The Express.
London, England, 1857-04-20 00:00:00

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LONDON. MONDAY. APRIL 20.

TO OUR

• • DOUBLE NUMBER of the EXPRESS will
pdfiblisi ON SATURDAYS as anal, daring
EWA, rlimoontary nom

Tin of the &moral Order, which
Ward la • ft' Oats the Horse Guard.,
relating to he Staff appointments,
it is to esospete. All discussion
as to wheeler that Alm Amid be thoroughly
educated is low eisend. The Hone Guards
have fixed tie standard, end that standard is
abundantly big b. It I. ia fact the very mime
which bia %NS stessmnneled by some of the most
experiment ma ebb IMO & 'Seem Bat net only
is the standard of quaßleation satistsetory, it is also
made applicable to every °Seer, whether on the
general or on the persona teal The plassing dream
of some fond fathers, that whatever changes might
take place, they would still be entitled to appoint
their sons and nephews as their aidee-de-earap, is now
dissipated. The HeneGnsids at lengthannoance in the
most nemistakeable Lepage, that an Aidedo-r.amp,
besides Wag able to ride well, must be a& to write
his own language; must have a good colloquial know-
ledge done foreign languages mat have a good eye
, kr a ceenby, sad be able to praise* an intelligible
thatch of it I must have a thorough knowledge of
regimental daty and tactics, and field movements on
an extended scale (which implies, we presume, a
'knowledge of the three arms—lnfantry, Cavalry, and
. Artillery—erparately and in combination) ; and also
i a knowledge of field fortification. The Brigade-
, ; Widen met, besides these qualifications, have a
- borough knowledge of 'Ciliary Lay, and of the
Army and War-eane &Mations. The fact that
Aideade-Oarep and Brigade-141ms are required to
perms these qualifications is new in the history of
the British army. Nevertheless, it in a change dic-
tated by the soundest reasons and by the experience
of the ablest men. With reference to this very
question General &taw LINNEDY, is the Report
lately published, pats this ease: Suppose an Aide-
, de-Camp sent with an order directing a movement
. et a critical moment, and that be is not suf-
. latently instructed to understand the order with
which be is entreated, he mast in this ease
merely try to repeat the words in which be received
the order, and, if this is not clearly understood when
be delivers it, he is, if unacquainted with the Frio-
. *lle of his profession, totally incapable of ex-
plaining what was really meant. Henceforth, if
this general ceder is acted upon, it will be utterly
impomale doe a General to have his flank turned,
or his line broken, by the ignorance of his own Aide-
de-Camp.

So much for Aiderds-Camp and Brigade-Majors.
For other officers on the 844 Deputy Assistants
Adjutant-General and Quartermaster-General, the
qualifications are, practical sketching—both sketch-
ing on horseback, which is called "flying sketching
correct and finished plotting ; practical trigonometry
and geometry, and knowledge of logarithms ; to
write, read, and speak at least one foreign language ;
to judge of ground and its proper occupation by all
arms ; to have a perfect knowledge of castratnetation
and the principles of permanent fortification ; and to
be thoroughly acquainted with geography and mili-
tary history—espeeially as relates to the campaigns
of ancient and modern military commanders. Lastly,
the Staff includes Assistants Adjutant and Assistants
Quartermaiter-Genend. In oddities to all the qua-
Modica' already speeded them will be required to
know the elements of insobanks, hydrostatics, and
geology, the cemetnistion el military bridges, dams,'
to., the principles of strategy and statistics of the
army. In addition to all this we may observe that
all Staff atom shall be able to ride well.
Now it is impassible to doubt that if these officers
are all to be as thoroughly instructed as this
• General Order implies, there will not be a better
Staff in the world than the Staff of the British
army. The Horse Guards therefore deserve the
warmest thanks, not only of every Army Reformer,
let of every man who values the lives
lel his fellow-creature. or the reputation of
!hie country. The only remaining question—and a
most serious question it le—concerns the mode in
'which officers are to obtain situations on the Staff, and
the persons who are to conduct the examinations.
Unless a permanent Board of Examiners is appointed,
consisting partly of civiliess and partly of military
officers, and wale's this Board is made absolutely
independent of the Government, the General Order
'will be mere waste paper. If the Hone Guards and
the Government are really bent upon knowing the
qualifications of osadidates, let them remove all
possible grounds of magician that these new rep-
Utica, are designed rather to soothe public discon-
tent then to effect a genuine improvement in oar mai-
tarysystem. There is no difficulty in the matter. The
aril Service Collllllilliall is now in active operation.
It is absolutely independent ; and the last Report
shows very distinctly how much that independence
is needed in order to enable the Connaimimiers and
the Examiners to do their duty properly. We
await, therefore, with much anxiety the promulga-
tion of an Order which shall constitute some each
permanent Board el Examiners as we bays sug-
gested, But then is another point. We are not
quite sun whether we understand correctly the
made is whisk an intelligent officer may obtain a
pines upon the Ikea Is it intended that any officer
the Bride army shall be entitled to present him-
self to the Board of Examiners and demand to be
imemiaed, so that if be is found competent he may
sham a eartileate of qualification P Or is it in-
tended that after an officer is nominated kcy
mum pareen—who is stall undefined—he shall be

