The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

TIMES.—A very few words will suffice, after the
debate of Monday last, to place the public in full
possession of the question at issue in the case of
Lieutenant-Colonel Dawkins. The official explana-
tions of Lord Hartington and the independent re-
marks of General Peel have cleared the general
transaction of all obscurity, though the actual merits
of the case itself, as involved in the true deserts of
Colonel Dawkins, are by no means so completely
unravelled. Nobody can have forgotten that in the
reorganisation of our army after the Crimean War
the principles which should regulate the appointment
of commanding officers formed a prominent and
most important subject of discussion. The efficiency
of an entire regiment may depend on the fitness of
its commander for his place, and it was urged with
much reason that preferment of such importance
should not be determined by the mere accidents of
service. The ordinary operation of seniority and
purchase might place at the head of a battalion an
officer who, though not actually suffering under any
professional imputation, might still be incompetent
to fill that particular position with advantage to the
corps. The service, in fact, had notoriously suffered
from the incidents of promotion as thus determined,
and it was argued that the opportunity was now pre-
sented for effective reform. General Peel reminded the
House that it had been attempted to press upon the
Commander-in-Chief not only the approval, but the
actual selection of officers for regimental command ;
but that his royal highness had naturally declined so
invidious a duty. Nobody can wonder at the objection.
The difficultyand responsibility of such selection would
be almost intolerable, especially under the probable
circumstances of erroneous or defective informa-
tion. There was still, however, an alternative re-
maining. If the Commander-in-Chief could not
be expected to pronounce an opinion upon the pro-
fessional competence of every officer succeeding
to the command of a battalion, he might, at any
rate, interpose his veto in cases of presumed incom-
petence brought specially under his notice. An
officer might have done indifferently well as subal-
tern or captain, and yet have given good reason for
supposing that he would do very ill at the head of
the corps. Why, then, should not the Commander-
in-Chief, when duly moved in such cases, interfere
to prevent mischief by barring the road to pro-
motion, and intimating to the officer concerned
that, for his own sake as well as that of the service,
it would be well for him to stop short of command,
and bring his professional career to a timely close ?
The thing could be done without stigma or scandal.
The Major, instead of purchasing the Lieutenant-
Colonelcy, would retire, and nobody need be any the
wiser or any:the worse. There is certainly nothing
unreasonable in this ; and it is precisely what is
alleged to hate happened in the case of Colonel
Dawkins. In the ordinary course of things the Co-
lonel would have succeeded to the command of a bat-
talion of the Coldstream Guards, but the authorities
were moved to inquire into his competence for such a
post. So a Court of Inquiry was ordered ; it con-
ducted its investigations and made its report, and on
that report the Commander-in-Chief acted. His
Royal Highness " came to the conclusion that it
would be for the interest of the service that Colonel
Dawkins should be placed on half-pay, and he gave
Colonel Dawkins the opportunity of retiring." At
first sight of the case nothing could be more proper
or justifiable. The Guards form a corps (Mite, and
it is of obvious importance that their actual efficiency
should correspond withtheir.professional distinction.
It was not necessary to establish any grave charge of
misconduct against Colonel Dawkins, or to bring
him to a court-martial for trial. If it could be cer-

tified by any fair process of inquiry that the service
would suffer by his accession to the command of the
battalion, it was for the good of the army that he
should be debarred from that preferment. That is
exactly the aid which the service might expect from
the Commander-in-Chief, andfor which the country
might well be grateful. There is the case on behalf
of the authorities, and at first sight it is certainly
not a weak one. When we look, however, a little
further into it our satisfaction rapidly diminishes. It
is, to say the least, an extraordinary circumstance
that this discretionary power of the Commander-in-
Chief should have been invoked for the first time on
an occasion like the present. As far as our recol-
lection serves we have had no such case before, or,
at any rate, no case has acquired publicity. Yet it
is only reasonable to suppose that many an incom-
petent or disqualified man must have stood first
on the list for the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of a bat-
talion—many a man whose-merits were represented
exclusively by the influence of his family or the
contents of his purse. It is not too much to assume
that scores of officers must have merited the inter-
vention reserved for Colonel Dawkins. Such inter-
vention is admirable in theory, but it may become
II questionable in practice. Here is the first instance
to the knowledge of which the public has been ad-
mitted, and it is impossible to deny that it is full of
suspicion. Not a single allegation is advanced
against Colonel Dawkins which will not bear an
interpretation unfavourable to his accusers. In point
of fact he is charged with nothing but unpopularity.
Charges of professional importance, which would be
tangible, are not so much as insinuated. On the
contrary, the testimony given to his merits in this
respect is quite remarkable :—" He is a man who
has passed through a long period of service with
unblemished honour," said an officer in the House
of Commons who had actually served under him.
" I have heard," said another speaker, " from many
quarters that he is an officer of great ability, and
that he greatly distinguished himself in the Crimea.
Indeed, no one, I believe, will venture to assert
that he is not an officer of the first-class ; and
the only charge, as far as I can see, against him
is that he has failed to make himself so agree-
able as he ought to do." That is, indeed, the
sum of the whole. case. Now, it is not to be denied
that " infirmities of temper," such as are alleged
against Colonel Dawkins, may really be serious
enough to disqualify a man for a position requiring
social tact as well as professional knowledge. A
man with whom nobody can get on is certainly not
the man for a commanding officer, but it will not
escape the notice of the public that this is precisely
the kind of charge under which personal or private
animosities might be concealed. We do not say,
nor do we mean it to be implied, that the case is so,
but it unfortunately happens that it easily might be.
If a set were made in any regiment against any par-
ticular officer, and it was desired to get rid of him as

