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    458 THE LEADER. [Saturday ,

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    THE MAYNOOTH COMMISSION. In answer to th...

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    T7ixhibitions Lead The World Just Now ; ...

    goats ; for they have improved upon the Jewish plan of having only one . They provided several , from Newcastle to Christie , who are said to have " done it all ; " " the system" and Boxer had to bear the blame : previous Governments and Dcndas were the monsjters of iniquity . The Sebastopol Committee has closed its labours * and has , perhaps , proved notMng more conspicuously than the fact that " the system" was in the worst of conditions—quite enough to exonerate the officers set to work it in detail f but that it waff in that state , because successive Cabinets wowfd not

    do their duty in at least maintaining a peace establishment in effectual repair . Instead of 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 . AijBemarle has made another attack upon Ministers , for not directing the campaign into Prussia , witlTher " neutrality" and her transit trade . But differential duties , search into friendly ships , and " something else" vaguely hinted byLordDEKBY , 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 Ellenboboogh ' s long contemplated attack upon Ministers was also a failure . 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 them 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 Eixenborough s display came off m 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 ELLENBonoumi ' 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 addrossed . Fieldmarshal EixKNnoROuaH 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 Derby was very clever and very paltry as usual . His great # im was to damage the administrators of the present system without committing himself to anything better . The Government Lords arc not very ready debaters , or when ho talked about Mr . F . Pjbbl ' s want of previous training for his office , they mi g ht have reminded him of the pride he once took in certain

    " diggi ngs "—of a quarter-sessions squire set suddenly to govern the colonies—a third-rato 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 Debby refused office three months ago , but now ho is eager for it . He thinka Lord Palmurstox is used up , and therefore ho now attacks the man whom , he then sought to make his associate , and is ready to fill the Government with , the

    Incapables whose incapacity he has been forced to avow . Toryism apart , how can this man be fit to lead a nation ? Lord Paitmurb explained last night the new plan for the consolidation of the War Departments . The statement was Lord Palmersxon ' s sketch , phis the details ; and one detail is interesting enough . The " consolidation" will-result in a « new division and a new office : the Secretary at War is to be revived under a new name , a » the " civil" officer of the Department , representing it in the Commons , making the financial statement , and pocketing a financial product for himself . Also wilF 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 the second reading of his Church-rates Bill—a measure which does a 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 . Cowpkb , and Protestantism of the liberal order , stood up against pew-rates ; and Lord Paxmerston , 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 Pai > mehston ' 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 Xature 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 see the " popular " spectacle , anxiously watching for the grand moment when the lava shall hiss in the loveliest of bays .

    458 The Leader. [Saturday ,

    458 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

    The Maynooth Commission. In Answer To Th...

    THE MAYNOOTH COMMISSION . In answer to the Earl of Wjnchxlsea , on Monday , the Earl of Harrowby 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 bad 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 tfie Romish Church . However , he ( the noble lord ) had tho consolation of knowing that nothing went to Rome but what would be communicated to the whole world in a few days . With regard to tho report itself , it was clrawn up in February lust , but without any communication whatever with Rome .

    IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

    CONDDOT OF THE WAR . The Earl of Ellenhouough then rose to move the resolutions which he had placed on the notice paper of the IJouso . After alluding to the comparutive failure of our warlike operations , notwithstanding the extraordinary valour and devotion of our soldiers and sailors , ho remarked that since the accession of Lord Pnlmerston to tho Government u sort of torpor had come over everything . Ho doubted

    tho fitness of tho present premier for conducting n war , altho \ igh tho public , upon the strength of his having formerly been Secretary at War—an office by no means connected with tho direction of war , for it was connoctod only with the finances of the armyconceived that ho was tho most appropriate man for the present stato of affairs . Lord Ellen borough then quoted an anecdote of tho late Duke of Wellington , to show tho poor opinion entortuined by him of Lord PalmorBton :

    " I recollect sitting by tho side of tho Duko of Wellington in tho House of Lordu , during tho unfortunate dilliculty between him anil Mr . lluttkiuson , which led to tho resignation of a portion of the gentlemen forming tho coalition Government . Tho Duko of Wellington

    was suddenly called out of the house , and when he re turned , he said to me—' That was Palmerston who waotet * t » see me , to tell me , if Huskisson went he must go too . '' Th « Stake continued— ' I said nothing ; it was not for " met to fire great guns at small birds . ' That -was at that time the opinion of the Duke of Wellington . I will not presume to say that the small bird may not in subsequent times bave obtained the character and powers of an eagle ; but , at the time I speak of , the Duke of Wellington * appears to have entertained the opinion I have stated . "

    The Government had been torpid , but the people had been awake , and they had arrived at the conclusion that- if is ~ - © nly by the selection of persons for public employment on the ground of fitness , and not from any motives of favour , that the war can be properly conducted . In that opinion Lord Ellenborough stare . d that he fully concurred , and had always acted upon it when in a position of power . A great change , he added , lias 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 array 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 tkat 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 GO , 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 plated in such a position , and had he surrounded himself with a military instead of a civil staff , I believe a great number of tho calamities which we have to lament in the present war would not have happened . But I think the noble duke had a battle to light not only here but also in the Crimea ; that ho 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 tho Baltic will see that , whilst the Russians had taken every precaution , by the erection of defences , to prevent ships of large draught of water from entering their ports , and from coming near their dockyards , they linu not taken the same precautions against tin ; attacks oi vessels of a smaller class , and that both » t Sweauorg and at Cronstadt there were opportunities tor the entrance and approach of vessels of small draught , must also be observed that at such a time there uuglit to have been a body of military ready to act m concert with the ships , for tho marines could not bo sparea . But tho Government , though it went a ileut to the lialti < j sent it without gun-boats and without troops . iu »> made it impossible for the navy to gam any great si"

    ceases . Sir Charles Napier was not tho only officer of the Baltic fleet who has juat grounds to complain oi u manner in which ho has boon treated . J hen , » regard to the war in Asia , that is almost as iinpc >« [»™ as the war on tho banku of the Danube ; but hcvu theless it has , up to the present time , been alto ^ wi neglected , although in Asiatic Hussia there ; is a tu . quorod but gallant pwplo , ready to throw o « «» 0 yoke , and to asflist us in any military <> P' - rilt ° "J Tho expedition to Varna was one ot which u . U ; EUenborough ) highly unproved ; and lio ti \^ ° thanked Lord Aberdeen for having pressed it "I " hia colleagues . In the language of the lato i » w »

    it " gave a hand to Austria . " " That army , placed at Yania—and , it might bo co

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1855, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19051855/page/2/