The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-20 00:00:00

months also in which we have been engaged in actual hos
tilities, you have not had time to prepare and drill a suffi-
cient number of native troops, so as to enable you to dis-
pense with this first beggarly instalment of 10,000 foreign-
ers, surely you must have been wilfully blind to the neces-
sities of your position, and have shown a want of that
energy and promptitude which were never more essential
than at the present moment. Compute the time whittle
has elapsed since the battle of the Alma, when there could
be no doubt as to the necessity of reinforcements—compute
also the time which you have devoted to the preparation
of this very thoughtful and deliberate bill—and compute
likewise the time which you must devote, if the bill is to
pass, to correspondence with foreign sovereigns, and to the
enlistment, collection, and transportation of their troops
to this country, and their conveyance to the seat of war—
compute all this from the time of the battle of the Alma,
and I say you would have had ample time to have
thoroughly drilled a double number of your own natives.
(Cheers.) It does seem to me strange that these professed
warriors, who are represented as being so much superior to
ourselves in the habits and discipline of war, are still to
be imported into this country to finish their military edits
cation upon English ground. (Hear, hear.) Why, as it
has been very pertinently stated, this is not the shortest
road to the Crimea. Let me suppose for a moment that
you really want these men. Why not act upon your own
responsibility? You can enlist your 10,000 men on the
Continent, and send them from any quarter of the Con-
tinent yon pease at once to the Crimea, so long as you do
not land them in this country, without the formality of an
act of Parliament. Why, then, not act upon your own
responsibility. There would be this advantage in it.
Suppose that Ministers have reasons, which they do not
impart to this house, for drawing these men from certain
quarters which are not distinctly stated—(cheers)—I say,
thatibftthye, p
eeeob,piel
Rees
:oho,
re you
dsiaccording
spectacle
6 ought
ttaee
ie the
of t o
prerogativeforeign act
roops f youre own
upon
the
r ats
Crowne responsi-
bility, n s i
;-
because, by so doing, you would at least neither exhibit
to i 1 i
ground, which is always so intolerable to national English
feelings,
nor would you call upon the House of Commons, for
Plainly stated, and which we do
degradation to the spirit
rneeate o
understand,
whicherete ed, arc not
sanction a
of a free people. (Cheers.) Lot us just look—for it is
necessary—at the slovenly mode in which this bill ap-
pears to have been devised and prepared.
(Hear.) The
first introduction of the bill caused a universal alerm
because it was thought that these foreigners were intended
to supply
abroad,plyt but likewise the place,
Inetewonielye
of the
of thedefenders of England's
honour defenders
of
England's
security at home. That was indignantly denied. In spite
of that denial, the Minister who was charged with the in-
troduction of the bill rose in his place and said, " I hear
from several quarters to my great
erroneous impression prevails out,into did
of
doors surprise,
and that
whatsnch
an
he then do? Why, he condescended to look his own
waswbielrdl;aningdefatit,lasittmhieghtcotenfeessuehtheatp,urb;eteehe.
The wording of it ! Why, in the wording of a bill which
b e brought
pervertedt
involves such delicate questions, and touching so closely
upon the keystone of • all free institutions, surely there
might be a sufficient degree of attention given to insure
that not a phrase would be used which a people jealous of
freedom might misinterpret, or which might be perverted
hereafter by a Minister, for dangerous purposes, into apre-
eedent that really would jeopardise the libertiesof England
and disturb the tranquillity of her people. (Cheers.) Let
us look now to the amount of force required. Why, there
was so little calculation with respect to a measure which
you can only excuse upon the ground of necessity that it
seems to be a matter of ,perfect indifference to Ministers
whether the number of men be 10,000 or 15,000. (Cheers.)
