The Welshman

I ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. I A general meeting was held on Saturday at the London Tavern, for the purpose of taking into consideration the subject of administrative Reform. Long before the hour appointed for the commencement of the proceedings, the front of the Tavern was besieged by persons anxious to obtain admission, and the doors had to be closed against I them. Mr. Samuel Morley, who presided, expressed his opinion that this country was fast drifting on to a revolution, and as a trader of the City of London he wished to preserve its great interests. Referring to the aristocracy, he warned them against driving the people to a consideration of sub- jects which might prove a great disadvantage to them. He said he did not wish that the proceedings of that meet- ing should have reference merely to the war, for he wished to know how the country was to be governed after the war was over (hear, hear ) There could be no doubt that Christie, Filder, and Boxer, had done immense disservice to the country in reference to the war but there were Christies, Filders, and Boxers in every public department of the State (hear, hear.) As to the remedy, he believed it was in the hands of the people themselves. If they sent sons and nephews of peers to the House of Commons, they would never gain any redress from Parliament and he would advise that at the next election they should throw over altogether the aristocratic element (hear, hear). He concluded by announcing that the association which would be formed to-day would enter upon those important duties, and would act upon the constituencies of the country. Mr J. Ingham Travers, in moving the first resolution That the disasters to which the country has been sub- jected in the conduct of the present war are attributable to the inefficient and practical irresponsible management of the various departments of the State, and urgently demand a thorough change in the administrative system,"—said, as a practical man, what the gentlemen who called the meet- ing intended to do. It had been stated that they wanted to produce a revolution. He hurled that charge back with the indignation it deserved, for the idea of revolution with the trading classes, whose property was bound up in a proper state of things, was absurd. He also denied that it was to overthrow the government, or that any individual was to be attacked in the way that he was sorry to see in the House of Commons the other night (loud cheers). The movement was to be too wide & comprehensive for that. The object of the meeting was to arouse the constituencies to a sense of their duty, and that a committee he appointed to plan some definite scheme of reform that may meet with the support of the country, and in attempting to do that he believed that they would be met by a uni- versal response from the entire people of this country (loud cheer). Mr Gassiott seconded the resolution, and in doiny so referred to the mismanagement which characterised" the preparations of the present expedition, and read some cor- respondence between Mr. Manby and the War department wherein his brother, who resided in Paris, offered to raise an army of 10,000 guerillas of the first class for the Crimea and the only practical answer received was that they were flooded by similar applications; and yet in the face of this the Foreign Enlistment bill was passed and government sent all over the world to find men after refusing this offer and the Spanish General who was prepared to carry it cut became utterly disgusted with his treatment by the British government (shame, shame). Let them look how the great commercial companies of this country carried on their operations. A railway was undertaken to be made in the Crimea—months were not frittered away, but they com- menced work twenty-four hours after landing, and com- pleted it within a month of the specified time (loud cheers). When a commercial house wanted an infusion of new blood they introduced some one who understood their busi- ness, having begun to learn as a humble clerk, and the consequence was that success which made the operations of a single company greater than those of many a continental kingdom (loud cheers). Let them look how the govern- ment infused new blood. A change of ministry came. Such a man as Sir William Molesworth, for instance, had devoted a whole life to the colonial affairs but he was sent into the Woods and Forests, because he really knew no- thing about the office, and Mr. Bernal Osborne was sent to the admiralty upon the very same principle. If a com- mercial company transacted its business in that way, irretrie- vable ruin would soon overwhelm them. The patronage of the civil service was dispensed in the most corrupt and abominable -manner, and men were put into places in the service of the country, by means of parliamentary votes and influence, who were not only totally unfit for them, but good for nothing in anything whatever (loud cheers). The army was sold to those who could pay for it, without any respect to professional fitness or competency. It was mis- management of this kind that had aroused the indication of the country from one end to the other, and it was time that something should be done in a way to effectually remedy it; he therefore felt that it was his duty to come forward, as it was the bounden duty of every man, to arouse the popular voice (loud cheers). The Chairman here announced, amidst enthusiastic cheering, that in proof of the hold which this question had taken upon the public mind, a large meeting was that mo- ment being held in the Guildhall, with B. Oliveira, Esq. M.P., in the chair. ) Mr. T. B' Coles supported the resolution, and thouo5 fct that the time had arrived when the whole matter ought to be improved in the best and most practicable way (loud The Chairman then put the resolution, when j Mr. Alfred Walker, who stated that he was a liveryman ) of London, wished to propose an amendment, as he thought the