The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOITRNALS.

TlMES.—Yesterday evening the Government met
with one of those little defeats which are seldom
suffered without being, in some degree, deserved.
When no party question is involved, a subject is
generally debated on its merits, only those members
who understand it attend and vote, and the decision
is, consequently, for the most part just. For this
reason we trust the Government will be prepared
to make the concession to the Indian Army re-
commended by Captain Jervis. The terms of
his motion are reasonable enough. They amount
only to this, that her Majesty should redress
such grievances complained of by Indian officers
as were admitted by one of her own Com-
missions to have arisen by a departure from
the assurances given to them by the Acts of
1858 and 1860. The discontent which has been the
cause of this appeal to Parliament is no new thing.
For the last six years there has been a notion
among the officers of the late Company's army that
they have been deceived and illused. Whether they
have been thus deceived is the question in dispute
between Captain Jervis and Sir Charles Wood, and
it admits of much being said on both sides. But
Captain Jervis has at any rate this cogent argument,
that the officers really believe they have grievances,
and that a duly authorised Commission reported
that some of those grievances were real. It is said
that these have been since redressed, but this is de-
nied by the officers ; and, indeed, the chief cause of
discontent—the passing over of seniors by juniors
through the operation of the Staff Corps—is unques-
tionably in full force. Eight years ago India was
held by an army of more than 250,000 men,which bore
nominally no direct allegiance to the Crown. Num-
bers of young men went out yearly to join regiments
which were, in the eye of the law, but the hireling
troops of a company of merchants. This theory was,
of course, very different from the practice in later
times. The ensigns and lieutenants who served
under Clive or Coote were simply engaged and paid
by the Company like its other servants, but towards
the close of this great Corporation's rule the Indian
officers were in reality as much in the service of the
British Government as those who bore the Queen's
commission. Their rights were protected by Par-
liament, their position was defined by rules which
the Indian Government would not have changed,
even if it had had the power. There were some
disadvantages in belonging to the Company's rather
than to the Queen's service, but, on the otjier hand,
there were compensating advantages. The officer
had only the field of India ; when he repassed the
Cape of Good Hope he was but a civilian, or
rather he was in the position of a soldier visiting
a foreign country. In England he could have
no active duty any more than in France or
Prussia. He could not win glory on a Turkish
or Crimean field, and must be content with such
renown as was to be won by extending his country's
dominions over the people of Asia. But, to balance
all this, he had an honourable and it might be a
brilliant career in the east. A country with 180
millions of people is a field large enough for the
ambition of any man. The Indian officer received
emoluments far larger than fall to the lot of mili-
tary men generally. He was engaged for a definite
term of years, and when they were over he might
return home with an income very different from the
meagre allowance which constitutes our ordinary
officers' half-pay. Then he might be, and often
was, engaged in occupations of a civil nature. He
might administer a turbulent district ; he might
construct roads or canals, or make surveys, and re-
ceive from these duties not only fame, but sub-
stantial rewards. On the whole his profession was
an eligible one, and he was worthy of it. The Indian
officers have been, as a class, men of energy and re-
source, and many of them have been of conspicuous
military genius. The system which made them, and
which they upheld, did certainly collapse, but that
was no fault of theirs, and no passage in their his-
tory is more brilliant than that which recounts the
defection of the Sepoy army and the death-blo ot of
the old Government. It is these men who are
now complaining ; it is their grievances which
Captain Jervis and Colonel Sykes press on the
House of Commons. The long and elaborate answer
of Sir C. Wood, full of the details and technicalities
of adriairation may cause it to be thought that the
case of the officers was disposed of ; for when so
much is said with such apparent knowledge of the
subject, it is difficult to believe that objections are
not refuted. But, so far as we can see, there is
nothing in Sir C. Wood's reply which should pre-
vent the House of Commons or the Government from
examining once more the system of which the
Indian officers complain. The chief ground of com-
plaint is that the practice of promotion by seniority,
to which they were accustomed and attached, has
been superseded by the establishment of the Staff
Corps, which is asserted to be nothing else than a
machinery for putting favoured officers over the
heads of their seniors. Now, we would not listen too
readily to the grumbling of any set of men, and if it
can be shown that this Staff Corps is necessary for
the improvement of the service, we shall not say a
word against it. But the contrary is widely asserted.
