The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-18 00:00:00

~~Tjc

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 18, 1855.

The resignation of General CAN/LOBEAT, which
we this day announce, will be hailed with satis-
faction by a large proportion of the public.
Whatever may have been his merits or demerit:-
as Commander-in-Chief of the French forces
before Sebastopol, this much is certain—he wa,
unsuccessful; and the ardent friendship he had con
tracted for Lord RAGLAN afforded an argument fo;
the retention of that brave, but woefully incom-
petent, General in command. General CAN-
ROBERT gone, Lord RAGLAN must infallibly follow.
His Lordship's blunders have been so many, an(
have been productive of such serious results, tha
this cannot possibly take place too soon. In
word, he should be recalled at once, for no N 1
none but the flimsiest excuses can be urged
against the step. Would to HEAVEN ii
had been taken earlier ! Then, instead of ow
troops dying piecemeal, cooped up like rats in a
trap, in all probability they would have been led
on against the enemy, and, after beating them in
the field, found in the rear of the routed Russians
a practicable highway into Sebastopol ! CANRO-
BERT resigned—NEssELßoDE resigned—what is i
but war to the knife ? France ans veers
nobly ! Let not England be silent nor answer
less nobly.

Lord PALMERSTON, by his reply to Major REED'S
Neconeerted motion, after all did but play the part

of Dame PARTINGTON. The trick was so trans-
parent that he himself could but join heartily iL
the laughter provoked by Mr. DISRAELI'S sarcasm.
Still he would not have joined in the merrimeir
so pleasantly had he not been persuaded that hi.
mop was really the implement for getting rid
the Administrative Reform nuisance. No doub-

intervening houses concealed from worthy Damt
PARTINGTON that she was matching herself witi
the Atlantic ; and our light-hearted War Pa.

mier's vision i 3 doubtless bounded also by certaii
noble houses, to the nature of the movement wine}
he sallies forth in such haste to meet. He mus

now begin to see that he ha's no mere puddle t( .
deal with. English merchants and manufacturers
especially those of London, do not get up meet
ings like the one at the London Tavern on Hey.
grounds. They may be even party men, but
they are very slow to . be moved for such oh-
jects,
and when they are moved, and when, .
forgetting party politics and their counting- :
houses, they think it worth while to
bestir themselves, it is perfectly certain that
some practical grievance has come home to them.
Lord PALMERSTON'S reception at the Mansion
Rouse Banquet must have satisfied him that hi:
feat of Friday Hight had awakened no fresh en-
thusiasm in the most respectable portion of Lou- '
.don citizens ; and, look which way he 'win
over the couitrv,he sees the
Inv size and
at •wave gather-
atiottzt a
weartehngth, and that too everywhere,
ful class. Th Y, a connected, and a power-
ey will", assuredly enlighten him
intheses-
as to the virtues of i,,,5•
letec.and systematic.
habits, by the extent,
firmness of the combination limey, and tht,
„ they will o :, -
Mr. LINDSAY Wilt have h• rgan..e.
Is re".... _
" Pater Dicks" before he has `"ge on the
done, Wherever
he goes he will find men of large business trans
tions who have been annoyed by the aQ
supercilion
ignorance of Government servants ; and •
Did 110,7
he will find the same men smarting, in addition,
under a sense of national dishonour, and the cruel
Waste of life and money due to administra.
't 'eve incapacity. An instalment of reforn.;
.in the war-office will be laughed at by such mei ,
when Proffered as payment in full. They have no
. such limited noti •
ons. They see no reason what •
ever 3017 Cabinet Mini '
ters as well as Minister
at the head a extra-c s " ' -departments, shonlC.
Oinet
not be selected for .
k4nacit to do the work of thf ,

office to which they are appointed. They do not
that the titled or the untitled, but that
ability and industry should have the prefer-
ence. They demand men for every office who
shall conduct the business so well that the
country would as little tolerate their dismissal as
they would that of ROWLAND HILL from the Post-
office, or Sir BALDWIN WALKER from the Dock-
yards.

At the Norwich Meeting, reported in The Sun
of Thursday, Mr. MTIILLAGH gave one of the best
possible tests to verify the need of Administrative
Reform. Scanning the composition of a few Cabi-
nets for the last fourteen years, and naming a
grandee in each, he observed, " Now here
we have three dukes and one marquis, and no-
thing to credit on the other side ; and I ask with-
out fear, any man in this room, whatever his po-
'Weal opinions may be, whether he will say that
Iny of these four individuals would have been ap-
pointed to office if he had not been a Duke or a
Marquis ?" (No, no.) Apply the test through-
out, from the Premier to the Peter Dicks, and it
will prove the case of the Administrative Reform
Association. Let it be asked respecting
each —were be not a titled man, or the
relative of a titled man—or the nominee of a titled
man—or (we must add) the protegee of an im-
portant Member of Parliament—would he fill the
post he is in ? Men of Lord PALMERSTON'S and
Lord DERBY'S ability, Or of Mr. DISRAELI'S and
Mr. GLADSTONE'S, would, of course, be found fore-

most in any line of life on which they might have
entered; but in the Administrations to which these
Lords and Gentlemen respectively belonged every
one could point to manyindividuals whose capacity
to fill the offices they encumbered was inferior to
that of hundreds who were never seen or thought
of ;

" There were within the realm,
Ten thousand good as they."

