The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(Prom the Times of this day.)
Our Ministry is now complete, and we may
therefore, without unreasonable curiosity, begin to
wish to know something of its policy.- The
,mea
are already pretty well known to the country, but
of the measures we know nothing, except so much
as is comprised in those convenient and elastic
phrases—the " vigorous prosecution of the war,"
and "a just and honourable peace." Probably no
set of gentlemen ever established themselves in the
Government of this country affording to the ex-
ternal world less information as to their views,

their projects, and their principles. In this dearth
of knowledge we seek for instruction in the struc-
ture of the Government itself; but that affords us
little light beyond what is to be gained from a few
pages of the " Peerage and Baronetage," and a
careful study of the affinities and consanguinities
therein disclosed. The structure of the Govern-
ment rests mainly on a principle embodied in the
homely adage, that blood is thicker than water,
and one's own barn nearer than one's neighbour's
house ; but, beyond this fact, the composition of
our Ministry tellS us nothing,'and we are left to
divine, as best we may, on what terms the select
circle now in possession of power will Condescend
to dispose of the votes of the plebeian portion of
the Liberal party, and the destinies of a grateful
and admiring people. In this dearth of knowledge
the eps'edhes of even the 'inferior members of the
Government become sujects ;of interest, and we
study them in order, if possible, to gather from
them some of that reflected light which their makers
may be supposed to have received from the brighter
luminaries of the political system.
Among the most creditable appointments made by
Lord Palmerston is that of Mr. Bouverie, who has
fairly won his way to political promotion. This
gentleman has just been returned for the Kilmarnock
burghs, and has, as in duty bound, addressed his
constituents on the occasion. In the course of his
speech he has gone over a variety of topics, but
really with so much discretion that it is extremely
difficult to extract from them either an opinion or
a revelation. He contrasts the present state of
things with that which prevailed during the last
election, under the Government of Lord Derby,
and confesses that in every respect, except the con-
stitution of the Government, the state of our affairs
was better then than it is now. One may be sur-
prised that a member of the Government, who
might be supposed to have some leaning in favour
of the existing state of things, should lead off with
such an announcement, more especially as we are
not quite sure that on the single point in which he
prefers the present state of things to that in 1852,
—the possession of office by a purely Whig Govern-
ment7-everybody in the country will be disposed
to agree with him. We have, indeed, got rid of
Protection, but a glance at the names of our pre-
sent Ministry will show that we are not wholly
emancipated from some species of monopoly.
Passing over some not very novel observations
on the texts that the maintenance of the balarice of
power really means the right and duty of self-de-
fence ; that money may be won back, but that
human life cannot; and that our soldiers have
shown no less heroism amid the lingering tortures
of the camp than among the thunders of the battle-
field, we come to some observations more impor-
tan3, because showing more clearly the point of
view from which the last-chosen associates of Lord
Palmerston are disposed to regard the calamities
our army has sustained, and the kind of excuse
that is to be offered for them. "An army," says
Mr. Bouverie, "is a complicated machine, and we
have not had that machinery at work since the
war of the French Revolution. Wo had to put it
in action at once, and until we tried we did not
know where the weak parts lay. We did not
!snow whether it wotill break down or whether it
would work ' • that is the source of the disasters
which have happened to our brave army in the
East." This excuse may be very satisfactory to
the mind of our newly-appointed ;Minister, but
we greatly doubt whether it will be equally
;onvineing to the great public of this country.
NU are in the habit—that is, we, the great
Wilk of the people of 'this country—of dealing
with very complicated machines, arid, instead of
acing ignorant of how they will work, can predict
their movements with the most confident and un-
Tring precision. Suppose a railway esig,ineer in-
licied For manslaughter, who should have nothing
bet er to urge in his defence than that a railway lo-
motive is a very complicated machine, and thab,
ill lie tried, he really could not tell what it wo.ild.
1 ! Besides., it is nut to (let! wit:i easy and sim-
ple, but with cJinplicited and ditlinitt matters'
that we employ public men ; and to confess that
they cannot do this is, to confess that they are unlit
oar their office. Moreover, the army has not
broken down, complicated as it is. It ;ids, on the
whole, discharged its duty most nobly. The weak
parts have been the departments ministering to the
trmy, and these have broken down from causes
.)erfectly obvious,' even without trial, and certain
:o manifest themselves to any observer of the
;lightest sagacity. Thera needed no;experiense to
teach anybut men on whom all experience is thrown
sway, from their inability to profit by it, that a
transport service conducted on the principle of
putting anything anywhere, without invoices, with-
out inspectors, beach-masters, lighters, wharves,
itores, or depots, could only end in one way—that
is, in ruinous disorder and confusion. There needed
110 experience to show that a hospital service con-
,tiou cstteodp ot tth thee
proceedings principle
of
ff giving every one power
his neighbour, and pre-
venting him from, doing. anything himself, could
teVer minister efficiently to the wants of the sick
Ind dying ; or that a Commissariat fettered within
Lhe narrow limits of routine, and deprived of
tiniest every necessary power, could not effectually
teed or provide transport for an army. The
luratiou of human life, and the prised at which
the faculties decay, were known before the expedi-
tion to the Crimea, and it needed not the expe-
rience of the last six months to teach us that
aged generals are apt to be deficient in enter-
prise, and to cling with tenacity to a single
idea, even when altered circumstances most impe-
riously urge its abandonment. There may be an
excuse for our recent calamities, but that excuse is
surely'not to be found in their being impervious
to human vision, and such as only practical expe-
rience could teach us.
The only other topic upon which Mr. Bouverie
ventures to touch is the very safe one of the News-
paper Stamp. Into the difficulties of this matter
he does not descend, but contents himself with
merely arguing against the continuance of a com-
pulsory law. That no one who does not wish it
shall be henceforth compelled to take out a stamp
was settled by the vote of the House. of Commons
the other night, but we should have been glad to
hear an opinion from the Vice-President of the
Board of Trade on the part of the measure which
yet remains to be debated. Is he, an advocate, as
he tells us, and, we doubt not, with the utmost
sincerity, for the doctrines of free trade, prepared
to sanction the anomaly of taxing a newspaper on
its passage through the post, because it contains
more matter for the same price than its rivals? Is
there to be free trade for everybody but the Times,
and for us alone a system of differential duties,
graduated so as to strike with the greatest force the
article which is sold the cheapest 7 On these points
we gain no information. -What is already gone
Mr. Bouverie is willing to concede, and we doubt
not that, if a majority of the House of Commons
shall settle the question in our favour, he will on
the next occasion inform his constituents that he
is willing to concede that also:

