The Express.
London, England, 1855-05-03 00:00:00

Si/04 Pillnidltfki 1111remidect, or lead the troops
te 14story in the field; but once returned to
Afetilett he could not take charge of a corporal's
limed, he was simply a *rate gentleman who could
lay 'lsis° to no military Tank whatever. Pressure
gni* without has bro*t forth the War-office memo-
raidasi, which appeared the night before last, and
himileforth this absurd and ridiculous anomaly will
-let no longer. But this should be regarded as merely
Instalment of the debt of justice due to the Ho-
nourable Compatty's Service. That army should be
• a Hoye force, aiittfueOrpoisted. with her Ma-
jesty's. army •in every way. It is perhaps too
much to expect that an English Ministry
would all at once do what is right in so im-
portant a matter. We must rest contented
for a time with what has already been done, and
wait with patience for what has yet to be granted.
But there are still a good many steps to be taken ini
the same direction as the late memorandum. It is
the first,—may the second soon follow. Justice has
now been done in a more special manner towards
the juniors of the Indian Army ; it is to be hoped
that the seniors will not be denied what is due to
their rank. Hitherto the General Officers of the
Company's service have been most unjustly used.
No matter what may be their qualifications—no
matter bow long or how faithfully they may have
served their honourable masters—they never can
look forward to thehighestprizesinthecountry. They
may command large armies in the field, but are
allowed to command at either of the three Presiden-
cies. These loaves and fishes are reserved for
General officers of the Queen's army who have good
interest at the Horse Guards. At the present day
the Commander-in-Chief in Bengal is Sir WILLIAM
Gomm, a General officer chiefly remarkable for his
partiality to the cool climate of Simla. During the
whole of the last Burmese war, Sir Wirazut never
came nearer to Calcutta—the port from whence all
troops and stores were despatched to Rangoon—than
1,100 miles. His Excellency dislikes the heat of
the plains, and never visits the latter save
for a very short period of inspection during the
cold weather. The present Commander-in-Chief of
Bombay is a gallant soldier; but his thirty odd
years' experience at the Cape of Good Hope can
hardly be called a qualification that fits him for an
Indian command. But he is a Sonelterr, and that
fact covers a multitude of sins. At Madras, we have
the Hon. General ANSON in supreme command—an
officer who never was in India in his life until he
went out there to take military charge of Southern
India. In this command are included about sixty
thousand native troops, all with habits, customs, anal
prejudices which it takes the best years of a
man's life to master and understand. No soldiers
in the world are braver before the enemy than the
Madras Sepoys ; but no men are more difficult to
manage in times of peace. Amongst them the
memory of the late Sir Thomas MUNRO is still so
venerated, that on certain days they burn lamps and
hang flowers round his statue. Sir THOMAS was a
Company's officer, had passed his days amongst the
natives of the Madras Presidency, and from under-
standing their peculiar notions learned how to
manage them, and make them love him. But por-
tions of the very same army mutinied, because
another General Officer—of the Queen's Service—
ordered a change in the head-dress worn by
the Sepoys. What may be General ANSON'S
qualifications to command an army so peculiarly
constituted it would be difficult to say, unless
it is precisely because he never was in
India before he went out to take command of the
Madras Army, and came under the denomination of
" a Court Favourite." The gallant officer is, no
doubt, a good judge of a race horse, and has in his
day seen a great many unfortunates dressed in what
THACKERAY calls "that astounding costume which
Engliah private gentlemen are made to sport when
they bend the knee before their gracious Sovereign ;"
but it is more than doubtful whether he knows much
respecting the wants of Sepoys, or the best way
of commanding a large Indian army. Yet
it is for men like the Gonne, Ammo,
and SOMERSETS, that the general officers of the Com-
pany's service have to make way. The distinctions
and honours which the POLLOCK', Norms, and OCT-
BARS have earned in the field go for nothing, when
the question of command at one of the Presidencies
arises. This is anomaly number two that should be
abolished; when it is so, another step will be taken
towards amalgamating the Royal and the Indian
armies. Until the latter measure is fully aceom-
plished, the British Army may be said to be split
into two parts ; and—like all divisions of interest—
its strength is greatly impaired thereby. Let us
hope that more moves will soon follow the one an-
nounced in the last (Amite. The forces of India and
England cannot be united too soon, if we really want
to make the moat of the means at the disposal of the
nation. Our glorious Indian Army must be a gainer
when the united reign of red-tape and exclusive
aristocratic influence comes to an end. And none will
rejoice more at such an augmentation to their num-
bers than the great majority of the Royal Army. The
puppies and "feather-bed soldiers" of the service
may lament that " mere Company's officers" are
ever allowed to rank with themselves; but the heroes
of the Punjanb, the Cape, and the Crimea, will only
be too glad to welcome amongst them a numerous
body of tried men, as are the great majority of the
Didion Army—a band second to none the world eves
saw in all the qualities that should distinguish the
soldier.—Daily News.

DEATH OF SIR HENRY BISHOP.

