The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-07 00:00:00

" sentimentalism, &c." Oh ! admirable orator! Lord CANNING, when
he reads this address, may regret that Lord GRANVILLE did nut stick
to the Buck Hounds, or content himself with his glass-house celebrity.
At talking down a luckless client, we will back his Lordship against
any six of the briefless Bar.
Yet this is the man who is spoken of as the future Prime Minister
of the Liberal Party ! This is the " statesman " who is to supersede
that Lord JOHN RUSSELL who toolc Lord GRANVILLE from the Buck
Hounds, and put him. in political office ! The Liberals, having sen-
tenced Lord J. RUSSELL to exile in the back benches, are in great diffi-
culty for a future Premier when they look to the President of the
Council. But, possibly, the Noble Earl has a notion of going out to
India himself as Governor-General? Perhaps his Lordship was only
oiling the bannisters for Lord CANNING to slide (loofa easily? The
notion, however, is too improbable ; yet, if Lord HARROWRY played
Mrs. Candour last week towards the Premier, Lord GRANVILLE (tots
Lady Sneerwell this towards Lord CANNING with a vengeance.

We have lately heard a great deal of the quantity of recruits which
have been raised since the commencement of the Indian crisis, but
little or nothing of their quality; and this reticence was wise, for when
the standard of height was lowered the authorities neglected to pre-
scribe a certain amount of girth round the chest. It was pointed out
to Lord PANMURE at the time, that the consequence of this omission
would be that we should obtain all those men who had been recently
rejected, ostensibly for being just below the regulation height, but
really on account of their sickly appearance. His Lordship, however,
considered that with the improved weapons of modern times a short
man was just as effective as a tall one in the field, and would not hear
of any alteration. This reasoning is doubtless conclusive to his Lord-
ship's mind, but to our ordinary intellect it presents some difficulty;
for it is not at first sight easy to comprehend that because the Enfield
rifle weighs one and a half pounds less than Brown Bess, therefore
a man of sickly constitution and feeble frame is able to bear the same
knapsack, march the same number of miles, and endure the same heat
by day and damp by night, as his stalwart comrade. However, Lord
PANMURE and the recruiting sergeant sing with BURNS, "A man's a man
" for a' that," and so long as the recruit has no actual disease, the
doctor and commanding officer aro obliged to acquiesce. The actual
number of men who have enlisted during the month of October we
believe to be 8,000 ; and we confidently appeal to the heads of the
recruiting department to bear us out in the statement that of this
number 5,000 are more likely, after they have been three months in
the field, to be found in our hospitals than drawn up against an enemy;
and indeed we question whether in the history of this country such a
miserable batch of men has ever entered the service of the Sovereign.
The numbers have, however, greatly fallen off during the past week,
and from this it may be inferred that we have obtained almost the
whole nf the floating scum of tha population, and now are thrown back
upon our old recruiting connection If this he so, we may hope that
henceforth we may gain in quality what we lose in quantity. It must
also be remembered that it is in hand-to-hand conflicts that the supe-
riority of the British soldier has been so often proved. Mere weight
of body and strength of muscle has many times gained them a victory
more than their gallantry, however indisputably it might ho mani-
fested. Inkermanu is a fair example. But there are many in our mili-
tary history of a still more decided character. To return, however, to Lord
PANMURE. It is but justice to his Lordship to confess that his admirable
example has been ably followed by the Court of Directors of the Hon.
East India Company. As we announced in our impression of Saturday
last, it was finally decided by the Cabinet that the East India Company
should be permitted to raise three regiments of light horse between
the height of five feet and five feet five for service in India. We can
picture to ourselves the raptures of Jacob Omnium on hearing the above
intelligence. But "J. 0.," although in some degree acquainted with
the proceedings of the War office, was not initiated into the mysteries
of Leadenhall-street. He little knew that the proudest boast of the
Directors, their single answer to all suggestions of improvement,
was—" We follow the lead of the War Department." The order for
raising the regiments was issued at the end of October, and what has
been the result ? Parturiunt mantes nascetur ridiculus mus. After the
lapse of a week, numbers having in the meantime been rejected by the
medical officers, some fifty miserable wretches from the streets, some
of whom have never been near a horse, have been passed as the
nucleus of the three famous regiments of light cavalry. How these
giants are to be taught to mount the tall English horse, or to sit
astride a cavalry saddle, or to be fitted for the field under a couple of
years, has yet to be determined. The only condition required by the
Directors to render a man eligible for service is that his height should
be five feet something, and nothing more.

On the question of the Danubia❑ Principalities depends the
stability of the present European system. It is well known that when
the late Char of RUSSIA checked the military desires of the E mperor
FRAY:IS JOSEPH against Prussia, he pointed to the East as a fair field
for his ambition, and the policy thus suggested has ever been main-
tained by Austria. To the success of that policy the union of the
Principalities would be fatal. Between the Rouman and the Mussul-
HUM there is no tsympathy. The old government of Turkey in Mol-
davia and Wallachia was one of brutal tyrauny—one of corruption and