NEWS OF THE WEEK.
LIKE the debate on the Navy Estimates, that on the Army Esti- mates has exhibited Ministers making colourable compliances with the demands for increased efficiency and decreased expendi- ture; but in the present case at least, no real change is effected. The improvements begun by previous Ministers, especially in re- gard to discipline and education, are continued; and the better state of the Army furnished the most satisfactory portion of Mr. fox Maule's speech. Under a less barbarous method of,punish- ment—flogging all but abolished, the behaviour of the men has 4cciestly improved ; a fact which ought to quiet the fears of those who prognosticated that the abolition of the cat-o'-nine-tails would occasion a general spirit of mutiny. And six schoolmasters have been sent forth, to carry letters among the soldiery. Per- haps the success attending these efforts may induce military re- formers to move a little faster in the same direction ? But when Ministers affect to comply with the call for reduction, they are guilty of sheer humbug. Mr. Maule talks as if there were to be a reduction to the amount of ten thousand men : the fact is, that five regiments are to be lent to the East India Company, and thus transferred temporarily to the Indian account; and the rest of the reduction is to be effected by discharges and " casual- ties,"—whicll we interpret to mean a slow process of-weeding, proper and useful ,enough in itself, but most absurdly called a "reduction." It is true that in the main the gross number of men, in Navy or Army, determines the gross amount of expendi- tures; but the withdrawal of a few men from each regiment, leaving untouched the machinery of the force, if it have any per- ceptible influence as a reduction, will abstract from the material strength of the Army more than from its cost. The system remains unaltered, and the great sources of expense are untouched. So fifty would have been by Mr. Hume's amendment, which was not better than the Ministerial proposition. Although Sir William Molesworth proposed a larger reduction, he accompanied it with suggestions for a reformed administration, which would afford a basis for reducing the numerical strength of the Army and its cost without abridging its efficiency. But Sir William is ahead of that very heterogeneous and retrograde class of gentlemen, in and out of the House of- Commons, who vaunt the name of " Reformers."
We have need, however, of an army numerous as that of Xerxes and resolute as that of Leonidas, if we are to bear the brunt of all the hostilitY which our Ministers destine, for us. While Lord Grey, with a steady caprice, is sowing the peteds of lybellion throughout our Colonial empire, Lord Palmerstat) is not Inactive in his peculiar vocation among foreign states. Lord Aberdeen's speech of Thursday was a serious exposure: it showed that Lord Palmerston, " mediating " between Austria and Sar- dinia, had stood upon one ground. with Austria—the treaties of 1815, and another with Sardinia—the expediency of the case ; that he had threatened Austria, while be simply warned Sardinia of her "danger," with a mildness of reprobation amounting to permission ; that he had put forth despatches and kept back others, so as to create a false impression of Austria, her conduct, her avowed purposes, and her reasons; that be had repelled offers when Austria was in a mood to grant them and sought con- cessions for Italy when they could not be enforced, that he has embittered Austria, stimulated the rashness of Charles Albert, and so helped Italy as to frustrate her opportunities. Lord Lans- downe had no answer. He could not be made to understand what despatch had been suppressed ; he stands by his own Liberal opinions; he sees that Europe, once threatened by Absolutism, is now threatened by the march-of Democracy over fallen thrones ; he sees that events alter, and that Lord Palmerston changes his tone—a coincidence which reassures him ; and he hopes it will all come right in time. Meanwhile, Italy is threatened with a second war, which Lord Palmerston professed to prevent and has expedited; a war which weakens one of the powers that hold the
barriers of Europe against Russia, and may induce that power to invite aid from the North to reconquer the South. A nice complication Lord Dudley Stuart has directly interrogated Lord Palmerston about the Russian occupation of Moldavia and Wallachia; but Lord Palmerston is negotiating, and cannot open his mouth: Delighted to see the House of Commons interested about foreign'
affairs, he cannot publish unfinished negotiations—cannot tell anything till all the mischief is done. But he is confident that, Russia means no "permanent encroachment." Not, perhaps, tilt next time?
Mr. Hawes continues to distinguish himself by fencing with questions. Once more interrogated about the communications' from the Cape respecting the immigration of convicts, he still replied so as to evade a real answer. Again and again interro- gated, on more than one evening, about a Government measure in Canada for indemnifying persons who had lost by the rebellion, he professed to have no knowledge" of it; a reply astonish- ing for its exhibition either of ignorance or disingenuousness. Mr. Gladstone put categorical questions to elicit the exact rela- tion of the Ministers to the colony and the measure; and he again received an answer that sounds evasive, with a declaration that "no despatches" had been received. This seems to have been too much for one of Mr. Hawes's colleagues : Lord Grey, who is said to be so pleased with his lieutenant, does not sit on the same bench with him; but Sir George Grey does: he said something to Mr. Hawes—who now confessed that he had used the word despatches "advisedly," for Lord Grey had received a private letter on the subject. The Under- Secretary for the Colonies in Parliament cannot or will not simply state a case as it is, but shuffles like a reluctant. witness under cross-examination. He has two standing rules of great use to him : he can say " no" to every question about any undivulged document if the questioner fails to name it with verbal exactness; and he takes his choice of ignoring every com- munication which is not technically "official. Do he and his master abstain from acting on communications not "official "; or do they determine large affairs of policy by ideas which they re- ceive from that unrecognized class of documents—govern the em- pire by the secret and irresponsible counsels of " private letters "? The result of Mr. Horsman's motion for interference in the exercise of episcopal patronage at Bishopwearmouth and Sunder- land seems just what it ought to have been. The two parishes are legally separate, but contiguous; Bishopwearmouth has a re- venue of 5,0001. a year, Sunderland is very poor ; they are both within the patronage of the Bishop of Durham - and that patron-
age has generally been so exercised as to avoid difficulties of parochial poverty in Sunderland. Both livings became vacant about the same time, and it was expected that Dr. Maltby would fall upon some way of effecting, a better balance of revenues : but he bestowed the livings without reference to the inequality—sim- ply seeking to select divines well qualified for the clerical office. Mr. Horsman denounced this as an abuse of patronage. Allusion was made to an arrangement by which the incumbent of the richer parish is to waive part of the revenue, which is to accumu- late for some purpose not stated ; an arrangement said to savour of simony, and calculated to vitiate the legality of the appoint- ment. But the simony of the arrangement is obviously a mere Ochnical pretext. Put that technicality aside, and we do not see that anything can be alleged against Dr. Maltby. A public officer cannot decently be blamed for strict obedience to the law set over him though he may deserve credit for endeavouring to reform it. If defects are detected in the system, let them be altered. This was the feeling which prompted the majority to turn aside Mr. Horsman's aggressive motion by "the previous question," on the understanding that the evil will be redressed for the future by legislative enactment. Why not make that enact- ment apply to many other such cases which exist ? The measure indicated by Lord Ashley .for the division of parishes may be useful, but it will not serve in such cases as the present, because it makes no certain provision of funds.
