The Press. — London, England, 1855-03-31 00:00:00

~. justified in advancing to sum than she could fain; tional expense which h fact that Sardinia has no direct interest in the war, and that she is much too small a State to influence other than very indirectly its for tunes. Sardinia furnishes a contingent of 15,000 men to the allied armies, and we are to ad vance her a sum of one million at present, and another million next year. The money is to be advanced at four per cent., one per cent. being reserved as a sinkingfund. Virtually, therefore, the money is lent at three per cent., though if the Sardinian Government appealed to the capitalists of Europe it could not raise the amount it requires at double that rate. That amount of interest which it engages to pay us fbr a million it would, in the money market of Europe, have had to pay for half a million. No principle is better es tablished than that public credit is public wealth ; to part with one is to part with the other. Nations, like individuals, must pay a rate of interest according to the risk estimated to be run; and whatever premium (and we fancy it would be a high one) capitalists would require to take this Sardinian loan off our hands, is the measure of the subsidy we grant to Sardinia. In another point of view the loss is more direct and immediate. By a dexterous con trivance which proves that the concoctors of this scheme (whoever they may be) are sun ning financiers, Sardinia will be altogether clear of the debt in a period of about forty-one years. For, as the loan bears nominal interest at four per cent, it is stipulated that the one per cent. reserved for a sinking fund shall also bear interest at the same rate ; and, conse quently, while the lender (England) will actually receive only three per cent. interest on the money advanced, the borrower (Sar dinia) will enjoy the advantage of having the fund appropriated for the repayment of the debt accumulate at four per cent compound interest. Thus we shall at the same time be lending at three per cent. and paying at four. Further, this million will have to be raised on loan by our Government. Certainly we shall not obtain it in a Three per Cent. Stock at par. Probably the money will have to be borrowed at 90. In that case we shall incur a debt of 1,100,0001.; and assuming that the credit of Sardinia were as good as our own, we should still make her a present of the 100,0001. we must lose by the transaction. Is not this a subsidy? But subsidies may be good or bad. When honestly expended for the purposes for which they are assumed to be granted—as for carry ing on the operations of war—they are at least genuine ; but when only a portion of them is so expended, and the remainder is applied to the other uses of the State, they are fraudulent. No one pretends to assert that the expense to which Sardinia will be put by sending her contingent of 15,000 men to the Crimea will amount to anything like the million she is to receive. Sardinia may, perhaps, spend one or two hundred thousand pounds on her army, and will put the rest of the loan into her exchequer to aid what the speakers who supported the measure termed her " embarrassed finances." This kind of subsidy therefore is fraudulent. It is not wanted for the contingent ; it will not be spent on the contingent ; nor can we avoid the conclusion that if Sardinia takes part in the war, from motives of principle, she is still bent on deriving financial advantage from her course. Look at the question as we may, it appears that we are purchasing the aid of this contingent from Sardinia, and at an enor mously dear rate. If the war continues a second year we shall be called on for a second million. No money—no troops, is the first prin ciple of this arrangement. Had Sardinia chosen to remain neutral no one, considering her position in Europe, could have blamed her decision. Had she deter mined on joining the allies, seeking as a loan that amount only which she would be out of pocket by the activity of her force, we should have heartily applauded her spirit. Further than this our Government should not have gone. It is not to the credit of Sardinia to wish to profit by the blood of her soldiers, nor can our Ministry on any principle of right be justified adv- -eing to that State a larger <kirly claim for the addi "r part in the war THE PRESS. would entail on her. Whatever amount above that sum is received by Sardinia must be given by us, and taken by her, as an in ducement—to use the mildest term—to send her corps to the Crimea. VACATING SEATS IN PARLIAMENT BILL. A LITTLE flash of amusement in the House of Commons at present is like Tom MOORE'S " Light of the Poles," very far too brilliant to stay. Mr. WRIGHTSON afforded one on Wed nesday, for which we should really be grateful amid such a dearth of jocularity that even the Premier's privileged jokes seem like the mimes depicted by the Egyptians in a funeral procession. Mr. WRIGHTSON being a considerate man, and seeing that the mem bers of the Government change about like the animalculffl in a drop of water under the chromatic lens, thought he had better enable them to do " hands across " and " change places," without the trouble of going down to constituents for the ceremony of re-election. It was, in short, a very matter-of-fact pro posal to provide for all possible future com binations of uncoalesced Coalitions by allow ing any member of the House, without vacating his seat, to " remove immediately " from one office of profit under the Crown to " another office of profit." There could be no great objection, doubtless, if only the consti tuents could be certified to have approved of the last " office of profit." But that rule was intended to be ignored, and combinations every way combined might have been legi timated at ouce, but for Mr. BANKRS'S curiosity, which impelled him to wish to preserve the present system merely to ascertain what man was in what office, by hearing the writ moved for—a very reasonable desire, especially when the gentleman we interrogated last night as in one department tells us to-night that he knows nothing about it, being since meta morphosed. We cannot say that Sir GEORGE GREY'S solution, that such " appointments to " new offices wore usually contained in the " Gazette," met the necessity, especially when the whole Administration shifts places in the course of the week, and a new Gazette might be required between Tuesday and Friday night. Finally, the bill was rejected, and the appeal to constituencies, even by every impar sibi of a second-edition Coalition, still is necessary, not for any matter of principle, but, according