The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-30 00:00:00

ence, ability, energy, and merit, even in their roughest
and most unpalatable forms, in the conduct, and even at
the head of affairs. There can be no interest greater
than that of the whole common weal, for with its down-
fall every other must sink to a common destruction. So
no reason can be given, and no excuse will be admitted,
against immediately superseding in their commands
those who have proved themselves unable to be incap-
able of performing the duties to which favour, seniority;
or mistake has advanced them. After all, it is no dis-
grace to a man that he does not possess the genius of a
Wellington or even of a Hill. But it is a crime in a
War Minister to permit an nfficer to remain for a single
day in the nominal discharge of duties the neglect of
which has brought a groat and victorious army to the
verge of ruin.

(Front the Morning Herald.)

Tn our article of Friday vindicating Lord Raglan's
oonduct upon certain points against the attacks of the
Times, and the perhaps equally injurious defence of the
Globe, we mentioned that there were matters upon which
his lordship's conduct was really open to censure, and
that we should point these out, though without unneces-
sary bitterness.
Oae of the circumstances from which our unlucky but
glorious soldiers have suffered most in the Eastern ex-
pedition has been the utter recklessness and favouritism
with which the officers appointed to staff situations have
been selected.

Our readers are well aware that to the hard-working
regimental officer an appointment to a staff situation is
an object of the most intense ambition, as being
almost the only opening by which he can make his
way to distinction and honour.
These appointments, we need hardly say, are left al-
most entirely in the hands of the officers of the line, when
their duties are to be performed in India, at the Cape,
China, or other remote and barbarous localities, which
have been the ordinary theatres of our wars for about
40 years gone by.
From this it results that by the officers of the line is
monopolised almost the entire experience of the army in
the performance of staff duties.
Notwithstanding this, when the war broke out nearer
home, and that staff appointments became objects of
ambition to those who had never had an occasion or op-
portunity of acquiring a knowledge of the duties required
in such positions, the experienced officers of the hard-
working line were in a great degree set aside, and the
posts in question were bestowed with a disregard to
knowledge and fitness on the part of the authorities
which the public can hardly be expected to credit.
Now we beg to disclaim, in the most explicit man-
ner, any wish or intention to join in the vulgar cry
which has often been raised against the household
troops. Further than that, we should wish to see mat-
ters managed in such a way as would not expose them
to unmerited—as far as they are individually concerned
—unpopularity, and that the array in general should not
suffer by any preference shown to them.
In one word, we concede that finer, nobler, bolder, or
better soldiers than the Guards and their officers do not
exist upon the face of the earth • but that, in the ordi-
nary course of events, it is simply a matter of impossi-
bility that the latter should or could have acquired a
knowledge of staff duties in the field.
Now, from the duties devolving upon them, the pro-
per selection of the staff is of more importance to the
army than that of any other class ; and although we
are quite aware that every man must begin at some
time, we maintain that they ought invariably to begin
in subordinate situations, and that men should not -be
chosen to fill important situations from family connec-
tions, or from the mere fact of their having filled offices
in the Horse Guards of a nature requiring for their per-
formance more the merits of a civilian than those of a
soldier. This is, as we have said, a matter involving
the safety of the army and the honour of the country,
and requires in the selections for those posts more than
any other, to be guided by the merits of the candidates,
and by their merits alone.
Now, bearing in mind what we have said of the prima
facie difficulty, not to say impossibility, of certain classes
acquiring the field practice necessary for the perform-
ance of those duties, we shall merely say that Lord Rag-
lan's personal staff, consisting of six individuals,
was composed of three guardsmen, one peer, and
two honourables. Again, we protest. against its being
supposed that we object to anything in this except the
almost necessary want of apprenticeship implied in the
seleetion. The duties may have been right well per-
formed ; but we merely state that the probabilities at
first sight were against it. Of course what we may say
of the household troops must apply to the cavalry regi-
ments which do not ordinarily serve in the colonies.
We do not wish to go
,through the list ; but any old
soldier, going over the names of the general and per-
sonal staff of the army, will agree with us, that
through the entire staff the selections were made more
with consideration for private and public favour and
affection than with an enlightened view to the safety
and well-being of the army. No proof of this can
be more convincing than the fact, easily ascertained,
of the number of appointments in the expedition
given to gentlemen who had been long enjoying easy
berths in the Horse Guards and War-office, and who
were so permitted to appropriate the ehoice posts both
in pence and war. Again, we beg to assure our readers
that it is a system which we are objecting to, and that
we have no motive but a public one in referring to it.
Our readers will hardly believe that officers who had
served several campaigns abroad, and were psnectly
conversant with field duties, were refused employment
upon the plausible grounds that "it was necessary to
give others a chance cf learning their duties." This
might be very well if only applied to the very subordi-
nate ranks, but was utterly inapplicable to the higher
posts, where experienco must he acquired at the expense
of and by means of injury suffered by the army in ge-
neral. As a proof of the necessity of employing per-
sons who have acquired a practical knowledge of their
profession, we shall take the example of the utter de•
struction of the Light Brigade, not only by means of
the iatal charge at Balaklava, but by what we must call
the most astounding mismanagement after that event.
. .