resolution was hardly etrong enough. A scene of considerable confusion ensued as to whether Mr. Walker should be heard or not. CheetB hissing, clapping of hands, mingled with cries of" W alk er," and No Walker." continued for some time, when Mr. Walker tore up his amendment and addressed the meeting from the gallery. He said that, as a citizen of London, he felt as grave a responsibility as any man there, and in doing so he denied that they were not, as speakers had alleged to allude to the war; he contended that the war was the thing, and if the government had conducted it properly by calling up the oppressed nationalities of Eu- rope they could have ended it long since (cheers and his- ses). The confusion here became so uproarious, that the sCfhsa)? irman put it to the meeting whether Mr. Walker should be heard, remarking that some enemy had done this. The meeting unanimously condemned Mr. Walker to silence. The Chairman then put the first resolution, which was carried in the midst of loud and protracted cheering. Mr. W. S. Lindsay, M.P., then moved the second reso- lution "That the true remedy for the system of mal-administra- tion, which has caused so lamentable a sacrifice of labour, money, and human life, is to be sought in the introduction of enlarged experience and pratical ability into the service of the State. "That the exclusion from office of those who possess in a high degree the practical qualities necessary for the di- rection of affairs in a great commercial country, is a reflec- tion upon its intelligence and a betrayal of its interests. "That while we disclaim every desire of excluding the aristocratic classes from participating in the councils of the Crown, we feel it our duty to protest against the preten- sions of any section of the community to monopolise the functions of administration." He said that he would have preferred having been a si- lent spectator upon that occasion, but he could not sit still when he saw the enthusiastic feeling which pervaded that vast meeting (loud cheers). He had been disgusted night after night, in his Place.in the House of Commons—had been utterly disgusted with the flippant manner in which the members of the government, and especially its head, had treated the great and important questions that came before them. When the eight millions was voted for the transport service he got up in his place and told the mi- nistry that they had lost and utterly wasted two millions by want of proper organization (loud cheers). He told them that had a proper system been in operation the vessel s en- gaged would have performed four timps the amount of work in a better manner, and thereby saved this waste of two millions of the public money (loud cheers). He asked a question relative to the transport service and both Sir James Graham and Sir Charles Wood got up and evaded the question, attacking him in return because he made some reference to a deaf and dumb clerk in one of the de- partments. Yes, he reapeated it now, that they even put a deaf and dumb man to answer questions. There was not a single man in that government who was in his right place (loud cheers). He denied that this was a party movement, it was a national movement, and it would be found so. The government reminded him of a gentleman he conversed with in France recently, who only had two answers for all questions, and one of them was "All right," which he had learned about five and twenty years previously in England (laughter). He (Mr. Lindsay) had no desire to take office. A transfer from Austin Friars to Downing-street would be a serious pecuniary sacrifice to him, but he had offered to Sir James Graham to spend the week at the Admiralty and at Deptford, with a clever man, to organize the system, but he never heard anything more about it. No doubt the right hon. gentleman had consult- ed the hon. Peter Dicks of the office, and he had been ad- vised to have nothing to do with a City man (loud cheers). If they did not themselves lop off the dead and decaying branches of that constitution which they all so much loved, another and a more ruthless hand would cut into the stem (loud cheers). The prices of food increased and em- ployment decreased. They would want a man of energy to direct the affairs of this great nation. The hon. gen- tleman concluded by saying, that a committee would be immediately formed of men of business the resolutions passsed would be transmitted to every constituency in the kingdom and those gentlemen who sneered at them, and called this movent a flash in the pan," would find that it would be no flash in the pan (loud cheers). He believed that the government, when pressed, might sacrifice some poor insignificant bullock to the people's anger (loud cheers). He would take care that the bullock should be from the upper stalls of the ministerial fattening house (loud cheers). Hewould conclude by supporting the reso- lution with all the ardour in his power (loud cheers). (When the hon. gentleman sat down, he was greeted by a regular round of cheering. I Mr. Samuel Baker said that in seconding the resolution he entirely agreed with every word that had fallen from the hon. gentleman who had just sat down, and as a further illustration of the unpardonable way in which the affairs of the nation were conducted, that noble out-spoken sailor, Sir Thomas Hastings, had let out the fact that officials were actually in the market bidding against each other (loud cheers.) He would ask if any merchant in London per- mitted; his clerks so to conduct his business, would he not soon find himself in the least enviable portion of the II Gazette? (Loud cheers.) This shopkeeping nation, as it had been called, had contributed the sum of eighty millions II to the expenses of this war. What had they for it ? Their troops were not properly fed, nor clothed, nor taken care of. '1 hey could not be expected to fight, and their money was grossly wasted and misapplied, whilst their brave ) soldiers were allowed to perish (cheers.) He. denied that this movement was against the aristocracy; no, it was against the mismanagement of our public affairs by incom- j petent men, the majority of whom belonged to the t 1 aristocracy, and had obtained their places throngh improper parliamentary and family influence (cheers.) The meeting that day was a protest against those doings, and he had the greatest pleasure in seconding the resolution (cheers). Mr. F. Bennoch supported the resolution, and said that in the government offices of the country there seemed to be a place for everybody who was fortunate enough to have a sufficient amount of patronage to obtain it, whether he was fitted for it or not (cheers.) Many men held a number of offices, any one of which would be quite sufficient to absorb all their attention. Take the Board of Ordnance— Lord Raglan was the Master General, as if he had not sufficient work as Commander-in-Chief in the Crimea, and Sir Hew Dalrymple Ross discharged his duty here. Now; he contended that one office was quite sufficient for one man. The result of ail this was that the equipment of the troops was shamefully mismanaged. Harness had been served out for this campaign, that had been slumbering in stores for forty years (shame.) Boots and shoes had been ordered, and were not procured until months after the time, and when they did go to the Crimea, it was found that on account of the size they could not be both worn together (shame, shame.) A friend of his lately had an interview with a government official, when the latter gen- tleman rang the bell, called in John, and said pompously, John poke the fire" (laughter.) That is what we mean to do. We mean to poke the fire (loud cheers.) So great had been the hold which this question took of the public mind that the unprecedented occurrence of two meetings being held at the same time upon the same question in the city of London was that day a fact (loud cheering.) They had very few independent men in Parliament to support them that day, but how many will they have on Monday ? Why such a force as no ministry will dare to withstand. Notwithstanding the sneers, there was no doubt but that Mr. Layard was supported by the unanimous voice of the country, and his resolutions met with universal response from one end to the other (loud cheers). Mr. Johnstone Lee spoke to the resolution, and stated that he had a statement from a noble lord to the effect that office had been offered to merchants in the City of London, who had refused to take office because it would interfere with their own business. He complained of, and analysed the constituency, showing that that the aristocratic element prevailed so greatiy there, that it was impossible for a Minister to choose competent men from amongst them. They must purify that house, and place it more in the hands of the country, before this evil would be properly remedied (loud cheers.) He cordially approved of the movement, which he trusted and believed would be for the beneR: of all classes in the community (loud cheers). The resolution was then put and carried with acclama- tion. Mr. William Tite moved the third resolution, as fol- lows That an association be now formed to promote, by all constitutional means, the attainment of administrative reform. That the association be called the Administrative Re- form Association, and that the following gentlemen, with power to add to their number, be appointed the committee, to collect funds, to prepare an address to the constituencies of the United Kingdom, and generally to carry out the objects of the association." He was desirous that the pp.ople of this country should take their own affairs into their own hands and remedy the manifold evils which surrounded them (hear, hear." lie never addressed a political meeting in his life before but he came there animated by that feeling which pervaded them all-the desire to raise his voice against the present system. He then referred to the systems of sewerage, water, &c., which he denounced as one great government job wherever it could by possibility be turned to that account. Every one seemed to be put into the wrong place, and the result was that in every department there was nothing but absurdity and misrule, which produced death and disease in their army, and cost them thousands and thousands of pounds. He spoke of a plan for ventilating the hospitals at Scutari at a time when dysentery, caused by imperfect ventilation, was taking hundreds of lives. He communicated with the government and referred them to the gentleman who proposed the plan, and who could have taught a ship carpenter to have done it ten minutes, but a large unmeaning red tape letter was the only answer (laughter). Mr. James Ilutchin, sen., seconded the resolution. Mr. B. Oliveira, M.P., next addressed the meeting, and said that he had just returned from presiding at an orderly crowded meeting at Guildhall, where the same resolutions had been passed, with an addition to the first, that it would be necessary, in order to carry out the objects designed, to have a considerable extension of the constituency (cheers.) lie came to them to hear their sentiments, in order that he might shape his conduct in the House of Commons in accordance with their wishes (cjheers.) He believed that he was as independent as any member in that House of Com- mons, and he always gave his support to the party from the most conscientious convictions, The resolution was put and carried with acclamation. A vote of thanks was unanimously awarded to the Chair- man after which three cheers were called for the Queen, and given with the most enthusiastic vehemence. Three cheers for the independent members of the House of Commons followed and the proceedings finally terminated with three cheers more for Mr. Layard, M.P. The Chairman on leaving the chair, announced the names of the committee of management, which are mostly those of the Council, and the vast crowd then retired. Fifteen hundred persons were cornnave been prescDt. and sL, ,er ,? t?vrns were also on the platform.