They had neither aristocratic titles, nor relation-
ship ,to them. It is this exclusion of mon, of
genius, energy, and talent, as if they kad the
mint (in American eyes) of negro blood, that is
compelling tie country to say, with Mr.
M'CULLAGH, " This is intolerable; we can stand it
no longer as free and self-respecting men ; and as
tax-paying citizens we cannot afford it."

The vast importance of railway communication
in this country is, nowadays, pretty generally
-ecognised, and never disputed ; and yet before
the railway system came into operation our means
of internal transit, undeniably the most efficient
in the world, were deemed by many the most perfect
that could be discovered. Lines of railway, how-
•ver, having been constructed, traffic rapidly, and,
43 it were, naturally, flowed to them ; and it was
4een that, comparatively compact as our natural
-sources were, they could never have been duly
leveloped under the old system, requiring, as the
raw material or manufactured produce evidently
lid, certainty, cheapness, and expedition in being
brought to market. If tkis has been the case in
reat Britain—if railway communication has
°roved, as it unquestionably has, an inestimable
boon, of how much greater value must it prove to
countries like India and Canada, where no such
,ommunication as we posseszed, nor anything ap-
proaching to it, exists—countries endowed with
natural resources rich beyond description—many
if them immediatelyavailable, and capable of being
-urned with the utmost rapidity to account.
From a pamphlet of reports now lying before
as on the Grand Trunk Railway Company of
Canada, to the London Board of Directors,
by Sir CUSACK P. RONEY, Mr. A, M.
Ross, and Mr. S. P. BIDDER, and which,
has suggested our remarks, we gather mat-
ter of a highly satisfactory nature respecting
a country which has long invited the attention of
capitalists as a fine field for profitable investment.
Iccording to the report of Sir CUSACK P. HONEY
in the present condition and future prospects of
he country, made, by order of the Board of
Directors, after a careful inspection of the eastern
tnd western sections of the province, and likewise
Such portions of the United States as are to be
4ommercially connected with them, and who had
,very possible assistance in his inquiries, it would
Lppear that in all probability a continuous line
From St. Thomas, in Eastern Canada, to Brook-
ville, a distance of 325 miles, will be opened fur
ra-affic in the autumn of the current year—a very
satisfactory prospect. Previous to the opening
of the line between Montreal and Portland, in
1853, we are told these cities were as much
'separated from one another by ranges of hills and
dense forests as if they had been 3,000 instead of
300 miles apart. Since that time population has
rapidly filled in along the entire length of the
-ailway ; and in the centre, we are told, are now
_bout 3,000 active contributors to the company's
-.raffia and revenue. Large clearances of forest
land have taken place, villages are rapidly spring-
ing- up adjacent to the numerous rivers that run
in the vicinity of the line, and twenty-eight saw-
mills have been built and a number more planned.
Those now existing are capable of sawing 500,000
feet a day for the greater part of the year.
Allowing each to cut treble its present amount,
it is calculated it will take seventy years
to clear the timber lands in the vicinity
of the line (!), and with cleared lands it is
justly remarked—that is after a rich harvest has
been reaped—will come increased settlement,
Population, and traffic. The traffic from timber
done on the Montreal and Portland section, Sir
Clusaex thinks, it is not unreasonable to expect
will, in the course of next year, be at least 8/.
sterling a-mile per week. Portland, it would
sppear, is rapidly becoming the centre of transac-
-.ions affecting the railway. Cargoes of sugar des-
.ined for Canada have already been brought there
lirect from Cuba, and conveyed to Montreal by
the line, and the speed and regularity with which
the goods traffic recently commenced between
Boston and Montreal through Portland has been
conveyed is rapidly securing the whole of this
very important trade 'to the company. The
traffic between Portland, via Canada, is already
being rapidly developed, and eventually the car-
riage of flour will fall exclusively into the hands
of the company. The Quebec and Richmond
section, running for nearly 70 miles through
magnificent forests, in the midst of which are

innumerable water privileges, small sites on whiJh
mills are now being constructed, though requiring
time for the development of its local traffic, will
put Quebec in direct railway communication with
Montreal and Portland, and thus unite three
cities, with a combined population of 120,000
persons, independent of those resident along the
line. The through traffic from Quebec to Rich-
mond, and from Richmond to Montreal, we are
told, will be very considerable, two first-class mail
steamers having hitherto started from both places
every evening for seven months in the year, con-
veying, in from thirteen to fifteen hours, nearly
200
for five Passengers, besides others of inferior speed
and accommodation
at less regular intervals ;
and this mode
.--1) of
communication beiw
)4 ,
shut . •
,
months in the year,
i. is far from improbable, indeed it is almost
certain, they will be
unable to compete with the
line. There are,
it would
appear, good grounds
to believe that the line will come in for a con-
siderable traffic,
owing to
the shallowness
of some