The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-22 00:00:00

Spirit of the Public Journals.

(From the Morning Post of this day.)
The Guards, in the memorial which they have
presented to the Crown, and which, through the
medium of the columns of our own journal, and
those of our contemporaries, is now placed in ex-
tenso in the hands of the public, have carefully re-
stricted the case for which they demand considera-
tion to the effect which they anticipate will be pro-
duced upon their prospective career and ultimate
position by the Royal Warrant of October 6, 1854 ;
but they can hardly expect that the public, to
whom they appeal tacitly, as they do to the Crown
aloud and professedly, will place their considera-
tion under the same restriction, or will confine
their view of the subject within the same narrow
limit. The Guards must surely be aware that their
constitution, and the privileges which attach to
them, have often been the subject of animadversion
and complaint, and that there are among those
who turn their attention to questions connected
with military organisation a considerable number
of persons who entertain strong objections to the
principle of privileged regiments. The memorial
which the Guards have, as it seems to us, some-
what incautiously put forth, will unquestionably
call into renewed activity the opinions of these
people, and the Guards must be prepared again to
meet—pressed with less of reticence and forbear-
ance—the objections to the organisation and the
privileges of their body which were submitted by
Colonel Dunne and others to the Parliamentary
Committee on Army and Ordnance Expenditure in
'sso.

Had we been the advisers of the Guards we
should certainly have recommended them to put
up quietly with the clippings of their privileges—
very trifling, even on their own showing—which
may result from the Royal Warrant of 1854, rather
than revive with now activity questions which bad
been shelved connected with the relative positions
of themselves and the Line. We are not among
those who consider the existence of privileged regi-
ments objectionable. On the contrary, we entertain
a strong opinion that some such corps as the
Household Troops is au indispensable adjunct to
Sovereignty, and a necessary part of the splendour
of the Crown, and we should be extremely sorry
to see them—whether upon military or upon eco-
nomical grounds—reduced to the level of the Line.
We are quite satisfied that the Guards should exist
as a privileged corps of the army ; that an officer
of the Guards should have the advantage in his
upward progress of passing over the two steps
of lieutenant and major; that there should be a
greater proportion of officers to men than in the
Line, and that a colonel and a lieutenant- colonel in
the Guards should receive respectively 1,2001. and
4881. annually, while officers of corresponding rank
in the Line only receive 600/. and 3101. With this
organisation of the Guards we are quite satisfied,
but with the constitution of the corps we are not
satisfied ; and to the mode in which it is recruited,
both as regards officers and men, we see the
strongest objections. The strength of the Guards in
officers is maintained, with the exception of cases
of exchange, by the introduction from time to
time of raw young men, who obtain their privilege-
cairving commission in consideration either of the
w eal h and social position, or of the political inte-
rest, of their families. There is no other qualifi-
cation required, nor is it necessary that in any
other respects the officer-recruit of the Guards
should be superior to him of the Line. Is regards
the men, they are taken equally direct from the
mass of raw materials presented by the general
population, regard being had only to their height
awl personal appearance.
Now, all this does not at allaccord with our view
of the mode in which it is proper or desirable to.
constitute and maintain a corps of Royal Guards ;
land we believe that when the rest of the army, and
the public at large too, come to think the subject
out, and get their perceptions clear in the matters
they will discover that it is not the organisation of
the Household Troops, nor the accordance to them
of privileges, as Royal Guards, that they object to,
or complain of, but the principle upon which the
body is recruited. Let that be amended, and let
the exhibition of talent or excellence of service be
the passport to the enjoyment of the privileges of
the Guards, instead of mere wealth or family con-
nexion, and we believe we should hear no more
cries of jealousy or complaint from the Line, and
economists would cease to bore the house or worry
the Minister for War with objections to the cost of
the Blues or the Grenadiers.

