The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-29 00:00:00

PUBLIC BUSINESS.

On the motion of Lord REDESDALE it was ordered
that no bill should be read a second time in that house
after the 7th of August, with the exception of bills of
pressing emergency.
Their lordships then adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.--(YESTERDAY.)
The SPEAK/en took the chair at twelve o'clock.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.
The Lords Amendments to the Blyth and Tyne Rail-
way, Metropolitan New Streets and Improvements,
Stratford upon Avou Railway, and Manchester Cor- ,
poration bills were considered and agreed to.
DOVER ELECTION.
The SPEAKER announced that the petition against
the return for the borough of Dover had been withdrawn.
•
BOARD OF HEALTH BILL.
On the motion for going into committee on this bill,
Sir G. GREY said it was desirable that he should
then state the objects of this bill. The Board of Health
possessed permanent powers under several Acts of
Parliament. The first was the Board of Health Act
of 1848, and the other the Nuisances Removal and Dis-
eases Prevention Acts of 1848 and 1854, and special
powers by order in council on the sudden appearance
of epidemic in this country, and though permanent
Powers were created by these acts, Parliament only
granted a temporary authority by which their provisions
could be carried out. Last year the present Board of
Health was continued till the 29th July, or the end
of the next session of Parliament, when it would expire,
so that without some provision were made the present
act would expire next year as a matter of course. It
was, therefore, necessary to make provision this session
for the continuance of the authority of the Board of
Health, whose powers had been beneficially applied
to many parts of the country. The Government
in considering this question had come to the
determination that it was not desirable to con-
tinue the present distinct and separate -department
of the Board of Healtb, with a president at its head,
with a seat in that house, but to transfer its powers to
the President and Committee of the Council on E,lnca-
tion. This proceeding would be an economical one,
whilst it would secure the present efficiency of the
board's operation, and as the President of the Council
had a seat in that house, it would still give to Parlia-
ment that responsibility which hon. members were so
desirous of seeiug continued, and were unwilling
to part with. By the proposed change there would
be a considerable saving, because the President, his
Private Secretary and other officers would be reduced,
and it was hoped that when these departments were
united, it would be possible still further to reduce the
expense of the Board. The arrangement was one cal-
culated to meet the views of the House on the ground of
economy, and providing at least as efficient superinten-
dence of the machinery of the Board of Works as at pre-
sent existed. The Government had intended to introduce
a bill to amend the act of 1848, but circumstances pre-
vented, for thissession, that desirable object. He proposed
now to make this a temporary measure instead •f a per-
manent one, and he asked for the continuance of the
power of the Board of Health for a year longer, or till
the end of the next session of parliament after its pas-
sing. That would give the house an opportunity for
considering and determining on next session the proposed
permanent measure of the government on this subject.
On the motion for going into committee,
Mr. KNIGHT moved that the bit be considered
that day six months.
Sir J. PECHELL and Mr. PALK opposed the
bill.

