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goats ; for they have improved upon the Jewish plan of having only one . They provided several , from Newcastx ^ b to Christie , who are said to have " done it all ; " " the system" Boxeb had to bear the blame ; previous Governments and Dondas were the monsters of iniquity . The Sebastopol Committee has ^ loseflidts laho »» 5 , 4 and has , perhaps , proved ncrfKIng smore conspicuously than the fact that " the system" was in the woast
of conditions — quite enough * to exonerate * he officers set to work 4 t in detail . ; but that it # wtB in that state , because -successive Cabinets worfld not do their duty in at least maintaining a peace establishment in effectual repair . Jtnafeead z&f that , they preferred -to . purchase the favour . of the Commons by alienating the military means of the country—selling , as it were , its armies and its forts in order to keep down the Bill .
The exhibitions in Parliament have hardly come up to the Parisian or " Vesuvian standard . Lord Axbemablk has made another attack upon Ministers , for not directing the campaign into Prussia , with her " neutrality" and her transit trade . " But differential duties , search into friendly ships , and " something else" vaguely hinted byLord D erst , are the only weapons which the Opposition can find for bringing Prussia to her senses , while Ministers declare that they are afraid of arousing enemies in or out of Prussia by any peremptory measures . In fact , like Austria , our Ministers would do their duty if they dared ; but far more than the censure of -their country or the failure of the war , they fear " a row" in Europe .
Lord En . ENBOBouGfl ' s long contemplated attack upon . Ministers was also a iailure . It turned out that he blamed them for not having followed that policy which he would have followed if he had been War-Minister under Lord Derby . Unlike the jealous provincial theatre-manager , he blames iihem . for not using " his thunder , " or , in vulgar prose , for not fighting by the
side of Austria in Wallachia , and instituting a new War against Russia in Asia- But as the fighting of the Austrians is a presumption , and we have quite wars enough on our- hand without a central Asiatic supplement , we do not wonder that 'the House of Lords declined to censure the present Government for not adopting the war policy of the Derby Government that did not come into office .
Lord Ellen borough s display came off in a very full House , with so many ladies present that the -meretricious fancy of Lord Redesdale peevishly compared the scene to a Casino . The grand speech consisted of a grand exordium and a grand peroration ; the middle , which was to have been an attack on Lord Raglan and the military management of the war , had been omitted
by the special desire of Lord Ellenbouough ' s political friends—the Somerset interest being so strong = on their side . A promising beginning for a great cleanser of the Augean stable of party and family patronage . An appeal to the Peers to stand up for promotion by merit , because they were themselves sitting there by virtue of the merit of their ancestors , must have been too much even for those to whom it was addressed .
Fieldmarshal Ewuenborough gave his plan for the campaign—rather late ., and decidedly eccentric . The whole thing was a smash . The " Casino " went away disappointed , and the Government are triumphant , and have gained strength by the affair . Lord DmnBVwas very clever and very paltry ob usual . His great aim was to damage the administrators of the present system without committing himself to . anything better . The Government Lords are not very ready debaters , or
when he talked about Mr . F . Peel ' s want of previous training for his office , they might have reminded him of the pride he once took in certain " diggings "—of a quarter-sessions squire sot suddenly to govern the colonies—a third-rate lawyer turned into a Homo Secretary—and the finances of the country consigned to the only Jew in England who could not do a sum . Lord Derby refused office three months ago , b ut now he is eager for it . rHo thinks Lord Palmers / ton is used up , And therefore he now attacks the man whom JUe , then epught to make his associate , and is vgoSLj to flitt tho Government with . the Inca *
pables whose incapacity he has been forced to avow . Toryism apart , how can this man be fit to lead a nation ? Lord PAUMtrBE explained last night the new plan for the consolidation of the War Departments . 3 Bh . e statement was Lord Palmerston ' s sketchjirifos the details ; and one detail is interee 4 » jff «} n © u /» h . The ^' consolidation" ^ eKlgresult in a » ew dx < Dsion anclginew ' © Sice : Urn "Seacetary at fRar is tobe revivefl under a new name , sas the " cirifl" offiser of the IBtepartment , represeo&ng it in lite Commons , malang the financial statement , and < poctoEttmg a fiaoueuil ^ product 'f or afarhnself . Also wM there be a master of contracts—a new office for whom Lord Panmure has " the right man" in his eye . What troublesome " independent " is to be softened down ?
