The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-14 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE Or LORDS—Last Evening.

The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack
at five o'clock.

STAFF APPOINTMENTS.

The Earl of DERBY presented a petition from Captain
Bacon, who held a staff appointment in India in 1857. He
was in that country during part of the mutiny, and was
eventually compelled to leave there on sick leave, and came
home and passed his examination in 1861, hut found he
was worse off than officers who had joined the regiment later
in consequence of some regulation about officers accepting
civil appointments which had been applied to him. He
complained of su 'h regulations, and prayed for redress.
ROADS IN SCOTLAND.

The Earl of AIRLIE inquired whether the Government
intended to introduce any measure for the better manage-
ment of roads in Scotland ?

On the motion for going into committee,
The Duke of ARGYLL said it was found impossible
some two years ago to get a general measure on this subject
through Parliament, and suggested that the best way would
be for each particular district to deal with the subject, and
apply fur a local act for the purpose.
a Lord ELLENBOROUGH rose to present a petition
from some Indian officers complaining of the loss
of certain advantages they consider to have
been guaranteed them by Parliament. The
noble lord said he had some petitions to present
from a number of Indian officers, all complaining
of the non fulfilment of a pledge given by
the Government that all advantages with respect
to pay, pension, and privileges, should be duly preserved
in the plan for the organisation of the Indian army.
Economy, he considered, could have no voice where the
question was one of justice, and he trusted that would
be the view taken lea her Majesty's Government. One
oefficer petitioned who was on the list of colonels. According
to the old arrangement he would have been entitled to
higher pay and allowance, but he was not entitled
by the new conditions. There were several other complaints,
but the real question which interested the whole army was
that of promotion. By the rules of the Indian service an
offer of promotion had been made to certain lieutenant-
colonels on the retirement of seniors, which bad not
been fulfilled, but, however incumbent it might be that the
promotions should take place, as promised, it was clearly a
right to which the officers were entitled. Another cause
of grievance was the conversion of old regiments into one
or more new regiments. He was not prepared to say
whether such an arrangement was legal or not, but what
he proposed was, that a committee should be appointed to
search the records of both armies for precedents for such
conversions of old regiments into new ones. There were
great grievances connected with the staff appointments, but
the most galling of all and which the officers complained
of most was that of superceesion by officers leav-
ing certain regiments as subalterns, and coming
back sometimes to overleap the heads of those who were
many years their seniors in the service. There was
however, a difficulty in regard to officers not on the
staff, but absent on special service, who had not the
promotion they might expect on the staff. He
thought one of the remedies ought to be a
reduction of the number of promotions on
the staff, which were much too lavish in proportion to the
other departments of the army. Tha subject, he felt satis-
fied, was one of the greatest importance, and in dealing
with men, especially soldiers, the only honourable course
was that of strict justice, and it was also of the highest im-
portance that they should be convinced that they were not
unjustly treated.
The Duke of ARGYLL said the speech of the noble
earl opposite had been a great relief to his mind,
because he felt convinced that there was not the
shadow of a pretence for saying that the act of
Parliament referred to had been in any respects
violated by any act of the Government. He believed
that instead of being hardly dealt with, the Indian army,
as regards promotion, had been treated with the greatest
liberality. Officers had been allowed to retire, not on half-
pay but on full-pay, and he thought, if the illustrious duke
on the cross benches were to ask the Chancellor of the Ex -
chequer for funds to enable every officer of the army to re-
tire on full-pay and allowances, he would scarcely succeed.
(Hear.) Previously to the mutiny, the army of Bengal
consisted of 74 battalions, and at the end of the insurrec-
tion only 11 were found capable of being trusted with arms.
The number of battalions were now reduced, he believed,
to 52; and every man of the officers who wished to do so
had been permitted to retire not on half-pay, but on full
pay ; and not only so, but an estimated value had been
given them for their prospect of promotion and full terms
of allowances. As many as 270 officers had availed them-
selves of these advantages in retiring. They certainly were
not entitled to compensation, and promotion had been enor-
mously accelerated by their retirement. Under the old
system military officers were employed, not merely upon
civil, but upon political duties—and that practice was
found to have a very prejudicial effect upon the efficiency
of the native regiments. One of the last accounts of Lord
Dalhousie was to call the most serious attention of the
Home Government to this matter; and under any circum-
stances it would have been necessary to establish a staff
corps. It was, therefore, proposed by Sir H. Lawrence,
with the assent of the noble earl himself, that a separate
body should be formed, from which alone all civil and po-
litical appointments in India should ultimately be made.
At first it was thought doubtful whether officers would
join this corps, and it was consequently deemed advisable to
make it as attractive as possible, but the parliamentary gua-
rantee was that no man's position should be made worse,
not that no one's position should Le improved. The Govern-
ment had under the circumstances but two alternatives to
follow. The one was that the officers joining the staff corps
should be removed from the strength of their regiments.
But what would have been the effect of that? In the 4th
Bombay native regiment only four or five officers volun-
teered; but in the 6th, 14 or 15 did so. In the one case to
remove them from their regiments would have had very
little effect ; but in the other, a junior lieutenant of eight or
nine years' standing would have had to be appointed major,
and would thus have had precedence given him over officers
who had been 14 or 15 years in the service. The other alter-
native which offered itself to the Government was to give
up special promotions to the staff corps altogether ; but that
was a question of general policy which was a grievance to
no individual officer whatever. He did not see how the
officers of the local regiments could expect under the Par-
liamentary guarantee the same chance of becoming lieu-
tenant• colonels after the reduction of the army that they
had before. In the Queen's army, when a regiment was
disbanded the officers were simply placed upon half-pay, but
in this case a new regulation had been made, by which all
lieutenant-colonels in the Indian service would become en-
titled after 12 years to the regimental allowance. He (the
noble duke) had in his hand a summary of the actual effects
which recent changes had produced in promotion. In
January, 1861, the number of officers in the Indian army
was 5,309, and the number that had joined the staff corps
was 1,303.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGII—Of whom 19 were for
the Queen's service.
The Duke of ARGYLL—Exactly so. The number of
promotions which had taken place was 980, out of a total
of 3,683 officers remaining in the service, a very large pro-
portion in so short a time. It would be a matter of great
regret to her Majesty's Government, if anything had oc-
curred of which the Indian army might justly complain ;
for they must all feel that the country owed to the officers
of that army some of the brightest pages in the records of
our military glory. (Cheers.)
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH had heard with some
alarm the noble duke's confirmation of his statement, that
only 19 officers of the Queen 's service had joined the staff
corps. If that were so, he did net see that there was much
hope for the future as regarded the filling up of Indian ap-
pointments from that corps.
Tho Duke of CAMBRIDGE said that the smallness of