At once the former number is substituted for the latter ;
and in connection with a bill which you tell us is themain
reason why we were summoned together—a bill which you
had ample time to prepare—a bill which involves the most
momentous constitutional principles—you have exhibited
all this careless indecision as to the precise amount of
force you require. (Cheers.) But I must say I doubt
your prudence still more in that, for the sake of an object
so insignificant as yours really is—because it is only a pro-
vision for the landing and drilling in this country of a
certain number of foreign troops—you insist, while telling
us truly of the advantage of unanimity, upon forcing a
measure which you must have been blind indeed not to
foresee would be most unpopular out of doors, which
does necessitate the strongest opposition, which you have
only carried by a pitiful majority through one house of
Parliament, and which, if you do carry it through the
other, will, I believe, prove such a thorn in your sides that
I venture to doubt if you will have the courage to use the
powers which you now ask. (Cheers.) So little did the
Minister who introduced this measure appreciate the great
constitutional principles which are involved in it that he
prefaced the bill by observing that power to enlist and to
land foreign troops had been in former times generally
*encoded to be a righ 'grated in the:Crown ; and he seemed
to think that the question was only settled by a bill at the
end of last century. lam sure the Lord President of the
Council, if he had conversed on the subject with the
Minister of War, would have warmly denied that our
great constitutional authorities ever did ()encode that such
a power was at any time vested in the Sovereign of this
country. (Hear.) We all remember that William 111.,
to whom the noble lord has referred, sent a message to
this house requesting in very humble terms that his Dutch
troops might be allowed to remain, but we all know that
the House of Commons refused the request. (Cheers.) It
may be said that was a time of peace ; yet we also know
that it was laid down by ono of the greatest of our consti-
tutional lawyers—Lord Camden -that neither in peace
nor in war, nor at any period of our history, could foreign
troops be admitted into this country without the sanction
of an act of Parliament ; and well I remember that Mr.
Fox said if such a power did exist then we have a consti-
tution iu words and not in reality. Ic, .-• ' eerr;, :-, • •
indignation with whi Ai the Whigs of ". -•
liar' 'ward such a remark emanating'
W..sting in the same Cabinet -
Whigs of tiii, present cley•
(Cheers 1
that you have now cluai:et the
clause, so far as that is conceris` *,
kind of exaggeration. (A laugh.
complied with constitutional fee-, , ,
that, while you rigidly adhere to , .st..
ought not to do anything so ho:Ail.
constitution as the introduction of ;
country, unless you can estab/ish i
parallel cases--(hear, hear)—or unless
plea of paramount and urgent necessit
with respect to the precednts upon 14
seems to rely, I may say in the first p:
most ashamed to go over ground whit h n.
to every gentleman in this house. I am
to state, what every one must already kuo
reign enlistment bills of 1801 and 1805 are
applicable to the present measure. (Hear,
sovereign of this country was not only King its
he was also Elector of Hanover. Besides, his ink
ours were closely identified with those of the great. k
powers, except Prussia, which, at that time, shacks
her guilty complicity in the partition of Poland,
blinded by a hope of obtaining Hanover as the rower •
her neutrality, did in the opinion of all dispassionate u
tenses by her inert and selfish procrastination paralyst
the armies of the other allies, and so gave an immense ad-
vantage to the common foe—that gigantic power of which
Prussia was afterwards the most unfortunate victim. I
hope that Prussia is wiser now. (Cheers.) I hope that
she will not venture to arouse other and still nobler confe-
deracies by her traitorous diplomacy, nor cripple their
energies by her dishonest lethargy, and require, perhaps,
at the last the assistance of their armies to save herself
from the ruin in which her selfish policy nearly involved
her very existence as a nation. At that time the intro-
duction of German troops into this country was perfectly
natural ; but let us see what was said by the principal
persons who took part in the debates which then occurred-
One of the most celebrated was Mr., afterwards Sir
Philip Francis. Just hear the excuse made at that time
by the Secretary-at-War, in reply to the objections urged
by Mr. Francis. The Secretary-at-War, " The enlistment
of German soldiers is only a measure to provide for the
raising and embodiment of men who are subjects of the
same sovereign as ourselves." (Cheers.) It is true that
not only Hanoveriaus but Germans were enlisted, but
they were subjects of those German powers whose sympa•
thies and interests were closely identified with ours, and
who were pursuing the same object. I can assure the
house that I would be exceedingly proud and happy if we
t
were to have an alliance with the great German powers in
present war, but who can say that it is not at least
premature to take it for granted that they have precisely
the same interests and objects as ourselves. (Hear, hear.)
