The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-04 00:00:00

THE SUN,

voice and person, and acted the part of Nora with
energy and natural pathos. Mr. Traver; from Sad-
ler's Wells, enacted her lover, and did all that could
be done with the part entrusted to him. Mr. James
Worrell, many years a member of the Haymarket
and Adelphi, seems to have carved out a new line of
business. Ho was the villain of the piece, Platsnake,
and •acted with discrimination and judgment , while
his dress was artistic to a degree. He will prove a
great acquisition at this theatre. In fact, all the actors
did their best towards the success of the drama, and
it and they were decidedly successful. Much praise
is due to Messrs. Johnstone and Nelson Lee. The
house has been newly painted and decorated, and the
East enders ought to be proud of such a splendid
theatre, which might vie with many of our West-end
establishments.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GENERAL
VISCOUNT HARDINGE, G.C.B.

MY LORD,—To have been the friend of Wellington,
his companion and associate in the field, and at the
council table, was indeed honour sufficient for any
Englishman ; but to have been selected by her Most
Gracious Majesty to perform henceforth " all matters
respecting her Majesty's military service which have
heretofore been transacted by his Grace the late Com-
mander-in-Chief," must suroly, my Lord, be more
than enough to satisfy the highest point of your mili-
tary ambition.
Upon the important and sacred duties that this
office will entail upon your Lordship to perform,
it is, lam sure, unnecessary here to dwell; you
must feel their full force with every pulsation of your
heart, and every nerve you have must be vibrating
with emotion each time you place yourself in
the old warrior's chair as you think about
them. The result, however, of the well or
ill performance of your work can only be shown
in the hereafter by the moral and social condition of

he army. You cannot, my Lord, raise its military
renown one iota. It has long reached the highest
point, and long may it remain there. Give our sol-
diery what arms you please, no sort of victory can
add to their fighting glory ; Wellington and Na-
poleon have ieft nothing to oe done by their successors
to show the courage or the prowess of the troops they
led. It required the physical force of more than the
whole of Europe, involving Great Britain in an enor-
mous debt, before the French army could be checked
in its career of victory—and the navy of the British
empire, what can it do that will ever surpass its
ancient or modern exploits ? As regards crime,
however, particularly drunkenness, much, I am
sorry to say, remains yet to be done in the
British service. Has it not struck your Lord-
ship that the proper moment has arrived for an at-
tempt at least being made to instil a higher tone of
feeling amongst the soldiers, and to try if it is not
possible to banish that much-felt stigma—corporal
punishment—from our military code ? The question ,
of its abolition has, as we all know, been much con-
sidered and canvassed, and by many officers corporal
punishment has been considered as indispensable in
the British army. To me it appears that we have
now a favourable opportunity to get rid of it. Can-
not, my Lord, the respect, the love, the veneration
even that attaches to the name of Wellington, be
made the means to so desirable an end ? Many a
soldier, who does not and will not fear the lash as a
punishment—and I have known many receive it
without a cry or a word—such men would greatly
dread to be in any other way degraded before their
comrades--if deprived of the power of showing their
courage and endurance under pain. Cannot, then,
the name of Wellington be made the instrument of
reformation to the evil-doers in the army ?—can it
not clear our defaulter book of all disgraceful mili-
tary crimes ? I think it can—and I speak from long
experience in looking after soldiers. To accomplish
this I would suggest, that a medal be struck, having on
one side the words " Truth—Wellington—Duty," and
let the other side be left blank ; thus after any fixed
period of service—say five years—of a soldier per-
formed without trial by a court-martial, let him have
his name and number engraved upon it. Let this
be his badge of honour—let it be placed on his breast
in front of his regiment, by his commanding officer's
own hands. If, after once he is in possession of this
medal, he should unfortunately commit himself, so
as to deserve corporal punishment—and who may not
fail some day ?—let him be brought out before his
comrades, and with all the preparations for corporal
punishment, the lash even shown him—then let
the name of Wellington, whilst it screens, the army
in general, by preventing the actual infliction on one
of its members of this disgusting punishment—let it
also be the means of giving the individual offender a
chance of redeeming his lost character, by forting him
to dwell with feelings of gratitude and of pride on
the memory of that great man, whose name alone
must ever prove a safeguard and tower of strength
for the Throne, the institutions of the country, and
the integrity of the empire. Let the medal be taken
from the offender's breast and - returned to the
War-office, and only restored to him after com-
plete repentance and improvement to be shown in
a continuance of good conduct for three years—and
let every soldier who may be in possession of one of
those medals on discharge have any other reward or
honour conferred on him that his Sovereign and his
country may think fit.
I have named five years at first, because I think
that no medal ought to be given until there is just
reason to hope that it will never be forfeited—and
because I consider that no commanding officer would
have recourse to corporal punishment to support dis-
cipline until every other means and power he had at
his command had been exhausted in the attempt to
correct his men ; and if everything else is tried, if all
officers and non-commissioned officers strictly and
kindly perform their duty, making all proper allow-
ance for the offences of young soldiers—in short,
acting up to the spirit of that kind and benevolent
Commander-in-Chief, Lord Hill's letter then
do I feel sure that the Wellington medal will
be worn by every soldier in the service—
and many a dare-devil fellow, who would
not dread the lash, will dread the disgrace and dis-
honour of losing what will have become more valu-
able to him than his life—he will bear about the
proof that he is a good citizen and a good soldier,
that he has followed the example left him by the
greatest commander England has ever known, and in
the day of battle he would sooner surrender his life
than allow a single Wellington medal to fall into an
enemy's hands. It will not be then around his
colours alone that the British soldier will rally, but
every fallen comrade's medal will be to him a barrier
to retreat, and when the advance was sounded, the
medal suspended at the breast of the leading soldier,
would prove the guiding, star to victory or death
to all his companions in arms ; for all will
feel that they carry about them not only the honour
of England but the spirit of Wellington. Truth,
Wellington, and Duty will become the invincible
watchwords of the army, and punishment become
unknown ; for every medal; that is given away will
remind the soldier of those two great virtues upon
which the high and noble character of Wellington
was formed—love of truth' and faithful performance
of duty, qualities which cause England and its Sove-
reign to mourn as much for the man as for the hero,
and which have commanded the respect and esteem of
all foreign nations.
The sword has fallen from mighty hands—England
has lost her master mind—we ne'er shall look upon
his like again, but supported, my Lord, as you will be
by every soldier, and united as all Englishmen must
be in defence of the rights of the Crown and the in-
stitutions and safety of the country, let us hope
that the British army will not, at all events, degene-
rate, nor wisdom entirely desert our councils.—l
have the honour to remain, my Lord, your Lordship's
most obedient servant,

