The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-10 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1855.

Sir COLIN CAMPBELL is about to return home.
The General, who has pre-eminently and most
deservedly obtained the confidence of the entire
army—who has been actively engaged from the
very commencement of the Russian War, and had
previously served with the highest distinction in
various parts of the world—is about to sheathe
his sword for the present, and to retire into pri-
vate life. This is a misfortune of no ordinary
character. The iron constitution that could
endure the utmost privations and labours—the
apparent insensibility to danger that rendered
him as calm and collected during the most.
perilous operations as if he were merely on
parade—the genuine kindliness that endeared
him to every soldier under his command,
were all qualifications of no ordinary value for
the very highest post within the power of the
Government to bestow. His absence from the
army, with whom he is so justly popular, on
any account whatsoever, may be regarded
as a national calamity, and the more se, if, as
more than hinted by the Times, it has been
occasioned by the wanton insult offered in the
promotion over his head of a junior officer, who
had not men a tithe of the service he bad rendered,
and whose qualifications and claims were far in-
ferior to his own.

The Times, even while attacking him for re-
turning borne, has borne trite testimony to his
high qualifications. It says—" Sir Court will be
au irreparable loss to the army. . His gallant con-
duct in action, his vigilance, his carelessness of
fatigue and exposure, were an example we can
ill afford to miss, especially in so young, and, we
fear we must add, so indifferently organised an
army." In this well-merited eulogium, and in
the great and irreparable loss to the service, We
fully and completely concur. But these matters
should have been earlier thought of, before the
insult and injury were inflicted, and the favourite
promoted over the head of the meritorious candi-
date, at the instance of the secret, irresponsible, and
unconstitutional influence that regulates the affairs
'of the Ilene Guards.
It °next to have been known that Sir COLIN
CAMPBELL could not have submitted to the slight,
and continued to serve under his fortunate and
kilmy-patroni3ed jmn •
or- 'Whatever may be
the custom in other armies, it has been the con-
stant practice in our own,
and, in accordance
with the invariable precedent in such cases, the
retirement of Sir COLIN CAMPBELL is the inevit-
able consequence of the promotion
of Sir WILLIAM
COLIRINGTON. Tile evil, then, has been entirely
oacasioned by the course adopted by the concealed
Coximhader-id.Chief, and he must sustain the
edihm.{of its natural result.
It,is..efated, in a very clear and able latter from,
an "ex:eas‘alry' Officer to a contemporary, which
we- liege extracted :into this day's impression,
that his return home on leave during a portion
of the winter was projected by him before the
new C"arnander-in-Chief's appointnaent was
madeknown`"
The writer has apparently
oorrect information,and should he be cor-
rect in. the presynt statement,, it furnishes
the only possible.:
apology for the nomi-
nation 'of ''Sir
- - ; although
even assinning it to be so,-itismereiy an eaten »,
1,9
tiun, not a jii.ilifitiation of the ater- The offer

should. certainly have been made' to Sir COLIN,

and even if he were compelled to reject it, it
would be but a just tribute of respeot to his
very distinguished services. We believe, how-
ever, that under such circumstances the gallant
soldier would have at once responded to the appli-
cation, and sacrificed all private considerations
and private business, however urgent, to the call
of duty, and that his invaluable services would
still bo available in his country's cause.

