The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-03 00:00:00

sacrifices an army and stultifies itself by blaming
a system which it retains and does not strive to
amend. An oligarchy that trom base personal
fears leaves the country defenceless, discourages
volunteers, contents itself with a mockery of a
militia, and squanders money upon foreign
levies while men of every degree " languish at
home for military employment." An oligarchy
that trifles with improvements in arms, scornfully
repulses soldiers of repute offering their services,

wise be exposed. To shield the Government
from reproach he sacrificed his soldiers, and
Ministers are now returning the compliment.
If he prolonged the existence of an incompetent
Ministry, they are retaining in office an incapable
commander. Once more, then, we ask, why not
supersede Lord RAGLAN ? The nation will repeat
the interrogitory, which will reverberate through-
out the length and breadth of the land, until a
suitable response be elicited from Lord, PALMER-
STON and his colleagues. Too many evils have
occurred from leaving everything in the hands of
Ministers, and abstaining from any remonstrance.
We many now, at least, profit by the bitter
experience. As we can no longer place confidence
in those in power, we must set our own shoulders
to the wheel, and see that the valour and effi-
ciency of our troops be not neutralised by the in-
capacity of their commanders. If we are not in-
different to the honour of the nation, we cannot
be so to the safety of our brethren. They must not
be placed in jeopardy to retain an aristocratic
Cabinet and Commander-in-Chief in office—albeit
the former be entirely composed of Lords or their
relatives and connexions, and the latter be the
sjn, the brother, and the uncle of a Duke.

and persists, in spite of warning, in promoting
the creatures of routine and family influence. The
petitioners next touch on foreign alliances, and ex-
press general content with the alliance of France,
but dislike for that of Austria and for dynastic
alliances generally. The injury done the country
by the caprice of our Foreign Ministers is subse-
quently glanced at, and it is asserted " that such
things could not have been effected in former
times, when the Privy Council gave responsible
advice upon international matters, and nothing
could be done without their sanction by the boldest
Ministers of State." The irresponsibility of our
Cabinets, and the neglect of consideration by
Premiers as to the aptitude of those chosen Se-
cretaries of State for their office, and their "disre-
gard of every other thing save the convenience of
a corporation of lordly rulers," is next noticed,
and the petitioners proceed to state their require-
ments. They pray the honourable House to take
into consideration how this pernicious system may
be abolished, and that the right men may be esta-
blished in the right places, " by opening the pub-
lic service to merit and capacity, by securing the
faithful represesentation of the people, and by
restoring those lapsed functions of the constitu-
tional law of the country by which a healthy
action may be regained without great and sudden
peril to the community." The petitioners further
pray that over-legislation, and, above all things,
secret diplomacy, may be put a stop to ; and,
" boldly standing on their rights," conclude
by asserting " that which is known to all,
and fills the mind with wonder and appre-
hension to see so powerful a country in so
contemptible a predicament, that whereas indi-
viduals carry out vast enterprises successfully, the
State can accomplish nothing either honestly or
honourably or to a good purpose, and has become
a very world's jest in its every undertaking." If
this, it is added, be the fault of the system, or of
both men and system, as the petitioners believe it
is—in short, in any case—they insist that the
present state of things be brought to a termina-
ion by whatever means Parliament may deem
best, even by taking steps that may lead to a dis-
solution. The reader has now some notion, how-
ever imperfect, of the tone and character of tbo
petition. What does he think of it I We are
mistaken if he does not coincide with us in our
notion of its importance. When facts so mon-
strous and unimpeachable are told so calmly yet
earnestly, it bodes ill for the continuance of that
oligarchical sway which it arraigns. The people
are putting their shoulders to the wheel of the
State chariot, and woe to these who impede them.
Should any fatal disaster befal our army, what
astonishment awaits the blind prophets of the
times!

