The Press. — London, England, 1857-08-22 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 22,1857. a period only, and not for their whole lives. They do not consider their regiment as their home, nor the Horse Guards as the arbiter of their prospects in life. Some of them enter Parliament ; some become peers ; others settle down as quiet country gentlemen. Only a small fraction of them are literally " men of the sword," who look to that alone for their livelihood, and for the means of advancement in life. Now, however injuriously this system may operate in other respects, there cannot be a doubt that this independence of military promotion, and this connection with general society, has conduced very much to the for mation of an army which renders jealousy superfluous. Nor, on the other hand, can it be questioned that a system which practically excluded all but " working " candidates, if we may so speak—all, that is to say, but men wrapt up in their profession, and staking their whole prospects on success in it— would isolate the army from the public, and render it a readier instrument for uncon stitutional designs, should any Minister ever he mad or wicked enough to conceive such. Such a contingencj may be highly improbable. We sincerely believe that it is so. Yet in making changes of this magnitude no possibility should be overlooked. Englishmen are a little too much given to thank Providence that they are not as other nations. But in this par ticular instance we doubt if they really desire to try the experiment in question. With regard to our second point, we trust Sir DE LACY EVANS does not intend to recom mend that the system of selection be applied to regimental officers below the rank of lieute nant-colonel. It would open a wide door to favouritism. This could not so well happen in the case of an officer promoted to an impor tant command. In that case there is at the same time greater security and less tempta tion. The public have the man before their eyes, and can judge of his fitness for them selves. And the officer by whom the appoint ment is bestowed cannot quiet his conscience by the reflection that the gentleman ap- pointed, if not actually the very best, is still up to the mark, and can do no injury to the ser vice. No honest man could reason in this way about such important posts as the command of a regiment. But he very readily might where a commission or a company was in volved. When a captaincy fell vacant, out of fifty candidates there would be certain to be five or six of such nearly equal merit that to nominate the second best would do no appre ciable harm. In this way the nominator could oblige his friend without injuring the service, and strengthen a Political connection without pricking his conscience. Of course, if every officer up to the rank of major were only promoted after a competitive examination, this particular objection would vanish, for the examiners must regulate their choice rigidly by the number of marks. But we doubt if examinations fur either a company or a majority would not be detrimental to the efficiency of the service. But even if they were not, strong objections to the aboli tion of purchase would still remain, for the only other alternative, i.e., promotion by mere seniority, seems now universally condemned. Other important points in connection with this subject still remain to be discussed, and we shall return to it at the earliest oppor tunity. THE GOVERNMENT, MR. DISRAELI, AND THE " PRESSURE FROM WITHOUT." WE have no hesitation in saying that the de bate on Thursday was one of the most in. teresting in the whole of the past session. Two remarkable speeches were made in it by the Premier and Mr. DISRAELI. The member for Calne (Sir W. WILLIAMS), like a raw political novice, committed his friends and the Go vernment by declaring that-- A greater mistake had not been made of late yetrs than in leaving such a place as Delhi, full of materiel, in charge of black troops. . . . He (Sir W. Williams) had seen the nakedness of India, station after station, without a single stronghold. The consequence was, when we were attacked, all went over like a pack of cards. And much more strong language to the same effect was used by the " Hero of Kars." For political power. An ephemeral Viceroy, changing every five years, does not adequately typify the Queen and Cabinet of England to the Oriental mind. Here is a practical sug gestion of the highest value, and we caution our readers to beware of the logic of those reasoners who endeavour to mystify the English public by pretending that "the ethics of empire " are " unsolved," and that we must either obey the Company or " discard " it. What India wants is that the rights of the British Crown should be more determinately exercised, and that the system which makes the Company " a potentate " should be re formed, purified, and raised to a level of policy more worthy of the moral energy of England. THE PURCHASE SYSTEM. IT seems not improbable that at some not very remote period a considerable addition may be made to our standing army. Should such be the case, it will become more important than ever to determine the character of our officers. Whether they are to continue what they have been, and now are, or whether they are to become something else. To be merely English gentlemen, with a little professional knowledge and great physical superiority, or a peculiar order of men, caught early and taught early, kept apart from their fellow citizens, and drilled and moulded into a strictly professional class. To what extent we shall continue the purchase system depends very much upon our solution of this previous question. For that that system could only exist to a very limited extent, if tat all, in combi nation with such a change as we have de scribed, scarcely requires demonstration. We shall confine ourselves on the present occasion to two points— first, how far the people of this country really wish to see their army approximated to continental models , secondly, to what extent the system of selec tion alluded to bylthe Commissioners would he free from the danger of conversion to political uses. " Jealouay of a standing army !" Does not the phrase