The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1864.

It is quite time that something was done to im-
prove the physical condition of our troops in India,
if we are to judge by the revelations of the Coen-
mission of Inquiry. There have indeed long been
misgivings as to the defective sanitary arrange-
ments of our barracks and depots in that country,
and since public attention has been called to the
matter the rough figures which have been given
have been startling enough to arouse the most in-
different; Bat the fall particulars gathered by a
commission of no mean weight or authority and
laid by them before the 'War-office, leaves no excuse
for future neglect or inattention to a subject in-
volving the lives of so many men. Politicians and
statesmen of all grades pride themselves on their
reluctance to involve us in war and their unwille
ingness to sacrifice the lives of so many brave
men, and the health and comfort of so many more
as would necessarily be the result of a protracted
struggle with any of the great Powers. But the
yearly campaign of disease among our ',lndian
forces gives returns of killed and wounded that are
overlooked. Whole regiments melt away,
and 'where a thousand fine stalwart men
land from England in one year, not
less than a hundred remain eighteen or twenty years
later without a shot being fired, or any military duty
undertaken to account for the deficiency. A spacial
inst ance, of the truth of these calculations is afforded
by a return laid before the Commission by one
Brigadier-General, showing that out of 1,064 non•
ceramissioned officers and men of his regiment, who
arrived at Moulmein iu 1842, only 93 landed in
England after 17 years' service. The regiment that
returned. was, therefore, almost a new one; and
when we are further told that the mean term of
Indian service is 8 6 years, and that 11 recruits are
annually requisite to keep up a force of 100 men, we
shall have seine faint idea of the drain upon
the physical strength and public exchequer of the
country which is represented by the Anglo.lndian
army The natural question that follows is how
fir such an extravagant rate of mortality as 69 per
1,000 is traceable to the climate, the occupation, and
other influences inseparable from their profession.
But it appears the rate of mortality among the
<Boers is only 88 per 1.000, so that nearly one-half
of the deaths among the
Privates and noncommis-
sioned officers must be attribatable to some other
causes than tea inevitable evils of an Indian life.
The same difference is apparent between the deaths
of English women of different ranks; the
wives of officers between the ages of 20
and 40 die at the rate of 14 in 1,000, whereas the
wives of the non-commissioned officers and soldiers
die at the rate of 35 per 1,000. It is very plain,
therefore, that if the heat of an Indian sun has
anything to do with the extraordinary rate of mor-
tality, its effects can be in a great measure coun-
teracted. Among the chief reasons for the exces-
sive mortality among the men is their living and
elvPing in crowded barracks, while their officers

h eve their eoparate bungalows. The officers have
aiaother very great advantage. They are able,
when ill, to move to a healthier spot, at least tems
porarily, and can recruit their strength by
the fresh breezes of the hills. The hills
are India's native sanitarium, and the
advantages which they have over the lower levels
are clearly manifested in the children reared in the
Lawrence Asylum, who are strong and healthy,
looking, as a native chief remarked, like lions' cubs,
while little Anglo.lndians pine and droop unless
sent to England in good time. The enforced idle-
ness of troops in barracks is an unmitigated evil
even in England, but in India it is disastrous in its
consequences. It induces the men to drink, and
drink is one of the prime agents of disease in India.
There is, therefore, as much practical prudence as
kindness in the new system of establishing regi-
mental workshops and allotting small gardens to the
men. They have availed themselves moat eagerly of
the means thus ()flared to dispel the ennui of their aim-
less existence, and already the Commander-ins Chief
is able to compliment the men at several stations
on the result of their handiwork. Fresh vegetables
and more wholesome food will also be attainable
by means of the gardens, while the pleasant recreae
Con will draw off the men from the vicious indulge
ences which have helped to swell the death rate.
Besides the 69 per 1000 lost annually to the service
it seems from the statistics furnished that 84 per
1000 in the stations of Bengal are, on an average,
constantly in hospital. The average mortar
lity in the native troops in twenty years was
18 per 1000; 19 per 1000 being the rate of the
invaliding. Allowing for all difference of
constitution, the commissioners attribute the chief
part of the native superiority in point of health to
the fact of their generally living with their families
in small bamboo huts, instead of being crowded in
barracks, where many sleep in one small, perhaps
ill-ventilated, room. The Commissioners are san-
guine that, from the experience now gathered, the
mortality may be reduced from 69 to 10 per 1,000.
It now remains for the public to watch carefully
the progress of reform, and to see that official negli-
gence and indifference are not suffered to trifle with
a matter so vitally important. Plenty of air espe-
cially in sleeping rooms, pure water, good food,
and temperance appear to be the primary requisites
for health in Indian stations as elsewhere, and they
are none of them sufficiently unattainable to justify
a rate of mortality four times as great as the highest
in England.

