The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-26 00:00:00

It has been written that war makes soldiers. Peak.
may give us the men, and we may clothe and drill them,
but it is only in the field that their metal is tried, and that
experience ol.tained which makes them serviceable to their
country. No doubt a seasoned officer is worth a score
who have had no experience of the rugged edge of ser-
vice. The Duke of Wellington always naturally pre-
ferred the man of one compaign to the mere recruit. It
may be, however, that war may carry away the greater
part of the good and tried soldiers, and so neutralise all
the benefits arising out of a little hardship and a few
combats. Some regiments may be all the better for ser-
vice, and many more may be completely decimated.
Looking at the state cf the regiments in the Crimea, no
man in his senses can come to any other conclusion than
that they are gradually reaching an alarming point of
demoralisation, from which there is no escape under the
system of rapid promotion sanctioned from a mistaken
sense of justice. There are now upwards of 400 line
lieutenants in the Crimea who have had but one year of
full-pay service! Very many of them are within two or
three of the top of the regimental list, and must, in the
elrcumstances in which they are placed, become cap-
tains in less than a year. There are very many cap-
tains of only three, four, five, and six years' full-pay
service, and some of two years. Now, it is very
right to let gentlemen reap some of the fruits of
warfare in a rapid promotion, resulting from the
casualties in the ranks above them ; and, if their
good fortune were not pregnant with danger to the
service, no one would gruige them the attainment of the
highest positions. We ask, however, in all soberness,
whether the crowding many regiments with boys is not
a certain method of uprooting discipline, of destroying
character, and creating a world of dissatisfaction in the
numerous corps which have not been employed in the
Crimea, and which, consequently, are filled with officers
whose full pay service is in the proportion of five years
to one of the lucky survivors of the conflict before Se-
bastopol ? The main argument against promotion by
purchase has been that it enables the young to leap over
the beads of the old, superseding experience and service
by incompetency. Bat of what avail would be the
abolition of the system if every youth, whose regiment
happens to be nearly cut up, while he, perhaps, was
away on leave or still at the depot, is to run up the lad-
der of preferment to the supercession of much older and
more useful men in other corps ? While the fortunate
regiments (as they facetiously call the greatest sufferers
sfiesni-440-fices 4 Att.enenry). erg. alLepaatnieet). ,-)ogether,-
Hai inischtef itent;diately apparent, eptingjkthe-
.-restoHTe,
looseness of discipline. How will it be when a reki-.
ment, returned from the Crimea, is:in the same garrison
with one that has but just returned from the Cape or
India ? Why, that lieutenants of 13 and 14 years'
standing will find themselves subordinate to boys of three
and four years' service. Put the case that the 87th were
quartered with the 23d, 62d, or the 63d - no fewer than
15 lieutenants of the 87th would find themselves junior
in rank to men who have not half of their full-pay
service ; and so with other regiments. Place the 59th in
juxtaposition with the 57th or the 64th in the same
cantonment with the 77th—nothing but heartburning
and mortification would result from the contrast. We
repeat: give a fair share of recompence to the gallantry
which has confronted the enemy and endured the trying
effects of trench duty in a hostile climate and under pri-
vation ; but for the sake of common justice and disci-
pline, let us have a few transfers from unlucky regiments
to the corps which have been deprived of so many of
their best officers. Lord Hardinge will be able to find
n.a,,y excellent excuses for the promotion of officers out
of their regiments in the colonies and India, into Crimean
corps. To some of them the step will be a proper com-
pliment to the memory of a relative slain in action ; to
others it will be twice blessed—a compensation for tardy
promotion, and a benefit to a regiment needing the pre-
sence of a few more experienced soldiers.—United Ser-
vice Gazette.