The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-15 00:00:00

IPRICE SD.

SPIRZ.; T OF TIME, PUBLIC JOU:RN-4LS.

OUTINE AND RED-TAPISM.
(From the Times of this day.)

Some of:, our readers may possibly have fancied that in
deuouneit ig the pedantic system of routine observed
in the adi ni nistration of our military departments we
were ratl: ,a r unreasonable ; that regularity, after all,
must be a necessary element in public business, that
strict met 'hi id could hardly do much mischief anywhere,
and that off icial formalities of some kind were absolutely
requisite, tip ]less every office was to become a centre of
confusion. Now, if these ideas have ever been enter-
tained, we - think we need do little more to correct them
than simple y repeat two pieces of evidence delivered be-
fore the C 3 mmittee of Inquiry now sitting. His Royal
Highness ti 'le Duke of Cambridge deposed that on one
occasion, • ie bile the army was in Bulgaria, being anxious
to see that his men were properly supplied with food, he
desired an officer to get rations for them from the head-
quarter 031 mmissariat. "The first day he sent," con-
tinued his Royal Highness, "although the men were in
want of t b eir daily rations, instead of sending these ra-
tions at of si ce, the commissariat sent a printed form to
the officer I or him to fill up. Hence there was consider-
able delay, and then, not satisfied with that, the officer
was suppc,al ,d to bare put down one or two more hones
than he wai t entitled to. Instead of sending the rations
for the mesa and pointing out the inaccuracy in the re-
turn of heal es, they would send no rations at all, be-
cause the 14 rm was wrong. Upon that the officer came
to me, and: I desired him to go with his animals to get
the rations. and put matters to rights, and he did then
get them VII at day, although very late. As it turned
out, the cee imissariat officer was wrong, and there was
no mistake:. in the return at all. ' General Dentinek's
evidence is,, if possible, even more striking. "On one
occasion," said the gallant officer, "a voucher was sent
back to me: (i.e., from the commissariat), because it was
signed half an inch too low. I then took the liberty of say-
ing that if' this ever occurred again I would have that
commissar, turned out of the service. The difficulty
never did ccur aftim-wards " Be it observed that these
"difficult: e 3" were attributable almost wholly to the
system ani I traditions of " the department," insomuch
that the she of Cambridge makes an especial distinc-
tion in fa% ,s iur of the personal deserts of the Commissa-
riat officers attached t 3 his division, and stated that
when any "difficulty of the department" occurred they
zealously irried out his instructions in endeavouring to
surmount f t. The same was probably the case in other
divisions o f the army also, but the system was too
strong, au' so elaborately had our practice been me-
thodised sit i to be found useless for the realities of
service.

But at ird ,Sf, it may be said, such a system must needs
secure eco n only an,' certainty, if it does nothing else.
Our depar tr (lents, if slow, must be sure, Nothing can
be wasted,, lost sight of, or diverted from its proper des-
tination. On this head, too, we can produce a very per-
tinent illu el ;ration, collected from the evidence of the
Duke of C mbridge before the committee and the debates
of Monday • evening in the House of Commons. Of course,
it will be •,very well recollected that when about this
time twe' w emonth our expeditionary army was on its
way to the East, a scheme was conceived of supplying
the troop 3 with malt liquor. This was not an ordinary
practice, b tit it was very reasonably argued that what
conduced t the health and strength of the soldier at
home wo•al d do so abroad ; that, if rum was not the
most wh( ;some beverage in London or Dublin, it was
not likely • to 1e so in Turkey, where the heat would be
much gee ater and the service mere exhausting, and
if our tr cops were to be supplied v. ith liquor imported
from hot ne they might as well have some of the
best. If cur recollections do not mislead us, cer-
tain emine: nt brewing firms offered to facilitate the
exertions. c f Government in this matter by deliver-
ing sound: beer or porter at Constantinople or Varna
with verT. reduced profit to themselves ; but, at all
events, • nalt liquor was to go out, and people here
comfort( al themselves with the reflection that our sol-
diers, s% 'cltering under an eastern sun, would get their
draughts ..of the national beverage almost as regularly as
at home,. Well, the porter was sent; but to what pur-
pose ? Thanks to Colonel Boldero, we can do some-
thing trow; ards tracking the erratic and costly course of
four of till tee precious cargoes, and the reader, we hope,
will be edi fled with the narrative.

