The Express.
London, England, 1862-02-17 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 17, 1862.

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LONDON, MONDA T, FEB. 17.

Tiiose who have studied the art of war, and the re-
cent mechanical improvements subsidiary to it, agree
that they give increased power to science oienbised
with capital. They also perceive that increased
intelligence in the ranks will be required to apply
those improvement; some of which are useless
in ignorant hands. The improvements will weer
gnat° also thoroughly good officers for their direction,
and the prevalence of greater intelligence in the
rank; howsoever introduced, will also render the
improvement of the commanders requisite. This has
already become perceptible as • result of the
Volunteer movement. The educated men who
now compose the ranks of the foremost corps,
having studied, besides their own duties, the
duties of their officers, have become highly cri-
tical of the latter. t tlficers bud themselves virtually
under the command of severe censors who know
as well as themselves what ought to be done, and
will inevitably detect any minions. " Muffs,"
whether regular and professional, or irregular and
volunteer, are now more speedily detected, and if
there were a serious demand for the service of the
Volunteers, aster an actual war, it may be confidently
predicted that a large proportion of the find
appointments of officers chosen from mere poli-
tical patronage, or social position, or interest, or
vanity, would, upon better experience and under-
standing of what is required, be immediately and
sternly superseded. Educated men would not
endure to have their own lives thrown away and
their cause ruined from any complaisance to unfit-
ness, which gains position in the absence of danger,
or in the absence of strong motives for scrutiny
in time of peace. In the inquiry into the misdi-
rection of the Crimean war it was proved that
the loss of life, material, and force was always pro-
portioned to the ignorance and incompetency of
the colonels having command of regiments. It
was said by way of apology that it took three cam-
paigns to obtain au etficieut English army. With
such education and intelligence ea there is now in
the Volunteer ranks, it may be confidently averred
that such a loss of blood and treasure and of time
would no longer be endured.
With respect to what is denominated the intel-
lect of the Army—the Engineer and the Ai.illery
corps—there can be no doubt that the first eCect of
the application of the principle of open competition
has been to shut out much inferior material for
commands, and to provide • higher quality to work
upon. We do not now propose to enter upon
the evidence as to what remains to be done in
that direction. it is sufficient at present to ob-
serve that before we criticise our American kinsmen
too sharply for their military shortcomings, we
should remember our own—our contracts, our
breakdown at Balaclava, our failures of the camp
roads, and the first horrible winter before Sebastopol.
We are not aware that the Americans have yet
brought science to bear upon the war, for time
requisite to them as well as to us to do so. Any
new form of implement adopted can scarcely be

manufactured on a scale for war in leas than a
year, and the training of men to use them would re-
quire a corresponding period. By due diligence,
however, on the part of our military authorities,
there is no doubt that the WHITWORTH as well
aa the Aniisraimio guns might have been broug'
to bear on the rebels with astonishing effects
during the Indian mutiny. There are rising criti-
cisms on the part of the volunteers in America
upon the qualifications of the " regulars," im-
parted by their common military education, train-
ing, and habitual preparation for war during
peace, to which we would call attention, as
bearing some analogy to the criticisms, not yet in
print, but current in speech, amongst our edu-
cated volunteers, upon the defective training and
untrustworthy character of many of the conunands
of the " regulars." The common military mind
does not rise in estimation on closer acquaintance.
The Engineer and Artillery corps are acknow-
ledged to contain the "intellect of the Army;"
but it is deemed a proof of default in the practical
scientific training of that body that the most im-
portant recent improvements in arms should have
been resisted by them, and for the most part car-
ried against them by civilians. The volunteers of the
Federal States generally make exception in favour
of the officers of the Engineer corps, but chiefly
in favour of those who have had practice in dealing
with men, and have shown ability in the conduct
of civil works during peace. One ground of con-
fidence in General M'Ciaiiax is his scieltific edu-
cation se an Engineer, and that his avidity had
been displayed in almost the only way it could be
exercised during peace—in civil works, as for
example, in the direction of railways. if the war
should continue long it may be confidently pre-
dicted that the iatellipnos of the native Americana
will make heelf respelled, and give es and useful
lessons. They are now beginning to retrieve their
first defaults at a peee which will leave us little to
reproach them with. The expression which we hear of
an intention to " popularise the army," we appre-
hend means popularising it not by any such means
se the re-introduction of the electoral element,
which it has wisely abandoned, but by the adop-
tion of measures to increase its efficiency by in-
creasing the efficiency of the commands, by testa
and examinations, and generally by reforms which
will give increded vales to military ability by
securing to it its fair reward.

