The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVE i > t-,M BCH 1,l'Ir)(i.

lowed in the appointment of the Crimean commission ; if it •
had the report of that commission would have been clearer
than it was. Were the facts stated by the commiss.oners in
the main untrue? The Under-Secretary for the War Depart-
ment
thought that there were two points in which the report
required rectification, and they were only cases in which the ;
opinion of -a witness did not appear to be reporLd with per- !
feet precision. He (Mr. Gladstone) thought a short-hand wris
ter should have been sent out with the commissioners ; with
their own pens and their own hands they had taken down
the mass of evidence which then- filled a large blue-book;
and he was only astonished that a greater number of errors
had not occurred. It did not require a great deal of trou-
-I:Se t ) rectify those errors ; it was the duty of the de-
partmeut to give the parties power to explain those
errors by access to any documents necessary for that
purpose. He had not found fault with,what the Under Secre-
tary for the War Department had said, it was with what he
had not said. He hoped the noble lord at the head of the
Government would be able to tell them in what position Sir
J. M'Neil and Col Tulloch stood before the Government in
regard to their report, which, in his opinion, 'had earned for
them the gratitude of the country. Ho hoped the noble lord
would assure them that however loose the wording of the war-
rant was with respect to what the commission was to inquire
into, that the intention with which that body had been ap
pointed was essentially the same as that appointed after the
Convention of Cintra -simply of investieatinf the military
responsibility of the officers whose conduct . was impugned.
He thought the limits of the inquiry should be defined be-
fore the commission sat, or it would be too late to attain that
object.
Mr. WILKINSON made a few observatiOns,•which were
inaudible in the gallery.
Lord PALMERSTON—Sir, I think that the course which
these proceedings have taken has sufficiently proved that the
hon, and learned gentleman who made this motion has not
exorcised a sound discretion is choosing the present moment
for introducing it. My hon. friend the Under, Seceetary of
State for the War Department has been much blamed by
many hon. members who have spoken, for having entered into
the details of the matters to which the motion of the hon.
and learned gentleman referred. But if anybody will take the
trouble to read the words of the motion which we are now
discussing, they will see that those words compelled my hon-
ourable friend to enter into the dgails which he felt it his
duty to introduce into his speech. Sir, the motion of the
honourable and learned gentleman is a censure upon the
Government fer h tying appointed to military situations
persons whose conduct has been canvassed and impugned
by the report, of the commissioners ; and my honourable
friend the Under Secretary for State but performed his
duty in eudea.vouring to show that the Government was not
to blame for the 3.ppointments which the hen, and learned
gentleman regrets were made. He shows that one of these
appointments took place before that commission was ap-
pointed; he shows that others took place be ore the report
was presented to the Government, and consequently, even if
the report lnd adverted in stronger terms than it did to the
conduct of the parties concerned, these appointments having
taken place before the report was in the hands of the Govern-
ment, it was impossible for the Government to have acted
upon a report of which they were not iu possession ; there-
fore the hon. and learned gentleman's censure falls to the
ground. I think it is very unfortunate that the debate should
have led to animadversions upon officers who will be allowed
an opportunity of stating their case to a competent tribunal.
The hon, and gallant officer who spoke from below the gang-
way began by lamenting that this debate had taken a personal
turn, and yet the whole of his speech was nothing but a tissue
of personal allusions, attacks upon individuals, and attacks
upon officers, high and low, which I think really were not
consistent with the generous character which my hon. and
gallant friend, if he will allow me to call him so, always
evinces. On calm refleotion ho will feel that it would have
been more becoming the high position which he holds, both
in this house and in the army, if he had spared those attacks
upon officers below him—(hear, hear)—attacks, I must say,
not deserved by them from the person by whom they were
made. Sir, it has been asserted that the course of proceed-
ings which the Government have taken is a reflection 'Upon
the commissioners who were sent out to the Crimea.. I
utterly deny the charge. (Cheers) In the beginning of the
last year two commissioners were sent out to the Crimea.