It is said, and with great probability of truth, that
the real difficulty in India is to keep men with their
regiments. There is always a tendency to prefer any-
thing to the regular and laborious duties of the sol-
dier's life, the monotony of camp and barrack.
When, then, an officer is permitted to volunteer
for the Staff Corps he enjoys a positive relaxa-
tion, escaping the performance of regimental
duties. Yet it is to these men that promotion
is liberally dealt out. As was stated last
evening, a subaltern of five years' standing is pro-
moted on joining to be a captain, a captain of 20
years' standing becomes a major. n this manner in
numbers of cases officers are superseded in their own
regiments by others junior to themselves. As to the
" bonus" system, which is now denounced as illegal,
there is nothing that we can see so very reprehensi-
ble in it, and it was an efficient method of hastening
promotion and obviating the chief objections to the
system of rising by seniority. It is certainly less in-
vidious than the purchase system as it prevails in the
Queen's Service. The answer of Sir C. Wood only
showed that what had been donewas with the assent
and by the advice of some of the chief authorities in
India. Probably when the present rules were put in
practice there was a notion that the conditions of mili-
tary service in India would vary widely from what
they were before the mutiny. But nothing has hap-
pened to demand such a disappointment of the legiti-
mate hopes of a great number of faithful and veteran
soldiers. Sir C. Wood endeavours to prove that
the average term of service before rising to_given_
ranks has been shortened, so that promotion is
more rapid than under the former system. But
even if this were true, it would not lessen the in-
justice under which particular officers have suffered.
It is at least a case for further inquiry, and we can-
not regret that the House of Commons has come to
this decision.

HERALD.—OnIy a very hold man would venture
to class the Banking Act of 1844 with the triumphs
of modern legislation. Tried by the principles of its
most ardent supporters, it is theoretically unsound,
and if tested by experience it is practically inefficient
or positively injurious. In an era of free trade it
raises a protected interest, and it recognises Govern-
ment intermeddling in affairs purely mercantile at a
time when the tendency of public opinion is strongly
against all superfluous state interference. It fixes
an arbitrary and permanent standard for regulating
the commerce of the country, and it rigidly requires
an elastic and fluctuating agency to submit to re-
strictions which frequently become intolerable.
Passed with the idea of preventing panics, it has
been repeatedly found unequal to the task it under-
takes. If the arguments in its favour are wort
i h any-
thing it should be of great and especial value n times
of peculiar pressure, and yet it is just at those times
that its operation has been suspended and its burden
removed as one too grievous to be borne. The course
of trade refuses to be bound by the fetters of mo-
dern system-mongers, and all endeavours to keep it
at a point of Procrustean uniformity have been and
must be unsuccessful. But it appears that none of
these things move Mr. Gladstone. As every one
knows, he is not a man to stick at trifles. He is
quite prepared to accept the act of 1844 as the very
embodiment of financial wisdom, and to make its
principles the bases of further legislation of the same
kind and character. When introducing the Bank-
notes Bill on Monday night it was upon Sir R. Peel's
much criticised measure that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer took his stand. Though no one can ac-
cepthis propositions as incontrovertible, it must be
admitted that they were at least intelligible—a merit
which the speeches of the right hon. gentleman do
not always possess. Mr. Gladstone regards the right
of issuing paper as a state prerogative, only to be ex-
ercised by Royal or statutory licence, and for which
every one who uses it is bound to pay. And so he
proposes to follow afar off in the footsteps of his
political master. For the privilege of issuing notes
the bankers are henceforth to pay at an augmented
rate, and though the idea of giving this privilege to
one establishment only is not yet to be realised Mr.
Gladstone makes no secret of his desire for such a
consummation. It is somewhat difficult to appre-
ciate the force of the reasoning by which the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer has recommended this latest
effort of his genius to the acceptance of the house.
