The Express.
London, England, 1849-03-27 00:00:00

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LONDON,TUESDAY,MARCH27.
The financial reformers of Liverpool have at le tat
succeeded in inspiring the Secretary at War with a
most iutense dislike uf them. His animosity cannot
be restrained; it overflows on all cc:idiom', in ma-
son and out of season. In the beginning of the speech
with which ho 1 refaced the army es imstes, Mr. Fox
MAULE lacerated the unfoitunate ltf gar of Leeds,
who had ventured to call a financial reform meeting ;
at the close of the same speech he made a dead set at
the conceded financial rt farmers of Liverpool ; end on
Friday last, ci propos of the Mutiny Bill, he returned
to the charge.
This betrayal of relentless inveteracy by the Secre-
tary at War is not overwise on his part. It is rarely
that pablio men honour with sac's reiterated attacks
any of whom they do not stand in some degree
uf awe. Aed the taste of his a ticks is as quesaon.
able as their prudence. It was ictlecd very silly in
the Mayor of Leeds to sign a tequieition for ell ing
out the soldiers, lest there should be a
d sturbmee at the financial reform meeting
to which‘be had given his sanction. No man, poi-
se ask g the average intelligence and nerves cf a man,
could have dreamed of die urbence oa such an occa-
sion. But it is weak men like the worthy msgistraie
in question who constitute the connecting link be-
tween aristocratic cons( entire whigs of Mr. MAuLt's
complexion end the popular party. Common gtai-
tude ought to have led that gentleman to conceal the
weakn ss of one of a class which has been so us-rful to
him. Again, Mr. Fox Nlatme talked of a "set of
people calling themselves the Liverpool Financial
Reform Association." This is Mrs. Slipsiop over
grin, who, whenever she n.eant to be particularly
dignified and cutting, directed her animadversions
against "sons people." We have no right to quarrel
with the Secretary at War fo? giving himself
the vulgar airs of a spoiled lady's-maid ; but he
miebt have spared the feelings of his friend Sir
THOMAS BIRCH, who happens to be one of that " set
f people," having subscribed 251. to aid in the dis-
semination of their principles, though he voted against
teem in the House of Commons.
But Mr. Fox Manta knows his audience as wiles
any canny Scot that ever crossed the Tweed. Five-
sixths of the members of the House of Commons,even
when they are not themselves officers in the army,
navy, or militia (and your Major Sturgeons always
exaggerate the expression of the feelings of a profes-
sion which hesitatingly recognises their claim to be-
long to it) have numerous connexions in the service,
anChave from youth imbibed their prejudices. No
small proportion of them have their letters addressed
to some military or naval club. Then there are in the
Hoene of Commons official representatives of all the
bodies which administer our defensive establishments.
The spirit of a mess-room or military club pervades
the House of Commons, send is marshallei and orga-
nised by recognised leaders. The tons in which Mr.
Fox MAULE affecttd to speak of the criticisms on our
military and naval establishments was sure to find a
gratified response in the breasts of an immense male•
city of those by whom he was surrounded. He
'rowed lustily, for he was crowing on his own
doegbill.
Out of doors, however, the petulant remarks of Mr.
Fox MAULE, and his volunteer coadjutors are more
impartially innvamed. Aed the universal feeling is, that
the attempt to silence frank criticism of the system of
organisation and management which prevails in the
,mine, by supercilious sire, will not be endured by the
middle classes of England. They think it hard
enough to be obliged to pay for the overgrown mill-
tory eitsblishment of the country without being
scorned and flouted by their overpaid servants into
the bargain.
Mr. Fox MAULE has himself sufficiently exposed
the utter groundlessness of the vague and exaggerated
chime he advanced against the financial reformers
of Liverpool. He deliberately accused these gen-
tlemen of systematically disseminating atta he
upon the officers of the army, which neces-
sarily tended to subvert military discipline. On
Friday he could produce only one paragraph of two
senteuces, out of all the voluminous public ideas of
the society in support of his accusation : even that
paragraph did not boar out the construction he put
upon it. Even Mr. Fox MAULS could detect nothing
in it beyond what he was pleased to ell' " an insinua-
tion " of complicity between the clothing colonels and
their quartermasters. He contented himself with
attempting to make cut a case of constructive oxhide.
tion to mutiny.
The oonviction is rapidly gaining ground throughout
the country, that the profligate expenditure upon un-
necessarily lerge armaments in time of peace, of those
means which ought to be expended repo the improve-
ment of our civil government, or left in the pockets of
the people, is not to be combated by such fethle
misreprasentatione. The people will not be diverted
from the pursuit of army reform, and the reduction
of army expenditure, by imputations which they feel
to be utterly unwarranted. The Financial Reform
Amociation of Liverpool have told no more than the
truth. They have shown that our army is far more
numerous than it needs to be ; that the number of
officers, in proportion to the men, is too great; that the
manner in which the high class officers are pad is most
injudicious, inasmuch as it holds out inducements to
peculation, and necessarily begets stuipic ion diet pecu-
lation exists. It is the extreme of silliness to protest
against such representations on the plea that they
have a tendency to create a prejudice 'gainst officers
in general society, and discontent and insubordination
in the rank.. If the averments made are untrue, they
can be disproved, and then their power to do barn will
' cease; if true, the danger consists, not in the exposure,
hat in the existence of the abuses denounced.
The splenetic effusions of military partisans against
the Liverpool Financial Association have been manly
provoked by their exposure of the " clothing colonels
eras. What are the facts with regard to this
system? In the army estimates for 1849-50 (pp. 5
and 8) we find the following entries :

CLOTHING.
Allowances to colonels for providing clothing,
as bone on establishment L 378,212 14 8
Special allowance to the Colonel of the
Grimadies Guards, ditto 1,093 8 10
Allowing.a to colonels for providing, clothing
for anpasatations
Alloiromon to colonels for providing clothing
Ow seganinnamaries 7,000 0 0
Allman* to certain cavalry regimen's to
wow isilidencies la the allowance for pro-
viding clothing , &c'1,850 0 0
Cost of patters% making great costa, itc.

£392,088 3 8
And further on, at pp. 18 and 17, we find it noted
that, except in the cases of the V:ree regiments of
household cavalry, the Malta Fencibles, and the
Canadian Rifle Regiment, the clothing allowance is
placed at the disposal of a colonel, this colonel being
it is well known, a general officer whose only con-
nexion with the regiment is the disposal of this
monev. On the 17th page we find " Emoluments
from -clothing" stated as one of
the permanent sources
of incluse of this class of colonels in 131 of the 138
regiments there enumerated. Lastly, we have the
authority of Major-General Sir WILLIAM NAPIER for
saying that, since attention has been drawn to this
very objectionable arrangement by the Liverpool
Financial Reform Association, no hos than five of
these colonels have had the clothing they supplied to
their regiments returned upon theor bench; u unfit
for am
Neither railing nor supercilious talking at the
association can efface the effect these facts have pro-
duced on the public mind. Even though they had
remained concealed from the public, they would have
been known to the soldiers would have excited sus-
picion of other abuses in their minds, and must of
necessity have produced that discontent which is
absurdly attributed to the pamphlets of the associa-