Mr. CO\VPER defended the proceedings of the
Board of Health, and also the conduct of the Govern-
ment in reference to legislation on this subject. He
expressed his regret that there did not exist so much
interest in that house on sanitary matters as was to he
found in the country. The advantage of the General
Board of Health Act was that where inhabitants were
ill-governed, or notorious jobbing was practised by the
local representative governments, the inhabitants were
able to call on the Central Board for protection. The
right hon. gentleman quoted a number of figures, and
also read an extract from the Registrar General's report
to show that since the passing of the Board of Health
Act mortality had greatly decreased in those places
where the provisions of the Act had been put in opera-
time He expressed his surprise that hon. members
should be found to oppose the continuance of a measure
that had produced such beneficial results, amongst which
was the better supply of water to populous towns.
By the operations of this Act, London had now
as pure a supply of water as he thought
it was possible to obtain. It was necessary for the
wants of the country, and to meet the requirements of
the advancement of civilization in which we were em-
barked, that a Sanitary Board should exist.
Sir GEORGE GREY said that as the opposition to
the Bili appeared to be against its continuance, for what
was said would extend to a period of two years, he was
ready to alter his proposition, and fix its continuance
mad. the Ist of September, 185 S : or if the House pre-
ferred it, he would propose the continuance of the pre-
sent act till that period. He thought the former course
the best, because by transferring the duties of the
Board of Health under this bill to the Council of Edu-
cation a saving of 3,0001. or 4,0001. would be effected.
(Hear.)
Mr. AYRTON contended that bad local self-govern.
ment was better than the best central government that
could be found. He thought that their legislation on
this subject was going beyond the most objectionable
system of foreign goverments of centralL=Ation. Go-
vernment appeared, in reference to the Board of Health
MILITARYEDUCATION.
question, to look upon the people of thiS country
as an aggregate of children who required their food,
physic, water, ventilation, even warmth, smoke, and Sir DE LACY
EVENS, pursuant
to
notice pro-
cleanliness to be watched over. He deprecated this in
ceeded to bring forward his resolution suggesting a higher
ter'erence of the Government in the ordinary actions of
life, which, he said, was repugnant to the feelings ot the standard of professional instruction and a more complete
people. By continuing the present act till Sept., 1858, provision for it than has heretofore obtained for officers
the whole subject would be left open for discussion next
in the army, and especially the staff. He said the subject
session. It might be continued at as little expense as
wasone to which public attention had been directed
under the bill before the house.
Sir W. HEITHCOTE urged on the Government within the last few years by a remarkable concurrence
to propose the continuance of the present act, because of circumstances, among which were the reports of
the house ought not to be sailed on to acquiesce on committees of that House, a very important one espe-
the transfer of the power of the General Board of Health
cially drawn up by the commissioners appointed by the
to the Privy Council, which was looked upon by the
house as the most objectionable part of the proposed Secretary for War, and the very able speech made in
change in reference to this Board. that House last session by the right hon. gentleman the
Mr. T. DITSCOMBE objected to the proposition o f member for South \Vilts (11r. Sidney Herbert). He
the Home Secretary, from the belief that legislation ventured to think, however, that some other means were

Mr. WILSON, in reply to Mr. BULLER, said, con-
sidering the state of the public business and the advanced
period of the session, it was impossible that the bill
relating to the conveyance of mails by railway could be
properly discussed before the session terminated with
any hope of its being passed into a law, and, under these
circumstances, it was not his intention to proceed further
with the second reading of the bill, but he would take
an early opportunity of re-introducing it next session.
He should therefore moved that the order for its second
reading be discharged.
The motion was agreed to.
THE COMING INDIAN MAIL.
Mr. ENVART said, seeing the noble lord at the bead
of the Government in his place, he asked him whether
any intelligence bad been received by Her Majesty, s
Government from India in the course of the day.
Lord PALMERSTON—The only intelligence which
t
has been received officially by her Majesty government
is is from Trieste, and the intelligence is that thfe k
in sight, and is expected in the. course of an
That was at 10 o'clock this morning. I have
telegraphicindividual,
ttutneds s sge
whichw Ifisc
supposedhas Ue
troe.c
haveetved bycao
come
privatee
from
received
vi is ad untoh entic
informationo or ot.
Turin, but' I don't
however,
ewrl:ebtabveer.
Tae Government,
except that which I have mentioned. The probability
is, that as the packet was off Trieste at 10 o'clock this
morning,
we shall in a very short time have some official
intelligence from that place.
REVISION OF THE LITURGY.
Lord R. GROSVENOR postponed for this session,
on the grcund of indisposition, his motion for a corn!.
mission for the purpose of considering whether the
Liturgy of the Church of England is capable of modifi-
cation.

necessary for securing the object which that right lion.
gentleman and himself had in view, and it Was to that
end that he bad to submit to the House a resolution
which he trusted would meet with the sanction of the,
Government. He hoped, indeed, that it would be re-
ceived by the Government in the Rams spirit as the
somewhat kindred proposal made recently by the noble
lord the member for the West Riding (Lord Goderich)
with respect to the civil service had been entertained
by them, believing, as he did, that its adoption, like
that of the motion of the noble lord, would strengthin
the hands of the Government. He might remind the-
Howe that in 1799 a staff college was first formed in
this country, and that it rendered important services- to
the army of that day ; but aft, r the termination- of the
Peninsular war the institution was reduced from year
to year until it ceased to possess the means of impatting.
instruction to anything like the extent which it had
originally done. In 1832 all Parliamentary aid wee
withdrawn from the college, and be believed the Under- ~
Secretary for War recently stated in the house ,tbat,
during the last two or three years scaroely a single offi-
cer had presented himself for admission into it. There
might perhaps have been some half-deem who had rs•••
ceived instruction in the institutions in that time ; hut
he was not sure about that. At all events, he thought
that was a state of things which ought not to exist.
There ems evidence in reports which had been laid be-
fore both Houses of Parliament that Austria, Franoc,
Prussia, and other military nations applied money
to the purpose. The United States, finding in
1814 that their officers were singularly wanting
in knowledg3, and they had probably suffered
some defeats in consequerce, established a mili-
tary school at West Point oa a very extensive scale,
and he believed that West Point College was adopted to
the plan, as near as possible, of the Ecole Polyteoheique
of France, though perhaps not so exclusively military
in its object. He would quote, as an authority upon
the necessity of military education of a high standard,
Frederick the Great, in whose memoirs, after the seven
year:' war, he found this passage :
" The army has made numerous campaigns, but the quar-
termaster-general was often in want of good officers for his
department. The King wished to form a corps of such
officers. and selected 12 individuals, who already possessed
some slight acquaintance with engineer duties, for the pur-
pose of instructing them himself. With this view they were
made to sketch country, mark off camps, fortify villages, in-
trench heights, construct stockades, regulate columns of

