The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-17 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUA:RY 17, 1855.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

MR. ROEBUCK'S RESOLUTION.
(From the Times of his day.)

The Commons of England assembled last night in their
usual place of resort. Having been put off, on one pretence
or another, for about three weeks, and reading in the news-
papers that everything was going on from bad to worse, they
were naturally impatient, and clamoured for something to be
done. As the locality was not Smithfield, or Spafields, or
Kennington-common, or Bonnet's-fields, but in the precincts
of her Majesty's Palace of Westminster, we did not hear the
cries that have been rife at similar gatherings—" Where is
our army,?" " Who starved the soldiers r " How about the
green coffee berries?"—" Let he go to the war himself."
These meetings, once so formidable as to shake the monarchy
itself, like all other ebulitions of undisciplined zeal, have long
lost their terrors. Ages before the rude Saxon churls at-
tempted the game, many an old hand, Vir pittate gravis, had
twisted an infuriate mob round his fingers in old Rome, and
left them with a carte blanche in his pocket for anything he
might please to do. In our own country, the descendants of
the stern Conqueror found out that there are many ways of
managing a rabble quite as effectual, and rather less costly in
money and in blood, than hewing down the malcontents with
battle-axe and falchion. On these illustrious precedents,
avowed with a courage which we must all admire, that
veteran councillor Viscount Palmerston attempted to pacify
the insurgents last night. He • could not give them
exactly what they asked for. The fact was, they had
asked for au inquiry, and he had refused it. In
a tussle between " Yeas " and " Nays " somebody
must give way, and his lordship would rather the
House of Commons should go to the wall than he should.
This is quite natural, and if Lord Palmerston should carry his
point he will be quite as sharp a fellow as Richard 11., which
perhaps, is not saying a great deal. But it will be a great
deal, a very great point gained, if a stop can be put to this
inconvenient practice of demanding au inquiry when anything
goes wrong. The truth is, we have to settle who is to govern
the country—Parliament, or the forty odd noblemen and gen-
lemen who have passed the keys of office from one to another
for just half a century. The thing is done so much more
snugly and pleasantly in a select circle of good fellows, who,
like husband and wife, can manage to quarrel and agree again,
that it is a thousand pities any momentary difference should
be the occasion of letting in the common herd. The rude
assault of the Commons has, indeed, compelled a little shift.,
ing of the parts, and driven two statesmen to hide themselves
for a while ; but the main body are staunch, and are likely to
get through this and many a like commotion.
The particular promise which the pressure of the emer-
gency has wrung from the Minister would seem to rest its
efficacy rather on bewildering the understandings than on
satisfying the passions of the Parliamentary mob. It comes
under the class, " Confusion worse confounded, " Obscurum
per obscurius," or to speak in mother English to a Smithfield
mob, " From the fryingpan into the fire." Everybody has
done wrong about the war, so Lord Palmerston pro-
mises to . send somebody over everybody, or to
'help everybody, or to be instead of everybody—for
the new official relation to be established is neither uniform
nor clear. •As far as we understand the budget of commissions
described by his lordship and Lord Paumure, every British
officer in the East is to find somebody else with infinite
powers of inquiry, and indefinite powers of command, placed
over him, or at his elbow, or behind him, to order him, or
so assist him, or to report upon him, or to do all, or which he
pleases. Lord Raglan is to be relieved from the details of the
Quartermaster and Adjutant-General's departments by Major
General Simpson, who is to act as " chief of the staff," and
also to " recommend" Lord Raglan to make what changes ho
may think proper i❑ these departments. Lord Raglan, "no
doubt," will submit to be advised. To make up for this
slight abatement of dignity, Lord Raglan may send for as
many scavengers as he pleases from Constantinople to carry
away the dead corpses now lying " betwixt the wind and his
nobility." While Lord Raglan is undergoing this dinzinutio
capitig in the Crimea, where we want not a less man, but a
greater, he is to be fairly cut in two at home. The Board of
Ordnance is to be rent in twain, the discipline to revert to the
Commander-in-Chief at the Horse Guards, and the civil part
to the Secretary-at-War. We have been charged with want of
delicacy to the feelings of Lord Raglan, but the worst that
we hate ever suggested for him was that he might be spared
from a command for which his advanced years and too easy
temper seemed to disqualify him. His treatment by his own
friends and admirers is but a doubtful improvement on
this. With his head in Major-General Simpson's custody, his
right hand in Lord Hardinge's, and his left in Lord Panmure's,
he is to.be left nothing that he can fairly call his own except
the superintendence of a corps of Turkish scavengers. Wo
don't for a moment suspect Lord Palmerston of either un-
kindness or a jest. For some time past he has been most
usefully, most honourably, and wo believe, also, most agree-
ably employed, in scouring our sowers and putting our dead
bodies out of the way. What is more natural than that ho
should give Lord Raglan what may be called a turn at the
shovel ?

