The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-30 00:00:00

ral BUTLER'S speedy installation in power at Wash-
ington as a member of the Federal Government.
Item the second—the affecting account, given else-
where, from one of the Richmond newspapers, de-
scribing to ns in ali its afflicting details the ever-
lamentable casualty that struck down the glorious
hero of the South, General" STONEWALL" JACKSON.

Contrast those two men, and you are in some mea•
sure contrasting the two causes:—
General Bu;ler—as a type of the Federals!
General JACKSON—as a type of the Confederates!
The ene has passed away amidst evidences of the
profoundest grief and veneration of all his com-
patriots, and in the midst of the sympathetic homage
of all to whom his glorious name and his heroic
deeds had become known far and wide over the
civilised world. Meanwhile, at the mere mention
of the possible elevation to power of the other
General, the Federal General, the miscreant BUT-
LER of Orleans, there is excited, no less far and
wide, a mingled sense of loathing and indignation.

It is so far satisfactory to find that some advance
has been made in the question of Greenwich Hos-
pital. The Admiralty have called for returns, and
the officers have been busily occupied in making
them up. Various inquiries have been set on foot,
and the women and children of the pensioners, for
the first time, are taken note of. It has been
most absurdly argued in defence of the corrupt
practices that have obtained, that the Hospital,
which had no accumulated personalty, has now a
capital of more than £2,500,000, and that this sum
is partly accumulated out of the officers' contribu-
tions and partly out of the sailors'. Frotn'this it
has been argued that the officers of the Hospital
have a claim to the large.sums that are their pre-

sent portion. This is as preposterous a theory as
could be stated, and the case must be bad indeed

when its defenders urge pleas like this. All sums
given to the Hospital are for the support of the
institution, to further the means of usefulness, and
to enhance its benefits. It would be a mockery of

justice and a prostitution of the name of charity to
allow that such a case could be made out. It is in-

suiting the sense of those who have gone from
among us to suppose that, when they gave to this
noble institution, they intended to bestow the
money upon those unknown individuals who in
future years should succeed him in his
profession. It is astonishing to what
lengths people will go in support of an abuse and
in defence of an anomaly. The depth, the fore-
sight, and the aptitude displayed by such parties
are worthy of a better cause, and would do good
service to many a deserving and oppressed suf-
ferer if they were so employed in his cause. As it
is, we can but lament that instead of acknowledging
the evil that has gradually sprung up, these over-
paid officials should persist in declaring their right
to do so. By such indiscreet and ill-timed persis-
tence they are drawing on. themselves all the
obloquy of the proceeding, and incurring the
blame that otherwise would at least have been
divided among those in high places who suffered
this mal-appropriation to take place of the funds
destined for very different purposes. Occasionally

to augment a salary in one particular instance
where it might be deemed advisable to do so, or
in the event of extra labour imposed to make the
extension general, might be all very well, but to
go on gradually but surely raising the receipts of
all engaged in building without any apparent
cause existing, or valid reason being given, is a
gross perversion of justice. To make the case
still worse, the number of pensioners has greatly
decreased, while in an inverse ratio the charge of the
officials has so largely augmented. It is an established
fact that WILLIAM and MARY founded Greenwich

Hospital forthe relief of disabled seamen, the sustena

Lion of their widows, arid the maintenance and
education of their children. Notwithstanding this
well known circumstance, it is ingeniously urged
that these officers referred to have a right to the
sums they now enjoy, to the detriment of those
unhappy beings who were intended to bo the
primary objects benefited. The wives and child-
ren, to say nothing of the widows and orphans,
have a higher claim on a charity peculiarly their

own, than strangers who are able to maintain
themselves by their own exertions. These items

will give an idea of the extent to which the sala-
ries have increased. In 1805 the charge to the
Hospital for officers, clerks, and servants was
£15,700, the present charge amounts to £38,000
for officers, clerks, and servants. In a letter to
the Times of yesterday, written by the same cor-
respondent who before furnished so able an ac-
count of the abuses of Greenwich Hospital, most
startling facts de mentioned. Th 3 best advice
that can be given to these persistent claimants in
this extortionate cause is to give up quietly what
else they may be compelled to do in a less plea-
sant fashion. If once the general attention of the
public is drawn to a question, woe betide those
who persist in abuses and refuse to hear the voice
of warning. Perhaps aided and abetted
by some in high places who make duty
subservient to interest, this pretext may
serve for a time to defeat the immediate objects of
justice, but as certainly as they now put off the re-
form so greatly needed, so surely will there be a
day of reckoning, when none of their shallow
sophisms and weak arguments will be allowed to
stand. It is discreditable to the nation that such
abuses should be allowed to exist in an institu-
tion founded for those who, more than any others,
are the defenders of their country in the time of
war, and should, in their old age and necessities,
find a grateful community ready to do them
honour, and further, as much as possible, the
objects of the institution founded expressly for
them. Instead of this, they are to endure the
double grievance of seeing their families unpro-
vided for, while they know that more than suffi-
cient to allow them to be comfortable is their inhe-
rent privilege; but they must not have it because it
is deemed expedient that it should be squandered
on the officers suppoaed to watch over the order of
the place. In this case their first care appears to
be to look at home, and enrich themselves at the
cEh
m r
g e
h.
t
oti
AD
expense of those committed
as
such things are to be, Mr. , othSTeiOr N
well have taken the sum in dispute for the.
Income-tax. It would have been of as much
service to the pensioners in the Treasury as it is
"w, aud then they might have thought it an
unavoidable
of fulflllingnecetheie
Initiated by those who
of a cruel
who e who
have proved
thaotutglhevtoitov:in,o9: better,
them. and
themselves manifestly incapable
wrong,
onerous obligations and discharging the
T'

.'he Efficiency of our 'Volunteer -
proud of that force which arose as -ten
are justly
as a national question. Engi::s now regardek
at the mere rumour of danger, and were by
Ir‘agic'
our coasts were compare.tively defenceless in that
n
of sudden emergency. The readiness withi case
such numbers of men of all classes enlisted whist
Ite
cause, the liberality and public spirit which distil:
guished the recruits, and the rapidity with which
they acquired the necessary drill, were all sources
of gratification. It is even more satisfactory to find
that now the first novelty is over, and we are again
lulled into security by the absence of threatened
danger, the spirit of the volunteers does not flag.