The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-21 00:00:00

p.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH. 21, 1855.

The brave unpromoted are much obliged to
Lord PANMITRE for the information he communi-
cated on Thursday night. They now are aware
who it is that stop the way. Probably neither
they nor our readers had suspected it before.
The fact, however, is that the " Sons of the
Clergy" are the favoured pre-occupants. In an-
swer to a question from Lord GREY, Lord PAN-
MITRE informed him and the public that in
giving " first commissions," without purchase,
three classes were thus favoured—first, those
who had passed with distinction through
the Military College at Sandhurst ; secondly, the
sons of those officers who had distinguished them-
selves in her MAJESTY'S service ; and thirdly,
the sons of clergymen with large families,
who had claims on the country for the
manner in which they discharged their duties
The first two classes run smoothly enough
'—only guard against incompetency in the
second, and mere bookishnegg in the first, and
they may do. When, however, we came to the
third class, we confess we did rub our eyes a
little, but finding all the reporters agreei there
was nothing for it but to take the fact as given.
We certainly had no previous suspicion of the
very intimate relation between the Church and
the Army. We had often enough drunk the
usual toasts, but were quite innocent of suppos-
ing any other connection between the two than
that both were servants of the same SOVEREIGN.
Indeed, in our simplicity, we had thought that
there was an understood contrast between
the profession of the sword, and the one Which
even in the palmiest days of duelling could
neither give nor receive a challenge. Wo
remembered, indeed, in the " dark ages," certain
martial bishops, and even one Pope, who could
not repress their martial fire, and for what we
know our own bishops palatine still wear a sword
—a regular Brummagem, of course, the sheath
and the hilt being the only requisites. Those
days, however, have passed away, and bishops
now spend the little time allowed them by the
charge of Paddington estates, of mines, of re-
newals of leases and the like, in confirmations or
consecrations, and other peaceful and remunera-
tive occupations. We learn now, however, from
Lord PANNITRE, that the Church is still truly
" militant" in the person of the sons of the
clergy, if not in that of the clergy themselves ;
the test of fitness for the Church militant being
that the son is one of twelve or thirteen. It was
not specified whether little rectories, or large cura-
cies with little pay, were equally favoured ; if so,
the latter will assuredly provide an ample
supply. A return, if Mr. HonsmAN or the Earl
of SIIAFTESBURY will but move for one, might
show that Norfolk still retained its pre-eminence
in hungry clergy with "fruitful vines," "quivers
full," numerous "olive branches," and all the
good things in that line with which men are pro-
nounced happy.
We think the practice of the Horse Guards,
however, in all seriousness, quite unjustifiable ;
it has three intolerable evils connected with it.
One is, unjust preference of a class, and sectarian
exclusiveness. What is the Church to the Corn-
Inander-in-Chief more than Law or Physic, or film]
the numerous other educated professions created
by the wants of civilised society ? Why should
the large families of clergymen be selected more
than the large families of other persons, or at least
than the large families of other persons in the ser-
vice of the State ? And why the sons of Anglican-
clergymen more than those of Presbyterian, Ca-
tholic, Methodist, and other Dissenting ministers ?
Is a man's sonless needy or less deserving because
his father has paid a dozen accoucheurs' fees out
of teinds instead of tithes—or out of a voluntarily_raised salary instead of a State one ? Again, it
is a flagrant evil to permit such a wealthy corpo_
ration as the Church of England to fatten the
few, to starvo the many, and then to turn
the Army into her Foundling Hospital. Gocd
Heavens ! is not five millions a year, and fees
for christening us, marrying us, burying us—
fees insisted on even when their burial grounds
are over full, and we provide new ones at our
Own cost—is not all this enough to enable the
Church to provide for herself, without thrusting
her offspring on the Armytill merit in the ranks can
find no opening ? The less Lord Pasestume boasts
of this kind of generosity the better. We should think
Lordships of LONDON,:IIUItuAII, CANTERBURY,
*C.; Mist, if present, have blushed for very shame.
of hosts of twelfth sons which their
ineemefsitnd appropriations would pro-
,. Af span„
. ..10 they ought to be ; to think of
7,!!!, r",..A...4t,livinge and places bestowed on

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