(From the Morning Post of this day.)
Baron Von Muffling, in his interesting memo-
randa upon the events and characteristics of thelast
great continental war, says that the thing for which
the army of the Duke of Wellington was remark-
able above all other armies which had ever come
under his observation, was the distinctness with
which the duties of every person attached to its
administration were defined, the perfectness with
which they were known and recognised, and the
activity and promptness with which they were dis-
charged. The army of Lord Raglan has, unhap-
pily, made itself remarkable for the exhibition of
phenomena the very opposite of those enumerated
by the able German officer as distinctive of the
British forces in 1813. Of the degree in which
this contrast is to be attributed to a defective sys-
tem, or of the proportion in which it has been the
result of want of capacity in functionaries charged
with the government of the army and its depart-
ments, we are not yet in a position conclusively to
form a judgment, nor would it be just to individuals
to attempt it till the further progress of the inquiry,
delegated to the Sebastopol Committee has fur-
nished us with more materials than we as yet pos-
sess ; and we have refrained, and we shall continue
for the present to refrain, from any attempt to fix
blame absolutely upon any particular authority by
s,ny enunciation of opinion with regard to the
prima facie case which has been published.
There is, however, one branch of ;the service with
regarit't°47lll44 tho ProPriotY afy reticogre do's

L`,o