The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-28 00:00:00

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s~~o .
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Tons. Tons.
50 50
lbs. lbs.
25,000 25,00
Tons. Tons.
3 3
"jas. , Tons.

15
'Cons. Gallons,
6,000 5,000

SPIRIT OP FIB PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE INDIAN ARMY.
( From the Times of this day.)

A number of concurrent eix:cumstances unite at this
moment to call public attention to the sale and pur-
chase of commissions in the army. 4)ur troops are fight-
img side by side with the French, sui:Fering the same
hardshilos, participating in the same davgers, but not
animatt'e by the hope of the same rewards. The ex-
traordinary disasters and miseries they have euffered
have led them and neir friends in England to inquire
into the manner in which that service is filled to watch
is intrusted the custody of so many precious lives.
Thinking, men also seem to have, come with marvellous
unanimity to the conclusion that the strict line of sepa-
ration which divides the Indian from the English service
ought to be broken down, and that the talents of a
Mayne, an Outram, or an Edwardes, should no longer he
withheld by a silly exclusivenesss from serving in other
fields than those of India or Affgbanistan. But the Indian
service is a service of seniority, and cannot be amalga-
mated with our own, except through the abolition of the
system of purchase. The promotion, also, of so many ser-
jeants for meritorious conduct to the rank of ensign has
induced men to consider how questionable is the benefit
which such promotion implies, and to doubt whether
placing these gallant
.soldiers in contact with gay and
expensive young men, to live upon pay quite inadequate
for the position they have to support; and with little
hope of further promotion, from the want of the means
of purchase, be not a cruel kindness, and a benefit
carrying with it many of the attributes of an injury. All
these causes have combined to fix popular attention on
this subject, and to occasion meetings such as that re-
cently assembled at Newcastle to be held for the purpose
of demanding that the obnoxious privilege of purchase
shall be swept away.
We trust that this may ho regarded AAA.. pjnt m
.pto.
the gradual awakening of the public mind to Iho.-11tiFen---*.
sity of the substitution of merit for every other criterion,
net only in the army and navy, but in every other branch
of the public service. The first dawning of this neces-
sity in the public mind has manifested itself with some
inconsistency, since, whatever be the evils of purchase
in the army, they are, no doubt, less than those of job-
bery, which, under the name of patronage, pervades
every public department, withholds the most powerful
stimulus from education, and deprives the public service
of that amount of talent which it might command. Nor
are we without apprehension that, when the advocates
of the existing system in the army come to employ argu-
ment in answer to the objections that are popularly,
urged against purchase, there will be many who, per-
plexed by the intricacy of the subject, and dazzled by
the array of authority and the amount of specious
sophistry that can be brought to bear upon it, will dis-
trust their first convictions, and, feeling they have ven-
tured out of their depth, renounce the attempt to form
or support an opinion ; yet in the matter of sale and
purchase of commissions, as in so many others which
trench on the boundaries of the science of political eco-
nomy, the popular and superficial view is the correct
one, and the most refined analysis only brings us round
to the conclusions of unassisted common sense. A little
reasoning seems to support the system of purchase—a
little more effectually demolishes it.
The arguments in favour of purchase all assume as
their basis the pre-existence of a system of seniority, and
derive their force from the necessity of remedying the in-
tolerable abuses to which the unmitgated system of seni-
ority, as we have it in the Engineer and Artillery Corps,
gives rise. Seniority has in it a certain degree of
fairness, since it is the fate of all men, noble or
plebeian, rich or poor, to grow old, but it buys this
single advantage at the expense of every other defect to
which a criterion of promotion can be liable. For the
first twenty years of military service increased age may
be some indication of increased efficiency, but after that
period this congruity gradually ceases, till every year
that is added to the age of the officer detracts from his
utility, and seniority declares him fit for the highest
command just when the inexorable hand of time has
stripped him of his last qualification for any. Besides,
seniority, by annexing the highest rewards to the longest
service, strengthens the inducement to continue in the
army after health, strength, and faculties have failed,
thus keeping down rising merit, and applying the
strongest incentives to old men to undertake duties
which they cannot fulfil. It is a vivid perception of
these enormous evils which has induced mankind to be-
take themselves to the system of purchase, as involving,
with all its absurdity and injustice, a less practical mis-
chief than seniority ; and certainly, if the alternative
lies wholly between the two, we shall not be disposed
to doubt the wisdom of the selection. In favour of
purchase it may truly be said that it places com-
missions in the hands of men of easy circumstances,
bound by the ties of property and relationship to
the upper classes ; thug, even in the ranks of our
army itself causing the feeling,of the citizen to predomi-
nate over that of the soldier, and securing us from the
'dread which all free Governments have instinctively felt
of the mercenary leaders of a hireling soldiery. Neither
can it be denied that by offering a ready retreat from the
army to those whose health is unequal to its fatigues,
or whose taste points out to them-other walks of life, the
system of purchase tends to relieve the service of ich
that is useles and incapable, and to attract men into it
by the very facility of getting out of it. We are anxious
not to understate these advantages, because we are
aware that in military circles to dispute the excellence
of sale and purchase is often regarded as the result of a
one-sided and careless consideration ; but, giving full
weight to these advantages, we do not hesitate to say
that the evils of the system of purchase far preponderate
over its benefits, and make its abolition absolutely requi-
site to the consolidation of our army mid the regeneration
of our military strength. We believe that the assumption
that there is no alternative between purchase and seni-
ority is fallacious ; and that in war with mach ease, and
in peace without insurmountable difficulties, a system of
promotion by merit might be devised which would super-
sede both the one and the other. The service of a man who
purchases his commission is gratuitous, for his pay is
but the interest of his purchase • money ;land thisjconntry,
rich as it is, cannot afford to be gratuitously served.
Purchase is but a rude expedient for removing the in-
capable and promoting the able, since able men may
find it their interest to sell out, and inefficient men be
induced to buy in. It banishes poor men relying on
merit alone from the army, or condemns them, if they
enter it, to a career of perpetual disappointment and
discouragement. It deters from enlistment, and unduly
lowers the private soldier, by withholding from his bast
efforts the prospect of advancement. It deprives the
officer of all inducement to study and improvement, and
encourages a low tone of feeling, by the habitual pre-
ference of money to merit; it makes our officers regard
themselves rather as annuitants than as soldiers, and
visits with the heaviest penalties the gallant loss of life
on the field of battle. These things we have left our-
selves no space to explain now, but we propose to eluci-
date them and their effects on the mixed system of pur-
chase and seniority is the English army on a future
occasion.