Sir William Clay has carried Hie second reading of his-Church-rates Bill—a measure which does jo . good thing and . a bad thing : it abolishes church-rates and authorises pew rents . Mr . Packe and Protestantism of the established order , stood up against the abolition ; Mr- Cowpeb , and Protestantism of the liberal order , stood up against pew-rates . ; and Lord Palmerstox , wishing the question to be settled , sets his face against the proposed settlement . Nevertheless , the House of Commons was so tired of
churchrates that it swallowed the pews in order to pass the Bill—at least on that second reading it confirmed the principle of the Bill . The majority was considerable—217 to 189 . Although several of the younger Ministers voted in that majority , it is regarded as a check to Lord Palmerston ' s Cabinet . He forgot his principle— " I will be your leader . " Man proposes and God disposes : while " the Powers" are contending , diplomatists plotting , and courts parading , Vesuvius bursts forth with its molten fires , and man crowds to look upon
the work of destruction which he cannot arrest but only admire . For even the destructive work of Nature is beautiful . A clouded moon raises her veil to show herself in eclipse , and the clouds thunder while the mountain pours its slow burning stream across cultivated vineyards , and over villages . Many are ruined by the visitation , which does not , like a new railway with " compulsory clauses , " give compensation to landowners or occupants . But gay Naples rushes every night to seethe " popular" spectacle , anxiously watching for the grand moment when the lava shall hiss in the loveliest of bays .
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THE MATTNOOTH COMMISSION . In answer to the Earl of Winchilsea , on Monday , the Earl of Habrowby said that in February last , when the Commissioners had left London to prepare their report , he received a protest from several of the professors of the College of Maynooth , to the effect that it had come to their knowledge that a copy of the evidence taken before the Commission had been put into the hands of Dr . Cullen , and that he had carried it to Rome , and translated some passages for the purpose of showing that the teaching of the professors was at variance with the teaching of the Romish Church . However , lie ( the noble lorJ ) had the consolation o f knowing that nothing went to Rome but what would be communicated to the whole world in a fow days . With -regard to the report itself , it was druwn up in February last , but without any communication whatever with Rome .
CONDUCT OF THE WAR . The Earl of Ellenborougii then rose to move the resolutions which he had placed on the notice paper of the House . After alluding to the comparative failure of our warlike operations , notwithstanding the extraordinary valour and devotion of our soldiers and sailors , he remarked that since the accession of Lord Palmerston to the Government a sort of torpor had come over everything . Ho doubted
the fitness of the present premier for conducting a war , although the public , upon the strength of his having formerly been Secretary at War—an office by no means connected with the direction of war , for it was connected only with the finances of the armyconceived that ho was the most appropriate man for the present state of affairs . Lord . Ellenborough then quoted an anecdote of the late Duke of Wellington , to show the poor opinion entertained by him of Lord Palmorston : " I recollect sitting by the nido of tho Dulco of Wellington in tho House of Lords , during tho unfortunate diillculty between him and Mr . Huukisaon , which led to tho resignation of a portion of tho gentlemen forming the coalition Government . Tho Duko of Wellington
„ was suddenly called out of the house ,, and when he returned , he said to me—' That was Palmerston -who w « rtMftrt » see me , to tell me , if Huskisson went he must go too . " lEbejffihftke continued— ' I said nothing ; it was not . for meettoflire { great guns at small birds . ' That was atrthat tboe-ibe 'Opinion of the Duke of Wellington . I will not rjwesume to say that the small bird may not in subsequent- ^ timasfobave obtained the character and powers of an e « g ! ie ; sbut , at the tune I speak of , the Duke of Wellington appears to have entertained the opinion I have Stotefl . "
'The Govwnment -had been torpid , but the people * had Sheen -rewnafre , and they had arrived at the conclusion that * tt . is . only by-the selection of persons for public employment on the ^ round of fitness , and not from any motives of favour , that the war can beproperly conducted . In that opinion Lord Ellenborough stated that he fully concurred , and had always -acted upon it when in a position-of power . A great change , he added , has gradually come over the practice of the constitution of this country . Time was . when speeches in Parliament directed the opinion of the people of the country ; but now public opinion
out of doors influences the conduct of Parliamenta state of things to be looked upon with apprehension , as persons holding irresponsible positions possess the power of regulating the conduct of the legislature . To remedy this evil was the object of the present motion . Alluding to the duties of governments with respect to a campaign , his lordship said that it was simply to the Ministers that he meant his observations to apply , and that he warned the House and the public against looking too closely into the conduct of officers engaged in the present war . The proper means had not been taken by the Government for raising the army to an effective strength .
