The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-14 00:00:00

participes criminis, as everything would lead an

Eippose must absolutely be the case.
We have unmistakeable evidence of the fact that the prin-
ciples which governed Lord Aberdeen's Cabinet are still in
the ascendant, and that while professing to make war against
Russia, our armies are wilfully paralysed and rendered non-
effective. How else are we to interpret the following facts?
That the whole effective strength of the British army in
the Crimea at this the crisis of its fate, amounts to about
24,000 men. This force being without a reserve of any kind.
That the cavalry is so weak as to bo almost totally ineffi-
cient—while regiments and detachments, which have been
months under orders, are waiting, 'in the middle of June, for
transports, which are still in Balaklava Harbour, orders
having just been despatched to send them home, if not want-
ing there.
" inexplicable " neglect
t o
dthesetrmoyileditiafufroiLeyha been by
s efficient
purpose, and no measure of
any kind even announced for its restoration.
That the army from want of baggage-cattic at this moment
t7lllayt
is as immoveable, nearly, as it was at Varna. We believe it
could not possibly move 25 miles from the coast without risk,
nay, certainty, of being left without supplies.
Surely all these things, after the warnings of last year, can-
not be accidents.
We 'so*, therefore, that in order to get at the delinquencies
of the men now in power, we must investigate the proceed-
ings of those whose crimes they have connived at. Bring the
mischief home to
Sir James Graham and we get the entire of
r they were not
Cabinet in a net, fo , and
Lord Aberdeen's
could not, be ignorant of the course adopted by their col-
s •
es
Now we beg to point out to whoever—if any one have the
" the cat," that
make this motion for „
courage—is to
it will not do to ash. for the papers from the Gav(...rument in a
printed form. We tell the people that the admirals them-
selves should be called upon to furnish the originals or
printed copies for the authenticity of which they will them-
selves vouch. Be it kept in mind that the person more di-
rectly implicated in these transactions is the great " letter-
opener," and the hero of the singularly-dated document in
the "great Mott case," while the person whose complicity
we wish to establish is the same who gave to the public
Burnes' resumes of Lord Auckland's despatches, as the an-
swers of the dead diplomatist to the very documents so set
forth as containing his opipions.
Now, we ask, are we not justified in demanding that the
secret despatches should' be vouched for by the admirals?
That the documents exist no one entertains a doubt, because
the admirals have both declared their willingness to produce
them if called ,n so to do by the proper authorities—their
production is one case having been avoided by refusing a
court-martial to Admiral Napier—in another by Mr. Roebuck
and Mr. Layard—we take them as representatives of the
committee which they managed—refusing to allow Admiral
Dundas to read the originals, when questioned as to his con-
duct with regard to Odssa. We should have thought that Mr.
Layard, at least, would have been anxious to give the man he
had accused of misconduct an opportunity of clearing himself,
but such would appear not to have been the view taken by
the honourable member for Aylesbury.
_

We are earnest upon the subject of these despatches, because
we believe, except through their means, we shall neverairive
exceptat the real causes of our disgraceful failures and neglects i:
the la't year, whereby our fleets were baffled in Vac Baltic,
and our armies starved by Liprandi in the Crimea.
We hope the public have had enough of purposed misman_
agement, and are anxious to probe its iniquity to the bottom,
and that they will do so in spite of the aid afforded to Govern-
ment by independent members, who denounce Ministers as
traitors on Tuesday, and vote confidence in them on Thurs-
day, while they thrust themselves forward as leaders of in-
quiries for the purpose of refusing the only evidence of delin-
quency on which full reliance can be placed. We hope the
nation will force an inquiry into this matter.

