The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-29 00:00:00

---I
think that the office ought to stand upon the same
footins, as that of the First Lord of the Admiralty, who
may be° eit' er a pear or a commoner, as the public interest
may require.
You complain that the Duke of Newcastle has note suf-
ficient control over the departments with which he is in
contact, and that ho does not plssess a delegated authority
sufficient to enable him to perform his duties satisfactorily.
I do not exactly know what is meant by a delegated
authority, but I apprehend that he possesses all the autho-
rity with which he, or any other person, could properly be
invested.

The instance you adduce of this want of control are
wholly inapplicable, and fail to establish the fact.. You say
that you wrote to the Duke in October, and recommended
him to send the 97th Regiment totho Crimea, and that ho
replied, it was his wish to have done so, as well as to send
2,003 troops then ready for embarkation. You conclude,
therefore, that he did not do it because he could not remove
the obstacles put in his way by other departments, and be-
cause the Prime Minister did not at once overcome those
obstacles.. Now, allow me to say, that before a Prime Mi-
nister can remove obstacles, he must be informed of their
existence, and if it was imagined that he possessed any
such power, it might easily have •been put to the test by
calling upon him to exercise it.
In this case, however, it is 'not easy to say what the
Prime Minister or any one else could have done. The Duke
of Newcastle wished to send the 97th Regiment from the
Pirwas to the Crimea, and proposed to Clarendon to do so.
Clarendon protested against it, and said that the tranquil-
lity of Greece depended upon the regiment remaining at
Athens. The Duke, I think, very properly, at the time
acquiesced, and subsequently sent a weak regiment to re-
place the 97th in Greece.
The obstacle to sending tho 2,00) men arose from Lord
Raglan himself. When the Duke informed Lord Raglan
that he bad this number of recruits to send him, Lord
Raglan replied that those last sent were so young and un
formed, that they fell victims to disease, and were swept
away "like flies." He preferred therefore to wait. Ido
not know what a Prime Minister could have done in such
a case; but I must submit that in all this there is no evi-
dence of any want of author ity on the part of the Duke.
After all, 1 think your letter plainly reduces the question
to the simple iesne of a per.onal preference, and the substi
tution of one man for another.

In answer to my suggestion that seine consideration was
clue to the Duke on the part of his colleague', you say that
you understood the administration was founded on the
principle of doing what was the best for the public service,
without regard to the self-love, or even MI6 acquired posi-
tion of individuals. Undoubtedly this was the case ; and
I fully agree in thinking that the Duke of Newcastle would
be the last man to wish for any exception to this rule in
his favour.
But I must observe that at the formation of the Govern.
ment no such office as the War Department was contem-
plated ; and when, subsequently, the Colonial-office was
divided, no objection whatever was made to the choice of
the War Department by the 'Duke ; nor, as far as I am
aware up to this moment, to his management of the office.
Now, I think you will admit, that although another-
person might perhaps have been preferred on the first con.
stitutiou of an office, it is a very different thing to dis.
place a man who hasdischarged its citifies ablrand honour-
ably, merely in the belief that another. might possibly be
found sqll more efficient. Undoubtedly the public service
must be the first object ; but, in the absence of any proved
defect, or alleged incapacity,
I can see no sufficient reason
for such a change, which, indeed, I think is forbidden by
a sense of justice and good faith.
You say that I made an objection to Palmerston's age ;
but this is not quite correct. As my acquaintance with
Palmerston commenced very many years ago, I rejoice as
much as any one to'see the vigour of his mind and body ;
but when I mentioned his ago, it had reference to the no-
tion of intrustiug hipa with theAuties:now discharged by
the Doke of Newomtle and by Herbert/ It Would be a do,