A ars•rtATtßl of the last French loan litu met
with not a little animadversion amongst men of
caution cud judgment. It ha. been authoritatively
stated, and not contradicted, that the Loudon and

IWestminster flank subscribed for 500,000/, of the
amount, under the original but abortive arrange-
ment ; and the circumstance, also vouched for by
the nuts, that the chairman of that establishment
acted as one of the trustees in whose names the
hypothecated Rentes were to be put, gives ample
confirmation to the statement. Is this, we ask, a
legitimate use for the funds of our joint-stock
banks 1 Is the area of English trade and finance so
circumscribed that it has become necessary to hunt
abroad for foreign stocka whereon to make advances ?
Or can it bo that in their eagerness to maintain or to
exceed dividends of twenty and twenty-five per
cent. per annum, joint-stock banks require higher
rates of interest than can be obtained from home
business and home investments ? We believe that
the depositors have an impression that their funds
are kept beyond the influence of continental turmoil.
What would be the effect, not only upon the
London and Westminster Bank with its advance of
500,000/., but upon all the joint-stock banks of
London, were news to arrive some fine morning of
a serious casualty in Paris, or of a quarrel
between France and England, or of any intel-
ligence that would render unavailable the g
ceedingly fluctuating security upon which S us
French loan scheme reposed ? To put the ndi er
upon no broader ground, it has never been main-
tained before that foreign stocks form a good
English banking security ; and it can hardly be
that even the London and Westminster Bank, with
all its power (a power dependent entirely upon
public trust), can dream of building up its pros-
perity by disregarding the sound old principles
of English banking. Considering the magni-
tude of their liabilities in proportion to
their reserves, it is peculiarly incumbent
upon our joint-stock banks to take in none but
' sound and convertible securities. It seems the
more nesessuy that the arrangement made in this
instance by the Westminster Bank should not pass
without that public challenge which may prevent
its establishing • dangerous precedent, because
another metropolitan institution, the Union Bank,
has likewise gone into foreign loan business. No
doubt it will be urged that the Union Bank mean
to limit their advances, to protect themselves care-
fully, and so forth; but, knowing, as we do, how
• questionable example spreads, and bow difficult
it frequently becomes for a banker to keep within
the limits which he originally proposed to himself,
we earnestly advise shareholders in and customers
of joint-stock. banks to discourage transactions
_ ...

01 this character. Foreign loan•mongering is
assuredly not one of the purposes for which these
establishments were originally formed, and for
which the public have entrusted them with fifty
'millions of deposits.

Zbc court.

OSBORNE. Frs. 16.

The Crown Princess, Princess Alice, Princess
Lollies, Prises Arthur, sod Prioress ilohaolohe, at-
tended Divine Service at Whippinghars Church this morn•
iv. The kw. G. Prothero officiated.

• Cabinet Council was held on Saturday at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Traisury,
ia Downing-street. The ministers present
were Viscount Palmerston, the Lord Chanoellor,
Karl Granville, the Duke of Argyll, Sir George
Grey, Earl Rummell, the Duke of Newcastle, Sir Cr.
Cameral Lewis, Sir Charles Wood, the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, the Duke of Somerset, the
Right Hon. Thomas Milner Gibson, the Right Hon.
Edward Cardwell, and the Right Hon. C. P.

Dregatebee acre reoeired ea Saturday at the Colonial.
elle, from the Oeeeesers of the West lodia islands, the
radethaa Coisake, (Wks, Hog Kong, sod Lhasa,
Dearatthes were sot to the Geossors of British Walsh*
)wands, the Lied High Doeuerolomar of the hum
lessais, ad to Ye Orremon of Damao sad the Bahamas.

THE PRINCE OP WALL, Ar VIENNA.

VIENNA, Fn. 14.

The Prince of Wales arrived here the day before
yesterday, with a numerous suite, and was received at the
station by the Dohs of Saxe-Coburg Cobary, the Eurlish
Ambassador, sod all the members of the embassy. His
royal highness was conducted to the hotel of the Archduke
Charles, and in the course of a few tnientee received the
visitof the Emperovand the archdukes. Yesterday the Prince
paid visits to the imperial family, and wont with the fr.:ova-
lroe over several military establishments. There was then a

court dinner ; and in the evening a fete at the house of the
Prince Auguste de Saxe Coburg, at which the Grand Duke
of Tuscany and the Duke of Modena were present."
On Saturday morning his royal highness left the Austrian
capital.

