The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-28 00:00:00

spondence, and I reserve to myself the right of doing so
should I consider it necessary
I have the honour to be, my lord, your obedient servant
A. ant
The ho nourable
gentleman then continued—lt had been
said hi so hon. gentleman spposite that there was a mix-
. chances and fortune in army promotions. It was true
chances, but he generally found that those chances
theretur were ere
fell to the lot of those officers who had least need of them—
personswho had either high connections or party influence
their favour. That question he should shortly bring
before the house in its most extended form. He believed
the country was prepared for the discussion of that
question. The time was past when the feelings of the
public could be tampered with upon that subject. The
system he reprobated extended to every branch of the
9.
public serviee, and he should show in a few days--w!l:t
he believed to be the public feeling on the subject—tde
the public interests were sacrified in every department of
the public service to private and party influences. He had
been told that the rules which regulated army promotions
were inviolable. Well, take the case of
a g
house. He
named Heneage, who had two relatives that n. tleman
entered the army in Dec., 1853, and joined hglaereargireilveeedt
in
Feb.. 1854, about two months afterwards.
in
the Crimea in the autumn. He was not present either at
the Alma or Inkerman, and yet he got a captaincy with-
oat purchase ten months after be enteredtharlmayw.
teNtohwe
there was what had been termed aninviolable
effect that no man could be
(pHreoamrotehdear.to) slfcacpatapitneciye
ender two years' service.
Heneage had distinguished
the rule in ques-
tion might properly have If,
been departed from in his case;
but when it was violated in favour of an officer who
had never seen service nor anything else, then it might
fairly be concludedthat the laws of the Horse Guards were
not as irrevocably as the laws of the Modes and Persians.
(Hear, hear.)
So with the case of Lord Enstace Cecil.
H
in December, 1851, and having seen
no e entered the armye
rvice in the interval, was selected in December, 1854,
fora lieutenancy and captaincy in the Guards. (Cries of
• )On the other hand Lieutenant Blackett, of
e 93d Regiment, who had been present at the actions in
te Crimea, who was recommended for good service to the
Government, was indeed transferred to the Guards, but
although he had seen ten years' service, he was placed be-
neath Captain Heneage and Lord Enstace Cecil, one of
whom had been in the army only some ten or eleven
months and the other between two and three years. Here
they had the laws of the Horse Guards constantly vio-
lated. He held himself responsible for these accusa-
tions. He had already told Colonel Harding° that he
was not prepared to retract them. Nor was he. He
only wished that they could go into a full dis-
cussion of the question—that they could examine some offi-
cers whom be could name. For example, he wished Col.
Crombie could tell them how he had been compelled to re-
sign, in order to make room for those beneath him—Lord
Buighersh and Lord Hardinge's son. It was a fact that
Col. Cronsbie did not know he was on half-pay until he saw
his name in the Gazette. S. much for individual cases. He
would not detain the house much longer. A man in his
position might be mistaken. If he had done wrong to any
individual, he would be glad to rise in his place and ac-
knowledge it ; bathe firmly believed that there was scarcely
an appointment which the public did not find, on inquiry,
to be connected in some way or other with private or party
influences. What had happened three days ago ? He a &se
in the Gazette a colonel on the staff named a general officer
in the Turkish contingent, with local rank. He turned to
the Army List and other sources of information, and there
he found that Col. Cunningham, of the staff, was married
to a daughter of Lord Hardinge. (Cries of " Oh, oh," and
laughter). The house might laugh, but when these things
were of daily occurrence they justified the gravest suspi-
cions on the part of the public. (Hear.) He said moreover,
that at such a moment as the present, when our army was
in a critical position, when a disgrace had fallen upon the
country, the people would no longer tolerate even an ap-
proximation to what he must call gross jobs. Such was his
statement to the house. He would not retract what he
had said, because he believed it to be true, and because he
was convinced his opinion was shared by many who dared
not stand up in that house and testify to the accuracy of
his assertion. It was an almost universal impression, in-
deed, that party orfamily influences were the mainsprings
of army promotions. He had only to add in conclu.ion
that Col. Wilson was in no way to blame for what had
occurred.
