do Ministers the justice to allow that they have displayed symptoms of individual activity since they were roused from their slumbers by the intelligence that the army in the East was in peril, and that Sebastopol, so far from being demolished as easily as a castle of cards, was not likely to be reduced for several months after our batteries were erected. On this point let us hear the Duke of Newcastle, whose defence of the Ministry, if not satisfactory, was at all events honest -so honest that it will be found, on consideration, to be nothing more than an elaborate but lame apology for blunders committed in the conduct of the war ever since its commencement, combined with admissions of imbecility in almost every step which the Government has adopted : "My Lords, the siege of Sebastopol commenced, after a considerable amount of necessary preparations, upon the 17th of October; and it soon afterwards became apparent, from the intelligence which reached this country, that that siege was likely to be more protracted than I readily admit the Government at first expected. I say I readily admitif that be any blame to the Government -that we did hope and believe that long before the time at which we are now assembled that fortress would have fall en; and if we erred in that expectation, -if we were over-confident-I believe that we erred in common with many men of great experience in war, and men whose opinions were well worth having we erred in our confidence, in common with the public at large, both in this country and in France. My Lords, from the moment it appeared that that siege was likely to be protracted, every exertion was used by the Government to obtain reinforcements, and to send them with as little delay as possible to the Crimea; and here, again, I am about to admit that, under any other circumstances than those which existed, those reinforcements ought not to have been sent, because the troops which have gone out have arrived too recently in this country to be effectively recruited, and men have gone out in those regiments who have not been trained so efficiently as I could wish, and who have not become habituated to the life on which they are about to enter. I do not hesitate to say that it has been my duty to order those troops to proceed to the East with very great regret; and the Government has only done so because it felt the exigency of the moment required every possible exertion, at whatever sacrifice. And, my Lords, when you blame the Government for not having sent these reinforcements generals on the spot who are most comsooner, let me tell you this, that those petent to judge did not desire to have recruits, such as we have now sent, prematurely. They would rather they had been reserved for the next campaign, unless those events had arisen which rendered it necessary-which induced Lord Raglan to press for them-which induced the Government immediately to send them." "We erred in our confidence in common with the public at large!" Good heavens! has it come to this, that a British Minister, in a matter most vital to the interests of the country, excuses himself and his colleagues for a hideous error in the conduct of a campaign, on the ground that "the public at large" shared in the same delusion? What did - what could the public know about Sebastopol, a fortress to which foreigners have, through Russian jealousy, been denied access for years-a place of strength over which hung a mystery which appeared almost impenetrable? If the Government really knew no more about Sebastopol than did the best informed of the public, before they determined upon sending to the Crimea an army which, when once landed, must either die before the fortress, or carry it by breach and assault, they are answerable before God and man for every life that has been lost in the attempt. But we do not believe anything of the kind. Their information may have been faulty, incorrect, or insufficient; but we will not accept, even from their own lips, an acknowledgment that they acted utterly in the dark. Nor is the statement correct as regarded the public expectation. Close following upon the heels of the news of the battle of Alma, there did indeed arrive false intelligence that Sebastopol had been taken; and, as the source was considered authentic and worthy of credence, the report was, under the excitement prevalent at the time, received without proper caution. But, beyond that circumstance, we have yet to learn that the public at large entertained any such extravagant ex pectations. On the contrary, we maintain that the public were far more sober in their views of the real resistance likely to be met with than were the Ministry, who, if we are entitled to judge from the speeches of some of their number, seemed, so late as last spring, to consider this as a mere holiday game. We are almost ashamed again to refer to that illomened dinner in which the healths of the "Reform" Admirals in the Baltic and Black Seas were toasted, or to the braggadocio in which Sir James Graham, the First Lord of the Admiralty, thought proper to indulge. When the Czar perused the reported and paraded account of that silly and disgraceful orgy, he might almost have been justified in using the exclamation of Cromwell at the battle of Dunbar, and in asserting "that the Lord had delivered his enemies into his hands." With the proceedings and speeches on that occasion, the public were so far from sympathising that they regarded them with unmitigated disgust. But it would seem now, from language both of Lord John Russell and the Duke of Newcastle, that Ministers are entitled to shift the responsibility from their own shoulders to those of the public at large!" But look further into this speech of the Duke of Newcastle's. Observe what he says about the reinforcements. He has been compelled to send out regiments "recently arrived in this country," with recruits inefficiently trained, and that on account of the exigency of the moment.' We do not blame him for having done so he