The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-21 00:00:00

TIDE FOREIGN ENLISTMENT BILL.

The worst feature of the proceedings of Government
in connection with the Foreign Enlistment Bill, is the
distrust which they evince towards.the country. If the
Cabinet be acting fairly by us, and be doing that of
which it is not ashamed, why not have stated openly
what were their intentions? Wby not declare the true
drift and whole scope of their measure
We do not believe that, when Parliament assented, on
Tuesday night, to the passing of the Foreign Enlistment
Bill, on its second reading, either majority or minority
had any true notion of the real value of the measure
about which they contended. It is a positive fact, that
at this moment the country thinks, and we suspect Par-
liament also is persuaded, that the measure which is
now before a committee of the whole house involves only
the employment of ten thousand foreign mercenaries in
our service abroad, whereas it really and truly aims-
1. At the employment of perhaps forty or fifty
thousand mercenaries abroad, the ten thou-
sand being kept in England as a depot.
2. The subsidising of German States.

Now, as to the firstpoint the Queen may, in virtue of
her royal prerogative, employ abroad as many foreigners
as she or her Government may choose, the only check
upon this action of the Government, on the part of the
people, being their power of granting or refusing the
supplies for the payment of such troops. But the Queen
cannot, unless sanctioned by special Act of Parliament,
introduce into this free country one single foreign soldier,
and therefore the Cabinet has brought the present bill
before Parliament, that they may be allowed, not, as they
pretend, to drill only 10,000 foreigners and send them
to the Crimea, but really and truly to establish a per-
manent depot in this country of 10,000 men, which, as
every person acquainted with military affairs knows, is
considered equivalent to the existence of an army of
40,000 or 50,060 men.
Thai is What the Government are insidiously driving
at. If the measure be so good, whY not anew it ?—why
not convict us of foolishness in opposing it ? No ! The
Government of Lord Aberdeen know they do- not
possess the true confidence of the country ;
and, instead of endeaveuring
.to gain it by
English measures, they are frying to deceive it. The
conscience of the country is honest—would that of the
Government were so also I

Parliament have no notion as yet of the expenditure
it is really called upon to sanction, and that it will be
called upon to provide for. It is not to know that till
it has irretrievably comtnitted itself by giving its sanc-
tion to the establishment of a depot in this country of
ten thousand foreign troops.
The next point is the subsidising of foreign States,
which is involved in this measure. For we assume that,
in accordance with all precedent, the foreign States
whose troops we hire will require so much per head in
addition to our undertaking to pay and provide for the
contingent we may engage. From foreign Govern.
ments these troops must be hired—there is no doubt of
that. There is no chance of recruiting a legion. We
know how well the King of Naples treats his troops—
his only friends—and that be has exhausted Switzerland,
offering pay and bounties with which we cannot
compete ; but, perhaps, the most complete and prac-
tical proof of the impossibility of raising a foreign legion
by large bounty and good pay is offered by the Pope,
whose recruiting officers have scoured Germany and
Switzerland in vain. His Holiness required a legion of
eight thousand men only. but he has not yet, after nearly
six months' attempts, succeeded in enlisting two thou-
sand. Under these circumstances we feel warranted in
assuming that we cannot tempt German volunteers to
fight and die fur us for the wretched stipend of this.. Br-
itish soldier ; and we look upon it as certain 'that the
present Cabinet is prepared- to hire large numbers of
troops from German Governments, paying them, accord-
ing to precedent, .a subsidy for their use against our
enemies.

Which are the States that have the good fortune to be
selected for our subsidies—what are the soldiers it will
be our lot to be defended by, we shall shortly know ; in
the meantime, the following information, conveyed to us
by the Allegmeine Zeitung of the 13th instant, throws
perhaps not a little light upon the subject, The Allge-
meine Zeitung's Gotha correspondent writes, under date,
Gotha, December 7 :

" At the sitting to-day of the Saxe-Coburg Gotha
Parliament, under the Presidency of Court Councillor
Becher, besides the proposition of various alterations
which concern. the constitution of the state and the
Royal Household, other propositions also of no: less im-
portance (nicht minder wichtige) proceeded from tha
Government.

