Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-19 00:00:00

PURCHASE OF C0313/11S.S102.TS IN THE ARMY

On Monday morning was issued, in a large blue book of
500 pages, the report of the cemmiesionere appointed to in-
vire into the system of purchase and sale of commissions
in the army, with evidence and appendix. The com-
missioners endeavour to show that, if the purchase system
be abolished, it will become indiswinsable, for the purpose
of maintaining the efficiency Of the British army, to
adopt a new system of retirement and promotion—rtz.,
to
make retirement after a fixel age or period of service
coinpulsory. and to give promotions by selection. They
endeavour further to show that compulsory retirement will
be alone an inadequate substitute for the sale of cepa-
missions ; but they consider that its partial adoption would
Neil:tate a tneasuee which they prep tso for the selection
f lieutenant-colonels, while they do not suggest dis-
turbing the existing system as regards the purchase and
sale of commissions up to the rank of major inclusiv-. The
commissioners recommend that hereafter the lieutocoloneley
of a regiment should he an eppoiettnetit male by the selec-
tion of the Commander-n-C lief from all the majors in
that part of the service, and that the period of holding this
command should for the future be limited, and that a time
shout Ihe fixed—eight or pe.haps tan years—as the longest
duration of such command. Officers, however, who rani:-
quish the command of a regiment, after holding it for
the prescribed time, must not suffer any pecuniary loss
from the change ; the government must also be prepared
to purchase the lieutenant-coloneley from any offier now
holding the command of a regiment whenever any one
mey he desirous of selling his commission. The com-
missioners are taus cautious ia introlucing the principle of
selection " from an earnest desire that its application
should be fairly tested by experienee." They segeest
farther, that pronaetiel to the staff might be made the
means of stimulating military edusation, rewarding me-
ritori 1113 officers, and obviating some of the hardships which
• must ariseueder the purchase system." A course of traieiag
in Ihe senior dep rtmeat at Sandhurst might be made an ie-
diseensable cenditioe to the attaintu nt of a staff appoint-
ment and the limitation ofthe time during which officers shall
hold such situations would render these appointments addit-
ion illy servieeeble. "All these eltang,,s," add the commission.;
ers, "inasmuch as they introduce he principle of advance-
ment by selection, tend towards the ebelition ( f the purchase
seetem. When experi nee ash ill h-ly 3 proved that officers ap-
pointed to the command of regiments and to situaiiens on the
staff have been chosen with due regard to their professional
aigniretneets, to their past service awl to their present fitnms
the distrust of the prierip'e of selection will be lessened, and
one great obstacle to the change of system will be
remove I.'' A system Of perio inspection by efficers
speci lily appointed for the perpese, as is practised by the
French Army. wool 1 prebahll be found, the commissioners
think, a beneficial m asore. Beare any scheme of prom, -
flon by selection is extensively ietr educed in the English
army, there shoeid be a generat coofi ience, observe the com-
missioners, that the power of selection will net be misused.
The military eppeiatineets made during late years, as well
in this country as in the Crimea, hove not tended to satisfy
the tufty with the mode o:i which the principle of selection
!len been applied." Tee sport is signed by the Duke of
S enerset, Lord Stanley, the Right Honourable Sidney
Herbert, Sir D Lacy Evans, Sir Harry D. Jones, and
Mr. George Carr Glyn. There is a statement, however,
annexed to the report, in which Sir Do Lacy Evans
observes that he concurs in the recommendations as far as
they go, but " as the evideree adduced has strengthened
the convictions which he previously hell on this subject,
and as he believes that some addition of me isuree nut-,
whia advantage to the public, be adopted, having for
object a mere early termination of the system of sale and
parch Ise of commis ions the Rm my than is provided for
is this report—he will feel it his duty to transmit as soon
as practicable to the office of the commission a repreaen-
tetion of his humble opinion; to this effect." The following
are the witnesses who were examined by the commissioners;
we give them in the ord rt. of their examinadoe :—Major.
Genm-al Sir Charles Yorke, Lie et.-Colonel Yolland, P.
Fog • General it. J. H. Vivian. C. Hammerslev,
Eso., Major-General Dupuis, and Lent -Colonel Bingham.;
Sir- B. Hawes, J. Roberts, Esq., H. J. Higgins, Esq.,
Lieutenant-Colonel Claremont, General Sir George Brown,
Colonel Chas. Stuart, Sir Duncan Macdeugall, Sir 'Richard
Airey, Colonel Steele, Lieutenant-General Sir De Lacy
Evans, Colonel Lord West, General Sir James Simpson,
Colonel Wesley, Mojor-General Sir James Scarlet t, Colonel
Franks, Lieutenant-General Sir Orlin Campbell, Brigadier-
General Spencer, Lord Perineum, Major-General Sir H.
Barnard, Capt. Mac Pherson, Earl Grey, His Royal
Highness the Duke of Cambridge, and Sir Charles Treve-
Ivan. A scheme fir the abolition of purchase and for the
substitution of another. s)stem of army promotion and
retirement was submitted to the commissioners by Sir C.
Trevelyan, the assistant secretary of the treasury, and this
scheme is printed in the appendix to the report, together
with the financial statements adduced in its support. The
general principle of this scheme is borrowed from the
French military system, qualified, however, by the adoption
of regulations which have of late years been partially
introduc d into our own civil service.

DUTY ON LuntErtus.—The Cu:tems net duty on lucifer°'
in the year ended March last, was 42,327 7s. 41
1i if
LORD Jon RtisseLL. AND TF! MiNrYray.—After n•-'of
Lord Palmerston's rule is a dictatorship, it is like thathet
Louis XVI., a despotism tempued by wit—wit, too, 0%
seldom wounds, and is never malignant. Without saYtrj
that the lest ep!thot would apply to the line which 14° j
John Russell has felt, it incumb upon him to taket; j
SEASONABLE BENEvoLictics.—About a vrzek since we must say that the word generous is the last with sad
recorded the fact of a poor young widow, named Clayton, should connect it. V,,ting for the second reading or
having, in a fit of delirious destitution, attempted to professing to approve the measure, his remarks in cent,
poison herself. Latterly she supported herself by nuking mittee, even while apparently assisting the Govcron'
carpet slippers, but for want of materials she was reduced have always had towards them a poisoned side. giiibena
to the lowest state of misery; and hence the attempt on her bukes sometimes curt, and yesterday elaborate, have ,tit
life. The publication of her sorrowful cese attracted the exclusively for the treasury bench, who certainly ere %cell
attention of a benevolent vonag gentleman, who sent the as good tempered as their opponents. His sates haveh 04
magistrate £1 for her benefit. Inspector Kehoe generally on one side ; but the quarter from which e,
went to the Liver Establishment, in order to purchase gained his applan=e is significant of the tendency °Lod
some carpeting to put the poor woman in business again, speeches. To damp with faint praise is the hankaa.ool
when Mr. Allman, one of the partners in that house, in art of a small critic—and a mean one. An analroer
the kindest manner, made her a present of thirty shilling's rouse wi,l hardly make the reputation of a great hestef
worth of fine materials, in order to set up the poor woman man, or a generous (Am—Corespondent of Alan°
again, It is needles* to comment on this seasouhlg, liCt, Examiner.