The Sun. — London, England, 1855-03-28 00:00:00

-if the war were successful, it would tend to rivet the fet ters on one of the most oppressed nationalities iu the world. (Hear, hoar.) Viscount PA.LMERSTON—I cannot concur in the ob ser rations which have been made by the noble lord who has just sat down, and who has compared the progress of the Bri tish arms in different parts of the world with that transac tion which has obtained the reprobation of all Europe — the different partitions of the independent kingdom of Poland. The conquests which we have made have been made against a groat and powerful enemy—theyhave been in wars that have been undertaken for our own defence, and in vindication of the liberty and independence of na tions. (Hear.) Some of the conquests we made from the enemy we kept ; some of them we gave up ; but to talk of the nationality of conquered colonies taken either from France or Holland, or from any other power with which we were engaged in war, is really a total misapplication of the word. (Hear.) Again, in regard to India, so far from our conquests there being attended with the oppression of Rationalities, I believe that any man who knows anything of the interior of India, and the comparative modes of ad ministration of our Government and those of the native princes whose territories have been acquired in the pro gress of war, must admits that, so far as the inhabitants of these countries are concerned, it has been a blessing to them to be relieved from the tyranny of some of those native chiefs under whose oppression they had previously groaned. (Hear.) With regard to the motion itself of my hon. and learned friend, I perfectly agree with the ob servation with which he commenced his speech—namely, there is uo reason—there is no policy—there is no good sense—in any man who will endeavour or wish to shut out this house from the fullest discussion of diplomatic and international questions. (Hear.) lam perfectly ready to agree with him that those discussions, when con ducted with temper and moderation, and illustrated by that range of knowledge which has distinguished the speech of my hon. and learned friend, 'must tend to good instead of being accompanied by public mischief. (Hear.) But with regard to this motion, it is not my inten tion to go at length into those topics which my hon. and learned friend had discussed. I hope that no man will suppose that her Majesty's Government differ in opinion with him as to the violation of public right, and the vio lation of moral law, which was committed when those dif ferent partitions of Poland took place in past times. (Hear.) I do not differ with him also in opinion as to the policy of the course the Government of Austria at that time pur sued. (hear.) it is perfectly demonstrable that neither with regard to Austria or Prussia was any adequate com pensation of interests acquired to counterbalance the blow that was inflicted upon the moral principle by that spolia tion in which they allowed themselves to be made parties. (Hear.) -But with regard to the practical motion now be fore us, the house must see what the tendency and natural consequence of agreeing to such a motion must be. (Hear, hear.) I hold, in the first place, it is not advisable for this house to dictate to the Executive Government what course it is to pursue in regard to negotiations pending upon matters of deep national interest. (Hear, hear.) It is impossible for the House of Commons to be in possession of all those various considerations upon the bearings of which must depend the expediency of this or that demand —of this or that, condition in the negotiations for peed°. (Hear, hear.) This balance of considerations must depend upon information which the Executive Government can alone nossess; and it is for the Executive Government, when it has advised the Crown to conclude an arrange ment or break off an arrangement, to show to the house that there were sufficient grounds either Ono way or the other —either for the conclusion of pace or the refusal of the conditions which the Government has thought it necessary to reject. (Hear.) But the motion of my hon. friend I take to be chiefly made for the purpose of enabling him to express in the detailed form he has expressed them, his sentiments upon the general question of the partition or possible restoration of Poland. (Hear.) But the motion itself is one which—even if it were in principle desirable and proper that this house should dictate to Government the specific condition upon which they should negotiate for peace—the house should be very slow, and careful, and cau tious to admit ; for what are the words which my hon. and learned friend proposes to put into the mouth of the house. They are these —" That the restor a ti on o f P o l an d within its ancient limits is necessary, and is absolutely essen tial to the ba!ance of power in Europe." If the house were to adopt that opinion, and to carry that opinion by an ad dress to the foot of the throne, that resolution ought not to atop where it does. My hon. and learned friend ought to propose that it should go on to say that the house should enable her Majesty to carry on the war until she had ac complished this object, which the house thus declared to be absolutely necessary and essential for the welfare and interest of Europe; - (Hoar, hear.) Therefore I think that, on general grounds of expediency and of propriety as well as with regard to the particular words of the motion, it is impossible for the house to - consent to concur in the pro posal of my hon. and learned friend. (Hear, hear.) It is well known that the Government of this country has, in conjunction with the Government of France, and in connection with the Government of Austria, agreed to enter into negotiations with the Government of Russia, on the arrangomout which is generally known ender the denomination of the four points; but the restoration of Poland does not enter among those four points. (Hear.) I think the house would not deem it expedient(considering the great difficulties which there may be found to exist in arriving at is satisfactory conclusion of the war even upon the conditions comprised in those four points) to add to those difficulties by declai ing it to be absolutely necessary to restore—what ? Not Inere'y to detach the kingdom of Poland, or the former Duchy of Warsaw, from that con nection with Rusaia that was established by the treaty of Vienna, but my lion, and learned friend goes on to say— to re-establish Poland in its ancient limits, and to wrest from Russia provinces which for a great length of years have been incorporated in, and formed an integral part of, the holy and frame of the Russian Empire. (Hear.) I doubt very much whether the house would agree to im pose such a condition upon Government as being essentially and absolutely neces.lesry. (Hear.) The war was undertakers for the protection of Turkey against the aggression and in vasion of, _Russia.. That was the immediate danger, and the Government thought that the object was of sufficient im portance to justify them in calling upon the country to furnish them with the means of endeavourinc , to assert in that respect the principles of international law. (Hear.) Government thought there washn interest of Great Bri tain sufficiently important involved in that question which justified a recourse to arms. (Hear.) The question of Po land (the importance and interest of which to Germany, and through Germany to Europe, and through European interests to this country, I do not wish to underrate) is a question not of yesterday or the day before—not of this year or that year—but is dated, as my hon. and learned friend's historical narrative shows, from a former, earlier, and more remote period. (Hear, hear.) That is not the danger that .has suddenly or recently grown upon the world, and enters not into the natives that justified and required the present appeal to arms, and therefore ,I think the house will not bo disposed to require imperatively of - her Majesty's Government that they should mix up that question with the negotiations now pending. (Hear, hear.) - Whatever may be the feelings and opinions which English men must necessarily entertain on the general question of Poland, I should be veryfunwilling in anything I, might say outhii general question to enter into a discussion that might 'have the least effect upon the negotiations which are now pending. I trust the house will forgive me, therefore, if I do not follow - ray-hon. and learned friend • through that qu.estion, which, he hiui so ably sad fully discussed. (Sear; hear.). 'I confine myself, therefore, ' simply to_saying that it is impossible, in my opinion, for the house - to agree to the resolution he, has proposed, be. • cause it would lead to objectionable consequences in re • gard tu the continuance of hostilities, by the introduction of an object which it might be out of (the power of any means England could supply to o bt ain . (Hear, hear.) Therefore, to agree to the address would be highly inexpedient, and at variance with the interests of the. country.- (Hehr, hear.) Ido not, therefore, feel myself at liberty to agree to the motion of my honourable and learned friend, and I trust that my honourable and learned friend, having satisfied the feelings of his mind— (lauglirtee)—by the speech which we have listened to with great pleasure—admiring, as - we do, the ability with which he has placed upon record the sentiments that animate him on this subject—will not put the house to the necessity of a division, the effect of which might be misconstrued. (Hear.) If the house should negative the proposal upon the grounds I have stated as an objection to it, that negative might be misconstrued as implying a difference of opinion with him on the abstract question of justice —a difference which I am persuaded would not be found to exist in the minds of members of this house. (Hear, hear.) Mr. PHINN, after the appeal made to him by the noble lord, would withdraw the motion, but must protest against the suggestion of the noble lord that he had brought for - ward the questton from the wish to make a speech. The motion was withdrawn. • . PROMOTION IN THE ARMY. Major REED rose, pursuant to notice, to move for a select committee to inquire into the present mode of conferring ap pointments in the army (by purchase or otherwise), to report on the same, and recontmend a more efficient system of se. curing promotion to merit and long service. He believed that the present system of promotioa was pernicious to the service and unjust to the private soldier, al well as to the poor and efficient officer who was not in a position to pay the immense sum that was demanded to secure his promotion from step to step. (Hear.) He held in his hand a copy of the rules by Which the British army was governed, and begged to call attention to the 20th rule, which had reference to the purchase of commissions. In that rule regulations were laid down for the sale and purchase of commissions, and it was declared that any officer who violated those rules should be cashiered, and that any agent who assisted in the violation of them should be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour. Was it not an acknowledged fact, how ever , th a t th e Queen ' s regulations were daily and hourly broken through, with, be was not pre pared' t° saj je th a e sanction, but the knowledge of the Horse Guards. ranks in the He was desirous to see the highest se r r , vie rn e e a e t r ii ) r own open to merit and long service ; but at the sam e ti he was not prepared to say that pro motions should solelplace from the ranks. been inundated withy t a ke lie had C ommunications t on the subject, but he , should only promotion to onrinwi Leases to show the injustice of unand, it, thotillie second and the system of . •i n t h e first instance to the ease of °l) E a f o a ffi t n i t e ° t e n . s: who had been ap pointed would refer but who had onlywho might be a pointed colonel of the 13th night most gallant fellow, The 13th Light' Infantry been in h th ai e l service se was a luau of 9 • for nineteen years. gh there were through