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM ASSOCIATION. The great meeting has been held. The new association has been formed. The money has been subscribed that is to say, twenty-five gentlemen have put down their names for 9100 each, so the Chairman, Mr. Samuel Morley, in- formed his crowded audience the committee has been named; and the Administrative Reform Association is fairly afoot. For our own part, we have already expressed our wish that, if these gentlemen have discovered poins that are wrong in our administrative system, they should first show what they are; and, secondly, should explain what will set them right. That if we have the wrong men in place, they will bring forward the right ones. That if all our system be wrong, they will have the kindness to show where it is wrong, and how it is to be set right. Our system of administration is undoubtedly a great public question. It is open, in common with all other such questions, to public discussion of all sorts-it may be talked of -written about-printed on-solemnly speechi- fied on-the sleeping people of England may be roused by the eloquence of Mr. Bennoch and Mr. Lindsay-they may be electrified by the novel images of the constitutional tree with bright foliage and rotten branches-of the preci- pice on which they stand with the price of corn steadily advancing-of our old ship, which we want men of nerve aid capacity to guide through the breakers that surround us. All possible points of this kind are the property of the public—are fair subjects for discussion; the mis- management of the aristocracy, if it exist, is to be pointed out; its evil consequences, if there be evil consequences, are to be remedied if our present Ministry be in fault, let it disappear before the adverse breath of the offended public; if all our clerks in all our offices be mischievous or useless, let us have a clean swpep-Iet us by all means get the right men in the right places. This is, after all, a matter on which we are unanimously agreed. It is the Tery principle of our Constitution-it is the point that we are all striving for, only it happens to be a point on which It is impossible that all men should agree, and on which we therefore take the verdict of a majority of the House of Commons, representing, as far as we have been able to get ll, the opinion of a majority of the public. The Adminis- trative Reform Association is, it appears, distressed by a conviction that we have not got this verdict, and is forth- with to set about the means of getting it, and of ridding the country of an inefficient and irresponsible system of administration, and the unbusiuess-like management of every department of the State." A system and a manage- ment which they hold to have brought great disasters on the country. It is well that, in this case, they should first prove their statements; and, secondly, show the remedy for existing evils. They should prove that the wrong men are in office, and should show that they have the right ones. Now, after being at the pains to read through the speech-I es of Mr. Samue! Morley, of Mr. Travers, of Mr. Lindsay, of Mr. Powles, and of Mr. Oliveira, we confess ourselves at a loss to ascertain what is the precise end, aim, or ob- ject of the association—what it intends to do, or how it means it to be done. We can see that Mr. Lindsay con- siders himself to have been neglected and ill-used but we cannot see that that is a reason for dismissing all the clerks in the Admiralty. We can see that Mr. Bennoch thinks himself a sufficient judge of military affairs to pro- nounce that our officers did not do their duty at Inker- mann, but we should be very sorry to see Mr. Bennoch taking their places, and directing our troops. Mr. John- stone Neale stated, after an interesting episode on Lord Palmerston's fruitless overtures to merchants in the City of London, what the world knows very well already—the proportion of aristocracy, of some of peers, baronets, sons- in-law, of right lionourtbles, officers of the army and navy, &c., in the House of Commons. He did not show—doubt- less for good reasons—that these were inefficient men, or that they were not fairly chosen by their constituencies, or that they neglect the duty they have undertaken. The fact i, that the monopoly of the functions of ad- ministration by any section of the community" is a mockery and a delusion. No such thing exists in this country. The aristocracy are not at all likely to be ex- cluded from the councils of the Crown by the Reform As- sociation, nor have they any monopoly or other advantage in political life beyond that which they derive from wit, knowledge, or ability, superior to those they meet with in Mr. Lindsay or Mr. Bennoch. They fight, and have fought, and have hitherto maintained their place in this country against more formidable opponents than Mr. Oliveira and his friends are likely to prove. They have, we feel sure, no wish to exclude any man, or any class of men, from the Government who show themselves compe- tent to the task. Mr. Huskisson and Sir Robert Peel were not aristocrats, neither were Burke nor Canning, nor is Mr. Disraeli, nor, indeed, was the first, the great, Lord Chatham, nor is Mr. Gladstone. Wherever talent is shown, the Minister, who knows that he cannot face the House of Commons except with its aid, is too glad to get it to ask whether it be aristocratic or no. But it is ex- pecting rather too much of any Minister to accept, as a proved fact, a man's own estimate of his fitness for office, when the estimate is shown by his performance to be based on a profound and melancholy deception, such as that which seems to pursue poor Mr. Layard, or such as that which we suppose possesses and prompts the rest- less eccentricities of Mr. Oliveira. The House of Coni- moae is chosen by the country in th* manner which th e j country thinks the best. The aristocracy arc returned not lazily and idly, not as nominees of rotten