The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-13 00:00:00

BOARD OF HEALTH ACTS

Sir B. HALL said that after the Christmas recess he should
propose to repeal the Health of Towns' Act of IE4B, and the
Nuisances Removal Act, and to introduce two entirely new
bills upon the same subjects. He gave that early intimation
of his intentions because he was aware that notices had ap-
peared of several local bills. He would venture to suggest to
the local authorities that it would be advisable to incur as
little expense as possible in the first instance, as it was possible
that the provis:ons of hills which he hoped to introduce might
supersede the necessity of prosecuting the applications of
which notices Lad appeared.

THE ADDEESS.

Mr. H. HERBERT brought up the report upon the address
in reply to the Queen's Speech.
On the question that it be agreed to,
Admiral WALCOTT took the opportunity of addressing the
house on the subject of the war, which he hoped would be '
carried on with vigour and 'effect, while, in order to the ac-
complishment of that end, he thought the resolutions of the
country must be neither weak nor feeble. No petty jealousies
must be allowed to interfere with the operations of our naval
mid military commanders. IVe must, on the contrary, re-
pose confidence in them ; and though mistakes may have been
committed in the past, he was yet satisfied that if that gene-
rous confidence were entrusted to them, the reputation
of both branches of the service would come out of the struggle
untarnished. (Cheers.) It was a subject of considerable
satisfaction to himself that our soldiers and sailors had fought
side by side with the French. That circumstance would go
further to cement the two nations than all the diplomacy of
the last century, and ho was convinced that triumphant
success would ultimately attend the arms of the Allies.
Mr. A. PELLATT expressed his delight that the Metro-
politan boroughs had displayed so much unanimity on the
subject of the war, and referring to our alliance with France,
he expresse 1 a hope that the Chawellor of t'!e Exchequer
would evince h s gratitude towards France for her support in
this struggle, by reducing the duty upon her wines. Cheap
literature had assisted much to raise the character of the
army, and he trusted the newspaper stamp and other taxes
on knowledge would be repealed, and the deficiency made up
by resorting to a direct war tax. (Hear, hear.)
Sir H. WILLOUGHBY demanded some further informa-
tion with reference to the treaty with Austria. It was too
much the practice to keep questions of foreign policy in the
background, so far as the house was concerned, but recent
events had shown the impolicy of that course, and he wished
to know whether the treaty with Austria would be laid upon
the table, with the view of taking the opinion of Parliament
upon it. (Hear, hear.) The house had a right to know what
was the distinct nature of the treaty, because it might so
happen that it had been drawn up in such a way as to force
England and France to spend their lives and treasure for the
sole benefit of the German Powers. (Hear, hear.) Now,
neither the country nor Parliament would consent to such a
treaty, and in order that all doubts upon the point
might be cleared up,' he hoped a copy of it would
bo speedily laid before the house. (Hear, hear, hear.)
An expedition to the Crimea might have been very wise in
July but it was not so in December. He contended that Bala-
klava was no basis at all in a maritime point of view, but it
was useful for the basis of our operations. He himself had
been in Sebastopol, and he wanted to know from Govern-
ment if we got Sebastopol could we hold it, and if we did hold
it he would ask what good it would be to us. Our present
position was without a parallel, we had never yet embarked
an immense body of men in a country where the climate was
unfavourable, and the inhabitants unfriendly to our powers.
He wished to know the prospects of Government when
they obtained Sebastopol, and in what way they thought it
would tend to further the ends of peace. He would like to
kno* when the treaty would be laid upon the table, that it
might be fairly discussed. He, for his own part, distrusted
the German Powers, and, as far as he could hear at present,
thought that their present intention was to make England
and France pay the piper. After paying a most eulogistic
complement to the bravery and conduct of the allied powers
now in the Crimea, the hon. gentleman concluded by expres-
sing a wish that this house would' be put in possession of the
clearest explanation of the treaty which had been entered into.
Mr. ALCOCK found fault with the manner in which the
war has been carried ou. .Both Parliament and the country
had been most anxious to place ample means at the disposal
of the Government, and yet it seemed to him that nothing
had been accomplished. The finest fleet that ever left these
shores had been dispatched to the Baltic, and now it was
about to return, without having achieved a single victory, or
attempted anything worthy of such a squadron. It was too
late for Ministers to plead the excuse that the admiral had
been left without land forces, because it Ives bad judgment
in the Minister of War to have sent out the fleet without some
definite end was to be obtained. If he had meditated an at-
tack on St. Petersburg, then the fleet should have been
attended by land forces ; while, on the other hand, if only a
demonstration of English power was intended, the fleet was
unnecessary large. Half the ships would have been sufficient
to accomplish that purpose, and the other half ought to have
been despatched to the Black Sea. Again, our operations in the
Crimea were to his mind highly unsatisfactory, not that they
reflected any discredit on our forces, but these forces were far
too small for the object to be attained, as the experience of
history ought to have satisfied the Minister. The attack
upon the Crimea should never have been attempted with such
a small army. In the year 1832 it required 64,000 men to
besiege the city of Antwerp, and that as well as other similar
facts before them ought to have convinced Ministers that our
army was not sufficiently numerous to encourage any hope of
success. (Hear, hear.)

