The Express.
London, England, 1868-07-01 00:00:00

THE EXPRES;.

hint plostiiing grale the wl; ;lc plan,
and in perfect !RUM .ry of a multitude of 3 ..•1134i-
diary awl intlispoisable ai is, tie AbysAinian expe-
dition, its it is modestly and simply ileo-rihod io
Nir
11. 1N AVIEIOB fiflal leap oteb, ToveAbi
would have won the admiration of a C I:4A it or lb
NAI Ili EON. One remark will occur to all readers
of the despatch, and probably to all futur..
comment Morn on this six months' war.
It calls from fi rNt. to lust a campaign
of s imineers. We say this, not he-
; MI: e, by U strange mel a pro. iewn: ia/ ;lop ir-
tin c lien; the triuhlions of our War
partimuts, an engineer officer was ap-
point( ;I to the command of the exp,slition,
.1
Ind wits a circumstance which we
pc; lairs to the fortunate fact. that the oxiw.lition
out 111113W(31 or oeganised on till,. Nid • of the
Sea. Sir H. NAPIER, however, exproi 44:4
lint f deeply xen‘ible of the support au I en-
cein agcnient which he has re c..iv...1 from his It ;y.il
liiglo the Duke of CAN HUI 1/11 0, in every ,ist
of the ;Apt ;idiot; ; awl we doubt uoL tin:
l'idmE Mims; ER And the B:•.:ttoi.kni• for W it
will not fail to do a: pie j t. in wro
(Al Ding iu the House of Commons to Lilo HI
of his Royal who will of emir:o bc
unahle to do justice to himself in the other Iloilo..
In truth, the importance of this extra a-din:try and
almost unplecillented rocugnition of !twee brains
and services at thu Horse Guards call scarcely too
exaggerated oven by such courtly eulogists as
Mr. DISRAELI and Sir Joint PAKINGION. It iy
not a quarter of a century ago that a General was
named for an Indian command whose distin-
guished reputation had been acquired at the whist
table and on the Turf. Thu Crimean campaign
was, let us hope and believe, the lest great
display of the proverbial contempt of a British
military administration for brains in the
choice of commanders. We may be
permitted without disrespect to imagine that his
ROYAL HIGIINKSS learnt the lesson of experience
before Sebastopol, and became convinced that there
was a science and an art of war beyond the roach
of privilege and purchase. The history of our Indian
wars, or rather of our royal armies in India, is not
without similar warnings. The celebrated cam-
paign on the Sutlej, the desperate battles of
Moodkee, Feroze-Shuhur, and Sobruon, at
which Captain R. NArnsu, of the Bengal En-
gineers, assisted as Major of Brigade, may well
have impressed on that young soldier's thoughtful
mind the danger of committing the charge of an
army and the safety of an empire to a dashing
eabreur, and to a staff whose idea of forming a lino
against an attacking enemy was to put ono corps
in front of another, who left regiments without
orders, and advanced companies without support.
When Sir R. NAPIER accepted the command of the
Abyssinian force, and insisted on a full and
undivided responsibility for the operations of his
troops, he may possibly have remembered that scene
at Moodkee, where the COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
was giving one set of orders to the troops and
the GOVERNOR-GENERAL was giving another set
of orders, and nothing but the desperate courage
of officers and men rescued the whole army from
utter confusion, and averted the imminent neces-
sity of reeonquering our Indian Empire. Recol-
lections of this kind may well have weighed on
the determination of Sir ROBERT NAPIER to ac-
cept the command in Abyssinia on those conditions
which, he now gratefully acknowledges, have been
faithfully fulfilled by her Mantstv's Govern-
ment for India, who gave him their confidence
without reserve, and complied with all his requisi-
tions with " unhesitating promptitude."
We speak of this expedition as a campaign of
engineers, because it was in a great measure
the conquest by sheer hard labour, by un-
flagging spirit, and by skill fertile in resource, of
the material obstacles presented by a shelving
shore, " a supply of water so scanty that it dis-
" appeared immediately, and a temperature so
" sultry that any exertion was oppressive," by a
country without roads, by eight hundred pathless
miles of rocky mountains. In their distressful
labours of sinking wells, clearing roads, break-
ing in mules to harness and fitting them
with pack saddles, landing water and
stores, laying a railway, carrying 12-pounder
guns and 8-inch mortars on the backs of
elephants " over steep mountains for many hun-
" dreds of miles," under " constant storms of
" rain" and extremes of heat and cold, in main-
taining communications between distant parts, in
sustaining the regularity of the commissariat ser-
vice, and lastly in the re-embarkation of troops, fol-
lowers, and cattle, the skill and energy and hearty
seal of officers and men of all arms—pioneers,
engineers, artillery, infantry, cavalry, and naval
brigade, were never, for a single moment, in de-
fault. Indeed such were the peculiar conditions
of the service, that all arms appear to have borne
one another's burdens—infantry did the work of
engineers, cavalry of commissariat officers, sailors
of muleteers, Indian pioneers of railway navigators,
and Sir R. Noma remarks, with just emphasis,
that all " returned to their more regular duties
" with a discipline and efficiency unimpaired."
Desperate valour has been the note of all the pre-
vious campaigns of the British army, whether in
Europe or India Too many " soldiers' battles"
have supplied the want of intelligence and
instruction, and saved the reputation of
brave and devoted but confused commanders.
It is evident from Sir ROBERT NAPIER'S de-
spatch that the " peculiar responsibility thrown
" upon officers and soldiers" throughout the Abys-
sinian expedition has brought to light qualities
which have too often been obscured or neglected
on former occasions, under generals who professed
an aristocratic contempt for " head." These qua-
lities are precisely such as should always distinguish
the army of a country which has accomplished
so many famous works of practical and applied
science and invention. May we venture to hope
that the publication of this despatch, and the high
rewards which await its illustrious author—a peer-
age, it is said, and a liberal hereditary pension to sus-
tain the honour—will mark the beginning of a new
era of justice to mere merit and intelligence, and
the end of favouritism and incapacity in the
military administration of Great Britain.