could do no otherwise. Men, whether drilled and trained or not, must be sent out, because we cannot allow the brave army now in the Crimea to be overpowered; and men men, and will try to do their duty, although they may be deficient in their manual exercise. But willing recruits will rapidly become effective soldiers; and we are not without a suspicion that too much consequence has been hitherto attached in this country to proficiency in drill. We know what miracles were performed by the French republican armies, at the time when the conscripts were hurried from their homes, without preparation, to the field of battle; and if we had only are men enough, we should entertain little apprehension on account of their deficiencies on parade. That men enough will offer, we entertain no doubt, if the Ministry will place the service upon its proper footing; but it is absolutely necessary that the men should be properly armed. Here, again, the Government has failed. It is more than two years since the vast superiority of the Minié rifle over the old musket became a recognised fact; and yet, so sluggish has Government been in availing itself of military improvement, that they have not taken means to insure an adequate supply: and our last detachments to the Crimea have gone out, armed with the antiquated weapon; which, owing to the difference of range, must occasion immense confusion in any case when regiments with different arms are brought into the field. Why was this? Were Birmingham and Sheffield not equal to the demand? Or are we again labouring under the baneful influence of cheap Government jobs, such as, in the last war, rendered many of the muskets useless, because, after a dozen discharges, there was no more steel from which the flints could elicit fire? The fact is notorious and acknowledged, that we have been furnishing our new troops from the old armoury. Yet, in the face of this, Mr Sidney Herbert, the Secretary at War, rises in his place, and descants upon the infinite superiority of the new weapon! A more extraordinary speech than this of Mr Herbert's we never remember to have perused. At the very moment when his colleague the Duke of Newcastle was admitting in the House of Peers the remissness, shortcomings, and miscalculations of the Ministry, Mr Herbert, in the House of Commons, was maintaining that they had exhibited throughout amazing promptitude, vigour, and sagacity! But he also must have his fling at the public at large, or at least at the House of Commons. Hear him first on the want of means : "You may argue that these reinforcements were small for a power like England, that can pour out its battalions like water. But I ask, on whom rests the responsibility that England, at the commencement of a war, must make small wars? It has been the fault of every parliament; we have always had the same Pretty cool this, in the teeth of the House of Commons, and taunted them, by implication, for not joining WITH MINISTERS in giving effect to the feeling of the country!!! Here is his peroration, of which we shall only say that we defy the power of impudence to go further: "I ask those who, two months ago, were looking despondingly at the state of things, to look at the position of England now; and also to look at what has been the effect of the war already upon our enemy? In previous wars we had alliances with countries who took our money, but the governments of which sometimes We are now in intrigued against us. alliance with two of the greatest nations in Europe, and we see the opinion of Europe day by day coming nearer and nearer to us, while Russia is placed in a state of isolation. Her hostile army is intrenched in her own chief arsenal, and her fleet has been sunk by her own act, while her forts on the Caucasus have also been destroyed by her own hand. These are the effects of the first campaign. I ask, where can you find, in the history of England, a campaign of not more than a few months' duration attended with such results? But still I hope to see our army considerably increased; and if you, the House of Commons, think it ought to I tell you that the country be, tell us so. is determined, at all hazard and at all cost, that the army of Lord Raglan shall be supported. If the House of Commons does not answer to that feeling of the country, then the House of Commons must take the consequences; for, depend upon it, there is but one feeling upon this subject. We are engaged in a war which was entered upon with reluctance; we must carry it on vigorously to obtain that which is the object of all war-namely, peace; for peace, to be obtained, must be conquered. Let no exertions be spared which will enable us by vigorous operations to gain that end. I say further, if you think the Government worthy to be intrusted with those powers, then intrust them; but I would sooner a thousand times sink ten governments rather than any other policy should be adopted. I care not in whose hands the war is placed, provided it be carried out; and provided the representatives of the people honestly and truly carry out the determined will of the nation, that the noblest of armies shall be assured of the means-so far as human means can avail-to obtain a perfect triumph.” "I hope to see our army considerably increased; and if you, the House of Commons, think it ought to be, TELL US so!" Why, what else has the country and the House of Commons been dinning in the ears of these unhappy men ever since Russia began her aggressions? "Tell us so," forsooth! What opportunity had the House of Commons of telling them anything since the expedition sailed to the Crimea, seeing that the Ministry positively refused to summon Parliament for an autumnal session, and would not have called it together even now, but for the startling results of their own improvidence and miscalculation. "Tell us so," forsooth! For what purpose, we ask, is a Government formed but to devise measures for the public safety? Not unnaturally, when we hear such language uttered by a Minister