to the views of Mr. BANKES, for the same reason that the shilling duty was kept upon corn—" the sake of statistics." Mr. WILSON, for whose especial benefit it is whispered by ill-natured people the bill was intended, will therefore have to wait for his preferment, unless, indeed, he can succeed in making Westbury safe. PURCHASE IN THE ARMY. Jr is characteristic of the " army reformers" that they content themselves with simply condemning the present system of purchase in the army without of fering any positive suggestions as to the better method to be adopted. It is much easier to detect a defect than to discover a remedy, for error ordi narily rests upon the surface ; but mere abuse of the existing system, and general praise of the principle of merit versus money as the rule of promotion, do not exactly explain the means by which the one is to be abolished and the other carried into operation. That the custom in our army of purchasing pro motion, and thus, to a certain extent, making a man's fitness for command equivalent to his means, is open to objection we do not deny; but the abolition of a system which has grown to such an extent that by tar the greater part of the officers of the army have purchased one or more of their steps, and thus obtained a vested interest in their commissions, is only to be approached with the greatest deliberation. No one who has duly considered the subject can deny its importance, and the question is, can the present method be abolished without our recurring to the obsolete system of seniority, which will render promotion so tardy that a man's physical powers will be greatly impaired before he attains his majority, broken by the time he is a colonel, and totally worn out before he can hope to become a general of divi sion - upon the active-list? SATURDAY, With regard to " merit," no one will deny the ad vantages of the principle; but when it is sought to be made the exclusive test of promotion, merit, as far as experience proves, degenerates into favoritism, and if such a system of promotion alone prevailed in our army, it would throw an immense power into the hands of the executive, which, under a parliamentary form of government, must be more or less open to abuse and jobbery. The graver argument against the system of pur chase is, that it is a bar to promotion from the ranks ; but such promotion, under recent regula tions, is quite as frequent as the state of our rank and file renders practicable. In a country like ours, where skilled labour of all kinds is highly remune rated, it is almost vain to expect that the army can be recruited from any but the lowest class of the population. And does not the fact of our giving a bounty of a few pounds fora man prove that we must rely on this class alone? Under such as) item, can it be supposed that the men who fill the ranks of the army are in general eligible for commissions ? Mere gallant actions in the field do not prove a man fit for com mand. Bravery in the British army is but a common quality ; and we must have merit of a higher caste before a man from the ranks can be qualified for a commission. . . . vv As to the comparison which is so frequently drawn between the promotions from the ranks in the French army and those in ours, the cases are not parallel. The French army is supplied by the con scription ; all classes of men, in their turn, serve in the ranks ; and one consequence is, that men of edu cation and knowledge are much more frequently found there than in the ranks of our army. Yet in the French systcm the commissions allowed to the ranks are limited to one third of the whole number. Apart from all this, promotion from the ranks is, as we have said, now frequent in our army ; while in the navy, where the system of "merit " reigns su preme, and purchase is never heard of, what fore mast-man ever becomes an officer? Coming at length to statistical facts, from what has been said against the system of purchase, it would be imagined that no commission could be obtained in the army except by that mode; but what are the facts of the case with regard, for in instance, to the promotions of 1853-4? Of 88 lieutenant-colonels promoted, 31 obtained their pro motion by purchase, while 57 obtained it without; of 176 majors promoted, 57 were promoted by purchase, and 119 without ; of 828 captaincies, 314 were ob tained by purchase, and 514 bestowed without ; and of 895 first commissions, 358 were obtained by pur chase, against 437 bestowed without ; so that in the two last years out of 1,867 commissions granted, 1,127 were obtained without purchase ! Now, as regards promotion from the ranks, all experience proves that it does not necessarily follow that a non-commissioned officer will accept a commission even when offered to him, and for this reason—that the pay of a commission is not sufficient for him to maintain his wife and family, and his social comfort is certainly not enhanced by his obtaining a position for which his previous habits, education, and tastes, entirely unfitted him. But it is with the fact that commissions are given to men from the ranks under the existing system that we have to do; and in the returns for the last five years, excluding the late promotions in the Crimea, we find that 219 non-commissioned officers have been promoted to commissions in the army. In the year 1854, 88 non-commissioned officers were promoted to commissions, and up to the pre sent dates of this year upwards of 90 commissions have been granted to men in the ranks! These are facts which cannot be denied ; and if the system of purchase allows so many vacancies to be bestowed upon deserving merit, what real fault can be found with a system that permits a combination of two principles, beneficial alike to rich and poor? Lord Dalhousie had gone to the Neilgherries. The condition of Oude was becoming daily more deplorable. Tim Newspaper Stamp Bill stands for committal on Monday, 18th April. Last year the revenue derived from newspaper stamps, at the penny duty, was 484,0091. Is. 7d. The number issued was 111,882,179. THE Clacutta, with the Ist Royal Lancashire Militia, arrived at Corfu on the 16th inst. LORD PANMIIRE paid a visit to Portsmouth on Thursday, and a distinguished party of visitors ac companied him. They were shown over every es tablishment of interest, and conducted to Weevil', Hasler and on board the Victory. -- - AT WILTON, MR. ANTROBUS WAS RETURNED OR Tuesday without opposition, in the room of Mr. A'Court, who had retired on accepting office. THE anniversary dinner of the Literary Fund is announced for May 22, with the Bishop of Oxford in the chair.