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wieh, that the Government had evinced gross apathy with
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courage and gallantry which our army had displayed in the
means of succour for such a noble body of men. (Hear,
hear.) He was not very fond of foreigners, and therefore he
would not trust to Austria or auy other German power. It
was an old saying that it took nine tailors to make a man;
but it would take ninety-nine foreigners to make an English
soldier—(a laugh)—and he for one would rather not have
anything to do with them. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. RICE bore testimony to the efficient state of the Baltic
fleet, and he could not agree with those who thought it had
accomplished nothing, because if it had not been sent to the
Baltic the Russian fleet at Cronstadt would have found its
way to the Black Sea. It was all very well to say the fleet
was too large for its purpose ; suppose it had been.too small,
what, thon, would have been said of Ministers ? while with re-
gard to attacking stone walls with ships, our experience in the
Black Sea proved the superiority of the former over the latter.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER deprecated any
disclosure of what were to be the future military measures of
the Government, and pointed to the manner in which the
noble President of the Council had been attacked for what he
said last year as his justification for silence. Government
was asked what they expected to accomplish from the taking
of Sebastopol; but for the reason he bad just stated he must
decline to answer the question, while with regard to the
faults which had been found of our past operations he must
leave them to be answered by the admirable speech of the
Secretary at War last night. At the same time, he must ask
the bon. member for Surrey if be was doing justice to his
countrymen when he said that nothing had been done in the
Black Sea—(hear, hear)—or that the expedition to the Baltic
had been without its results. (Hear, hear.) It was said
that the Baltic fleet was too large for its purpose, but how
could that be when it might have had to meet something
like 29 Russian sail-of-the-line. Nineteen ships-of-the-line
were certainly not too many to meet such a force.
While, as regarded the operations in the Black Sea and
the Crimea, it was an ill-founded statement to say that
they had been rashly undertaken, with an insufficient
force, because up to the present moment the united powers
bad devoted no less than 150,000 to the invasion of the
Crimea. (Hear, hear.) Replying to the question of Sir H.
Willoughby, relative to the treaty with Austria, he stated
that the Government regretted their inability to lay it on the
table before the discussion had taken place ; but the treaty
remained yet to be ratified, and it would be departing from
the ordinary course in such matters to lay it before Parlia-
ment until the ratification had taken place. (Hear.) At the
same time the house was not now called upon by the address
to pronounce any opinion upon the nature of the treaty ; and
if it should hereafter prove unsatisfactory, it would still be
open to the honourable baronet to move a vote of cen-
sure upon the Government for having entered into it. (Hear,
hear.) The right hon. gentleman concluded by briefly
recapitulating what the army and navy had accomplished
within the space of twelve months. We had become familiar
with the difficult navigation of the Baltic, while we had
stopped the trade of Russia. The question of whether Con-
stantinople was safe had been set at rest; the Danube had
been opened, and our army had obtained an almost impreg-
nable position in the Crimea, which justified the hope that
Sebastopol would ultimately fall. Add these great results to
the prestige which these operations had given to our military
character, and he thought he would be a bold man who would
persist in saying that nothing had been accomplished.
Mr. WHITESIDE blamed the Government for having gone
to war without resources, which had been the cause of all our
misfortunes.

F. SCOTT thought the army had been exposed to un-
necessary risks from the want of foresight in the Government,
and ho was convinced that no explanation had yet been given
which would satisfy the country. Delay and timidity had
characterised all their movements, and they were doing now,
with regard to the Militia, what they *tight long ego to have
recommended for the adoption of Parliament.
Sir J. TROLLOPE thought it would have been more advi-
sable if that passage in the Address relative to the treaty
with Austria had been omitted because it was quite clear
the antecedents of that Power afforded no hope that she
would ever be induced to draw the sword againtt Russia.
The Address was then agreed to, and a committee appointed
to convey it to her Majesty.