Let us see what is the practice of our neighbours
in this matter. France, systematic in her military
organisation, has in her army two bodies holding
high distinctive position, am.l enjoying peculiar and
separate privileges. The first in place and in rank
is the squadron of the Cent-Gardes a Cheval, a corps
of the picked cavalry, employed as the personal
guard of the Emperor, and attached peculiarly to
the service of the Palace. It consists of 137 men,
including officers, whose grades appear to corre-
spond very nearly with those of our Guards, and it
takes precedence of every other arm of tho service.
The next is the Imperial Guard, consisting of-
-1 General of Division commanding.
3 Generals of Brigade.
1 Military Intendant.
1 Colonel Chef d'Etat Major,
2 Chefs d'Escadron d'Etat Major.
6 Captains of the Etat Major.
1 Assistant-Intendant of the First Class.
2 •Assistant-Intendants of the Second Class.
Two Brigades of Infantry, formed—
Tile first of 2 regiments of Grenadiers, three bat-
tal ions.

The second of 2 regiments of Voltigeurs, three
battalions.
1 battalion of Chasseurs.

One Brigade of Cavalry, formed of-
-1 regiment of Cuirassiers, of six squadrons.
1 regiment of Guides, of six squadrons.
1 regiment of Gendarmerie, of two battalions.
1 regiment of Horse Artillery, of five battalions,
and a depot.
1 company of Engineers.
We have set forth the composition of the French
Household Troops thus in detail, because it affords
a temarkable illustration of the principle of organi-
sation upon which the entire service of our Allies
is based. Our readers will observe that there is
not a single component part of the Grand Army
which is not represented in this picked and privi-
leged corps. The Garde Imperiale is, in fact, in
itself an army in miniature, exhibiting all the qua-
lifications for movement and administration pos-
sessed by the great machine of which it is an epi-
tome. And what are the conditions of admission
to this splendid adjunct of Imperial Sovereignty ?
Of what is it composed ? Young gentlemen of
family, who take service as an occupation rather
than as a profession, and who prefer the Guards
because a commission in them enables them to live
in London society, to frequent Tattersall's and to
attend regularly at Epsom and Ascot, or the sons
of wealthy manufacturers or tradesmen, who put
their money in it as an in vestment, yielding a
moderate interest in money, and a large one in
social advancement ? Neither. A French officer
cannot enter the Imperial Guard unless he can give
satisfactory proof, not only of his professional com-
petency, but also of his conduct and character in all
respects ; nor is he qualified even then, unless he
either has served two years in a corresponding
rank in the Line, or has been distinguished by
some special brilliant service. As regards privates,
the Imperial Guard is recruited by men who ate
in the last year of their service in the Line, and
have besides a general high character, an excep-
tion being made, however, in favour of those deco-
rated with the Legion of onour, or the
military
medal, who are eligible at any
service.
We should like much, period of
confess, to see .
we cor
corps of Royal Guards constituted
soniewhat upon
these admirable and comprehensible principles. At
present the officers of our Guards have no other
claim to the privileges which make them the object
of envy to the Line than that they
bought them
with their money. The Ensigns of the Guards
over the grade of Lieutenantfor
that fought at Waterloo were accorded the privi-
lege of jumping
distinguished service on that memorable day, and
the privilege has been banded down by sale and
purchase ever since. A very good tenure, and one
which constitutes, we suppose, that very trouble-
some and costly stumbling-block to all reform, a
vested interest; but we trust, for the credit and
internal peace of the army, as well as for the sake
of the position before the public of the corps itself,
that we shall yet see the time when both the offi.
cars and privates of the Royal Guards will attain
and hold the privileges of their Order by a title of
a higher nature than any of those which they assert
at present.

BANKERS' CHEQUES.—Last evening a lecture on this
subject, to which a recent decision of the Court of
Queen's Bench has given considerable interest, wee deli-
vered at King's College, by Professor Leone Levi. We
ar3 compelled to reserve till Monday our report of the
lecture, as well as a more extended notice of the oire
oumstanees under which it was &lima!