THE PRINCE or Watsn—lt appears that his
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales bee concluded the per-
ches@ of the Sandringham estate, near Lynn, Norfolk, to
which he made a dying visit of inspection before leaving
England on hie tour in the Rest. The estate, which has
been purchased for shooting purposes, has, up to the present
time, been held by Yr. Spencer Cooper, a relative, by
marriage, of the noble Premier, and it is said to abound in
pme. The amount paid for the property is 200,0004
Amer to the Sandringham property will be shortly faci-
litated by the Lyn and Hunstantou Railway, now in
rapid program ; and, seder all the circumstances, the Nor-
folk people entertain strong hopes that they shall see a
good deal of their future Sovereign.
The Duke and Duchess of Roiburghe have left
town for Brighton for a few days.
The Marquis Camden and the Ladies Pratt are
expected at their residence in Grosvenor-square in a few
days from Wilderness Park, Rent.
_ _

Maharajah Dhulenp Singh has taken Abingdon
How, South Ksissinton, for a short Mrs.

The Earl and Count°4B of ltimebery and fain;ly
ara espeeted is toga at the latter cod of the mouth from
Weary Park,

The Earl of Wilton has left Groevenousquare
tar Egerton Lodge, Mahon Mowbray.

The Earl ai;(lCountera of Craven will leave town
in a tow days for Ashdown" Park, Berks.

The Earl and Countess of Hardwicke wal leave
Portman-square on Wednesday for Sidney Lodge, Hate.
Viscount and Visoountess Stormont have left
tbeir reeadeoce le Upper Orovenoretreet for Scotland.
Lord and Lady Pelham have left Fatranoe's
Hotel far Critcbill House, near Wimborne, Doreetabire.

The Dowager Lady Henley has arrived at Far-
ts:we. Hotel, tram Brightest.

Lady Henley died on Saturday at the family
residence u, Eaeleeleisequare in her 34th year. Her lady.

obip was daughter d tie Very Rey. the Date of W.
aster, asid menial in 1846 the present Lord Henley.
The Dees al Worcester and the Rev. IL Peel
here tented et Fenian's Hotel from the Dattsety, Wor-
cester.

The Speaker gave hie first Parliamentary Wi-
dnes dimmer.. Italierday meta* to the following members
et the Lover Home :—Vitemmt Palisade's, K. 0., Sr G.
C. Lewis, Beth, air Nome Grey, O.C. R., Sir Ches. Wood,
0.C.8., Right Hee. 'Edward Oirdwell, Right Hes. C. P.
Villiers, Right 'Him T. Milner Gibeoe,!Right Hoe. Wm.
Cowper, Right Hoe. Sir Robert Peel, Bari., Right Hos.
Robert Lowe, Right Hee. William Hatt, Right Hoe. Fred.
Peel, the Judge AdvocateOeeend, Lord Meese. Paget,

C. 8., Tiseoust Bury. Viwouet °asthma% Lord Pray,
the Attorrisy-Georral, the Solicitor-Osieerel, Hew. Homy
Breed, air Wilbur Dunbar, Mr. T. G. &deg, Mr. 8.
Wbitheeril, Mr. Massey. Mr. Chichester Fortseaue, Mr.
Clive, Mr. Marliddieli-liuyeasee, Mr. Charles Gilpin, Mr.
Lewd, He.. W Perfasea, Mr. Wioters Wood, Mr. Alfred
Beebw fagesbees awweliary), and Rev. Henry Drury. The
Chseeener ef lbelasbepsr nee prevented from atteishey
on eeesset of • illemeetle wektios.

The festietrjes consequent upon Viscount Adam's
comiec et see closed on 'ride/ night with s ball, at which
all the surrounding nobility end gentry wen presest. A
pod fox.hunt, in which AO horsemen were nipped, pre-
ceded this fiehtocable reunion.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

THE FRENCH CHAMBERS AND THE
ROMAN QUESTION.

The commission which has been appointed by the
French Legislative Corps to draw up an address in
reply to the speech from the throne has submitted
to the government a series of questions upon the
external policy of the Empire. Amongst the que-
ries is oue which asks for the nature of the compro-
mise which the French government would have
proposed to the Holy Sue and to Italy for the re-
conciliation of their interests if M. Thouveners
despatch to M. de Lavatette had been better re-
ceived by the Pope. MM. Baroche, Billault, and
Magne have been examined by the commission on
this subject.

diate predecessor in the apartment, and the occu-
pier betas him, both laid violent hands upon them-
selves, and upon the strength of these curious facts
broaches the theory that suicide is often attri-
butable to mysterious local influences. In support
of the doctrine it is said that Napoleon I. ordered
the destruction of a sentry-box in which several
soldiers had successively destroyed themselves.