The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TratEs.—The motion of Sir John Hay last night
was but the expression of a deep, a lasting, and, as
it seems to us, an unavoidable discontent. When
the tired, soured, desponding naval profession,
straitened by lack of means, heart-sick with de-
ferred hope, galled by the indifference of society to
its wrongs, unheaves itself with a groan, Parlia-
ment echoes for a night at least with the sound. It
is the everlasting complaint of men who find them-
selves compulsorily idle without the competence
which can make leisure enjoyable, who are in the
service of the State, and must remain at its beck
and call, foregoing all other pursuits, but are at the
same time insufficiently provided with occupation
and pay, and who know that the object of their
boyish hopes—rank and fame and social position—
will only come to them when their heads arc gray,
when the chilled soul can no longer take pleasure
in such vanities, and the feeble body is bending to
the grave. Sir John Hay's motion was, in fact, to
submit to Parliament the " Suggestions for increas-
ing the efficiency of the Navy," which, together
with a memorandum of the Duke of Somerset, con-
demning them, have just been printed. Some time
since a considerable number of the profession, con-
ceiving that the time had come when some appeal
should be made for a more logical and liberal sys-
tem of promotion and pay, agreed to state their
grievances and submit a scheme for remedying them
to the Admiralty. A committee of naval officers
drew up the " Suggestions" which formed the basis
of Sir J. Hay's motion. These provided, among other
matters, that a compulsory retirement at a certain
age should be impartially applied to all ranks, with
earlier optional retirement ; that a longer minimum
period of sea service should be required in the
ranks below that of captain to qualify an officer for
promotion to a higher active list; that there should
be " a sufficient scale of full, half, and retired pay
to enable officers to serve their country without
incurring debt, and to retire with a full remune-
ration for their services ;" that. there should be such
a reduction of the numbers on the active lists as may
insure the efficiency of officers by frequent employ-
ment ; and that the entry of cadets should be regu-
lated according to the vacancies which might have
occurred during the preceding year on the active
lists of lieutenants, so that no accumulation ofjunior
officers without opportunity or hope of employment
might occur in future, On these " Suggestions" we
commented some two months since, and expressed
an opinion that their general purport was only to do
justice to a hardworking and underpaid service.
The Duke of Somerset, on the other hand, has writ-
ten against them a vigorous Memorandum, which
has prevailed with the Admiralty for reasons that
we should be the last to disparage. The fact is that
his Grace and Sir John Hay look at the question
from two opposite points. ,The former sees only the
interests, or the supposed interests, of the coun-
try, and has the fear of the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer before his eyes. The latter is full of the in-
justice suffered by Naval officers, and cannot imagine
that gentlemen and zealous servants of their coun-
try ought to be kept at a starving-point, and occa-
sionally brought to utter ruin. However, we have
so much sympathy with the service, and are so fully
convinced that justice to it will be the best policy
for the country, that we cannot but rejoice that Sir
John Hay brought his resolution before the house,
and compelled the Government to concede a Select
Committee to inquire into naval promotion and re-
tirement. Lord Palmerston expressed a not unrea-
sonable feeling when, like the Duke of Somerset,
he protested against the members of the two ser-
vices combining to petition the Crown or agitate
Parliament for pecuniary advantages or professional
advancement. But in truth they had no alterna•
tire, if they entertained any -hope of redress for
evils and absurdities which have become so great
that the service must suffer seriously unless
they be remedied. Sir J. Hay showed conclu-
sively that the higher ranks of the naval service are
underpaid, not only in comparison with military and
civil personages, but with regard to what is ex-
pected of them.in the way of decent state and hospi-
tality. To come to a practical instance, there is the
Naval Commander-in-Chief on the Indian station.
