The Express.
London, England, 1857-03-21 00:00:00

army is 400111111 teemisno real probably be as serious
me they was Were Bobestrepol, but positions on the
stir SUM 'NM be Illinlbyeeeepstent men lentil they
ere ellebsd by a empetition in which the ablest
giber obeli obtain that dietiessished plate. This
b dee deliberate °pinks d the authors et do
Swot before as, sad est spline is bid trot
mly cc the practise el brdgn countries, bet mom
tie experience et diem in the British army, who
have themselves been most distinguished staff
ellneen The Ceounissioners, from their poi-
tits and their experience, are well entitled to
expos a confident opinion. Colonel Yam=
is a man of well-known scientific attainments, lan
engineer officer of distinction. Mr. Lem thee*
not a military man, is well entitled, MOM lb kw
experience is the practical work of sitelha aft
Oxford, to Ikea an opinion es to the effects if ow
educational systun, and the results which it ben itser
dead, and le likely to produce. These Commi►
skews are distinctly in favour of the effects of the
military systentetsiessition penned ahroad,andthels
opinion seem semilesed by the odium* of a dills.
plied @Seer, Lbdenntedismal 'MAW UMW,
C. 8., whom sathally, etnerlies to the Clemie•
aims, makes ow semmene suredmiss. Oar
alloy institution. Iso sign, ossuding to my view,
de net require soy post and teasel aseges ; but
them h ees eassionst of a very serious charester
veydred—die proper education and training di
officers Is lb them for filling staff appointments, and
the errallishormt of a rule, to be made Oh elanktis.
that se effuse shall be eligible to fill a AN ag
mat until ho Me low *nal* a pains bib
et stody and Waft he the pope" end •
the required ordions et snow in that senne.
We have the lone regiments 'twain and infentry
tad the WI slimy in the world. These are the
none OMB Milk WWI England can meet end over-
arms anything !approaching to en equal name-
deal force that may oppose them ; but the
machine to act with due effect must be
properly directed. And by whom must it be
directed ? Unquestionably by ins &al. Hers we
at once come to the immense national importance
that should be attached to the army's having a
caret ally educated and well-trained staff, and the
neceseity of the rule being absolute that none but
officers so educated and so trained should be on the
staff. After defining the term Staff Officer to be a term
including officers of the Quartermaster-General's and
Adjutant-General's departments, Majors of Brigade
and Aideede.Camp, he proceeds "It will be a dis-
puted point whether Majors of Brigade and
Aides-de-Camp should be included as staff officers
who should be required to go through the course of
study and instruction that I have pointed
out. But that they should be so included
I have not the smallest doubt. They are
liable to carry orders on the field of battle,
which if not properly understood may have most
fatal consequences. Suppose an aide-de-camp sent
with an order directing a movement at a critical
moment, and that he is not sufficiently instructed to
understand the order with which he is entrusted, he
must in this came merely try to repeat the words in
which he received the order; and, if this is not
clearly understood when he delivers it, he is, if un-
acquainted with the principles of his profession,
totally incapable of explaining what was really
meant." - .

d ILBL.
• /17.R14

,bed at Ur
ebbe, be

Such is the deliberate opinion of one of the
most distinguished men in the British army—
= opinion founded, we doubt not, upon per-
sonal experience ; and this opinion is con-
firmed by such men as Colonel YOLLAND
and M. LAKZ on the evidence which they them-
selves have obeirved in the practice of every foreign
country. Nevertheless we are gravely told that aides-
de-camp need be nothing more than young gentle-
men of pleasing exterior, who can ride a showy
horse ; and if they happen to be relations of some
chivalrous old man who happens to be Commander
of the Forces, that lucky accident will endear them
to the army, and even make the soldier dying in his
tent from ignorance and neglect more tolerant to the
shortcomings of his superiors. The thing is too pre-
posterous. There must be a College or Senior De-
partment for the staff, for officers after they have ob-
tained their commissions. At present, there is,
Indeed, a Senior Department at Sandhurst, but then
it should be carefully observed that its course of
study is regarded as no recommendation for pro-
motion. The contrast presented by foreign schools
is certainly striking• Whatever may be the differ-
ence in minor points between the schools of France
and Austria they are alike in this—that they are
so framed as to give every conceivable premium and
encouragement to such military acquirements as the
service of the staff is thought to require. In both, the
officers enter by competition, and, after a laborious
.ease, they obtain their appointments on the staff
se the reword of their distinction in the school. It
is needless, as the Report says, to urge that
a college of this kind, opening the door to
advancement, and frequented when the mind
is in its full vigour, would possess every
inducement to call forth the energies of young
officers of talent. But unless promotion fol-
lows distinction at the school a staff school must be
a farce.

- - -
With the clime of the war, the deficiencies of our
military system, and the gross iniquities of our sys-
tem of promotion, seem to be almost forgotten.
Scarcely a candidate in his address alludes to Army
Reform. But, as instructors of the public, we cannot
ignore so important a subject. We must not fail to
remind the country, in season and oat of season,
that an army perished before Sebastopol from gross
ignorance and neglect, and that until military
science and military education are secured their
proper share of promotion it is impossible that this
country can possess an efficient army. To this end
the first requisite is a School for the Education of
Officers destined for the Staff.

We published yesterday s positive despatch an-
nouncing the recall of the Austrian Charge d'Affaires
from Turin, and the cessation of all diplomatic inter-
course between Austria and Sardinia.

We heartily congratulate the latter State on its
happy riddance of an enemy in the camp, a person-
age whose meat harmless employment was to worry
and bully honest English subjects. We had for the
lest seven or eight years devoutly wished for so happy
a consummation ; we would have strongly advised
Piedmont to rear a sort of Roman wall at the Ticino,
and receive no further message from the eastern bank
of that river, except at the sword's point ; but, on
reflection, it ill becomes the weak, as MANZONI has it,
to unfold his talons ; it ill becomes a small state to
hurl defiance at a great power ; and we are doubly
glad that the desirable end should be attained, and
that Austria should stand forth confessedly as the

trespasser and peace-breaker in Europe.
We hardly expect even the most innocent of our
readers to address us the question,—What next?
What next?—why nothing. Austria and Sardinia
are now declared foes ; but it is a long way from
one end to the other of the Bridge of Buffaloes. The
sentinels on either side will face each other as they
always do, with firelocks loaded, primed, and cocked,
as motionless as the spell-bound warriors in the halls
of the Alhambra. How, indeed, could it be other-