London, February 20. Although the House of Commons sat 
yesterday from 4 p. m. to 2 a. m. and voted away some £7.5 
million sterling for the army, the debates lacked anything 
interesting enough to report. Therefore, we shall only note that 
Palmerston disconcerted his liberal opponents both by the 
deliberate triviality of his replies and by the _ provocatively 
confident insolence with which he delivered these trivialities.* 
Having declaimed about the battle of Balaklava in the manner of 
Astley’s Amphitheatre, he attacked Layard for “vulgar declama- 
tion against the aristocracy”, for it was not the aristocracy that was 
dug-in in the Commissariat, in Transport and in the Medical 
department. He forgot that its lackeys are dug-in there. Layard 
rightly emphasised that the commissions invented by Palmerston 
are good for nothing but stirring up conflicts of competence in the 
expeditionary army. “What!” cried Palmerston (he saw himself 
again in the place of Richard IJ and Parliament in the role of Wat 
Tyler’s mob). “You want to set up a parliamentary committee 
good for nothing but producing Blue Books,** and you take 
exception to my commissions, which ‘have to work’!” Palmerston 
treated Parliament with such superciliousness that for once he 
even found it superfluous to make his own jokes. He borrowed 
them from the ministerial morning papers which the Members of 
Parliament had in front of them on the table. They were spared 
neither the “Committee of Public Safety” of The Morning 

February 20, 1855.— Fd. 

Chronicle* nor the jibe of The Morning Post about transporting the 
inquisitorious Members to the Crimea—and leaving them there. 
Only a parliament constituted like this one could have stood for 
this. 

So, while in Parliament Palmerston out-Aberdeens Old Aber- 
deen, he lets it be known—not directly, through his own papers, 
but through the gullible newspaper of the united victuallers,? that 
he is not a free agent but bound in chains by the Court, etc. 

As a peace congress is soon to meet in Vienna, it is time to 
speak of the war and to estimate the military forces at the disposal 
of the powers which have so far appeared—more or less—on the 
battlefield. This is not a question only of the numerical strength of 
the armies, but of that part of them which can be used in 
offensive operations. We shall give details only of the infantry, as 
the other arms must be proportionate.‘ 

England possesses, in all, 99 regiments, or 106 battalions of 
infantry. Of these, at least 35 battalions are on Colonial service. Of 
the remainder, the first five divisions sent to the Crimea took up 
40 battalions more; and at least eight battalions have been sent 
since as reinforcements. There remain about 23 battalions, hardly 
one of which could be spared for service abroad. The militia, 
embodied to the number of over 50,000, are allowed to volunteer 
for foreign service. They are to occupy Gibraltar, Malta, Corfu, 
and thus to relieve about twelve battalions, which then may be sent 
to the Crimea. A foreign legion, as Palmerston stated in the House 
of Commons yesterday, will not be set up. Finally, on the 13th 
February, orders were issued to create second battalions for 93 
regiments—43 of 1,000 men and 50 of 1,200 men each. This 
would give an addition of 103,000 men, besides about 17,000 
more men for the cavalry and artillery. But not one of these 
120,000 men has as yet been enlisted, and afterwards they have to 
be drilled and officered. 

The admirable organisation existing at present has contrived to 
employ almost the whole of the infantry—with the exception of 
depot companies and a few depot battalions— between the Crimea 
and the colonies, and moreover not only the men but, though this 

“ The Morning Chronicle, No. 27504, February 19, 1855.— Ed. 

friend...”, No. 19864, February 19, 1855.— Ed. 

March 8, 1855 (see this volume, pp. 32-39).— Ed. 

seems incredible, the cadres as well. Now, there are plenty of 
half-pay generals, colonels and majors on the British army list and 
they can be employed for this new force. But there are hardly any 
captains on half-pay, and no leutenants and non-commissioned 
officers at all. But it is well known that the non-commissioned 
officers form the cornerstone of every army. According to General 
Sir William Napier, the historian of the Peninsular war,’ the best 
authority in this field, it takes fully three years to drill the 
“tag-rag” and “bobtail”? (the lumpenproletariat) of Old England 
into “the best blood of England”, “the first soldiers of the world”. 
If that is the case when the cadres are at hand and need only to be 
replenished, how long will it therefore take to manufacture heroes 
out of these 120,000 men? During the next twelvemonth, the 
utmost the British Government can do is to keep up a “heroic 
little band” of fifty thousand men before the enemy. That number 
could be exceeded for short periods, but only at the cost of 
considerably upsetting all preparation for future reinforcements. 
The departure of the mail compels us to break off at this point.