"It demanded, namely, a credit of 100,000 thalers
for the mobilisation of the contingent, and also 56,000
thalers fur furnishing it with more effective fire and side
arms;

" The timely care of the Government goes yet further.
It has already caused its army estimates to be prepared,
and will account for the amount demanded with the
Parliament. These propositions of the Goyernmext are
now being discussed in committee, and will be considered
in the whole house at its next sitting." This mobilisation
of the Saxe•Coburg contingent, and, further, the myste-
rious indication of the increase in the army esti n ates, is
but too significant.

Mr. Disraeli well put forward the argument that we
are acting as though our army alone was opposed to that
of the Emperor of Russia. Rave we not an ally Q An
ally who can Jana as many men as we wish, or can
transport and pay for on the Crimean shore. Yet here
is another mystery ! Another Ministerial silence !
Has application been made to France 7 Or has the Go-
vernment as_o3rtained that the German is, indeed, the
cheapest market of muskets, if not of patriotism ?
On another occasion, when England, represented as
now by the noblest and bravest of her land, stood weak
and weary, but still uncowed before an enemy who arro-
gantly supposed that that dreary night was to be the last
of that faded host, her hero is represented to have said
that

" If we aro doomed to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; bat if to live,
The fewer men the greater share of honour."
Some such sentiment probably animates the gallant
army that now upholds the honour of England in the
Crimea, though outworn, as those brave men are, by
fatigue and unrest, and dizziei by the ceaseless roar
of artillery and the incessant sounds of war that shake
the strongest nerves, they may well be excused if they
do wish for more men from England. But what will
that unconquerable band whose hands can so well keep
their heads say when they are told that they are to be
grateful for more men from Coburg—that their deliverers
are to be Germans, bought lean by
_contract at per
thousand souls (for by such phrase German royalty
asserts the complete property of the prince in her nth-
jects), fattened in a couple of months on British fare,
and then sent with a piteous resignation to the great
slaughter-house on the Tauric Chersonese, for so no
doubt, those ill-timed levies will regard the spot which
our men look upon as the welcome theatre of deeds ;
whose valour, never surpassed, is repaid by renown
rarely equalled, and coeval with the history of the land.
Brave men the Germans undoubtedly are, but are they
equal to meet the brunt of such a battle as Alma, to bear
unmoved such a terrible onslaught as Inkerman ? De-
plorable as was the carnage at Balaklava, yet the coun-
try would prefer to hear of it than to have to record
the conduct of that Hanoverian Colonel of Hussars, who,
at Waterloo, after reiterated orders to advance, wnen at
last a staff officer brought him the caustic direction
either to attack or to withdraw his men, blandly thanked
the astounded aide-decamp for the courteous alterna-
tive, and selected the latter course. What would Lord
Cardigan have said to that ? What security is there
that it might not occur again ?
But why is this outrage offered to the manhood of
England ? Cui bono ? What country ever sent forth
such an array of soldiers, all volunteers ? Guards, ca-
valry, artillery, infantry, all soldiers of their own free
choice ; not one man taken from his home by force of
law ; whilst militia battalion■ rise as by magic from the
earth, as the armed men sprang from the fabled teeth—
every man of whom is a better man than can be expected
from these unnational levies, with what is even of much
more importance—a personal, a local, and a national.
character to support. Will any one say that, supposing
a regiment of the line to be reduced to five hundred
bayonets, the addition of three hundred men from a Mi-
litia regiment would not restore its numerical efficiency,
without perceptibly affecting its discipline in quarter, or
its conduct in the field ? The men are there, the will is
there, the war spirit exults throughout the length and
breadth of the land : those that do not fight are con-
tent to pay. The very drawing-rooms testify in lint and
mittens to the readiness of the country for ba4je, and we
are told that we require mercenary GermansTe fight our
battles. There must be some evil influence at work to
produce such an untoward result.
England is true enough to herself, but the hour is not
far off' when, with one voice, England will ask—Are her
public servants true to her?—Morning Post.