(From the Daily Newa.)
In our paper of yesterday we mentioned the death
of Sir Henry Bishop, which took place the night
before. The public had learned only a few days
previously, with painful surprise, that this most cele-
brated of English musicians—whom' name, for half 4
century, has been a household word among us-..
whose beautiful strains have gained nu bounded pope,
larity—whom our Sovereign, desiring to confer an
honour on British art, had selected as its most worthy
representative—and whose works have supported
throughout Europe the character of the Engl
go
ish
school—that this man, of whom his countrfis
deservedly proud, was suffering the accumulated ills
of old age, sickness, and penury. "The friends of 8i
Henry Bishop," said an advertisement in the news.
papers, "feel a painful, but unavoidable, I*
cesaity for announcing that this estimable
composer is at this moment labouring nudge
pecuniary embarrassment ; they feel deeper re.
gret in stating that he is suffering hem
acute bodily infirmity, without the slightest Marne
for meeting his own immediate necessities, cre he
making any provision for his two youngest children,
a son and a daughter." It was therefore proposed to
open a subscription to enable his friends to clear elf
his difficalties, and make some economical err
resents for the comfort of his remaining days. It was
at the same time announced that a concert on a large
scale, to be given at Covent-garden Theatre, was is •
preparation for the same benevolent purpose. Fe
the lamented musician himself, who has been relieved
by the hand of Heaven from " all the ills which flesh
is heir to," this aid has come too late; but we are
most happy to learn that the design, both of the sub.
scription and the concert, is to be carried into effect
for the sake of the helpless survivors who now mourn
his loss. They are inter, sting children, twins, ahem
sixteen or seventeen years old; and we are sure that
the death of their parent will quicken the general
sympathy with their distress.
It is sufficient to call the attention of the public to
the steps now adopted in behalf of the children of
the departed; for Bishop's merits are universally
known, and his claims on his country will be at once
recognised.
In saying that he is the most celebrated of Brief;
English musicians, we have said far leas than the
truth. In the whole annals of the art in thin country
, we find but one name which stands higher than his—
that of the immortal Henry Purcell, whose anprenzacy
in our realm of music is indisputable. The mamma
most akin to Bishop is Arne. The greatness of both
lies in the dramatic branch of their art; and both
have enriched our national music with a multitude of
beautiful melodies, which still delight us, and will
delight our children and our children's children, so
long as English music shall have a featihe of nation.
ality remaining. But, on a comparison of the two,
it will be found that the modern composer hu Burr-
passed his predecessor in the amount, the quality,
L and the effect of his labours. We need eared'
remind our musical readers that for many years
Bishop was at the head of the English musical stage,
l supplying it with an uninterrupted series of operas
which were performed in every theatre; while the
, beautiful songs, duets, glees, and concerted pieces
which they contained, were circulated in thousands,
and contributed to the social and domestic pleasure
of every musical circle and family in the kingdom.
And though, from the changes in the forms of
dramatic composition, Bishop's operas are no loupe
performed on the stage, yet numberless beautiful
things, taken from them, enjoy as much favour in the
concert-room and the social and family circle as ever.
Advanced years, and changes in the condition of the
' musical stage, have long since put a period to his
career es a dramatic musician ; and it would appear
that the gains of his earlier and prosperous days have
been gradually exhausted by the expenditure of his
family—a thing which might happen to any man
similarly situated, without leading to the imputation
of extravagance or improvidence; and we feel
' assured that the unfortunate circumstances in which
he has left his family require only to be known to ex-
cite the warm sympathy and active beneficence of his
countrymen.
Bishop is a native of London ; the date of his birth
we do not find recorded, but it is understood to have
been about the year 1786. He pursued his musical
studies under Bianchi, a favourite opera composer,
from whom he seems to have acquired that Italian
cast of melody which so agreeably blends with and
softens his own Engirds style. He became known u
a composer about the year 1806, when he wrote the
music of two or three ballets for the Italian Opera-
houee. His first opera, The Circassian Bride, was
produced at l)ruty-lane on the 23rd of Feb., 1809,
the day before that th• etre was burnt to the ground.
Bishop's music perished in the flames, but it had been
received with an enthusiasm which—from some
fragments still extant, particularly the beautiful and
yet favourite duet, "I'll love thee "—appears —appears to have
been well deserved. His next opera, The Maniac,
was produced the following year at the Lyceum:
it never became popular, owing to the faults of the
drams, but it contains some of the finest music
he ever wrote. His reputation now obtained for bins
the post of composer and director of the music of
`Covent-garden Theatre—a poet which be held from
1810 to 1824 ; a brilliant period of his career, during
which he produced the long series of dramatic works
to which he owes his fame. In that time he wrote
no less than fifty-eight pieces; producing generally
five or six—and once eight—in a year. Many of
them, of course, were trifles—burlettes, melodramas,
&c.—audalmost all of them bore marksof the excessive
haste with which, in compliance with the insatiable
demand for novelty, they must have been composed.
He thus certainly injured his own permanent repute-
doe; for, though all his walks contain marks of
genius and passages worthy of a great artist, yet in
many of them such passages are thinly scattered, and
mixed up with much that is weak and commonplace.
During that period, too, the music of the Italian
and German schools was gaining a greater and
greater ascendancy in our theatres ; and to this
ascendancy Bishop himself contributed. He adapted
to the English stage some of the finest operas of
Mozart, Rossini, and other foreign composers, and
by thus strengthening the taste for German and
Italian music ultimately did prejudice to his own
popularity. Unfortunately, too, in the later period
of his career, he departed considerably from his
own pure, simple, genuine English style; and by
imitating these exotics-sometimes one, sometimes
another—he too often divested his music of its native
and.individual colour, clothing it, cameleou-like, in
the passing hues of the day. After the termination
of his engagement at Covent-garden, when Weber's
Oberon was produced at that theatre in 1826, Bishop
was persuaded to write an opera for the rival hone.
Be accordingly composed Aladdin' in which, while
contending with Weber, he copied his style even to
its minutest peculiarities. The result was
dis-
estrous .Aladdin, though written with care and pos-
sessed of many beauties, failed entirely, and Bishop
abandoned the musical stage.
During the thirty years which have since elapsed.
Bishop, though he no longer applied himself to**.
made composition, did not discontinue the practice of
his art. He gave to the world much beautiful
music, consisting chiefly of songs and other vocal
pieces for concert or chamber performance; and
many of these detached compositions have bad as
great a popularity as his music which was given to
the world through the medium of the stage. lie also
contributed to several valuable publications; par-
ticularly the "Melodies of Various Nations," the
latter volumes of " Moore's Irish Songs," and the
" Scottish Melodies," published by the late Mr.
Thomson, of Edinburgh.
Bishop long held the office of director of the ones
celebrated Concerts of Ancient Music. He was for
a short time Professor of Music in the University of
Edinburgh, but resigned that office u incompatible
with his other pursuits. He held at the time of his
death the aca4Fmic chair of music in the UniTeetilif