all the Affghanistan war,n and here ea,etatiee, the senior cap. years' standing appointed to co two majors in it of 24 and 20 years' se.c tarn was an officer of 26 years' of 24 years' service third captains were officers hg. an. • The senior major had served in the campaign of Au 13 tati, he was in 22 actions, was engaged 'in the d e f en ce of Jellalabad, i three medals, and was once seve rel y w ounded. secondin in Ghuznee, and The n had . six , major was in the same campaign , w as actions, and had one medal. The senior captain was in Are_ ghanistan and in Ghuznee in 19 actions, a nd had three medals, and was twice severely wounded. The next captain was In Affghanistan, 'Ghuznee, Jellalabad, in 15 actions, and had three medals. The third captain was on the staff Sale, was at Jellalabad, had three medals, was twice wou n ded, had two ho rses s h o t un d er him, and was in 22 actions. (Hear, hear.) In the 95th Regiment there was an officer of the name of George Brown, who entered the army at the age of 14 as a private soldier in the year 1827. He was gazetted on the 16th May, 1851, as an ensign, and left England as lieutenant and adjutant, and proceeded with his regiment to Scutari and Varna. Having become ill, he obtained two months' sick leave, but having recovered before the expira tion of a month, he got leave to join his regiment, and accompanied it to the Crimea. He was present at Alma, at Balaklava, and at Inkerman ; he commanded fifty ' • two men, of whom twenty-four were killed or woundek The promotion of Captain Denie created a vacancy, and Lord - Raglan recommended Lieutenant Brown , but the Horse Guards filled up the vacancy from the half-pay list. The newly appointed captain retired in a short time afterwards, and was succeeded by another officer, who, though he was the junior in point of service of Lieutenant Brown, obtained the ,step over him by purchase. (Hear, hear.) lie had another ecuutattn!cation frow the country, calling his attention to a - ~~ • _ - Eli E SUN, LONDON, WEDNtSDAt _EVENING, M_ARCH. 28, _1855, case in the 63d Regiment. A captaincy became vacant; which in justicck ought to have been given to the senior lieu tenant, Christopher Magnay, Who had been promoted to his lieutcnantcy in March, 1852, and subsequently went out with liis regiment to the Crimea, and endured all the fatigues and hardships of the siege of Sebastopol. But instead of this officer receiving the boon ho had so well deserved, an officer had been promoted over his head from the half-pay, in Jan., 1855. Another gentleman who had retired from the service in disgust, wrote to him that he had entered the 54th Regi ment as ensign in 1829; and it was not until 1841, after twelve and a half Years' service, during which he had seen manypromot ed over his head, that h 3 became senior lieutenant by purchase. After seventeen years he 'obtained a captaincy without pur chas3, and finally retired on the brevet of 1854, in which he was not included. Ho contended that the system of purchase A•as injurious to the service, and unfair to the soldier, but what ho most complained of was the system of paying large smug over the regulation prices. Unless the individual who wished to purchase was ready to do this, he must be content to see his comrades turn the cold shoulder to him, as stopping promotion in the regitnent. The historian Alison, in speaking of the comparative state of the French and English ~, armies in the Peninsular war, expressed an opinion that the system . °f promotion by merit, and the consequent certainty of advance in life to the individuals obtaining it, at once kept alive the military spirit and insured the inestimable advan tage of tried valour and skill among all tho .officers in the field, on whom the efficiency of an army must at all times de pend. This was the system on which the French army was or ganised in the revolutionary war, whereas in the English army the officers were separated from the soldiereby an almost im passable line. It was pretendcdthat under the system of pur chase it was a great boon to the ser g eant who was promoted to be a commissioned officer, to obtain the price of the com mission on selling out ; but the truth was that the Horse Guards were not so ready to allow persons to realise. He knew a case of an officer who had served 20 years in India who came back to England in an indifferent state of health, and whose request to be allowed to sell out was denied by the Horse Guards, because, they said, they knew his health was iu such a delicate state that he must soon die, and his commission would fall in. This mightseem almost incredible, but he was in possession of the name and allthecircumstances. He must condemn with equal earnestness the system of 1 - favouritism which pervaded all the appointments of the army. First, as to the staff officers, who ought to have a perfect knowledge of their profession, because they were ' entrusted with the orders of the general in com mand, their appointment at present really depended on the length of their purse or the closeness of the affinity they could trace to the commander-in-chief or the general officer to whom they were attached. With respect to the medical de partment late occurrences had shown the great deficiency of medical skill in the Crimea. Many of the medical men had been worked to death, and now they were sending out raw students to take their places. Another point, on which he need not dwell, wasthe miserably inefficient state of the com missariat. He wished for a commiVee to decide whether the system was injurious or not.. His belief was that unless the system of military administration was properly investigated and thoroughly. reformed; there would arise au expression of the voice of public opinion to which it would be necessary for Government to give attention. Captain SCOBELL seconded the motion. They had se en i n 1 ' the present campaign a 'flee and gallant army melting away under the disasters which had overtaken it. He.did not want to pronounee whether the cause of those disasters was the improper distribution of patronage or not ; but one fact was unoeniable, that there were many colonels and majors in the army who were far the juniors of others serving under them; and it was not likely that inexperienced men were compe tent to be' the leaders of those who had seen much service. Under the present system commissions were, in fact, put up to auction, the commander-in-chief being the auctioneer. If it were true that every colonel who went into action had 10,j4/01. round his neck, could this be a right system, or could they think themselves justified in exposing a man whci had laid out suoh a sum in fighting his way up to his rank to the risks incurred in action ? It was true the commissariat officers did not purchase their way up, but they got on by influence - , - often - to the exclusion of better :nen. .In the artillery and engineers it was true a different system was followed, because there scientific skill was indis pensable. Ho contended that the Government, were nothing but the trustees of the public in dispensing their patronage, awl any man who neglected the duty of promoting merit be trayed his trust, and was answerable to the country for his conduct. He hoped the attention of Government would be directed to the establishment of an order of merit, because at present no officer could be appointed who was under the rank of major. Cefenel HARCOURT wished particularly to address him self to that part of the motion which related to thelpromo tion of non-commissioned officers to the rank of officer. On the other points embraced in these resolutions he would only say that it was only from the system of purchase that the officers of the army could derive the slightest hopes of promotion. (Hear, hear.) With regard to the point to which he wished more especially to refer, he very much regretted that upon the occasions when this subject had been brought before the house those who had addressed them had shown themselves exceedingly ignorant of the practical bearings of the present system. It seemed extraordinary that when the present system had raised this country, to a pitch of glory such as no 1 other country had ever reached this should be the moment chosen for attacks upon it. Could that system which had been illustrated by the victories of the Peninsula, of Water loo, of India, and of Alma and of Inkerman b e so bad as had been represented by gentlemen on the other side of the house ?, (Hear, hear.) He contended that tho social position of the non-commissioned officers of the army was such that promotion to the rank of an officer would be most inconve nient, and even injurious to them. The soldiers of the line were mostly taken from the agricultural population. , Now, supposing that these men had received the average education communicated in a good national school—which was too favourable a supposition—they would not be able to do more than read and write, do the ordinary rules of arithmetic, and possess the most elementary knowledge of geography. Now suppose that, after serving as private and corporal, he had been selected from his proved intelligence and good conduct for the position of sergeant-major, at which he could only arrive, during time of peace, under the age of thirty to thirty-ave. Well. that was the earliest age at which he could put in claim for a commission. With whom, then, would he be placed in collocation ? He would be placed in jux.'`aposition with ensigns of seventeen and eighteen years of ay. Did they think that it would conduce to the happiness of the promoted sergeant-major, placed immediately in con tact with a man so much his junior but yet knowing so much more than he did ? (Hear.) Then there was another point. It did not always follow that, because a man was a man of in telligence and good conduct, and one whom it might be desirable to promote, that his wife was the better half. (Hear, hear.) The wives of the non-commissioned officers were frequently persons of very inferior education. They very often could not read or write ; and ho did not think that under these circumstances it would benefit them to raise them to the rank of gentlewomen. (Hear, hear.) There was in his own regiment a most valuable officer who had been promoted from the ranks, and who had held the office of quartermaster for the last forty years. That gallant officer told him that he thought the promotions of sergeants to the rank of commissioned officers, which had taken place in the Crimea, would not be advantageous to these men on account of their want of education. The same officer pointed out to him that it was often a most serious inconvenience to a non commissioned officer to be promoted, because the pay of an ensign was not, if he was married, sufficient to enable him to support his wife and family in comfort in the rank to which he was raised. This quartermaster told him that be knew a case in which a man who was promoted to an ensigncy in the 71st Regiment, died of a broken heart from the difficulties and embarrassments into which he fell from this cause. (Hear, hear.) This was, in fact, the reason why the commis sions which had been given to the non-commissioned officers in the army had not always been giien to the senior ser geants. The ensigncy awarded to the Grenadier Guards had been given to one of the junior sergeants, and he was told that it was because he, being an unmarried man, could afford to take it, while next) of the senior sergeants, who were mar ried men, cared to have it. (Hear, hear.) It might be a very popular cry to say that these men should be pro moted, but he did not think that so long as our army was recruited from persons of that rank in life which now fur- Lishad the privates and non-commissioned officers, and as long as the latter had only their present amount of educa- F tiou, that such a step would be really advantageous to the men themselves. There were, however, many things they might do which would be really serviceable to them, and thes ) measures he thought every consideration of justice to the service called upon them to adopt. lie thought that an order of merit, with pensions