The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-18 00:00:00

office_ of .a. military chief placed at the head of the
artillery or engineers, and who is entrusted to provide arms
foe the defence of the country, has added to its duties
great civil functions, which arc connected at once with
military and political duties in the State. For instance,
take the subject of barrack accommodation for the troops
at home and abroad, which is one of high importance, in-
volving various considerations, and for which estimates are
presented to the house involving very considerable expen-
diture to the country. But the manner in which that
question has been generally conducted is one which makes
it very difficult to come to a permanently sound conclu-
sion. The Secretary for the Home Department, finding
that there are riots and tumults in a particular district,°
and being told by persons resident in it that it would be a
great security for them to have a garrison at a particular
spot for their protection, takes measures to have barracks
constructed in that locality. But it is obvious that the
question of barrack accommodation in the United King-
dom involves both civil considerations of expense and mili-
tary considerations as to the stationing of troops at points
where they are wanted, and from which a concentration
might take place in a very short time. So likewise with
regard to the colonies. At one time a long and volumin-
ous correspondence occurred, which has been referred to
by Earl Grey on a recent occasion, with regard to the best
mode of planting troops in the island of Jamaica. Opinions
were given on the subject by persons of authority, who
were sent out by the Ordnance department to the colony.
Reports came back, which were referred to the Treasury.
The Treasury then consulted the Secretary-at-War and the
Master-General, and a year elapsed without a solution of
that question. No ,Y it is obvious that a Secretary of State
for the War Department, having the authority which a
Secretary of State has, being also connected with the
Government, being by his office of Secretary of State
a member of the Cabinet, would bring that question to
a very speedy solution ; he would have an examination
made with respect to the salubrity of the position pro-
posed for barracks, and with respect to its fitness for
troops placed to defend the island ; and in this manner
there might possibly be a considerable saving both of time
and expense. Take, again, the question of fortifications,
which is cue of the highest importance both at home and
abroad. I will not now touch on that part of the subject
which relates to our home defences, but take the fortifica-
tions of any particular colony, such as Trinidad or Masai-
tins. The select committee of the house appointed some
years ago to inquire into onr military expenditure, made a
report in which they desired that the Government would
fully consider the question, and it is obvious that it is one
requiring considerable attention, and mixed up with the
whole policy of the State in respect to future arrangements
of the connection with our dependencies. I remember,
with reference to Gibraltar, when I had the honour of
being Secretary of State for the Colonies, a committee was
appointed consisting of several high military authorities,
and a considerable time passed before they came to any de-
cision. A Master-General of the Ordnance, not politically
connected with the Government of course. rather hesitates
to give an opinion, by which very considerable expense
may be incurred, without being fully aware of the views
of the Cabinet on this subject. A Minister of War would
be enabled to collect afl the materials necessary for form-
ing a judgment ou this subject, and before the estimates
for the year were prepared he would have gone over them,
and would have informed the Government what measures
were in his opinion necessary, and whether it was advisable
that any further expenses should be incurred, or whether
any retrenchment could be effected. So with regard to our
West India Islands; several years ago it was found that
those islands, having been occupied in time of war by large
bodies of troops, had a great number of forts mounted with
cannon, which required small parties of artillery to be posted
in different places in order to keep them in repair, and ques-
tions arose as to the arrangements which should be made for
these objects. Upon such points the opinion of a Secretary
of State for War would probably be of great use in drawing
up the estimates. With regard to the department of Secre-
tary-at-War, there are less changes that can bo made. The
business of the Secretary at War is chiefly one of details; if
you have 100,000 men, you have a certain estimate and
various arrangements consequent on that number, and so
if you have 20,000, or 30,000, or 40,000. A good deal of
consideration is required in order to fix the point at which
your establishment should be kept ; but that having been
done, there are few questions of difficulty which arise.
Except in regard to the commissariat, I cannot now enter
into any outline of the official arrangements which will be
made, The question has been found one of much difficulty
by the Governments of Earl Grey and Lord Melbourne,
and I think it better that tho head of the department, an
active man of business like the noble duke who is now at
the head of it, should take into his consideration what
changes are expedient in the whole department, and should
propose them when they are required. With regard to
the commissariat, I see no objection which can be made to
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cheerfully acceded to. In reference to the militia, I think
the arrangement prevailing at present is that the embodied
militia comes under the Secretary-at-War and the Com-
mander-in-Chief, but the disembodied militia is under
the Secretary for the Home Department. As at pre-
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sent advised, we do not think it expedient that any
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change should be male in that respect; if it should
be thought necessary, it can bo made at any time ; but the
present arrangement being one that concerns the colonels
of militia, and other officers who are in the habit of trans-
acting business with the Home Department, there appears
no advantage in making any other change. The great ad-
vantage which I think will be gained by our measure is
the separating the civil from the military department, a
great part of the business now done at the Board of Ord-
nance under a military chief being entirely of a civilnature.