It was once wittily observed by Lord
BROUGHAM that England has been bound over to
keep the peace in the sum of 800,000,0001. That
obstacle to the national pugnacity, however, is
proved to be in no respect insuperable. Stupen-
dous though it undoubtedly is as a monetary
barrier against anything like rash or ill-considered
enterprises of a warlike character, it can readily
enough, we all know, be at once overleaped upon
a serious emergency. Let the dignity of the
Crown be outraged, let the rights of humanity be
assailed, let the laws of nations be infringed, let
any grievous wrong be perpetrated, at however
enormous a distance from our own dominions,
and the weight of our gigantic Debt becomes but
las a feather in the balance—England rises in the
instant against the violator of the general tran-
quillity, prepared, as of old, to champion the holy
cause of justice, no matter at what sacrifice of her
heroic blood, or at what increase to her already
vast liabilities. It wars a golden axiom with Mr.
CANNING that the Honour and the Interest of the
Country are Identical. The utterance of that
lofty sentiment was but the expression of
what might be called one of the noble
instincts of the population. Money-makers
though they are, shopkeepers though they have
been designated, concentrated though all their
distinguishing capacities as a commercial race ne-
cessarily must be, their energy, their ability,
their industry, with a view to the material ad-
vancement of the multitude—to the reduplication
of its resources, and to the extension of its mer-
cantile influence throughout both hemispheres—
Englishmen are nevertheless averse to the tolera-
tion of anything approximating to the merest
semblance of an indignity to the Crown, any-
thing tending, even by implication, to affect
injuriously the glory of their Constitutional
Government. They are sensitive to the quick,
to the heart's core, to the innermost recesses of
their conscience, as to the ignominy inseparable
from any blunted indifference on the part of a
people to the arch-crime of lese-nation—the one
arc4-crime by a craven submission to which the
escutcheon of the most illustrious community
would become forthwith infamously and indelibly
tarnished. They have already repeatedly proved
ithe sincerity of their feelings ; and have done so,
i moreover, at the most memorable periods, and
under the most extraordinary circumstances. Yet

N.) recent intelligence from Sebastopol. The
electric telegraph still remains a dead letter in the
hands of the Government. While so many thou-
sands of the best and bravest of our brethren le-
main between two fires—while scarcely a family
throughout the length and breadth of the land is
free from anxiety on account of some friend or
relative in the Crimean army, our Ministers still

exhibit the same apathy and indifference so de-
plorably conspicuous from the very commencement
—still permit the supreme command to remain in
the hands of the noble Lord whose incapacity and
mismanagement have occasioned such direful cala-
mities ! Why, we ask, has Lord RAGLAN not
been recalled—why is he still permitted to im-
peril the lives of our troops ? Too many valuable
lives have already been sacrificed at the altar of
" red-tapism." Routine has not had merely its
hecatombs, but thousands, aye tens of thousands,
of victims. The sanguinary offerings should be
prevented, and the lives of the scanty remnant,
if possible, preserved.

now, it may be safely averred, under any cir-
cumstances more extraordinary, or at any period
more memorable than the present, when the
struggle foretold by NAPOLEON THE GREAT is in
actual process of development—the struggle be-
tween the East and the West, between the forces
of Barbarism and those of Civilisation.
The incubus of the National Debt sits lightly
on the shoulders of the Sinbad of Nations—that
grim old evil of 800,000,0001.—now that Eng-
laud has been fairly summoned, in the cause of
night, to do battle with the colossus of Northern
Autocracy. Economists, though we may be del

