The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-02 00:00:00

him has been, that the system which he has endeavoured to
recommend is essentially for the purpose of encouraging the
recruiting of tho army : that the present system discourages
and prevents that recruiting. Now, sir, that is not the fact.
So far from the recruiting of the army having been checked
or discouraged by the present condition of things, the recruit-
ing of the army never went on so prosperously as it has done
within the last twelve months, during the year 1854, and the
beginning of the present year. Why, in the late war I be-
lieve that the greatest number of men that were over raised
for the army in a single year did not exceed 25,000. In
the year 1854 we raised 35,000, and in the month of January
in the present year we raised 6,000 men, or at the rate of up-
wards of 70,000 men in a year. Ido not wonder at that. In
the first place the great increase in the population of the
country must furnish a large supply of men who are ready to
enter the army. But besides that, there is that in the spirit
of the British nation that leads the people of this country to •
court the dangers of war,and when they see brilliant achieve-
ments in the field, when they see their fellow-countrymen
covered with glory in the contest with the enemy, so far is
that from checking the martial spirit of the country that it
increases that martial spirit ; and independently of the sys-
tem of promotion, and of the purchase and sale of commis-
sions, you will always find at moments of national danger and
crisis the spirit of the people of this country will rise in pro-
portion to the emergency, and you will find them ready to
enter the army for the defence of the country, and the main-
tenance of its dignity and honour. Now, with regard, first,
to the question of the purchase and sale of commissions, that
is a matter which has often attracted and engaged the atten-
tion of Parliament and of the country. It is a question which
is surrounded by considerable difficulties. I have no hesita-
tion in saying that if we were forming an army now for the
first time, no human being would dream of making commis-
sions matters of purchase and sale. But it is one thing to de-
termine what you will do with a system that you are about to
establish ; it is another thing how you will deal with a system
that has long existed, and has grown and increased with time.
I believe myself that the purchase and sale of commissions is a
remnant of an ancient system which has ceased in regard to all
other things. An hon. gentleman said you might as well make
the office of Secretary of State a matter of purchase and sale.
Why, we all know it was a matter of purchase and sale ; that
in the time of Charles 11. an ancestor of mine was unable to
become Secretary of State because he had not money where-
with to purchase his office. We must therefore look on
the sale of commissions in the army as a remnant of
an ancient system not peculiar to the army in those
days, but which has ceased to exist in almost every other part
of our system. Well now, abstractedly, I have uo hesitation
in saying it is an evil. In itself Ido not defend it, but at the
same time also one must admit that, like many other things
which are in the abstract evils, it is not unaccompanied by
certain other advantages which in some degree counterbalance
the inconvenience. Now one great evil in a military system
is the slowness of promotion, by which you get in the upper
ranks of the army men who aro by age disqualified for per-
forming the duties of their respective commissions. It is
manifest that in a service where there is no purchase and
sale, where officers go on by regular gradation, there is a
tendency to fill the upper ranks of the army with men of ad-
vanced age. That is the case in the artillery, and to a cer-
