The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-26 00:00:00

Tim Directors of the East India Company have!
made two military appointments on principles so
utterly opposed to each other that the public will be
very apt to conclude that in the administration of
this patronage the Court is guided by no principle. Nor
to all appearance will this jadgmeflt be very wrong.
It was only four or five jean ago that the-Direetors
sent out Sir JOHN GREY, 111 all fire decrepitude
of age, to take the command of their Bombay Army ;
and then, not ashamed of that, they appointed a still
more helpless general officer, Sir RICHARD ARM-
STRONG, to preside over the Madras Army. In-
firmity drove Sir JOHN GREY home ; and ho was
succeeded by Lord FREDERICK FITZCLARENCE, who
is one of the youngest Major-Generals in the ser-
vice. And now Sir RICHARD ARSISTRONG has also
resigned.

Previously, however, the command of the Bengal
Army became vacant. Now, by general consent, the
Bengal Army is known to be exactly that part of
the Company's military force which is in the least
satisfactory state; and, being in an inferior condi-
tion to the other two Armies, it required a soldier
of large experience, of high reputation, and of profes-
sional enthusiasm and devotion, to reform and im-
prove it. Now to whom has the Court of Directors
confided its command ? Why, to none other than
the Hon. GEORGE ANSON, a gentleman who cer-
tainly has reached the rank of Major-General, but
simply by keeping his name on the Army Ll..
As a politician, the world knows the Hon. GEORGE
ANSON to be a remarkably steady Whig ; as a sports-
man, heis known to be a breeder and owner of race
horses ; and as a railway director, the North Western
Company has had the benefit of all that keenness,
sharpness, and tact, which Newmarket had previously
monopolised. But, except that the Hon. GEORGE AN-
sus was a young Guardsman at Waterloo, and that,
when his friends the Whip were in power he was

a member of the Board of Ordnance, the British
Army knows little or nothing of him. He never
saw any great amount of regimental service, never
went through a campaign in his life, never beaded
any large body of troops, and for the last twenty
years at least has had no active acquaintance of any
sort with the management of either regiments or
armies. No doubt Major-General ANSON is a clever,
active, intelligent man, full of confidence and self-
reliance; and it is quite possible that though re-
suming his profession after long retirement there-
from, he may be quite successful in the command of
the Bengal Army. But the chances of his success
are scarcely a sufficient justification for his appoint-
ment to an important Indian command. A district
at home, no one could or would have objected to ; but
to send an inexperienced soldier to Bengal and itsl
10,0001. a year, is at best a very doubtful experiment.
It was the boast of East India Directors, during
the recent d.bates, that India patronage was middle
class patronage ; that they, at all events, were not
influenced by either aristocratic or political influences ;
that they sought the best men, and, finding, ap-
pointed them to the highest places in their gift.
Major-General ANSON'S appointment is a curious
illustration of Leadenhall-street boasting; for he, it
is very clear, owes his selection, not to personal merit
or distinction of a professional character, but to aris-
tocratic connexions, political influences, and family
interest. He has been sent to the most favoured
Indian Presidency, not because of his eminence as a
soldier, but because of his fidelity :as a politi-
cian; not because of his experience in war,
but because of his kaowledge of parties;
not because of his well-established capacity
to reform the Bengal Army, but because
of his services in the House of Commons. And this
appointment, so far from illustrating the independ-
-Ice and honesty of the Court of Directors, shows

how in these letter days they are just as accessible
to improper influentcs as any other body of the
State.

Having, however, sent an inexperienced soldier to
take command of the Bengal Army, where an expe-
rienced general and a man of high professional
merit and reputation was especially wanted, the
Court have now, by way of contrast, selected an old
and gallant soldier, Major-General STAVELET, to com-
mand their Madras Army. The more important and
more highly remnnerated command they have given
to " a man about town ;" the less important and less
paid command they have bestowed on one of our
Peninsular heroes. They have placed the man of
fashion, of family, and of society, in the choicest
position and in the choicest part of India; but the
old soldier they have sent out of the way, to the
Madras Presidency.

Our curiosity is moved to dud out on what count

principle these two appointments can have been made
or can be justified; why the Madras Army is to have
a moldier at its head who has gained in service every
step he has acquired, and why the Bengal Army a
gentleman who has passively risen to the rank of
Major-General without any service at all? For our
part we can discover nothing but inconsistency in
the selections. In the one case, favouritism and in-
fluence have prevailed; and then, as if to persuade
the public that their boasts are well-founded,
merit has been rewarded. So that for every one
good appointment the Court of Directors seem to
think they may make another that outrages all sense
of propriety and responsibility. And —if thus open
to sinister influences in their higher patronage, in
that which must attract public notice and discussion,
—what, most people ask, must be the state of the in-
ferior patronage? The men who appointed Major-
General ANSON to the command of the Bengal Army
will not, we may be sure, be very nice as to the
selection of cadets.