sirous of becoming as a population, we are never-

The evidence against Lord RAGLAN is daily be- I theless prepared, each man amongst us is prepared,
coming more decisive. It is now positively over- to sustain, individually and collectively, whatever
whelming. We do not desire that he should be burdens may be imposed upon us by the ex-
condemned unheard—that he should not have igencies of the occasion. The necessity for the
ample opportunity of putting forward a defence. increase of the already stupendous debt of eight
But the prima facie case being made out, his in- hundred millions weighs not for a single moment
competence—aye, and far worse than incompetence at this crisis in th© popular consideration.
--established, he should be deprived of the power As was said very nobly at a memorable period by
of doing further mischief, of rendering the evils Mr. SHELL, " The people of this country are
he has initiated absolutely irreparable. averse to wanton war ; but when the honour of
The campaign opened by a very remarkable England is at stake, there is no consequence
displayof carelessness, respecting not only the coin- which they are not prepared to meet—no treasure
forts, but the health of the troops. The tents which they are not ready to lavish—no hazard
were sent back immediately after the battle of the which they will not be found prompt to en-
Alma, and the men were compelled for many counter." It was so formerly. It is so still.
weeks to endure the proverbial inclemency of The sensitiveness of Englishmen for the main-
a Crimean autumn, without any description tenance of the national honour has not degene-
of shelter or covering from the night damps. rated. We are not less eager than our forefathers%
Subsequent proceedings were of a similar cha- at any coat, through any penalties, by any -
ri:
e
ratter. While they were overtoiled to so great fice, to sustain th
tation.
e- glory of our imper. ,lai
- repu-
a degree that a far larger number of our soldiers
perished or were placed hors de combat by the We may grumble as Ilualicier*
e.,-- er the folly of
fatigues and hardships they endured than from an unnecessarily bungled B'.
'.,,,tvet but as patriots
the weapons of their adversaries, not the slightest we are prepared to °or'
~rt •ioute without
grudging,
attention was paid to their exigencies or necessi- whatever may be ultimately„, demanded from us
ties. No effort was made to make a road from by the delibe- ;
„ea.e decision of the Legislature.
the camp to Balaklava, so that the supplies so Viewing tke -
matter thus—we may chafe at the
urgently required might be brought up to our
blunder tug proposals of Sir G. C. LEWIS, but bow
:
soldiers, who
mare chance to be the reception of those same
were tantalised by being compelled ;
to suffer great privations while there was abund-
ance of every description of stores in their im-
mediate vicinity. -mr-eeclAately afterwards implicitly to whatever
Prfrposals by the House of Commons. In the
Presence of the momentous cause for which our
Sir JOHN BERGorNE, who wassecondin cOmmanil -
.2 heroic soldiers and those of our , glorious Allies
and who, therefore, may be supposed to wave
enjoyed as much as any man the 'confid•
admitted are fighting, aide by side in the trenches before
ca.b.; 411°13 of Sebastopol, we are prepared at the behest of our
the Commander-in-Chief, has ndid
representatives to forget the fiscal absurdities of
that the necessary precautions were. emitted in the , .
perimenting Chancellor of the Exchequer.
iirs instance because it was ho-iteel, that Sebastopol a;,,er:mhering the
would speedily be captured; Alas ! the time for purpose of the War with
q elapse. Had the first Russia—a purpose visible to every one but
Mr. BRIGHT and his infatuated disciples—the
doing so was suffered t
'been vigorously followed u
victory of the Alma.
had the troops hurried on while flushed with
Ps various penalties of the struggle become com-
paratively as nothing in the popular estima-
victory, and the enemy was disheartened and de- lion. Regarded through that medium the antici-
moralise'A, the stronghold might have fallen by a pated expenditure within the year of 86,339,0001.
coup de main. The very name of Alma would appears to be reasonable rather than extravagant.
Lave been worth 50,000 bayonets ! But Recollecting what it is we are striving for—for
the energetic counsel of the French General was the loftiest principle, and not for territorial ag-
disregarded. Lord RAGLAN was determined to grandisement ; for justice, and not for spoilation ;
act 8 elon, les reyles, to procrastinate and delay, for the consolidation of an enduring peace and
when rapidity of 'action was of paramount ire- the
permauent triumph of the interests of
portance.. After dilly-dallying to the 17th of modern civilisation—the hardest worked and the
October, and giving the Russians ample time be- poorest paid among us will count as nought the
fore anything was done to recover from their additional burdens in the way of taxation which
Panic, they showed that they were capable of may happen to be called for in furtherance of the
making a protracted and desperate defence. enterprise upon which England and France have
•
-, Early In November it was known to Lord
iaetel,,,,, together resolutely adventured. Compared with
`'the thatwilater he could do nothing decisive during the triumph of our just cause, what signifies
the attae3i might then have discontinued
- Re •
condition even a Loan of 16,000,0001., and the issue of
°/ at all events seen to the state and 3,000,0001. more Exchequer Bills, and the tern-
, of his me
r the desperate
..,_ 112 to keep them prepared for
sernagie tvh porary increase on our annual imposts to.
5 300 000/ or rather (for the year itistora•
place. • But, ineteeea enever it should take of - ) ' '' ' •
... of sio d •the tune
mencing) of 4,000,000/.—thus making up by an-
the trenohea, IA ' by. "lg, he kept them in . .
ticipation the estimated deficiency of 23,000,000/. !
in constant danger. , -wh,,,,, , It is scarcely at this juncture the question whe-
ineesBalit labour, and
.... ems .i.,_
of ibis 7 Manifistlks to ;Ilipit- - -_the object
.. er- the mizas
from the ceusures to which they ?re then we shall submit to have an addition of 1 per
tors., Cent., or, in other Word's, of 2d.-42 the_ pouq,d, 0,
world other- .our Income Tax ; whether we 0110,11 have as. MOO