The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-30 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 30, 1855.

This time Mr. LAYARD must bring forward his
motion, and must press it to its consequences.
If he do not, he will not merely abandon his duty
to his country, but will seal his own condemna-
tion. At present the general feeling outside the
House of Commons is, if we mistake net, that the
substance of his charges against the civil and mili-
tary administration can be thoroughly sustained,
if only the facts can be made public without utter
ruin to those who are the greatest sufferers. The
public take little interest in the question whether
Mr. LAYARD, as an individual, overlooked an ori-
ginal return, and made a partly-incorrect assertion
by using a supplementary document. It may
think it would have been better had his military
informant apprised him of the Indian services
of the " son of Lord WESTMORELAND," and
the "son of Lord ETARDINGR," who were both on
the "Staff," and were both promoted "without
purchase." It will accept Mr. LAYARD'S acknow-
ledgment, however, on both these points, and it
will still, we apprehend, retain strongly the
"conviction" of the Member for Aylesbury, that
aristocratic, and it is to be feared connexional,
favouritism is the blot of our army and the ruin
of its efficiency. It is all very well for Lord
PALMERSTON, who in the construction of his Cabi-
net has been guilty of the very crime denounced
by Mr. LAYARD in regard to the army, to consti
tute himself foreman of the jury, and to deliver
to the country as the verdict of the House that
the charges are " false and calumnious." Mr.
LAYARD demands a new trial, and the country as
judge declares he ought to have it. The verdict
seems to be in the face of painfully notorious facts,
and the most necessary witnesses have not yet
been summoned. Lord PALMERSTON may rest
assured that at present the country is quite as
sorry for his position as he professes to be for that
of Mr. LAYARD.

Lord PALMERSTON affirms that Mr. LAYARD'S
attack on the officering of the army is utterly un-
founded, he glories in its being filled with the
aristocracy, and predicts downfal to the nation
when it is otherwise ! Indeed,—we suppose then
NAPOLEON'S Marshals were the downfal of France.
We had thought otherwise, but Lord PALMERSTON
ought to know. The system of officering the
French army now is doubtless the reason why its
administrators have proved so inefficient compared
with ours, from Lord RAGLAN downwards through
his nearly-related staft ! Lord PALMERSTON must
give us leave to inform him that one broad fact
has long stared the country in the face, and that
is, that the sterling gold of our army is at the
bottom. The men are relatively better than their
officers ; the officers, as the rule, better the
lower their rank, and worse in proportion
to their rapid and frequently unbought
promotion. In courage and knowledge of their
nom-commissioned officers, and work, our privates, ffi
many of our regimental officers are beyond all
praise. But in courage only do the higher officers
equal their men ; in the capacity needed for their
higher duties they have as a body deplorably
failed. There is a very wide-spread belief that
the Russian generals and officers have as much
Surpassed ours in skill as our soldiers have sur-
Passed theirs in vigour and courage. We have
been out-generalled, but our men have never been
match
Their engineers have been more than a
for ours, but our gunners have fully done
their pert.
This great and deplorable fact the
country, agreein
to aria with Mr. LAYARD, attributes
tie
lives, lahon.i. incompetency. It believes that
34(1 awa money have been thrown
y, a sacrifice to
the fatal vice which Mr.
LAYARD denounces,
too Lord PALMERSTON comes
to the rescue late.
will never satisfy the con
and
ntry
must be overhauled. If hheis wholeolrue sisyssitoenms
fend it the a
he wal obstinately de-
, ofointments
rn
lm have a return
ate years must be
must canvassed one by one.
specifying in columns the blood relationshiP% the
marriage affinities, and the political connexions of
each one; also the services lie has rendered, With
the rapidity or slowness of his promotion ; and
then allowing for a wide margin of suppressed
facts in the first column, we may be in a position
to judge of the why and the wherefor of promo-
tions as a whole.
Mr. LA:sraun has undertaken a vast task, but
he will have the country with him, if he only be
as resolute at home as he was at Nineveh. Deci-
sliiOn; 111100132promigki
n 4 deel6/031, Will sweep away j

all difficulties here as there. He has assumed,
indeed, no enviable position in the House
of Commons. Five-sixths of that body are
ieterested in the abuses he would utterly rout
out. Every art of cajollery, every species of
intimidation will be tried upon him, but now or
never is the time for him to become a first-rate
political man. If this time he
may,eyiel indeed,to
blan
lldsitsih-
ment, or succumb to fear, we
admire his abilities, but we shall be reluctantly
compelled to rank him with the political trim-
mers. He has put his hand to the very work
which now wants to be done. Mr. ROEBUCK did
the right thing for the session before Easter; Mr.
LAYARD has proposed the right thing for the ses-
sions after it. We have had inquiry enough.
We have all made up our minds—we now want
action.

