The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-18 00:00:00

flI

LONDON. WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 18, 1852.

Whether the presfnt Ministry will continue much
lonizer in office; or be" driven from the posts of Ad-
minii•tratior, must verysixediiy become apparent.
During a considerable time put it, has existed only
on suff,:rance. Popularity, indeed, was river its
at-
tribute even in its plmiest days, for the success of
Lord JOHN RUSSELL iii first attaining' the rank of
Prune Minister was attributable less to his own

THE

SUN,

capacity than to the embarrassed situation of his '
predecessor. The revenge wreaked by the Country
Party upon Sir ROBERT PEEL—a revenge considered
by them to be justifiable, because of the manner
in which the Right Hon. Baronet bad broken up the
powerful and predominant party of the Conservatives—
was the real source of strength to the Whigs in 1846.
It was then that the statesman who had caused free
, trade to triumph over monopoly was thrown out by
a division on the Coercion Bill. Ireland, which had
long been his acknowledged difficulty, was selected
at that moment as the means of affording the
Protectionists the most effectual weapon for
the destruction of his Government. Sir Ro-
BERT fell, but he fell as administrator
had never fallen before, he fell in the midst of enthu-
siastic evidences of national gratitude and popular ad-
miration. The night of his resignation was marked
by a spontaneous ovation at the very door of the
House of Parliament. Lord Joan rose into power
as Premier bad very seldom risen before, he rose in
the midst of an apathetic indifference on the part of
the community. He was accepted as a necessity, ra-
ther than welcomed with any degree of confidence.
Suspicions were entertained from the very outset that
he would be incompetent to fulfil the responsibilities of
his position to the entire satisfaction of the people;
and if death had stilled the hand of GILLRAY, and po-
litics had been abandoned by CRUIESHANY, there
was still found the pencil of LEECH to insinuate that
JOHN was not strong enough for the Place. Under
these auspices it was that the leader of the Whig
Party in the House of Commons was empowered by
the QUEEN to form an Administration. To this end
be grouped together the representatives of the GREY
section of the Whigs, the representatives, that is
to say, of the men who had maintained their original
ideas upon government when EDMUND Buzau and his
followers deserted to WILLIAM PITT, on the com-
mencement of the great French Revolution. With the
GREY section Lord JOHN associated that other sec-
tion with which he himself had been all along more
peculiarly identified, namely, the LANSDOWNE section,
the members of which were for the most part im-
bued with the Edinburgh Review principles. These
again were joined by the new Prime Minister, with
a cluster of politicians. Whip it is true at heart,
but Whigs belonging to neither of the foregoing
divisions, men, for example, such as Sir JOHN CAM
Honnorse, sinee then elevated to the peerage by the
title of Lord BROUGHTON DE GIFFORD. Of this
threefold complexion was the Whig Cabinet which
Lord JOHN RUSSELL invested with a certain redeem-
ing popularity by introducing into it as Foreign
Secretary the last and most illustrious of the Can-
ningites ! During six years the Ministry thus
formed was held together by the force of circum-
stances. Disgrace was drawn down upon it by the
perverse and blundering policy of the Colonial
Department. Odium was provoked by the imbecility
and ignorance manifested in the administration of
the Exchequer. Defeated, glaringly and ignomi-
niously defeated, upon one question after another, the
Government of the Whigs under Lord Joule Rug-
SELL became as habitually in a minority as the Go-
vernment of the Whigs had been formerly under
Lord MELBOURNE. Only three considerations im-
part(' d to them anything like a respectable influence
in the country. The Earl of CLARENDON had
won eulogium on all hands by hie vigorous but
conciliatory proceedings in Ireland as Lord-Lieute-
nent. Sir GEORGE GREY, as Home Secretary, had
given very general satisfaction. But, above all, Lord
PALMERSTON had by his foreign policy secured to the
Cabinet what must for ever be its principal glory,
the glory of having upheld the dignity of the empire
throughout the world, while at the same time
preserving uninterrupted peace during those three
terrible years when the most poweifal states of
Christendom were convulsed by what Aensoer b,9is
finely called the tnindquake of revolution I
Yet, among all the members of the present Ca-
binet, the Foreign Secretary was the only one sum-
marily dismissed and ungratefully sacrificed I Quos
Deus vult perdere prius dementat. Lord PALMERS-
TON was ousted from the Ministry, and in his expul-
sion his former colleagues destroyed the talisman of
their popularity. Their admirers may object to
this that they still continue politically in exist-
ence. No—they cannot correctly be said to
exist they are only dying hard. The Reform
Bill will be to Lord JOHN RUSSELL what the Coer-
cion Bill was to Sir ROBERT PEEL. As was very
happily observed by the Hon. Baronet the Member
for Bedford, the Bill in question might more cor-
rectly have been entitled " A Bill for the purpose of
keeping her MAJESTY'S Ministers in Place !" This
ingenious endeavour must nevertheless, we feel
assured, prove in every way unsuccessful. The
people will look with suspicion upon the
paltry boon cast to them so ungraciously
by that Whig Party which is manifestly
sanguine of thus obtaining for itself another
lease of the Administration. According to APII
LEIUS, the only effectual sop for the dog of PLUTO
was " a barley cake steeped in wine and honey."
The sop which has at last been reluctantly tossed to
the national Cerberus by the Whig Government, is
altogether inadequate both as a bait and a soporific.
There is the barley cake sure enough, but it is a
barley cake which has never been soaked either in
wine or in honey. Besides, the population
know well enough the hand that casts down
to them this trumpery sop of a Reform Bill. Timeo
Danaos et dons ferentes. The gifts are too equivocal
in themselves, in those who are offering them, nay, in
the very manner in which and the very circumstances
under which they are offered, not to be rejected
with derision. We look forward,
promptly and
therefore, with confidence to the New Reform Bill
as to the weapon which, sooner or later, in the House
or out of the House, must effect the destruction of the
Whig Government.