the number of officers who had joined the staff carps from
the Queen's army was easily accounted for. The corps was
at present a new one, and its regulations provided that all
its members should know the native language. To acquire
Shat would need a very considerable amount of study ; and
officers of the Queen's army had not yet been able to qualify
themselves ; whereas the officers of the local regiments were
able at once to take the appointments ; in fact they had
already been filling similar appointments in India, and they
Were merely translated from the local army to the staff corps.
A. S, however, the regulations were now well known, officers
in the Queen's army would no doubt qualify themselves in
sufficient numbers. His noble friend had talked of the ineon.
-malee which would arise from officers who had been in
the staff corps rejoining their regiments with their higher
rank; but in point of fact their regiments in the Bengal
army no longer eaisted. The difficulty, therefore, could not
arise, and he believed that the plan would be only gradually
extended to the smaller presidencies. He did not think that
Indian officers had any real grievance. In the Queen's army,
if a number of regiments were reduced the officers would
not be asked any questions at all, but they would be simply
placed upon half-pay; whereas the Government had done
its best to lessen the difficulties of the Indian service, He
did not think that any man had lost anything by the recent
changes. On the contrary, he thought that the greatest
liberality had been shown by the Government, ai lberality
which he considered had been well
.displayed, bearing in
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mind the very painful
of gallant gentlemen, without
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placed. He was very glad that
forward, because it had elicited that clear csaletaisrfystathteemoeingeorfsthoetf
noble duke, which he trusted would
the Indian army that there was every. wish. on the part of
the Government to treat them with libei ality, and that
where they thought they were aggrieved, real t.ind truly
their grievances were not such as they represented.
The Duke of ARGYLL said instructions had been sent
from the Home Government that in no ca"e should the
military authorities send back a staff officer to the command
of a regiment to the supersession of the regular officers of
the regiment.
Their lordships then adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS—Last Evening.
Tho SPEAXER took the chair at four o'clock.
CAMBRIDGE—NEW MEAIBER.
Mr, POWELL took the oaths and his seat for Catubridge,