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

elicit any strong expression of opinion from the
House of Commons. Whether from the circum-
stance that it was the Goid Cup Day at Ascot, or
simply a feeling of indifference, it is certain teat the
legislative wisdom assembled at St. Stephen's on the
evening in question languidly passed those ob-
noxious clauses in the bill which have created no
little excitement out of doors. It is true that ob-
jeetions were raised, and that several members
spoke, but only one alteration was insisted upon.
The house fortunately would not permit the clause
which prescribed that Volunteers should, if neces-
ears', be engaged in quelling riots, to become law ;
and consequently it was withdrawn. As for the
rest of the measure, Government had its own way.
Four or five amendments were put forth, and after
being pleasantly goasipped over, were withdrawn ;
one was certainly pressed to a division, that of Sir
Robert Clifton, which proposed in lieu of command-
ing officers having absolute power of dismissal that
a court of inciniry should be instituted, and the
Volunteer accused of any military misdemeanour
fairly tried. But this amendment was rejected by
a considerable majority., Whatever may be said by
the friends of the new bill, we can safely affirm that
for several causes it is unpopular with the majority
of Volunteers, whose wishes have not been con-
sulted in the matter, and who will now find them-
selves governed by laws which are derogatory to
their dignity. As soon as the new bill is passed
every Volunteer corps may be likened to a petty
state, ruled over by an absolute monarch, vested
with powers of the most despotic nature. Reluc-
tant as we are to make the statement, we feel com-
pelled to own that we see in the measure no fair
legislation for the mass of Volunteers, but only
enactments calculated to gratify the vanity of a few
commanding officers. If this be not so, what, we
would ask, is the reason for retaining the clauses
which have given so much offence, unless, indeed,
the bill be framed with the express view of so crip-
pling the movement that its existence would, for
all practical purposes, be at an end. In regard to
the power given to officers to dismiss Volunteers for
any cause they, the commanding officers, may deem
sufficient, Lieutenant-Colonel Luard, assistant in-
spector of Volunteers, distinctly stated before the
commission that it was a power which ought not
to be in the hands of Volunteer officers.
Hardly with any exception the press has raised its
voice against this clause, which is in every respect
contrary to the constitution of our country. Colonel
Sykes, who is no mean authority on military mat-
ters, also spoke against it en Thursday evening, and
well pointed out that although the Volunteer had
the right of appealing to the War Office, when dis-
missed, some independent court of appeal should be
established. Upon what grounds the Marquis of
Hartington forms his opinion, that not to give a
commanding officer authority to dismiss would
strike at the root of the discipline and efficiency of
the Volunteer movement, we are at a loss to under-
stand, for his remark might be applied with equal
truth to the regular army. It is, too, little short of
an absurdity to allow an appeal to the War Office
against an arbitrary decision when it is perfectly
easy to constitute in each volunteer corps a court
for the trial of offenders which would pass sen-
tence after hearing evidence and fairly investigating
the charge submitted. If this were done, Volun-
teers would no longer have occasion to be jealous of
enormous powers being in the hands of their com-
manding officers. That the authority is felt to be
excessive is evidenced by the fact of its being in-
tended to introduce in the interpretation clause
words defining Volunteer to mean " non-commis-
sioned officer and private." Now, we hold that in
a Volunteer army what is " good for the goose is
also good for the gander ;" and if a colonel be not
allowed to dismiss the commissioned officers under
him, neither should he be granted that power over
the sergeants, corporals, and privates of his corps.
The House of Commons, thinks differently,
and the fiat may now be said to have gone forth
which places Volunteers in a very unpleasant posi-
tion with their commanding officers. The clause
also which allows the latter to refuse to strike out
of the muster-roll those who desire to resign, was,
after some slight opposition, agreed to ; so that, al-
though a member of a corps may have complied
with all the conditions laid down by Government
he will be unable to retire should his colonel choose
to refuse to accept his resignation—unless, indeed,
he pat himself to the trouble and expense of an tip-
peal. As to the clause which allows officers and
members of Volunteer corps to make new rules and
alter old ones, but allows the far greater power to
commanding officers of refusing to transmit the
same to the lieutenant of the county, the com-
mittee passed it without a murmur, and Sir Morton
Peto's motion was in sporting language "nowhere."
