The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-04 00:00:00

mini! strative incapacity in the hospitals, which
wrin g the heart of the nation. While we look to
HEIL VEN as the Supreme Disposer, out sorrow may
be d eep ; but we can say, " Thy will be done,"
and ibrace ourselves to the fresh sacrifices and
effor'bi which PROVIDENCE always requires of
virt ac in a righteous cause. Not so, however,
whra impenitent oral-administrators defend all
thi air fatal oversights, and stick to their de-
stynctive class-system, and, in spite of palpable
incompetency, still cling to the honours (?) of
office. We cannot say to such fellow-men,
your will be done. No ; nor can we
fe el it to be much better than profanity when
they ascribe to the behests of HEAVEN what they
ought to have set down to their own in-

capacity.
It is impossible to read the letters which have
appeared in our pages from time to time, espe-
cially such as those which we inserted yesterday,
without a reluctant conviction that utterly incom-
petent administration is a far more deadly foe to
our soldiers than the Russians. We speak our
sincere belief in saying, that if some man from the
ignoti of our people, persons of experience in
equipping large bodies of men, say a STEPHENSON,
a PETO, or a BRASSEY, had been in the Duke of
NEWCASTLE'S and the Right Hon. SIDNEY HER-
BERT'S place, we should have had thousands alive
now who have died the death of shelterless men-
dicants ; and, what is as much to the purpose,
should have had them not only alive, but well ;
not only well, but robust ; and not only robust,
but full of pluck for their work—if, indeed, they
would not have done it by this time. We do not
hear of large bodies of workmen while roughing
it under such men perishing with fatigue, and
dying in wet and mire too cold for pigs to lie down
in. They know by experience what men are made
of ; they provide for their physical vigour and
their comfort by a thousand devices of prudent
foresight. We have followed the operations of
the railway hero of Balaklava with some interest,
and while all have been struck with his mastery
of his work, we have been quite as much struck
with his sympathy for his men's waits of every
kind, and his olever arrangements for their com-
fort. If ho had to make a railway across the
Zahara, we believe it would be found that no
fatality would occur among his navvies from un-
foreseen exigencies.
Now, we care not where they come from, or
what official name be given to them, but such
men we want, and want instantly ; and we want
them endued with such plenary authority as to
ride rough-shod over all the old technicalities and

appointments. Better put on costly half-pay, or

the pension list, a hundred or more of I;hearisto•
cratic appointments of peace, than endure longer
the fatally costly results of the present system.
If our aristocracy can find the men from them-
selves we shall welcome them ; but have them we
must, unless we intend to be beaten—not by
Russia, but by exposing, wetting, and working
our poor soldiers to certain death. Let us re-
member it is not the bori dukes and dignities who

have raised the naval and military glory of Eng-

land to its present pitch, any more than they have
created her industrial and engineering pre-emi-
nence, but those who have earned their
titles. The same is more conspicuously true of
France, on account of its different system since
the wars of the Revolution began. We tell our
Premier, then, and his Peelite friends, that the
country will have the right men for its work.
We are all of us of no party now, but the party
for saving our soldiers and bringing Russia to her
senses. The position is too grave for party fight.
England will now be trifled with no longer ; she

has among her sons some equal to the work ; it is
the business of the head of the concern to find

them ; and Lord ABERDEEN must find them; or
give place to somebidy who will.

Let it not be said that the worst is over, that

the hitherto incompetent have learned in the
school of mismanagement, and will now do better.
We deny it. We want men of the genius for

their work. Commonplace abilities are only fit
for routine, but the circumstances and demands
of war are ever changing ; they require long-
headed men both on the scene of action and at
the War-office, and well-meaning industry can
never supply the want of brains. While these
are wanting every new phase of the matter will
but display the folly of trusting to birth, rank,
and connection what should be covfided to genius
alone. " Too late" will be the eternal reflection.
Genius anticipates, mediocrity follows precedent.
NELSON and WELLINGTON, PITT and CANNING,
were always in time, or always ready fur a change.
We must find, if not their equals in genius for
the supreme administration, yet what may be
found—men their equals fur fulfilling the duties
of a specific province. We write thus at the bid-
ding of imperious necessity. We have not been
amongst the severest of the War-administration
critics. We have been comparatively silent till
it would be treacherous to our convictions of duty
to be silent longer, and we had public reasons
for this course. We have made every apology
for the different positions of the French and the
English, for the comparative length of distance
from Balaklava to Sebastopol, and the greater
exposure to the enemy in flank ; but at the best
we are compelled to own that the superiority of
military management is so overwhelmingly on the
side of our Allies as to prove that our administra-
tors are not equal to their post, and that they
must be changed. For the worse it could not be.
There is one man in the Cabinet who wished suc-
cess to the Coup de Etat that a French Empire
might be a counterpoise to Russia.

AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF
THE QUEEN.