The Express.
London, England, 1855-03-08 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, pIIIItSpA

THE COMMITTEE OFOUIRT.. .
Mi. ROEBUCK'S Committer is net reseeded with
very friendly sentimental° high quarters. Helldag
would afford greater Pleasure to- isiluentialpreem
who have lately held, or who still condom to hold,
office, than a plausible pretext for intarapting its
inquiries. And, if common fame my true, then leek
not among its members some who are by as seem
indisposed to lend their assistance towards tarnishing
pooh a pretest. It, therefore, behoves the meashme
who are homely anxious to push on the inquiry
some practically useful result is obtained, to be wary
in their proceedings.
The pm* of England have demanded the in-
quiry, not for the purpose of exposing the folly or
culpability of individuals, and inflicting an naprolltable
vengeance upon them, but for the purpose of ascertain-
ing the causes of the suffering to which our soldiers
have been subjected, with a view to devise means for
averting the recurrence of similar calamities. Per-
haps it was scarcely necessary to this end to waste
three whole days in trying to establish the feet that
the troops have suffered very much, and ward
mainly from defective arrangements. So awe lei
been admitted even by that favourite of fortune (er
of the Horse Guards), General Bournecr, who yes-
terday endeavoured to paint everything en km,
and at last contrived to wriggle for the time out of
the embarrassing cross-examination of Mr. LAMM
ft the courtly plea that he wished to attend
the QUEEN'S levee. General BENTINCK admitted
that typhus and fever prevailed among his
sseo ; that they were too weak to carry
their own knapsacks ; that only half the
amber of medical officers were attached to his
brigade that ought to have been ; that the troops
were not properly supplied with medicines; that he
left the Crimea before the bad weather set in, but
that even by that time the clothing of the men was
worn out, and no fresh supplies bad been received;
that the winter clothing for the soldiers was at Con-
stantinople by the end of August, but did not reach
Balaklava till December ; and so forth. The accounts
of the sufferings of the troops, and of the inadequate
provisions made for their sustenance, comfort, and
health, given by Mr. DUNDAS, General Blum, Cap-
tain WRIOTESLT, and others, are still stronger. It is
established—indeed, it has never been denied—that
our troops have been subjected to great and
unneceesary suffering, and that the system,
more than any individuals, is to blame.
For this the history of the Peninsular eampalgas
I ought to have prepared us. During the last two W
three years WELLINGTON took the control d the
entire commissariat and conveyance arrangiesats
into his own hands. This could only be became he
found the home administration incompetent be the
charge, although the country had then been Minty
years at war. There was no inconvenient Parliament
in those days, and yet the administrative Government
was so inefficient as now. Forty years have made
no change in its inefficiency. It is the system that
is to blame, and if Mr. ROEBUCK'S committee really
desires to make itself of any use—the only
way in which it can conciliate that popu-
lar support which ii required to uphold it
against the ill-will and machinations of men in office
and their tools—it will, without further loss of time,
set to work in a business-like manner to trace the
evils in the Crimea to the fountain-bead in the home