AN OLD SOLDIER.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

WESTERN-. MEETING AT AYR.—FRIDAY.
Tmlire.
Terry's
Handicap of 10 sous. each, h ft, and 50
,aamddiseda
Ann,.T 6 yrs,omileSsit
7(l6bS.u.b. 4)
CLaoPrdtatagliitYon,eLnittile Jack, 5 yrs, Bst 21b
The Hurdle Stakes(Oates) 1
ptololytus, 4 yrs, 7st 71b
Wf
5o n
toys,by a
each, head.
Mr.
spiereraniale_aver eight hurdles.
light, list 71b and
(4 50Subs.)
added. o3
Mr. Boston's Tartar
Lord Ailsa's Chameieolna,tl7llabt 71b
Captain Newmaarsetir, aged, llst 71b
Won bY two lengths. (Thrift) 1
2
.. 3
3afsuebosYs. each, and 25 added, two
The Free Handicap(
miles over hurdles
Hunter's Romany Chal, 115.t),,,,as won easily by Mr.
Tartar
YORKSHIRE and a i Maid of the
uN West.
lON
B7NatTrkt.dyedSoEcrEkotaTth)li,rxebGue.antiinogn
WEDNESDAY NEXT.—Entries for thaed
Hunt Stckes, 10 sous. each, and 50 Two miles.
Acomb, eged—Agis, aged—Garforth, 5
5 yrs—peg Top, aged—Burndale, 3 ye...---o 17113i-Sweep,
.r Robert,
5 yrs.
Match for 50 cove. Priory Stag agst Butahe
Tally Ho Stakes. Two miles. r*
Master Bagot, View Halloo, Peg Top, Squire of Mal_
ton, Quiz, Little Queen, Tordesillas, Sailor, Sir Robert.
Scurry Stakes.
Black Eyed Susan, 3 yrs, (201.) Priory Stag, aged,
(201.) Sweep, 5 yrs, (801.) Snowdrop, 3 yrs, (80/.)