Mr. HARDINGE did not intend to add one word to the
unanswerable statement of the hon. and gallant member
for Huntingdon, or to that which had fallen from his hon-
ourable friend the Under Secretary for the War Depart-
ment. His only object in rising was to make one remark
with respect to a near relative of his, the gallant officer to
whom the hon. member for Aylesbury had just alluded.
The hon. member seemed to insinuate that the appointment
of Col. Cunningham to the Turkish contingent with the
local rank of brigadier-general was more or leas slob. Now,
all he had to say iu reply to the hon. member was that Col.
Cunningham had served in China under Lord Gough, had
been in every action in the Crimea, and if they appealed to
Lord Raglan or the Duke of Cambridge, they would find
that there was not a better or more meritorious officer in
the army than his gallant relative. (Hear.) Yet the hon.
member for Aylesbury had not scrupled to cast in his teeth
an appointment so justly and deservedly made. He had
done with the hon. member. (Hear.) His inaccuracies
were certainly of no common orde. (A laugh ) With re-
gard to Major Ewart, he was a most excellent officer, and
owed his promotion solely to-his own merits, not to any in-
terest whatever ; but it was not tree, as stated by the hon.
member for Aylesbury, that Major Ewart took a first class.
He obtained a third class for military drawing, while of
the members of the staff there were several who held first-
class certificates. Hewould now leave the casein the hands
of the house, satisfied that they would do justice between
the hon. member for Aylesbury and those whom he so
rashly accused, and decide who was " scandalous," and
who was not. (Hear.)
Mr. BYNG reminded the house that the responsibility
for promotions in the three regiments of the Guards did not
rest with the Commander-in-Chief, but with the colonels
of the regiments. Hewas authorised by Lord Strafford, the
colonel of the Coldatreams, to state that he alone was re-
sponsible for the promotions that had taken place in that
regiment, and that he was perfectly prepared, at all times
and seasons, to justify them according to the existing mili-
tary regulations, as well as to all the precedents applicable
to Inch matters. (Hear.)
Colonel LINDSAY remarked that the hon. member for
Aylesbury had carefully avoided addressing himself to the
case in dispuse, and had simply dealt in vague generalities.
To the demand which had been made of him, either to re-
tract what he had stated against Lord Hardinge or to ex-
plain in what manner, in the specific case of Col. Wilson,
his lordship had been guilty of maladministration the hon.
member replied that he would not retract, but he did not
show in any one particular how Lord Hardinge exercised
the slightest influence on his son's promotion. (Hear.)
The hon. member had referred to Captain Heneage. Now,
it was true that Captain ,Theneage was not at Inkerrnan.
Bat why ? Because he was serving his country in the
trenches or on picket, and since that time he had been con-
stantly under the fire of the enemy. (Hear.) Here was
the way in which he came to be promoted. At the com-
mencement of the war he was the junior ensign. By mor-
tality, brevet, and other causes, the whole of the ensi';ns
were swept away, and Captain Heneage was left at the top
of the list with one year's service. As he- had been under
the fire of the enemy, Lord Strafford obtained the neces-
sary sanction for his promotion, and he was promoted ac-
cording to the rules of the service. With regard to Lord
Eustace Cecil, a gentleman called upon Lord Strafford and
informed him that Lord Eustace was anxious to see service.
He told him that when the 4:3d was engaged at the Cape of
Good Hope Lord Enstace Cecil entered that regiment for
the purpose of seeing service, but that, unfortunately for
him, the war ended about the time he got there. The 431
was then sent to India, and when there the war broke out.
Lord Eustace Cecil, still anxious to see service; immedi-
ately exchanged into the 88th, which had been ordered to
proceed to the seat of war. All these things were consid-
ered by Lord Strafford ; he thought them very meritorious
in a young officer, and accordingly gave Lord Enstace Cecil
a commission in his regiment of Guards. (Hear.) He had
it from Lord Strafford to say that while ho was certainly
acquainted with Lord Eustace Cecil'sfather, the Marquis of
Salisbury, having met him in the House of Lords, he was
politically opposed to him, had nothing to do with him in
regard to his son's commission, and gave that commission
simply because he found Lord Eustace to be an officer anxi-
ous to see service, andto distinguish himself. (Hear.) In con-
clusion, he must say that he thought it somewhat unfair—
to use the mildest term—that an hon. gentleman should
go down to the country and excite public indignation
against the servants of the Crown by unfounded assertions
and accusations. (Hear, hear.)