land ioi

The valuable practical speech delivered by Sir
Resent Ruins, on Monday last, in the Committee
on the Ordnance Estimates, may indicate to the Com-
mittee the manner in which they ought to go to
work. Mr. MONSELL had claimed great credit for
Government, on ;Lemont of the energy with which
they have set about the construction of the cup at
Aldershot. Sir JOSEPH, by a simple business esti-
mate of the time and labour that will be re-
quired to complete the works, and of the
time allowed in the Government tenders, de-
monstrated that Government really does not under.
stand the business it has taken in hand, and is
consequently incompetent to execute it. Now, with
regard to the Crimea, it is clear that the troops have
been decimated by disease ; it is clear that food, medi-
cine, clothing, shelter from the weather, were not
supplied to them, and hence the disease. Govern-
ment will, of course, make an ostentatious parade of
the stores of food, medicine, clothing, comforts', and
huts, which they have collected and transmitted to
the Bast. But let each of their specious v►gas
statements be examined in detail, after the PAITON
fashion. Let the Committee begin, for example,
with the huts, and inquire when they were or-
dered P.--when they were shipped ?—to whom were
the manifests of the ships in which they were
embarked transmitted with orders to re-
ceive and forward them ?—who was charged
with the land transport and the erection of the huts ?
and so on. Let a similar course of inquiry be insti-
tuted with regard to the winter clothing of the
troops, the medical stores, the provisions, the " green
coffee" and other " comforts." Let the time when
each article was ordered be ascertained, and what care
was taken to ensure its timely arrival at its proper
destination. Let the progress of each article be
traced from the warehouses of the contractors to its
ultimate destination—or to Varna or the bottom of
the Black Sea, or wherever it was last heard of. If
a close, *urchin', well-directed, minute inquiry of
this kind is instituted with regard to every article for
which the country has paid, and for want of which
our soldiers have perished, a case of gross igno-
rance, unholiness, or jobbing, will be established
against every department of the home administra-
tion, for which the country, after all that has been
said on the subiect, is not_prepared. If the Commit-
tee honestly take up this line, they cannot fail to
prove the deficiencies of the home departments—
where the real source of all the evils complained of is
to be *ought —and to indicate measures for their
amendment. If they institute such an inquiry as is
here recommended, confine themselves strictly to it,
and follow it up from day to day, they will,
on the one hand, escape all danger of ex-
eating the susceptibilities of oar allies—the
buggaboo with which Government seeks to scare
them from inquiry—and will enlist all the business
feeling of the country on their side. They will
Om strengthen themselves foe promoting useful
and necessary reforms of our administrative system
in a temperate spirit, and with perfect safety. If
they do act honestly and steadily follow out this
course, they will furnish a pretext for their own
dissolution ; will help to conceal, not to expos%
abuses ; and 1411 leave the people no alternative bet
to seek for redress by more neigh and more &e-
-genes meads.—Daily News.

blow at the supremacy of the Ifoneales,
0 a direct *attach spla as religions liberty.
mice a stens molt an hod not been witnessed
...--- these realm since the days of the Reform-
isiblir
dm Every Englishman—that is, every Protestant
aIIINIMISIIIIIII ready to do battle for his faith.
The preacher and the statesman vied with each tithes
!salons opposition to the invader. The one
diesght which filled all breasts was how we should
hest defend that bulwark of all our liberties—the
Posirtut faith. This, too, passed away ; and after
a short space on had almost forgotten the existence
of the Bishop of Rosa. At this moment, we are all
intent upon war. That is the gnat WOW cd the
day. To accomplish the objects for which in ant
forth our fleets and annies—to humble the pride bt
Russia, to succour the hapless Turk, to =sistan
the ancient splendour of our army--these are the only
topics of public interest on which it is prudent to

insist.
Now we are not in the least ashamed to make this
confession. We rather believe that the great success
of Englishmen is to be attributed in no small degree
to their habit of doing one thing at a time. But what
will our readers think of the assumption put forth
the other day by a contemporary, that the people of,
this country only read, or only care to read,
one journal? The only newspaper in Eng-
land is the Tunes. When Sir JAM= GRAHAM

talked of the power of the preen, he meant
the power of the TOW. When the Government
proposes to make a law which may possibly do some
harm to the existing journals, it is trying to pall
down the Timu. That, at all events, is the complaint
put forth by our contemporary. Eagland could not
survive his fall. Like the air we breathe, like the
bread we sat, like the beds we sleep in, be
is necessary to our very existence. He is of more
importance to us than " our old nobility." Laws
Li learning, trial by jury, the two Houses of Par-
liament, Westminster Abbey, and all our most loved,
most honoured institutions, might vanish from before
us, or crumble beneath our feet—but let us preserve
our Titan. As the vestal virgins watched the
sacred fire, so let Englishmen preserve that journal,
whose mighty thunder echoes through the world
from Printing-house Square. Rat justitia, riot
cabins. Better had the sun cease to shine, better
had the Alderman lose his turbot, or the bargee
his pot of porter, than England lose her Times.
Now let us say, without more ado, that we neither
envy our great contemporary, nor quarrel with his
success. We should be very glad to attain to his ,
profitable circulation. We should like to circulate
as many copies—to be listened to with as implicit
belief—to be a fashionable necessary in the same
sense as he is. But let him exult in secret over his

