The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-04 00:00:00

BOW NOT TO DO JT.

The report of the Chelsea Commissioners is a manual
or guide-book to the science of " How not to do it."
Let it be reissued by some enterprising publisher as
" The Officer—his Duties, and How Not to Do Them."
The directions are perfect. We had an army provided,
as far as appearances went, with every requisite for suc-
cess and subsistence. It had, besides the generals who
were to lead it to victory, a host of other generals to
take care of it—adjutant-generals, quartermaster-gene-,
rals, commissary generals, with acting-assistant sub-
deputies, and other sub-ordinates with half the letters
of the alphabet stuck after their names, to find it
with stores, to clothe and provision it. What more
a-as wanting ? Nothing. There were the executive offi•
cers, and there the troops requiring the stores, clothing
and food. The only thing that remained was ingeni-
ously to discover the way "not to give them."
That was soon devised, and the Chelsea Commissioners
have approved the device as in full accordance with the
rules of the service. The adjutant-general did not pro-
perly clothe this army, the quartermaster-general did not
supply it with suitable stores, and the commissary-
geoeral did not sufficiently feed it ; but each and ail
called upon somebody e,se to do something else, and the
somebody in his turn shifted the responsibility, and the
something was not done after. all. Nevertheless, the
adjutant, quartermaster, and commissary-general are ad.
mirable officers notwithstanding, and must not be blamed. 1
The 61d woman in the nursery rhyme whose return home
from market was delayed by the refugia cf her pig to
get over the style called upon the animal and 'vegetable
kingdoms, and the elements to boot, to help her, just as
the staff in the Crimea called upon heaven and earth to
help them. The water would not quench the fire, and
the fire would not burn the stick, and the stick would
not beat the pig, and so on. In like mariner Airey could
not help Wetherall, and Wetherall could not help Gor-
don, and Gordon could not help Filder, and Filder could
not help himself. So they all came to a deadlock, till
private charity stepped in to give them breathing time
to recover from the panic their own incapacity had
brought upon them. 21 quartermaster-general is, we
s appose, the only official extant who receives without
.sarnination materials upon the fitness or durability of
which thousands of human lives under his charge may
depend. According to the principles of "how not to
do it," he has merely to make requisitions. If he asks
for bread and receives a stoue, or vice versa, that is no-
thing to him. He may gravely serve out Macadam for
rations, and supply biscuit for making roads, and to him
no blame can possibly attach. An.l so with everybody
impugned. Considering how admirably, indeed, the
commissioners throughout their report sustain the grand
principle of "how not to do it," we must really think it
matter of some marvel Vett they should ever have been
brought to make their report at all. They have certainly
done that, and it is a piece of work not likely to be for-
gotten during the present generation at least.,--Ex•
antiner.

A letter from Berne of the 21st states that in the night
of the 9th July snow fell on Mount St. Gothard ; on the
11th, at six in the morning, the thermometer stood at
5 deg. below zero centigrade (23 Fahrenheit), and at 8
O'clock the windows of the hospice remained covered
with frost am in winter. On the 15th the temperature
rose to 22 deg. above zero (72 F.).