The act of 1844 was intended, among other things,
to discourage the issue of notes by private firms or
trading corporations, and hence that privilege was
withheld from any bank established after the passing
of the act. Rights already in existence were saved,
but several events were enumerated on the happen
ing of which the issue of any particular bank's notes
was to cease and determine. It was hoped that by
force of circumstances, or by their own free will the
bankers' rights of issue would be forfeited or sur-
rendered, and that thus the way might be paved for

the monetary millennium to be inaugurated when
none but the national establishment shall issue a
note, and when the Government shall be able to
exact what terms it pleases for the " , concession of
so lucrative a monopoly. But strange to say, the
bankers have shown no disposition to avail them-
selves of those provisions. Like the chickens in the
nursery rhyme, they won't come and be killed to
please the Finance Minister. A few weak concerns
may lose their privilege by failing or giving up busi-
ness, but the majority hold on with a persistencY
which Mr. Gladstone regards with characteristic
impatience. At the present time of progress be tells
us that centuries must elapse before the complete
triumph of the act of 1844. As of course the notes
of such banks would cease to circulate if the public
refused to accept them in payment, it would seem
that the nation in general is slow to
perceive the
,
benefits which the act of 1844 insures to them, aria,
as a bank loses its right of issue when it cannot
meet its engagements it follows that in the esti-
mate of the Chancellor of the Exchequer we have
a number of establishments existing among us
which are not likely to die out for some hundreds °f
years. But Mr. Gladstone cannot let well alone.
A state of things with which the public are satisfied,
and which evidently possesses considerable stabilitY,
is not to be tolerated if it stands in the way of an
act act passed by Sir Robert Peel, and of certain
changes desired by Mr. William Ewart Gladstone.
Therefore the bankers are to have their " permissive
bill." They are to have the power of conforming
to Mr. Gladstone's ideas, and of adopting 31r•
Gladstone's crotchets, any time in the next fifteel!
years. If they come in and " conform," well and
good, but if not—it is darkly hinted that it may be
the worse for them. We have little anticipation
that the sentiments of the bankers upon this sub-
ject will undergo any change. To issue notes Part
able on demand has always been one of the mos
valuable portions of the banking trade, and so long
as the members of that trade are alive to their oval._,
interests they will refuse to relinquish one obis!,
source of their profits. Of course, if there were all/
great evil to be remedied, or any great public ad-
vantage to be gained, it would be Mr. Gladstone °
duty to persevere with his measure, no matter holy
the bankers regarded it or what opposition ell
offered to it. But it is not on such grounds thatch ,11
e
rights of private banks of issue are now assailed. vi.
the Chancellor of the Eichequer's own showing, the
public have so much confidence in these notes that
they are likely to go on taking them for centuries.
In this, as in other matters, however, the elltas,,
cellor of the Exchequer is looking to the day wheel
he shall be at the head of a Radical Cabinet, an
able to do many things that are just now iiielted-
dient. " The establishment of a compulsory
final system" of centralised banking may net Jet
now be more practicable than the enfranchiseuB
of the great unwashed or the spoliation of
Irish Church Establishment. But something ulf
be done towards accomplishing that object.
the
the thin end of the wedge be got in nevr.„t
driving it home may be left to some more conveulr—,
season. For our own part, we must confess °u
est)
selves unable to discover any solid reasons forth ,o.
continual endeavours to get the privilege of issue
bank-notes into the hands of one establistratito
As was pointed out by Sir Stafford Northcote,t
security of the public might be insured to a g);),
extent by regulating each bank's issue of noteselva
the amount of bullion in hand, as is already
by the Scotch banks, and by the Bank of Eng,'„"cie
itself. Bankers themselves tell us that a multi
of small accounts is preferable to a few great ono-
We know not why this rule should not have a 'the
tomers' side ; why it should not be better ferm.oo
notes in circulation to represent a number of bulneo
reserves in various parts of the country, than via
enormous sum locked up in the bank cellarseet
Threadneedle-street. The reference to the re
the
failure at Birmingham did not greatly hell) ,ith
Chancellor's case. If the state is to interfere hies
the issue of bank-notes because a firm with liabillb of
amounting to a million has issued £20,000 wuri;ttle
notes, we ought to push the' argument a',ro,
farther, and sag- that, in the interest of depcsan'yee:
the state ought to keep everybody's banking Ate,
count, as well as to issue everybody's bank 1Z
If the inconvenience of those who hold grhy'h.ori
worth of notes is a reason for legislation,
that of depositors who have £980,000 on tileprfoicl
of an insolvent concern is a reason 11'11;,-0,3
stronger. We are sure that not even Mr. Glae.,;jr,
will as yet advocate the opening of a national nAr.
with branches everywhere, for the benefit of sub
ing depositors, and very little more satisfactqlsti.
the reasoning by which similar interference is
fieden o bhalf of noteholders.