
odor had to leers his duties—but how and at lame es.
pease ? learned them in the field, at baybsasid, by
error and mistake., and at the cost of soloed ilkeseer, at
the expense of the English soldier's noble bleed, or ef the
Works epd privation which, by the ipaseemes of these in
seetaaaad, the soldier wee made to suffer. The Mao» ef
Eagles& sad the lives of oar army were to pains 10