The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-26 00:00:00

part and carriages for the militaryforce that were moved
irom Martaban to Rangoon, wh;ch was to the east of
Prone, and was that force wither': the means of trans-
port ? Lord Dalhousie, with the energy: which charac-
terised him, went himself and personally gave orders for
the assembling of elephants and for the collection of
other necessary means of transport. It had been stated
that the elephants were useless, because they had to pass
through the Arracan mountains; but, that was never
contemplated, the route selected being by the way of
Chittagong. Such animadversions.should not be made,
unless the fact of their being merited was established
'beyond all possibility of question, and supported by pa-
pers. Such representations were most mischievous, and
tended to paralyse the efforts of those who were employd.
The exaggerations had been so preposterous that he must
beg the attention of the house while he answered some
.of them. It was represented that the first expedition
had cost 240,000/., but it appeared that the whole of the
expenses amounted only to 30,0001. It was said that the
War expenditure of the year was 500,000/., but it was not
40,0001. a month. The melancholy scenes that had oc-
curred during the former Burmese war were to be attri-

buted to the want of food and clothes, and covering ;;d
medical treatment. Lord Dalhousie knew that well, and
before the war broke out he gave orders for providing
'skeleton houses for the reception of 6,000 or 7,000 men,
and they were conveyed in steamers to the place where
they were required. The result was that the medical
returns from the troops during the rains showed the
health of, the soldier, on an average, to be as good as
the health of the troops on the plains of Bengal at that
time. It;was done with economy, but done effectually ;
and, in fact, all that could be effectually done was done
by Lord Dalhousie. By his personal superintendence in
that province he had established order sooner than it had

been established in any province that had previously been
annexed to the British empire. (Hear, hear.) There
was one consideration of responsibility that pressed upon
Lord Dalhousie, and that distinguished officer, General
Godwin, who had performed his duty assiduously, and
that was the fear of compromising the inhabitants of the
district ofPegu... There was an apprehension in the

minds of General Godwin and Lord Dalhousie that if
they gave anything like an intimation to the Peguese
to side with them, and if they were subsequently
to retire from Pegu, the state of those men would
be wretched if General Godwin allowed them to
do anything to assist him, or if Lord Dalhousie
bad issued such a proclamation until he was sure the
annexation would take place. Scarcely had the procla-
mation been issued, when offers were received from two
of the leading chiefs, offering to put down the dacoits
and plunderers, and a thousand muskets having been
supplied to them, great confidence was thereby given to
the natives. (Hear, hear.) Lord Dalhousie 'had been
requested by the court of directors that he would not
allow the usual period of five years to be the termina-
tion of his government, but that he would continue to
afford the state the benefit of his services ; and though
Lord Dalhousie had strong reasons to induce him to
return to his native country, he had acceded to the
request, and he trusted that as they had been fortunate
enough to have the services of the most distinguished
men in the country, they would stilk longer enjoy the
services of the present Marquis of Dalhousie. (Hear.)
The subject then dropped---en order having been pre-
viously given, as stated by Sir C. Wood, to lay the
papers moved for on the table. '
ARMY BREAD.

Sir W. JOLLIFFE begged, pursuant to notice, to
call the attention Of the house to the 'quality of the
bread that was supplied to her Majesty's forces in Great
Britain, under the existing contracts. In the union
workhouses, in the county gaols, and in , their convict
establishments, the most unexceptionable quality of
bread was supplied, and when it was found that the
bread supplied to the troops was not of a good quality,
it was natural that it should excite discontent amongst
thew. (Hear.) Representations had been made at
various periods with regard to this evil, and the mode
in which it was attempted to be redressed was felt to be
ten times more mischievous than the evil itself. Per-
mission had been most unwisely given that the troops
should pay the difference to the contractor to be fur-
nished with a better description of bread than he was
bound by the contract to furnish. In his opinion, that
led to serious evils, and tended to make the contractor
furnish a worse description of bread than he would other-
wise have been able to do, even under the contract. It
might have the effect of inducing him to take the con-
tract at an extremely low rate, by which he might be a
loser, hoping to be able to pay himself by what he might
receive in addition from the soldiers. The household troops
were differently supplied. They were allowed through their
colonel to make monthly contracts for their bread. The
consequence was, that the burden which bad fallen on the
line was totally avoided by the household troops, and no
charge was made to them for receiving good bread. He
thought it was not too much to expect that a wholesome
kind of household bread should constantly be in use
among all classes of troops in the service. In the event
of a bad harvest, which would, of course, considerably
increase the price of bread, the most serious inconveni-
ences might ensue to the service. It was on these grounds
that he had felt it his duty to bring this subject under
the consideration of the Government ; and he could ildiv
only beg that the right hon. gentleman the Secretary at
War would give the matter his serious consideration.
Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT said, the subject of the
mode of supplying the soldiers with bread came before a
committee on the army ordnance department, which sat
two or three years ago, and in consequence of the recom-
mendations of that committee, which were drawn up by
Lord Hardinge, Sir W. Gordon, and Sir Randolph

