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

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LONDON, SATURDAY. APRIL 4.

Cam remelt of the General Elections is already
certain; the Parliament now in the process of
formation will contain an unusually large proportion
ef new members. This eirnuastance will necessarily
mareent the regret that has been so universally felt
Ind expressed at the resignation of the office of
Speeker by Mr. Lerma. It is at all times an ar-
omas ask to maintain order, and ensure despatch
and nseuracy in the transaction of the bewildering
natitiplicity of business that comes before en English
Bebe of Commons. And the difficulty is immensely
bereaved when a considerable number of the gentle-
Mr who compose it hare bad no previous experience
of the forms by which the proceedings of the House
are regulated. The perfect mastery of the forms of
the HMO possessed by the late SPLAKER—his
pitted and {impressive demeanour—his imperturbable
emvlty and cosutesy—all would have been severely
tested by the numerous raw recruits who are about
to assemble at Westminster; and it will be no cry
natter to find a competent successor.
The qualifications required in a Speaker are such
as we rarely found combined in an individual. It
Is almost unnecessary to remark that he must be
endowed with Herculean powers of continuous &p-
The labour which he has to perform in
public is trifling compared with what devolves upon
lion in the intervals between the sittings of the
House. The previous preparation and arrange-
ment of business absorbs him entirely from the
thOlDellt be quits the chair until he again resumes
it. Both in the chair and in what may be termed
his " chamber practice," the Speaker must be able
to bring to bear upon every measure or question
'submitted to the Legislature, an extensive and
diversified acquaintance with the precedents of the
House of Commons. And this knowledge he must
be able to recall and apply, while the House is
sitting. on the spur of the moment, amid the dis-
tractions of debate, with question pressing upon
question, and eager speakers ever prone to diverge
from the regular tract of basin'.. Again, amid
the contagious excitement and irritation of
party and personal feuds, and impromptu squabble",
be must exercise a constant and stern control over his
own tamper. Nor is it enough that by natural saga-
city and by a powerful will be should have brought
his temper ander complete control. He requires to
be gifted with that genial immoveable good humour
win* epenotas upon angry masses as if by a kind
eir maul contagion. In addition to theme qualities,
the Ira who is to direct and guide the deliberations
ef so numerous an assembly of high-spirited and
amilitiova men, animated by intense rivalry, with
Gash to win and much to Ire, must, by the
write tenor of his life, have impressed upon
time discordant elements a profound con_
victim of his perfect integrity and impartiality.
The least shadow of suspicion of an inclination to
chicane or indirect practices would neutralise all the
asidance he might have won by the
hesthigh intel-
lect and the most engaging manners. In setch
of an ideal Speaker we may not omit the considera-
tions of personal appearance and demeanour. It is
no exaggeration to say that WASHINGTON never
could have accomplished what he did for his country
bad sot nature set the seal of command upon that
bayed arrive chin and erect bearing. And so with
the Speaker of an English House of Commons.
His presence ought to fill the eye—his ges-
tures, even his bearing in repose, should
leave the impression of energy and resolution tem-
pered only by urbanity and the repose of conscious
power. His utterance should be lucid, weighty,
and marked by a sustained dignity. In short, there
is needed in a Speaker an irreproachable previous
character; extensive and accurate knowledge of busi-
ness in general, and of the forms of the Hobe in par-
tnere ; a examending yet genial and loveable dis-
position ; perfect impartiality, candour, and fair' nese
in all his dealings; a gunk, instinctive diweratment
of the character of men; a ready, distinct, and dig-
nify' mode of titnewooe ; a spirit that can preserve

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 4, 18b7.

posed of troops inferior to our own. We should
like—or rather except far the experiment's sake we
should not like—to see our ordinary Generals in
command of Russian troops opposed to Russian
Generals in command of British troops. The
trial, if disastrous, would be singularly instructive.
Moreover, an educated Staff moat be more econo-
mical than an uneducated Staff. To feed, move,
gni nonceavre 60,000 men requires femur
heed.
'!fie i such a thing as a science of war, and these
Itite have studied that science ought to hold*,
pineipal poets in that profession whose beim
war. Part of that science is to produce the pasted
possible results with the smallest passible means.
The making war cheaply is one of the best tests of
an able officer. The advocates of retrenchment,
therefore, ought to be the most strenuous 'dramass
of army reform and army education.
There is one other point, however, which we trust
not omit to notice. Mr. SIDNEY HIRBERT, 'peeking
before the Dissolution on the M'NEttt-Tou,octi
business, declared that one of the chief difficulties
in the way of a War Minister who desired to do
his duty was the difficulty of knowing where
to find the most capable officers. They are buried
among the common herd. The able men who have
devoted themselves for years to the study of the pro-
fession are hidden—they have no mark upon them.
According to the present system it requires months,
perhaps yam, before the able officer islmown. We have
not yet forgotten the fact that when the war broke out
Lord RAGLAN sent for a list of those officers who
bed passed through the senior departarset at Sand-
herst—had no war broken out they would weer have
lees heard of—or that other fact, soseled by Sir
RICIIARD AIIET, that even at Sebesiopsk *did all
the distractions of a great siege and the peens of the
battle-field, he held an examination to 10 lit
qualifications of those officers who aspired to et plase
on the Staff before appointing them. These facts
amply confirm the statement of Mr. SIDNEY
HERBERT,thltin thepresent statcof thingsitis impos-
sible to distinguish the able officer from the incom-
petent officer ; and they amply prove the necessity
of setting on foot some plan by which those men
who really intend to devote themselves to their pro-
fession may be set apart for the higher potations—
such as thew on the Staff. Such men would be re-
gularly educated in the 'ciente and practice of war ;
and a War Minister would then have no difficulty in
selecting for employment those officers who deserved
his patronage.

