The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-12-19 00:00:00

topic, "the war," and its effect was greatly enhanced by

the clear, emphatic, and appropriate elocution
was delivered. That portion relat

which it

,ing to ti

stories in

the Cr

ea, and the valorous exploits

lie army, was
,m and grate-

given with graceful emotion, and excited
ful feelings in the minds of the
terested audience. From beginning to end, the speech

attentive

end deepl,

was delivered as befits a monarch entering

reliance upon the heroism and magnitude of her resources

on an arduous and trying war, which she is re
prosecute to a speedy and successful issue. '
to ti

.solved to

It was listened

lout as if

the tocsin of h

moning aloud to arms

nd it w

unanimity and enthusiasm which proclaimed the heartiness
of national sympathy, and the unhesitating

'eliance whi

may be placed on national support ; and the answer evinced
the fixed resolution of the British people to maintain the
war to the uttermost extremity. Tories and Whigs, Con-
servatives and Radicals, vied with each other in evincing
their devotion to the cause. While all concurred in the
expression of this sentiment, another point of
was little less remarkable : all classes of politicians de

dared their conviction that more might and ough
been done ; that greater and more perma

nt advantages

might have been attained

As is usual at the opening of eac

Parliamentary ses-

sion, a debate was enacted in both houses, and, as is not
uncustomary in such wordy warfare, the result was haidl
in keeping with the magnitude of the pre

Lration, and

fell infinitely below the standard of estimated expectatior
Tame and in reality unproductive as was the debate,
was, nevertheless, conducted in such a manner as to el
clearly one or two propositions not generall,
parliament, and to introduce to national observation a c
cumstance or two of considerable importance as well as
novelty. It demonstrated in unmistakeable form the vigi-
lance, intelligence, and, on the whole, the impartiality and
wisdom with which the operations of the belligerents, the
conduct of the war, and the intentions of the Ministry,
have been watched, understood, and laid bare by the Argus
eyes and Briarian bands of the Press

!witted in

In a masterly

speech, the Earl of DERBY, while expressing his own
concurrence and that of the Conservative party in the
proposal for prosecuting the war with vigour, entered upon
a skilful analysis and a severe condemnation of the course
of ministerial action relative to the war since its com-
mencement. In the course of his long, able, and well-
studied invective, however, he exposed no fact, pointed out
no blunder, censured no policy, which had not already
been exhibited and denounced in strains as powerful, or in
narrative as clear, as his own. He awarded no praise,
extolled no achievement, bestowed no encomium, which
had not been sung in accents as sweet and thrilling, ere
his senatorial eloquence was breathed. So in the lower
house, probably for the first time since it was an institu-
tion, Ministers had nothing new to communicate ; leaders
of opposition had no hidden mine of accusation to spring
beneath the trembling feet of ministerial supporters ; all
had been previously stated. Even

Every nice offence had borne its comment

and the debate reads in all respects like an abbreviate of
the newspaper narratives and comments ! In no previo
instance, and on no former occasion, bad the

press such

undeniable ground on which to claim consideration as a

fourth estate," and a valuable one, too, in the realm.
Another novelty connected with the debate on the

address will be found in the position assumed by ministers.
For the first time in parliamentary annals, we find the
executive in the equivocal character of " penitents."
Among the earliest of England's " mighty preparations"
for the war was, to put its conduct under efficient admi-
nistration. The administrative department of our fleets
and armies was denounced as inefficient—dangerous, as it
was absurd and unworkable. True, under that system of
administration we had conducted a great and eventful war
to a termination so glorious to our arms, and so satisfactory
in its results, as to lead to a European peace of nearly forty
years' duration ; but then that was in the olden time
when war was not understood as it now is, and, if to war
we must go, we must set about it in a spirit befitting the
intelligence of the times and the enlightened pretensions
of the nation—a system by which we had already been
able to shock

The four corners of the world in arms

was by no means suited to cope with the martial
spirit of Russia, and we must needs have a Secre-
tary at War. A Secretary at War, accordingly, we
have got, and under his hopeful management the
first campaign was organised. Experience has proved
that the organisation was most defective. On the
Ministerial showing, no adequate means were provided

for such exigencies in the Crimean campaign as th
merest tyro in the art of war must have foreseen ; an(

what is the excuse set up by the new head of the war
department ? He, admitting the inadequacy of the
means, avers that he thought them sufficient at the time
—he did not expect the campaign would be so serious or
protracted ; indeed, he had been informed that the capture
of Sebastopol would not be so difficult an enterprise as it
has turned out ! ! and, 0 annus mirabilis, he turns round,
within six months of his appointment, and pleads his
inexperience in extenuation of his fatal blunders ! " Some
things might be omitted, and others might be mended," is
the candid though rather nonchalant admission of his
Grace of NEWCASTLE. Had the non-omission of the
some things, and the non-amendment of the others, af-
fected mere pecuniary loss or profit, or involved no higher
consideration than the sacrifice of national property, the
coolness of the observation might have passed for mere
political hardihood ; but when it involves, as it has done,
the sacrifice of hundreds, nay thousands of lives—the

lives, too, of the best and bravest in the land —these omis-
sions and defects acquire an importance and assume a cha-
racter which even official case-hardening will be unable to
resist the consequences of Having obtained an idea that
the siege of Sebastopol would not be accommodated to the
unacquired experience of the WAR SECRETARY, he in-
formed his hearers next, that "every exertion was used by

Government to obtain reinforcements, and to send them
out with as little delay as possible to the Crimea." With
a simplicitly which must be looked on as exceedingly art-
less, he went on to say—" Men have gone out (among
those reinforcements) who have not been trained as effi-
ciently as I could wish, and who have not been habituated
to the life on which they are about to enter." Again, he
says —" Those Generals on the spot, who are most compe-
tent to judge, did not desire to have recruits, such as we
have now sent, prematurely." To what purpose such a
declaration was made it is no easy matter to cc
jecture

That it must delight the Russian Autocrat
as much as it is likely to dismay the English Com-
mander, astonish the FuENcrr EMPEROR and people,
and dishearten our own troops, is almost certain; and put
forth, as it is, merely to deprecate the public condemna-
tion of ministerial incapacity, it is assuredly a most sin-
gular illustration of the benefits we have derived from the
institution of a new War Minister. If the men sent out