We do not wish to mention names in the reference to
this unhappy event ; but our readers must recollect that
an order was given by one stag officer—conveyed by an-
other—received by a third—and that the result was the
most useless massacre, among many such, of British
troops recorded in our military annals.
With reference to this we shall oily farther remark,
that so utterly ignorant did all parties appear to be of
the nature of their duties, that the officer who carried
the order absolutely-headed the operation which a major
general was conducting, and was killed far in advance
of the brigade. Now, this officer's absolute duty was
to return to the general is..om whom he brought the
order, and report the delivery and execution of the in-
stractions with which •. entrusted.

We can fancy Gen en's face had any subordi-
nate officer +.lrizr ' ,section with his division.
Upon this 1 7-.4 I not dwell further than to
remark that it . • c •ral ignorance of staff duties.
The charge was b... 1 • . but what are we to say to
what followed!

Immediately after the fatal day of the 25th the re•
mains of the brigade were ordered up from the neigh-
bourhood of l3alaklava, and placed in the rear of the
siege works, at a distance of several miles from the post.
TI,J commissary represented to the authority, that when
. up it paid be physically
'l,o_o_, Me horses with forage. No
•mtif.7e was taLen of his remonstrance. The horses
Nve._ J. ought up, and left exposed, not only to
hardship—standing up to their knees in slush with-
out any shelter, but to starvation. The commissary
was right, and for several days the unfortunate horses
were supplied with 31b of oats or barley per diem,
which as the nose-bags were worn out, and frequent
requisitions for new ones had never been attended
to, the men were obliged to lay on the muddy ground
before the horses, when, of course, the half of even this
scanty allowance was of necessity buried in the mud,
and lost.
The natural consequences ensued—the poor horses
wore starved, died in dozens at their pickets, and, in
fact, were reduced to such a state that the survivors
absolutely ate the hair off the ribs of their dead
comrades. This looks like exaggeration, but is a literal
authenticated fact, and was entirely owing to staff
ignorance or neglect.
In reference to the qualifications neeessat I for the
performance of staff duties, an officer who has been
himself for 20 years employed, and has ably performed
his duties in that department, has given us the following
list. The staff officer, to be efficient should beacquainted
with—

Field fortification.
Duties of infantry.
Duties of cavalry.
Duties of artillery.
Re should be a good horseman.
Unierstand military sketching.
lie should be acquainted with, at least, two foreign lan-
guages, and should have a general knowledge of military
history. We should like to know how many officers on
the staff of the army of the Crimea have been selected
with reference to any of the above acquirements,•and
we fear we should be obliged to make answer, in the
words of the able and efficient solder whom we have
quoted above, that the majority of them do net know a
bastion from the Tower of Babel. We find that we have
again reached our limit for the day, and that we shall be
obliged to recur once again to the painful consideration
of how much of the sufferings of the soldiers are due to
radical errors in the organisation of the expedition, and
how much of them might have been prevented by the
most ordinary precaution and foresight.

TIIII CIVIL SERVlClL—Registrar-General's Depart-
ment, Scotland ; Mr. John Stewart has been appointed
chief clerk in the Registrar-General's office, Edinburgh,
under the recent act for the Registration of Births,
Deaths, and Marriages in Scotland. Customs: Mr. W.
C. Maclean, controller at Dover, has been promoted to
be collector at Truro. Mr. J. Bull, collector and land-
ing-surveyor at Rye, has been promoted to be controller
and landing-surveyor at Dover. Mr. W. A. Gent, con-
troller at Barnstaple, has been promoted to be collector
and landing-surveyor at Rye. Mr. J. H. Davidson,
sub-collector at Ramsay, Isle of Man, has been pro-
moted to be controller &0., at Wesport. Mr. Ratart
Hicks, clerk at Grimsby, has been appointed to be sub-
collector at Ramsay, Isle of Man. Mr. E. Cullen has
been appointed clerk for general business in London.
Mr. C. Fogden has been appointed clerk for general
business in London. Mr. J. A. Stebbin has been ap-
pointed clerk to the inspector-general of imports soil ex-
port; in London.--Civi4 Senio Onftte.