in Parliament, do we ask ourselves whether, in truth, we have at this moment anything that can be called a Government. Who leads-whodirects-who is the masterspirit of the Cabinet? How comes it that one Minister of the Crown parades as a political triumph the recent treaty with Austria, whilst another, on the self-same night, declares that it is practically worthless? Why have we confessions and apologies in one House of Parliament, and boast ing and declamation in another? What unanimity can there be, when we find one member of the Cabinet characterising the political sentiments deliberately enunciated by two of his colleagues as "miserable election speeches?" Is Lord Aberdeen really at the head of affairs or not? If he is, then we say that his speeches and conduct throughout, regarding the Russian war, render him a most unfit person to occupy that position; and so universal is that feeling, that, if he were to tender his resignation to-morrow, nine-tenths of the people throughout the country would feel inclined to celebrate that event by an illumination. If he is not, who is the actual leader? Or is there absolutely none? And is each Minister in his own department allowed to carry on the public business as it seems best in his own eyes, without reference to common action? We fear very much that the latter is the true state of the case, and that the counsels of the Cabinet are paralysed by irreconcilable diversities of opinion. We must, however, not lose sight as yet of Mr Sidney Herbert. The great error which this gentleman committed lay in his attempt at making out a complete vindication for himself and his colleagues, which was clearly a hopeless, and certainly an impolitic effort. We are desirous to yield him every point to which he is really entitled to credit; and therefore we shall not criticise his details as to recent hospital arrangements, the equipment of a staff of Sisters of Mercy, or the supplies of clothing furnished when it became evident that our troops must winter in the Crimea. We say that we shall not criticise these things; and, considering the results, we think it will be generally allowed that we are pushing forbearance to the extreme. Let him therefore shelter himself behind the skirts of Miss Nightingale, and take credit for whatever he pleases in the shape of hospital comforts, and of winter clothing. What, after all, does his statement amount to more than this, that the Government, when they found that their hospital arrangements were not only deficient, but utterly ineffective, availed themselves of voluntary offers to remedy them; and that, after winter had thoroughly set in, they considered it their duty to despatch warm clothing to the army in the Crimea? Are these perform ances for which Ministers are entitled to take credit? But have their efforts succeeded, or have they been made in time? On such points we must take the testimony of those upon the spot; and although it is most painful to reflect on what our brave fellows are enduring on the bleak heights of Sebastopol, it is better that we should know the truth, than remain under a flattering delusion. The special correspondent of the Times thus writes from the camp on 25th November: "It is now pouring rain-the skies are black as ink-the wind is howling over the staggering tents-the trenches are turned into dykes-in the tents the water is sometimes a foot deep-our men have not either warm or waterproof clothingthey are out for twelve hours at a time in the trenches-they are plunged into the inevitable miseries of a winter cam paign-and not a soul seems to care for their comfort, or even for their lives. These are hard truths, but the people of England must hear them. They must know that the wretched beggar who wanders about the streets of London in The Conduct of the War. the rain leads the life of a prince compared with the British soldiers who are fighting out here for their country, and who, we are complacently assured by the home authorities, are the best appointed army in Europe. They are well fed, indeed, but they have no shelter, no rest, and no defence against the weather." Again, on 27th November, he says: Although the men are only left for twelve hours in the trenches at a spell, they suffer considerably from the effects of cold, wet, and exposure. The prevalent diseases are fever, dysentery, and diarrhea; and in the Light Division, on which a large share of the labour of the army falls, there were 350 men on the sick-list a day or two ago. The men's clothes are threadbare and tattered, and are not fit to resist rain or cold." It would be utterly unreasonable to expect that soldiers in the field should be secured against every privation, or that the Government can possibly foresee and everything. We must expect to hear provide for of many omissions, and ought not to be critical when it appears plainly that timely and strenuous exertions have been made. But we deny that the exertions were made timeously. Winter overtook our army on the bare hills of the Crimea without winter-clothing and without shelter; and even had the supplies sent out in the wrecked vessel, the Prince, been landed, no one surely could maintain that they were forwarded with sufficient promptitude. they could have been procured and That forwarded much earlier is evident, when we consider that the orders to undertake the expedition were sent out in June. On the whole, then, it appears to us, that no unprejudiced person can fail to arrive at one or other of the following conclusionseither that the Ministry have been guilty of gross neglect in not providing a sufficient reserve, and the necessary supplies for the troops engaged in the field—or that they had entirely miscalculated the nature of the enterprise, and most foolishly underrated the power and resources of their antagonist. It is for them to say upon which horn of the dilemma they prefer to be impaled. Had space allowed, we should have [Jan been inclined to say a few words in extraordinary measure which the Mi- |