tain degree in the East India Company's service. The system
of the sale and purchase of commissions, by enabling officers
to leave the service who have come to an age at which they
have no prospect of employment, and would wish to retire to
private life, accelerates the current of promotion and tends
to bring in a greater number of young and able men into the
higher ranks of the service. That is one counterbalancing
advantage connected with the system of purchase and sale,
and it is manifest that to contemplate the entire abrogation
of that system involves considerations of great magnitude,
which would require very deliberate examination, and which
would also involve very considerable expense to the public.
I therefore am not prepared to say that her Majesty's Govern-
ment could consent to the sort of off-hand resolution which my
noble friend proposes, by which the house and the Govern-
ment would be committed at once to an opinion as to the
principle of the change in the system to which that
resolution relates. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) It is a
great mistake to say that the sale of commissions im-
plies that they are put up to auction, and given to the
highest bidder, or that men got those commissions simply
because they have money to buy thorn. The house must
bear in mind that the Commander-in-Chief exercises the
same discretion in selecting the man who is to be pro.
meted as he would exercise in the selection of a man
to be promoted without purchase at all. Complaints have
been made that the system of purchase prevents able men
from rising to the higher ranks in the army ; and the hon.
and gallant officer who sits behind me says the system of pro
motion without purchase in the navy tends -erecisely to the
same result. The fact is, that every system by which mem-
bers of a numerous profession are raised f.-oal rank to rank
by a superior authority will always be liable to the same im-
putations. Where one is to be promoted, twenty, or thirty,
or a hundred, are to be passed over ; and every man who is
unsuccessful naturally imagines that his own qualifications are
equal, if not superior, to those of the candidate preferred ; and
you will always find that in a large profession, such as the
army or navy, there will be au immense number of wen com-
plaining that promotion is given from the influence of favourit-
ism, or from some other motive, rather than from the real
desire to choose the most proper man. With regard to the
promotion of non-commissioned officers to commissions in the
army, I think the line which my right hon. friend the late
Secretary for the Colonies, and previously the Secretary at
War (Mr. S. Herbert), pursued is the line which ought to be
pursued, and which will continue to bo followed. Sir, it is a
mistake to suppose that peculiar talent is allied to any parti-
cular class of men in society. (Hear.) Nature has scattered
with an indiscriminate hand, among every class of society,
those intellectual and moral qualities which fit a man for any
station in which mere qualities can enable him to act.
(Hear, hear, hear.) You will find among the private erol-
diers of the army, as among the humblest classes of society,
men of whom it was well said by my honourable and gal-
lant friend near me, that they are " Nature's gentlemen"
men who by' „their high qualities and their noble feelings
are qualified, so far as that goes, for any situation in which
they may happen to be placed. But for the purposes of
military command more than natural faculties are requisite.
There must be acquired knowledge, there must be capacity,
and experience, to enable a commander to deal with the
events of the day, and also to entitle him to the respect
and obedience of those placed under him. We are to!d to
look at the experience of France and other continental coun-