But to proceed with this process of superaddition—this
new official stratum to be deposited over every department
and every functionary in the East. Three civilians are to go
out to inquire into the sanitary condition of the hospitals,
the camp, and the ships. Much is hoped from their scien-
tific labours ; but whether they arc to have any power to
mend what they see amiss, or whether anybody is to have the
power to do so, in spite of all obstacles, on their recommen-
dation, we are not told. Another commission is. to go out,
not only to scrutinise, but also to take in hand toreform and
to re-organise the Commissariat. There certaixtly is work
enough for such a commission, not only in the East, but quite
a 4 much at home, for it is evident that the Commissariat
would not have failed had it gone out with proper in-
structions in the hands of good men. A separate de-
partment for land transports, and a new board at the
Admiralty for the management of naval transports,
are evidently required, simply because there is no ma-
nagement now—that is, no land transport at all, and a
management of naval transports that is throwing away, at a
moderate competition, more than 10,0001. a day in transports
lying idle for want of orders. But the creation of two new
departments does not prove there was no case for inquiry.
The proposed civil hospital at Smyrna will be a good measure
or not, according as it is conducted. We hear, indeed, that
for several months every year the climate of Smyrna is deadly
to Europeans, that the chief medical officer for the new hos-
pital is past his work, and the rest have not yet come to
theirs ; but let that pass. A promise is given that the whole
medical department of the army shall be forthwith reformed.
Some other things are thrown iu. Recruits are to be admitted
into the army at a greater age and for a less period of service
than at present. Either as one of these reforms, or to get rid
of a vote in favour of inquiry, Lord John Russell is to go to
Vienna, calling at Paris and Berlin on his way, and as much
is hoped from him as from the other commissioners sent out '
in all directions. Prepared for peace or war, Lord Palmerston
sends out Generals, doctors, purveyors, scavengers, wag-
goners, to -help, advise, superintend, organise, control, or
supersede, just as may be, all over the Mediterranean and
the East. Never since the contents of the Ark were distribu-
ted over the earth has there been so great a dispersion. Lord
John Russell as the emblem of peace leads the way, and it is
hoped he will return with an olive branch in his mouth.
Lord Palmerston has referred us to an incident in the
reign Of_ Richard 11., and we will answer with another from
the reign of Henry IV. Prince John having cajoled the
Archbishop of York, Mowbray, and Hastings, into disband-
ing their army, by the promise of redressing their grievances
forthwith arrested and did summary justice upon them. If
Lord Palmerston can only cajole Mr. Roebuck and the House
of Commons into giving up the committee of inquiry they have
demanded with such an unexampled majority, there is no se-
curity for any effectual inquiry ; on tho contrary, all the
chances are against it. In the event of peace, and still more
of present success, crowning this particular expedition,
though affording no guarantee against future failures, we shall
hear the cry, " Let bygones be bygones." Indeed, every-
body knows that in the hour of rejoicing there is no inquisition
into the past. In that case we shall be just as unprepared
for future wars as we have been proved in the present in-
stance. The representatives of the people, in the name of that
people, demand an inquiry into a mismanagement so vast, so
universal, so disastrous, so murderous, and so fatal to our
position in the world, that not only the wellbeing, but the
very being of this empire, iu its present character, depends
on the discovery of the truth. Where is the blame ? What
or whose is the fault ? Having thrown out one Ministry, with
an unwonted effort of resolution, because it ref Used inquiry,
the House of Commons is now mot by the very culprits them-
selves who had refused inquiry, and have been turned out for
refusing. It is a new combination indeed ; but Lord Pal-
merston refused inquiry as unconstitutional ; Mr. Sidney
Herbert has refused inquiry, alleging that. it is the House of
Commons that is really to blame, by cutting down the Army
Estimates; Mr. Gladstone has refused inquiry on the ground
that the army, said to be nearly destroyed, exists almost
entire. Are these men so alive to the true state of affairs, so
candid, so anxious for a real reform, that the House of Com-
mons is to eat its own words, de&aro itself in the wrong for
turning out the late Government, and trust these mon to
manage and reform the army so effectually as to prevent future
disasters I The House of Commons would simply make a fool
of itself, and deserve any Minister our ill stars might send us,
if it committed that suicidal folly. The House of Commons
has staked its credit against that of the war Administration.
One of them must suffer judgment. Lord Palmerston and
his colleagues would evidently not take it much to heart if
the House of Commons did rather expose itself. His sym-
pathies aro stronger in favOur of the governing class,—that
is, the small clique of statesmen who, under one name or au-
other, have done for us this half-century. Will the house,
then, give its character, its honour, and its very existence,
for the sake of that family feeling I No. Of the two evils it
is better Government should change again, than that the
House of Commons, representing the people, should belie it-
self. Representative institutions have been under a cloud
lately. It has been said that they cannot carry on war or
protect the honour and influence of a nation. There is one
thing, however, Parliament can do,—it can change the Go-
vernment, if necessary, again and again, till it ands those
who will do the work of the people.