Until lately he received £4,500 a year. He is now
cut down to £2,190. "There is no officer of the
Crown in the East," said Sir J. Hay, " holding a
corresponding rank, who is not paid double the sum
given to the Naval Commander-in-Chief. The Lieu-
tenant-Governor of Hongkong receives £5,000 a
year ; the generals commanding at Madras and
Bombay between £7,000 and £B,OOO ; and the Com-
mander-in-Chief in India about £10,000." Who can
wonder, then, that there was much difficulty in fill-
ing the post, and that its present occupant talks of
resigning on account of the insufficiency of the pay ?
The statement is fully in accordance with what is
generally known concerning naval commands. The
post-captain who is appointed to a fine line-of-battle
ship or frigate must now be prepared to pay out of
his own pocket for the honour of serving his coun-
try. We have heard of men who have had to trench
very largely on their own private means in the
course of two or three years' command. Lisbon,
Naples, Malta, Corfu, the Havannah, and other
well-known ports, makes serious inroads on a cap-
tain's pay and allowances, not to mention that he
must keep a decent table every day of the year from
the time he enters his ship to the time he quits it.
A poor man, consequently, when the six years' ser-
vice as post-captain necessary for his succession to
admiral's rank are finished, avoids employment,
" because he cannot afford it." And this is cer-
tainly a reductio ad absurdum of the whole system.
Connected with this subject, but far more com-
plicated, are the questions of promotion and re-
tirement. We will not go into them, since they re-
quire more space than a newspaper can afford ; but
it does seem reasonable that when 1,200 officers are
more or less discontented with things as they are,
there should be some inquiry by an impartial tri-
bunal. Such an inquiry will, no doubt, now be
made, and it will be for the House of Commons to
decide between the arguments of the Naval Officers
and those of the Admiralty speaking through its
First Lord. We much fear, however, that many
of the grievances lie in the nature of our naval
service, and that, whatever changes may be effected,
will always have a strong body of murmurers.

HERALD.:--It is diffieuli to entirely reject the
er tei so annfi od fe
oPolish itnhdee
cp
ze na
rd ei no c eo,radnedr ht
ea s
betrayon l ygained
,
suspicion that the MarquisWielopolski is an ardent
partisan
The conscription which is said to have been re-
solved upon at Wielopolski's instigation, has given
Poland another chance. True, it precipitated an in-
surrection which had long been organising, and com-
pelled the Poles to rise before their preparations were
completed, but it has revived for them the long
dormant sympathy of Europe, has already obtained
the diplomatic intervention of the Western Powers
in their favour, and may possibly obtain them even
more substantial aid from the same quarter. More-
over, it is questionable whether they could have
selected a more favourable time for rising. They
might, by waiting, have succeeded in smuggling
into the country a large stock of arms, their organi-
sation might have been completed, and they would
have taken the field better prepared to encounter
the Russian army. But, on the other hand, no
time could be less favourable for the Russian Go-
vernment than the present. It is almost impossible
for it to concentrate now the bulk of its army in
Poland, as it could have done six months ago,
and might probably be able to do six months hence.
A very everltial day is approaching in Russian his-
tory, aghtsotveerd
empiret the serf chy upon which all the military resources of
Russia may be needed. On the 3d of March there
will be no serf in the Russian Empire. Released
lord's rights from the absolute authority of their masters, the new
made freemen
pea-
sants are still u
ment some e
little trouble. The commutation of the
their
has,
liberty
payingr
therefore,t in anticipation
y without
him any rent. The
atrheealyisk"
aretlh nough to give the Govern-
and that
larger part
any service to the lord orown, without rendering
nezerfstiinitlo quit-rents is :
the s in the
of h
the impression that the Czar
has given them
Russian Government to have the land they have
always cultivated
of considerable f
any
agitation,reserva-
tion,
to keep the bulk of its
army at home, and the fear that employment will
be found for it thero in suppressing
13 agrarian dis-
turbances adds greatly to the
anxieties of the Go-
vernment, and hampers it very •
considerablv in its
action against Poland. The Poles, moreover," have
been greatly favoured by the mild weather,a:re
, which
has rendered the roads useless. If the
winter had