It cannot, however, be deniedthat, acccording
to the military usages of Great Britain, and we
cannot look to those of other nations, he has re-
ceived a very gross affront ; and that, putting
aside all other considerations, he owed it to him-
self
to retire. What General CANBOBERT may
have done is totally beside the question. The
cases are by no means analogous—partly because
the appointment of a comparative junior to high
command is by no means unusual in the French
army, but chiefly because it was not a junior
that was placed over , his head, but ,
an officer in every respect his superior,
who was not merely his senior, but had far greater
experience than himself. For these reasons the
return of General CANROBERT to a subordinate
command, for a very brief period, was by no means
astonishing. It certainly does not constitute an
example which Sir COLIN CAMPBELL is bound to
follow, or by which he should be in any degree
influenced.
As to the supposed rewards bestowed on this dis-
tinguished officer, we must wholly deny the insinua-
tion of the Times. For the Alma, for Balaklava,
when he literally saved the Allied Armies, and for
all his subsequent exploits, he has received no
reward. He was appointed a Major-General in
June, exactly three months before the battle of
the Alma, and that had been fully earned for
previous services. He will return to England a
Major-General—the same as he went to the
Crimea, the local rank of Lieutenant-General
ceasing on his departure from the country for
which it was granted. We, therefore, although
deeply deploring the retirement of Sir CoLIN
CAMPBELL, cannot feel in any degree surprised
thereat. The loss to the country must rest on
those who are fairly responsible therefor, Field
Marshal Viscount HARDINGE and —.-- another,
who really controls and manages the affairs at the
Horse Guards, according to his mere will and
pleasure, and without duo consideration for the
interests of Great Britain.

It is dffiicult to understand the Times appro-
bation of the appointment of Sir W. CODRINOTON,
when we consider that he was intrusted with the
management of the attack of the Redan on the
Bth of September, against which the Times was
so furious, and which induced it to demand the
recall of General SIMPSON, although it now hails
the promotion of the party who made " the mull,"
as it was termed, on the occasion.

The Manchester operatives will, no doubt, have
plenty of good advice vouchsafed to them now
there is some danger of a strike ; they will be re-
minded of the grand battle at Preston, and its
deplorable results, and admonished not to Lazard
a conflict with their masters. In the meeting
which we reported yesterday may be noticed an
air of moderation in the more influential speakers,
which, if it be but preserved, must be attended
with good results. Even at the present stage,
however, the leaders would do well to consider
the propriety of sending deputations to induce the
workmen of a manufacturer to give legal notice to
quit their work. It need not be denied that, in
any large manufactory, the workmen cannot fairly
be regarded as individuals only, They are, as a
body, essential to carrying on the business ; the
secession of any considerable number, or any
section of the whole who do a particular part of
the work, would stop all the other hands in the
mill ; hence, they comprise a fellowship and unity,
and their interest as a body is to get the highest
wages they can, while it is their masters' to pay
the lowest. The master is one party, his work-
people are the other party, and it seems fair they
should, as composing a party, consult for their

common interest.
The delicate point is to avoid coercion. No
man who does not like working for less than
20s. per week, has any reasonable right to say to
another, you shall not work for 19s. One man,
by his habits, may live batter ou the smaller sum
than his companion on the larger one, and might
think it much more to his interest to take the
smaller sum than to tramp the streets till
he and his employer could agree. The other
replies, true ; but, by taking the lower
wages, you compel me to take lower

wages too. By no means, we rejoin ; since, if
your master wants you as woll as him, ho must
give you your term; as well as him his—unless,
indeed, other men are willing to fill your place at
19s. ; and if they are, we ask-4By what right do
you hinder them from selling their labour at a
price which they think it their interest to take
Evidently in that case labour is to be had at a
lower price than you ask, and, like all others who
have anything to sell, your masters included, you
must take what you can get for your article.
We acknowledge, and we deeply feel, the trial
to the operative accustomed to spend all his wages
when wages begin to fall. But he should bear in
mind two things : that no power on earth can
depress wages if masters have full or superabun-
dant profitable employment for men, and that
nothing can keep them up long if masters are
losing at the actual rate of wages. This could
only issue eventually in putting their masters into
the Gazette, and throwing their ]ands in throngs
into the streets. A second truth which the work-
ing classes are very slow to learn, and for even
mentioning which they generally abuse their best
friends, is, that no workman in decent employ
ought to spend all his wages. Those of them who
read our journal must know how strenuously we
legislative restriction of
have always resisted any
their pleasures ; but, on the other hand, we as
plainly tell them that every man in full work who
will not restrict his own pleasures must be a beg-
gar or a great sufferer when work is scarce and ill-
paid. The workman, as well as the middle-class
man, who saves nothing, or who has no balance
x
to meet the variations inevitable to human affairs,
must be ever and anon
"a distressed operative."
There is no royal road to independence.
for the lucky few who are born tothesil Except
for
spoon,
silver
self-denial and saving something is the only means
of independence. Were the operatives of Man-
chester able to live on their savings till prices
rose, and did they (which would be unlikely in
a. community of money savers) think well to be
out of work rather than work for less, they would
at leastbe in a position to do so.
At the risk of giving offence we must repeat
our adsiee to the operatives not to think of a
contest with their masters till they have, say for
ten years at least, practised the self-denial whisk
shall put soma few pounds into their pockets—
Into their own pockets we mean,
not into the trea-
sury of a society for coercing masters—of whose
leaders they are to be the blind tools. When work-
people will learn not to squander their money in
drink, or attempts to ape the dress of their mas-
ters and masters wives, or luxuries in eatine,
and drinking which those who occupy houses

