The Express.
London, England, 1857-04-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 26.

Tire news We China gives so panne of a speedy
termination of hostilities. betted at strength's-
* their position in the Canton river ear country-
men appear to be losing ground. The storehouses
ef the Government Contractors at Roughing have
been burned to the ground, and a large quantity of
Geer has been destroyed by the conflagration; this,
it is asserted, was the work of Chinese incendiaries.
Another British steamer, with a valuable cargo, Los
been carried off by the Chinese pmeengen, and
all the Europeans on board killed. Nor ie all
the statement, in our telegraphic asesisge, that the
simmer at the time of her capture carried the Por-
tunes flu. would seem to imply that our naval
lees in the Canton river was Madman
to the protection of our mercantile mane. Instead
of strengthening their position in China, the British
authorities appear to have been losing ground. Ani
err combustion is spreading. Sarawak has bees
attacked by the Chinese settlers In Borneo; and
thaiegis Sir JAMES BIOOKZ, on the arrival of rein-
ihreements, turned the tide of battle, and inflicted a
wooers retribution on the assailants, he himself
appears to have had • narrow escape at the lint
nemt, while his colony has suffered severely.
It is impossible to read this disastrous tale
without reverting to the telegraphic MM. be
widish publicity was so hastily and ninni►
timely given by the Admiralty in the heat of thebite
etsetions. The purport of that message was int
Tax had been instructed by the Central °messing
at Pekin to make overtures for peace. How Menke
mendacious this assertion was is now apparent. to
le from suing for pesos, the Imperial Coramissicser
at iliregkcmg is pressing the English forces hard.
It cannot now be said that the war on the part of
Om Chinese is a mere Government war, for which
Nor people have no wish, but to which they are In.
opted by the intimidation of the Mandarins. The
lismdarin influence does not extend to Sara-
elk. The unexpected, and, apparently, an-
poroked attack on the English settbresent
erre, can only have been instigated by a spon-
taneous ebullition of national feeling. What has hap-
rind at Sarawak, may happen at Singapore, Pe-
mu, and Malacca, at all of which there are wine-
ram Chinese populations ; and at all of which the
prrixon• have been diminished with a view to for-
ward reinforcement" to China. The raceme pub-
lished during the elections by the Admiralty bore
from the beginning unequivocal marks of being
pore fabrication. The Admiralty, even while
pabliihing it, could not but be aware of its
utterly untrustworthy character. It purported
be contain no more than the substance of a
report current among the passengers on beard
the Bombay. The Bombay
end by the postal arrangements could me bile
s mail front China. Why, then, wee weal be* imi
selmstations publicity given to so walla= amour
by • Department of the Orwanmentf Olden, to
istbseses the elections then b poems It mei Go
we of Government to represent Ilmo Sir 11114116101
by the firm front presented by do bola la lie
%Mon river. Government had in • mom pet s 1
the election upon the justification of tba =dies it
lid given to the proceedings of its repressalatives
in China. And to produce a temporary impression
bramble to the policy of that sanction, a prima*
Begailmont et the Government did not sample

to circulate as authentic news a TURSORE
to which its heads weld not poseilly have given the
slightest credit even fee a moment. Our readers
will remember the means by which poor CHARLES
BULLER once said--half injoks,half in earneet—the
Reform Bill bad been tarried. Government would
seem to have been determined to win the late elec-
tions by his recipe.
This unprincipled conduct of Lord PALHIROTON'S
understrappers must not be forgotten ; but this is
not the time to dwell upon it. That discussion most
be reserved for a period of less passing emergency.
The only question for the present is, what is to
be done for the succour of our countrymen
in China? Our opinion respecting the origin
of these hostilities remains unchanged. We have
never denied that the Chin e° authorities Wee at
times pursued a line of conduct of which EMI&
men have had just reason to complain. But we
alinn—and all the evidenoe yet produced tends la
corroborate oar opinion—that no &slag est
ag had been perpetrated by -the MEM et
th timed the rapture, or for a time
previous. An overweening opinion el
power, an uncles depreciation of Oise enseu
ge
and perseverance, tempted our repaessolattres
China to embark in a quarrel is
it is
now obvious they did not poems the bales to carry
out to a successful Wee. For a son tele they
have goaded the whole Chinese natio' into a state
of frantic excitement. The myrsar. II MINN are
' pressing hard upon the haadtal et ling l& settled
at Hongkong or Canton. A esniribonsita et their
advantageous position is inflaming the einiletive
faring.. It cannot now De helped ; newt fight
with them before we can hope that they wM listen
to us. Our few countrymen, hemmed in by a na-
tion, are eagerly and anxiously looking homewards
for help. When and how is that help to reach
them ? We were told that the peace with Persia
'would enable Government to transfer to China the
services of the Persian Gulf expeditionary force ;
bat, according to the latest intelligence from
Bookie., military operations are still in progress
there. At bans one transport, destined for
China, was obliged to put back because she was not
seaworthy ; a sexed, because, by some inconceiv-
able Dangling, she anchored in well-known ground, a
few miles from Portsmouth, in each slovenly fashion
that the turn of tide shipwrecked her on her own
anchor. Strange stories, too, are current about the
confusion which prevails in the Ordnance Depart-
ment ; about bewildered clerk' confounded by
counter-orders treading on the heels of orders;
about a state of confusion unsurpassed even in the
earlier months of the Crimean campaign. Add to
these Lord ELGIN'S tardiness in proceeding on his
mission. The English people may yet have to
pay dearer than they imagine for the blended
arrogance and imbecility displayed by their rulers
and representatives in their relations with China.