TIIE NEW MINISTRY.
(Front the Morning Herald of this day.)

We are now fairly under the rule of the new Ministry.
Nobody anticipates for it any lengthened duration ;
some allowing it a few weeks, others a few months, of
life ; but something like a fair trial it will undoubtedly
have.

There are three aspects in which the Palmerston Mi-
nistry may be viewed. In the first point of view, it
strikes the mind favourably; in the second, doubtfully;
in the third, as most objectionable and full of danger.
We will devote a few moments to each.

1. The new Cabinet Lae one feature which gives it a
great advantage over the Ministry which it succeeds.
It is more of one mind and of one class. It is more
purely Whig. It has thrown off the peril and the de-
filement of the Free-trade-Tractarian sect commonly
known as "the Peelites." Hence it will not excite the
alarm and jealousy which was so often aroused, within
the last two years, by the Gladstones and Sidney Her-
berts, whenever any Church question sprung up. Neither
will it be imperilled by the internal intrigues or the ex-
ternal unpopularity of these now defunct politicians. Ili
all these respects the Palmerston Ministry will be more
likely to last than the Cabinet which preceded it.
2. In the second point of view we can only speak
doubtfully. Lord Aberdeen and his friends carried on
the war with Russia as if it were a quarrel which they
had accidentally got into, and out of which they hoped
to emerge in the course of a few weeks. They sent out
an expedition, it is true ; but Mr. Gladstone told the
House of Commons that he had provided for its trans-
port out, and transport home; all in the current year !
And accordingly many of the officers, imbued with the
War-office spirit, gave their friends hopes of seeing them
back again before Christmas----the Christmas of 1854 !
Now this was not making war wisely, for it was not
making war in earnest. Whatever Government chooses
to declare war against Russia ought to mature its plans
for a seven years' struggle. So great and unassailable
and proud an empire will net be broeght to succumb in
one or two campaigns. Does any one seriously think
that the conquest of the Crimea would bring Nicholas
upon his knees ? Let such an one ask himself what
would be England's feeling if she heard that a Russian
army had landed in Inverness, and had overrun six of
the northern counties of Scotland ? Would the gene-
ral voice be for peace—for submission ? Would it not
rather be for first driving the Muscovites out of the
country, before a word was listened to about peace ?
And we ought to give the arrogant Czar credit for
quite as much pride and stubbornness as we ourselves
should show if we were the invaded and he the invader.
Our doubt, then, as to the character of the new
Cabinet is this—Whether it has so entirely forsaken the
policy and tone of thinking observable in Lord Aber-
deen's Government as to have laid its plans and taken
its measures for a long war. If it has not done this—if
it still dreams of bringing Russia to submission by such
feats as we have all eady witnessed in the Baltic and
the Black Sea, then we can only forbode for our country
the lamentable future of wasted treasures, sacrificed
1 arrnieq, and resultless campaigns.
The year 1854 is
already indelibly inscribed in cur annals
disgrace, and shame. But if the policy of 1854 is not
utterly changed we shall have to look back, in the next