paying three times their rent would deem extra-
vagance, then, indeed, and not till then, will work_
ing men be independent. We speak from personal
knowledge of the habits of those to whom we
write. We have, in years gone by, enjoyed a
pleasant cup of tea with a Scotch workman who
had been unemployed long enough to have sent
an Englishman to the. poor-house half-a-dozen
times over. To our surprise at the family com-
fort the answer was that he had made it a rule
when at work always to lay by something. On
the other hand we have called in at operatives
who in a turn-out had come begging to our door,
desirous to relieve their wants, and found them
indulging themselves and children with such
luxuries of diet as we should never think of per-
mitting to our own family. - We repeat, the
workmen have much to learn from the respectable
classes on questions of personal indulgence, and
till they do learn, they can never rise as a class
from their present condition. It is the common
complaint of most respectable families that their
servants have been brought up at home in habits
of self-indulgence, in respect to food especially,
which actually renders the kitchen discontented
with the fare of the parlours. How, with such
habits, are the working classes to mend their con-
dition ?

" Hope deferred Inaketh the heart sick."
When will Government do justice to our gallant
and brave officers who have shed their blood and
are daily risking their lives in the Crimea for the
honour and glory of their country ? By a letter
which appears in another part of our paper, it
willbe seen that by far the largest proportion of the
promotions in the Sebastopol brevet has fallen to
the lot of the ever-fortunate class of staff officers
who invariably get the lion's share of the honours
that are going. It is really too bad. Laborious,
self-sacrificing merit that, in a free commercial
country like ours, should have the best chance of
rising, has actually not a tithe of the prospect of
doing so as is held out to the officers of our barbaric
and despotic enemy. Let but an unknown youth
with some unpronounceable name but gallantly
defend a Russian battery, or come off credits
ably from a skirmish with the Allies,
and he is surer of promotion than if he
belonged to the staff of the Emperor. But
let a brave Euglish veteran undergo without
flinching the most incredible hardships, and his
career at all times be characterised by the most
determined acts of valour, and his claims to pro-
motion are regarded as feeble compared with those
of some aristocratic minion of the staff, who
hardly, it may be, knows the smell of gunpowder.
The knowledge of this deplorable fact cannot but
have a depressing influence on the clam which
suffers by it, and it redounds greatly to their
honour that, notwithstanding so powerful a draw-
back on exertion, they husband their lives as little
as though a field-marshal's baton were within

their grasp. It is quite possible, indeed, that
their self•devotion is not merely overlooked, but
operates as their bane at the Horse Guards. But
there is no honest and intelligent Englishman,
who considers the subject at all, but must feel
that ib entitles them to a profounder sympathy and
a deeper gratitude than they could challenge
under more advantageous circumstances.