of that " new blood," an infusion of which into the race of
English statesmen would best fulfil the desires of the country,
One, at least„ was there who has separated himself from' his
late colleagues, disgusted with their want of zeal, or ambi-
tious of a higher position in the Government than has hitherto
been assigned to him. Another, whore knowledge and wide
experience had marked him out as peculiarly fitted to take
part in the conduct of the war, retained his place as a leader
among those young politicians whom the slightest exhibition
of weakness or indecision on the part of our present 'lllere,
will change from hake-warm allies into formidable oppo-
nents. There, too, sat another, whom the temptations of
office could not divert from his al!eg:ance to that party,
whose cause, aristocrat though he be, he bee hitherto
steadily espoused. The truth is, that, in the opinion
of such men, we are in a state of transition. The
existing Government, whose days, perhaps, are already num-
berel, is the last whioh shall base its claim .to rule
on lofty birth and, hereditary power. England is upon the
eve of an administrative revolution,. and the country will pre-
sently be called upon to' say who and what they are whom
it will choose to govern it. And we cannot doubt that, last
night, the House of Commons faithfully reflected the feeling
of the entire nation, which regards the present Government
as to a great extent provisional.

Lord Palmerston, indeed, exerted himself to inspire for his
colleagues that confidence which the people seems to have re-
posed in him alone. His speech, however, was the greatest
satire that could have been delivered against the late Govern-
ment. The occasion was too good to be lost by Mr. Dis-
raeli. It was easy for that profound master of malicious
sarcasm to taunt the new Premier with the faults and short-
comings of his " identical-predecessors"—easy to advise that
the gentlemen whom a short week had converted into vigor-
ous promoters of a war which they had hitherto disliked
should resume their offices amid " solemn silence:" But
certainly, had Eugland,heen searched from ).one and to the'
other, it would have been absolutely impossible to find any
one more fitted to meet the ptculiar difficulties of his position
than Lord Palmersion. With happy tact he tried to anticipate
his opponents, and by one dexterous move to take the game
out of their hands. Who but so clever a tactician would
have ventured upon a comparison between the present
Government and the Monarch who slew Wat Tyler I
" What, has this great people been betrayed by its rulers ?
Aro they who usurped dominion driven back in scorn and
confusion ? We—l and my colleagues—will take your part ;
we will utterly destroy the wicked men who so foully be-
trayed their trust." And when, after such an appeal to the
generous sentiment, the new Premier sketched out a plan of
reform so sweeping in its nature that it seemed to effect by
one blow all that was desired, the house was bound to ac-
knowledge the skill of the manceuvre, although the suddenness
of the conversion might eXcite a smile. But is not this
the season of pantomimes Why should the House of Com-
mons be deprived cf its Harlequin and Pantaloon ?

NATAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.

The Neptune, 120, sailing-ship, Captain Hutton, is to
convey the Wiltshire ,Regiment of Militia to the lonian
Islands, to relieve regular troops ordered to the Crimea.
The Neptune is at Spithead, having recently returned
home from Malta, whither she had taken troops.
The James Watt, 91, screw-ship, Capt. G. Elliott, was
taken. into the steam basin yesterday morning to receive
repairs iu her machinery.
The Edinburgh, 60, screw-ship, Capt. Hewlett,• hauled
alongside Portsmouth dockyard yesterday, preparatory to
being taken into dock.

The Hogue, 60, screw-ship, has been taken out of dock.
The newly commissioned 60-gun screw-ships, Pembroke
and Hastings, are almost complete in the rigging depart-
ment, having their topgallantmasts fidcled and their lower
and topsail yards across. The first-named ship received
her detachment of marines yesterday. The other ships
fitting are rapidly progressing.
Tho Tartar, 21, screw-frigate, sailed yesterday morning
for the westward.