The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-29 00:00:00

THE NEW WARRANT.

Lord Palmerston has redeemed the pledge which
he gave to Mr. Headlam in the course of the last
session. Henceforth, or rather from the beginning
of the present war with Russia, the widows, chil-
dren, parents, or sisters of any officer falling in
battle are entitled to receive, upon giving up all
pension or compassionate allowance, the value of
the commission of such officer at the regulation
price. Nay, so far is this liberality carried, that
men who never paid for their commissions, but who
have obtained their rank in the army by seniority
or interest, are treated as having the same right to
the money value of the rank they held as those who
have bought and paid for their commissions. With
some clumsiness, it must be confessed, yet still
completely and effectively, the new Warrant does
remedy the grievance complained of,—the hardship
of compelling officers to court every species of dan-
ger under the heaviest penalties in case that danger
prove fatal, to set on the chance of an hour not
merely their lives, but their estates, and only too
often money not their own, but contributed by

friends or relatives from very narrow resources, to
be repaid, if ever it be in the recipient's power.

Thus-did the ancient rule increase to the utmost

extent the incentives to cowardice, and add the fear
of poverty to that of death, as if to dissuade an

officer from manfully doing his duty. A man might
view without shrinking the prospect of death in
battle, but when there was added to it the destitu-

tion of his wife and children few spirits would be so
elastic as to view the result without a shudder. It

.s singular that we should have contrived to enlist

on the side of our enemies the noblest feelings and
deepest sympathies of human nature, nor is it less
remarkable that the principle of honour has ever
been so strong among our officers that all the
vices of the system under which they fought have
never been able to check that undaunted courage
so significantly marked by the proportion which in

every action our killed and wounded officers bear
to the whole number of the killed and wounded.

If, then, this alteration be regarded merely with
reference to the case of those who have already
fallen in this war, or with reference to the rank
already attained in the army before the issuing of
the warrant, it must be regarded as a signal act of
bi vo ur—as the atonement for a hardship cast upon
brave and deserving men. But as regards those
who have yet to purchase their way up in the
army the case is quite different, and the Warrant
seems merely to involve a heavy public loss, with-
out any corresponding benefit to the objects of its
intended bounty. It is the misfortune of a system
of purchase that, so long as it exists, it is impos-
sible permanently to improve the condition of the
officer. If, indeed, the regulation and the actual
price were the same thing—that is to say, if the re-
gulation price were to remain the same, to what-
ever extent the condition of the officer might be
improved--we might then go on increasing pay,
allowances, and pension with the most perfect con-
fidence that everything we did tended directly to
the benefit of the service ; but, unfortunately, the
value of a commission is regulated, not by the esti-
mation which the Commander-in-Chief may choose
to put upon it, but by the number of buyers and
the price they are ready to give. Every increase,
therefore, in the value of a commission acts as a
bonus to its present possessor, should he sell out,
and raises the price proportionately to all future
purchasers. The commodity becomes more mar-
ketable, and those who want to buy it must pay
a higher price for it, so that a measure intended
for the permanent relief of the service may end
only in raising the value of commissions by the
additional sum that purchasers will be willing
to give for the insurance by the public of their
lives against death in the field of battle. So long
as purchase is permitted it is impossible perma-
nently to benefit the condition of the officer, and
every attempt to do so is so far an injury that it
enhances the price to be paid, and thus places a
commission more out of the reach of the poorer
aspirants for distinction.
We had hoped that the thorough exposure of our
military system would have led to a complete reform
of all those evils which attracted the public eye,
among which the purchase of commissions stood pro-
minent. But the public were unaccountably silent
on this matter, and the House of Commons, having
exhausted its energy on debates of a personal and
party character, had neither time nor inclination
left for real and durable reform. Yet it is mani-
fest that the abuse complained of would be quite as
effectually remedied if the officer went into battle
without having purchased his commission at all as
if he went there with the certainty that if he fell
the value of the commission should be restored to
his relatives. If the system of purchase be fraught
with so many evils, the simpler plan would he to
abolish it at once, eethoL than to engraft upon it a
rat ilal plan of life insurance at the expense of the
public. We say a partial life insurance, because
the new Warrant does not extend to the case
of officers dying of disease or of wounds more
than six months after they were received.
In war much more life is lost by sickness
than by the sword, and we shall expect to hear
a claim preferred on behalf of the relatives of
those bravo men who have perished by fever or
cholera, and a complaint that, although the loss
was as groat and the service as good, the remune-
ration was so entirely different. It must also be
remembered, when considering the case of those
who, but for this warrant, would have lost the
value of their commissions, that the commission
was purchased subject to this very contingency of
loss by death, and that, had that contingency been
removed, a higher sum would have been paid.
Upon the whole, however, though we cannot
disapprove a measure which will give relief to the
families of so many brave men who have fallen for
their country, and soothe the last moments of so
many more who are now suffering under wounds
from which they are not destined to recover, we
confess that the new warrant finds its support
rather in an appeal to the feelings than the reason;
and that, besides, it will tend to perpetuate a sys-
tem which, so long, as it endures,, gives to our ser-
vice an amateur tone and habits from which the
gallantry of all and the intelligence of many can-
not wholly redeem it. The new warrant is an im-
portant step towards recognising property in com-
missions, and it would only be a further develop-
ment of the same principle to make them descend-
ible and devisable, to allow a captain to settle his
company on his marriage, or a colonel to entail his
regiment severally and successively on his first and
other sons. The notions of service and property
are essentially distinct, and ought to be kept so,
and we cannot but deprecate any admission which
tends to break down this necessary line of demar-
cation.-,Tunes.