TUE SULTAN has made an innovation which may
turn out to be of considerable importance, in nomi-
nating a 'Minister of Justice and a Minister of Public
Instruction, to take their seats in his Council, and
preside over these two departments. The import-
ance of such a measure will be felt at once, when it
is observed that the attributes of both these minis-
tries hitherto belonged to the Scheik El Islam, the
functionary who combined in his own person the
offices of high priest and chief judge of the Otto-
man Empire. How this dignitary has been or will
be induced to see his high functions tilled by others,
and by what we may call laymen, remains to be
told.
Hitherto, in Turkey, as is well known, all priests
and judges were formed in the same school, and
belonged to the same corporation of the Ulema.
On issuing from this school, or after having passed
the probation time required in this corporation, those
Median who did not become imams or priests were
advanced to judicial functions, in the first instance
to those of • ea& or naib, and finally to the
dignities of mollah and of mufti. The Sebeik El
Islam had the nomination of these functionaries,
adoslield their situations but for a limited period, and
who lived by the perquisites of their judicial
diem. There were no doubt honest men amongst
them, but the system created great inducements for
corruption ; and the truth was, that, generally ,
speak-
ing Turkish judges contrived to amass fortunes in
an incredibly short space of time.
To reform such abuses has become one of the 'le-
-1 eessities of the time. The body of Turkish legists,
or the Ulema as they are called, are supported, when
not actually in office, by what we should call
ecclesiastical property, or by what the Turks call
Vacosf. The Ottoman finances can be only ren-
' dared flourishing by the State appropriating and
I utilising these Vacouls. But this cannot be done
until the requirements of religion and law are met
by the regular State payment of their ministers. It is
very possible to do this out of the Vacese/b,
and at the same time not only to preclude tla
judge from deriving his income out of the pureed'
those who plead before him, but also to leave a Lege
ONO= revenue for the exigencies of the State.
How far the new Minister of Justice is to be em-
powered to make these reforms ; how far his
authority is to extend—whether it is to supersede
altogether that of the Scheik El Islam in the
aminstion of cadis and mollahs, are points that
esuatia in doubt. The personage chosen for the
AN ie, however, the fittest man to under-
lain tad carry through such a change. Verne
IFHTXHI, now Yeetx PACHA, is a man of great
honesty, determination, and intelligence. The son
of a Greek, converted to Mohammedanism, Verne
is considered almost a fanatic in his worship of the
Prophet and reverence for his institutions. He is
thus a reformer, with whom the old Turk school
cannot well find fault. Verne lost somewhat in
character last year by his absolving the Pacha who
was brought before him, as Judge of the Great Cri-
minal Tribunal, on the charge of ordering the murder
of the poor girl, Moons. Great threats and efforts
were, it is known, made to compel Vertu to spare
the Porte the disgrace of the capital punishment of a
Pacha—for each a trifling crime as ordaining the
murder of one of his harem. VERY yielded on this
occasion—perhaps it was unavoidable—and his
reputation has accordingly somewhat suffered. But
it still remains high; and as a functionary whose
task is to watch over the purity and efficiency of an
administration of justice, Turkey does not poems a
fitter man than Verne.

So much cannot be said of SAM PAcRA, the
Minister of Public Instruction. He was a Greek,
and is a renegade. Ile is a man of undoubted
ability ; but he certainly made use of his position as
Governor of Widdin during the war, so to speculate
on the supply of corn and provision for the armies
as to realise a large fortune. The same, however,
may be said of OMER PACTIA himself, and of the
greater number of those who held high authority
and place. The war was a God-send, which, whilst
it excited the enthusiasm and fanaticism of the poorer
Turk, awakened and gratified all the cupidity of the
official Mussultuan.
With respect to the Ministry of Justice, the
functionary appointed to it will only have tos
much to do, if he be allowed to do it. But
with regard to a Minister of Public Instructions
his sphere of action cannot be very extensive. There
are no schools in Turkey, save the Government
schools for army and navy, and these att►ched to the
Mosques. Is there a new system of education, of
professors, and collegiate establishments to be cre-
ated, independent of the Ulnas ? Are other text
and school books to be found besides the Boren P
These are grave questions•--questtions similar to those
which have so long defied all the wisdom of the