march, and, above all, to try the nature of marshes and the
depth of streams themselves, that they might net be deceived
by the negligence of others, and cause an army to depend
upon the defensive support of a fordable river, or of a marsh
which infantry could cross without being ancle deep.",
Sir Howard Douglas, one of the most competent, ex-
perienced, and scientific of our officers, gave most
im-
portant evidence before the committee of the house
appointed to inquire into the subject, and Sir H. Dou-
glas, Colonel Portlock, Colonel Adams, Colonel Addj.
son, and Colonel Prosser, who were particularly engagrd
in military instruction, gave it as their opinion that the
senior and junior departments of the college at Sand-
hurst were in a most unsatisfactory state, and required
revision and reform. The pressure of undue influence,
however well-intentioned the authorities might be, re-
quired that soms preventive, such as had been adopted
by continental Governments, should be established, and
he ventured to think that none would be so efficient as
the introduction of the competitive system of examina-

tion. The committee stated in their report—
" The government of the college is vested in the Board of
Commissioners. The official members, in addition to the
Governor and Deputy-Governor of the college, are tbe Com-
manderin-Cbief, the Secretary at War, the Master-General
of the Ordnance, the Quartermaster-General, and Adjut-
ant-General. It is obvious that the pressing and import-
ant duties which fall on these officers can leave them but
little time to devote to the military college."
_

There should be an independent board to conduct the
examinations. The report mentioned that daring the
Peninsular war, when the general staff was very efficient,
a great part of the Quartermaster-General's staff was
composed of officers who had been educated at the senior
department. The report expressed an opinion that the
present state of things in the senior department was un-
satisfactory, and required revision and reform. The
committee were of 'opinion that the transferring from
the junior to the senior department a military staff offi-
cer was not sufficient. They saw no means of placing
the senior department on an efficient footing unless
Parliament was prepared to grant aid to that important
object. They did not see the justice by which the
cadet was called on to pay for the education of the staff
officers. The cadets, or rather the families of the cadets.
were called on to pay for the education of the staff
officers of the army, and that system continued for many
years, if not to some extent to the present time. The
house should recollect that during the last half century
this country had been making great progress, and inn()
respect greater progress than iu education. The grants
of public money had gone on increasing year by year,
and for national schools, factory schools, union work-
house schools, prison schools, &c., they now amounted

to 500,0001. sterling. There was a very handsome .ex-
penditure, amounting to 18,5001. this year, for the edu-
cation of non-commissioned officers and privates, and
the total sum, if the children of soldiers were included,
was 46,000/. But for officers, and espeCially officers
of the army, the sum was at the outside 1,3001.
It was an ,extraordinary contrast, and he believed
had been remarked upon 'by the Secretary of State
for War in another place. The right honour-
able gentleman the member for South' Wilt-
shire estimated the expense of putting the education
of the officers upon a reliable footing, by the ap-
pc,intment of boards of examination, at 5,0001., and a
vote for that amount appeared in the estimates, but tin.
fortunately the right hon. gtntleman left office, and the
vote dropped out of the estimates. The right bon. gen-
tleman, in a statement upon the subject, last year, ex-
pressed some disappointment that the Government had
come to no decision upon the subject, and that there was
no item of the sort in the estimates. Another year
brought only the same result, and it was a good reason
for wishing, at all events, if not to expre.B dis:,ru.t of the
intentions of the Government, to stimulate the Govern-
ment to use more promptitude and exertion. (Hear.)
The first resolution which he should submit was—
" That in the opinion of this house a higher standard of
professional instruction and more complete provision for it
than hitherto deemed requisite ought to be established for
the commissioned ranks of the army, bat especially for the
staff."

