The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-14 00:00:00

(From the Daily News of this day.)

A brisk canvass is in progress, among the members of
the House of Commons, with a view to induce them to
allow the inquiry into the conduct of the war to drop.
The agents of the Ti easury are indefatigable. If their
fingers are not "in every man's palm," their "noses are
in every man's car." And their solicitations are not
without effect. Many flexible virtues begin to bend.
For this the confession of Lord Derby—that some of hie
followers voted in the majority to damage Ministers,
though they disapproved of inquiry—will have prepared
the public. But the public will not be satisfied with
that pettifogging practice which votes one thing and
means another. The public heard with joy that Mr.
Roebuck's motion for a committee of inquiry was car-
ried, from a conviction that nothing short of an exposure
of past mismanagement, and its causes, can insure better
management of the war for the future. The public will
be indignant if the only result of a solemn vote of in-
quiry, by an overwhelming majority, shall lead
Sing
no
other results than a game of "change seats, the King's
coming"—the two parties to the game whofai lo
fto c
Com-
mons t
seats being obliged to stand out. If the House
mons allow the inquiry to drop, the necessary conclu-
sion will be that the whole affair has been a mere party
move—a game at political rouge et noir—by which the
best interests of the country have been perilled merely
to subserve personal ambitions.
•
The inquiry must go on. The pretexts under
which it is sought to be evaded may serve to recon-
cile shuffling and tergiversating politicians to their
own want of firmness and honesty, but will not satisfy
the country. We are told that Ministers cannot work
with such an inquiry hanging over their heads. The
inquiry is not intended to criminate the Government as
at present constituted, but to reveal the efficiency or in-
efficiency of the system by which they are expected to
carry into effect the national will. We are told that to
render the inquiry effective officers must be withdrawn
from the Crimea to give evidence. Not at all. The
main object is to unveil the defective organisation that
has paralysed the hands of the home Government, and
all the information requisite for that purpose can be ob-
tained in this country. We are told that the inquiry
will give umbrage to the French Government, as throw-
ing blame on military operations to which it is a party.
By no means. It is the defective organisation of our
own army--aud especially of the civil branches—that is
to be inquired into, and that affects not France or
Frenchmen. The transparent nature of the fallacies by
which men are sought to be prevailed upon to desist
from inquiry proves at once the conscious guilt of those
who are moving heaven and earth to evade'it, and their
utter inability to get up a case. If the House of Com-
mons stultify itself by rescinding its vote on Mr. Roe-
buck's motion, nobody will believe that it has been con-
vinced by such ffm.y shadows of arguments.
The. present is no time to trifle with the nation by
adopting reivlutiona which shake a Government from ite