The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-03 00:00:00

Spirit of the. Public Journals.

( From t7:c Times of this day.)
We are apt to leek with 'little favour on the foreign
system of conscription, and pharisaically to congratulate
ourselves that v,e are not as other men are, nor as those
who s ize upon a man for the service of his country with-
out condescending to ask him whether he be willing to
enter that service or no. Well, we are entitled to our
boast—nay, we shall d 3 wisely to make the most of it,
for it is perhaps the only matter in which we can fairty
claim superiority for our system. The British soldier
has to reflect that whatever neglect he suffers he has in-
curred in a service into which he has entered by his own
frae choice, while the Frenchman may console himself by
consi tering how much is done by his country to com-
pensate the original hardship of forcing him into her
service. The portals of promotion are thrown wide
open to him, and honour is meted out to the brave and
deserving with no niggard or partial hand. In the
Moniteur of the let of. November we find eight columns
devoted is th 3 confirmation by the Imperial Government
of the nominations to the Legion -of Honour conferred
by Marshal Pelissier on the 11th of September. In this
heroic catalogue no department of the army seems
to be overlooked or forgotten. Staff Officers, Military
Intendants, Imperial Guard, Imperial Gendarmerie, In-
fantry, Artillery, Medical Department, Commissariat,
—all are remembered, and at any rate no bitter feeling
can be excited in any branch of the service by finding
its merits totally overlooked. Nor is the list less gene-
ral and impartial as regards persons than as regards
classes. Merit is of no rank, and it is discriminated and
rewarded in all. From the lieutenant-colonel to the
simple cavalry soldier, captains, lieutenants, trumpeters,
farriers, sergeants, cannoniers, corporals, all are to be
found in this catalogue of honour, which is read in
France with feelings of pride and exultation among the
families of the decorated, of which those used to nothing
better than English despatches can form but little idea.
What makes this catalogue even more valuable is, that
it does not confine itself to a dry list cf names, but
recounts in many cases the particular merit for which
the reward is granted. Thus, a sergeant in the First
Foreign Legion receives the crass for having lost
both his hands in pushing away a shell that fell near
his captain. A captain in the same corps is de-
scribed as " always in the post of danger"—another
as " wounded in planting the standard on the
rampart"—another as "always in front." A corpo-
ral in the Ist Battalion of Chasseurs " carried away his
companions by his example ;" a lieutenant in the same
corps was "the first to throw himself on the enemy."
A sergeant joined the assault, though scarcely healed of
a wound; another, being taken prisoner, and understand.
ing a little German, informed the Marshal of the inten-
tion of the enemy to evacuate the town. Another was
severely wounded in disputing with the enemy the body
of a fillet] comrade. Another, although wounded, re-
maine I at the head of his company; another commanded
a column of attack on the Malakhoff. These brief sen-
tences, full of point and vi ;our, must be even more valu-
able to the soldier than the cross be is henceforth to bear
—an attestation of his merits from which malice cannot
detract, a memorial fit to be inscribed on his tomb, and
to he handed down as a precious heirloom to his descen-
dants.

It is quite manifest that this task of discriminating and
rewarding merit is viewed by the French General as
second in importance to none of the duties he is called
upon to discharge. These crosses were distributed be-
fore the rains of Sebastopol ha I ceased to smoulder, and
the first excitement of the fight bad time to subside.
Yet with what care and attention they were bestowed
we may learn from the fact that the General has an-
nexed to so many names brief memorials of their ser-
vices, the truth of which, if it could be called in ques-
tion, it Ras in the power of hundreds to dispute and
deny. We ought to add, that in this catalogue are in-
chided not merely the stormers of the Malakboff but
those v.ho, with perhaps equal valour but with less good
fortune, attacked those netts of the works at which the
assault was repulsed. The whole proceeding seems ad-
mirable, but more especially for the promptitude with
which the honour was conferred and the discrimination
of merit which made that honour doubly valuable.
Let us now turn from the army of our allies to our
Own, and inquire what is the reward which our soldiers
have received for their share in the operations of this
glerions and bloody day. Nobody doubts that there
was evinced on the part of many who fell, and of many
also who escaped from the slaughter of the Redan,
courage and devotion of the very highest order. In that
memorable despatch in which General Simpson with his
own hand so effectually demolished his own reputation
as a commander, he stated that it was his intention to
bring to the notice of the Commander-in-Chief those who
had distinguished themselves in the assault on the Redan.
From that day to this, so far as we have been able to
learn, that promise has never been redeemed, and the
heroes of the Bth of September remain unnamed and
unknown because their General has not thought it pos-
sible to tell the country the deeds of her true and gallant
defenders. But, though the men and officers who fought
and bled received nothing, not even the mention of their
names in the Gazette, tie?), were vicariously rewarded.
Because their general had left them unsupported in the
hour of peril they were rewarded by seeing him raised
another step in preferment " for distinguished service in
the field ;" and, because many of the regimes to were
young and inexperienced, they were rewarded by the
distsibution of the baton of Field-Marshal to three oil
gentlemen, the youngest of whom might be grandfath, r
to every soldic.r in the service. Surely " the c•-)1d shade
of aristocracy" has grown colder and deadlier since
the days of the Periinsuler War. The gallant army
of Wellington was neglected and forgotten,—the
array of the Crimea seems to be remembered and
slighted. Yet not wholly so. Thcugh no pen, as it
seems, except that of a newspaper correspondent, is to
record the bravery of our men or the devotion of our
officers, something we are to do, but that something
as unlike the manner in which' the French Govern-
ment re.vaids meritorious service as possible. A clasp
is to be struck bearing the nal/ eof Sebastopol with such
device as the advanced state of the art of design in this
country may enable us to contrive ; and this clasp, at
fixed to the medal for former achievements, will be dis-
tributed, not merely to the men who mounted the
breach and encountered for two dreadful hours the mur-
derous fire of the Russian infantry, but to those even
who were at work at Balaklava,—to every one, in fact,
who was within hearing of the guns, whether be took
any part in the combat of the day or not. Compare this
proceeding with that of the French, and judge whether
a reward shared by all alike—by those who shrank from
as well as by those who manfully encountered the storm
of battle—by the brave and the timid—by those who
had, and by those who had not, the opportunity of dis-
tinguishing themselves—can be for a moment compared
with the careful selection and the discriminating praise
which have commended the bravest among the brave of
the French army to the pride of their friends and the
gratitude of their country. Wiil the tardy clasp, doled
out to all alike, compensate for the • cross given to the
chosen few before the ashes of the city they had stormed
had grown cold, even if we throw in with it three octo-
genarian Field-Marshals and the rank of General,
bestowed, as it would seem, principally to mark the
fact that its recipient bad proved himself devoid of the
faculty of command ?