The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-24 00:00:00

tion of the choice which is to be given to parties
between the referees and a select committee. The
authors of the report evidently wish to transfer
the entire powers of the House to the new tri-
bunal, and they justly conjecture that a merely
voluntary jurisdiction will not be long sustained.
The defects of a tentative system will serve as
arguments for hirther changes, as the committee
has adroitly used the anomaly of divided juris-
diction as a reason for enlarging the func-
tions of the referees. In the words of the report,
" some even of the referees themselves appear to be
of opinion that if the main object of the institution
—namely, economy of time—could be attained
without a double inquiry, it would be a great ad-
vantage." The subsidiary engine was set up to
relieve the strain on the principal machinery, and
when some irregularity occurs in the working it is
suggested that the original source of power should
be detached. The referees no doubt express their
genuine opinions, but public functionaries are liable
to a bias when there is a question whether their
salaries shall be continued. It will be for the House
of Commons to decide whether the duty of private
legislation shall be transferred to a distinct tribunal.
If the plan is adopted it is idle to insist that the
judicial functions shall be exercised by individual
members of the house. The decisions of select com-
mittees have generally been just, and the issues
which they have determined are such as are most
fitly submitted to a special jury of limited numbers.
Private bills raise no questions of legal right, and
Parliamentary committees are competent judges of
expediency. If a court of lawyers or laymen with
small salaries inspires equal confidence, it will pro-
bably transact the business more rapidly, and there-
fore more cheaply, but unless the number of private
bills is greatly reduced, two courts will be insuffi-
cient for the business which has required the simul-
taneous attention of eight or ten committees. The
members of the next Parliament may save them-
selves much trouble by the abolition of select com-
mittees on private bills, and possibly the house will
prefer its ease to the privilege which it has hitherto
resolutely cherished. If a new and permanefit
tribunal is established, it will scarcely be found
necessary to main the arbitrary rule by which only
one counsel is allowed to be heard. The restriction
prevails in no other court in the kingdom, and it is
not necessarily beneficial to the public because it is
extremely inconvenient to the bar, and because it
restricts the free choice of the client. It is remark-
able that the House of Lords has hitherto displayed
no intention of following the example of the House
of Commons.

HERALD.—The " Fatal march from Mhow" has
been explained, and the explanation is almost as
dispiriting as the disaster. It is some consolation in
the case of a calamity of the kind to know that it
was produced by exceptional causes, very unlikely
to occur again ; or that it was the fault of some-
body who can be pulled up sharp and made an
example of. But the manner in which this mur-
derous mistake was brought about admits of neither
source of satisfaction. For cholera is a contingency
which must always be anticipated in a country like
India, and official apathy is an offence difficult to
punish when it pervades whole departments. The
military authorities at Bombay, who have published
a very extensive correspondence on this sad subject,
lay all the blame of the disaster on Major-General
Green, the officer commanding at Mhow, who, they
declare, did notwarn them of the presence of cholera
when the march was ordered, as generally believed.
The case on the side of the authorities, as given by
Col. Phayre, the quartermaster-general, is to this
effect. The orders from home for the reduction of
a battery of artillery were received about the 17th
or 18th of February last, when Sir Wm. Mansfield
made the necessary communication on the subject.
Col. Phayre then accompanied his excellency to the
southernmost borders of the Punjaub, and did not
resume his duties at Bombay headquarters until the
3d of April. On the 7th, to his surprise, he received
a telegram from Major-General Green, referring to
a letter, of March 1, from the Assistant Adjutant-
General Royal Artillery to the officer commanding
the 21st Brigade, and asking if the men of the B
battery, for the southward, should all be sent to
Kirkee. There were, added the major-general, 95
men, 8 women, and 13 children, who would be ready
to proceed on the 12th. Col. Phayre at once in-
quired how it was that these troops had not been
marched to their destination long before, especially
as he had left instructions with the deputy quarter-
master-general and assistant quartermaster-general
at army headquarters, to carry out at once all such
detvils, without reference to Sind, in order to save
time. He was told, in reply, that the disbandment
had been ordered in the adjutant-general's depart-
ment, and that no further communication had been
made with regard to it during his absence. As
Lieutenant-Colonel Phayre did not at once reply to
Major-General Green's telegram, the major general
telegraphed again on the 10th of April, requesting
a reply ; and on that day Lieutenant - Colonel
Phayre telegraphed to him in return, directing him
to order the detachment to march at once toNar-
gaum, the women and sick to proceed by bullock
train, and all proceeding to Kirkee. He added,
" Arrange minor details with Poona division autho-
rities." Meanwhile, on the 4th of April, Lieute-
nant-Colonel Phayre had had occasion to address a
letter to Major-General Green on the subject of
some deserters from the Inniskilling Dragoons whom
it was desirable to send to their regiment for trial ;
and on the 10th the major general answered that
communication both by telegraph and post. In his
telegram he referred to the inexpediency of sending
the deserters in question by the carrying company's
bullock train, and added " more by post." By post
he entered into further particulars, and added,
" But I would deprecate the men being sent up at
all at this time of the year, if it possibly can be
avoided ; for cholera is on the road, great heat has
set in, and I would much prefer to await the first
fall of rain, when I would send a mounted party,
with horses for the deserters, and bring them from
Nargaum without much risk, signalling to you
when to despatch them to the railway terminus."