It appears to me, whatever may be the mode in which you
arrive at the result, that the Commander-in-Chief and the
Master- General cf the Ordnance, if those two offices are
to continue separate, or the head of both combined if they
are to be united, should have the whole control of the dis-
cipline and patronage of the army, including the artillery
and engineers, and that, on the other hand, the civil de-
partments should have the whole of the arrangements that
are necessary for the lodging of the army, the fortifications
at home and abroad, the provisioning and pay of the
troops. When these changes shall have been effected, the
House f Commons will,then have before it, on the respon-
sibility of the Secretary of State for the War Department,
the whole military expenditure of the country. Therefore,
if there should be any complaint with respect to furnishing
provisions for the troops, for instance, instead of saying
that the arrangements of the Treasury have been defective
the house will call on the Secretary for the War Depart-
ment to answer, and will consider him responsible, for
arrangements which must at all times entail a very
heavy burden on the country. These, sir, are the general
arrangements which are in contemplation. I have
already said that I think there are others which must
bo carried into effect from time to time. It would be
impossible to carry them into effect at present, now that
we are at the beginning of a war, when the Secretary,
of State is fully employed by those urgent and impor-
tant duties which belong to the Minister who is to super-
intend the military expenditure of the country, and give
directions for the employment of our forces. What I have
to ask of the committee, therefore, having explained the
general views of the Government, is to allow time for car-
rying into effect the new arrangements on the responsibi-
lity of Ministers. There are at presort two offices at the
Board of Ordnance vacant which aro usually held by mem-
bers of the House of Commons, that of Surveyor-General,
and that of Secretary to the Master-General of the Ord-
nance. It is not intended without full consideration to
fill up those offices, at least in the way in which they have
been hitherto filled. At present the only opinion I can
give is, that whilst it may not be necessary to keep up the
office of Secretary to the Master-General with so largo a
salary as hitherto, it will be necessary to appoint a Sur-
veyor-General to the Ordnance department. But if that
department is kept up as before, it may be advisable slither
to appoint a person who has a competent knowiedge of the
important duties that belong to that department than a
member of this house not hitherto conversant with those
duties. But lam asking now that the whole subject may
be reserved for the consideration of the Government, and
shall put the vote into Jour hands with that understand-
ing. I should mention that a considerable part of the ex-
pense has been already voted, about 2,000/. a-year or more
of salaries having been included in the estimates for the
Colonial department, and other sums,- of which I do not
know the exact amount, having coming under the heads
of the Treasury and Home departments. With respect
to the cot ces to be created, I should state first that the
military Under Secretary of State was appointed before
the separation of the offices by the Duke of Newcastle,
when he was Secretary of State for War and the Colo-
nies. With respect to the other under secretary, the
purpose of appointing him is, that he may conduct cor-
respondence, and transact other business coming imme-
diately under the control of the Secretary of State. But
the person who is to fill that office will have no lasting
tenure of it until the final arrangements are made, so that
the present one will be merely provisional. With respect
to the three classes of clerks, it is intended that they shall
be all of them taken from offices in which they are at pre-
sent serving. There will be a certain number appointed
as probationary clerks, who will receive salaries of 1001.
and 1501. a-year ; the senior and junior clerks will rise as
in other offices, but they will not, for the present, have
higher salaries. With the explanations I have given to
the house, I beg to move the vote in the hands of the
Chairman.

Sir J. PAKINGTON had listened to the noble lord with
the greatest astonishment and disappointment. The noble
lord had told them that he had stated the views of the
Government ; but it appeared to him that that was exactly
what he had not done, and he could only understand from
the noble lord's speech, with the single exception that the
commissariat was to be transferred from the Treasury to
the new department, that the Government had formed no
views on that subject, and had called into existence a new
department of the State, creating a new officer of the high.
est class, without having at all determined what his duties
were to be, or what were to be the new arrangements on
this subject, which, under the force of eisting circum-
stances, was become one of the most important that could
occupy the consideration of the house. (Hear, hear.)
The noble lord, in the outset of his observations, had
done him the honour to refer to some remarks that
fell from him in a former discussion during the pre-
sent session upon this subject. H® entirely agreed with
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the occasion to which he referred, and the same view had
been enforced in a most able speech in another place by the
noble earl who was his (Sir J. Pakington's)
predecessor in
the Colonial-office. But the Government ought not to
have rested content with stating that they had arrived at
the conclusion that it was necessary to separate those two
offices. They had a right to expect that, before the Go-
vernment asked them to vote an estimate for the establish-
ment of a new department of State, they would have
made up their minds what the duties of the new secretary
were to be, and in what manner the present anomalies and
inconvenienees incident to the administration of the army
were to be remedied. (Hear, hoar.) He hardly thought
that the country was aware that under the present manage-
ment of our military forces there were six different heads
of authority. The regular army, infantry, cavalry, and
artillery, was mainly managed by the Commander-in-Chief
and the Master-General of the Ordnance ; the enrolled pen-
sioners, he believed, were under the management of the
Secretary-at-War ; the dockyard battalions, he rather
thought, were under the management of the Admiralty; the
commissariat was under the Treasury; and as for the yeo-
manry and the militia, it would be very difficult to say under
what authority they were—they were under a great variety
of authorities. If the subject was to be approached by the