His resolutions will be met, we expect, partly by
a direct negative, but still more frequently by all
the stock answers of " the Noodles' Catechism."
All, however, will depend on the visible temper of
the country. Indeed if the people give no sign of
support to Mr. LAYARD he will certainly fail
with the House, and may be half excused for de-
clining to do the nation's work, when the people
are content to go on paying increased taxes, and
pouring forth their blood, rather than take the
trouble to uphold the man who would serve them.
We are therefore the better pleased to observe
that even in London a large and respectable body
of its citizens are beginning to move. Our
readers will have noticed, we trust, in The Sun
of Saturday, the moderate, yet appropriate, re-
solutions which will be brought forward at a
public meeting to be held " for administrative
reform at the London Tavern, May the sth, at
12 o'clock." That meeting ought to be the pre-
cursor of one in every town—and why not county
too ?—of the kingdom. The nation must now
take its affairs so far into its own hands. It
must demand, universally and imperatively, " the
right men in the right places." It has already
paid more unnecessarily in taxes levied or pro-
posed than would have served to pay off all the
incapables, and to refund their money to the
capables, who ought never to have paid it. Buy-
ing a civil or military appointment ! Merchants,
tradesmen, common-sense Englishmen, think of
that ! You who, if an accountant, or foreman,
or confidential clerk, wanting employment were
to ask you to sell him your salary and work,
would question the sanity of the applicant. Or
who, if your own brother and nephew wanted an
important post in your service, would, in nine
cases out of ten, rather give him the income to
keep out of the way. Nothing can retrieve our
national position but your compelling the Govern-
ment to act on your own principles.

We have greatly erred in our estimate of tl e
national feeling towards the Emperor NAPOLEON
if the dastardly attack just made on him in his
own capital does not excite the deepest indigna-
tion from one end of this country to the other.
It is a current remark—one, by the way, but too
confirmatory of human weakness—that we never
know the value of a friend till we have lost him ;
admit will hardly admit of doubt that the attempted
assassination so happily frustrated will lead, if
possible to an even higher appreciation of the
merits of our late guest, and of the vast import-
ance the prolongation of his life is net only to our
own immediate intere3t, as a people, but also to
those of civilisation, it may be, for a century to
come.

At first calumniated, suspected, and misunder-
stood in this country, the EMPEROR, with admi-
rable foresight and patience, left to time the
justification of his real character and intentions,
contenting himself with meriting the confidence

and respect he failed to receive. The reliance
was justified by the result. His number of his
admirers, gradually increased, and, before many
years had elapsed, calumny had grown compara-
tively powerless against him. The Eastern cities.-

tion began to darken the horizon, and at this
period the friendly feeling of the EMPEROR for

this ,ountry, and the unity of his aims with ours,
became too manifest to be disputed. A memo-
rable alliance was formed, and at Alma and
Inkerman and before the walls of Sebastopol it
was cemented with heroic blood. For the first time
for many centuries Frenchmen and Englishmen
hailed each other as companions in fight, and the
people of both countries rejoiced in their common
glory. The EMPEROR came among us, and then
was seen how rapid aid how deep had been the
growth of good feeling towards him, and how
great was the admiration of the public for hig
character. By policy and inclination he had
contracted an alliance which augured well for the
destinies of Europe—by his presence he estab•
lished it as a living reality. The boastful words
of C.ESAR, reni, vidi, vici, hardly exceed the truth
when applied to the impression made by the
EMPEROR during his visit. Tile moment of de-
parture arrived, and, amid the loudest acclama-
tions, he left the British shores, where no breath
of insult nor one particle of danger had awaited
him, and took back the best wishes of a nation
for his welfare.

