The National Register.
London, England, 1809-06-04 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

in the ordinary way. Lord noncom ;so, and the Earl of
WESTMURCLAND, his rather, may have done some public
services, though we confess, that me have never heard of
them. But, surely, heither Lord Bo aciiißS it nor Earl
Wp.s.r3toant.Arto could have any claim to this long string
of favours.

It may be here, possibly aegued, that these nt.;i.p.:s and:
ittGoi.sTioics were merely the private regulations of his
I.s.lisors7, that he had no intention to fetter his own pre-
togdtite, that he merely issued them as General Rules, but
had no purpose of binding himself within their strict letter.
That he might see various occasions to depart from them,
and that it could not be supposed that he intended to re-
strict himself from acting according to these occasions.—
The plain point and substance of this argument amounts to
this—that these nimrs and REGULATIONS are no nuta:s and
rttotyr.sttosiq at all—that they may be violated at the plea-
Sure of buy Cabinet Minister—that to. of without in-
-ilitence, they arc bars of iron ; but to the favourites of the
. Court or Minister, are only so many whisps of straw.—
] t is unnecessary, we shouted 11:7pe, to eliter at any length
into the necessary evils of either leaving promotion with-
out a system, or leaving it with such a system as !nay ena-
ble any Minister or any Commander to dispense with it at
his pleasure. Better have Mrs. CLARKE, who had some
discretion, bectutse site made it her study, iu her military
:appointments, than a Minister or a Cabinet Counsellor, who
cannot be supposed to have either sympathy or knowledge
in military concerns. An army without such ORDERS and
Itr..“frdittons, is totally within the mercy, the caprice, and
the influence of a Court and Ministry. The fact is, that
The main utility of having a -Prince of the Blood at the
head of the army was, that he stood as a kind of bulwark
.of the artily against a Court and Ministry. The ORDERS
and
•REGULATIOriII were the law and system by which he
administered the army. As he interposed his personal
weight and influence between the Army and the Ministry,
so he interposed, as it were, the 012 P =its and ItEcULATIONS
between the Army and himself. As long as he acted on a
system, so long he necessarily restrained himself. if any
•ene•hereafter should seek military promotion, let him not
trouble himself with either military service, or military
skill, let him recontmend himself to a Minister or Cabinet
Counsellors and the ORDERS and REctiLATxomt will bend bar
to his promotion.
It is but justice taadd, that the 11;lajdrity anti the Lieut.-
Coloneley of Lord BURGHERRU have been recently super-
ceded, and that by this tacit confession the Ministers have
In some degree. compensated for their previous violation
of the standiug order; It cannot, however, but give every
vnan of public spirit a most lively concern, that such prac-
tices have been allowed, and were even defended in Parlia-
tnent : yet what is there in fact, which Lord CASTLEREAGH
would not find defensible ? We must confess ourselves t°
Le truly sarprized that the candid and ingenuous nature of
Mr. Patteevair. could say a word upon a subject thus fla-
grant. We have only to express our hopes, that, within
the few last weeks of this scansions of Parliament, Ministers
have received a lesson which they will not soon forge. The
name of Mr. WARDLE should never be mentioned unac-
tompaniad by some testimony of public( gratitude, The
people will wow understand how much 'hey are indebted
to this upright members 14e has opened the vein, which
Otero tire following into the tery boort of the mins.