The Express.
London, England, 1861-05-13 00:00:00

THE COLONELCY OF THE 60th FOOT.

The following appointments appeared in Friday's
Gazette :

41st Regiment of Foot—Lieutenant-General Sir Richard
England, C.C.S., from the 150th Regiment, to be colonel.
vice General Charles Ache A'Court Repingtou, C.R, de-
ceased ; April 20.
50th Regiment of Foot—Major-General George Mortis
Eden to be Colonel, vice Lieutenant•Genenl By Richard
England, G.C.8., removed to the 41st Foot; April 20.

The Army and Nary Gazette of Saturday has the
following remarks on the appointment of Major-
General Eden :
It is just • year since it was our most disagreeable duty to
call the attention of the public to the appointment of as
officer to the colonelcy of a distinguished regiment, whose
main qualification consisted in the fact that be had for seve-
ral years filled with credit • civil office near the person of
the Prince Consort. As a soldier his claims were not to be
mentioned beside those of many other officers of his rank
before whom he was preferred, and the whole transaction
created a painful feeling in the public mind, which reached
its highest point when the Secretary of State for Wet said
in his place in parliament that it would be • " mean and
cowardly" thing to joass over this court soldier in favour
of the many camp soldiers who were his seniors in the Ka-
rim, and who had fought and suffered in the field. Of
the appointment, made since then to regimental colonel-
cies, some have been good and some indifferent. The
Gazette of !sat night, however, contains one so utterly
unjustifiable, so incomprehensibly bed, that we are almost
forced to the conclusion that his royal highness the General
Commanding.in.Chief, at • loss to decide between con-
flicting claims, must have put the names of all the generals
on the list into • lottery, and drawn that of Major-General
Morton Eden to his own and that officer's intense astonish-
ment. By no other means can we imagine such an appoint.
meat to be suggested ; and when Mr. Baring comes to justify
it in the House of Commons, we shall be curious to know
for what reason he will say it would be " mean and cowardly*
to avoid such • selection. Major-General George Morton
Eden entered the service in 1822, and him military career has
been one of uninterrupted peace. He was promoted from the
Scot. Fusilier Guards when the regiment wagon its way to the
Crimea, and since then has held the command of the west-
ern district. This' is in one word his history, and thin his
claim to the first-class reward for distinguished service,,
which the colonelcy of a regiment admittedly is. There
have been appointments of men without any claims on the
grounds of active service, which were yet not wholly unac.
countable ; but General FAlen's nomination to the 50th
Regiment I. incomprehensible to a most perplexing ex-
tent. It is to be accounted for on no principle as yet ac-
cepted, or even propounded, with reference to these
matters. We exhaust every species of claim to such a re.
ward when we enumerate the grounds upon
which colonelcies have hitherto been bestowed.
They are, 1. Seniority on the ; 2. Seniority in the
army ; . Distinguished service in the field ;4. Meri-
torious and efficient service iu time of peace or in the
colonies, If General Eden has been selected for the first
reason, a mean and cowardly act line been done io passing
over 21 generals who stand before hits. if lie has been
selected for the second, it is • mean and cowardly act to
neglect tho 75 generals who were io the army before he
was not a very small proportion of them hosing been
soldier, when he was yet in his nurse's arms. If be has
received this substantial prize for the third name, it is a
most meau and cowardly proceeding to prefer him to—we
will say at random—General Elliott, with his five Penin-
sular clasps, his Waterloo modal, and his Indian service.
—to Sir Thomas Frank. or Sir Edward Luprd, both fresh
from rendering able anti substantial as well as pliant sec.
vice in India—to Major-General Napper Jackson, with
his ten clasps—to General Bell, or General Macpherson, or
some fifty more men who have braved climate and battle-
tiehl, and who bear honourable scan upon their breasts. If
General Eden hen gained this reward fur the fourth reason,
meritorious service, it is mean and cowardly to neglect for
him the fifty-eight generals on the good-service list foe
which he does not seem to have been thought eligible,
although he is considered • fit recipient of the swain
reward of a regiment. We shall even suggest a fifth rev
son, and suppose that it was thought right to give the
Guards a turn, and appoint a general from that service toe
colonelcy. But even here we are still perplexed ; for if this
were the actuating motive, it was mean and cowardly to rue
over Lieutenant. General Colville, Lieutenant-General Stair
hope, ah.l Major-General Angeratein, who are all before
General Eden. The more we turn the thing round, the
more we examine it in various lights, the more we are
puerlid to guess how on earth such an appointment could
coins to be made. About one thing, however, there is oo
uncertainty. This act, coupled with a few more of a some-
what similar, though perhaps of a lees unpardonable eta*
meter, will have struck a final blow at the present ailed.
nistratiou of military patronage. The Duke of C.inibralgc's
term of office expires on the 15th of July next. If he
were anxious to get up a storm among those who constitute
public opinion against his re-appointment, he could hardly
have devised a more efficacious means than this selection of
Major-General Eden--
This is gofer very just ; but the Duke of Cambridge
could Lot have appointed General Eden without
the consent of a cabinet minister, the Secretary of
State for War. When Lord Herbert justified the
appointment of General Grey in parliament, he
said, "The Secretary of State is responsible for
these appointments ;" and then he gave the sub-
stance of a discussion which he had held with tie
General Commanding-in-Chief as to the grounds
and propriety of his recommendation. Mere per-
sonal changes in the chief command of the army
will not prevent appointments like these, if the
responsibility of the War Minister is not toads a
reality.

Tho Cochin Courier mentions a case of kidnap-
ping which occurred during the stay of the Arab shire
Sir Edward Parry, in the port of Cochin. A Moplah
passenger enticed a native boy of 11 years (A
age on board the vessel with a view to sell him as •
slave in Arabia. The father missed his son. tb°
ship was searched and the boy found. The Colony
says "the system of kidnapping natives of India to he gold
in Muscat and Zanzibar is a monstrous evil which is As-
suming fearful proportions. Many painful iird:mce, have
con:e to our knowledge when) Arabs have contracted mar'
eves with women on this coast with the deliberate poles'
faun of selling them into slavery at Zanzibar."