And but little more than a week has elapsed,
and he is fired upon point blank by an assassin
in his own capital. Ile whose deeds have
made him " the foremost man of all the world,"
and on whose life so mach depends, has escaped
assassination, as it were, by a hair's breadth !
Seldom have the instability of human greatness
and worldly policy been more forcibly illustrated,
and rarely have we, as a people, had more cause
for gratitude. The assassin-arm failed of its
purpose. The EMPEROR escaped unhurt, and
passed calmly on, elevated in his own high courage
and faith in his destiny beyond the reach of ordi-
nary fear. The motive of the assassin is said
to have been political. If so, the execra-
tions of France and England will teach his fellow-
fanatics, if they can be taught, that it is not by
such acts the cause of liberty can be advanced, or
rather, perhaps, we should say, that the times are
not ripe for license. In the absence of positive
information we would fain ascribe the act to the
wild prompting of insanity.

This evening the House of Commons will be
called on to abolish the liberty of the Press in
England. We repeat it deliberately and adz
visedly, that a desperate, and. what may possibly
prove to be a fatal blow, has been aimed at the
freedom of the Fourth Estate in the United
Kingdom ; and, if the bill of pains and penalties,
now before Parliament, should unhappily receive
the legislative sanction—if " trial by jury " should
be abolished, so far as public journalists are con-
cerned, and every person investing capital in
newspaper property should be handed over.to the
tender mercies ?of either stipendiary or unpaid
agistrates, and subjected to heavy amercements
°II the most frivolous and vexatious grounds, it
will be im
independence o
Possible to maintain the efficiency and
nionopf ji3urnalism. Either there will be
entire business ilitY created, which will throw the
than publications, cltrile hands of one or two levia-
early intelligence .Dersons desirous of obtaining
ihek through a
dozen different sources a.vo to
looted and brought olae_at
no' which is now col-
-7 toad
eX "new is a aux.

;-le paper ! All we ask is that the independent
members may fairly consider the probable results
,)f the clauses recently proposed by the Chan-
ellor of the Exchequer, before introducing
what has been fairly described as a per-
:ectly novel system, giving a copyright in tha t
which from its very nature cannot be restricted
viz., news.

Never, hitherto, has such a doctrine been
legalised in any country. Even in the most
despotic nations, where the Press is kept com-
pletely under the thumb of the Government, by
means of the Censorship, and other " ingenious
devices," it has not, for a moment, been asserted
that matters of vital interest and importance to
the community must remain unnoticed because
they have been first put forward in a single paper.
There is not and cannot be " property" in such
matters. It might as well be said that there
could be an exclusive property in the very air
we breathe as in matters that are circulated
rapidly in every quarter, and which no persons are
prohibited from canvassing save only newspaper
proprietors.
We do not feel at all surprised at the Times
supporting a proposition the probable result
whereof will be the doubling of its already vast
circulation, and the suppression of many of its
comparatively diminutive rivals, who now, igno-
rant of impending consequences, loudly clamour
far what may probably prove their own destruc-
tion. It is ridiculous to twaddle about matters
which general courtesy now allows the use of,
when every "communication"--that is to say,
every particle of news, foreign or domestic—is
protected. The Parliamentary, legal, and police
reports, the accounts of " dreadful accidents,"
and all the varied material of which a
newspaper is composed, must be suppressed, or at
least kept back for 24 hours. Even the execu-
tion of the wretched lunatic BURANELLI could not
be alluded to by any but one journal, that which
issued a copy first after the event. There would,
in fact, be a scramble for such news, one incessant
litigation going on,—the most conflicting testi-
mony, and hardest swearing as to the hour of
publication, for that would render the proposed
enactments almost the only question, and a
smart attorney should be attached to the estab-
lishment of every newspaper.
Hitherto there has been a species of courtesy
' maintained. Copies of the different journals are
exchanged—Cui bono ! for what purpose ? That
each may take from the other any matters that
may have escaped its own correspondents. Lite-
rary articles are, as we have already stated, copy-
rights, and any infringement thereof can be pro-
secuted by an action in one of the Common Law
Courts. We do not, of course, speak of an injunction as
applicable to such ephemeral publications. If the
author sustain real damages by any piracy, a jury
of his country ever will afford due reparation. But
he must not go into Court in a captious or querulous
spirit. He will receive compensation for the in-
jury he has suffered, but there will be no vindic-
tive or unreasonable damages. Under the exist-
, ing system the British Press has achieved a pre-
eminence over that of any other country. Every
well-conducted journal obtains a fair share of pub-
lic patronage, and receives an ample recompence
for every extraordinary exertion which it
makes to supply the community with early in-
telligence. On this point, we might refer with
pride to the acknowledgments which we have
repeatedly received from our provincial contem-
poraries. The recollection of The Sun Expresses
has not as yet passed away, and we rejoice to
say that we have never forfeited our well-estab-
lished reputation. We have unquestionably con-
tributed our full quota of original intelligence,
and have submitted to see these matters appro-
priated without notice, or with the sim pie ac-
knowledgment of "Evening Paper." If, there-
fore, we quote "Morning Paper " in place of
giving the name of the journal from which we
have extracted, it is simply "a Roland for an
Oliver," a fair piece of retribution for a previous
injury to ourselves. We can proceed in the way
we have invariably walked with a safe conscience,
certain that public opinion will not condemn us
when thefacts are fairly and fully brought forward.
We never unfairly assail others, but when. at-
tacked, we are able to defend outselvcs, and shall
continue to do so. It is not merely for ourselves
we protest against the propositions of the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, but for our brethren of
the Press without au exception. Once more, then,
we implore the representatives of the British
people maturely to weigh the consequences of
that which they are called on to sanction, and not
hastily or rashly to enact a law the results of
which cannot possibly be foreseen, and which could
only emanate from presumptuous ignorance, or a
sinister design to impair the efficieney and abolish
the independence of the Fourth Estate.