to its members, should be founded ; and that the appointments in the Tower should be givea entirely to retired non-commissioned officers. Then there was another point to which he must call the attention of the hone., although it was not his desire to restrict the patronage of the Crown, and particularly of such a Sove re i gn as the present. The Yeomen of the Guard and the Gentlemen Pensioners were both the body guard of her Majesty ; and yet Mr. Sams, the librarian, of St. James's-street, was one of the Gentlemen Pensioners. He thought that was not a situation which should be held by such men. He did not, as he had said, wish to interfere with her Majesty's patronage, but he did wish that the vacancies in this force should be filled up on the recommendation of the Commander-in-Chief rather than of Lord Foley. Before he sat down he could not help commenting upon the injustice of those who talked of the soldiers fighting under the cold shade of the aristocracy. Was this a tine for us to be told this when we had fresh in our recollection, and almost before our eyes, the gallant cavalry charge of l3alaklava, headed by the Earl of Cardigan- -the heroic conduct of a scion of the house of Percy, who at Inker man plunged alone into the thickest of the fight, and by his single efforts extricated 50 or GO of his regiment who had charged too far down the hill, and had got themselves sur rounded by the enemy ; and the e not less gallant bearing on the same day of Colonel Cadogan, another aristocratic name ? (Hear, hear) He was surprised that the noble viscount (Viscount Goderich), who used these expressions on a former evening, did not feel his own noble blood mantle in his ulieeks at these attacks on his order. He should oppose the committee moved for by the gallant major opposite, because he did not think it a fit tribunal • for the consideration of this question ; but he would suggest to the noble lord at the head of the Government the propriety of appointing a commission to take into their most serious -attention the points to which he had referred. (Hear, hear.) Mr. ALCOCK said that in the army vacancies caused by death were filled according to seniority, and those who had read the report of the army and navy commission which sat in the year 1840 perhaps imagined that the same system was pursued in the navy. That 'report was, however, a mockery, a delusion, and a sham, and it should either be no longer hekl forth as an authority or Government should alter the whole system. He hoped the latter would be the case. He did not blame Sir Charles Napier or any other commander for the man ner in which promotions were now made. He charged the whole fault where he believed it ought to rest—upon the system. Col. LINDSAY said it was one thing to abolish the old sys tem, and another to create a new enc. The system new under discussion had been part and parcel of the British army for a great number of ye ars , an d it was matter of surprise that the mover of the resolution had not attempted testate what system he iw)reoumblot siounbstitute in its ' stead. He contended that the plan by purchase was ' at . once beneficial to the state and to the army, was beneficial to the state inasmuch as it lirta':,,,,t.lilebTneeatinesiaynelf savingthe a considerable sum of money, while of ie tb service, because it brought officers sPeedilYto the head were to he abolished, theywvould require to increase the charge for the retired full pay, would add materially to the expenses of the state. aTthtebepirecebsent system was likewise bale pweannslosof being accused of para fieial to the rich, and those officers who were unable dos, ho would contend that it w as beneficial to the poor. their pronao.tion. somehow or other attained the Under the system of Purcha se to retire from to p ty for the army, they had eke; !r_to sell their commissionn' head of the list, and l i i t a i s n in .t t e ct io c r u ie e, ao if they chose nevertheless the money in then . p 0 _ cers l.t n ai e as a trite remark, but e a true one, that ill st w when they entered o f purchase . was in oxistence and complain if it exposed the , m to nin therefore they could not con3l the army that the system it was a mistak e to r t ,t, - by su ` r ---° that all promotions in the army degree of hardship. Moreover, wereobtained purehme. months which had passed of the present year 2 lieut enant- The very reverse was the fact. For example, in th e three colonels had been promoted by purchase, it ; 42 captains by o,an d 47 without it ; 7 majors by purch se, and 17 without purchase, 86 without it. So it had been at all times an d in al l ranks of the British army, and it was clear, th er efore, that the systemro( 'purchase was not withauF numerous and he would say' beneficial exceptions. He - trusted the house would not disturb the arrangement recommended by the commission of last year. He had long been an advocate for examination, both for admission into the army in the first instance, and for promotion ono or two grades afterwards ; bat he was constrained to add that the system of examina tion, as hitherto conducted, had been a perfect humbug. He knew one person who had been refused a commission be cause he was not a proficient in French. It was very easy to reeo"nise and reward merit in a time of war ; but it would be extremely difficult to do so in a time of peace: At all periods it would be easy to ascertain the literary merits of an officer; but a man might bo a good scholar and yet be totally deficient in all those qualities which were essential in an able and efficient officer. But be that as it might, he did not think there was any incompatibility between the systems of purchase and of merit, and ho was strongly impressed with the conviction that a judicious combination of the two would be found advantageous both to the service and the country generally. Colonel NORTH said the hon. and gallant member who movedikte resolution had been rather unfair towards Lord Merlins,: in connection with the case of Lieut. Brown, of the 95th, recommended for promotion by Lord Raglan. The truth was that the recommendation had arrived at the Horse Guards too late, but Lord Hardingo had intimated to the Commander-in-Chief in the Crimea that Lieut. Brown would be promoted at the earliest convenient opportunity. Ho was glad to say that the relations existing between the officers of the army and the private soldiers were of the most gratifying character, and he should be exceedingly sorry to see them disturbed in any way whatever. With respect to the system of promotion by purehase, he could not agree in the ro merks which had been made by the hon. and gallant member for Westminster, and he did not think that if the system of promotion by merit were established tomorrow the best offi cers would, in even the majority of cases, be elevated to the higher ranks in the army. Mr. W. 'WILLIAMS said it was a curious and significant fact that all the members of the staff in the Crimea had been recommended for promotion, whereas the men who had f ught the battles had been entirely overlooked. That was the system of which ho complained. What they wanted was, that which should be found most qualified to promote the efficiency of the army. If it should be found that the system of promotion by purchase was the most fitted for the promotion of that object, then let that system continue in operation. What the couutry complained of was, that it was only the men of rank, of connection, and of interest, who had the good fortune to obtain advancement in the army. The gallantry of those men was undisputed; their gallantry was equal to other men's, and other men's was equal to theirs--(hear)—but, unless the existing system were changed, dissatisfaction would go on ripening in the country, till the army would become unpopular—a result which no one desired to see. Col. LINDSAY wished to correct a misstatement that had been made. In the Guards : 4,8001. was paid for a lieutenant eolonelcy ; the price in the line was 4,0001. Colonel KNOX rose to make some remarks on the subject of the promotien given to staff officers after the battle of Inkerman, and he should for once be obliged to agree with the honourable member for Lambeth. (Hear, hear.) The re turn of those promotions needed little or no comment from a military man like himself— (Hear, hear)—it was a most sur prising return, for it was known that many of the officers promoted were not in action or under fire on that occasion at all. (Hear.) The officers promoted for being senior amounted to 25 ; these promoted for being staff officers were 5 i. (Hear. ) He made. these remarks from no bad feeling towards any officer in the Crimea. Then there, were four junior major generals to whom regiments were given, a step which, with all due deference to the authorities who recommended it, he considered to be a great injustice to old and meritorious offi cers who had served in the Peninsular war. (Cheers.) If it were desired to remunerate the four officers in question for distinguished services, they should have been rewarded by the payment of a sum of money in the meantime, which sum should have lapsed when their turn for promotion came. A regiment and pay as a general officer was equal to 1,0001. a year ; a mejor.general's pay was but 4001. With regard to the motion before the house, he did not think the honour able member was likely to gain much by it. If anything was to be done he thought it should be done by a commission to consider the whole matter, under the authority of the Crown, but, in any case, he did not think the present was the proper moment for any motion of the kind. Mr. LAING said that at this time last year the country was under the pleasing delusion that they had an army which, if not large, was at least well fitt e d f or it s p ur p oses ; b u t the events in the Crimea had shown that though its gallantry was the same as ever, still, taken as a whole, it w is very far defi cient in those qualities they had a right to expect. That was the reason why he thought the present moment peculiarly well fitted for an inquiry of the kind. The question of offi cering the army by purchase was, under our present circum stances, not merely a money question ; but if the matter were allowed to stand over a few years the pecuniary element would come again into play, and oppose serious obstacles to any alteration. For nearly half a century back public opinion, in deference to the Duke of Wellington, was never for one mo ment brought to bear upon the constitution and organisation of the army. The consequence was that they now found the army constituted in a manner which might certainly bo said to be repugnant to those principles of common sense on which it ought to be constituted. The present time was a very fitting one for a thorough and comprehensive inquiry not into this or that branch of the subject, but into thcwhole question of the officering of the British army. On the occasion of a recent debate a remarkable opinion was emitted by the noble lord now at the head of her Majesty's Grevernment in favour of an educational test to be applied to officers, A/similar opinion was prefessed by the honourable member for Wilt shire, the late. Secretary-at-War, and also by the hon. and gallant member for Westminster (Gen. Sir De Lacy Evans), whose opinion was one of the highest authority, he having commanded not brigades merely, but independent armies in two or three consecutive campaigns. ,Let them look at the system in force in the Austrian army, one officered almost exclusively by gentlemen. Let them turn their eyes, also, to the Sardinian army. The late campaign against Austria hav ing shown the Sardinians that their army was a deficient in strument for the practical purposes of war, they set to work to see how they could make it more efficient. They sent a commission to examine the constitution of all the armies of Europe—that of England among the rest—and the result was, not the establishment of a system of purchase, but the establishment of a system in which they retained the officer ing of the army in the hands of the gentry, at the same time introducing a system of promotion from