The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-13 00:00:00

.THE MINISTER OP WAR.

Our French neighbours have a Minister of War
and a Minister of Marine. We have hitherto pre-
ferred half a dozen independent departments for
the army, and in the navy a single Board, repre-
sented in Parliament by its First Lord and its Se-
cretary. Each of these systems has its drawbacks,
but it may with safety be affirmed that none is so
radically vicious as the heterogeneous jumble and
confusion of offices which have for a century past
carried on the administration of the British army.
We are now to have a Minister of War, and the
question is only as to whether military authority
is really to be concentrated in a single hand. Re-
sponsibility and authority go together, and should
remain undivided. if we obtain, at the present
estimate, a really responsible and capable Minister,
one month's war experience will save ten times
the annual cost of the new department ; if we are
to have only another Secretary, co-equal and co-
ordinate with the rest, we shall have only increased
confusion at the cost of 15,000/. a-year.—Times.

(Front the Morning ddvertiaer.)
It was intended that the vote for the new War
Department should be taken to-morrow, in which
case it is probable that the whole question of the
Eastern war would have been gone into, as well as
the appointment which had been made to the new
office. But Lord John Russell intimated, towards
the conclusion of the sitting on Tuesday evening,
that the vote for the new War Department will not
be taken till Monday.
We regret the postponement even for so short a
period as from Friday till Monday. The country
is much dissatisfied not only with the exclusion of
Lord Palmerston from the ne .v office, but with the
whole of our proceedings relative to the Eastern
question. The patience of the public is now fairly
exhausted. We have, up till this moment, literally.
done nothing. The Turks have received no asis-
twice from us. They have had to fight their own
battles as best they could. Nor, if what is confi-
dently stated in well-informed quarters be correct,
is there any probability of our pursuing a more
vigorous course for the time to come. We believe
there is no doubt of the fact that Sir Charles
Napier has written home to the Government that
Cronstadt could certainly be taken, and that he
has asked the Admiralty to rescind the orders by
which he is prevented from attacking that impor-
tant fortress. We are sorry to be obliged to add,
th,:.t we fear it is equally true that Government
have refused to give him the necessary power to
make such an attack.

It would be impossible to overstate the mischief
which has already been done, or to calculate the
amount of injury which will yet be entailed on
England, Turkey, and Europe, by this culpable
inactivity on the part of the Western Powers, if
she ever had any serious intentions of identifying
herself with their Eastern policy ; it encourages
Prussia in her friendship for the Czar : it feeds the
hopes and increases the audacity of Russia ; and it
disheartens and paralyses the Turks. The Czar
must by this time have ceased to fear this country,
and the Sultan to cherish any hopes from it. All
our extensive and expensive preparations for war
have as yet been no better than so much mere idle
display. Nor are those evils of our do-nothing pro-
cedure, which we have pointed out, the only ones.
The prestige of the British name has grievously
suffered, and will suffer yet more seriously, fiom
the inaction which we have so much cause to de-
plore. If that inaction be continued much longer,
we shall, as the Times of yesterday very justly re-
marks, be covered with ridicule.

,
It is due to Lords John Russell, Clarendon, and
Palmerston, to say that the private information
which from time to time reaches us, as to the state
of matters in the Cabinet, leaves on our minds the
impression, that they are in favour of a policy
more vigorous, and more worthy of the charac-
ter of England than has yet been pursued. But
they are, we are told, out-voted and overruled by
the Aberdeen section of the Cabinet. But why, it
will be asked, do they not, in such circumstances,
resign ? We say they ought. We hold that • a-
triotism, and a regard for their own individualp
characters, would prompt them to the adoption
that course. They, however, do not seem disposedof
to take a step which we tthhieuirk
htahneidrs.owlnt honour
imperatively
timhapterLatoirvdelyArbeeludiereena at
tolds over
t their head the
advisinggfor either
her Majestyof themselves,
send for Lord
resign.
nae us eel v
woulde s, i n the
t
eventyt
of, o
and
1 Iliids bneoi being
compelled to
,Wfreo
m should
hope that any menace of that
is,pur-
suingßut,
in be aev
etclb.oyautsresanes
sense,
ioN It:
deter men, filling such exalted positions
lmiicahy,tthbey deemed to be right.
to the country, ande
publictbat
p present state of matters
unsatisfactory. It is most in-
juriousnational character. It makesmost disastrous to the
inTtehreeystaaar.re6darliwvaenspeople suspect all
private interests
statesmen to the national honyourp
to thef conclusion
preferred by byour
good. We emphatically say, that if John Lords public
Russell, Palmerston, and Clarendon cannot re
vail on the pro-Russian Premier to prosecute pre-
vail
war with the Czar, in the way which they think
the exigencies of the case require, they are bound
by
every consideration which ought to influence
honourable men to resign the offices which they
severally fill.