The present instance of injustice is exceedingly
flagrant and peculiarly ungracious. If at any
previous period regimental (dicers were warranted
in looking for their fair share of promotion with
some degree of confidence, it was now, after the
fall of Sebastopol--in contributing to which they
had immortalised themselves. If ever poor, patient,
regimenttll,FoLtu in hope of being
duly recognieied, it surely was at a tithe when the

whole world rung with its fame, and marks o:
distinction were showered on the heads of not
more deserving brothers in arms by an appre-
ciating Commander and a grateful SOVEREIGN. If
it did, how cruel has been the disappointment
Of the entire number of promotions, nearly one-
fourth has been awarded to the staff. Of all the
regimental officers who beveled our brave troops to
victory, not one has been deemed worthy of pro-
motion to a colonelcy that honour has
been reserved for a member of the staff ;
while of the thirty officers promoted to a lieu-
tenant-colonelcy, no fewer than seven belong to
that highly-favoured class. About an equal dis-
proportion has been adopted with regard to ma-
jorities, twenty staff officers being elevated to the
rank of major, to sixty-six regimental. The dis-
proportion is too glaring for minute comment ;
it tells so unmistakeably ita own tale that the
dullest understanding must be outraged by it.
One individual of aristocratic connection has, it
will be seen, received his promotion for one
month's active service ; another, not less fortu-
nate, has been promoted over the heads of ten of
his brother officers, one of whom has served 21
years on full pay ; a third—the lucky Lieute-
nant-Colonel S. BROWNRIGO, Grenadier Guards—
has got the only colonelcy conferred, though there
*ere not fewer than 39 lieutenant-colonels serv-
ing in the Crimea his seniors, many of whom
have been wounded, and one 15 years longer
in the service ! Well may "Au Old Field
Officer" remark, " We have here a splendid speci-
men of selection by merit ! Faugh ! merit in-
deed ! Let an officer be first cousin to a nobleman',
butler, and his merit will be more conspicuous than
if he were a BAYARD." Quite in keeping with
this specimen of Horse Guards injustice is the
scandalous oversight of the claim 'of the gallant
volunteers from the Highland regiments, to whose
daring the discovery of the evacuation of the
sedan, and the rescue of hundreds of the un-
fortunate wounded from destruction, were owing.
No testimonial of their gallantry and devotion on
that occasion has been thought necessary for them.
Indeed, the present system would seem to be in-
tended only for the aristocracy, all other claims
being treated as unwarranted and intrusive. There
is one consolation, however : such a system cannot
possibly last. But, in the meantime, what 1604-
aches, what wrongs are being inflicted on our
gallant defenders ! " When," we repeat, " will
Government do our regimental officers justice ?"
In conclusion, we would express our perfect con-
currence in the remarks of "An Old Field Officer"
on the hardship of the custom of not allowing
brevet promotion to descend lower than the rank
of captain ; and, failing its abrogation, in his
suggestion that every year of active service should
be permitted to count as three. Nothing can be
more reasonable or more just.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday afternoon at
Pal-
merston, the Lord;
George Grey, the Earl ofi23
chwaas attended by Viscount the Foreign-offiee.
llor, Earl Granville, Sir
Right Clarendon, Lord Panmure, Sir
Charles Wood,. and the
The Council sat two hours and Royal
!quarter.
Ron. R. Vernon Smith.
townn" on Tuesday Highness next, attended
gned ewr si
itla
leave
his
the Duke of
by Colonel Tyrwhitt, for Paris, on a visit to the Em-
peror Napoleon.
Viscount Palmerston arrived in t
CalinVberidu
own yesterday from
his seat, Broadlands, Hants.
The King of Sardinia, it is expected, will in
England in about three weeks from the present arrive
The Duke of Newcastle was at Soukkum ICaTeel; o
the 12th ult. lie had previously visited Anapa and
Soujak Kahl].
Oat of the 37 refugees expelled from Jersey, 22 have
taken up their residence in Guernsey and 15 in England.
The Bishop of Lincoln is announced to have a new
work in the press, with the title, " The Church of Ohribt
during the first Three Centuries.