A memorial to the late General Caretou, executed
by the sculptor Westanacott, is about te be placed in St.
Mary's Church, Shrewsbury. The deceuedofficer, who tab
in the Sikh War, wee a native of this county, and the mo-
nument is the result of a subscription among his brother
officers in India. After the memorial had been finished it
was found that the funds were not 'efficient for the snot.
mous fees required to erect it is Canterbury Cathedral; and,
u the late rural was a native of Shropshire, it was consi-
dered that this county was as fitting a place for it u any ;
and the committee of management determined to place it in
St. Mare's Church, u the principal ens in the town. The
monument represents the recumbent tall length figure of a
dead warrior, draped in • military cloak, the bead supported
on tbe breech of a cannon, and the band bearing a sword
resting on the oliott,—SAnnoobtry Journal.
The Duke of Richmond purposes going to Oood.
wood this morning. The Demises of Richmond and the
Princess of Saxe -Weimar left yesterday. The duchess and
family w.ll remain at Goodwood for some 'ime, bat his gram
pupas.* returning to Brighton ee Saturday nest. The
Bari and Countess of Perth an continuing their seimana at
42, Brunalrick square. The Earl and Countess of Motors
have taken their departure for the Clarendon Hotel, Din-
don. Vinanntess Alford his been staying for a short time
at 11, Brunswick-terrace, but has recently left with Mr.
Cherie* Seras•Dickins, tor Coolhttrat, floreaam.—Brighton
Gasdic
King Louis of Bavaria has left Florence for
Rome.
On the 29th, the Czar's birth-day, the King of
Prussia gave a grand banquet at the Palace of Charlotten-
berg. All the priheAta and print's'''. of the royal house
appeared in state. The Russian ambassadors were preemie,
beeilse a number of invited guests. Of the latter, all^ who
were entitled to do so were Russian uniforms and decora-
tion&

___- -- -- -- ---
-7: _
iBE VETOED PETITION AGAINST TEE SUNDAY of Oxford, find soon after the Queen's 'cassia
Bs= Bitz..—Tise petition from the oily of Oxford, to
y t e e of his benevolent friends,
received from her Majesty the honour of knighthood.
In concluding this hasty sketch, we have plasm, both houses of parliament, in favour of a repeal of the -
new Beer Bill of last mission' restricting the opening of in sa ing tat orta
nublic•house on Sunday, has been signed by 3,3411 male Sir George Smart, Dr. Daniel, Mr. Addison, of
It h fl
adults, including the name of the mayor, the late sheriff, Regent street, and Mr. Mitchell, of Old Bond-street,
two aldermen, the coroner, and a majority of members of who form the committee for carrying out the objects the town council. The Etrl of Abingdon bu kindly °on-•
mated to present it to the House of Lords ; and Mr.
uniikent
Lasgeton, member for Oaford, to the House of Commons. mat The auboriPtion fills 111Pidif I andsomem ...
already mentioned, prom.se to be crowned with sm.
The petiton is sow la their heads for presentation, donation. havealready been received. The Covent tsar-
OsramiL PAWL...43B=ISn MM.—W=I(IBMT wan not
Max 2.—Adminsions es payment, 3,408 ; ditto by seam • member, has contributed 50f. ; and the like sum has
den Theatrioal Fund, of which Sir R. Bishop .
disk*, 216; Melt 3,483. been Mat by in indioidlMl, Mr. Broadwood, TWO