The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-26 00:00:00

British military officer Lord Palma Irston made a sin-
gular reply. The Prime Minister LNdmitted it, but
he accounted for the difference by th e fact it,
in
the British army the systero
of purchase prev.ailed,
whereas in the Navy that system wasr• unknown.
i
"It must be borne in mind,"
1;e said, " that the
commissions in the military servia:e are purchased,
derable capital
and that the officers embark a cons):
to rise to any high rank, whereas in tithe Navy the
same practice does not prevail." •-f::,e cot. elusion lae
attempted to draw was that therefore' the pay in
the Navy ought to be lower than that oil the Arm y.
But why ? No doubt if the naval ohN•cer
possess some private means, and must therefore
ossess a private income derived from privale in-
eestments, a lower amount of pay will place hie'l 6 n.
an equality with the military officer whose capit'al
has been invested in purchasing his promotion. Butt
what is the naval officer to do if he has no private,
means? If the pay of the military officer, calculated.
upon the principle that he has bought his promo-
tion, is not too high for his position, in what way
is the naval officer, who has no private means, and
has a lower rate of pay, to maialtain his position?
The necessary result must be that !•hose naval offi-
cers who have no private means must be excluded
from the service, and that the Navy, like the ArmY,
must be more or less of a monopoly. Now, the is
precisely the result which every true economist ought
anxiously to avoid. It is said in the Duke of Sooer-
set's memorandum that the applications for nomina-
tions to naval cadetships ate far more numerous
thau the vacancies, and that therefore the griev-
ances alleged by naval officers must be greatly
exaggerated. It is impossible to deny that there is
much force in the fact that all classes of the com-
munity, including naval officers themselves, are most
anxious to place their sons in the navy. But, on
the other hand, it would be interesting to know`
whether the persons from whom their applications
proceed are of tolerable fortune, and especially how
many of the boys who are sent into the navy at 134
by their patriotic parents have been content to re-
main in that profession. As to the recent altera-
tions, it is somewhat remarkable that, according to
the Duke of Somerset himself, the list of lieutenants
during the last six years has been steadily decreas-
ing. In 1857 the number was 1,138, in 1863 the
number is only 807. In fact, the list of lieutenants
is scarcely large enough to supply the requisite
number of officers. Lord Clarence Paget said << We
have not at this moment sufficient lieutenants. 1
we were called upon to man a squadron of 10 line-
of-battle ships I do not know where we should find
the requisite number of lieutenants, although we
have 800." This is no doubt a serious matter. But
if the difficulty arises from the fact that young men
abandon the profession between the time they enter
as cadets and the time they are made lieutenants,
because their pay and their prospects are so unsatis-
factory, the difficulty vanishes. These questions lie
at the very root of the whole subject of the condition
of the British navy. They deserve the most serious
attention, and therefore the appointment of the
committee in question is an act not only of prudence
but of absolute necessity. The country cannot afford
that the officers of the navy should suffer under and
proved grievance.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

.4,

LYNN-TUESDAY.

White .. 50s to 53s I Barley . 38s to 39e
R‘d .. 49s to 51s 1 Grinding .. 32s to 33s
Beans .34s to 38s Oats.. .2os to 240
I New —s to —s Peas —s to .*43

HULL—TUESDAY.
Wheat.... Old white.... per qr sos Od to 53s 03
Old red
New white .. „
New red .... ,
Dantzic, Konb , '&c. old white 52s Od to 57s 0(1
Dutch, Belgian, and French. 58s Od to 62s oa
Baltic and Hamburg, red. . 49s Od to sls Od
St. Petersburg and Riga, old sos Od to 52s ocl_,
Barley.... English malting 36s Od to 43s 0°
Grinding 27s 6d to 29s Od
Saal and Oderbruck
Holstein and Danish 2Bs Od to 29s Od
Grinding 2Bs Od to 31s Od
Oats English, old 26s Od to 28s Od
Archangel and Riga, per st osl2ld to 13a
Friesland and Dutch osl3d to 05130
Swedish and Danish
Beans ....English, old, per qr 4os:lo2didtotol3
4gsso3
New pigeon 42s Od to 44s oa
New tick 4os Od to 42s Od
Egyptian 34s 6d to 35s Od
Peas .. Foreign boilers
Grinding
Tares .... Spring
Indian Corn
Linseed, feeding
crushing .. — 8435032:s 0000dcidd tttt 0000
5534-26
ssss
0000
dal
Linseed cakes (Hull) £lo 5 0 to £lO 10 °,,
Foreign Bl5 oto 9 0 t,;
Rape cakes 6 5 oto 610 u
Bones .. 6 5 oto 610

NEWARK—
White wheat new, 50s to 54s 1
Red do. 4Bs to 52s
Old white 57s to 62s
Red do. 52s to 565
Barley, 385 to 425
Peas,....

-WEDNESDAY.
Barley, grinding 29s to 310
Oats, old, .. 27s to 300
New do 215 to 240
I Beans. 42s to 440
Beans, new,. 38s to 400
38s to 445.

COAL bl
Prices of Coal per Ton at
s. d.

ARKET.
the close of the market.

8, d.
Wylam 15
Holywell 15 l',,
Hastings Hartley l4 '

Byass's Bebside West
Hartley ....14 3
Lambert's West Hart-
ley
Davison's West Hart-
ley 14 6
North Pelton Gas. 13 0
Carway and Duffryn
Anthracite 2O 0
Carway and Duifryn
Malting , 22 0
Tanfield Moor 12 6
Tanfield Moor Butes l2 6
Ships at market

Walls End. 6
K elloe
Hartlepool.. ......... 16 6
South Hart1ep001......14 3
Trimdon Hartlepool ..16 6
Framwellgate ........ 14 3
South Hetton .........17 17 6
Hetton ...... 17 6
Whitworth 14
162; sold, 80. •

Foreign Mail Packet List.

MAILS DUE.
AuKralia and Mauritius, via Southampton. Mar. 241.
via Marseilles Mar.
1
Brazil and Cape Verds, by British pac?et. mar. u.
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena Mar' 3.
China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton Mar. /,
via Marseilles Feb. ."
Falkland Islands
,',5.
Gibraltar, via Southampton
„,., 4.
India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton alan 0.
via Marseilles Feb. 05,
India (Bombay), via Southampton
via Marseilles Feb. b;
.
P Fe b
ortugal.... Mar'
Malta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton 2v.
via Marseilles Feb'
Newfoundland
Oporto and Vigo
U. S. and British N. America, by Brit. packet.... A -,-. e-h '
_ by U.S. packet... 20,
by Canadian packet io,
W.C. of Africa, Madeira, and Teneritle. . Mar' ,
ar.
Bahamas, via New York
Feb. "-'
Mexico ••••M ..,-g
Ali parts of West Indies, including Chili, Peru, 1 Feb. 0'
California, and British Columbia..

The Sentinelle du Jura has the following re
marks on the weather in that part of France: ".°
"Hitherto the winter has been exceedingly mild in al:
plains, the vine districts, and the first plateau of the
Jnr
The higher parts of the mountain only are covered
deep snow. We should certainly have preferred a
sh
frost to the frequent rains, cloudy skies, and mild dal*
atmosphere which we have had throughout Novealb,cr'
December, and January. February seems likely to brilt
us more seasonable weather. For the last week a norther 0
wind and frost have had the effect of hardening the s°ro
and arresting vegetation, without preventing our berg
from working in the fields. Wheat, rye, and other win
crops generally look well, but are perhaps rather
to
forward."