The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-07 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1955.

We are by no means advocates for the appoint-
ment of aged Generals—men who, having already
fairly earned the otium cunt dignitate, have lest
the strength and activity for which they were
Once remarkable, awl are better suited for the
attentions of a careful nurse than for conducting
affairs of vital importance, requiring the utmost
vigour of mind and body. We have seen many
brilliant examples of comparatively youthful com-
manders ; but it still must be admitted that there
is nothing to disqualify a veteran who in a green
old age still maintains all his energies in un-
diminished force, and whose great experience in
every land is unalloyed by any intellectual or
physical infirmity. We readily concede that past
services should not be the only test adopted in
the selection of a Commander-in-Chief. Many
qualities must combine in the choice of the
flvoured individual. Unflinching courage in the
hour of trial must be largely tempered with dis-
cretion. He must have the moral courage to
sustain unmerited vituperation, when the notions
of the amateurs and " own correspondents"
hanging about the camp do not agree with
the arrangements which he has deemed it
expedient to make, and which in his soul and con-
science he believes to be most advantageous to the
national interests. He must also have the mind
to conceive and the hand to execute judicious
operations in the field or camp—looking carefully
also to the health and comfort of his soldiers,
in many respects supposed to be beneath the
notice of a Commander-in-Chief. When, however,
all those qualities are united in ono individual ;
when on every trial he has passed nobly through
the ordeal, and when he is still apparently in pos-
session of all his mental and bodily powers, we
feel that due weight should be accorded to pre-
vious exploits, and that it is a grievous injustice
to such a person, and to the community at large,
to promote a junior over his head, simply because
he had basked in the sunshine of Court favour,
living at home at ease, while his senior was
sustaining the honour of the national standard
in every clime, and through the most formidable
trials. •

It is not necessary to undervalue the exertions
or capabilities of Sir W. CODRINGTON, to feel sur-
prised and grieved at the slight to Sir CoLIN
CAMPBELL, who may certainly ch:llenge comparison
with the more favoured protegee of the Horse
Guards in any military quality. While the new
Commander-in-Chief was mounting guard at the
Palace, and only smelling powder in Hyde-park,
olng
ili
Sir COLIN' CAMPBELL was nalouily follw •
the reputation
he had acquired as a subaltern,
various British dependencies, until
he might
"what region is not fu'l of m y
?".
labours,g iin
g
justly
lhyheaascs
rkni,omt beeneaitself he h b
distinguishedeee be ymy
e exploits
engaged from the
very first moment, and never failed in any under-
taking, however arduous or perilous. At the
Almn, his deeds, at the head of the gallant High-
land Brigade, elicited enthusiastic commendations
from every side. Friend and foe combined to
exalt the unflinching valour of the " bonnie
Highland laddies" and their dashing Commander,
on the fatal 25th October, when the " thin red
line" withstood the most desperate onslaughts
of the Russian cavalry without flinching or
wavering for a single moment. To that extra-
ordinary firmness, and the absolute impossibility
of making any impression on that devoted band,
may, in a great degree, be attributed the safety of
ttehremaileliaeten of
allied army,
siege ;
,hand:he
ansubsequentfelicitouswere occa-
sions
prominently called into action, it was simply be-
cause they had been selected for a duty requiring
the utmost steadiness and resolution, and that
the security of all might justly be confided to
theft hands.

Apiiat Sir WITZIAbf CODEINGTONI as we have

stated, it is not our wish to utter a single dero-
gatory expression, for we do not consider it to
be so to assert positively that his claims not only
do not exceed, but are by no means equal to
those of Sir COLIN CAMPBELL. He obtained his
commission in the Guards, and served with his
regiment at borne until the last year. He has
had one year of active service to count against
perhaps forty times the period by the neglected
General. His name, too, is one ominous to those
on whose behalf we have been compelled to draw
the sword ; for it cannot be forgotten that it was
owing to the brilliant but most impolitic and ill-
advised destruction of the Turkish fleet at Nava-
rino that Russia was enabled to develope her real
intentions, and to proceed to such lengths as to
compel the Allies eventually to proclaim war. It
was not, however, to the exploits of Sir EDWARD
CODRINGTON, but to his official station about the
Court, that the favour which has led to the pre-
sent promotion is owing—that occasioned " the
pulling of the wires" that acted on the
nominal head of the Horse Guards. In
a matter of such importance as the
nomination of a Commander -in - Chief,
we think, and we believe, the community at
large participate in the opinion, that such in-
fluences should not be exercised, that " patron-
age," so loudly complained of, should, if at all
exercised, be restricted to minor appointments
but that the chief place should be given to the
most worthy candidate. Sir COLIN CAMPBELL
has just cause of complaint, but the public are
even more deeply interested in putting an end to
the objectionable system that has produced such
fruits at such a time.