V NO

MIL CYRUS FIELD AND THE ATLANTIC

CABLE.

TRU public dinner given this evening to Mr.
CYRUS FIELD is a graceful aclmowledgment of ser-
vices which have been already handsomely recog-
nised. The (aux= herself, speaking in the person
of her First Minister, has thanked Mr. FIELD for
the active share he took in the promotion of the
great enterprise with which his name is so honour-
ably associated ; and the prize conferred by the
Mumma of the FRENCH, at the Paris Exhibi-
tion, as well as the commemorative medal struck
by order of the Senate of the United States,
are all testimonies of which Mr. FraLD and
his family may well be proud. The ban-
quet of to-night is, in fact, but the crown-
ing circumstance of a series of personal triumphs,
and that the Duke of Anoxia. should preside over
an assembly of which such men as Mr. Duman,

Els. 14 I Al.Aoa E. and 'Mr. Bozdaer aro ex:Nsbud to
he put, and which hue been organists]. solely in
the honour of Mr. Ftsii.n, is surely a national cons-
idins la of no mean value. If anything could ad I
to the weight of the tribute it would bo Lhn gem,-
tOUI4 attitude i18:4111111.41 by the Etiglishmon who
mode, mid laid, and paid for Om Atlantic Cabin.
It is refreshing, iu these days of personal
assertion and intereked self-seeking, to find this,
the greatest enterprise of 11110111. M tine's is untainted
with alloy, and that England is more /1111i0114 to
imuk its esteem for an houounsl Kunst than to
atdvamee its own claims to recognition. But Ma ;-
much as the Atlantic Ca.ble belongs to his-
tiny, it. is desirable to remember that among
the guests assembled to do Mr. FIELD
humour to-night, will ho mit whose
11111111'M Islong to posterity as thissi who redly
Avon's-4d 11.44 sumo's; which 1444th Ana riea an I
1 tiglend rejoiis• in celebral.ing. Mr. (Ivitu ;
Pttl o is himself the first to nwogniso thin foot
that it is to English a utrrpri.ay lhi. ish capikti,
iss4l h i li.h scientific skill that the pro ;vat
es /11111111111,:liitql IMINVI4.II I end AM ,riot
is tin" ; Uliii 011 8111,0053 of tb.:
no :mum do!,;r0• t
the unfoltering energy and unwavering faith
of to-night's guest, it is an undoubt xl cart.
that it wits in this country and among
uncut that tilos° valitublo qualities born practic:d
fruit.