THERE la one practical question connected with
Military Education which seems at present to excite
a good deal of interest—we mean the age at which
young men designed for the Army ought to com-
mem their professional career. It is so difficult to
disease the profession for which a lad is best fitted,
MIRO dangerous to force him into a pursuit for which
he has no real taste, that parents are naturally averse
to devoting their sons to any particular profession
bias it is absolutely neemosary. On the other
honi.it is obviously far the public interest that the
ego beyond which • yams man cannot enter • given
prelinion should be Ind ea late as possible, in
mihr that the held at selestioa may be widened,
and Set those only who hoe a Wile for the thing
mm/ Wee= melabere of that peohnelen.
At moo dr Indeed it was the prosidling opinions
Ord boys intonieff he the army shoehihe devoted to
it hem a very only age, and the form of Witham
into Woolerish /MOM Giant to a mhos defer
Lion by a punt ethic sea le the Malley swim et
his country. And la this respect swim reeemblenes
has been observed between the prudes at Woolwich
and the practice in Austria. Bull views are
now exploded, and it seems to by admitted
that the beet system is that eceoldimg to whisk •
youth pursues his general edneetisa dB the ago at
about 17, and then comments, his episodes pedal.
Mona adulation.
Take way urea who has begun his yeehognfil
easeaties et se early age. mid oaths men whelks'
dew no atm having eangieted blegmealoinallen
ot mar public school or abr. It le imgendhle to
end& observing the differesse betmes• these. How-
wit keen and well instructed the home may be, be
ibis it difficult to apply his mini to cagiest his own
oposiel subject. His peejudieeasne generally strong,
kis views contracted, his powers et expression in-
adequate to the task of clearly explaining even
these natters with which he is most bendier.
Mg*, then, trem am experience of men trained
As ether peewit% our peers! conclusion would be
in terms et pretponing till a comparatively late
period the meensencemest of a special training for
the army. But this matter is not left to mere
speculation. The practice of foreign countries
formerly was to begin special military education
et a very early age. This practice, however, after
a long trial, is now being gradually abandoned.
I Upon this plat the history of the Polytechnic
'School is sinigalarly instructive. The experiment—
sap the minelle Report of the three Conunissioners,l
so em's gaild—of thus making a good genteel
alhaudila es basis of a special military one, seems
lobos Ws lint tried on the foundation of the
' School in 1793, and the idea is in great
molooto dee to the practical genius of FoURCIOT
and CAIXOT. On the very first establishment of
this school young men were allowed to eater
it at the average age of 18, with the pro-
spect of joining the army after two or three
years ; and it was soon found that they brought to
their special studies a freshness and energy tar
greater than boys who had been taught and perhaps
sated with military subjects from the age of 12 and
13. This system was gradually extended to other
places of education until the year 1814, after which'
leo principle of juvenile military education may be
mid to have been entirely abandoned. Accordingly,
Os plan now pursued In France is to give no pro-
diodonal teaching ad training until boys are
emerging into toted—in fact, till eighteen
ache prod cascades may be sl-
ued emilimsl MIM eempleted. Other countries
are grain* aye* Or or view, and even now
the peedite et Pewit egress ia this respect with
that el Fromm. The advantages of thus postponing
the oommeneement of a special military education
are indite& upon with great force in the Report to
which we have already alluded ; and the Commis-
sioners fortify their opinion by evidence drawn from
the members of nearly all professions. Sir JOHN
HIMOOTNE, Sir HOWARD DOCOLAS, General CHEI4-
Mr, Colonel Lustros, Captain HALTON, and many
ethers, are nmedmously of opinion that professional
adasetlaa iambi not begin until 18 ; and General
Womaalav ti his evidence before the Sandhurst
Osmidlhaci diffinetly says—" We always find that
ahem at a later age become better
awl aims sad tea." Such being the state of the
lonm,ffinemadiffienit to overlook the practice of foreign
4ersodia sad the unanimous opinion of our own