boroughs, but as representing some of the great constituences of Eng- land, because they are the men who do their work best, and most manfully. If the committee of the Reform Association have men who can work better, let us by all means have them forward-let them speak—we do not want orators but let them show that they have in them the means of doing business better than it is done by Lord Palmerston and Lord Panmure, by Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli, by Lord John Russel1 and by Sir Jehn I Pakington. We shall be delighted to welcome their com- ing man or men but we must warn them that the country wili not be persuaded by any amount of agitation, carried on at any expense, to believe that Mr. Layard possesses the qualifications of a Prime Minister—that Mr. Lindsay is fit for First Lord of the Admiralty, or Mr. Oliveira for anything—or that the merchants of London can spare time from their business for the task of governing the country- or that it is advisable to give them places for life-or that we should gravely set about revolutionising our whole system for the sake of a few gentlemen who cannot com- mand office by their ability, but arc anxious to persuade the world that there is a conspiracy against their talents, and that the country is being rapidly ruined for want of their assistance. -Jlorizi?zq Post. j (From the Globe.) What is the main cause why the working of our military organisation failed to do full justice to our military charac- ter, nay, in some departments lamentably broken down, under stress of the exigencies of last winter ? Ask Mr. Morley, at the City meeting on Saturday, and he will tell you that it is because the constituencies do not yet desist from sending Lords to Parliament. If the City were but disencumbered of Lord John Itussell-the less agitable constituency, that luxuriates on the banks of the Exe, of Lord Pilnierstoii-if the House of Commons con- tamed no Lord Seymour, to show that something may be said on the other side upon those military questions which have been made subjects of such sweeping and sometimes of such very indifferently founded assertions-if there were no Lord Duncan, or Ebrington, or 3oderich, to advocate popu- lar improvements with (it must at least be admitted) evi- dent zeal and sincerity—if, in short, Mr. Morley's general instruction to the constituencies to return no Lords to Par- liament were carried out with befitting stringency—the country, and the cause of Administrative and Military lie- form would be safe, and Revolution averted. To make a revolution may seem, at first sight, an odd way of averting it; and in a land of local and family influences Mr. Morlcy's proposition amounts to nothing less. In a country where ancestral and aristocratical distinction still receive recognition, and where the sons of patrician houses compete on the common arena for popular suffrages, nothing but the most prevalent revolutionary passions could produce such a result as Mr. Morley advocates. Even the Athenian people, the most restlessly jealous of oligarchy, gave a mark- ed and habitual preference, as we are told by the latest and most democratical historian of Greece, to the descendant of 2Eacus and Zeus" over the leather or ropeselling dema- gogue for offices of trust or command. At Athens, as at Syracuse," says Mr. Grote, the men who got to real power, and handled the force and treasures of the State, were chiefly of the rich families—often of oligarchical senti- ments. Their proceedings were doubtless always liable to the scrutiny, and their persons to the animadversion, of the public assembly hence arose the influence of the demagogue, such as Athenagoras and Kleon. By whatever disparaging epithets such a character may be surrounded, it is in reality the distinguishing feature of a free government under all its forms—whether constitutional monarch or democracy. By the side of the real political actors, who hold principal office and icieid personal power, there are always abundant censors and critics-some better, others worse, in respect of honesty, candour, wisdom, or rhetoric. In short, wherever lords exist-or possessors of inherited wealth and station-it is not a peculiar Whig exclusiveness, but a general popular tendency, that accords them-c(ctcl-is paribus-a certain preference over men of obscurer origin For example, could they but have got the least bit of a lord in the chair at the London Tavern, or the Guildhall some- what sorry supplementary gathering! At a pinch, Lord Ballyraggum Were better than no Lord at all! But not even Lord Mayor Moon would turn the light of his countenance on the assembly to which he felt himself bound to afford accommodation under the City roof. Our French allies, and their funds, will duly appreciate the ab- stention from this attempted movement of such a personage as the Lord Mayor of London But if there were not even Irish Lords, it must be admitted there was a compensatory influx of Irish members. It does not, we confess, seem to us absolutely certain that the nation would better itself, by determining that none should be members of Parliament, or Ministers of State, but men who were not lords-men who had the negative advan- tage of not having served their political apprenticeship on the political arena, but on railway-boards, or in factories, or counting-houses. That negative quality seems the most insisted on in some quarters, as the sure and sole security for accomplished statesmanship. We may perhaps believe it, when we see some gentlemen, who think that none but the foremost official posit i ons could afford adequate scope to t.h?" nntiti-i r He-i  except those which all history and experience agree in attributing not to the Statesman properly so called, but the Demagogue. But the question with which we started remains un- answered What is the main cause of our imperfect military efliciency ? We should say-to express it in a single sen- tence-the relaxation in peace of all those sinews of war, which consist-not