Routh, it was-decided that for the future the quality of
the bread which was called "seconds" should be used
among the soldiers. It was further decided, on the evi-
dence given before that committee, that, upon the whole,
what was called the regimental system of contract gave
the most satisfaction to the troops individually ; but
there was this disadvantage in it, that in case of distur-
bance or 'war, that system of contract would break
down ; for they would then require an organisation for
which they had no preparation. There was also this
difficulty ; where a whole regiment was together in one
place, the contract would be made very cheap, but where
companies of the regiment were stationed in different
counties, they were supplied with bread at a very exor-
bitant rate. It was not, perhaps, just to describe the
bread in use among the troops as bad, seeing that the
same kind of bread was frequently used by thg aristo-
cratic classes on account of its exceedingly wholesome
and nutritious quality, and generally by the labouring
and all other classes who were accustomed to use bread
as a principal article of food.
THE AIitEMY ESTIMATES—SUPPLY.

The house then resolved itself into a committee of supply
upon the Army Estimates, Mr. Wilson Patten in the

Chair.

Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT said, in moving the estimates

for her Majesty's forces for the ensuing year, he should,
perhaps be best consulting the convenience of the house by
refraining from going into any lengthened statement with
respect to the number of men which would be proposed for
the year. On the first night of the session his noble friend
sitting near him (Lord J. Russell) expressed the intention
of the Government to make no increase of men for the
army, navy, and ordnance upon the number proposed by
the late Government ; and as that statement was received
with general satisfaction by the house, he (Mr. Sidney Her-
bert) thought he would be uselessly taking up the time of
of the committee were he to enter upon a statement of the
reasons which had induced the Government to retain the
number of men now in the estimates. He did not mean
to say positively that there would be no alteration in the
numbers, because, in fact, there was a slight increase, re-
sulting from the return of a regiment of cavalry from
India, which now augmented the aggregate number pro-
posed to be maintained by between 200 and 300,
and affected the total charge to the extent of
about 17,0001. He would just shortly state what
were the heads of difference in the principal votes,
before he drew the attention of the committee to cer-
tain points which he thought worthy of their conside-
tion. The changes on the first vote arose principally
from the augmentation occasioned by the return of a
cavalry regiment from India, to which he had already ad-
verted ; and there would be found alterations resulting
partly from that reduction of the staff, which the vigilance
of the War-office was always endeavouring to effect, and
partly from other causes. The committee would find that
the whole charge of the Tower had been transferred to the
vote for rewards for distinguished services. The hon. gen-
tleman the member for Montrose would recollect that in
1834 and 1835 there was a recommendation from the com-
mittee of the army and navy departments that for the
all governors of sinecure garrisons should be abo-
-'-isiledi and that the proceeds of them should be devoted to
the forming of a fund which should be distributed as re-
wards for:4listinguished services to officers who had been
recommended for such rewards in consideration of their
long VI-, .ad that that should continue augmenting
till th, Dole sum had reached the amount of 18,0001.
The transfer of the vote for the Tower to the estimate
he had mentioned completed that sum of 18,0001.,
and for the future the proceeds of that department
would be distributed in the shape of rewards for
distinguished services among deserving officers. In the
meantime it would be necessary to place on the staff
a 'shall effective force, which should perform the
duties of the garrison. The reductions under the head of
the foreign staff were effected by the diminution in the
troops in Africa, Bermuda, Australia, Canada, and, gene-
rally speaking, in all the British colonies. The vote for
the public departments would be found almost in the same
state as it was last year. It included, however, a charge
for postage at the War-office, in consequence of calling out
the militia, of 5,9001., which he was afraid was an indica-
tion of the very large increase of business in that depart-
ment. Application had been made at the War-office for an
additional force to meet the pressure of business arising
from embodying the militia, and therefore he was afraid
that the present npparent reduction in the expenses of the
War-office would be, next year, converted into an augmen-
tation. Upon several minor heads there was no very
great change. In the vote for the Royal Military Asylum,
there was some small augmentation, arising chiefly from
a-a increase of the staff for the education of schoolmasters.
It would be recollected that there had been some complaint
in that house, when good conduct rewards were first esta-
blished by Lord Howick, and augmented by himself (Mr.
Sidney Herbert) in 1845, that sergeants were excluded from
all participaiion in those rewards. He confessed for
himself he thought they had no title to share in those re-
wards, seeing that, as sergeants, they received adidtional
pay- There were circumstances, however, under which
such an exclusion pressed somewhat prejudicially on a
meritorious body of men ; and he must say there was no
bucly of men to whom the army owed so much as to its