oroueh, and has said that in all former wars foreign troops
But the noble lord has gone back to the time of Marl-
' bore
employed. Yes, but whenever they were employed
with honour they were the auxiliaries of our open allies,
and were officered by the rank, the chivalry, and the mili-
tary renown of nations that had the closest sympathies
with ourselvep. (Cheers.) Did the noble lord really refer
to that speech of the Duke of Wellington in the hope that,
as an extraordinary feat of tactics, he could induce us to
believe that when the Duke of Wellington said that only
one-third of his army was British, the rest of the army was
composed of mercenary troops? Who does not know that
they were Portuguese and
independence ? (Cheers.)Great Spaniards
stress
tr
efifelibtai fighting gbfeoern their
laid,
oawnda
deservedly so, upon the obligations which the gallant Ger-
man Legion conferred on the British army- I grant these
obligations most fully. I have heard great military autho-
rities say that those accomplished officers who were to be
found in the German Legion first taught our cavalry how
to charge, and when to pull up. Bat since then timeshave
changed. Will any man say that German officers could
have improved that splendid charge of the Scotah Greys and
Eaniskilleners at Balaklava, or the wondrous gallantry of
the light brigade ? (Cheers.) lam thankful that we have
learnt lessons from Germany in the arts of war, and that
we have known how to profit by them. I think, also,
that we have learnt lessons scarcely less valuable from() teGer-
many in the arts of peace. There is no cultivatorfelikee.
1 raturo or science but who must look with grateful'th Austria,
tion at that great people. As to the alliance z
t—(alaug —but if it
I will say nothing .
about it at presen
and binding affiance with that great
does lead to a genuine
if we did not
we should be madmen indeed
power,
world bring to the common
I welcome an ,accession which wo
500 000 men, and which might even be your
cause ,
strongest guarantee, supposing it be sincere, for the
secure maintenance to
• of that territorial condition which
ought to be the basis of any future peace. I should be
glad to learn that Prussia follows the praiseworthy, bit
still prospective, example of Austria ; and that, by her
future sincerity, she mayi atone for the selfish and dis-
honest policy which characterised her during a portion of
the French war. Between ourselves and the 'whole of the
German people there is so close an affinity of race, of com-
mercial interests, and of all that belongs to intellectual in-
terchange, that I should consider it as something mon-
strous—as something out of the ordinary course—if Prus-
sia, descending from that front among the nations to
which she was raised by the genius of Frederick the
Great, were to refuse her co-operation in rolling back from
the frontiers of civilised Europe the advancing tide of
Russian barbarism. (Cheers.) But if we are to have an
alliance with the great German in en's name
people, Heav
let it be in a way that is worthy of them and us. Let us
have nations openly for our Allies, and not the scum of
the earth. (Cheers.) But the noble lord must permit me
now to ask where are these foreign soldiers to come from ?
We have heard a great deal of their excellence, but
nothing of their parentage • and yet I think it is import-
ant, we should know where Ministers expect to get their
10,000 trained soldiers ready for the field. The landwehr
of Germany have acquired nothing more than the mere
holiday art of war. Ido not remember any recent war in
Europe in which they were likely to have acquired great
experience, or to have exhibited their military prowess.
So much has been said in praise of these wonderful fo-
reigners, in comparison with our poor countrymen, that
one is almost tempted to believe that they are the iden-
tical Ten Thousand who accomplished the retreat of
Xenophon, and not merely men who have seen more of
actual danger and actual service than the stout peasantry
whew you enlist in your own militia regiments. (Cheers.)
It has been sought—not by Ministers, but by their
friends out of doors—to make the bill more popular
by announcing that the ulterior object is to enlist
men who shal be actuated by nobler motives than
ordinary soldiers—that is, exiled Poles and other
unfortunate refugees. BA the Prime Minister by