the ranks, with an educatiowdl test of greet stringency as a criterion of fitness for such promotion. One result of our present system was that no man could enter the army, and adopt it as a professsion, unless he had at least some 6,0001. at his disposal, which he could afford to invest in a speculation procuring him no com mercial return, and in which he ran a great risk of losing all his capital, for in the event of death there was no return of any part of the sum originally sunk. The army was thus limited to the wealthy classes. He knew, of his own know ledge, the case of two young men at Sandhurst, the first of whom, A, passed a first-class examination, and the second, B, a good examination. They were both appointed at the same time, and the second got a better appointment than the first, though he bad not passed the best exami nation. When they were appointed lieutenants the rank they got was equal. When they came to be appointed captains, A, who was at the top of the list, had not enough money by him. B had the money, and so passed over his head. A had since become a broken-hearted man, lost to himself, and lost to his eonntry. (Cheers.) Another effect of the present system was that it rendered the officers mere amateur officers. They took up the army as au agreeable amusement, not as a profession, and did not make their regi ments their homes. But if the business of the army consisted in the management of practical details about feeding, cloth ing, and butting the men, those officers, though admirable in respect of gallantry, were deficient in respect of other quali ties not less necessary. The experience of what had recently occurred proved that the army was deficiently officered in those respects. (No, no, and cheers.) At alrevents, the matter was a fair subject for inquiry. But there was a still more im portant point on which he had not yet touched. In all other professions and employments the one test of efficiency and success was promotion by merit. That was the mainspring of all efficiency and excellence. It' a merchant were to confide his business to clerks appointed not according to merit, but by a system of purchase, he should like to know how long it would be ere that merchant appeared in the Gazette. If rail way trains were confided to the care of servants appointed in the same way, be wondered how many directors would have actions for manslaughter brought against them. In law, in medicine, and in the church, a career was always open to merit, and the greatest possible advantage accrued to all classes, and to the gentle men th emse l ves, f rom the honourable emulation awl competition inspired among thorn. Another inVortant question was, how they were to get men for their army. At the present moment it could notfairly be said that the army was popular with the great mass of the middle and working classes ; for a father always heard that his son had entered it with a feeling of regret, and even of shame. (Hear.) The objections made to any alteration in the system of purchase resolved themselves mainly into the difficulty of finding a sub stitute fey it. That might be a forcible enough argument, if the motion before the house were one to abolish the present system altogether, but not so when the motion was simply for inquiry. The time was come when Government ought to take the matter up, and institute a general and comprehensive in quiry into the system of officering our army ; when an at tempt should be made to eradicate those evils and place our army on a more popular footing, a footing on which the mili tary career might be open to talent, in which money would not be the sole test of capacity, by which the army might be composed of gentlemen, but of poor gentlemen, who would study it, attach themselves to it, and make themselves thorough practical officers. Combined with that they might have au amount of promotion from the ranks sufecient to ren der the army popular, and to throw open the career of arms to a larger class of the community than at present. (Cheers.) Lord LOVAINE observed that in his opinion no case had been made out as yet for the destruition of a system which had been found to work so well. He did not think that it was possible to introduce that unity of action which had been talked about into the army as it was into a railway system. To accuse the officers of the British army of being inca-. pable of performing their duties was most unwarrantable, and one which ought never to have been made in that house. The faults which had been laid to the charge of the regimental hfficers were due to those who had been removed beyond the purchase system. He was also eonvinced that the abolition of this system would increase the slowness of promotion which had been so much complained of. It was, however, no use explaining the question to hon. members whom it was impos sible to please, and who were continually bringing forward the scoria crambe repetita, awl the same clap traps about long purses and similar matters. When the British army was compared with foreign armies one little item was omitted. It must be remembered that the British army alone was not raised by conscription, and that a different system must neces sarily take place ; but, however that might be, the slowness of promotion was complained of in all armies ; and with re spect to merit and favour it would be found that in this coun try they ran so completely into one another that it would be found extremely difficult to divide them. The promotion in the navy was supposed to be carried on by merit, but it did not appear that promotion in the navy was any more satis factory than promotion in the army. It was aho said that the army was unpopular. That remark might bo very beauti ful in theory, but it was contradicted by facts, for—as he bad no doubt the Admiralty would bear witness—recruits for the army were much more easily obtained than men for the navy. Great complaints had been made of several of the depart ments. The medical staff, for instance, ho considered had been very hardly used. They had been overworked, and if they had failed, they had fai!ed under circumstances which were unparalleled. The Commissariat had been annihilated by the economy of the House of Commons, and there had been only one old man left in the department who was at all ac quainted with its working or routine. It would never do to compare the British army with foreign armies which had been constantly fighting in foreign countries. Nothing was easier than to find fault, but it was very difficult to make the truth appear to the public when there was an appearance of great deficiency in particular points, He thought that it was not wise to cuter into such discussions in the midst of a war, and he should vote against the motion. Lord SEYMOUR said that they were in the habit of talk ing in grand style about Russia and Austria, and how Poland and the distressed nationalities were to be dealt with ; but in a little time they soon came to talk more gravely. An hon. and gallant membergot up and said that the army was utterly disorganised, and must be reconstituted de novo. This was rather a curious contrast to a former debate. The hon. mem ber had complained rather of the course of promotion thou of any part of .the • service; which was attributed to the, syst of purchase. He (Lord Seymour) believed that on inquiry the system of purchase would be found to have very little to do with it. He had no, preference for the system of pairchase--. quite the contrary ; but when he was told that it must be done away with, and the system of promotion by merit insti tuted, he naturally wished to know what was meant by that. Was it to belong to the officer commanding the army ? (Hear, hear, bee'.) Look at the doff All the recent promotions on thastair loir that officer had been loudly complained of. Was it to belong to Government He should pity any unfor tunate Government which took into its hands a system of pro motion by merit. If any officer was looked over for any rea sou, ho would have ten friends in the house who would get up and defend him, and the house would have to do nothing else but discuss individual merits. The system had been tried in the navy. What had stopped it I The influence of the House of Commons, which cried out for seniority, because de serving men were passed over. It would always happen so iu a representative government. It might Nave been easy enough for Napoleon, at the head of his army, to select men by merit; but, even under his favourable circumstances, he found it extremely difficult, and it led to such jealousies amongst his officers that it was the cause of maany of his dif ficulties, if not of his defeat, in Spain. (Hear.) That was under the most favourable conditions. In time of war it was difficult enough, but what became of it in time of peace ? In the Commissariat there had been a period of probation most strictly guarded, and no candidate was promoted until he had been strictly proved. He had no doubt the appointments had been most fairly made ; but it was most difficult in time of peace to choose men for qualities useful in time of war. Lord Raglan told the army committee that it was impossible to make a commissariat in time of peace for a time of war. As far as the accounts went they would be efficient, but for other duties it was impossible to prepare them. He (Lord Seymour) thought that statement was founded on truth. If the purchase system were abolished there must be a closing period for service at a certain age. Would there be no attempts in that house to make exceptions in favour of men who were able and hearty ? Indeed, it was absurd to say that a man must retire at a certain time of life. They had, however, been told that the purchase system had failed. Now, he thought quite the contrary, for he believed that the officers had discharged their duties most admirably. (Hear.) They had the experience of the artillery, in which the want of promotion by purchase had been loudly complained of, and the a• my committee were told that in no branch of the ser vice were there 13J many aged and infirm officers. Why, therefore, should that system be generally adopted which had been found to fail in the artillery ? The Duke of Wellington, in 1833, had in the artillery set aside the system so far as to allow a number of officers to sell out in order to iefuse tome new blood into the service, and-in fact had adopted the sys tem of purchase to that case, so far as selling out was con cerned. There had been several full inquiries ante the'ques tion, and their reports were in the libraryewhich would enable hon. members to arrive at some definite result He objected to the speech of the hon, and gallant member for Westminster the other night. He had commanded a division with great and distinguished success; but it was impossible not to feel that they were hearing, not the general of division, but the member for Westminster, and that. the member for West minster interfered with the views which the general of division would have taken. He must also object to the terms of the motion, whic'a rather begged the question, for it directed the committee to take care add recommend a more efficient system. The result, therefore, was anticipated, and why take the trouble of making another blue book. (Hear, hear)? He should vote against the motion, for he did not think that there were any grounds for granting a committee. Mr. LOWE quite agreed with the noble lord that the ques tloa was au emiaeetly practical one, and that it was quite right that before hon, gentlemen presumed to address the house on this question tfiey should have made themselves acquainted with the documents referred to by the noble lord. He (Mr. Lowe) had done so, and, as a civilian, he wished to take this opportunity of stating the impression which those documents-had left on his mind. After a careful considera tion of them, it appeared to him expedient that the committee should be granted, and he would proceed to state his reasons as shortly as possible. In the first place, the committees and the commissions were all held under circumstances disadvan tageous to a fair and impartial