After all the various rumours s hich have been
afloat in regard to the projected increase of our
standing army, it appears from a statement made by
Lord Joliet RUSSELL in his late speech on intro-
ducing the militia proposition to the House of Com-
mons, that no augmentation will be demanded beyond
about four thousand men. Even for this
small additional requirement, we are only
indebted to the state of affairs in South
Africa, so that it may be viewed in the light of a pro-
visional and exceptional measure. The fact is, we
have a sufficiency of regiments and soldiers, but the
former are not by any means in that effective state of
consolidation which an easy re-arrangement would
produce. The depot system, as at present applied to
regiments on colonial service, ought to be placed upon
the same footing as that of those serving in our East
Indian possessions, and a small staff, with a couple
of officers at the head, substituted for the existing
retention of four companies. Furthermore, and
indeed principally, with respect to our Infantry
corps, Guards and Line (and in the former we
should' not be at all sorry to see the third batta-
lion of the Grenadiers reduced, and the army list
eased of go many precocious field-officers),
each battalion
should
of one hundred consist
rank of
we would have, after. deducandtingwhereby eight
twenty-five
battalions for India, and eight colonial ones infan-
try force for borne and colonies of sixty-eightna thou-
sand rank And file, or in round numbers, of 75,000
infantry of all ranks. It is rumoured, and it is to be
hoped with truth, that the army is to be improved by
an addition
nffour
ofbartitflaleisons
(to be effectedt ot'
ligh in-
fsntry and as many
; an equal number by conversion of r of the " heavy
bobs"), and by the arming of each regimental light
company with the rifle. These would indeed be
steps in the right direction. The advantages and
even necessity of some considerable amelioration of
the present infantry equipment have been so profusely
discussed and demonstrated of late in the public
journals, that we shall not here dwell upon that
branch of the subject. The necessity for keep-
ing pace with the modern improvements in
firearms which have been adopted by certain of our
continental neighbours is beginning to be generally
felt. Even those slow coaches the Austrians are,
we understand, turning their attention as well as the
acute French to the question of substituting rifles for
muskets. The Austrian troops at Ancona have been
recently supplied with sixteen of the newly invented
German rifles to every company of a hundred and
eighty men, and these soldiers are now daily
drilling as sharpshooters. It appears that the whole
•
Austrian infantry has been similarly supplied, and

LONDON,

the officers declare that these rifles will carry with
decided effect upwards of a thousand yards. What
we want then, as regards the British infantry, is,
strong battalions, not over-officered, and with a
fitting proportion of light troops, who shall be made
crack long-shots, whilst the main body, with im-
proved "Brown Besses" and bayonets, are rendered,
by a general change for the better in the articles of
their equipment, more competent than ever to uphold
at close quarters the justly-vaunted superiority of the
English soldier in the field of war.
Our cavalry consists at present of twenty-six regi-
ments, of whom five are devoted to Indian service,
leaving twenty-one for the home, viz., three Guards,
seven Dragoon Guards, and eleven Dragoons, three
of which latter may be classified as heavies. We
would suggest firstly, that the Carabineers (6th
Dragoon Guards)be transformed into the sth Dragoons,
which once distinguished regiment has not figured in
the Army List since it was disbanded shortly after the
Irish Rebellion of 1798, for some reason or other not
very clearly understood, and its officers, with the pre-
sent gallant Marquis of LONDONDERRY, its then
lieutenant-colonel at their head, drafted into other
regiments; secondly, that the sth and 7th Dra-
goon Guards be reduced; and, thirdly, that the three
regiments of guards, the four of Dragoon Guards
and the other twelve home regiments, should have
each eight troops. This would constitute a force of
seventy-six squadrons, which, allowing forty mounts
to each troop, gives a cavalry of 6,080 horses, exclu-
sive of officers. The superiority of a four over a
three squadron regiment is admitted by all compe-
tent judges.

As to the Artillery, the deficiency of that branch
of the service has at length become too notori-
ous, and an augmentation will be forthwith
brought into operation. Field guns are of no great
use if you have not men enough to work them
and an adequate supply of horses. Woolwich of
itself ought to be always in a condition to bring sixty
guns into the field at five minutes' notice. Whatever ex-
fe-nse might be needed to meet such modifications as we
have thus cursorily put forward would certainly not
be grudged. It would be small, if any, and although
the English public are not given to playing at
soldiers, their general desire as regards the military
power of the country is to see it efficient. Efficiency
will be found to be economy in the long run, and it
is the interest of those who contribute so large an
item in the State expenditure as is voted under
the head of the army and ordnance estimates, to in-
sist on a sound economy being exercised therein ; and
that although we do not pretend to compete with the
other great Powers of Europe in the numbers of our
soldiers, we shall not be found a whit behind them in
the effectiveness and promptitude of our military
appliances.