It is a pity that Lord PALMERSTON cannot learn
the propriety of keeping silence at times, Hie
conduct during the past session was not of a chae
racter to elevate his reputation, and it is a mistake
for him to be perpetually referring to the policy
of the Government. It would seem as if the mis-
guided course that was taken by the House thie
year had completely obliterated the sense of shame
that ought to be experienced by all in power re-
garding the line adopted in the question of the
Darn-German war. For a Minister to take credit
to himself or his colleagues concerning our foreign
policy at present is really quite absurd and a
mockery to common sense persons. Lord PALMER-
STON seems to be one of those whose glory is their
shame, and he endeavours to put forth all the mis-
deeds of himself and his Foreign Secretary, for the
purpose of pronouncing a laudation upon them,
First of all, he begins with Poland, and congratu-
lates his hearers that we had not been reduced to
lend our succour to the Poles ; this he declares to
have been a great advantage. If it be true that it
was not desirable for us to be involved in a war, it
was not justifiable for the noble lord at the head
of Foreign Affairs to induce the Poles to believe
that cur sympathies were all enlisted en their be-
half, and thst at the worst they would receive
aseistance. Then as to America, the course pursued
by our Government
,has been most prejudicial for
our interests in a commercial form, and created
many evils in various ways, while their mean spirited
subserviency to the Federals has been a disgrace to
the country. Great as are the blunders and tale-
takes made in connection with other countries,
however, nothing at all comes up to the
enormity of the conduct pursued towards
Denmark, end the remarks of the Premier
on that subject are quite unwarrantable. He has
adopted a tone at Tiverton that he dare not have
used in the House of Commons, and it is perfectly
scandalous that the First Minister of the Crown
should employ such terms, in speaking of this coun-
try's resources, as ho has done. Much may be
allowed to speakers in the heat of debate, and, of
course, all official personages get used to comment-
ing upon their management in a bombastic tone;
but it is too much when a man deliberately gets up
and discourses as a):.ord PALMERSTON has done at
Tiverton. It wou, have been better to have said
that the Government did not see any call to go to
war, and that the Danes had acted imprudently.
Anything would have been better than to traduce
the fame of Er gland and the character of her army
to cover the errors of policy, of which he must be at
heart ashamed. Everyone at ail competent to
judge of the affair must know that England is more
than a match for Germany at any time, and for
Lord PALMERSTON to state that we could not have
succeeded in rescuing the Danes from the grasp of
their greedy foes is perfectly preposterous. Such
language will lower him in the esteem of all jade-
pendent persons, and for ever diminish the influence
that he ought to possess in the country. It is, in-
deed, seldom that one in his high position so com-
promises himself. It is almost incredible that the
Prime Minister of this country should
,thus ex-
press himself:—" We have no means of sending out
a force at all equal to cope with the three or four
hundred thousand whom the Germans could have
pitted against us, sad such an attempt would only
have insured a disgraceful discomfiture not to the
army indeed, but to the Government which sent
out an inferior force and expected it to cope
with a force so vastly superior !' If the
Government have escaped discomfiture they
have decidedly reaped a double rslaare of dis-
grace by their dastardly conduct. What can Lord
PALMERSTON mean by thus scattering to the winds
the reputation of a long career, and throwing away
the renown he has won by half a century's service
to his country. There was a time, in past days,
when his name sounded stirring in the ears of the
enemies of this country ; it was a trumpet blast to
remind them that England possessed a minister
with spirit to defend her rights, and enterprise to
consider the affairs of other nations. It was, indeed,
very suitable that Lord PALMERSTON should have
endeavoured to -pass an eulogium on the peace
party—it is on the principle of making friends with
the mammon of unrighteoasness—and certainly the
only consistent part of his speech. If he has
rightly read the history of his country he must
have seen that in the battles where the
English gained enduring renown, their num-
bera were always inferior to those of their adversa-
ries. Surely it is too much for the impertinent
exaggeration of ministerial parlance to assert that
the German legions are to be compared to th e
armies of NAPOLEON. It is but seldom in the hiss
tory of the world that such a military genius
appears, and if we could conquer his batteliene,
flashed with their unrivalled success, it is ridi-
culous to speak of the German troops as invinl