This letter took six days en route, and in reply
Lieutenant-Colonel Phayre addressed a letter to
Major-General Green informing him that the
commander-in-chief (Sir Charles Van Straubenzee,
who had succeeded Sir W. Mansfield) adopted the
suggestion as to the deserters, and adding that as
the same objection seemed to apply to the immediate
march of the Artillery, the major general had better
consult with the deputy inspector general of hos-
pitals on the subject. This recommendation, how-
ever, came too late, as the troops had then marched;
and Lieutenant-Colonel Phayre throws the sole
responsibility of the disaster upon Major-General
Green, upon the ground that that officer had
only incidentally made known the presence of
cholera on the road, and had not supplied that
information until too late. In this opinion he is
supported by the commander-in-chief, as well as by
the Governor of Bombay, and Major-General Green
has been censured in orders for his conduct upon
the occasion. That there is prima facie cause for
this conclusion is not to be denied. But who could
have supposed that an officer of Lieutenant-Colonel
Phayre's long Indian experience and special know-
ledge of the district required to have his attention
called to a fact of which he should have been as
well aware as Major-General Green ? Nobody,
indeed, could be better aware of the fact that the
route across the Nerbudda is always highly danger-
ous after the Ist of April, after which day, indeed,
the marching of men is expressly prohibited by a
general order, dated April 17, 1860. In the minute
which he issued upon the subject, Sir Charles
Van Straubenzee remarks that Major-General
Green " appeared to have overlooked that order."
But surely Lieut.-Colonel Phayre overlooked it
when he laid before his excellency the telegram of
Major-General Green, and his excellency overlooked
it also when he sanctioned the march. Neither of
those officers were bound by the major-general's
orders ' • but the major-general may well be con-
sidered bound by theirs, notwithstanding that he is
told that he should have exercised discretion in the
matter. In reference to this point, Major-General
Green, in replying to Lieut.-Colonel Phayre, de-
clares his belief that all discretionary powers had
been removed from him ; and he mentions that
when in 1862 Major-General Farrell, then in com-
mand of the division, " urgently deprecated the
marching of troops to this station (Mhow) at this
season of the year," he was informed that the
Sindwah jungles were not dangerous till after the
rains. " Cholera," adds the major-general, " un-
fortunately prevailed all over the Dekhan, and is not
confined to the Sindwah route alone." Only last
year, when he reported himself to the same effect,
he was told that " the requirements of the service
must not be stopped on account of vague cholera
reports." And, again, two months afterwards,
when reporting the death of an officer by cholera,
he represented " the danger to life caused by ex-
posure in reaching this station at this season of the
year," his communication remained unacknow-
ledged ; and not having besides " received any
reply to my many telegrams and reports on the
outbreak of cholera in the cantonment last year, it
was natural for me to conclude that, having done
my duty by reporting my opinion, .1 had, only to
obey the order I had received." The major-general
adds, too, that he had never received any orders
from head-quarters on the subject of the B battery.
The orders were sent to the officer commanding,
with whom he conceived that he was bound to act
in concert. Under all circumstances it seems in the
highest degree unfair to throw the blame of this
unfortunate order upon Major-General Green. If
the general order was disregarded higher authorities
than he were responsible for the fact. If warning
were required, surely it had been given repeatedly,
and may be considered to have been formally with-
held in reference to the march simply because it