success. Surely he has trumpeters enough. He
need not tell us, in emphatic language, what it
would be much more modest to hold his tongue
about. And, after all, he does not state the
case with his accustomed precision. We beg leave
to differ from him when he argues that the Newspaper
Stamp Bill is a blow It the Times alone. So far as,
the abolition of the stamp goes, we take it that the
nom will benefit or suffer (whichever the case may
be) in the same degree as the other morning
papers—neither more nor less. The other question
is the transmission of newspapers through the Post-
offlos. It is expected that the Government is about to
impose new fetters on the public press in place of the
Ai saes which it removes. This is not exactly the
ease. Even if the proposed bill passes into law, the
press will scarcely be worse off than it is at peoseaL
Those newspapers which now pass through the post
for a penny will still do so at the same price, and
those which now pay three-halfpence will continue
to pay three-halfpence, the only Melones being that
the gratis transmission through the post will merely
last for one week instead of being perpetual.
Bat even ,if this was not the real meaning
of Mr. GLADSTONE'S bill, even if the measure
was likely to be as oppressive and unjust as
is asserted by the Times, it is obvious that it would
not affect our contemporary alone. It affects every
journal which henceforth may exceed the pro-
posed limits. NI hat right, therefore, has the Time
to demand for itself the undivided sympathies ol
the public? It will, indeed, be the first to nat,
but has not high position its duties as well as its
privileges—must not they who take the lead in tho
day of prosperity be prepared to suffer when advsn
city comes? Let us hear no more of this one-sided
lamentation. We are, perhaps, but lean kine, whim
compared with our well-fed, well-favoured mates-
porary ; but is not the miserable hack, who drop
the meanest ash, of bony kith and kin with the
prancing steeds who run in royal carriages?
No, indeed. We do not wish any ill to our vim
temporary. We are competitors in a race in whisk
he got the first start, and has hitherto distanced
everybody else. But it is equally true that England
could do without the Times. If Printing-hoses
Square were to be destroyed, and the Thus with al
'its machinery of brains and type were to pod* the
public would not the less be presented, every meraings
with information of passing events. We have gar.
Mud many things in our day. We survived Catholic
Ineancipation. We survived the loss of Protection.
Aad we could survive the loss of that which appears,
saw-a-days, u the most acceptable dish on the
Inakfast-tables of so many thousands of our country-
men. /asides, is there not room enough for all ?—or
hes even the Moss itself reached the extreme limits
of its possible circulation P—Daily News.

The special correspondent of the Daily Newt at
Paris intimates that the opening of the Exhibition is
" irrevocably" fixed hie the let of May ; and that
the Emperor and /Impress will be present at the in-
auguration. The Imperial expeditions to the Crimea
have been given up.

We are. gratified, says the Brighton Gazette, to
learn that the health of the Duke of Devonshire has gel
materially improved daring the last month. His gems
still at Kemp Town' and 111.110/11 frequent visits from Sir
Augusto, Clifford,, Mir Joseph Parton, sad the Cavendish
family. Colonel Chutes Lemma Maitland, who was rather
I severely grounded at the battle of lakermano, arrived in
England about a fortnight ago, and immediately on bad-
Zumeproseeded .to the residence of his He, the Doke of
d, at Brighton whom the gallant attend is dill
soonoksing. Colonel GMalse is the eldest sea of the lat. 84
=. Maitland ; sad reaching the Due of Zia-
° maidens% en
Bast Lodge, fa Brighton, his mother, tho
Leo Bent Maitland, was titers to receive him. We as,
frem to asst. that tha wound which the :pliaat onisael
he seedbed is not likely to be writes or sled
Ids read health. Nleael Maitland was Mamba
to dissent Oelasert's era dm" after the frailest
weed resitied his 4s 'egad Wesel lileithas's alai
WAS LrismaLi
soh owed sheaf she at arblir teak effes
sad bidt jis a mew salfrefes. We Mesh Ideftbted
is MI is ira+lweiiaded ass. Camel Hard-
of the Odessa bade, is with his
swifter fa Brightest se mash debilitated, ken the
anasaa aka wound% thaq he is al pima NAM So pay say
Ada. Captele Imhoff, at the 17th Ledge" retuned
ben ties 4i 'best Ili weeks ego in a very vistaitatml
rats of sail took :;isizesertars at Pegg's Sepat
'York Hotel tide tows. The impala was ale of
al
the first to sesta Prises after the
battle of Alas ; sad he Ids _ *te a ample
31:11joke% takes frees the lieleeies Ito =
re After a six weeks' adeeia Is
Ilartopp's. health beaten mash aserefted, sad he be.. re-
study leftirlghtca for Coda's 111111, israyerarest.
..
•Elll4llT numuP.....W. 168111 With 1 BMW
tepid that Ohio assonalhesd ellorow for .....t,F,
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of lie
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to
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whisk Is is palatal le eltplehr--Xaticksia• Mardi"