We earnestly invite attention to the letter from
,he honourable and indefatigable Member for
Glasgow, which will be found in another part of
this day's impression. Had Mr. MACGREGOR
presided over the financial department since the
accession of the ABERDEEN Ministry, not merely
tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, but
millions of pounds sterling would have been saved
to the country. The Hon. Gentleman, however,
only belongs to the aristocracy of talent. He is
not connected with any of " the governing fami-
lies" by birth or marriage, has no relationship to
any influential peer or, boroughmonger, and owes his
seat in Parliament only to the unpurchased and
unpurchaseable suffrages of the largest municipal
constituency in the United Kingdom. His great
experience and sound judgment cannot, therefore,
be appreciated by the members of a lordly Cabi-
net. He is one of the middle classes—one who
has elevated himself by the force of his own
genius and energy, and the high qualifications
which he is universally admitted -to possess.
These, however, are not at present sufficient to
insure " the right place for the right man," and
therefore Mr. MACGREGOR, in place of bringing
forward a budget on his own account, is restricted
to criticising that of the superficial and incom-
petent financier who has been pitchforked into the
place which a better man ought to occupy.
Mr. MACGREGOR clearly shows the fatal mis-
takes into which Sir G. C. LEWIS has fallen, first,
in reference to the Loan ; second, to the increase
of an unmodified income tax ; and thirdly, the
retrograde course entered on in the enhanced du-
ties on the chief, if not the only unobjec-
tionable, comforts allowed to the less
wealthy classes, in the enhanced duties on tea,
coffee, and sugar ; a course which strongly
tends to, and will probably end in, the re-enactment
of protective duties on articles of primary neces-
staiebtrayan;dootfnheua ms bringing us back to the exploded sys-
bonyoaplol elylaassfetes in ritsochiae.
had been virtually
O
provesclarend, theth
havea t
firstt
h e
Exchequer millions,
eLnpoofai:nrt
a,
ht
twenty
nrl
d.t,y MaisnACGREGOR clearly
dabbling with the Chancellor of the
means
hav e the
avoided
al
ocheni sgo fs
necrei sixteenl
dues-
duties. A twenty Income Tax or Customs
have been obtained justm milli
ao
sn e laosai
lny
aa
st
opnaerof could
six-
teen millions, and had it been thrown open
to public competition, as in France and even in
Austria, on much more favourable terms for the
Treasury than have been submitted to. It might
also have been procured without/any addition to
_theanpderomn asnuecnht
adepbot.int Mrhe. MACGREGOR
declares
is an unexceptionable
extensivelywitness— thcaotnnheee
thedasw::hthheanakssinugraanncdesi
nosfu r ma
insurance
companies and with commerce, that his proposal
to throw open the Loan to public competition
would have been successful, and uniformly satis-
factory to the nation." Our own informa-
tion fully corroborates this assertion. Thus, for
annuities terminable on an average of 50 years,
costing little if at all more than 800,0001. a year
—we believe even less—every probable claim
would have been liquidated, and the extra bur-
den would have been completely got rid of during
the lives of many of the present generation. The
present charge is 596,0001. per annum for 30
years, and after that time 480,0001. for ever.
Now had it been raised in 3i per Cent. Consols
at par-...and a small premium could easily ilaYe