cible. It is indeed true that, at present, there
seems no prospect of a PITT or a Fox to rule
our councils, or a WELLINGTON to lead forth
our armies ; but the national spirit is not dead,
and that is the true secret of self-reliance. When
Lord PALMERSTON talks of sending a fleet in mid-
winter to the Baltic, he chooses to forget that
the spring was far advanced before any of the
more decisive engagements took place in the late
war. If it is to be broadly asserted that the course
of our policy is to take care of ourselves and let
others take their chance, it will be a ruinous one;
and let the country be ever so great, ever so rich,
or ever so strong, the seeds of decay will be sown
in her constitution. It is time we had statesmen at
the head of effAirs who recognise some principles of
justice and conform to some notions of honour. At
present we present the picture of a great nation
always ready to make a boastful parade of our
strength, and never willing to prove it ; and while
we rush in to interfere with all foreign questions,
we rotire in unseemly haste when our mediations
are treated with deserved contempt and no resource
is left but an appeal to arms. Such a course
is most derogatory to the character of a
people, and it is most lamentable that our present
Cabinet should have pursued so reckless a path of
policy. Nothing is easier than to compromise one's
character politically or otherwise, and nothing is
more difficult than to rehabilitate it. Perhaps the
recent speech of Lord PALMERSTON at Tiverton is
the most suicidal act of his long career. He openly
identifies himself with the clique who have set out
with the dishonourable cry that we cannot light;
such are far more contemptible than the peace at
any price party, who are at least consistent. The
language that was uttered at Tiverton was not suit-
able for an English Statesman, not in accordance
with the knowledge that should be possessed by a
public man of so much experience, but, above all, it
was unworthy of the position of the First Minister
of the Crown.

Declaration of the DF;Jaish Plenipotentiaries.

t
%REITTER'S EXPRESS.)

BERLIN, Aug. 22.
Accecding to the tenour of the armistice protocol
sir,paed by the Plenipotentiaries of Prussia, Austria,
and Denmark upon the Ist inst., the Danish pri-
soners of war were to be set at liberty upon the
assurance being given that they should not serve
'again in the Danish army until the conc!uiion of
peace. By order of their Government, therefore,
the Danish Plenipotentiaries in Vienna have des
livered the following dEcleration to the PruEsian
Ambassador in that capital:—

Vienna, Aug. 8, 1861.
The protocol signed upon the Ist inst., in execution of
Article 4 of the peace preliminaries concluded the same day
between Denmark upon the one part and Prussia and Aus-
tria upon the other, contains the following stipulation in
its Bth paragraph :
`° Prisoners of war and political prisoners will be liberated
upon the assurance that:the prisoners of war shell not serve
in th© Danish army before the conclusion of peace."
In reference to this stipulation, the undersigned Pleni-
potentiaries of his Majesty the King of Denmark, by order
of their Government, have the honour to give by there pre-
sents to Baron Werther, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary of his Majesty the King of Prussia, the
formal assurance that the Danish prisoners of war at pre-
sent detained in the States of his Majesty the King of
Prussia will not serve in the Danish army before the con-
elusion of peace.

The undersigned take this opportunity of offering to his
Excellency Baron Werther the assurance of their high
consideration.

(Signed) QUAADE.
KAUFFMA.NN.