in money—but in maintained military organisation. No man has obtained less than Sir Francis Head the character of a prophetic oracle. Yet it would have been im- possible for the wisest of men (which Sir Francis is not) to have predicted with more perfect precision the points on which our military system, loosened in all its joints by a long peace, would prove defective on the first outbreaking of a war—than Sir Francis Head did, in his volume publish- ed in 1850, on The defenceless state of Great Britian.' The volume is now really curious to refer to in this point of view, and we may take future opportunity of affording it some retrospective notice. Our own noble correspondent, Lord Mount Edgcumbe, in a detailed communication on the subject of the Militia Ballot, supplied most startling and most serious evidence of what we have termed this relaxation of the sinews of u-tir, the effect of long peace. A portion of the public seems in a temper to see no necessities of individual effort or individual sacrifice—nor indeed any but of sweeping and unspairing de- nunciation of all public functionaries. We cannot but heartily concur with a respected weekly contemporary, that "the abuse of fault-finding, like the abuse of every other privilege, leads to certain reaction. Already there are symptoms of some such change and if honourable members and anonymous journalists persist day after dav in bringing forward charges which they cannot substantiate, and dis- seminating rumours which turn out to be without the shadow of a ground, the time cannot be far distant when the Opposition will be as much discredited as the Government, when no accusation, however true, will be believed, and when Ministers will be able once more to shelter themselves and their short-comings and iniquities behind a wall of universal incredulity, raised for them by the follies and ex- cesses of their critics and assailants." I [From the Times]. Everybody will have his own opinion with regard to Saturday's meeting in the City of London, according as hope or fear, prejudice or interest, sways his judgment. Some will dwell on the absence from the list of requisition- ists of names familiar in the annals of civic agitation, and others may consider that, since members of Parliament were admitted, a stronger cast in that part of the perform- ance would have been desirable. For our own part, i makin all allowance for these and all other reasonable deductions we are disposed to consider this meeting as a demonstration of good sense, backed by a very large amount of social and commercial influence. The want of the prominent leaders in city matters was compensated by the undoubted respectability of the audience, and the speeches delivered breathed a tone of strong English feel- ing, and firmness tempered with moderation, honourable to the assembly itself, and very impressive to those who carefully consider its proceedings. It would, we believe, be found impossible to express more completely and accu- rately the prevailing sentiment of the public mind, and at the same time give a more faithful pictnre of our national character. We miss altogether in the proceedings of this meeting the declamation of the practised agitator, or the arts of the hackneyed debater. There is a just indignation at the mismanagement of the war, and a reference of every- thing to the standard of plain business rules and familiar common sense a fairness in dealing in the speakers even with those against whom they are most irritated and a downright honesty in the language employed, which has in it something wholesome and refreshing after the quib- bling, the evasion, the explanations" by which nothing is explained, and the "communications" by which nothing is communicated, which occupy so large a portion of our Parliamentary columns. Let those who have persuaded themselves that this country exists for the benefit of a few great families, and that for the sake of being governed by them we are willing to renounce all control over our own affairs, remark how keenly the acts of our public men are watched, and how thoroughly appreciated by the mercan- tile classes, and how strong is the condemnation which they deliberately record against the system under which they live. Aristocratic factions may afford to despise the clamours of a mob, but they must feel that they have trespassed beyond the bounds of prudence when their conduct is unanimously condemned by an assembly of men yielding to them neither in wealth or intelligence. What makes this meeting still more formidable, not only to the present Government, but to the system out of which that Government springs, and which it has so marvellously caricatured and exaggerated, is, that the speakers earnestly protest that they have not left their counting-houses for the mere purpose of making speeches and passing resolu- tions, but in the view of inaugurating a movement which shall not cease until the reform they seek be fully and effectually obtained. The object of the meeting of Satur- day was not the display of oratorical power, but the foun- dation of a league designed to upset the whole system of corruption and favouritism, and to introduce into public matters the energy and enterprise of private management. To such a movement we can only wish all the success it deserves, and trust that the discontent so justly excited will not be allowed to evaporate in mere words, but leave clear and distinct traces of its action legibly inscribed on the institutions of the country. At the same time, let no one suppose that the conquest will be easy or the victory cer- tain. Those who ask for administrative reform ask exactly for that which all concerned in returning members to Par- liament believe themselves to have a common motive in resisting. Administrative reform calls upon every voter to surrender those secret influences by which his son finds his way into the Excise or Customs, and devotes to the public service talents and energies for which no private