entitled to a place on the Stag; if he COMM We the
standard Axed by the examiners Pi If this Eats is
the plan, we must say we ern approve at it.
Is not any one officer as math entitled filmy other
officer in the army is ppova hi seilitary knowledge
and capacity ? What right have the Horse Guards,
or any other Government department, to condemn an
able man to obscurity, because he does not happen to
rue, that interest which shall procure him
a nomination ? The Horse Guards may depend
upon it that this will never do. It will satisfy
neither the Army nor the public. The least
that will satisfy them is this—that any officer
in the British army may present himself to
be examined, and that if found qualified he shall be
entitled to a certificate. But, besides this, it does
not seem very obvious why amongst those examined
there should not be some distinction made between
those who merely pass the examination and those
who pass it with distinction. Every one who has had
any experience in these matters is well aware of the
vast difference at the University—for instanco—be.

twerp a pass-man and a claas-man ; every ass
knows that, though there are no doubt some ex-
ceptions, the clam-man is the superior man of the
two. It doss not, of course, follow that basun in
the examination one officer is placed above another
the one is therefore to obtain employment before that
other, for special circumstances may exist which
may make this inexpedient. But, at all events, we
cannot understand the objection to arranging the'
candidates according to the ability they have die-
played in the examination.
Upon the whole the public have reason to thank
the Horse Guards for the confession which they have
at length made—that an educated Staff is a public
necesaity, and that hitherto instruction to the Staff
of the British army has not been required. What
a staff officer ought to know is now settled; it only
remains for the public to be vigilant, in order to
insure that this promising scheme is carried into'
full effect. For that purposes we must have an inde-
pendent Board of F.:sulkers, consisting partly of
civilians; and every officer in the British army',
must be entitled to present himself for exami-
nation,