" It was not until long after the commencement of the war that the standard of height was lowered and the bounty increased ; and yet it is only through those means that the army can be increased . Very lately the Secretary for War , in a -circular letter authorising the retirement from the militia of those who had been enlisted without the intention of being embodied , accompanied such letter with an offer of a bounty so small as to be most unlikely to induce any to accept it . We have thus , I believe , lost from 15 , 000 to 20 , 000 men , for the purpose of saving some 60 , 000 / . There has indeed been no economy exercised except where penurosity is most to be deprecated , and liberality most commended , namely , in obtaining men for the army and navy . Last
year , it was thought proper to separate the Colonial Department from the department of War ; but , at the time that division took place , no measures were taken for the purpose of strengthening the hands of the Minister at War . I altogether object to the principle of tearing in pieces a great department in the midst of war . It would have been much better to have given the Duke of Newcastle greater power over his subordinates , to compel the execution of his orders , and to have had it understood in the Ministry that the orders of the duke , in all things connected with his department , were to be implicitly obeyed . Had the duke been placed in such a position , and had he surrounded himself with a military instead of a civil staff , I believe a great number of the calamities which we have to lament in the present war
would not have happened . But I think the noble duke had a battle to fight not only here but also " in the Crimea ; that he had to wrest the Commissariat Department from Sir Charles Trevelyan , and other battles to fight at home . " Passing to a consideration of the campaign itself , and to the determination to send a fleet into the Baltic , his lordship observed : — "Any one who looks carefully through the charts of the Baltic will see that , whilst the Kussians had taken every precaution , by the erection of defences , to prevent their
ships of large draught of water from entering ports , and from coming near their dockyards , they had not taken the same precautions against tho attacks ot vessels of a smaller class , and that both at fawenborg and at Cronstudt there wore opportunities for the entrance and approach of vessels of small draug ht , u must also bo observed that at such a time there otiglit to have been a body of military ready to act in concert with tho ships , for tho marines could not bo « l mre . ' But tho Government , though it sent a fleet to the llaitio , sent it without gun-boats and without troops , moy made it impossible for the navy to gain any great
successes . Sir Charles Napier was not tho only officer of the Baltic fleet who has just grounds to complinn oi u *> manner in which ho has been treated . Xhon , vu » regard to tho war in Asia , that is almost as niiporu ni as the war on tho banks of tho Danube ; but nevertheless it has , up to tho present timo , been nltogetiiu noglected , although in Asiatic Russia thoro is u conquered but gallant peoplo , ready to throw oil i " - yoke , and to ussiat us in any military "If ™ ' ' ^ Tho expedition to . Varna was one of which ho (> ori Ellenborough ) highly approved ; and ho t" ^ ™" thanked Lord Aberdeen for having pressed it uiwi hie colleagues . In the language of tho lato I reuuw , it " gave a hand to Austria . " " Thut army , placed at Varna—and , it might ho cc >» -
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IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT .
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45 Q THE LEADER , [ Saturday , f ¦ ¦ ¦ * * ¦ ¦— ^ — ^ — ¦
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Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1855, page 458, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2091/page/2/
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