Mr. COBDEN seems destined, like all special
pleaders, to see b;s arguments recoil successively
upon himself. He and others of his party, the
disappointed speculator in Austrian Railways
especially, have endeavoured to persuade us that
we are ignorant of Continental views on the War,
while they, by their superior acquaintance with
" respectable merchants and traders on the Con-
tinent," can enlighten our darkness. They would
persuade us that the people of the German States
1 share the views of their governors, and are in-
different to the diminution of Russian power.
Fettered as the press is throughout all Germany,
we can obtain only cooked and doctored informa-
tion from its newspapers. But facts, which reveal
the widely-concealed truth, every now and then
come to light. We would not estimate them at
more than their worth, but they are worth a
great deal when we remember the universal sys-
tem of repression which prevails—the alertness of
the police—and the extent to which innumerable
individuals and families are implicated in the
course taken by their Governments, as depen-
dents more or less directly on the pay of the
State. A very large proportion of the families of
Germany would endanger the salary of some re-
lative in office, it may be the office of a spy,
should they venture openly to show their detes-
tation of Russia, their disapproval of the policy
of their own mien, or their sympathy with the
cause of the Allies.
An incident of the kind we allude to is the
popularity of General CANROBERT with the Ger-
mans. The French, especially since the great
struggle for Vaterland, have not been, nationally,
favourites with the Germans; yet they embrace
the occasion of the General's mission to Sweden
to testify by their enthusiastic huzzas the
sentiments which they have no other means
of expressing. We beg Mr. COBDEN to allow
himself to see but one—one not solitary fact—in
contrariety with his own selected or garbled facts ;
it might enable him to suspect that even those be
had selected are capable of a very different inter-
pretation. How does he account for the well-
authenticated statement, " that in every part of
Germany through which General CANROBERT
passed, and particularly at Hanau and at Ham-
burg, the populations of the towns gave him a bona
fide ovation. At Lubeck the most enthusiastic
cheers hailed his arrival and accompanied him to
the place of embarkation." Now, General CAN li
-
ROBERT has not been one of those unique and suc-
cessful heroes whom all populations will turn out
to cheer and admire. He acted a noble part, it
is true ; but it was the nobleness of renouncing
personal ambition, and willingly taking subordi-
nate command in favour of one whom ho judged
better ab:e to serve that cause, to which the
Germans, Mr. COBDEN being witness, are so pro.
fouudly indifferent. Had it been BOSQUET, the
hero of the Malakhoff, the enthusiasm might have
been attributed to the last splendid achievement
civilised courage and skill. In the cise of
General CANROBERT there could be but two
grounds for the applauses of the German citizens
—that they had before them one of the leaders in
. great warfare, which was felt by them deeply to
concern their own liberties, or that the man before
them had made the noblest sacrifice in the service
of that War which a military man could possibly
make.

There is, indeed, another alternative, and we
willingly give Mr. COBDEN the benefit of it.
General CANROBEBT was on a mission to Sweden.
All lovers of national freedom hope that its object
is not merely to secure a winter port for our
vessels ; indeed, all the ports of Sweden and
Norway, but one or two, are already open to
English, French, or Russian ships indifferently ;
—the belief is that he and our DIINDAS have a
secret mission of a far more popular character ;
that the object is to enlist the freemen of the
North in this War of freedom. The Swedish
people are well known to long for emancipation
from the fear of Russia ; Norway already trembles
for Varanger Bay ; and even lest some day the
Russian flag should wave over her western pores,
and her hardy and independent seamen become
slaves of despotism. Did the Germans hope that
the General had it in charge to urge the Court
of Stockholm to give effect to the zeal of its sub•
jects, and allow them to fight the battle of free-
dom now, rather than to live in constant dread
of Russian fleets and despotism, and of final ab-
sorption by barbarism? Next to Poland, Sweden
is the most valuable ally we could have, and we
are quite willing Mr. COBDEN shnild regard
the enthusiasm of the good Germans for General
CANROBERT as indicative of their hopes for the
cause of freedom iu the North. For ourselves we
cannot doubt that it was the devoted antagonist
of Russia and the hopeful envoy to Sweden who
caused all the excitement amongst the misrepre-
sented Germans.

We may just advert before concluding to an-
otherwagin
waving
dictum u
aulggorfessi‘"iver. ~., OBDEN'S-that we are now
War, and that the evacwr-
tion of all Russian territory by the Allies is the
first
e is requisite
amere
t o
shuate peace ! The first half of the sen-
nwith words---a trick we
trse
could wish Mr. COBDEN, with his confessci ability,
would not descend to ; the second is a practical
assertion that peace will never be made. Per-
haps Mr. COBDEN will describe it
-- as an ag-
gression when a housekeeper, enlistini, a
policeman or two as his Allies, pursues
the burglar after he has frightened him
from his house and grounds into his haunt,
wrests from him the instruments of futurebur
bur-
glaries, and makes every effort to place him in the