The Sun.
London, England, 1854-06-08 00:00:00

MINISTER OF WAR.

On the motion that the Speaker do leave the chair fur
going into committee of supply,
Lord J. RUSSELL took the opportunity of explain-
ing the views of the Government with reference to
the appointment of a War Minister. He imagined
that there were two questions upon this subject which
had engaged the attention of the house—one was the
question of giving more immediate vigour and efficiency
to the War department of the State ; the other related
to the arrangements to be made with respect to our
various military departments which now enjoyed a
divided authority. (Hear.) With regard to the first
of these questions, namely, the more efficient adminis-
tration of military affairs in time of war, it was to be
collected from general experience, while it was the
opinion of the Government that it was physically and
morally impossible for the Minister of the Colonial De-
partment to give to the affairs of the war that great
amount of attention, time, and labour, which those affairs
demanded. It was therefore the opinion of the Govern-
ment that the affairs of the War Department, instead of
being united, should be entirely separated from the
Colonial Department. With reference to the next
question regarding the various departments which were
connected with military affairs, the house was (aware
that these departments were several in number, and ful-
filled various functions. The Secretary of State for the
Colonies and War takes the Queen's pleasure with re-
spect to the amount of forces to be kept up for the year,
and takes the Queen's pleasure likewise with regard to
any considerable augmentation or reduction to be
made in the army. (Hear.) The Secretary-at-War
administer the financial affairs of the army. The Board
of Ordnance, in the first place, has the management of
the Artillery and Engineers, but there were other func-
tionaries which from time to time had been imposed upon
that board. The Commissariat was a department of the
Treasury, while there were other departments that had a
more or less concern in the affairs of the army. A.
committee of the house, so far back as 1832, was ap-
pointed to consider the propriety of uniting all these de-
partments, and subsequently a commission was nomi-
nated by the Crown to consider the subject, but it was
found impossible to adopt any of the recommen-
dations which resulted from these two inquiries.
-Under these circumstances it would be unwise
for Government to undertake an adjustment of
these various depart nents, and they thought it would
be much better to let things remain as they are, with the
single exception of appointing a Minister of War, who
should be the head of all these departments, having power
to suggest changes for the future that might occur to him.
(Hear, hear.) There was no wish or desire, however, to
interfere with the duties or functions attached to the
office of Commander-in-Chief, which should never be
allowed to partake of a political character. (Hear, hear.)
The noble lord concluded by stating that it would not
be necessary to introduce any bill to make the proposed
change.

Mr. HUME was glad to find Government had made
a beginning, but he trusted some definite plan would be
laid on the table before the proposed arrangement was
carried out. His object was that there should be one
head, a member of the Government ; and he wished to
seo the army and ordnance recognised as a part of our
great military establishment. He also wished to know
if there was an order given to alter the clothing of
the army.
Mr. E. ELLIS said for fear our general assent here-
after might be taken to imply their approval of the whole
measure, that measure did not certainly satisfy him. But
what he thought was required with respect to our mili-
tary establishments altogether was that there should be
one head responsible to this house for the expenditure of
the army. He perfectly agreed with his noble friend that
there should be no Party considerations attached to such
an office.
Mr. RICH said, in consequence of the observations
of the noble lord, he should
withdraw his notice of mo-
tion on this subject, which he had placed on the paper
for this evening.
Col. DUNNE expressed his warm approval of the
measure announced by the
if
lord. -
Mr. M. GIBSON asked if it would be competent f
the new Secretary of State to have a seat in r
House of Commons ?the

Lord J. RUSSELL said it would be crn p etent for
such a secretary to have a seat in the house.
Mr. W. WILLIAMS then passed to the subject f
the civil service estimates, which he insisted had under-
goneo- an extravagant increase of late years.
The house then went into a committee of supply.
[LEFT SITTING.]

THE EARL OF ANTRIM.—We greatly regret (says the 11i
.Belfast Whig) to have to state that the expectations
generally indulged in that this nobleman would be re-
stored to health long ere this, have been disappointed.
The noble earl remains seriously ill, and on Friday and
the greater part of Saturday his indisposition has not
assumed a more favourable aspect.
REFORMATION OF JUVENILE CRlMlNALS.—Yesterday
the quarterly general court of the governors of the Phi-
lanthropic institution established at Redhill Farm, Reim-
gate, for the Reformation of Juvenile Criminals, wa
held at the offices of the society, Crown-court, Thread-
needle-street, Mr. W. Gladstone in the chair. The re-
Port of the Rev. Sydney Turner, the chaplain of the
institution, stated that 25 boys had been admitted to it
since the.last court day, and that 46 had left, of whom
24 emigrated, 20 obtained employment in England, and
two had deserted, and that 182 at present remained in
the school. The report having been adopted, it was,
after some discussion, resolved to memorialise Govern-
ment for an increased Parliamentary grant, as 251., the
sum at present allowed for the maintenance of eachboy,
is not, considering the existing price of articles of food,
sufficient for that purpose. Some other routine business
having been transacted, the proceedings terminated with
a vote of thanks to the chairman.