(Front the Morning Chronicle of this day.)
Drury Lane Theatre was last evening the scene of proceed-
ings such as this metropolis has not witnessed during the last
ten years. Since the great meetings of the Anti-Corn-Law
League, there has not been such a gathering for a political
purpose as that which last night filled boxes, pit, and galle-
ries of our National Theatre. The Association for the fur-
therance of Administrative Reform held, not their first public
meeting, but their first organized meeting—the commence-
ment, we presume, of a series—for the propagation of their
views among the great bulk of the people. It was satis-
factory to see so full an attendance, and that the occupants
of the platform, as well as those who could not personally
attend, but who snit letters of sympathy and co-operation,
were of so respectable and influential a class.
Mr. Morley, the chairman, may be said personally to em-
body and represent that characteristic of this Association

which distinguishes it from any preceding organisation of a
similar kind. It is important not to lose sight of the fact,
that this new movement is commenced, not in the interests
of a class or of individuals, but in these of the whole
community. Its detractors have not dared to insinuate
that its promoters are actuated by personal motives.
or that they have in view the promotion of persona/
interests. It was originated by gentlemen who have some-
thing more profitable, if not more important, to attend to
than political agitation ; and their having left their counting-
houses to take part in it is the best proof at once of their own
sincerity and of the integrity of their objects. Mr. Morley
had already, on the occasion of the first meeting in the City,
explained the reasons which led gentlemen in his position
thus to step forward in the van of a great national movement.
It was not in the nature of things that he could add much to
the arguments he had already brought forward, in vindication
of the course taken by the commercial classes• They have
stepped out of the circle of the pursuits which best become
them and are most agreeable td them, in order to vindicate
the right 'of their fellow-citizens, and their own, to a more

honest and rational system of administrative government than
that into which the old vigorous practice of the country has