consideration of the subject They were held at a time when the Duke of Wellington exer cised an overpowering influence on the affairs of the army. If any one would examine the evidence, he would see that the witnesses were overpowered by the weight of that eminent man. They did not take the trouble to address the committee, but to every question it was answered, " Your grace knows this ;" " My opinions agree with your grace's. ' They had since lost that great man, and a great and irreparable loss he was to the country, and the subject might be now considered without the overpowering weight of his influence and character. It appeared that there wore three several methods of promotion—by seniority, by purchase, and by favour. That aere are three methods alone appeared to be a ground for inquiry. They could not all ba equally good, and it was worth while to know which was the best. He maintained this proposition, that whatever merits or defects there might be in each of these systems, they were employed at such a disadvantage that the good was minimised and the evil maximised, as much as possible. The greet merit of the system of seniority was, that whatever its collateral evils were, it did justice between non and man; whatever were its merits or defects, it was fair to individuals, but fatal to the service ; for, whilst it opened, places, it opened them to men who were least fitted to discharge the duties of those places, as well as to those who were fitted, and it moreover encumbered it with old and wort-out men. When, there fore, ought the seniority system to be applied ? When the men were old or young ? When trey were less likely to be come old and worn-out ? if senicrity was to be the rule, it should be applied to the junior ranks in the service. Rut in practice it was banished almos; entirely from the junior branches, where the promotion took place 'partly by pur chase, and partly. by favour on death vacancies, and given to the senior branches. So that the principle of seniority was used at the greatest possible mechanical disadvantage. The next was the system of purchase, with its good and evil points also. The good was, that it enabled inefficient men to get out of the service, and in this meaner gave a relief to the army from this class. He had never heard this system advocated as good in itself, but only as an assistant to the system of seniority, which would have been intolerable with out this relief by purchase.- The system of pin-chase ought, therefore, to be applied when the men were worn out and effete. It was, however, applied exactly in the reverse, when the men were young, but when they were old - the system of Iseniority was adopted. The third system was that of promo tion by favour. The evil of this system was, that the per sons who were appointed by favour might be unworthy ; the good, that it gave facilities for appointing deserving persons who had beenleft out by routine. In practice all these three sys tems were employed exactly at a time of life, and in branches of the service when they were leas: likely to do good, and most likely to do mischief. The next question was which of these systems was the right one. He took it that nobody would defend the system of seniority. The Royal Commis sion had recommended that in the higher ranks of the ser vice the most competent officers should be selected, and in fact had come to the conclusion that, after the system was constructed, when a Bush came another system must be re sorted to. After this solemn condemnation of this system by her Majesty's commissioners, he did not think it worth while to say anything more- Next with respect to purchase. He had before pointed out the benefits and evils of this sys tem. It afforded no criterion of merit. Merit was the acci dent—the possession of money the substance. The one might follow the other, or it might not, but that quality was made the criterion of merit which had no connection with it. Tha facility of leaving the service prevented men from regard ing it as a profession, and he believed that it was on this ac count that the officers of the English army, who were men of education, and superior in position and advantages to those of other armies—were so often inferior in military science. What was the effect of the purchase system ? Why, directly an officer began to feel the annoyance incidental to field life, he wished to sell out; and that feeling, in a great measure, would account for the number of applications which had been addressed to Lord Raglan for leave toe quit the army in the Crimea. Men whose courage it would be ridiculous to doubt, because they had shown it again and again, were influenced by thefeeliug that they had a right to sell what they bought, and, naturally enough, they wished to withdraw from the army, when they found the service) no longer a career of pleasure, but a source of hardship and annoyance. But why should the commander-in-chief be at liberty to fix the price of commissions, in defiance of the law of demand and supply ? To pay more than the price so fixed was a misdemeanor, and by that rule of the service it would almost seem that officers obtained their promotion through a series of misdemeanors ' It was said that commissions were no ter put up to auction ; but while that might be strictly true iu fact, he appealed to hon. and gallant members to state whether, when there were three officers in a regiment open to pur c has e , was it n o t th e was o t h ir g t e v a e n properthe o blo o , l t o h r edr modew tw h 0 0 0p a f r s e u c m e d dealing ofed with e y promotion not for t o o n b e u i o yn f t t hh. Now a t whr army three practice n him was exceedingly anxious that, where meritorious men could be found, they should be promoted from the ranks ; but what was the use of prothoting men from the ranks un less-you gave them the full benefit of their profession? It was all very well for them to obtain such promotion in time of war, when advancement might be rapid, but in time of peace it was a mere mockery to tell the soldier you were opening a career of honour to him by raising him from the ranks, when the want of money closed it. If they wanted to make the army a profession like law or medicine, they must hit upon some device, not merely for promoting the soldier from the ranks, but which should also make him feel that his first promotion might lead to indefinite pro motion. What, then, was the remedy for the evils of the existing system, for ho thought they were susceptible of remedy, although perhaps the remedy might be difficult and expensive ? The effort to remedy the evil was worth making, becaue, in the present state of European affair', it was absolutely necessary to maintaia the army in the highest state of efficiency. 'ln order to compete with the great powers of the world —and compete with them we must—the army should have a thoroughly efficient organisation, which could not be obtained under the purchase system. By establishing that system, we had sold the' sword and buckler of the coun try ; but we must buy them back again, and substitute a system which should be equal to the system of conscription. The abso lute conscription we could not have in a free country like this, but we must have a system which would act as powerfully on the will as the compulsory process. Now, no system could pos sibly do that which did not give the soldier who was properly instructed in his duties a safe prospect of rising to the highest honours of his profession. So far as the rank of captain went he saw no objection to regulating the promotion by seniority, provided always that the officer advanced had undergone an examination sufficiently strict to satisfy any one that he was fitted for the rank. Passing beyond the rank of captain the real difficulty commenced, but he would suggest that all officers above the rank of captain should be considered as staff appointments, and that these staff appointments should be, as now, in the patronage of the head of the army only, Object to this condition, that they should be given to no officer who had not been promoted for extraordinary gal lantry in the field, or who should hot have undergone such an examination as to fit him for any staff appointment. For the latter Purpose he would suggest that a board of examiners should be held three or four times a year, and any officer in the army should be allowed to go before them to test his fits. ness for a staff appointment. Ho did not expect that great genius would be secured by that means ; but he was firmly convinced the plan would insure talent and efficiency. It might not produce great generals, but it would provide able officers, and it was, therefore w orth the cost of trying. The public would ha ve t o b u y up the existing commissions for the sake of carrying out the plan, and the cost might be on the whole grievously heavy, but in his opinion any number of millions would be well spent by a great and wealthy country like this in order to organise an army worthy and capable of protecting its wealth. But, said the noble lord who last ad dressed them, promotion by merit was impossible in a coun try like this ; it might be done in a foreign country, but it could not be done here. Now, what did that statement ' amount to ? Why it amounted to this, that we were to fight with foils while the enemy was to fight with swords ; it amounted to this, that whereas a despot could have perfect sympathy with the welfare of a country, a representative government, a House of Commons, could have to such sym pathy ; aud while the Emperor Nicholas or the Emperor Napoleon neither thought of friendship nor relationship when selectin g the best man to defend the honour and interests of his country, Englishmen had so little patriotism, so little regard for tho public good, as to prefer a system of job bery rather than sacrifice political connections and family ties. (Hoar, hear.) The noble lord would almost seem to perish say—Let England if you will, but continue to treat promotion in the army as a job; b u t un til the periment had been tried of promting by merit, he believed no one had a right to say that a representative Government was a failure in respect of army promotions. We should do in the army what every man endeavoured to do in the man agetilent of his private affairs, viz., strive to get the best ser vants to serve us, and if we could not do that by resorting to a system' of promotion based upon merit, and the question should then come, " Shall England exist as an independent State, or shall, the House of Commons be s we pt aw ay ?" he would say, if such a terrible alternative were offered to him, " Rather perish the House of Commons, and let England be independent." (Hear.) Colonel DUNNE had listened with great attention to the honourable gentleman opposite, but he was really unable to discover what his v ewe were upon this question. The hou. gentleman had given no clear explanation of how promotion in the army should be conducted, but ho had told thein that all former inquiries into its management were neutralised by the spirit of the Duke of Wellington. Now, he believed it was not the opinion of that great man that neutralised the efforts of former commissions and 'committees, but the spirit of economy, which was then the curse of the time ; and for the same reason he belieVed now a committee of this house would do very little good. No soldier would defend promo tion by purchase in the abstract ; but, before it could be abo , lisped, Parliament must vote large sums of money, not only -to buy up the vested interests of existing officers holding com missions, but to increase the pay of officers in the army, which he was afraid hon. members who supported this motion would not be disposed to do when . the pinch came. Why, at the present moment the Government were actually selling com missions ou their own account, and yet nobody denounced it, because the proceeds brought a balance to the Exchequer, land tended to reduce the half-pay list. Well now, that I just the feeling which stool iu the way of abolishing promo tion by purchase ; but still the fact was, the system was I not to blame for our