tries; but my right hon. friend (Mr. S. Herbert) has well
pointed out the essential and fundamental difference there is
between the army of those countries and our own. In France
and continental countries armies are raised by conscription,
which sweeps men from all classes of society—taking the
educated as well as the uneducated; and among the privates
of the French array you find young mon who have received as
good an education as any whom you meet with in the higher
racks of life— (hear)—and a man of that kind who has passed
his period of probation is as much fitted to be an officer as
any man in this country who, after receiving the best educa-
tion, is allowed to purchase his commission. But in our army
the privates necessarily come from the humbler classes of so-

ciety. They are taken at an ago wizen education can scarcely
have made any considerable progress. What pbrtions of the
humbler classes of society are likely to enter into the army ?
It is not those who in the ordinary occupations of civil life
find profitable employment. Those who enter the army are
usually young men of an aspiring and daring character—men
of action rather than of study—men who like the dangers,
the vicissitudes, and the adventures of a soldier's life, and
who have not had opportunities of paying any great attention
to the cultivation of their minds. It is true after they do get
into the army that they do require an education which, per-
haps, they would never have enjoyed if they had not enlisted
into the ranks. (Hear.) But, eves with these advantages,
it is not every private or non-commissioned office.' that can
obtain that intellectual education which would befit him
for the position of an officer. (Hear, hear, hear.) Again,
the position of an officer entails certain expenses which a pro-
moted sergeant is not usually able to bear—(hear, hear)—
and which render his position disagreeable and painful to his
feelings. And, moreover, we all know that men who have
passed a considerable period of their lives in certain ass•cia-
tions do not really adapt themselves to become members of
a profession composed of a different class of persons. It may
often be that the promotion of a serjeant, instead of being
an advantage to him, places him in a position really painful
to his feelings, although ho may be gratified by the honour
which has been conferred upon him. Sill, I agree that it is
desirable to hold out to privates and non-commissioned offi-
cers that good conduct and distinguished services before an
enemy will obtain for them a commission, if a commission
they desire to have. Very little short of one hundred of such
commissions have recently been given to persons of that
class who have distinguished themselves i❑ the Crimea. It
was certainly never intended that those commissions should
be given as matters of favour •r patronage by the colonels of
regiments; on the contrary, the only intention must have
been that they should bo conferred on those non-commissioned
officers of each regiment who lad most distinguished them-
selves in the course of the campaign ; and if iu any case the
colonel did not select the non-commissioned officer most
worthy of promotion, he was guilty of a dereliction of duty.
It only remains for me to say that it will be the anxious de-
sire of her Majesty's Government that the system of promot-
ing a certain proportion of well-conducted non-commissioned
officers to commissions shall bo continued, and I am satisfied
that by the increased education which is given to the pri-
vates and non-commissionad officers of the army there will
always be a considerable number of sergeants who will be fit
to receive commissions, and who by their education and
good conduct may hope to rise to a higher rank of promo-
tion in her Majesty's service. Such being the desire and in-
tention of the Government —such being the opinion we enter-
tain in respect to this motion—l should hope my noble friend
who has submitted that motion to the house will not divide
the house on this matter, and so give an erroneous impres-
sion to the public that on the main principle there is that dif-
ferenea of opinion and sentiment which a division would ap-
pear to indicate, and that he will leave it to the Government
to follow out that course which has been so properly begun
under the auspices of my right lion, friend (Mr. S. Herbert),
being assured we shall fully appreciate the great impoutance
of holding out to the humbler ranks of the army those prizes
which—l will not say are necessary to stimulate them to the
performance of duty, for they need no stch stimulant—but
those prizes which are the proper rewards of good conduct,
and which, while they must he gratifying to the feelings of

those who receive them, must tend also to inspire their fellow-
_ . _

comrades with a respect for the institutions under which they
live, and the conviction that good conduct in the humbler
classes of the army will be sure to meet with its appropriate

reward. (C heers.)
Lord GODERICH said he confessed the two speeches made
that night from the Treasury bench had not led him to the
conclusion that ho should be fulfilling the task ho had under-
taken if ho wore to withdraw his motion. He thought the first
part of the speech of the noble lord (Pa'merston) answered the
last part of it, and, however much he regretted not being
able to accede to the noble lord's request, he should feel it
his duty to divide the house.

After a few words from Mr. OWEN STANLEY,
The house divided. The numbers were—
For the motion..
Against it

114
153

C°4l‘orsrlie7DEUEMNOajNoriTtily EagaAhßisVlt itY BEFORE SE BAS4T4O POL,
tuted as it ough:Nlowbiliniooaved that Sir G. B. Pechell be added
to this committee, he did not think would be consti-
fession serving upon
iati.f it had no member of the naval pro-
Mr. ROEBUCK must reiterate' the objection he had
brought against this propoosfaitta the preceding day. He had
no objection to the name
opfrotphoesecdoi'mwnhdotleeh e;
believed, had voted for the ap p°olMfueteeiebnetr
onirtiwere concerned, he
ie committee ; but,
Clovernmant, lie
so that, as far as his individual
should wish the hon. baronet to be
having made an arrangement with the
sllo u 1 d wish to abide by it.
Colonel NORTH—Dues the hon. and learned gentleman
Mr. ROEBUCK—I do.
Mr. BENTINCK was not inclined to cavil in any way at
the names of the members selected to discharge this duty, but
he could not admit that hon. gentlemen on that side of the
house had been guilty of a breach of contract, as insinuated
by the hon, and learned member, because they had not sub-
scribed implicitly to an arrangement in which they had not
been consulted, and in which they hail no share.
Admiral WALCOTT felt bound to say that he thought it
would have been conducive to the object of the house in ap-
pointing the committee—that of instituting a full and search-
ing inquiry—had some naval ran been chosen to serve on it;