He ventured to think that that was ft proposition which
was already concurred in not only by the house, but by
the country. His resolution then went on to state that
the object which he bad in view " will be bvt promoted
by recourse to competitive examination of officers desir-
ing to qualify themselves for the staff, and by adopting
the same principle, with such qualification as may be
necessary, in examination of candidates nominated by
the Commander-in-Chief for commissions in the cavalry
and infantry." No fair objection, he thought, could be
taken to a certain degree of competitive examination in
the case of candidates for staff appointments. Such an
examination prevailed in our universities, where the first
men of the land—those who occupied leading positions
in the two houses of Parliament—willingly exposed
themselves to an ordeal similar to that whiCh be proposed
for officers seeking appointaien-s on the staff. Even those
who did not seek for honours were otliged to pass an
examination, and in many instal cs they were what
university men called " plucked." He saw no reason
why officers of the army should not run the risk of being
g, plucked " also. The officers of the navy were compelled
to pass an examination not only for their first, but like-
wise for their second and third commissions. In 1849, as
stated by the right bon. gentleman the member for South
Wilts, in his admirable letter to Lord Hai dinge, of
December, 1854, the Duke of Wellington issued an
order declaring that for the future there should be an t x-
amination of officers for lieutenancies as well ns for first
commissions. Notwithstanding the authority of that
great man,.his proposition with respect to lieutenancies
was never carried into effect; but, as there was a similar
examination in foreign armies and in our own navy, it
was to be hoped that it might be renewed. The officers
of the navy were undoubtedly more professional than the
officers of the army, and therefore the latter need not be
ashamed to imitate some of their proceedings. His reso-
lution next proceeded to urge the expediency of " pre-
serving the present system of admission of cadets for the
Ordnance Corps." He would not presume to pals any
censure upon the officers of the army, and would -even
avoid quoting the statements of the Duke of Wellington,
although they were well known to be very strong-,- both
against
efficiency of
t the
ourofficers.
rso f
he h
our private
not soldiers
witk
anal the
the
officers, but with the Government, which did not provide
the officers with due opportunites for acquiring that in-
formation which it was desirable they should possess in
order to the satisfactory disch-irge of their duties. Some
he
no st
ne
vy err operationsled
ga
er arose
of the greatest authorities ss ho had written upon the
Peninsular sieges had declared that the principal draw.
carryingr
on
the part of our officers, particularly reng to the
from an
n experienced
entire
wantin
of e
ven
ignorance of the officers and men of the line of the
elementary instruction necessary for assisting 33 work-
ing parties. That was not the fault of the officers, but
was o wing to the combined neglect and favouritism which
bad so long prevailed in the army. The present system
dpeutcilet.divbenysyethswteeaDms,uaaknnexaioohfueNs ewcrvale. It was
of admission of cadets for the Ordnance Corps was intro.
an open
bedthatet dshhhaudi
db eheenpfroeusne
rdvteod work
trusted that there was no truth in the report which, had
reached him that there were some inclination in certain

quarters to alter it. The young persons who had come
forward from the various colleges and schools through-
out the country had been everything that could be de-
sired. The subjects of examination are advertised by
the Secretary for War, and it was open to any one,
from any public school or college, or any profession in
civil life, to compete. Tee number of candidates was
c considerable—between 100 and 200—And those wh
showed most proficiency were selected for the commie.
_
sions. With respect to their social position, be might
state that they came from the Universities of Oxford
Cambridge, Dublin, and Edinburgh ; from the College
if Aberdeen, London, Brighton, Belfast, Cork_,oGalway,
and Chester ; from Rugby, Barrow, solid F
l'istthnr; and
from various proprietary and endoweddsc oo ough.
out the country. What righi-, he aske , kad any one to
assume that these young gentlemen were not equal in
been continued, would have been nominated by the Mas-
every respect to those who, if the former system had
ter-General of the Ordnance ? Mr. . Peel, the lite Under-
Secretary for War—a gentleman with whom he had not
always had the happiness of agreeing—stated on the sth
June last year that the existing plan had been found to
answer well ; that the successfu candidates had prove&
to be men of superior education ; that they were gentle.
men and officers in every sense of the term, and worthy
to hold the commissions they had won for themselves.
Some of the authorities at Woolwich were rather die.
posed to discredit acid depreciate those officers, and it
was, perhaps, natural that they should be so,'.because
the new system interfered with that patronage which
they might otherwise have exercised ; but having had an