IT is ISOSTaIIy understood that Mr. BERNAL
OSBORN& is likely to be Mr. Hoasmsi's successor in
the Secretaryship for Ireland. There are man.
circumstances that will contribute to render the ap-
pointment popular. The gallant member for Dover
has fin some years been a staunch adherent of Lord
Peenstme ; and whether people agree with the
noble Premier or not in his views of national policy,
there is always a oertain degree of appreciation of
the fidelity to implied engagements which rewards
a loyal follower when suitable opportunity occurs,
in preference to seeking far afield for some straggler
from the enemy's camp as the object of official
favour. There is something that commends itself to
men's feelings in this sort of partisanship. Of
course it is liable to be ahead and rendered hate-
ful by exaggerated and indiscriminate appli-
cation. But, upon the whole, few people will
be found, we think, to take exception to Mr. OS-
BORNE'S promotion. All who relish his broad and
occasionally coarse humour in debate will be glad to
see him unmans:led once more. Far four dull years
he hes been lost to fan and fanferomede in the Admi-
ralty. Under the rilisto of two wads First Lords as
the solemn Sir Lean smd denim's& (*Cam.=
there was seldom it ewer anything lir a ready-
tongued subordinate bay. Once, indeed. NMI cir-
cumstances of unwed excitement, the tegehemed
spirit of the Secretary Wei the bends d entine,
and gave vent to a seines ghat peatep indignation
at the metres and misehish of military jobbing in
a passionate and sparkling shower of thecae tears.
It was just at the moment when the Osesemment of
which Lord Patmeturrow was a seeeelary magnate
was about to perish, and when all hands en board
gave themselves up for lost. In that hex storey
Mr. OSBORNE lifted up his parable, ant
Miserable sinners!--orwords to that effect. Somehow
or other the vessel righted herself after throwing
some lumber overboard. The man at the helm wee
changed—and notwithstanding hie momentary aber-
ration into the old habit of prophesying in the ad-
monitory vein, the Secretary of the Admiralty
was requested to resume his former post--a pest
whose duties it is but justice to him to say he hes dis-
charged diligently, if not always effectually, up to the
present time. And now Lord Psiemairrox, finding
on his hands a number of gentlemen passably fit for
the post alluded to, and finding no such plethora of
presentable candidates for the office of Irish Secre-
tary, resolves to advance Mr. OSBORNZ to a position
where his debating powers will be once mars called
into requisition, and in which si eliyrid habst a man
may really make himself felt and known. We wish

Mr. Ossowasu all mess in his now station it he has
resolved to accept the aloe: and that he may win
the plaudits that await the suswesdul, wo earnestly
adjure him to steer as wide as peadble of the track
of his predecessors.

M. MIXANDII Dumas crowd the Channel to
describe the English Elections. The enlightened
curiosity, as to the working of this part of oar poli-
tical ardent, e►inced by ono of the foremost living
notorietice of French Literature, implies a compli-
mcnt which aught to be reciprocated by the Literati
of England. We are confident that we speak tie
sense of the whole of intellectual Europe, when we
say that by no pen can the coming French Elections
be so appropriately described as by that of any illus-
trious contemporary Punch.

Even the preludes to the French Elections justify
this opinion. A few weeks ago a =ova/ring com-
mittee was organised to promote the election of
M. R.ASPAIL ; without lam of time the Government
had the members of this committee arrested on the
charge of having instituted a secret society. A
Lyons Journal has stated, and the Mats has re-
printed the paragraph, that M. 'Num has declined
" for many lesions " to become a candidate
for the representation of the Seine Inarieure ;
and the Government organ, the Petrie, denounces such
an intimation as little short of sedition. A cinder
relating to the elections has jest been sent to all the
Prefects by the Minister of the Interior, which ex-
plains " how that functionary understands the exer-
cise of universal suffrage." What the purport of this
" understanding" may be has not yet been allowed
to transpire to the uninitiated ; but r it is under
the circumstances necessarily an esoteric doctrine,
we cannot err widely in assuming that it is in a
" non-natural sense." The Patric, indeed, takee
upon itself to promise that any candidate re not
flying in the far of " social order, the law, and so-
ciety," will be permitted ; but the universal belief
throughout France is, that such members of the ,
present Caps Legialatif as have sulleient proofs
of subserviency will be brought forward for
re-election ; that M. MONMEMBERT and a few
other troublesome subjects will be laid on
the shelf ; and that the whole artillery of pro-
hibitions of electoral meetings, arrests of can-
vaascrs, warnings against newspapers which advo-
este the claims of opposition candidates, eke., will be
brought to bear against those who may attempt to
make the elections realities. The effrontery of the
Government which attempts to palm of net a aye-

teas upon a nation so sensitive and iutidligent as the
ERMA% is the true trablilib of jugglery. Elections
ea:glided on suck principles cab only be adequately
illustrated by thrdistinguishcd individual whom we
bap named.