Sir John M'Neil and Colonel Tulloch were appointed to
inquire into t'AD supplies of the- army ; and another com-
mission, consisting of two medical gentlemen, both eminent
in their position, was sent out to inquire into the medical
condition of the army. Colonel Tulloch and Sir John
M'Neil have performed their duties to the entire satis-
faction of the Government, and to the infinite advantage of
the service —(loud cheers)—and the result has been,
that whereas at the time they weut out great local confusioa
and irregularity existed in all the arrangements connected
with the supplies of the army, from the time they set those
matters right to the present the army has been exceedingly
well supplied, and regularity and abundance have succeeded
to irregularity and deficiency of supply. (Cheers) I must,
therefore, beg to be clearly understood when I say, that her
Majesty's Government feel muca obliged to the gentlemen
who performed those duties which they undertook for the
very able and satisfactory discharge of their duty ; and there
has been nothing in the course which we have taken of ap-
pointing a board of general officers which implies the slightest
reflection upon the conduct and proceedings of those two
commissioners. (Hear, hear.) What, then, is the, state of
the case ? Why, it is-this—that the reports of the commis-
sioners contain statements which several officers consider cast
reflections upon their conduct, and those officers have a right
to expect that there should be afforded to them some moans
and some proper authority befell) whom they could give those
explanations which it is due to their own characters to make.
What better opportunity, I ask, could be afforded to them
than the appointment of a board of general officers ? Is it
in debate in this house that such explanations could be better
given? I appeal to the example of this evening to show
how utterly unsatisfactory such a course would havo been,
either to the persons concerned, to this house, or to the
country at large. (Hear, hear.) Would a select committee
of this house have been a better means ? No. Would a
select committee of the House of Commons-beras-,competent
to judge of matters connected-With military details as a
board cif general officers, necessarily conversant as they
must be with everything which will be referred to them ?
Sir, honourable gentlemen have chosen to take their views
of the functions of this board from the title quoted at
the back of the warrant appointing the co:nmissioners.
If, instead of taking detached words at the back of the
paper, they had had the goodness to read the paper itself,
they would have seen that the board of general officers is
not to report upon the report of the commissions: s, bat that
it is to inquire into matters the mention of which cei tai::
officers think has cast a reflection upon their character and
conduct, to receive explanations, and to report their opinion
thereupon. I cannot conceive anything less objectionable
than the appointment of this board, for it seems to me to be
the only proper method of affording to the officers io .ques-
tion that opportunity for explanation which they are fairly
entitled to demand. I cannot go, therefore, with my right
hon. friend, who says that we ought to have followed the pre-
cedent of the convention of Cintra, because upon that occa-
sion the board of general officers were to report whether any
military proceedings should take place in consequence of
their investigation. In the first place the case was one very
different from the present. On that occasion a simple mat-
ter, and one upon which it was easy to form an opiuion, was
to be inquired into; here the metters to no inquired into are
much more complicated in their character, This board of
general' officers is ca!led upon to report their opinion. That
opinion may be either that military proceedings aro required,
or that there is no occasion for any further proceedings in
this, that, or the other case which may be submitted to
theirjuclgmeat. Now, we are toll that we ought uot to have
laid the report of these commissioners upon the table of the
hells° until her Majesty's Government had iuquir -d fully into
all the matters to which it related, and settled their opinions
as to the conduct of every person whose conduct was in any
degree animadverted upon in the report. I should like
to know now what would have been the call for this re-
port, what would have been the imputations cast upon the
Govern cent of wishing to conceal some grand dereliction of
duty, toprevent the exposure of monstrous abuses, to pro-
tect delinquents, to withhold information? All this would
have been said if, after taking these proceedings, and send-
its to the Crimea for information and examination, we had
refused to lay the report before the house. Why, sir, there
wou.d have been a prejhdice created in the public mind, and
imputations would have. beets made, supported by prima
fescieevideace, on wsich would have been based the most
serious attacks, for which no foundation whatever existed in
fact. The only course I conceive which the Government could
take was to lay the report, which contained a great deal of
very valuable information, as soon as possible before Parlia-
ment, and then to give those officers who felt that their con-
duct had been impugned by portions of the evidence whin
had been collected and published, proper opportunities of
making those explanations which it was duo to their charac-
ter they should make. The hon. and gallant officer appeared
not to know the period at which the-discussion is taking
place. Any person who had listened to the speech of the hon.