establishment is disposed to compete. Administrative re- form would deprive the richer elector of the commission for his eldest son, and the assistant-surgeoncy or cadetship for the younger; and worst of all, Administrative reform threatens to make rude havoc in those halcyon abodes con- trived especially for the benefit of young men of family- "1"1 shor tho public offices, where work is doled out on the Qre, humane principles, and the wind is tempered so 36 s; to the shorn lamb. Nay, more Administrative reforlll not respect even the very highest positions, but asti theii to carry change into the very councils of the Sover. It demands the surrender of family and hereditary intlli T and the throwing open to men whose pedigrees are iofl T with no historian charm the very government of the I 0 try itself. No demonstration less signal, no disclof T less startling and less complete than those which ?or revelations have afforded, and are still continuing to ? mor would have enabled any class of men in this country sent cessfully to cope with an evil so thoroughly intertf nun with every fibre of our system.. mot Another difficulty with which the originators 01 *1 movement will have to contend is the abstract and re the nature of the subject, appealing directly to no p sympathy and resting on so little that can be brought* to the level of the vulgar apprehension. This is no 4 tion of the extension of rights of franchise, of the 1 secution of one set of opinions and the toleration of of ther, of the large or small loaf, or even of the great day little shilling. Still, a nation that has been found pre ble of clearly apprehending and logically applying be I abstruse doctrines of political economy involved iØ bee question of free trade may well hope to be able to g ravel the mysteries of public offices, the causes of defe1 Lor organization, or the ways in which interest and fa. itism shroud themselves from public view. It will, ever, require not a little tact, judgment, and mode 1 to preserve to this movement its neutral character, 9* sho prevent it from being used by selfish and ambitious 111" 1 a means of political aggrandizement. It was fot Oth Whigs that the leaders of the Anti-Corn Law LeagO I experience has shown, fought and conquered and K ag well be that there are persons in the political world, I are mentally appropriating to their own use and behOU' of labours of this new combination. 1 We have but one more remark to make. The efftj 1 a vigorous agitation for administrative reform, in ant the gross misconduct of our military departments we be exposed, will undoubtedly, in some degree, tel" 1 disgust the nation with the continuance of the war, render those classes whom such an organization attl more anxious than ever for peace, We hear already 0 less than we did in certain quarters of the H vigorous > secution of the war we trust, however, that it will to effort of the new organization to remind the people of' H< own inheren strength, and to point out to them that till tio medy for existing evils is not in an ignonimoub peace, bjj tal a thorough and unsparing redress of abuses. Even tic we write, Lord Ellenborough has raised the whole queel th of administrative reform in the address of which he ur given notice in the House of Lords; and the Peers r have the opportunity of showing how far they sympad fa with this commercial movement sooner than the ref lo sentatives of the people, since Lord Palmertson has, 4 S1J rather scant courtesy, desired Mr. Layard to find a day te himself. Doubtless, however, such a day will sooll ae found, and the Ministry which has just been enligb al as to the views of the City of London will not pi remain in ignorance of those held by both branches of Legislature. tt w

t 1 ARE WE TO HAVE AN ARMY ? We English, being a practical people, constitute prI Y4 tice our only school, and resolutely decline to pref, e beforehand that of which we might foresee the neces* f< There is, pehaps, no race that has less shaped its II P course by a predetermined will. Our boasted constitUP f grew up out of the excitements of the people, and wa*' tf prepared for us by any sages or inspired pbiloaopbl We even resist the proof of necessity until we feeJ. è iron pressure hard upon us. Nothing is more manl p t by the evidence of facts, than the conclusion that, if I would retain our place among the nations, we ougbi possess an army nothing more evident than the prio, ] pie, that the cheapest kind of army is that which is I cient for all fighting purposes; nothing sounder in ecO my, than the expediency of using every available opt tunity for exercises or improvements that tend to pi mote efficiency and yet, with means, appliances, opportunities for cultivating as fine an army as ever eliso we persist in rendering our force as ineffective as possit Wellington was the last and not the first to teach us, tl a soldiery is of little use, in modern times, for purpose' warfare, until it be formed into the organised bodies colt armies yet one of the latest authorised statements of a new War Minister is, that we are to adhere to our ,rd mental system." Our Ministers have authoritively clared that they do not intend to break in upon a syste of purchase which causes our army to be formed out two classes—the wealthy and the helplessly humblt I although that system precludes us from using the gr.