The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-17 00:00:00

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TO COItItMI'ONDENTS.
re,l.?. I. ef " Enytees," containing •he came r•eetrry
i.rette,'ie putlithed eeets Tuesday atnt Ynday Kith% tul;
fnr rom.
Ivezttrentente Mended few "The Ferrer," Lawton Evenh‘r pam,
inert he •tthe office, 10. Bouverie-etreet. by Twn :Mit on ye
lay of pub:it:dation.

PllOll WATER AT LONDON BILIDOR.
T Ate DnE—Mur: mg, 10e. .Afternronn. Inn. 28.
T.roaaqw—Moratep. II a. BEn.. Afternoon, I In. J:na.

LONDON, FRIDAY; JUNE 17.

TIIE news brought by the \Vest India mail Wil-
-1 bits the Government of Jamaica fairly in a dead luck.
Sir CHARLES Gli1:17 had, it will be ru•ollected, re-
assembled the Legislature in the live that, b%
rating the renewal of taxes hitherto annually re-
imposed from their appropriation or t. xpenditure, the
House of Assembly would contribute its share to.
wards the carrying on of the ordinary service el Go-
vernment. But the house, it seems, will mither do
that nor anything else, for its members will not
meet; the minority in this respect agrees with,
or rather adheres to, the determination of the majo-
rity; and whilst society is being resolved into the
primitive elements in Jamaica, neither majority nor
minority will hold any intercourse with the (Rta.N's
representative. So the Governor, lia:ing no funds
to maintain the one or to pay the other, is going to
let loose the prisoners out of the gaols and to dia.
band the police, and try what effect a little
social disorganisation will have on the tem-
pers and dispositions of his opponents. It
is impossible to suppose that the Duke of Nov.
CASTLE has not given his attention to this very dis-
creditable state of things, in the oldest of our trans-
marine p%sessions. But as yet there is no evidence
that he has taken any steps to set matters right.
Perhaps, however, in such quarrels the final solution
is sooner reached by allowing violence and wrath
on either bide to be pushed to such extremities as
no rational man can excuse or palliate, and of
which all concerned must, after alittle reflection, bo
ashamed of. But though this may be the case,
and delay in action be hitherto justifiable on such
grounds, interference on the part of her Maarsrr's
Government is now indispensable; and the real
question is of what kind the interference shall be.
This is a point of considerable importance to the
Duke of NEWCASTLL'S reputation as a Colonial
Minister, and of still greater importance to the
much more interesting subject of Colonial Govern.
ment. His Grace already has advisers in the
Government journals, and be will not want
colleagues in the Cabinet who will urge him
to solve all difficulties by attempting to make fun-
damental changes in the ancient constitution of
Jamaica. Should he, however, yield to these recom.
mendations, the Duke of NEWCASTLE will commit
his first great blunder, and run against a rock on
which Lord MELBOURNE'S Government was newly
shipwrecked, and only saved by assistance from the
Court. For the question and the quarrel
in Jamaica are not in their essence con.
stitutional difficulties, but practical disputes as
to the payment of salaries and as to general retrench.
ment ; requiring skill, tact, manazement, and con-
cession on the part of the QUEEN'S Representative,
which in the long run are sure to beget a sense of
moderation and a spirit of justice and right dealing
on the part of the dissidents.
The form of this quarrel is a very different thing
from its essence. That salaries in Jamaica are
much
can deny.chtoobi o
high in
thatth pointepresethe stateo
theisland, pitchedry
ven
o os
Exe-
cutive Council does not dissent from the House of
Assembly. Nay, it will even agree to their reduction
one fifth -the point of ecninnuy required by the
popular branch of the Legislature. But it insists
on the present occupants of places, the salaries of
which have been permanently fixed by acts of the
Local Parliament, having compensation for the
economy to be practised on them ; and as
that would practically defer, if not defeat,
the economy, the House of Assembly will
not concede the point of compensation. The
real question at issue is, therefore, not so much ono
even of retrenchment as of the moral obligation in-
volved in the mode of carrying the proposed retrench.
ment out. In the hands of a skilful Governor this
question ought never to have arisen. When evil
days and ill times overtake a community, all who
have cast their fortunes is with it ought to con-
sent to share, at least to some extent, its
reverses and misfortunes. This is the constant
practice of
of of the unofficial
distresscialwo in E
world everywhere
England
even
dion
s
GEORGE IV. and his Tory Ministers voluntarily
sacrificed part of their incomes. It was the part of a
wise and true-hearted Governor of Jamaica to have
arranged the terms of a compromise of this sort,
whereas Sir CHARLES OBEY (exceedingly unpopular
on other grounds) has done nothing of the sort ; he
has exhibited little desire for retrenchment ; he has
not won the esteem or confidence of the people
he presides over, and he has taken the extreme
part in this question of compensation. The conse-
quence is, that now things have come to a crisis, be
is utterly powerless, and the Duke of NEWCASTLE
has no alternative but to recal him.