an unpopular Man, this is exactly the shape which the
proceeding would assume. Colonel Dawkins is
charged with " unfitness for command," though, for
all we can see, this may mean nothing more than that
certain officers do not want him to command them.

This is what gives the case its suspicious aspect. In
theory the transaction itself is unimpeachable. It
would be for the interest of the public if the Com-
mander-in-Chief would intervene in every case to
remove an incompetent officer from the path to high
command. But it is very unfortunate that in the
single case brought prominently into notice there
should be so much room for imagining improper
motives. We have never heard of an officer of high
degree being told that it requires something more
than lineage or wealth to qualify a max for com-
mand. All that kind of promotion seems to have
taken its course just as in former times, without any
invocation of the Commander-in-Chief's authority.
Not a word do we hear of such appeals until an
officer in the Guards is unfortunate enough to incur
the dislike of three or four other officers, and then
the guardian of discipline and efficiency is at once
called in. When called in he, of course, had no
option but to act on the report of the regular tri-
bunal ; but the case is so remarkable and the circum-
stances so suggestive that we should much like to
see the judgment of the Court of Inquiry subjected
to some careful revision.
POST.—There is one fact which, though it is no
where specifically stated in the recent news from
America, is nevertheless apparent on the face of the
intelligence which is brought by every succeeding
mail. This fact is, that though the war may be at
an end, the contest is just where it has been at any
time within the last four years. The war on this
side of the Mississippi, at least, has been closed for
a month. But we really search the news which has
come to hand since in vain for any of the usual
fruits of victory or peace. If the Federals had
been fighting with a foreign enemy, they might
have exacted the costs of the war or the cession of
territory, or both. They might have imposed con-
ditions profitable to themselves. They might even
have annexed the conquered country altogether,
and held it. But as the case stands they cannot
do any of these things. As the Federals have
all along proceeded on the assumption that the
Southern States are part of their country—part of
the United States—it follows that to extort the
cost of the war from the Confederates would be
no gain at all in the long run. Whether the North
pay its own expenses itself, or whether it compel
the South to pay them, the money must come,
first or last, out of the wealth and capital of the
United States. In like manner, for the same rea-
son, the acquisition of territory is out of the ques-
tion. The conqueror has asserted throughout that
the South is part of his country. He has made good
his claim so far as the argument of force can pos-
sibly make it good. But, according to his own
showing, the possession of the South can be no gain
at all, simply because, as he contends, it always
belonged to him, and is part of his country. If he
succeeded in subjugating the South, and is now the
" monarch of all he surveys," from the Potomac to
the Gulf, and from the Mississippi to the Atlantic,
he has also succeeded in so effectually desolating it
that the conquest is a barren one ; and lie might
truthfully say, with the ancient king, that " such
another victory would be his ruin." When a foreign
country is conquered and annexed it may be a gain,,