at once carry us back to the excise and the land-tax, and the partiality for Hano ver, and twenty other grievances of our great great-grandfathers? Does it not seem a ques tion to be debated by representatives in flow ing wigs, velvet coats and ruffles, silk stock ings and high-heeled shoes ? To be denounced in King-street, and defended in Shire-lane ? It is almost impossible, in fact, to get a hear ing. The dangers seem so utterly chimerical. And yet, in truth, there are even to this day reasons which may make Englishmen look with suspicion upon the increase of the stand ing army. We may glance, in the first place, at the enormous amount of patronage which the exigencies of modern government have already placed in the hands of the Ministry. There is a strong opinion in the country that it would not be desirable to increase it. Yet such an increase must inevitably be the result of adding to our standing army under any cir cumstances whatever. How much more so, if promotion by purchase were abolished ? Our ancestors feared a standing army as a direct instrument of oppression. But the reason why their fears proved groundless was the fact that English officers then, as now, were gentlemen of standing in the country, interested either in person or through their connections in political questions—a part, in fact, of the general English public quite as much as of the English army. Hence they neither learned to look on themselves as a body having separate interests from the people at large, nor as owing a blind obedience to their commander-in-chief, if ordered on illegal services. Whether, if English officers ceased to possess these attributes, a larger standing army could ever become dangerous to public liberty, is a matter for conjecture alone. But it appears to us that the purchase system has a tendency to preserve them, an d th e competi tive, or selection system, a tendency to destroy them. The purchase system is the cause of a number of young men entering the army for 811 one holding an important official post, the speech of Sir W. WILLIAMS was a strange confession," or " revelation," or " slip of the tongue," or what you will. Another officer, equally gallant as the Mem ber for Caine, and more experienced in Par liament, Sir DE LACY EVANS, had previously made some remarks on the propriety of send ing out the screw steamships. In the course of the debate the Prime Minister adverted to this remark, and delivered one of his most characte►istic addresses. It was a speech " worthy of his experience," says the Times ; and so it was, but it was worthy of nothing else. It showed no originality, no inventive mind, and it committed the Cabinet even in a worse fashion than the crude confession of Sir W. WILLIAMS . The blot was hit at 011113 by Mr. DISRAELI. The Right Hon. Member tor Bucks applied him self with masterly skill to the two speeches of the Gallant Member for Caine and the Premier. He used the admission of Sir W. WILLIAMS as additional evidence that the Indian authorities had decidedly been " caught napping," and be then discussed the statement of the Premier, which had been an ingenious modification of the rough-and-ready assertion of Sir W. F. WILLIAMS, that the Cabinet had been obliged to yield to "the pressure from without." The Premier hat l said that, in " times of peace, a " Representative Government was compara " tively weak." Now it so happens that we were at peace from 1815 to 1853, and long after the Reform Bill the military expenditure had been rising for a considerable series of years. If the Government in the present year thought that the country was pressing on them too strongly for reduction, it was their duty to have warned Parliament, and even tendered a resignation. The true facts on this grave point, stripped of all exaggeration, are simply these. Parlia ment, during the Russian war, had faithfully supplied the Crown with all that was asked from its loyalty. But after the war there was a general feeling that Lord PALMERSTON was nothing but a " War Minister," and large classes out of doors feared to trust him. "Oh ?" cried the Premier and his friends, " we'll show you that Palmerston is a Peace " ?Minister;" and accordingly down went the estimates, and not a word was said about " danger to the country" or " pressure from " without." We request the attention of our readers to the conclusion of the last part of Mr. Dtsittates speech as reported in the Times of F►iday in elucidation of the errors of the Government. The Right Hon. Gentleman insisted that it was the duty of Ministers to have shown the neces sity for keeping up the army, and he defended the House of Commons from the imputation of " want of foresight" No case had been laid before it by the Cabinet. Ministers did not protest against reduction ; on the contrary, they facilitated it. With the pliancy which is the inspiration of " Palmerstonianism " they yielded to the cry for reduction. -No warning was given, and no " foresight" was displayed by the Cabinet ; and yet, forsooth, the Premier of that Government is rash enough to talk of " pressure from without" ! PUBLIC OPINION UPON INDIA. IT is encouraging to see that the public opinion of England has a tendency in the main to correctly esti mate the real nature of the straggle in which we are now engaged in India. The opinions originally put forward last month by the right Hon. Member for Bucks, and which at the time incontestably showed that he had then arrived at a just and lofty sense of the crisis, are gradually gaining ground in the country. The revolt of the Bengal army is admitted to be something more serious than the " mere mili tary mutiny," or" sudden and mysterious impulse of die affection and superstition," which could and would be suppressed with ease. All the efforts of the Ministerial journals to tranquillise the public mind, in order to shield the Ministers from responsibility, fail in effect, for it is universally acknowledged that the rebellion was long organising, that the warn ings the Government had and neglected were distinct and threatening, and that gross ignorance, perverse neglect, and general misgovernment have plunged our countrymen and women in India into this despe-