and gallant officer, without' knowing exactly what year we
are in, and what the present state of things is, might readily
have imagined that we are discussing at this time last year the
state of the artily in the Crimea. The hen. and gallant offices'
went back to all the unfortunate circumstances connected
with the distressing situation of the army in the early period
of its service referred to. What bearing has that upon the
present state of things? Unfortunately when that army
was landed there was a complication of circumstances, which
exposed it to great and almost unprecedented hardships.
The service itself was one of the most difficult character—
difficult on account of the local service to be performed—
, difficult because the siege was to be carried on and the
army to be supplied, that army being dependent for its sup
plies upon places difihrently situated, and •,articularly upon
a mill port which afforded little or •no conVenience for
landing stores, in which there was not room for transports to.
lie—and difficult because the arranges:cuts were conducted
by persons who weronew to the position in which they found
themselves. From all these circumstances the army was un-
fortunately exposed to diffichlties and privations which no
British army, perhaps, ever before in the history of the coun-
try bad to support. They did support those diffisulties most
gallantly, most nobly. (Cheers.) They faced the daugers and
endured the privations and hardships of the camp with the
same courage and intrepidity which they manifested in the
face of the enemy on the field of battle; and I consider that•
the fortitu le with which they bore those privations and hard-
ships reflects as much honour upon the British army as the
valour which they displayed upon the fields of Alma, hiker-
man, or Balaklava. (Cheers.) Fortunately, however, that
state of things ceased to exist, and f r the last eight or ten
months the army has beets in a totally different condition.
The health of the British army is now, as we know, better
than the health of any other body of troops in any other part
of the world ; therefore, all the observations of the hop. and

gallant officer, applicable to that period of distress, fall to the
ground, because they refer to matters relating to a time gotie
by. So far from the mortality in the army iu the Crimea now
beiug such as the hon. and gallant officer represents, it is
less, I believe, than that of an equal number in any part of
the United kingdom. Then with regard to the arrangements
of the medical department, or the Quartermaster-General's
department, the hoe. gentleman opposite (Mr. Stafford),
who, much to_ his honour, has devoted that part of the year
when he is not in attendance,in this house to inquiring into
the condition of the army in the Crimea, has most generously
given his testimony to the admifable condition of all the
hospital arrangcmmts in the Crimes, and that all the
arrangements connected with the supplies of the army
are now as peifict as the nature of thipro can possibly
admit. (Hear, bear) Well, sir, we are telcl teat the Go-
vernment are to be blamed because Sir R. Airey was ap-
pointed quartermaster-general at home. Sir R. Airey was
quartermaster-general daring the first period to which I have
alluded, when the supplies and arrangements of the army
were not in a satisfactory condition, but be was also quarter-
master-general of the army during the subsequent period,
when the supply was well regulated, and all the arrangements
were naadein the most satisfactory manner. I should like to
know when Sir Richard Airey, who came home on account of
ill hea'th, was iu this country, and the office of quartermas-
ter-general became vacant, who was the person whom the
Government or the Commander-in-Chief could more fittingly
or more naturally have chosen to fill that situation than the
officer who bad had the most recent experieuce of its duties,
and under whom those duties had, during the greatest peried,•
been performed in the most satisfactory manner ? (Cheers )
Theiefore, the censure which the hon. and learned gentleman
in this motion - "id am speaking to the chotiou—vrishcs to
. _