The Express.
London, England, 1867-12-26 00:00:00

MALTA.

MALTA. Deo. 24.

Her Majesty's Indian steam transport &lupus,
nine days from Portsmouth, has arrived here
with batteries F F and G of the Bth brigade
Royal Artillery, under Colonel Bruce, and other
Indian reliefs, together 1,050 of all ranks, 139
women, and 162 children.
The iron-clad Lord Clyde has also arrived here
from Lisbon and Gibraltar, and the gun-boat
Trinculo from Patraa.

The steamer Ceyck (1) has sailed for Alexandria,
with stores fur the Abyssinian expedition.
Heavy north-westerly gales continue, and many
vessels are arriving here for shelter.

FRANCE.

(now OUR ows CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, TCESDAT EVIIIIRO.

Although what is called the 4 general discussion"
on the army bill was nominally closed on Satur- '
day, it was in effect resumed yesterday. The
democratic counter project brought forward by M.
Jules Simon, for converting the army into a
national militia on the model of that of the Swiss
Confederation, and which, of course, was not taken
into serious consideration, served as a peg on
which to hang a resumption of the debate which
M. Jules Fevre complained was prematurely
closed. Marshal Niel, in condemning M. Jules
Simon's project, quoted the language of Marshal
Gouvion Saint Cyr, " A levy ea mane is
only useful to the enemy. Men sent
to us without any organization exhaust the
country, and sow the seed of indiscipline in
the army. It is a great misfortune to have a levy
en masse, but a greater still to make use of it." The
minister, who spoke with great facility and power,
defended the French army from various imputations,
especially that of being pretorian, and went at
length into the economy of the bill before the
Chamber. In answer to the objections of M.
Picard and others that the bill whose effects were
to be only fully produced at a distant time, yet left
the country unprepared in case of emergency, he
insisted, in such an emphatic manner as to encou-
rage the apprehensions of war which are prevalent,
that "in consequence of circumstances which they
had to fear or provide for," the army was now on an
excellent footing, and that infantry, cavalry, ar-
tillery, munitions, stores, fortified places were all
everything that could be desired for immediate
action.

After speeches from M. Jules Favre against, and
the Marquis d'Havrincourt for the bill, the speeeh
of the day was made by M. Emile 011ivier, who
took the opportunity of proclaiming himself more
distinctly than ever in the ranks of the opposition.
He commenced by paying a compliment to the
parliamentary ability displayed by Marshal Niel.
Cato the elder bad said, Rem militarem et argute
lgui. In general these qualities were found sepa-
rately, but the Minister at War had shown that
they might be united. He (M. 011ivier) objected
to the bill in every one of its fundamental points.
The first category of service, that of the active army,
was too heavy • the second, the reserve, was too
light ; and the ihird, the Mobile National Guard,
was badly conceived. He insisted that a very short
time, two years, or three at the utmost, was sufficient
to give a soldier the highest amount of military
education which it was possible to receive
short of actual experience on the field of
battle. The true policy would be, in every case
when that maximum point of instruction had been I
attained, to send the soldier to his home, leaving
him there liable to be called out in the reserve as
long as might be thought necessary. Speaking gene-
rally, and admitting that there were numerous
and honourable exceptions, the " old soldier,"
from the habits he had acquired, was the least
useful of citizens. Among the great military
authorities who were of opinion that three years
at the utmost was enough to form a soldier, ho
cited Generals Morand, Lamarque, Trochu, Paix-
bans, and Marshal Soult. In Prussia. the ime of
service, fixed by a law of 1814, was three years ;
but in 1833, with the concurrence of all the ge-
nerals but one, it was reduced to two. In 1853
the time was made two-and-a half years, and
in 185 b three, but the latter change was
made in spite of the opposition of the
Chambers and provoked general dissatisfaction.
When they were told that recent events in Ger-
many had changed all the rules of the military art,
it was important to remember that the conquerors
of Sadowa were men who had passed but from two
to three years in the ranks. Instead of the present
bill the best thing to have done would have been
to maintain the seven years period of service fixed
by the law of 1832, and then to have enacted—
thereby making a not =frequent practice a gene-
ral rule—that at the end of three years the men
should be sent into the reserve for the other four.
He was not one of those who would make war
easy. On the contrary, he desired such a state of
things that war could not be made without causing
an immense perturbation in the country. He
wished that when war came, the groat majority of
the nation should directly suffer by it, for ho knew
of no better security for conciliation and peace.
In this respect he was a disciple of an illustrious
English statesman, Mr. Gladstone, who, when con-
sidering ways and means for providing war re-
sources, preferred a new tax to a new loan, because
taxation would more palpably bring home to the
feelings and conscience of the nation the immense
responsibility of war. (Great applause.) His
second point was that the reserve at present pro-
posed, consisting in great part of men who had
escaped service in the active army, would not be
sufficiently drilled to be reliable upon an emer-
gency. They would be, to use the words of a great
military authority, not a reserve, but men in re-
serve—a very different thing. He bad but a word
to say on the Mobile National Guard. It was good
to have machinery ready for calling out in
case of danger that part of the population
which had not been drawn for regular military
service. But the only thing practicable was that
they should be organised upon paper, and some-
times on a Sunday instructed in their own com-
munes in the use of the improved rifle. The ex-
pensive assemblages of these men contemplated by
the bill would be excessively inconvenient without