The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-02 00:00:00

cr:

LONDON, FRIDAY, MARCB. 2, 1855.

Lord GODERICH'S motion for an address to her
MAJESTY, on the subject of promotion is the
Army, was last night rejected by a majority of
44, there boitg 158 against, and only 114 in its
favour. .The advocates for military reform should
not,— however, be discouraged on that account.
Few questions have received such respectable sup-
port on the first occasion of being brought for-
ward, more especially when an "aged vice" was
the _object of attack, and a largo proportion of
those whose votes were demanded possessed " a
vested interest" in retaining matters in, state quo.
Indeed:the discussion and subsequent division
may be regarded as conclusive. The stone has
been set in motion, which will acquire velocity as
it proceeds, until in its irresistible progress it
prostrates every impediment, and creates a breach
much wider than would have been demanded in
the first instance. Concessions that would now
be joyfully received will on a future occasion be un •
hesitatingly rejected. The " pressure from with-
out," already sufficiently marked, will become more
decided, and a radical change must be effected
where a fair modification would now be thank-
fully accepted.
Mr. FREDERICK Pm. was, in virtue of his
position, put forward as the champion of the
existing abuses. It was possibly in reference to
this very subject that he was pitchforked into the
situation, for which he certainly possesses no very
extraordinary qualifications. Mr. LA YARD had
too earnest a feeling as to the necessity of im-
proving the very foundation of our Military
system, of affording hope of promotion
to the meritorious officer or soldier, and
showing that an efficient person might hope
to rise in the service, albeit, without rank or
money, to be " the right man" for the supporters
of the system. He was therefore deprived of the
situation which had but a few days previously
been tendered to him, and the fortunate young
gentleman taken from the Colonial-office, where
he might be useful, and placed in the War-office,
with the duties whereof he was wholly unac-
quainted. In vindication of the appointment,
however, he last night put forward his most
Pompous platitudes, in order to show the vast ad-
vantages incidental to the sale and purchase of
commissions rather than promotion either by
seniority, as in the Engineers and Artillery, or
by _ merit, as supposed to be in the Royal
Navy. Re also endeavoured to prove that the
position of a
deserving non-commissioned officer
was by no means improved by promotion. If his
arguments could be sustained, then not only has
every recent movement of the Horse Guards been
in the wrong direction, but we should go back to
the old system, and make purchase theonlyor
pos-
sible way of attaining military or even naval
civil rank. The Hon. Gentleman should himself
ec
have paid pretty smartly for his Under-S retaiy _
ship, with the chances of further promotion in
thelMinfsterial ranks which it holds out.
Another argument put forward was as to the
Pecuniary results, and the compensation which
the: country might be required to pay to those
who had purchased their rank, if the system were
now altered, and they could no longer dispose of
what they had bought. It is unnecessary, how-
ever, to enter on this point. The most strenuous
reformer would not, we believe, hesitate at any
expenditure necessary to establish the military
system on a sounder l'asis, and to produce the
greatest efficiency, not only :amongst the officers,
but also in the men, by affording the strongest
liiiaulant to zeal, energy, ability, and steadiness.
A:Ned;
ens may unquestionably be urged against
the, invariable promotion by seniority—that re-
cognises no claim for services, however distin-
guished, and against that which gives everything

not to merit—for that is what is required—but
to interest. In the one case, it is peculiarly hard
on young and vigorous men to see the way
blocked up, and their progress arrested, by senile
imbecility, or even mediocrity. On the other
hand, it is still harder on hard-working veterans,
who have honestly won their rank, to see youths,
born after they were in harness, elevated above
their heads, simply because they had influential
friends. But surely the rule of seniority is better
than that of purchase. The former insures a
considerable amount of service, the other only the
possession of a certain sum, while that nominally
for service does not hold out greater advantages
to those possessed of interest than that now in
operation, and is not, by any means, so unfair
to veteran officers. Either of them would be a
decided improvement on the purchase system.
But why should either be exclusively adopted ?
A judicious admixture of both would exactly meet
the exigency of the case, making promotion by
seniority the rule, with exceptions in favour of
every man who fairly merited the privilege.
Public opinion would criticise all such appoint-
ments, and so much the better. If it could not
totally prevent jobbery, if it could not insure the
advancement of the best man, it would at least
prevent any flagrant abuse, and insure the
ap-
pointment of men duly qualified for the duties
they were required to discharge.

The labours of the Grand Inquest now sitting,
under the presidency of Mr. ROEBUCK, would, we
are inclined to think, be a good deal facilitated if
it were taken for granted that everything at-
tempted in connection with the War has been set
about on the principle of doing it in the worst
conceivable way, and in utter recklessness of what
might be the consequences. A good deal, doubt-
less, might be said in favour of the supposition
that what was apparently attempted was never
designed to be done ; but, as this would be re-
garded as an extreme view of the matter, it is as
well that it should give place to one so moderate
as the preceding.
If this be not entertained and acted upon, the
gentlemen of the Grand Inquest will run a great
risk of being bewildered for want of a cue, as
blunder after blunder, to use the popular phrase,
presses on their attention ; for how else are they
to account for so uninterrupted a succession ? A
blunder they well know is an event of an excep-
tional nature ; consequently, if there is little else
than apparent blunders, the presumption is ap-
pearances have proved deceptive, and what seem
to be blunders are not so in reality, but the
result of design.