ø schools that we possess for teaching officers the busiØel of armies in combination. "The regimental system." as pursued with the aiel G the system of purchase and promotion in our army, is at that makes our force resemble a troop of Indian servant dividing the duties of the household so minutely that 011 man carries your pipe, another your slippers, another øll purse, and so on with almost every article of tbp drowof room or a,, ? omcers ana men are kept apaf iue gentlemen, whose business it is to wield arOH<' learning nothing either of the men they have to cominaid the bodies they have to combine, or the elements of to, movements they have to accomplish. For the details the Regimental System," the reader may see a capH* article which begins Fraser's Magazine for the prese1* month. He will there learn, how the officer, coming intd the barrack where the men are formed in companies, gOlO through certain ceremonies of receiving reports from tbl sergeants who conduct the early parade; how, subsequentil the officers pretend to put the men through evolutiot)fl for which the sergeant has prepared them and still watcbtl in detail; how the officers go the rounds of the barracUO, with the stereotyped, unintelligible questions, 11 AOI complaints ?" and how, after a multiplicity of these fornist irksome because idle, the regiment is at last, on solØ' special day, called out to field-parade, and is put, u,pop grass, through the same elementary evolutions which II has already performed upon gravel. It is the sergeaøl that knows the men, that suggests their promotion, seeS tØ their food, watches their conduct, arranges their kit, i"' spects their weapons, and conducts the business of the companies tied together as a regiment by the loose clasp of the colonel's slaff. The regimental system leads soldiering not unlike the sportmanship of the battue; bUe, unfortunately, it is not calculated to bring down the enerJ11 for the simple reason that you cannot put your Rut;siao, or other game of that sort into a preserve. You must firf catch your Russian and our soldiers, trained in the regl' mental system, have not proved clever at that pursuit They laughed, indeed, to see the Russians run avrgy but since they found that the Russians could come back" they have learned to laugh on the wrong side of the mouth. The regimental system trains officers like auto* matons to dictate the movements pre-arranged by the sergeant. The captain gives the word of command, aD the step and, fixing his eye upon any small object on the ground, he goes so far as to lead his section of the arrfJ in marching upon a bit of grass, or a stone. He is quite competent, that captain, to march upon a bit of grass; but lie is kept all his life at that evolution of marching upon a bit of grass. The reforms suggested by the writer in Fraser's Vago- zine certainly do not advance beyond simple and practical considerations. The lesson they teach, indeed, falls short of that already taught by the campaign in the Crimea. To organise the British army into corps, divisions, and brigades, like the armies of Continental nations; to give officers promotion for following up the art of discipline from the point where it is arranged for them by the sergeant; to give certificates of certain attainments a8 essential preliminaries to the highest promotions made for actual service in the field,—these surely are moderate sug" gestions, infinitely within the suggestions presented by the actual condition of our army. We have example, exercise- ground, men, learning, ancient traditions, tnoney-every- thing that can be requisite for the formation of armies io every part and in every exercise. Wellington told us the perfection to which a moderate-sized army could be brought. Louis Napoleon has continued with increasing energy that training of the French army to act in combi- nations with cavalry and artillery which began under his uncle the commissariat and the medical departments forming constituent portions of the whole body. The whole is a moving power, so that the artillery, the infantry, and the hospital, can keep pace with the cavalry in a forced march, and the corps can be distributed into its con- stituent parts at a halt. The French have practised artisans that always enter military bodies and a corps d'armee is an independent community, capable of foraging for itself, of manufacturing and utalising the resources of the spot upon which it may find itself. We are not in- capable of that united action of great bodies of soldiers, but positively fall short in the most elementary efforts. No wonder that our Estimates are calculated to confound our business men and to astonish our neighbours. But to achieve this singular and organised incapacity, we throw away the finest opportunities that any nation ever had. We have colonies with every variety of climate and yet, in lieu of seasoning our troops, and particularly our officers, by the varied experience that such an empire affords, we have localised our armies as we individualise and isolate the particular classes of soldiery. We have a grand school of active warfare and campaigning always open to us in India and the new War-Office memorandum recognises the pupils of that school, in a way that implies some further use of their services. The War departments, it is said, are about to be re-organised; we have yet to see whether the new reform is animated chiefly by a spirit 01 sparing that which exists or of introducing that which is required because it is essential to efficiency. If we are to rebuild our house upon the principle of not disturbing any of the gentlemen who may enjoy their leisurely afternoon, certainly the new building will not differ very greatly from the old. But, after all, the organisation of the war de- partments is scarcely more necessary than the thorough organisation of the army. As it is, we are doing in the body of the force exactly what we have permitted to happen in the highest commissions. A system, somewhat strength- ened by experience, but superannuated by routine, is superseded by patchwork reforms in office, as we recruit our ranks by men who do not know how to wear their ciothes. One of the last regulations is to require that the men shall be dismissed from drill after forty days,—a re- form which certainly secures that the British army, not yet gifted with its young Wellington, shall be amply re- cruited with the awkward squad. What is the grandest and most obvious distinction be- tween the army of today and that of yesterday ? It is, that the men are not set up," and the officers do not wear epaulettes. We are anxious to see the army of <j tomoKow.—