disasters in the Crimea, because in spite of its many objections it had produced good officers. It was not the system, then, to which we must look for the cause of such disasters, but to the shortcomh,gs and defects in the heads of departments at home and abroad. No army iu the world could have gone through so much as ours, not even the French army, who bad been better supplied and better looked after ; but until there were military men and competent men placed at the head of the civil departments, the efficiency of the army could not be thoroughly complete. He quite acknowledged that we had got a bad system of promotion, and was quite ready to join in any vote that would safely do away with it, but before they could do that the house must be prepared to vote over five millions of money for the purpose. Lord PALMERSTON said—Sir, if every one of the seven sleepers, whose history we have read—(a laugh)—could haVe happened to wake_ up, after their many years' slumber, and, being ignorant of what is passing in Europe, had come suddenly into this house to be present at this debate, judging from thd speeches we have heard,- they would have gone away with the melancholy conviction that this country-had sustained some great military disaster; and that we were on the point of being conquered by some great military power, and that this house, with Roman and Spartan fortitude, were deliberating, in the midst of impending disasters, neon the best means to be, adopted for saving the country. , (Hear.) But what is the rose. state of things ? Has our army sus tained defeats in the field ? Have our officers shown them selves unequal to the duties which they have ".had to per form? Had we, as represented by my honourable friend the member for Kidderminster, found the people of this conntr unwilling to enlist themeelyee under the banner of their Sovereign to vindicate the honour of the country and to maintain the contest in whmli we aro engaged ? "Looking at our army, we find that it has achieved as great success as at anS former period of our history. Instead of finding the people of this country hang back and shrink from the engagement of the military service, there never was a time at which so many brave men have offered themselves to be enrolled in the ranks of our army. (Loud cheers.) As far, therefore, as any, change is demanded for the purpose of encouraging the people of this country to enlist, I say that no change is required, because the enlistment is going on with tile utmost rapidity, and with the greatest success (Cheers.) But, then, it is said, that the system which now exists is fatal to the army by depriving it of a proper supply of regimental officers, for it is in regimental organisation, be it observed, that this system of purchase exists. Now, I undertake to say that there never was in the history of the world a set of men who so nobly and efficiently perform their duty as our regimental officers. (Cheers.) What is the test of the conduct of officers? Why, it is, in the first place, to obtain the good will of their men—it is not only to share with their men . in the dangers of the fight, but to endure with them all the privations and- sufferings into whiCh the service may lead them. Now, I ask, have our officers ever shrunk back in the field of battle Have they not led their men to victory in conquests in which more honour and glory have been reaped than almost ever fell to the fortune of arms on any former occasion ? (Cheers.) I say that the manner in which the men followed their officers, and the manner in which the officers led the men proves that there existed between them a community of feeling which is the result ' of reciprocal confidence- in each other, and which shows that the officers are worthy of the men, as the men are worthy of those who are placed at their head. (Cheers.) Well then, have they shrunk from those sufferings and privations, which never were exceeded, and which probably have been seldom, if ever, equalled? Why, we know 'very well that the soldier of the army in the Crimea, when asked about their own suffer ings, have said, "Well, it is true we are suffering much, but our officers are sharing the. same suffering with us—they are not so accustomed to hardshipi as we are, and while they are suffering without complaint, it is not for us to be murmuring at what we undergo." (Hear, hear.) So far as the motion of the hon. and gallant gentleman is founded upon the expe rience of what the army is, I think that the grounds on which he had attempted to place it, entirely fail. (Hear.) I ad mit, as I have done on a former occasion, that if we were planning an army for the first time, it is not likely that we should propose to establish it upon a system of purchase and of sale. (Hear.) But there it is; and even those who have en deavoured to point out the evils which they attribute to the sys tem have shrunk when they came to the point from suggesting theonly way in which it could be got rid of. The hoc, and gal lant gentleman who has brought forward the subject seemed to steer studiously clear of making any suggestion as to what method should be adopted to amend what he conceives to be a vicious system. (Hear, hear.) But we all know that there is only one way of getting rid .of it ; and that is in the man ner which has been suggested by others, namely, that the country should buy up the commissions which have been bought and paid for by the officers of the army. (Hear, hear.) If the evils of the present system were so great and so preg nant in their consequences as to make it worth while to the country to incur that large expense, it might be done. But let not hon. gentlemen go away with any erroneous impres sion that such a system can be put an end to without a great pecuniary sacrifice. Although the system is open to objec tion in point of principle, yet it is admitted by all that prat • tically it is not without some advantages. The system of promotion-by seniority leads to a great accumulation in the higher ranks of the service of men who from age or infirmity are incapable of performing the duties which belong to their position. That is admitted to be a very great fault in those branches of our service in which seniority alone exists, and in which purchase and sale - do not exist—in the Artillery, for instance, and to a certain degree in another branch of our service. (Hear,) Now, in the service in which there is no purchase and sale to remove those who are desirous of retir ing, the only way in which accumulations can be prevented is by placing upon the retired list of pensioners to the State those officers who reach a certain age, and who it must be assumed from their ago are no longer fit for active duty That system is adopted in France.l believe that, in the French army, officers 65 years of ago are placed on the retired list, and I remember hearing it said that when the regulation was proposed to Louis Philippe he observed that he would adopt it for the army, but he hoped that his Ministers would not advise him to passes royal ordinance making it applicable to kings. That system no doubt would, to some degree, exempt the principle of seniority from the disadvantage of loading the upper ranks in the army with a great number of men ad vanced in life ; but, on the other hand, it would entail a con siderable expense on the country, and would frequently de prive it of the service of men quite able to perform active and professional duties. One great advantage which is represee ted as likely to accrue from the abolition of purchase and sale is, that men would-be certain that promotion would go by merit. Now in the navy there is no purchase and sale. In the navy, therefore, we might expect to hear that the sys tem of promotion. was free from any possibility of cavil and objection. (Hear.) But the moment the navy is mentioned, up get naval officers, on both sides of the house and complain that promotion all go by favour, or affection, or interest (cheers) —by every mode, in short, except by a due apprecia tion of the merits of the respective candidates. That, then, is the state to which the motion of the hon. and gallant gen tleman would tend to bring the army. The fact is, that when you say that promotion should go by merit, nothing in the world is easier than to make such an assertion; but nothing in the world is more difficult than to carry such a system into practice. If you would establish a rule that promotion should go by stature—that no man should be promoted who did not stand six feet high--(laughter)—that promotion should go by physical qualities discernible by the eye, it would be easy in that case to establish a rule, and to ensure its most rigid execution. But what is merit ? Merit. is opinion—merit is the opinion which ono man fornis of another. Well, but the man with whom it may rest to exercise a judgment forms his opinion of the merits of the different candidates from the appointments which may be vacant ; but his opinion is sure to be disputed by a great many disinterested judges, and certain to be denied by all the friends of the persons who are unsuccessful candidates on the occasion. (Hear.) And, therefore, the idea that by any human system merit can ensure the selection of persons for appointments, civil or military, who shall be universally ac knowledged to be appointed for merit alone, is a Utopia which it is perfectly vain for anybody to hopo to see established in any country whatever. (Hear.) And it is a great mistake to suppose that in the armies of the Continent no murmurs arise, and that no fault is found—that in the French army, 'the Austrian army, the Russian army, the Prussian army, every man is satisfied that every appointment is filled by the most deserving, and that there exist no complaints on the part of the unsuccessful candidates. (Hear.) If hon. members labour under that impression, I can assure them that they are mistaken, and that there are as many complaints that favour ritism and not merit leads to promotion as wo hear in thi s house when these subjects are brought under discussion. (Hear.) I am much di s p ose d t o agree with my hon, friend the member for Kidderminster, who, reviewing the three sys tems by which promotion 'night take place—namely, pur chase, seniority, an d mer it— seemed to condemn each and all. (Cheers and laughter.) He seemed to make out that they hiswere all vicious ; and alth oug h h e did no t supp l y th e t h oue h t argument tended to sh ow th a t you oug ht t o abolisCall., What is to be substituted in their stead I do not know, unless he imagines that a combination of the three would by some chemical proc ess neu t ra li se th e v i c i ous propensities of each, and bring forth a neutral salt. (Cheers and laughter.) I be lieve the fact to be that there is no such practical evil in our regimental system as to render it absolutely necessary for the country to make great sacrifices to get rid of it—that it could not be got rid o f w ith ou t great sacr i fices—and all that I th i nk desirable is, that wo should lay the foundation for the more ' general instruction of our regimental officers iu those staff du ties which aro not to bo learned simply as a matter of form, but the knowledge of which is essentially necessary for the good conduct of op era ti ons i n th e fi e ld . W hen I deny that t h ere h as be en any inefficiency on the part of the regimental officers, if I am asked to what I attribute those sufferings which have, in some degree, been endured by our army in the Crimea, I would rather not give my opinion on that point, but remind the house that there is a committee now employed in investigating those very circumstances, and I must say I think the hon. and gal lant gentleman would do better to wait for the report of that committee, which, no doubt, will probe the matter to the bottom, and which - will tell you, when they have finished their inquiries, the cause of those unfortunate mischances which have occasioned so much sufferieg—unnecessary suf fering, in my opinion —to those gallant men who are row em ployed in the Crimea. I think the hon. and gallant gentle man has not laid down any sufficient ground to