Colonel NORTH regretted that the name of Lord Burg-
harsh had been introduced into the discussion. That offi-
cer was present at Chillianwallah and Goojerat. and had
rendered good service to his country. Major Alison owed
his position on the staff to his own talents, and not to his
political services or family influence. The hon. member
for Aylesbury should really be more
cautionsp in his state-
ments, and if he wished to retain the '
countrymen, should evince'their 'e
characteristiceeieloievne ofef fair
s play. (Hear.)
Colonel K.NOX. was sorry to say that the
Aylesburyprient was not
the first time that the hon. member for
unfair attacks upon hon, and gallant
officers.
11p hado
Upon
a former occasion he thought proper to traduce the cha--
ratter of a gallant admiral, and his object now
the same towards the Commander-in-Chief. (Hear,wae
to trio)
These systematic attacks were not without a purpose,
and
yet nothing could be more derogatoryto the respectability
of the house than for an hon. member to pursue such a
course of conduct. He begged to tell the hon. member for
Aylesbury that Colonel Cunningham was a personal friend
of his, and that there was not a word of truth in his state-
ment with regard to that gallant officer. Yet the hon.
member had the temerity and the impudence to rise in his
place—
Mr. HADFIELD—I rise to order. Surely that is lan-
guage not suitable to this house.
The SPEAKER—The hon. and gallant member must
withdraw the word "impudence."
Colonel KNOX—I would be sorry to use any Parlia-
mentary expression—(great laughter)—l mean any I
yexpres-
sion which may be deemed unparliamentary; but cannot
find language sufficiently strong to reprobate the conduct
of the hon. member for Aylesbury. (Laughter.) Still, sir,
lam ready to withdraw any expression which you may
consider to be improper ; but I really do think that the
b°n• member should not, without acquainting himself with
~ 11° circumstances—to put it in the mildest wap—venture
to "Perm the character and conduct of gallant officers both
.
armj and navy. (Hear, hear.)
4,0r4 p
-Liao. the deep ERSTON—I cannot refrain from expressing
taken byrr t which I feel, and which I am sure is par-
which the honeat majerityof the house, at the position in
(Hear, la„r.„;„tnember for Aylesbury has placed himself.
his duty wh'C'arY member is at full liberty, and he does
agaimit public
rne exerciaes that liberty, to bring forward
founded, and wt charge?linkwhich he believes to be well-
The hon. hickmemorhe. he can substantiate by proof.
justified, if his inanressConeasbweerYre wthaast chtingbete,dpgerrefeecntcliye
for his charges, in making t 1
we
tater head o
e accusations which li
myha
vanced against the noble lor
I think that, after the nts of he the ar. But
demonstration that there it not
(cheers)—after the
any of these charges ; after ever; of foundation for
convinced that these charges were7fascaable man must be
(Great cheering)—l think it would have, caluminons—
bee_
sistente More con-
Mr. OTWAY—I rise to order. Althouzil
member it, does seem to me that the noble - • a
Yonne
made use of language which is not justified bvy
it,l tiscoeuunt has
of this house. (Cries of " No, no"). He has sa ha,,m:
bon. member for Aylesbury madei " false and calensseon,,s
charges. I think, sir, you -wll rigree with me that the
noble viscount ought to retractthose words. (Renewed
miles of " No, no.") If I recollect f right,
similar
I have heard an
nu. member withdrawing words o import, and. I
b the noble oPe'

ataale•(ilaugh.)
oho he SPEAKER—The noble viscount said that th©
geamadB by the hon. member fur Aylesbury were al.)
and.
ca: lui,„ furry of e:-presaion which it was not oat
of order
(cheers
14rd
I'AT.4I'4IISTON }lre peat what I was about to &3.y.
t batl 1444 40, enotadthat when it hsci been proved