UNION BANS OF LONDON.—The dividend declared
at the meeting of the Union Bank of London, held yes-
terday, was at the rate of 15 per cent., smiths report
and accounts were unanimously adopted. The chair-
man (Sir Peter Laurie) stated that business has gre&tly
increased, and that teere is every prospect of its being
maintained. During the past year the assets have been
augmented to the extent of 2,000,0001., the divi.
dend has been doubled, while the interest to customers
is more than twice the amount previously paid.
Special votes of thanks were passed to the directors
andas
iwellt
been th e
agreedmanager,
i Mr.
W.W. Scrimgeour,
acknowledge the serviette of
answer
te (l
inu questions
nfisetiit was
mentionedres a t
presentt s
warrants discovered in circulation, and that the salaries
ti
the latter gentleman and his assistants by the appropri-
ation at par of the residue of the reserved shares which
on
are now to he issued to the general proprietary at a pre-
mium of 51,, in the proportion of two for every five
h
the
bbeladn. k Itse
not
of the clerks have lately been increased.
shares
bt
nation of the meeting the directors At the termi-
nation were requested to
cause a portrait of Sir Peter 1, •
aline to bs painted and
placed in the board-room.
MlLlTARY.—Detachments of the Fourth Light Dra-
goons arrived in Exeter yesterday from Dorchester
and Trowbridge, en route for
_Plymouth, and marched
to Topsham barracks. The Cavalry barracks are on•
oußied by the 15th Hussars,
regimmt hick ware
stationed viharts at Ti kayo to: tbi
puma b.ea billeted in the coy . _..t.
. .

The estimate of expenses for the new Depart-
ment of the Secretary of State for War has at
length been published. The total amount is com-
puted at 14,037/. We are not disposed to find
fault with the e
in estimated cost of the new depart-
ment, if the business of the army is to be concen-
trated at last the hands of a single efficient chief.
There would not, indeed, be wanting persons who
would say that the estimate rendered is either
too little or too much. It is too little, if we ex-
pect that all the responsibilities of the War Depart-
ment, all its arrangements, all its embarrassments
are to be assumed, carried out, and mastered for
so small a sum, while fitting reductions are made
in other departments which have hitherto been
conducted on a footing of independence. It is too
much, if all the advantage the public are to derive
from the change is the creation of another and a
fresh department of war, where too many offices
of a similar character already existed. The esti-
inate, indeed, as it stands, tells us little or nothing
of all we most desire to know. It would be desir-
able to have before us a statement, which could be
comprehended at a single glance, of the various
alterations proposed in the several coequal and in-
dependent departments which, by their united
action, carry on the military business of the coun-
try. If we are to have indeed a Minister of War—
we purposely avoid the ambiguous term of Secre-
tary of War—we should wish for more accurate
information as to the extent to which modifications
are to be introduced into the business hitherto
carried on at the Horse Guards, the Colonial-office,
the War-office, the Ordnance-office, &c. Is there
to be one controlling mind—one Minister who shall
be ultimately responsible for all that is done in the
offices of the Commander-in-Chief, the Master-
General of the Ordnance, the Colonial Minister,
the Secretary at War, &-c. If this be so, it would
appear to follow as a natural consequence that the
other high offices are shorn of a portion of their im-
portance, and that the holders of them are reduced
in some measure to the condition of subordinates.
At all times it will be necessary to find men of stand-
ing and experience to preside over the various de-
partments, in order that the country and the army
may have confidence in its administrators ; but it
is needless to add that they never can be in times
to come what they have been of old, if the alters•
tions which the public have been lead to expect
are effectively carried out. We must embrace, this
consequence of the contemplated change, if it is to
be effected in such a manner as shall effectually
promote the public service. Questions of great
moment must naturally arise as we endeavour to
follow out the details of the scheme ; but they are
not such as are by any means impossible of solu-
tion. We shall be compelled to break, great
measure, with the old traditions of administration,
but any heart-burnings or awkwardness are of
slight moment indeed, when compared with the
inestimable advantage of securing a supreme 14
undivided control over the management of this
department, important, indeed, in time of peace,
but which almost absorbs all others during the
war.