The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-28 00:00:00

JUSTICE FOR OUR SOLDIERS.

What can be done for our soldiers in t'se Crinteat
That is the question which has been asked in a thou*
sand forms since we have been engaged in the present
sanguinary war ; and this other follows as the natural
consequsnce of the first :—What can we do for the
widows, the orphans, the helpless dependents of those
gallant men who have sacrificed their lives in the cause
of their country ? England need not feel ashamed of
the reply which must, in justice, be given to either ques-
tier). In every household in the land. the point has been
mooted in a thousand forms. In the drawing-room, in
the schoolroom, in the servants' hall, there has been
' but the one thought—the one wish, to carry relief t•
the soldier, or, when his brave spirit had been called
away, to his widow and his children. The societies that
have been formed, the subscriptions that have been raised
are material guarantees of the sincerity of the desire. It
has certainly not been the fault of the English people as
individuals if any grief of this kind has remained with-
out csnsolation, any distress without relief. The
Government has left to the public the office of pro-
viding for those whom the soldier had left without pro-
tection. Whatever arguments map' be urged in favour
of such a course, the Government may at least be
thoughtful, if net generous—just, if not humane. We
do not, however, bring any specific charge against it in
connection with the matter to which we are about to
advert; whatever blame can be in fairness imputed is
simply for negligence or error. The point is this :—lf
a soldier dies intestate, the sum which he may teasel
behind him—the produce el the sale of Lis effects or
arrears of pay—is distributed among his children,
brothers, sisters, &e., according to the usual terms o
the Statute of Distribution of the personal estate of per-
sons dying intestate. If any of the relatives who are
legally entitled to share are under ago, their portions
are invested under the special authority of the Secretary
of War, in the Regimental Orphans' Savings Bank.
When they come of age, and can prove their identity,'
&c., the money is paid to them ; but, as we are inform(el,
in the vast majority of cases the children are so young
at the time of their father's death, that lorg before, any
little sum to which they may be legally entitled from this
source really becomes due they are so scattered about
the w(rld, or would find so much trouble in establishing
their identity, that their claims drop through alto-
gether. The tradition in the family of a laundress—
widow of a deceased soldier—that in 14 years' time lit-
tle Bartholomew, who is not yet of strength to turn
the mangle, and that in 17 years' time the still smaller
Susannah who is only yet of capacity to suck the hot
end of an Itali.in iron to the additional distress of her
poor mother, will become severally entitled to the sum
of 14s. 31 on attaining majority, gradually wears away
and is forgotten. When there are no children, but only
brothers and sisters under age, any amount left behind
him by a soldier at his death is invested in the names of
trustees for their benefit in the public funds. Each
claimant, as he attains the age of 21 years, can, upon
legal proof of identity, &c., receive his portion. It
one claimant die before majority, his portion, accord.
ing to all due legal forms, goes to increase the portions
of the survivors. If all die during nonage, and no other
claimant appear, the whole amount, by forfeiture, de
volves upon the Crown.
Now, with all duo respect for legal authorities, pre-
cedents, &c., surely this is a case in which a grain
of common sense would be worth a pound of law.
The case of the soldier is a very exceptional case, and
such it was acknowledged to be by the Roman law.
We will not, however, abuse the reader's patience by
discussing military testaments in the olden time, but
pass at once to the case of the late gunner and driver,
John Ruddock, of the Royal Artillery, who died on the
31st of July of the present year of diarrhoea at Karina
camp. Ms few things anJ little articles of property
were sold, and the produce of the sale was 21. 14s. 4d.
A. formal communication was made from the War-office
to a benevolent gentleman who interested himself in the
case that his legal representatives could receive the
little sum in question on application at the office of
Messrs. Cox and Co., the army agents, in Craig's-court.
When the agents, in the discharge of their duty—we
impute to them no shadow of blame—came to look into
the state of poor Ruddock's affairs they found the con-
dition of his immediate relations to stand thus :—He has
left a mother—a married sister—a brother, 17 years of
age, now serving with his regiment in Corfu—a second
brother, 11 years of age—and two sisters, aged respec-
tively 13 and 8 years, the three last named actually
residing with their mother. Each of the six is entitled
to 9s. ld., being the sixth part of the capital sum
of 2/. 14s. 4d., the property of the intestate gunner.
The mother and married sister take at once, but the re•
maining four must respectively await the period of their
majority before they can receive their quota of their de-
ceased brother's estate. Surely a system which leads to
such a result cannot be right. If the case which we
have so particularly cited, with every detail of place,
name, and date, be a fair sample of occurrences of the
like kind, we would go even further, and say it is a
public scandal, and amounts to downright robbery of
the soldier and his poor heirs. It is said, indeed, that
when very special grounds are shown, and when th•
amount is trifling, the Secretary of War will authorise a
departure from the strict rule ; but it appears that al).
plications of this kind are so surrounded with forrnali-

ties that the exception is practically of little benefit to
survivors. Surely some means might be devised for
handing the little balance to the widow, the eldest son,
or any person who may have charge of the children,
without upsetting our legal system. As it is, the
English soldier dies for his country, and makes his
euuutcy his hcir.

ANOTHER INSULT TO A FRENCH SUB-
JECT IN THE PRINCIPALITIES.

A letter from Bucharest, of the 15th, relates the
following :
"The town of Tergovitz, in the district of Dim-
bovizza, has just been the scene of a fresh act of
violence on the part of an officer in the Austrian ser-
vice against Dr. Schramm, a medical man in the Walla-
chian service, son of an officer formerly in the French
service under the empire, and himself educated in
France and long under the protection of her authorities.
Dr. Schramm bad been before insulted in the person of
his wife by an Austrian captain named Micoulitsch, an
account of which was sent to General Coronini, who, at
the demand of the French authority, ordered an in.
quiry to be instituted into the affair. On the Bth Nov.,
the day when the inquiry into this affair was going on,
as Dr. Schramm, who had been requested by the
administrator of the district to attend, was pro-
ceeding along the street of Tergovitz, he was rudely
accosted by a brother officer of the first offender,
a Captain Krafka, who seized the doctor by the
arm in a violent manner and asked him how he,
a vile reptile and a miserable worthless fellow,
could dare to lay a complaint against an officer of
the Imperial army. The Doctor quietly replied that
he had nothing to do with passers-by in the street, and
begged the officer to let go his arm. Captain Krafka
immediately released his hold, but it was for the purpose
of drawing his sabre, with which he aimed a violent
blow at the doctor's head, who, however, parried it with
his cane, and was only wounded in the right arm.
The doctor then went into the court where the
inquiry to the first affair was going on, and
gave an account of the outrage to which he had been
subjected. In the mean time, the interference of an
armed force was found necessary to subdue the violence
of the captain, who was raving like a maniac.
Another application was made to the superior Aus-
trian authorities, to which General Lallemand, who
commanded in the absence of Count Coronini, re-
plied that he had already degraded the captain,
or-
dered him to be brought to a court-martial. To this
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