For the Duke of NEWCASTLE-01 two of our con-
temporaries recommend him—to set about re-model-
ling the Jamaica constitution, when there are no
taxes, and very little government, is absurd and mis-
chievous. His first duty is to get the existing consti-
tution at work again ; and though the quarrel at
present looks an ugly one, its looks are the
worst part of it. There is no disloyalty in the matter;
there is no danger of rebellion. At worst the affair
is one of obstinacy, ill-temper, pride, and perhaps a
design on the pockets of the mother country. The
thing, too, has occurred in Jamaica before ; but a
new and a superior Governor in Sir CRARLES
METCALFE, soon set society and the constitution
fairly going again. A similar quarrel broke
out not many years ago in British Guiana;
but Sir HENRY M'LEon, who went thither from
Trinidad, quickly composed the difference, and
got the taxes renewed. And in Jamaica, at present,
what the colonists chiefly want is, to get rid of a
Governor most of whose time is said to be spent in
playing picquet with the Commander of the Forces.
Indulge them with a new and sensible chief: let
him set the example of taking a salary lower than
any of his predecessors, and go about honestly and
frankly deserving public confidence, and he will be
just as successful as either Lord METCALFE or
Lord ELGIN was in Jamaica, or as Sir JAMES
ANDERSON is in Ceylon. But the Colonial-office has
no discretion in supporting Governors; it makes no
difference or distinction between success and failure.
Every Governor, good or bad, is right ; every colony.
wrong.

It is impossible for so democratic a House of As•
sembly as that of Jamaica to be popular with
modern bureaucracy or functionaryism. It is one
of enomwELL's sort, and is as sturdy as its
origin. Nevertheless for 200 years it has resisted
all attacks on its life, and repelled all attempts
at its improvement; and it will give the Duke of
NEWCASTLE a world of trouble should he wish to
abate its power, or take away its privileges. Its
jurisdiction, in its own sphere, is greater than that of
most other representative bodies. It neither admits
any colonial ministry within its walls, nor receives any

i

is: Material recommendations. It prepares and votes
its own estimates. It keeps the money it
vow, in its own hands, and pays away
its own apprupriations. It is in point of fact a
countervailing power in the colony to tho Governor
—and (CV lies the real source of all quarrel and
si,pute when the Governor is a weak or an inferior
roof). Ile dislikes an Assembly of which he is
jealous, and it returns his dislike with interest.
such a b..sly might, of course, be improved ; but the
time fir improvement is not in the midst of a quarrel
and a dispute like this. At present alterations
would have to be made ri et arm is, and would only
esapirste and exacerbate colonial controversies.
The puke of Nnwe.tsm: must restore civil govern-
ment to Jamaica, and revive cordiality between the
House of As:initily and the QUEEN'S representative
then•, before he meddles with Old Non's constitution
for that, the greatest of his conquests from the
proud Spaniards of the seventeenth century.

some laws now the Camp at Chobham has I
hen 4 fact, raid on the day of its establishment a
very wet uncomfortable fact it was for the ten thou-
sand who had to pitch their out-of-door homes
amidst a heavy ceaseless rain. But the bad weather
wa, not an unmitigated evil, since it has brought
dose upon the troops an amount of sympathetic
eulo:,y which would certainly never have been
showered on them had they been broiling in a Bur-
ruse sun or a ('ape bush, and at the same time has
enabltd the public to judge what our soldiers can do
nadir difficulties. Never did men look cleaner or
better than they did on reaching Chobham Heath,
although some of them, the artillery for instance,
had marched four-and-twenty miles before they got
there ; and if the several columns were, on their arrival,
not quite close to one another, the irregularity arose
from the perfect impossibility of keeping men well
up together, when every now and then some omnibus
driver or waggoner would insist on driving where
and when he pleased—the road being " as much his
own as anybody else's." Every portion of tent equi-
page having been sent to the ground previously, the
mere setting up of the canvas habitations cannot be
taken as any exact criterion of what soldiers would
do on a line of march : and, of course, those who
got on the field first were first housed. But
it certainly was astonishing how much had
been done by the evening of the first day,
in making ingenious cooking hearths, erecting
gipsy huts for the women, and in providing a thou-
sand and one small but needful matters which do not
come across the mind until their actual want is felt.
The situation of the camp is excellent as to dryness
and salubrity, with the exception of the cavalry
stables, which are erected on decidedly too low
ground an evil sensibly felt after the rain of Mon-
day and Tuesday last. The horses are also too close
together; for being highly bred, and well up to their
work, the fatigues of a march by no means weakened
their biting and kicking propensities, and unless
some change is made, we may before long
expect to hear of more casualties arising from
the same cause as cost the lives of two hones
on the first night. Fir is in plenty in
the neighbourhood, and as the camp partakes of the
character of a permanent one, the erection of a stable
or two more would prove not only more safe and
comfortable, bat economical also, in the long run.
But these are drawbacks which cannot always be taken

