The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 8, 1863.

cause he was covered by the sanction of a supe-
rior officer. The prestige of the English army will
soon be lost if wanton acts of cruelty are to
pass by unnoticed because advantage is taken
of some trivial circumstance to give a plausible
excuse of superior authority sanctioning the ques.
tionable affair. From what has been said of the
occurrence it is quite evident that Col. CRAWLEY
is most unfit for his position, and no considerations
whatever ought to stand in the way of dealing con-
dign punishment to such an offender. Order and re-
spect will be subverted if it is once known through-
out the army that superior rank is in future to be
the shield for those who commit what in a lower
grade would be called a " crime," and which, put-
ting aside correctional powers, is a grave error in
the sight of all honest men. The memorandum of
the Commander-in-Chief is very condemnatory of
the affair—and he truly sums up the case by stating
that in Col. CRAWLEY, unfortunately, he did not
select a man who, as an officer, " was gifted with
the special talent which unites with the
firmness of command the tact which inspires con-
fidence and creates good will," This is doubt-
less the cause of the angry contention that
gave rise to such sad events, but his
Royal Highness goes further and says that the
conduct of Colonel CRAWLEY was reprehensible and
injudicious in the address he made to the officers and
men. The chief circumstance is thus alluded to :
" His Royal Highness alludes to the confinement,
under arrest, of certain non-commissioned officers
during the trial, under a charge of conspiracy,
which was never attempted to be proved against
them, and for which there seems not to have been
a shadow of foundation. Under these circum-
stances nothing but the high opinion expressed
of Lieut.-Col. CRAWLEY by the general officers in
immediate command has induced his Royal High-
ness to continue him at the head of the regiment, and
he does so only upon trial, and under the hope that
for the future he will be able to carry on discipline
without outraging the feelings of the gentlE men
under his command."

Certainly nothing could be stronger than these
words of reproach and condemnation, but his Royal
Highness did not follow his evident wish and dis
place the Colonel from a position for which he has
proved himself so manifestly unfit. It will not be
surprising, however, if even now Colonel CRAWLEY
has to resign. There must be so much open and
covert feeling of dislike for his conduct that he wil I
not find his position very pleasant. It is long since
such an occurrence blackened the reputation of an
officer in the army, and it is more to be regretted
that it should have taken place in India, where
uananimity ought especially to prevail among our
forces. In a letter to the Times of this day there
is reference to this subject, and the writer very aptly
remarks that the general officers in command who
have testified to the worth of Colonel CRAWLEY "are
the very individuals who, by their approval of his
conduct, have so sheltered him as to render the con-
dign punishment of an offence, the gravity of which
is fully admitted by the military authorities at
home, almost impossible." This will bear conside-
ration, and altogether this affair seems to have been
about as ill-managed as it is painful to dwell upon
and derogatory to the character of those immediately
implicated in it.