The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-16 00:00:00

(From the Morning Herald of this day.)

To-night we may presume that Lord Palmerston
will give to the• House of Commons a statement of
the negotiations which ended in placing him at the
head of the Aberdeen Cabinet. We may possibly
expect—and no doubt the country will expect—that
statement to throw some light upon the refusal of the
noble viscount to act with Lord Derby. The fact of the
refusal is all that the country yet knows. The motive,
and, indeed, the mode, of that refusal is left to Lord
Palmerston himself to explain.
It is just possible that Lord Palmerston may dismiss
the whole question in one of those brief and apparently
careless narratives in which he knows so well how to
deal lightly with unpleasant topics. Nevertheless, the
noble lord must feel that he has a step of deep responsi-
bility in assuming the guidance of the councils of Eng-
land in the present crisis, and one that demands from
him a statement suited to its importance.
It will not, we apprehend, be very easy for the Pre-
mier to explain upon what principle a Ministry con-
demned by the House of Commons, and resigning on
the very ground of that condemnation, in a few days
afterwards returned to office substantially unchanged.
This is the course which Lord Palmerston has to justify.
It must never be forgotten that to-night the Rouse of
Commons will see arrayed upon the Treasury benches
the very same Ministers whom, a fortnight ago, that
house by an overwhelming majority condemned. The
juggle of Lord Palmerston's premiership, for it is nothing
more, has not altered the cbaracteror even improved the
composition of the Cabinet. The exclusion of Lord
John Russell has done much more to weaken the
Ministry than ally changes that have been made have
improved it ; and, unhappily, the appointment of Mr.
Frederick Peel to the office into which he has been thrust
establishes beyond doubt that the old influences still
control both the Cabinet and the Premier.

When to this we add the reported rejection of Lord
Shaftesbury--a renort, let us say. which obtains almost
universal credence—it is impossible not to see that at
present, at least, Lord Palmerston is not the master of
the Cabinet; but fias simply succeeded to the place, and
with it to the policy, of Lord Aberdeen. •
The first test of the noble lord will be the course he
will take upon Mr. Roebuck's motion. If he ask of the
house to rescind the resolution appointing a committee
of inquiry it will be in so many words a confession that
the Ministry now in office regard that vote as one le-
velled against themselvei. It will, no doubt, make all
things plain and consistent. It will be the acknowledg-
ment that the Aberdeen Ministry retain place in defiance
of that vote, and appeal to the House of Commons to
complete the triumph of that Ministry by retracting the
obnoxious resolution.

From Mr. Roebuck the country will also expect to-
night the avowal that he intends to redeem the pledge
which he has gives, that he would really prosecute the
inquiry to which he has irretrievably committed the
honour and dignity of the House of Commons. We do
not doubt the courage and integrity of the member for
Sheffield ; and therefore we feel confident that he will
to-night fix an early day for the nomination of his com-
mittee. It will then be seen whether Lord Palmerston
is so bound up with the Aberdeen faction that he will
attempt to screen them from justice by asking the House
of Commons to abandon an inquiry which they have
already voted to be necessary for the public safety.
A few hours must tell us all this. It is, in truth, use-
less to anticipate the interest of the proceedings of this
evening by speculation which twelve hours hence may
be proved erroneous. We shall, we confess, await with
anxiety the inauguration of Lord Palmerston in his new
position as Premier ; and from the proceedings of this
evening we shall, we doubt not, be able to augur much,
both as to the character of his Administration and the
probable chances of its permanecne and success.

THE OCTOGENARIANS OF THE ARMY.
(Front the Times of this day.)