Cargo is To. 1 was sent to Malta, but arrived too late,
for the ti ops had proceeded to Varna, and to Varna
therefore :it followed them. So far Colonel Boldero and
the Seci!e-,ary of the Treasury are agreed as to the
facts ; ias the Guards, according to the Duke of
Cambrid gs 3's evidence, did get porter at Scutari and
Varna, vt 3 may presume perhaps that this or some simi-
lar cons it •nment was duly consumed, though Colonel
Boldero a. .leges that Government had to pay no less than
1,935/. d't murrage upon it. Cargo No. 2, however, as
the Colo: a el affirms, having been despatched from this
country is n March last, was lying untouched at Constant
tinoplo is t the beginning of last December, the vessel
having 'at ,en engaged at the rate of about 4801. a month.
Cargo 2.4-c 3, having been loaded in June, was discharged
on the 14 th of December at Scutari, and cargo No. 4
was also. discharged at Scutari, demurrage having
been inc,urred en both. It does not appear that
any re srt,ion of these consignments reached the
Crimea., 'but we infer from the Duke of Cambridge's
evidence that there did exist the means of supplying
at least as portion of the army while in Bulgaria
with tl its valuable ration, for his Royal Highness
states that the Guards did not get their porter
because:, as the whole army could not be served
with it, it was not thought advisable to make exceptions
in favor ar of a particular regiment. Perhaps there was
good hatention at the bottom of such a resolution,
though, if our stalwart Guardsmen do really, as was al-
leged, s uffer more than others from the loss of this
liquor, the men of the line might have acted like Clive's
Sepoys a t Arcot, and magnanimously surrendered their
share of sustenance to those who were even less able
than the mselves to do without it. But what is to be
said of the management displayed in this matter—of
the s:fistvin which, though absolutely crippled with the
weight of its own formalities, cannot yet insure the ac-
comp liehrnent of so simple a matter as the proper de-
livery • and distribution of a few casks of porter at certain
place: s in the Black Sea ? The operation, one would have
tanci;d, was about as simple a piece of business as need
be. 1 'arliament was ready with the funds, brewers with
the article, and ship-masters with the vessels ; whereas,
as frx as we understand, not only were the troops in
Bulg. aria and the Crimea left without a drop of the be-
verage provided for them while shiploads of it were lying
at C onstantinop!e, but the country has to pay heavy
chargass for the loss of time and trouble incurred by such
proc( ;eding. If the demurrage on one cargo alone
amounted to near 2,0001., what was it upon the whole ?
Coull anything in the world be more discreditable to a
bush terms-like people than such management as this ?
Porter is sent out for the troops, but the troops never
get it, because it does not arrive in eufficient quantities
for general distribution, and, in the meantime, the ordi-
nary charges of the venture are multiplied by additional
costa arising out of the delay I It is little wonder that,
while the estimates are so large, the army is ill-provi-
sioned and the country dissatisfied, for not only do we
fail in carrying out our arrangements, but we contrive
somehow, with a singular perverseness of ingenuity, to
make this failure more expensive than success.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL AT VIENNA.
(From the Morning Herald of this day.)
Among the various expedients adopted by Lord Pal-
merston to bring the Administration and aristocracy of
this nation into contempt, he could have devised none
mere successful than that of despatching a Colonial Se-
cretary to Vienna to negotiate the basis of a peace. With
the usual flippancy which begins now to sit awkwardly
on a man of his years and position, Lord Palmerston
seemed to imagine that his reply to Sir J. Pakington's
objection was amply sufficient, when he assured the
right hon. baronet that the Government did not antici-
pate a longer stay on the part of Lord John Russell
"than was necessary to settle the general principles of a
treaty. The details would not detain him ; they would
be left to the adjustment of another." Now, it is enough
to urge in proof of the futility of this answer, that all
things have indicated on the part of Lord John, if he be
not greatly misrepresented, an anticipation of a protract-
ed absence. He has sent for his family to follow him ;
he has made preparations for remaining at Vienna.
Lord John is not a man to whom a stay in a foreign
capital is a novelty ;he is not so young that absence from
his family until Easter only is so unsupportable a grie-
vance.
But what a ridiculous excuse ! Settle the basis of a
negotiation 1 Why, has not this nation been settling
this basis already—if ever, indeed, it is to be settled—off
and on for more than the last two years ? Has not Vie
public mind been continually amused by the four
points—by Vienna notes—by general and by special
arrangements, first with ono power and then with the
other—till plain men are in a maze, and neither gover-
nors nor people very clearly comprehend the actual con-
dition in which matters stand ? Have we not had
already a tolerable specimen of the fruits likely to result
from diplomacy in the success reaped by Lord John
'at the very outset of his negotiations ? But whatever
be the result, this, at all events, is certain, that if Lord
John is not to return to this country until the basis of
a treaty be determined, the colonies are not likely to
reap the benefit of hie public services ; and whether
complaints, and just grounds of complaints, are arisirg,
or shall arise hereafter, whether the condition of our
colonies is such as to satisfy the nation or not, Lord
John is not at his post. His energy and his talent, how-
ever well employed, are not employed as Colonial Mi-
nister ; and the colonies as Mr. Lowe would have them,
may work out their political problems themselves as far
as Lord John is likely to assist them. Let us not blink
the matter. If the Colonial Minister can be absent at
Vienna, and wholly occupied in other duties than, those
which belong to his office, a Colonial Minister is a use-
less incumbrance. Whether any complaint has arisen,
or is likely to arise, does not affect the question. It is
acknowledged by all parties that there is at this moment
much dissatisfaction in many of the colonies, insurrec-
tion in some, war in others. If the Secretary for the
Home Department is sufficient for all the duties of his
own ' Ese, a. .d 'or the arduous taAs of insra;ing Cie
colonies under their present circumstances, let us con-
solidate the two; then Lord John may play the Pleni-
potentiary at Vientia As lon ty he pleasoP, glad settle talQ