Thus, then, three of the clauses in the new
bill that were most obnoxious to Volunteers have
been allowed to stand. The only gain of any im-
portance is exemption from employment in suppress-
ing riots; and as every man of sense has seen, ever
since the movement was first sec on foot, that to use
Volunteers on such a service would be an act of
folly little short of madness, the rejection of a clause
which prescribes such a duty was felt to be an ab-
solute certainty. Look at it either from the point of
view of a commanding officer or that of a private,
we do not see any sufficient cause for retaining the
regulations laid down in the clauses to which ob-
jections have been taken. Colonels must feel that
they will have placed in their hands powers re-
quiring the nicest discrimination and the utmost
delicacy. Privates must feel that they are in many
respects Volunteers only in name. The grant of
money made by Government would have done much
towards consolidating and rendering more efficient
our army of civilians, but we fear that the House
of Commons, by the decisions it arrived at on
Thursday night, will go far towards utterly disor-
ganising one of the best institutions that the present
age has given birth to. At any rate, Volunteers
have to thank Government for giving them a
grievance.

POST,—Yesterday the protocol which formally
settles the Greek succession was signed at the
Foreign-office by the Ministers of the three protect-
ing Powers, and also by the Minister of Denmark.
We heartily congratulate the Greek people that the
question of their future government is now settled,
beyond the reach even of the most improbable con-
tretemps. To-day it is understood that the Greek
Envoys who have so long been awaiting at Copen-
hagen the formal settlement that has now taken
place, are to be received by the King of Denmark,
and by Prince Christian and his son, Thus the
contract which was yesterday made between Den-
mark and the three protecting Powers of Greece
will be completed also to-day between Denmark
and the representatives of the Greek people. The
vessel of the Hellenic State may now, therefore, be
said to be launched anew, and with auspices incom-
parably fairer than on the previous occasion of a
Greek monarchical settlement. In each case, in-
deed, the choice of the protecting Powers devolved
upon a Prince too young to be judged of by his own
antecedents. But it will nevertheless be seen at a
glance that there is the widest difference between
the prospects to be drawn from the reign of King
George, and the anticipations which might have
been formed at the commencement of the reign of
Otho. The new King of Greece is a prince of a con-
stitutional dynasty which has been as firmly attached
to the principles of representative government as
the Hanoverian family in this country. His inti-
mate connection with the powerful and consistent
dynasty of Great Britain will serve also to cherish
and maintain the constitutional prepossessions with
which he has been brought up. The countries which
will surround hie. new monarchy now also present a
very different character from that which they wore
30 years ago when Otho ascended the Greek throne.
Italy was then split up into the harshest of all pos-
sible depotisms, and the worst rd all conceivable
misgovernments. Turkey was then also convulsed
with civil war ; and whether Greece looked beyond
the Adriatic on the one side, or beyond the lEgean
on the other, there was neither the spectacle of peace
and progress nor of rational liberty to encourage
her in a career of social and political improvement.
Now, however, Italy is ac once free and peaceful
and improving k and thoagh Mahometanism is ne-
cessarily despotic, Turkey is as busy in the promo-
tion of the arts of peace as the most prosperous em-
pire of Western Europe. It may be fairly hoped,
therefore, that a people so apt as the Greeks to
shape their own conduct from the example of their
willneighbours, gain much by the contrast between
what those neighbours now are, and what they
were thirty years ago. In this contrast there lies
another difference, even more substantial, perhaps,
than the force of example. A no inconsiderable
part of the trade which Greece is capable of deve-
loping must be carried on with the Turkish and
Italian empires. Both those States are now ready
to trade with Greece on a wider scale than when
they were oppressed by domestic misfortunes of
their own. The west of Europe also can receive
much more of the natural products of the Greek
peninsula than have hitherto been exported from
it. Moreover, the annexation of the lonian Islands
will infuse both new blood and additional wealth
into the enlarged Greek State. The lonians will be
found, in point of ability and education, worthy of
a foremost place in the government of the country;
and in regard to the affairs of commerce there is no
doubt that the principal merchants of the new king-
dom of Greece will be found among them. The
leading lonians, too, are for the most part a busy
and thriving race, and we should not judge of them
by those political declaimers at Corfu who make
themselves notorious in the newspapers, but who
are by no means generally the leaders of lonian so-
ciety, or men of consequence in lonian commerce.
We see reason to think, therefore, that the 2,eeee_
sion of the Septinsular Republic to the Greek mon-
archy will exert an important social influence upon
the Greeks, independently of the more obvious ad-