even:though it be desolated in the process of acqui-
sition. It may serve as a colony for surplus poPn-
lation—it may possess valuable ports and harbours,
which, even though ruined for the time, may be
reinstated, and when so reinstated will be of great
value. It may be profitable in a variety of other
ways. But in the case of America the facts are quite
otherwise. Impartial spectators saw all this from
the first, and took the liberty of freely pointing it
out. It has lately been much the custom of the
Federals and their European friends to talk of the
false predictions which have been made from time to
time as to the course of the war. But if, as it cer-
tainly appears, the war is only at an end in the sense
that the chief Southern armies on this side of the
Mississippi have laid down their arms, while the war
of principles and the antagonism of interests are just
as great as ever they were, it still remains to be seen
how far those predictions really are falsified. But
the expectation that the conquest would be a barren
one, and of no value to the victor, appears to ho
confirmed by the telegrams which every vessel brings
to this country from New York. Of course twentY,
millions of people can overpower less than a third
of their number if they have the obstinacy to per-
severe in a fruitless struggle, and this was always
foreseen and acknowledged; buti the question is,what
are they to take by their conquest ? Will they nu':
their conquest worth 'having, or will they find iti
worthless, and be compelled by the force of circum-
stances to abandon it ? Notwithstanding the cow
fident and sanguine utterances of the Federals and
their friends, it is by no means clear whether his-
tory will have to answer these questions affirms,"
tively or negatively. We would understate the case
rather than overstate it. It is mere rashness, un-
mindful of facts and experience, which would per-
suade us that the Union is restored, and that thing's
have returned, or are immediately about to return,
to their old channels. The work of reconstruction
not onlyhas to be done, but it has to be commenced.
As yet it has not even been begun ; and it certainly
would appear as if the victors hardly knew how to
set about attempting it. So far as it is possible to
come to any certain or definite conclusion from the
vague and confused masses of news which reach 115
from the North, it does not appear that the Federal'
have any fixed or settled programme of reconstruc-
tion at all. They do not seem even to have decided
what to do with the Confederate leaders, should
these fall into their hands. Some are for clemency;
some are for what they call justice; others are for
vengeance, pure and simple. Then there is the
question of how the great mass of the Southern
white population is to be dealt with. On this point
we do not find very many suggestions, practical or
the reverse : we suppose for the reason that nobody
knows exactly what to suggest. With regard to the
blacks we certainly do find one suggestion, and that
owes its authorship to no less a personage than the
President himself. Mr. Johnson, in an address to
the coloured population, tells them he trusted the
time would come when all the negroes would be
assembled in one country best adapted to their
condition, if it should appear that they could 31(4,
get on with the whites. He also declared that
man could not hold property in man. If we Ds
to infer from this that the blacks are to be at
once emancipated, and are to remain in the South
until an uninhabited country has been found for
them, and they have been conveyed thither, it
obvious that the difficulty which the Federals are
likely to experience from the negroes in the mean"
time may be considered, for all practical purposesi
as infinite. But a much more matter of fact and
business-like proposal has been published. It
that these negroes, though unconditionally eman;
cipated, shall by no means be allowed to be idle, 1)11
shall be compelled to work to maintain themselvc3
and families. What difference there is between an Yt
possible system of this kind and slavery will no doll!'
be seen when it is carried into practice. There 01!
probably be leSs difficulty in finding negroes for
whatever work there may be to bdone than in
finding work for the negroes. At present it seera,,'
hardly too much to say that the South is in a stay"
of political and social chaos. It has been so ha'
poverished and devastated that we cannot be silt;
prised if the conquerors are sadly perplexed to kin) r
how to set about the work of reconstruction, *a
where to begin. Elaborate 'forms of oath are segt;
gested as the means of making the Secessionist
stanch and loyal Unionist. This is a very corePae;
dious method of reconstruction undoubtedly, bat
men's principles, and feelings, and beliefs are u°
changed by a formula of words uttered under pre.:
sure and duress. The fact is that the South 10• Y
be now described as drifting. It has been drifthig
ever since the main armies surrendered • and aPPj
rently it will continue drifting still. Wlere it 101;
drift to of course remains to be seen. That it
ever of itself drift back into the " Union as it Avd,,
does not appear very probable. That the Federal'
will be able to steer it back, or tug it back, does not
seam much more probable. Meanwhile it drifts.
Nothing is doing, nothing is attempted. We lielf
of one more Southern general surrendering in this
place, while in that, other generals declare they .
maintain the Confederacy to the last on the other
side of the Mississippi. The Southern States, accord"
to a reported official statement, are to be governed
by military law until the inhabitants are reconciled
to immediate emancipation. If the military rule _u.r:
the South is to be continued until this contingcl%
is realised, it would seem as if there was never towri.
constitutional government within its confines agaL,
But what is to be done with the blacks until ti'o
whites are thus reconciled ? We suppoSe they ,a1.,e,0.
be free, while the whites are to be under a mil"
despotism. How this will work, and how the blaalro
can be utilised and put to profitable employment/ the
problems the solution of which must be left to
ties
future. One thing is certain—the real difftew
of the situation do not appear to have been 13111
diminished by the military successes of the Nort'••

. COUNTRY MARKETS

HLL.—TuEsDAY. 10°
Since our last a fai business has been done in the vi
trade, and for choice samples of English an advance cud •
per qr. may be noted. At our market to-day there
moderate supply of English wheat, and the trade was le
at a decline of is per qr., except upon choice sararod
which realised about last week's rates. Oats, beallo,„ot
peas without alteration. The arrivals of linseed altiolg
to about 10,000 qrs., principally from Calcutta or the
Sea. A slight improvement upon last week's prices'
noted, and a fair inquiry for fine qualities exists.