degenerated. Their position plaes them above all snspicieu
as to the motives by which they may have been actuated.
Indeed, it will have been remarked, that the opponents of
administrative reform have never dared to insinuate that these
gentlemen have any other object in view than the public
good. Reearded with rsference to these considerations, the .
speech of Mr. Morley will be read with an interest over. and
above that which would naturally be excited by his forcible
and sensible remarks on the general question at issue.
The other chief speakers—Mr. Layard, M.P., Mr. Lindsay,
M.P., Mr. Tite, M.P., and Mr. Otway,
M.P.—are equally
above the ordinary stereotyed insinuations of political parti-
sans against any public men who may come forward to fur-
ther salutary reforms. In former cases of great public agita-
tions, it has often happened that the leaders had previously
been unknown men, and that they were open to the sugges-
tion of making the topic of their platform eloquence a lever
of their ambition. Such charges cannot be applied to the hon.
members of the House of Commons who addressed the audi-
ence from the stage of Drury-lane Theatre last evening. Mr.
Layard is a man whose fame is already universal. Elected to
the House of Commons mainly on account of that reputation,
his co-operation has already been courted by successive Go-
vernments. If his ardour in the cause of reform has some•
times led him into errors, that is a fate which ho shares with
some of the most distinguished and influential statesmen of
the day. He has already shown a disposition to guard
against a repetition of the mistakes into which he had been
led by a natural indignation at systematic misgovernment; and
a strong reaction of public feeling in his favour has been
the consequence of the attempts recently made in the House
of Commons to browbeat him and put him down. It will be
seen that in the course of his speech last evening he gracefully
alluded to the parliamentary scenes in which he has latterly
been a chief actor ; and that, while he renews his protestation
that he is determined to persevere with the great question
which he has taken in hand, he has endeavoured to set him-
self right with public opinion, on the only point where his
enemies had any advantage.
Mr. Lindsay's speech will amply repay a most careful peru-
sal. The honourable gentleman speaks with a thorough prac-
tical knowledge of his subject. There are few men in England
c2rtainly not one in the House of Commons—more capable
of exposing the incredible apathy and wilful misconduct of
the officials of the Government in the departments whereon
the success of the war so mainly depends. The incidents
brought forward by Mr. Lindsay will be found stated at
length in the report of the proceedings of the meeting. They
are all supported by documentary evidence, and they all
bear directly on the painful position in which this country
has so recently found itself placed. Surely, charges such as
those preferred by the honourable member—complaints
not vague, but specific, and sustained by demonstrable
proofs—call for an equally specific reply on the part
of the Government. It is very convenient, no doubt, to the
delinquent heads of departments to be able to hide their cul-
pable and noxious neglect under the blaze of our recent suce
cusses in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azoff, but the public'
owe it to the memory of those brave men who were sacrificed
last winter not thus to "let bygone be bygones." They are
bound to institute a searching inquiry into the past, in order
that a repetition of those evils may be guarded against in
future; and it is here that the evidence and the advocacy of
gentlemen like Mr. Lindsay become of so much value.
Mr. Tite appeared before the meeting as the representative
of the first great triumph of Administrative Reform. It was
certainly one of the most remarkable events of the kind on
record, that a gentleman of no striking political antecedents,
and who was personally unknown to the electors, should have
succeeded iu carrying wi h him the sympathies of a constitu-
ency so numerous, so intelligent, and so favoured in the
talents of past representatives, as that of the city of Bath.
Mr. Tito would be the last to assume, or to permit it to be
assumed that any personal merit of his own could possibly
have led to such a result. He rightly regards it as a conse-
quence of the overpowering
importance and influence of the
cause with which his name has been associated. In Mr. Ot-
way the association has a valuable ally. The honourable
member has taken under his care one particular branch of the
public service in which " Administrative Reform " is more
especially required. To his Parliamentary laurels he is evi-
dently destined to add the more exciting and grateful tri-
umphs of the platform.
Upon the whole, this meeting will form an appropriate pro-
logue to the discussion appointed for to-morrow evening. Mr.
Layard pledges himself to bring forward the subject ; nor will
he shrink from the very strong terms in which he had previ-
ously couched his resolution. The amendment of Sir Bnlwer
Lytton is now before the public. Mr. 'Layard proposes to
call on the house to resolve :—" That this house views with
deep and increasing concern the state of the nation, and is of
opinion that the manner in which merit and efficiency have
been sacrificed, in public appointments, to party and family
influence, and to a blind adherence to routine, has given rise
to great misfortunes, and threatens to bring discredit upon
the national character, and to involve the country in grave
disasters." The Tory chief will not go the length of this re-
trospective condemnation, but proposes to substitute for Mr.
Layard's proposal a resolution to the effect—" That this
house recommends to the earliest attention of her Majesty's
Ministers the necessity of a careful revision of our various
official establishments, with a view to` simplify and facilitate
the transaction of public business, and, by instituting judici-
ous teete of merit, as well as by removing obstructions to its
fair promotion and legitimate rewards, to secure to the ser-
vices of the State the largest proportion of the etZerry and in-
telligence for which the people of this country are distin-
guished."
e. Betweened. these two the House of Commons will have io de-
eidl
They will probably do so with the aid of the light
gnh
afforded by this very important meeting of the Adminie'4ll4-
tive Reform Association,
The grand wat

nwaoirrk s.of 7 •
day, par extraorledri
of London and the E
correspondent writes ersailles played on Mon-
e, in honour of the Lord Mayor
INFERNAL
_1 English deputation.
AAm Rk .
IN-- AT oRBASTOPOL.—A French
Sebas-
topol : " Five d ~
tiring from a ays ago some soldiers who were re-
tiring on the 2d inst., from befare a
barricade which they bad been attack-
ing dropped
upon their knees to take advantage
of the inequalities of the ground. One of them in
so doing broke a small glass tube. He looked at it
and made a sign to his corporal ; they searched fur-
ther, and found a series of those tubes, filled with
some substance of a very pale yellow colour. The
specimens were carried to the camp, when our engineers
examining them found that the substance was a mix-
ture of fulminating powder, phosphorous, and saltpetre
Other soldiers were next sent, and they following the
course of the tubes, found that they led to wooden boxes
buried about six inches in the ground. One of these
boxes was removed and found to contain flasks of explo-
sive materials. In all forty-four of these boles were
found, and connected by MUM of tubes,"
4