The Grouse Season,

At Gannoohy Lodge, on Saturday, Capt. Pearoth
killed 532 braes of grouse and 1 rabbit; Captain
O'Hara, 20 brace and 2 snipes; the Hon. Charles
Carnegie, M.P., 20 braca and 2 snipes; and Capt.
Carnegie Lour, 30-1 brace, 2 hares, and 4 rabbits.
On Cordovon Moors, Viscount Holmesdale, M.P.,
and Sir Edmund Phillimore, ALP., on the 12th,
bagged 30 brace of grouse on the moors attached to
the Lodge. On the same moors on Friday last,
Viscount Holmesdale and party were out again j
grouse shooting, and bagged 32 brace. On Satur-
day Lord Holmesdale went out deerstalking and
was successful in bringing doe n, right and left, two
❑oble stags on the hill to the north-west of leer-
cauld House. One of these stags possessed a fine
head. The Hon. George S. Duff was out deer-
staking in the Alton Over Forest on Thursday last
killing a fine stag. The Earl of Fife, on Monday
week, when on his way to Crocklach Lodge, Glen-
dee, to go out grouse shooting, was fortunate in get-
ting a capital stalk on a fine herd of deer. His lord-
ship brought down three splendid stags,one of which
weighed 17st. 121 b. clean, and had a magnificent
Royal head. Another stag weighed upwards of
15st. avoirdupois. Since then the noble earl has
been grouse shooting daily on the Baynoch Moors
adjoining the Croclach Lodge, and has had excel-
lent sport during the week, killing upwards of 120
brace. On Thursday he had the best day's sport of
the week, begging 34 brace grouse. On the Glen-
callater moors good sport was got by Mr John
Marshall, Gilbert Wilkinson, Esq., and party bag•
ging daily from 20 to 33 brace grouse, 30 brace
being the highest reached on any day of the week.
On these moors there are plenty of birds, but there
is the usual complaint that they are very strong
and wild, and, to use a gamekeeper's phrase, are.
"packing," or collecting together into large flecks
on the moors, which materially impedes the progress
and success of the sport.—Dundee Advertiser.

On the 12th August Messrs. Gerald Fitzgerald
and two friends killed, at Gawe, Dingwall, 95
grouse, 5 hares, and 2 woodcocks. Shooting small,
birds plentiful ; since the 12th sport has been good.
Oa Farr Moor, near Inverness, Messrs. Joseph W.
Pease, John W. Pease, and IL F. Pease, killed 165
grouse and 25 hares. The broods were generally
good and strong; a considerable number of barren
birds, the result of the snow in May, caused the
bags to be light. The 12th and 13th wore exceed-
ingly hot ; for the last four days the weather has
been Wet .and unfavourable.

CASTLE CARR MOORS, NEAR HALIFAI.--Colonel
Edwards, MP., entertained a succession of visitors
this year, as usual, including his sons, Viscount In-
gestre, H, W. Wickham, M.P., Mr. Alfred Dun-
conabe, Hon. Colonel Duncome, Lord Warncliffe,
Sir J. Lyster Kaye, Bart, Sir J. Armytage, Bart,
Graver Browne, Esq., Hon Captrin Lawley, Gen,
Hall, Captain Dearden and Rowland Winn, Esq.
The weather has been very fine and the sport excel•
lent.. The three first days 406 brace were shot over
the dogs; the five days following 703 brace in
"driving," the total bag in the first eight days
being 1109 brace.—llakfax Guardian.

LIFE AMONG THE SAYAGESTIENB.--We are ear-
rounded by forests which are infested with ele-
phants, buffaloes, rhinoceros, tigers, and wild boars, and the
ground all about the pools is covered with their footprint.
We live almost as in a besieged place, every moment ()read-
ing some attack of the enemy, and keeping our guns con•
staatly loaded. Sometimes they come close to our quarters,
and we cannot go even a few steps into the woods without
hearing them. As a general rule, however, they fly from
the approach of man, and in order to get a shot it is neces-
sary ti lie in wait, either among the branches of a tree, or
hidden amid the brushwood near the spots where they come
to drink. Scorpions, centipedes, and, above all, serpents,
were the enemies we most dreaded, and against which pre-
cautions were chiefly requisite; but the mosquitoes and the
leeches, though less dangerous, were the most troublesome
and most inveterate plagues. During the rainy sesaon you
cannot be too much on your guard ; going to bed or getting
up, you are ever in peril in putting your hand or foot on
some venemous snake, I have killed more than one in my
house with a gun or hatchet. As I write I am obliged to
be continually on the watch, fearing to see one re-appear on
which I trod this evening, but whioh made his exit without
hurting me. From time to time, also, I stop to listen to
the roaring of a tiger, who is wandering round our dwelling
and looking longingly at the pigs through their fence of
planks and bamboos. Again, 1 hear a rhinoceros breaking
down the bamboos which oppose his progress towards the
brambles encircling our garden, on which Its intends to
banquet•-4toutwt'§ Zrace(s tin ,Indo!China.