The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-03-07

issimo. OF the first in the military
command of the British Empire. and
in inis capacity has the sole and ex-
elusive power OF raising and regulat-
ing armies and fleets. This preroga-
tive was disputed and claimed by the
sO-called Long Parliament of King
Charles l., but upon the restoration It
was solemnly declared by both Crown
ant Parliament TO be vested in the
sovereign alone.
oBcourse, the payment of any forces
thus raised by the Crown has ultimate
ly TO be provided by Parliament,
which, in this way. may be said to
control the action OF the sovereign in
the matter. But the first step must be
taken by the monarch, who alone pos
sesSes the power of initiative IN af-
fairs, of this kind.
That the letter should have been ad-
dressed to Lord Wolseley is due TO the
fact that to him have been delegated
the administrative duties of command
er in chief, which in reality belongs to
the sovereign. Lord Wolseley holds
his. Office ;under the sign manual OF the
Queen, and not by virtue of any ap-
polntment on the part of the Secre-
tary OF State for War or of the Cabi-
net. He is, in fact. her delegate and,
therefore, IL is perfectly natural that
she should communicate with him
about the raising of this new force,
rather than with the Secretary OF State
for War.
Moreover, the Queen has always had
a particularly warm spot in her heart
for her soldiers, who have invariably
stood higher in her good graces tan
civilians, and since the beginning oi
the war IN South Africa she has time
and agskh manifested her disappToval
of the manner in which the command
er inr chief has been overridden and ig-
nored'6y the Secretary of State for
War By repeatedly inviting the veteran
Lord Wo,seley to Windsor and to Os-
borne, consulting him about every
feature of the campaign without ac-
cording any attention to the Minister
namely. the Marquis Of Lansdowne.
War Blunders.
The Queen seems to have realized
from the first that the errors and mis-
takes. which resulted in the humiliatinl
reversts during the early part of the
present war were due to the altogether
/ inexcusable and even unconstitutional
manner In which the control or the
| conduct OF the campaign was usurpeC
| by the Secretary of State for War and
/ the other members of the Cabinet, who
| had formed themselves into sort o.
subcommittee of national defense, anc
who took upon themselves to entirely
override and ignore military experts
such as Lord Wolseley, the commander
| in-chief The tide in South Africa has
only turned and defeat been transform
/ ed into success since the military
authorities in Pail Mall and South
Africa have, in Difference to public
| opinion and to the commands of the
crown, become paramount.
II is difficult to believe that the Queer
would have resorted to the step of call.
ing upon the retired officers and men
that is to say. not the ordinary re
serves. but the veterans-of her army
to reioin the colors had not both heI
Majesty and her government become
aware that her empire would ere long
be brought face to face with a danger
against which some more efficient, and
above all, skilled, defense was needed
tan that supplied by the militia and
the immense volunteer force, number
ing in the United Kingdom consider
(Nnptf,uad ~ Do-o o.