induce the ;house tq adopt the course which ho recommends. But I have a further objection to his course of proceeding. Ithink in it th is e not in harmony with the p ro pe r p r i nc iples of our constituti on, (Hear.) After all is said and done, without meaning least degree to question the power of this house to take into its consideration any matters of poLlic interest, I beg them t 4 s recollect that the command of the army is, by the eon t'tu tion of the country, Tooted in the ro a;4 n o t ixt the House of Commons. The motion of the hon. and gallant gentleman - seems to be- founded on the assumption that the command of the army is vested in the House of Commons, and that a committee of this house is a proper tribunal to consider matters purely regarding the practical administration of that army. I think we are very apt to lose sight in soma degree of our proper and useful functions. I do not think there would be any advantage in appointing a committee to take into consideration those questions connected with the in terior economy of our army. I think that such inquiries ought to be made by a commission emanating from the Crown, and reporting to the Crown,which report might afterwards be com municated to the house for any purposes for which the house might require it. But I think this house is not the authority which ought properly to institute any inquiries of this kind. (Hear.) That being the opinion which I entertain on this subject, I certainly cannot consent to the motion of the hon. and gallant gentleman. The discussion which has taken place may be useful in pointing out to the Government cer tarn matters for consideration. I can assure the house that her Majesty's Government will be always glad to bear sug gestions, and will anxiously desire to profit by them, as far as they can do so consistently with the public advantage. But with that reservation I must certainly give my opposition to the motion of the honourable and gallant gentleman. (Hear, hear.) Mr. RICH, who rose amidst loud cries of " divide," said he was inclined to vote for the first portion of the resolution, but trusted the honourable and gallant gentleman would omit the second portion. Mr. P. O'BRIEN said that, although ho did not pretend to know much of military matters, still ho knew that the ex penses of an infantry or cavalry mess were such as to make it a great hardship, in the present state of things, for any ser geant from the ranks to be promoted to the position of com missioned officer. This he thought—that at least it formed a fitting object for inquiry by a select committee, and the house ought not, therefore, to refuse the motion. At the present time there was before the country the great and glaring fact of the want of au efficient system of promotion in the army, and the hon. and gallant member who had proposed the appointment of a committee to inquire into that subject was well deserving the support and sympathy of the house. (Hear, hear.) Major REED, having briefly replied, said ho should be willing, if the house desired it, to omit from his resolution the latter clause, which placed upon the committee the duty of recommending a more efficient system for securing pro motion to merit and long service. The original motion having been withdrawn, the resolution as amended by the omission of the latter portion was put. The house divided, when there appeared— For the motion Against it Majority against the motion TRADE WITH CHINA. . 104 ----31 Mr. HORSFALL moved an address for copies of all in structions having reference to trade, sent out by her Majesty's Government to her Majesty's superintendent of trade in China, subsequent to the tst day of February, 1834-; also, of the correspondence subsequent to that date between her Ma jesty's Government and her Majesty's superintendent of trade, having reference to British trade in China, up to the present tare. He said that in 1851 disturbances broke out iu China, and the British consul, Mr. Aleock, took on himself to inter fere in the collection of duties for the Chinese authorities. The merchants here addressed themselves to the then Foreign Minister (Lord PalmerstOn), who sent out instructions to our consuls iu China not to interfere, Sir Samuel Bonham took steps to make that determination of the Government known to the Chinese Government. In tss3 disturbances ag,Ainloroke out, and Consul Alcock again resorted to the plan of Collect ing the revenues for the Chinese. Bonds were given*with the understanding that they should be levied on the traders of all nations. Sir S. Bonham disapproved of 'that proceeding of the consul. Then Sir John Bowring went out, and he esta blished consular courts to decide the quection, although he knew that the . question was decided by the Government at home. Sir John Bowring contended that the question rested with him, while Lord Clarendon contended that the decision rested with the British Government. The question which he (Mr. Horsfall) desired to ask was, whether Sir J. Bowring should submit to the Government, or the Government to him; and why the bonds which had been given between the :ith of February and July last had not been cancelled by Sir J. Bow ring in pursuance of the directi• La of Lord Clarendon to himy Lord PALMERSTON said that the correspondence was still going on. Sir JohnJ3owring had been called upon to make a full report upon the subject of the bonds and all these trans actions ; and he suggested that, as it would be unadvisable to produce an imperfect correspondence, the motion should be withdrawn. Mr. HORSFALL acceded to this suggestion, and the mo , tiou was withdrawn. MEMBERS' SEATS. Mr. MUNTZ moved that the right of members attending prayers to retain their seats should not be interrupted by a division, commission, or conference. Tho motion was not exactly in form, and Lord PALMERSTON suggested that the hon. member should confer with the Speaker upon the subject. Mr. CItOSSLEY said that considering there were only seats for half the members, the proposed rule might be pro ductive of inconvenience. Mr. MUNTZ adopted the suggestion of Lord Palmerston ; and withdrew his motion. THE BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE. - - - Mr. FREWEN rose to move, that upon Thursday, the 19th day of April next, and every alternate Thursday, till the end of May next, orders of the day shall take precedence of no tices of motions without giving priority to Gove nment orders. This arrangement would, he thought, be fair to the Government and to independent members. Lord PALMERSTON suggested the postponement of the motion until after Easter. The motion was withdrawn. FRIENDLY SOCIETIES BILL. This bill was recommitted pro forma, with a view to its being reprinted. THE SARDINIAN LOAN. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER laid upon the table the report of the resolution of the committee authoris ing a loan to 'the Sardinian Government. The report was received, and leave was given to introduce a bill founded upon that resolution r SUPPLY. The report of the Committee of Supply was brought up. Mr. MACARTNEY complained of the hurried manner in which some votes included in the civil service estimates had been passed. Mr. J. WILSON said that no more haste had beeli used than was necessary to meet the requirements of the public service; nor had anything been done without due notice. Mr. T. HANKEY called attention to the small salaries paid to the lower class of civil servants, and expressed his opinion that fair salaries ought to be paid to all persons em ployed by the public, and that the offices ought to be the sub jects of competition, in order that the best talent to be ob tained might be employed in them. Sir H. WILLOUGHBY also complained of the mode in which the estimates were disposed of. If the public exigen , cies were so great that the items should be brought on, the Government should announce the fart, and then hon. gentle men would take care to be in attendance when they were brought forward. Viscount PALMERSTON was in the house at the time the items were passed, a great many members were also present, and full notice was given. Any member who wished to make observations upon the items should have remained in his place, and not have gone away ; if he had remained in his place he would have had an opportunity of expressing his opinion. (Hear, hear.) The report was agreed to. The house then adjourned at a quarter before one o'clock PARLIAMENTARY DIVISION. HOUSE OF COMAIONS.—MAxca 27. ARMY APPOINTMENTS. Motion made, and Question put, "That a select committee be appointed to inquire into the present mode of con ferring appointments in the army by purchase or other wiser; anti to report on the same." The house divided —Ayes, 70; Noes, 104. AYES-7e. Acton, J. fileock, T. Ball, J. Baxter, W. Ulgge, W. Blattl, L. EL Bonham-Carter, J Gardner, R. Goodwan, Str G , Gordon, A. Greene, John (If evllle. Col. F. Hadfield, G. Ileadlam, T. Oakes, J. O'Brien, I'. O'Connell, D. Oliveira; 13. P.lxton, Sir J. Pechell, Sir G. Pellatt, A. Pilking ton, J. Pollard-Urquhart, W Rich, U. Thehardson, J. Robartes, T. Sanders, G. P. Shelley, Sir J. Stanley, W. Strutt, E. So-tit, R. Thompson, G. Williams, W. Brady, J. iiroekleburst Z. Browne, W. 3ulkeley, Sir R. Clay, Sir W., Bt. Cobbett, J. M. Cowan, C. Craulbrd, E. H. J. Crossley, F. Dering, Mir E. Howard, C. Hutt, W. Jackson, W. Kennedy, T. Kinnaird, A. Kirk, W. Laing, S. Langton, H. G. Laslett, W. Ditlwyn, L. Locke. J. Duncan, G. Lowe, R. Dunlop, A. M'cann, Ebrington, Viscount Mail, E. Ellice, E. Morris, D. Ferguson, J. D. untz, G. Foley, J. Ilurrough, J. 14.1 E, W. North, F. TELLERS Reed, J. ficobell, Capt. G. NOES-104- Baring, H. Grey, Slt G. Baring, Sir F. Grey, R. Barrington, Viscount Grogan, Edward Bective, Earl Gurney, J. Bellew, T. Hall, Sir B. Bentinck, G. Hamilton, G. A. Berkeley. C. Hankey, T. Bethel', Sir R. Banmer, Sir J. Blackburn, P. Hardinge. Hon. C. Bramley-Moore, J. Heard, J. Bramston, T. W. Heneage, Geo. H. Bruce, Lord E. Herbert, S. Buckley, Gen. Horsfall, T. B. Byng, G. Hot sman, E. Child, Smith lio th am, Lord Christie, Samuel Jolliffe, Sir W. Cobbold, J. il. Keogh. W. Cowper, W. F. Knatchbull, W. Davies, J. L. Knox, Col. B. W. Drummond, H. Knox, W. S. Duncan, Viscount Lee, W. D uncombe, Hon. A. Lennox, Lord A. F. Dunne, Coi. Lewis. Sir G. C. East, Sir J. Lindsay, Col. J. Egerton, Sir F. Lovaine, Lord Emlyn, Via. Macartney, G. Ferguson, Sir R. Macgregor, Jas. FitzGorald, J. Math 'son, Sir J. Floyer, J. Michel), Dr. W. Forester, Col. Mitchell. T. Fortescue, C. Molesworth, Sir W. Freestun, Col. Monck, Viscount - - . Palmer, Roundell Palmerston, Visa. Peel, Gen. Percy, J. Portman, W. Power, N. Repton, G. Ricardo, 0. Ricardo, S. Robertson, P. Roche, E. Rushout, Col. G. Seymour, Lord Sen.lour, H. Smith, B. Sotheron, T. Spooner, R. Stuart,:W. Tomline, G. TroHope, Sir J. Tynte, Col. C. Vansittart, G. Villiers, C. Walsh, Sir J. Whatman, J. Whitmore, Wickham, H. W. Wilkinson, W. Wilson, J Wlnnington, Sir T. Wood, Sir C. Wynn, Lieut.-Col. Frewen, C. Mowbray, J. Galway, Viscount. Mulllngs, J. ..cadstone, Capt. J. Naoier, J. Greenall, G. North, Col. J. Tzurats Hayter, W. Mulgrare, Earl of SUSPECTED MURDER OF THREE CHlLDREN.