Passing over the selection of Varna, notoriously
an unhealthy locality, as a halting-place—the in-
vasion of the Crimea and the Siege of Sebastopol,
with inadequate forces, at the worst possible
period of the year, all of which, by the way,
favour the supposition we have humbly hazarded,
let us turn to the housing and provisioning of
our troops, and see whether the principle has
been carried out there. In a country so
cold in winter as the Crimea, so fickle at all
times, and far removed from this country, the
materials for shelter and fire could not, one would
think, be procured too near, or with too great
regularity and speed. Such, it would appear on
our hypothesis, was the opinion of the officials
both at home and abroad, for they have most un-
questionably adopted the very worst modes to
secure these desiderata.

Within twelve hours' sail of the port of Bala-
klava an abundance of wood, coal, sheep, cattle,
fowl, fruit, vegetables and forage, have been
available from the hour of landing to the present
moment, and some of these almost at the mere
cost of transport. Of course n• advantage has
been taken of the fact. Huts, firing, and pro-
visions must be brought from this country at all
risks. Everybody knows the result. Thousands
on thousands of our gallant soldiers have
fallen victims to the want of adequate shelter
and suitable food. Dieted on salt pork and bis-
cuits, the soldier, fresh from a too-prolonged ex-
posure to the inclemency of the weather, found in
his chilly tent no means of restoring lost heat and
wasted strength. Then came dysentery, and other
diseases having a like origin, and did their work.
Nature, at 12 hours' distance, bountifully offered
the means of life and health. Red-tapism, how-
ever, could not countenance -the notion that
Nature could be bountiful out of Great Britain:
So' the fruit and vegetables .on the Anatolian
shores of the Black Sea were Isuffered to rot, the
cattle, sheep, and poultry to increase and mul-
tiply, the forests to grow still mare rank—and the
coal to remain nnwrought. Hubs and firing, long
wanting, came, it is true, at las t, but only when
they had almost ceased to be wanted.
The treatment •f the honer; has closely re-
sembled that of the men. Forage must be brought
them from this country. It wawa sent, but arrived
so irregularly that the animals, weakened by ex-
posure, have died by hundriestils of starvation.
Others, again, have died of sheer exhaustion, after
working as long as they could_ knee-deep in the
muddy roads between the catop and Balaklava.
Yet all this while an abundam ce of wood (for
stabling), of forage, and of buffaloes, animals best
adapted for such work on such 1- oads, was to be
had within twelve hours' sail, It is scarcely
within the verge of possibility th at this was not
known--for it is notorious that n ow and then the
barque of some rascally Greek a rrived from the
Anatolian shore, laden with fa wls, vegetables,
&c., to be sold at the most e: corbitant prices.
But why proceed with a subjet :t so revolting ?
Justice will not be done, and tb ere is reason to
fear the principle we have suggested will practi-
cally be carried out further. GI 3vernment mean
to avail themselves of the resourt es to -which we
have called attention, but, accon ling to a writer
in Bentley, evidently well acqua .inted with the
subject, after the clumsiest fashi' )n. Instead of
selecting for head-quarters Tium or Samsun, the
points from which alone access to the interior of
Asia Minor is tolerably easy, it is understood they
have selected Sinope ; the best port, it is true,
but having little or no intercouz ie with the in-
terior.

FUNERAL OF THE LATE JOSEPH YI .UHE.—Yesterday
morning the remains of this gentles ian were removed
from his town house, Bryanston-stis are, Marylebone
(to which they had been conveyed In nn Burnley Hall,
I. )7special train of the Eastern Conn ties Railway), to
Kewisnh ofsal the deceased.green
Cemetery,,h ie funeraliarrow- rot
ra
,angea ts wereccordteinngtothe
of a: most unostentatious character.
.a.deputation of the Court of Alden ien on the subject
Grey yesterdaY, Asylum,
M.
and th
of a Lunatic had an intervites , with Sir George
consisted of Mr'. tthe Home-office,. The deputation
A deputation from tl(:
Alderman Farebrotli r, Mr. Alderman
Cubitt,
City Remembra icer.
Executor raid Trustee Society,
consisting of Mr. Josial:
(directors),,
V .r. George Harris,
yesterday at tTite 1313'
Lad aeneteFe)" "iniedwMwritheiaLtnd
and Mr. F. H. Robinson
arrived in I iot alord of Trade.
Parliamentary agent,
ao ile at 2. o'clock
StizlQayueeofntlidneerslseeynger
_PFI , With des-
imrn
War,
Yesterday afternoon from Coasts, iti
f—atehes from the Commander of -t1 .
Crimea for Lord Panrnure, Secretes: f e ef
Staetrecefosr
A deputation of licensed victualle re from Southwark,
consisting of Messrs. Foster, Whit e, Harris, Grimes,
and Candelet, had an interview with Si r William Mole:-
worth, yesterday, at the office of l'r iblic Works and
Buildings, Whitehall.
A deputation on behalf of water aa:ei gas companies,
as affected by the Public Health Act, I %mendment Bill,
had an interview yesterday with this. President of the
General Board at his office, Whitebafil. The deputation
consisted of Messrs. Baxter, Shadwill l, Hawkins, and
James.