into consideration beforehand, and it is right to say,
that the engineers seem to have done their best in
Ong the necessary preparations, and that on the
whole they have been eminently successful.
Thu, are two subjects, however, which power-
fully provoke criticism ; and these are, the dress
of the infantry and of the artillery. If the first
of these looks awkward and absurd in the
barrack square, it looks infinitely more so in
the field. The ugly and worse than useless shako
—the short-waisted tight tail coat—the cross belts—
that extraordinary article, the Highlander's bonnet-
box, when he is in heavy marching order—all these
require instant revision. " Stand at ease !" muttered
one man (repeating only a very old complaint) when
the order was given, "how' can I stand at ease in
such a dress as this ?" We are not quarrelling with
colour, but material. The line trousers are certainly
of a prominent colour, but their texture is good, and
more healthy than the white ones of the Guards,
who areseemingly allowed to wear " ducks" merely to
make au unhealthy distinction. For if a man
has but two pair of white trousers, and has always
to have a clean pair on, it stands to reason
he must put them on tolerably damp. It would be
curious in another month or two to obtain a statisti-
cal table of the amount of disease amongst the
Guards, the Infantry of the Line, and the Artillery,
their trousers being respectively of white duck and
blue woollen. Surely it is much better to be like
the Highlanders, with "no breaks at a'," than with
damp ones. Again, the Goatee has the inconvenience
of being made tight, not covering the stomach, and
being made of inferior cloth—three mischievous re-
sults of the colonel-tailoring system ; for if these evils
were remedied, the perquisites of the tailor-colonels
would be clipped down. It is said that Lord HAI-
DIEGE is favourable to a change in this system, and
the Duke of CAMBRIDGE has for a long time endea-
voured to bring about a reform which affects not
only the comfort, but the health of the troops ; yet
it is hard to overcome the opposition of a hundred
clothing colonels, who have each some very sound
reason to give why their emoluments should not be
cut shorter. As to the shakos and croes-belts, so
much has been said about them, and their
imperfections stand out so prominently, that
we only wonder how the felt and lea-
ther contractors have managed to hold their
ground. The official interest of these gentlemen
must be immense, and their consciences must be per-
fectly impenetrable, or they must long since have
suffered from the fearful amount of malediction
which has been heaped upon them by every man in
the service, from the colonel to the drummer boy, in
all the five parts of the world.
The field batteries of the Artillery suffer from
the inefficiency of the equipment they have taken into
the field. Of the 18 gene belonging to this corps
but 6 are 9-pounders. Only 8 are properly horsed.
Is this the result of all the talk and fuss made some
mouths ago about our Artillery? What has be-
come of the horses voted by Parliament and paid for
by the people for that branch of the service ?—a vote
obtained by the Government of the day, by their
explicitly telling the House that our Artillery was
so under-horsed, they could only parade with six-
pounder guns and four horses, instead of their proper
weapon, the nine-pounder with six horses. The
news from Woolwich afterwards reported the perfec-
tion to which the authorities had brought a black bat-
tery, and a grey battery, and a bay battery. Has
all this ended merely in enabling the Ordnance
to amuse itself matching horses of divers colours ?
Where is the money gone that was voted for horses?
Where are the horses? We cannot believe that the
KABTEMOESERAL has sanctioned this sending to
Chobbam camp two six-pounder batteries under-
honed. Has it been done as an experiment on the
efficiency of the corps or the pockets of the public ?
The nation expected that the troops encamped would
march to Chobham as if they were marching to a
pampaign. Does Lord HARDINGE or does Lord
RAGLAN intend, then, to make the six-poander gun
that of all the foot artillery ? We cannot believe it.
Either let each gunner get accustomed to heavy

guns, and to the laborious duties of the foot
artilleryman, or make a good light cavalry man of
him, and place him in the horse artillery. But such
a bastard organisation as the six-pounder field bat-
tery, for service* in a country like England, only ac-
customs the men to a weapon with which they would
not be permitted to go into active service. It may
be said that troops merely go into camp to learn to
manoeuvre in bodies. Such, no doubt, is a chief rea-
son ; and a very good one too. But it is likewise as
important for the gunner to become part of his gun,
and get used to its weight and management,
as it is for an infantry soldier to learn
to carry his musket. This is a subject
which the British public must not lose sight of.
If the guns were too small and underhorsed six
months ago on Woolwich Common, we do not
understand how they aro not so now on Chobham.
No doubt dragging a 9-pounder gun on a boggy
heath is no joke; but soldiers don't go into camp to
juke, but to become thoroughly efficient ; and we
have no doubt that every officer and soldier would
prefer the hard work with the feeling that he could
well handle his 9-pounder, to the uncomplimentary
notion that he is neither recognised as fully fit
for horse artillery or field battery—but a mere
Chobham mixture.