—Yester day, Mr. Baker, the cormer, held an inquest at the Bull Tavern, High-street, Shadwell, respecting the death of a male child, found dead under the following suspicious circumstances. William Wale, a labourer, stated that yesterday (Tuesday) morning, about nine o'clock, he saw a bundle lying in the dust-yard of Mr. White, of Lower Shadwell. Witness opened it, arid found the dead body of a newly-born male infant. The deceased was wrapped in a piece of coloured calico, and there were no marks upon it. The deceased had been 'placed in the position he found it since the previous night. The police had made inquiry, but nothing had been disco vered likely to lead to the detection of the guilty par ties. The jury found a verdict of " Found dead.' Mr. William Baker, jun., Coroner for the Lower Liberty, held an inquest yesterday, at the Nag's Head public house, Tower-hill, on the body of a newly-born male child, found dead on Sunday night last in Trinity square, Tower hill. The coroner having rernaiked on the alarming increase of infanticide, the jury roturried an open verdict of "Found dead." Mr. Baker received information of a third 'case of sopposel inurd,r , wiwri 1!0(1 . of au infant w as b roug ht as h ore by ti Thames Polic e on Monday morning. CONFESSION OF d MURDEBE, On Monday Henry -Held was fully committed for trial by the Tunbridge bench, charged with obta a ining a check for 151. from a lady nam ed Deacon, Mbledon, Tunbridge. As it was late before the examination ter m H Whils inated, Held was placed in the lock-up for the nigt, preparatory to his being t a ken to Maidston e.t there he endeavoured to hang himself wi th a Oece of stuff picked by him from the rug furnished to prisoners in the lock-up. Fortunately Goddard went in in time to prevent his accomplishing his end, and a surgeon hav ing been sent for, he soon recovered. Goddard then obtained assistance, and they sat up with him all night, and. during the night be made the following horrible con fession. lie said that be had murdered his first wile, about 20 years ago, at Dartford, and that he dragged the bsdy to a sinall archway near Mr. Hall's powilermilis left it. That hi, first wife's name was Sophia there; an d that upon a sort of Slislf in the archway be had a captain's widow, and was possessed of about 700/, which sum he received the day after their marege, and ho very soon made off with it. That they rema r ried at Brighton by the Rev. Dr. Wagner. That he sold a gold clasmometer which belonged to his wife's first husband for 40/. to a Mr. Levy, at Lewes. He said he Danker, never liked his wife, and only married her for her money, that when it was gone they were stayi n g at Dartford, gl and one night after he had been dr inkin g , his wife F ' lowed him without her boenet ; that he str uck her with a silver-headed cane (a hich was loaded), when she fell ; that he afterwards cut her throat with a Spanish knios f ed e , which he threw into the river at Dart ford, and dis d p that of her body in the manner already stated. Ile sai about a twelvemonth ago he visited the spot to see if the body was still there ; that there were bones there, but but all the flesh was gone. He thought be would l'e the bones into the water, and took hol d of one of the fingers, wken the skull moved, which frightened hini and he ran away. He said his wife had haunted him ever since, and he wished to be hanged for it. Sl kingT, b r an account naturally excited the curiosity ( f GoiidPV who went to Dartford, and there fou nd an archway hadTt,' '; shelves or ledgts in it precisely as the prison r stated, and in the exact situation po i n ted out. person was setit up the archway, but nothing was found exeel) some pieces of chalk. The police there- are acticely en gaged in searching after some traces of the perso rehu! stated to have been so brutally murdered. At peat there is hut the testimony of this wretched man to rely upon.--South Eastern Gazette. COUNTBY VAREETP. LIVEI32OOL---MARca 27. retain The transactions in wheat and flour were qu ite in . t a and to make progress reduced prices had to be submitted to. English wheat may ba considered about 2d per bu l -,. and flour 13 to 2s p=r sack lower than on Ttle,stlaY last. Indian corn fully supported Friday's advance of i3d P er a ais on good yellow and mixed dorn.. .No. change 0 . 8 re s - oats, oatmeal, or other articles of the iradi. IPSWICH-.—Mitueg 27. . of We have had a fair, but by no - means a lag% Sb i r n ot wheat. Millers the only buyers. The growers N:ore give way in price to ;make forced sales, "and ther ei r foal can only quote an alteration in price of 13 to 281 0 'T...0at% last market day. The quantity of barley exce°d ing "yeas 9 ' and at least is per qr. advance was rca given' heavy sale. PS% Q u 'a 309 YEA r QUARTER.I Wheat, red (old) 64s to 68sBarley, grinding -• 23 ' Ditto (new) Ditto, white (new) — 74 3 s ttoo ) lleaßeans . ..... ............ 3463: tot' gOs s 005 ° Ditto (old) Barley, malting 31s to 33010ur, per sack •••18 55. AVERAGES FOR THE WERE ENDING M ARCO 24, Wheat Oats Peas ;3 1 5 3 10 435 Bears Barley farmers wa W ut e i n had a wt d oe a r e s --. ; for wb ich 133-- supply of wheat at marke, but fotors veryali BULL -Me Bw(lellek2'7,3. prices.; de , r uled g buy for 2s to .is less money ; the tra , _ 3tiotis . VIM • In Torine"imate, and we can hardly alter our clu ° ' cora is „ruler 1,,n wheat a little more inquiry. SPringootes go offn , and a better feeling. Linseed only dull• rice,. pretty well at our quotations. Bones fetch long P 6 ' k -- to •"" ' Peas, groy aud black 60 0 61 ,Linseed, Black Sf,i:••• 00 0 60 Ditto Potersbui,nrih. _6 'Ditto Rigs s u • 60 to 5 52 gewei '. ''''''''''' to r TO'3. d to GO/ Cs Diatutogßelocig-s.b..6ri.e..c.i_ 48 to 10/ 10E0d Ditto finc for. Gins. e•, I°l ° s od to 0 1 ° 3 •f• for. 01 0 001 Ditto in • o w o s to Rapeseed ~5 ~,, to ors oi Rape cakes...l3u Oil to off Tares, English .....• nos to Us Ditto forei& ...... v , U s 137 , ua Bones ....... •—•-g Od t° nope Guano ........ 5s ...... Rullll/ es O s S 1 tO 12t ~ i S 01 Wheat, English, red 05 to 68) Ditto whKe 72 to 74; Dantzle and Konigs berg 74 to 76; PoTeranianandHam- 1 burgh Danish, Holstein, and _ _ Friesland 64 to 6t Russian and Odessa CO to f 3 Oats, English Ditto Danish Ditto Friesland - Ditto Russian 26 to 2S Barley, malting Ditto grinding 27 to 29 Beans Ditto foreign Peas, white and yel. 40 to 42 Rye Meal .......... COURSE 4msterd . 30 Ditto, three months 11 19 , 4 Legtorn •• •• • • •••• •• 25 60 11.3tterdanz ............ 11 19% Genoa .... .. •••••• •• Antwerp 21 40 N , tlqn •• •• •• •• .• Brussels .. .. •• .. 25 40 Venice........ • • .....•44 UMW:Ugh •••.•• • • .• 13 7 1 ,A Naples •••••••• •••••• •• Altona •.•••••••• •• •• .• Palermo •• .• •• •• ...• I 1 , .14 . ..•• .... 25 20 Messina .. •• 53/ Ditto, three months .. 25 45 Lisbon .. MarseiLss ............. 25 47X, Oporto •• " -- Bourdeaux ........ I Rio Janeiro•••••• Frantfort-ou Maine .... 119 I Buenos Ayres.. •• •• Berlin ................ New York,6o days' 518.* Vienna 12 40 Philadelphia • • • • "' • 0 0S„ Trie5te................ 12 42 PRICES OF suratc/kr3 17 Petersburg •• •••••••• •• 35 Foreign Gold in Bari 0 0 ?,,/ Madrid ••• •• •......... 49% Portugal Gold Coin •• 0 4 7b Cadiz •• .. 50 i Mexican Dollars •••• 0 0 Barcelona •Iw Dollars ..•••• 0 5 Seville.... •• •• •• •• •• • I Sliver in bars • •• •• SEABORNE MAILS. ..nerst r (N signifies that the mails are sent from the ‘7— isy the night—and Ai by the morning—despatch.) Day when ma , :. Froo. ''' at I L l o' 1 7 1 COUNTIIIE in General Po.“- ror: E nt'ae Office, London.. Viso ) 011 ' I---- - n -.......---- 0-1 •Each kmarica(byllrit.pack)N Every Friday Live r P c e rell 2 8 kmericP, k by United Sts , M Packet) .......„.N ••.. . LiverPe ° ' America (by II State* • packet) ........N ,n I Australia (via South- 3iarco ampton) —....... M Ditto (via Marseilles) N . • ..Dova " , , tiln Ditto (via Cape of 4.10ee . I I'lle e ' ..3 Ilene) ............N ' " ;lor' ll ' ' tb • Africa (West Coast) —24 13d of the month .. ?wpm , , Alexandria.. • .... N 4, 9 24, & 30 of in Dover '' ..i,.;1 Alexandria ..........M Sth k 20th of mot.. Southaml: , Bahamas ........... St 17th of the montl• Seuttl.inat , ' pailY 16 Belgium ............N Da11y............ Dovt r " ",,.. - B P ril Brazil ~ .........., ~ 1,,,i 9th of the month.. Sootho' l4 ',„ ' c og .• goutharnol, a Buenos. yrea........ AI 9th 01 the month.. So'it""...„'' its 02 Cape ot Good Dope •.'r vat; as r- , Cape of Good !lope ..N I Cape de Verds .....N 9th of the month SoutharePt°!' Ceylon (see India) ~., It -a' Ceylon ............. is 1 - • Chime.: Isiah— ..N Iron ,Wed ,&Fril. Sollthe°P°l, •• 20 Censtantinople ........ Chili.. ~......., .... m 1,1 4,. . 1 7 t h c ;f 4 , , ,,,,t , South ; y. ! 3 f A rca China .... . . I O w n:: Constantineple• ......., 3,13,,8,23,3448 o, lii Dov er . n(01 adallY a 2o m t: n o t f h m • . cont. of Europe NI & N , f r; i ci , d a ily .. ... Dover II: " ' ~., • Egypt (see India) •• , ,,o . A I` rep 2v France ...... _ia,ver .• ", 0 ,, Ye M & is Twice daily. • • • • • Gibraltar .......... Al 4, 7,17,20, 27 of n • e,:attivADP' I ~, 1 Greece (see India) , • 1 ..41 4.° ' 0 ,,. s.,attero, .crw• haniPtesi GreYtown .......... Ili 2nd & 17th of mon. Sota - .1 r il 1 Flamburgh ..........N Tuesday 8s Friday L0e5 1 . ° _ 1 1,..,.:1;:' ,44) . Havannah .......... m 2nd of the month Sothria.-Y ..0 11 . - 1 1 Holland ............11 Daily—, • • ...... OeY e i r a 'a%po . o AP rl Honduras ... • . .• im 17th of the month. • '4°" 'eat •• India (viaSouthalpt.)M 4th & 20th of mon. File ° .. India (via Marseilles)M 9th&2sth of month D0ver....::...ivri0,466,v lonian Isles (see India) 7, 17, & 27 of mon Doveilreoi .. oarch 2 Ireland ~.......11 & N Twice daily ..... • 1 1 °U t . ,, T iptool Lisbon" " • " • • • • . .. M 7.9. 17, & 27 of el. S°°,l„lnptoel.a.„.o 16 Madeira ....... ....HI 9th of the month 5V er ,,,,01 ..* r Madeira ......... ..N 23d or month •••• I T ' v ' 20 e 4l 2i Malta (see India) '• f ......•• Malta .... N 818& 28 of mon. Dovw - 1 • • ...... .• , • Mauritius (see India) Pt il 1 ktunrlttuo '••••• • • • • . N 14th of the month atwa./te,,14 MeXlc° •• •• •••• •• ..M 2nd of the month• D ove r ..., •• I Naples .-- .. .........N btl3lsth2sthofmott• u....Dampte''',,racertel New Oranada ......M 2d & 17th of month Se" r i 0 pPrt . i' . Va ° New Zealand .... By private ship • ___ er .. ~ • • Penal States ...• lti 5 thlhth2sthotinon. 1,.. , U th a irlt°n 1 Peninsula ..........M 7thi7th27thofinon. ~,,.000,0,,pt00 troorts Peru •• ............m lii & 27th of moo: '.3'f ai i a iis P°r ta Port Natal ..........N By private s 111 1 3.• fi ver .••• ' Sicily ..............N sthl,,th2sthoitnon, Dover ..... 1 • Anr ij Tuscany ............N sthisth2stholinon• uu thaa pteD "*. Venezuela .. . • • • . . ..M 2d&L7th nisi:tongs S . Van Diemenee • llPr il I Australia)'sLane (s .. . 'omlo olo o l West Indies ........iii2l , % !7th o month `' . 1, . , ll . • --,,i, de will v.' West Indies ........M • ciA Ails th e • t" '" Ot t" ;on be O en d e ' Pa ' When any of these (la spatched on the followir Southampton), and the 2 preceding da% . 31, a ig te: at. i j 'a :, 1 b 1 0,, o t. : Ih I ttl a o [ t c w a : sa ; 8./R7/15' the L aj/ ~ or A EO N. k _ s tree On the 25th inst., at 5 1 , Upper 13r°° EMMA. Cast. OF A DAUG gTEft. 33rig ht0n , il'e On the 23d inst., at 1. lt 13ce, wife of Arthur Otway, M.P. M A R R I E D. r h W i . ° r ish nligre 'vjiliet On the 26th inst., a Tottenham P a rriette ,no. George Carruthers, Madras Army. to ,--,11-- o f .1•To r "" second daughter of the lute Alfred liales, -DK" lir gr• vs' green Hall, Staffordshire. is rfo.-• ~.,..filon• On the 24th inst , at Cle.nchwa:rton, .0 ° n oe, Ps' la° Horne, of Parliament - street and Woburn -09,d, of fil to Maria, widow of the late Mr. Thos. Efers'' Smith-street, Westminster. . - -- st. D I E D. (ion vichad i Cliri Oa the 27th inst., A 24, Hatton-gar ' lk I t Qbt* Inas Bartlett, %sq. surgeon, aged 44. . .. Oerfo • On the 26th inst., at Stratton StraWiess, Mar•lanaEsq., aged 71. On the 24th inst., at •Dalvey, near x'2°l:reel' 513' ---4r6. •acke"ll3' MacLeod, of Dalvey. V• /* VII j 3 inc/ t• On the 19th ult., at Deuierara, Ensign ~,,,,* eo dore 2d West India Regt., second son of Sir 'm ___------------- a.' man,Oi toe r 2 t.- )th inst at T,ambetb-terracno Emily Ch°l° infant daughter of " the Rev Win. PancAri: Nir•VirlarDsleP _On the 20th inst., Rachel., the wife of ii• • 64(1., solicitor, aged $9. —__ To YOl/14°' I ONDOZT : Printed and Publisbod by MiTilm- ,- 1 ,, IV• ft Orric e ' . ' 1 :;+). 11'2, Sraad, and`,, nt, .fi r Se • _,,,gif Vo DI til w—i akrauti, is Use Yraoinet the t3e Y„...• Niadles"s_lifeduesday, Wirt* OH t Ja. .....-.-----......'"....i.,..•.'''•'..........' ii . ° l aPrty Wilia w Trpir re2(b clbseni [ ItI I — TA ,fit;l/.°a tic~;taz, k u .utk ry,t $7, 11. 7 Pthl ',ldtra, 1)i 1 41 , ?i t &l k ni Si vaq z , c%42 9 40, 4(.:, () Mit tr t; or e~ UA.R. Rh. w LC 4,,rY bixol 4 4' 1 .li k eY , -ary, 6,e Jo nt h Lat„ qt 4 L ou ?, v i 4,„: '3 flop 411A it'trif % L is Cc ~ wit: ilgelpeXta div JO, t. 7 ' 72 01 k ! 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