All that we yet know of our present Government be-
yond its personnel, which bears so striking a resemblance
to the last, is that it is pledged above all things to con-
duct the war with vigour, and to neglect no measures
likely to contribute to its success. For the announce-
ment of its measures we must wait until this evening ;
but, be those measures what they may, their vigour de-
pends upon the men to whom they are intrusted, and
those men we have now before us. Strong measures in
weak hands are like the club of Hercules in the hand of
Omphale, less terrible than ridiculous, and vigour re-
quires vigorous men as well as valiant intention. The
-attention of the public has been lately roused to the
manner in which Governments are formed. A nation
inexpressibly anxious for the existence of its only army
is watching the way, while the privileged few who have
a voice in such things put together the machine of Go-
vernment. On the present experiment more is undoubt-
edly at stake than the mere formation of a Ministry. All
of those who make government their business are on their
trial. Oversights and errors might on other occasions be
mercifully dealt with, but now no excuse will be listened
to for neglecting to put the best man into the highest
office, and regarding the claims of wealth orfamilyabovo
those of merit or capacity. Closely following on the ill-
advised and unpopular appointment of Mr. Peel to
the Under-Secretaryship of War, we have to notice the
elevation of Sir Francis Baring to the Chancellorship
of the Duchy of Lancaster. We ought not to be un-
grateful to Sir Francis, for to the chronic deficit in which
he contrived to involve us we owe the advent of Sir
Robert Peel to power, and the consequent triumph of
Free Trade. Yet even this service did nct prevent him
from being set aside when the most distinguished men
of the Free Trade party formed a coalition iu 182, and
the country cannot but regard his return to office as a
proof that the intellectual standard of the present Go-
vernment falls below that even of the last.
If we turn from the appointments of Mr. Peel and Sir
Francis Baring to matters more immediately relating to
the war, we find equal reason for complaint. As we find
in civil appointments a certain leaning to feebleness and
mediocrity, so in military commands we find an equal
tendency to a most extravagant appreciation of senility.
On the 9th of May, 1854, her Majesty issued a commis-
sion to Lord Hardinge, Lord Grey, Lord Panmure,
Lord Seaton, Mr. Sidney Herbert, and others, m eciting
that she thought it expedient, looking at the advanced
age of the great majority of the officers now in the
upper ranks of her army, to inquire into the modes
of promotion and retirement, with a view to the greater
efficiency of the service. We find in the report Lord
Raglai stating that, with the exception of Lord Lyne-
doch and Sir Thomas Picton, we had no General officers
in command in the late war above 40 years of age. Time
Duke of Wellington was a Major-General at 33, the
Marquis of Anglesey at 34, Lord Dalhousie at 38,
Lord Strafford at 36, Lord Hill at 33, Lord Beresford
at 39, Sir George Murray at 40, Lord Cornbermere at
31, Lord Londonderry at 32. We have not space to
insert the arguments by which the commission proved
the necessity of choosing commanders from an age
in which mental or bodily vigour are not yet entire.
The commissioners state the principle. Let the ap-
pointment of Lord Seaton, one of these very commis-
sioners, to the command of the army in Ire!and in his
eightieth year, show how those three of them who are
members of the Government—Lord Panmure, Lord
B.ardinge, and Mr. Sidney Herbert—apply it. Our
army is reduced to a mere skeletoa ; we have but a few
thousand troops in Ireland, and those mostly raw and
' inexperienced. We have besides called out the MAI
Militia, and for the training of these local and regular
[ forces the most ceaseless care and activity are required.
To disolargo these QIIOTQUA dUtitllis At A time, too, When

it is above all things necessary, if we ever are to have
Generals, to accustom younger hands to the truncheon
of command, we rouse from the repose which his
honoured age demands a veteran who commanded the
crank regiment of the Peninsular war before either of
the Generals to whom the Emperor Napoleon is con.
tented to ictrust the welfare of his great army in the
Crimea were born. It is irksome to speak in any other
terms than those of respect of this time-honoured relic
of another ago ; but the shame must fall upon those who
drag Lord Seaton from well-earned repose and dignified
retirement into the turmoil of active life. In the place
of Sir De Lacy Evans, Lord Panraure has appointed the
late Lieutenant-Governor of Portsmouth, General Simp-
son, to command the Second Division, an officer of
whose private character we would speak with every re-
spect, but who is 64 years of age, of feeble health and
constitution, and, in a word, a perfectly fit comrade for
the two other Generals of Division we have just de-
spatched to the Crimea. In the East Indies we find
General Somerset, who entered the service the same
year as General Simpson, the year 1811, appointed to
high command. Judging by these appointments, and
by the maintenance of every existing incapacity in its
present place, we fear we must look elsewhere for Minis-
terial vigour.
Let us, then, turn to the Medical Department. It is
presided over by Dr. Andrew Smith— a gentleman en-
feebled by age, and rendered irritable and nervous to a
degree hardly compatible with_ the effective transaction.
of business by long exposure to a tropical climate and
the diseases which those climates produce. A faint
rumour prevailed some days ago that this gentleman had
been relieved from duties which lie has exercised in a
inanner so little to the advantwee of our unfortunate
army ; but the rumour died away, and Dra Andrew
Smith sits as fast as ever. Dr. Lawson rules at Scutari,
and Dr. Hall, though reproved in a General Order, still
presides at Balaklava. But we have learnt something
from their proceedings. We have came to distrust
the efficiency of the Medical Department, and, as we
have not vigour enough to reform it, we have, according
to the present practice, called in the aid-of volunteers to
repa'r the deficiency of the regular service. We are
preparing the hospital at Smyrna, and, in order that
that hospital may be indeed a place of refuge for the sick
and wounded, we are about to place it under the care of
civilians. The measure is a vigorous one, but who are
the men ? The hospital at Smyrna, situated in a hot
climate and a hall-civilised country, is to be placed.
under the care of a medical gentleman 68 years of age I
When we add that Admiral Boxer, " that anarch old,"
who has left everything intrusted to him at Constauti.
noide in utter confusion, has been sent to Balaklava,
order, if possible, to add another disturbing element to
that hopeless chaos, we have said enough to show to
what manner of men it is that the lives of our fellow
subjects, the honour of our arms the safety of our
homes—nay, the very existence of our country, are
intrusted.

It is vain for us to appeal to those who do these
things against such cruel and wanton squandering of
the best resources of the nation. Were they not in-
fatuated by a long course of power, which only shifted
from one portion of their own narrow class to another,
they would scarcely have chosen this moment at least
for the exhibition of such wanton and short-sighted sel-
fishness. The instinct of self-preservation would have
taught them better, but we solemnly ask the people of
England whether they will suffer their countrymen to
be thus sacrificed at the shrine of cruel apathy or help-
less incapacity, and whether they will permit in these
our days scandals and abuses to disgrace and ruin the
public service from which the Tory Ministry of 50 years
ago turned away with disgust, and which the iron Duke
of Wellington, for a time at least, effectually trampled
out and extinguished ?