SALISBURY.—TIIESDAY. ,„at
Notwithstanding the flatness of the wheat trail
Mark-lane yesterday, holders asked more money bore tiler
morning than a week ago. Tho supply offered was 11'00c1,
larger than at last markets the quality generally being td
There was a pretty numerous attendance of buyers, „„id•
fair business was done, the rates of a week ago being-0110.
In barley very little doing. Oats at previous rillotalizoa
In beans and peas no alteration. For flour a better doll wierg
prevailed, and for first and second-class qualities 11'
asked an advance of la to 2s sack.
The following are present pri per ces :—Wheat realised f4O
36s to 44s ; barley, 26s to 30s ; oats, 21s to 30s ; bssu' Ss
to 465; and peas, 34s to 48s per qr. Winter tares, fro 9d
to 11s per bushel ; Best bread, 10d ; household ditto,
per 81b loaf.

• NEWCAS T LE-ON-T YNE.—T UESDAIt• hot
At to-day's market there was a moderato supply of 15r..i.,111'
from the country and the coast, and a good foreign al,l ;let
The weather being fine and warm caused buyers to
cautiously ; but holders did not press sales, and tile, ifet•
6cl 'cl business done was at late rates. Grinding barley or•
Malt quiet ; beans firm ; peas Is higher; oats 6d
Flour dull at late rates.

LYNN.—TIIESDAY.
Now whoat, 45s to 47s ; new red, 40s to 43s ; oldisv fot
42s to. 43s ; old red, 38s to 41s per 36 stone. 870
malting, 32s to 355; secondary, 30s ; ordinary, 2630.0 '344
per qr. Oats, 20s to 22s per '24 stone. Beans, 13r°
t0.38s ;

310NMOTJTIISHIRE--MONDAY. Sure'
Tho local markets have been well attended. - solve
rior samples of wheat higher prices are asked, and 'lli
Jude
instances conceded. Inferior met a moderate sal% „4,0
inquiry for malting barley. No change in oats. Beans
request ; and there is no alteration to report in f10n%4 4
The following are the average quotations: WP„°,,is,
11d to 5s 6d per bushel ; barley, 3s id to 3s 7d
10d to 2s 6d.

CHRISTIE.—On the 24th ißnstr,it tat
s wilt tre orssvc
nor-place, the wife of W. •J. Christie,°En-Bsq., oet, f
a dalis
STtAeUr.NTON.—On the '22(1 inst., at Fallapit
aDevon, the wife of Major-Gneral Staunton, of
ter.
cli/-`"
Ito
WALKER.—On the 23d inst., at 69, Chester-P:llWe'
wife of James Walker, Esq., ofM.P., a son.
GRANT—STATHAM.-OMn atrrheil2l2.ltehS'instat Sat 31.311'f°1° t
Amersham, Montagu Henry Stuart, youngest °' to
late General James Grant, of The Firs,
Mary, youngest daughter of the late Thomas
Statham, of Amersham, Bucks. rice°
TAYLOR—ELLIOT.—On the 18th inst at Chelsek,,.o to
G. E. Taylor, Esq., of Ogw 11 House," Devonsu'-'llO
Anna Maria Elizabeth, daughter of the late J°
E. Elliot, of 29, Cadogan-place, Belgrave-square'
i
Esq.,rr 03
BLAND.—Onaged 6
the 6. 19th inspt.,eaatthlsslington,Williani
DENT.—On tho 21st inst. at at The Mall, Bayswater,
both Dent, relict of E. Dent, of the Strand. 4, Or
DuNN.—On the 20th inst., at 4, Stamford-grove-05"
phen Dunn, Esq., aged 63.
Esq, aged 55. Trail
D'
John's
-wood,
—d,Olinhtehmeas23Ddlifinsat,geart 5, Melina-p , lace, St'illt
ERSKINE.— On the 21st inst., at Brighton, g°111"1,11,ill"
Erskine, Esq., of 8, Norfolk-street, Park-lano, a„,l3,sosito
cEol
stn-itr, eldest son of the late Eight Hon.
London : Printed and Published by WILLIAIit JO,
of No. 112, Strand, Ranter, at Tits Sus Office,
Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the C°1111".
Middlesex,—Thursday, May 25, 1865'