DEATH OF SIR JUKES GRANVILLE JUICES CLIFTON,
BART.—The death of the above gentleman took place on
Friday evening, at his ancestral seat, Clifton Hall, Notts.
The deceased Baronet had been for a considerable time in a
declining state of health. He is succeeded by his son, now
Sir Robert Clifton.
ADVANCE OF WAGES.—It is gratifying to be enabled
to state that the Messrs. Bailey, of Nantyglo, have volun-
tarily announced to their six or seven thousand workpeople
that wages would be advanced in a month from Monday
last. The cheering news has spread great joy throughout
this important district.—Monmouth Merlin.

A tragical event bss occurred in Paris. Mr. Saville
Morton, one of the correspondents of the Daily News, has
lost his life by the hand of a former friend—Mr. Bower, who
was impelled to the fatal act by jealousy.

LONDON,

THE MAGAZINES, &c.
BLACKWOOD. _

Bulwer's wonderful " Novel"—not only, in many
respects, one of the most remarkable of the author's
productions, but also, to our thinking, one of the most
extraordinary fictions in the range of our national
literature—is manifestly fast approatiting the period
of its termination. For complication and entangle-
ment of plot we know scarcely anything more sur-
prising, unless, indeed, it be the marvellous lucidity of
its unravelment. " Vanity Fair upon its very title-
pnaagsemculcahime itd f.v,o,rasits,e,lwf
itthheouta
merit
heorfo,o,—rigpionoarliptyobfboirn-
ibeing scarcely less unworthy of the title than young
Osborne, most selfish and empty-headed of coxcombs.
The work with which Sir Bulwer Lytton has been long
adorning the pages of Blackwood has the more
elevated merit of possessing more heroes and heroines
than one can very readily enumerate. Heroes—any one
of them sufficient to secure interest to the ordinary
three-volumned romance might be found, for
example, in warm-hearted, thoughtless Frank Hazle-
dean, in clever, unprincipled Randal Leslie, in the
gentle poet, Leonard Fairfield, in the hard statesman,
Audley Egerton, and best of all, in the loveable
dreamer, Harley, Lord L'Estrange—to say nothing
even of that grand portraiture of the ruined genius,
John Burley, of the silky usurer, Baron Levy, of the
dissipated roue, Count Peschiera, of gentle Parson
Dale, of bluff Squire Hazledean, and of Doctor
Iliccabocca, the good, the wise, and the generous, or,
as he is now proved to be, Alphonso, Prince of Monte-
leone and Duke of Serrano 1 What a catalogue !
Then of heroines have we not abundance—from the
brilliant Violante to the gentle Helen, from the
Squire's "Harry" to the Parson's " Carry," from the
dead Nora to the living Jemima—and so on through
the whole motley concourse, showing the Varieties of
English Life among the gentler as well as among the
sterner sex of the present generation ? But the story
draws on to its conclusion, and we are breathless for
the denouement. Harley—transformed by the emotions
of Revenge—is collecting all the principle characters
of the work at Lansmere. And so ends the masterly
instalment of "My Novel" in the October number
of Blackwood, the last incident being the news of the
sudden dissolution of Parliament. Another "con-
tinuation" is the fourth instalment of" Katie Stewart"
—a domestic tale of Scottish Life, which is gaining,
we doubt not, upon the interest of many hundreds, as
it is upon our own. Whoever the writer may be---
(can it be Aytoun ?)—he has evidently a' poet's
feeling for nature and a poet's knowledge of the
human heart. "Are there not Boasters among Us P"
is the title of a paper penned manifestly by one who can
sympathise to the full with those abominable vaga-
bonds the Iconoclasts. Everything is a mockery to
him—possibly we may presume himself included. A
second part is given in Ebony this month of the
biographical criticism on Lord Jeffrey, and the maga-
zine also contains a brief but eulogistic notice of the
death of the Duke of 'Wellington. Besides a re-
view of Werne's " Journey to Mandera," Black-
wood has a thoughtful analytical notice of M. Guizot's
volumes upon Corneille and Shakapere.