The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-28 00:00:00

;.1 of the exclusive character of that Government, and had
I dwelt on its consummate ability ; but if the meeting
• wool,' follow him in believing its solvency, he thought
he could prove'them bankrupt in administrative ability.
The speaker here detailed the earlier events connected
with the war, showing how its evils had been enhanced
by the incapacity of the Government, and contended that
we had a right to complain,.above ail, because such con-
duct had the effect of exposing a free country to the
charge of being unable t, grapple with one great des-
. potic power without calling in at the same time the aid
and co-operation of another. (Hear, hear.) But when
Lord Palmerston was asked why be made up his ministry
of such exclusive-materials, he said he had selected his
men because they were the best he could find. If those
men were the best, in heaven's name, what prospect bad
the country for the future? (Hear.) There could be
hardly a greater incentive than such a declaration to
make some provision for a new race of statesmen. Ile
had been a member of another association that succeeded
—he meant that for the liberation of foreign commerce ;
and he perfectly remembered the first meeting held at
Manchester in a room not one-fourth the size of that
theatre, and how the originators of the movement ex-
ulted in such a sign of success as the room being full.
In the course of a conver.ation which took place at that
time between the late Lord Melbourne and another
he was asked by one whom he wouid be unlikely to
deceive, what would be the great harm if the movement
should succeed ? His answer was, "The moment you
carry a total repeal of the corn laws, you take the
Queen's crown from her head." (A. laugh.) The corn
laws had been repealed, and the crown was more
firmly set on the head of the sovereign than ever. (Loud
cheers.) Some years before Lord Liverpool declared that
if the dissenters' chains were knocked off and the catholic
liberated, the church would be in danger ; but religious
liberty had since 'been granted, and the steeples still
stood tolerably firm. (Hear.) So it would be with the
present movement ; at first it would be called democratic
and mischievous, but ultimately it would succeed, and
its success would be found perfectly compatible with the
integrity of the constitution. When bad men conspired,
good men were bound to unite. They should not only
strike when the iron was hot, but strike it until it be-
came hot, and he thought there was something in the
temperature of the place that might be taken as an omen
that that time was not far distant when that consumma-
tion might be expected. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. BENNOCH next addressed the meeting, and ex-
pressed the pleasure he felt at the sympathy which had
been shown on behalf of the association, not only in
every part of England, but in Canada and the United
States—where the public newspapers bad devoted pages
to the reports of the meetings of the Administrative
Reform Association, and columns to editorial comments
upon them. There was only one spot, he believed, in
the United Kingdom, where the princip'.es of the asso-
ciation were not welcome, and that was in St. Stephens.
It was not true that the association was endeavouring to
set class against class ; on the contrary, they sought to
unite all classes in destroying improper patronage in
Government appointments, abolishing family influence
in the government of the country, and eradicating that
prejudice in the minds of men in power which led them

to suppose that certain names were necessary as a qua-
lification to govern the country. In Virginia they had
a sort of zigzag fence, which when the pigs, a pecu-
liarly long-legged and agile race, sought to leap, it
caught them in the angles, so that they always remained
on the same side. So it was with the Whigs—one
Government might be ousted and another take its
place—but the zig-zag fence of prejudice and family
influence always kept the same old and con-
stitutional Whig families in power as bad governed the
country any time these 50 years. The object of this
movement was to destroy that system, and to take care
that instead of the cards being merely shuffled there
should be an entire new pack. These sticklers for things
as they were blamed the administrative reformers for
agitating the country, but agitation was as necessary in
the political as it was in the physical atmosphere. Reli:
gious liberty, emancipation, political rights, and free
trade, were all due to agitation, and by God's blessing
agitation should yet give them men in power who would
not jest at the sufferings of the people. It had been said
that this movement wanted the influential names which
had lent their influence to, and conducted to success,
other great political movements. But men who agitated
for any one great political object rarely entered into a
second political agitation. The great agitators for re-
form in Parliament were not the movers in the poor-law
repeal agitation ; nor were those who were the great
movers in favour of Catholic emancipation the chief agi-
tors for slave emancipation. But to refer to practical
matters. He would take in the first instance that sink of
iniquity, as it was formerly, the Ordnance. Under the
old regime that department was managed by old soldiers,
who knew nothing about mechanical construction or
scientific power. To these every man who made any
improvement in artillery or the weapons of war was re-
ferred, and the consequence of their ignorance and mis-
management was that many a man who had perfected a
valuable invention and submitted it to the Ordnance de-
partment was disgusted with the neglect with which he
was treated, and that when the war broke out our muni-
tions of war were in the same state as at the close of the
war in 1815. Public discussion had already done some-
thing towards reforming the Ordnance branch of the pub-
lic service, and when Lord Hardinge came into power,
to his credit be it said, he caused a complete examination
to be made into the condition of the Artillery, and find-
ing how defective it was he with some difficulty per-
suaded the Government to adopt his advice, and thus to
a certain extent placed our army in a position to cope
with Russia. Our enemy had taken a very different
course from that we had adopted. She had availed her-
self of every improvement, and no sooner was a valuable
invention brought forward here than she imported it
into her service, and invited the inventor to her service.
To this was owing the fact that our army found their
artillery unequal to cope either in weight of metal or
range with that of the enemy when the siege of Sebas-
topol first commenced. After referring, as proofs of the
incapacity of the governing departments, to the suffer-
ings of the army in the Crimea, from want of provisions,
ambulances, hospital accommodation and roads, and the
advantage of civil interference to right the errors mili-
tary and official routine had caused, be spoke of the
towns where he said there were stores of all kinds, but
there did not appear to be anything like what we
found in every private business establishment—a
a regular periodical stock-taking. It appeared that it
was a practice of this department to send off bales
I marked with their own mysterious hieroglyphics, but
not numbered, and the consequence was that the
persons to whom they were sent might find mop-heads
where they sought sheets, serge gowns where they re-
quired rugs, and for trousers they were sometimes obliged
to put up with washing-tubs. (A. laugh.) These were
errors in matters of detail, which, if committed in a
merchant's office would cause the offending parties to be
dismissed immediately. (Question, question.) He was
quite in the hands of the meeting, but he thought a
koowledge of a few of those blunders important. They
all Issiew that a consolidation of the Ordnance had lately
been atiempted, in carrying out which the Government
had cancelled the patents of all the officers, but not
having taken proper precautions for their renewal, there
was not at the present moment a single man at the
Ordnance who could legally fill a contract. (Hear.)
They must not, however, think that all the departments
were equally bad, at least he for one had made up his
mind to believe nothing without careful examination.
Of the necessity of this he would give them an in-
stance. A gentleman wrote to him from Glasgow,
1 stating that a regiment had been ordered from thence
to the Crimea. The vessel which was to to take them was
in the harbour, but the troops were ordered to march to
Liverpool, while the vessel sailed round to meet them.
That no doubt appeared strange and absurd enough, but
he had made inquiries and had discovered that it was
necessary for the public peace that some troops should
march to Preston, and the regiment in question being
the only one available was sent there, and remained for,
two weeks previous to embarkation. Again, having
made inquiries about the public offices, he found that in
some of them a system of examination was adopted after
nomination. In one of them the head examined every
new candidate, and the latter if found incompetent was
rejected. In that office, with 180 clerks, where the letters
were 1,000 a day and the postage enormous, the organi-
sation was so complete that any return asked for could
be obtained is 48 hours. (" Time.")
The Cs AIRMAN appealed to the meeting to give Mr.
Bennoch a fair hearing.
Mr. BENNOCH proceeded, amid some interruption, to
review the public conduct of SirJ.Graham, whose name
was received with a storm of hisses, and contended
that a predilection for secrecy in anything rendered the
right hon. baronet a dangerous public servant. Secrecy
had, in fact, been the curse of England for the last five
years. (The cries of " Layard" here became so loud and
continuous that Mr. Bennoch resumed his seat.)
Mr. LAYABD came forward, and received a most en-
thusiastic reception. He observed that at the last meet-
ing the chairman laid down a most excellent rule, which
was that no man should address the meeting whose name
had not been previously announced. He quite concurred
in the propriety of that arrangement, and in obedience
to the general call of the meeting he should say a few
words. (Hear.) He was also rejoiced to find that on
that evening they bad limited the speakers to gentlemen
not connected with Parliament, because he thought it
right that Parliament should know the feeling, as they
were too apt to think that all the wisdom of the country
was confined within their own four walls. (Hear,
hear.) When he had last the honour of addressing
them from that platform, he ventured to make
a few remarks as to the manner in which Lord Palmer-
ston treated great public questions, questions upon which
there was great public anxiety and public grief. (Hear.)
Lord Palmerston, as they were aware, had since alluded
to that statement, and had expressed his astonishment
that he (Mr. Layard) did not blush when making it, and
at the same time, as if to confirm IJs truth, went off into
a comic description of what he called their private thea-
tricals, amid shouts of laughter. Lord Palmerston called
their proceedings theatrical, but he thought the image
injtidiCieufi. # 41 know anything of tlAtatrioigh t_4o