The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-23 00:00:00

REFORMERS OF THE SERVICES.

(From the Bristol Mercury.)
At the dinner given last week to Admiral Napier, at
the Reform Club, Sir James Graham congratulated the
members present on two of their fellow-clubbists hav-
ing been appointed to command the Euxine and tke
Baz'hie fleets. He said nothing of their having been no-
minated because they were Reformers : in fact, Admi-
ral Dundas received his appointment from the previous
administration. It was a mere natural felicitation, X „ sug-
gested by the occasion and the circumstances. et Sir
James has been brought to book for the expression in
the House of Commons, as if there were something un-
hallowed in the fact of two Liberals being employed in
active service ! He pleaded that the nominations were
not made through political considerations. Can pre-
vious administrations say they have not withheld pro-
motion on account of the expression of strong political
opinions ?
The particulars of it case in point have recently been
published.
Lieut.-Col. Thompson is an old Peninsular officer of
four clasps, and has seen service in every quarter of the
globe. He was a Major of the 65th regiment of infantry
in 1829, and then purchased an unattached Lieutenant-
Colonelcy. He was required to sign a paper stating his
readiness to serve. This was done, and the completed
form of declaration was placed by a military friend in the
receiving-box of the office of the Commander-in-Chief at
the Horse Guards. Its receipt was afterwards denied,
and Lieut.-Col. Thompson was refused brevet promotion
in 1846 through his alleged failure to forward the decla-
ration, although the Major and his friend, Capt. Welch—
both military men, and therefore among soldiers at all
events, presumably honourable and truthful—positively
affirmed, and made affidavits to the fact on oath before the
Lord Mayor (Carroll), in 1847, that the document was duly
written, signed, and sent. Their deliberate affirmations,
on oath, went for nothing, because some under-strapper
at the Horse Guards had neglected his duty, and subse-
quently pleaded 7101 a mm ricordo as to the declaration ever
having been received. A brevet promotion took place in
1816 ; but although, we are informed, Mr. Thompson's
name stood at the top of a list of 140 officers who were
named for promotion, the 140 juniors were promoted, and
his claims to the same distinction entirely disregarded.
What had Lieut.-Col. Thompson been about since
1829 ? Advocating parliamentary and all other descrip-
tions of reform, and in particular, thinking out unan-
swerable arguments for the repeal of the Corn laws.
Was that a man fit for brevet promotion by the Tory
officials at the Horse Guards ? We trow not. No ex-
pedient was to be left untried, we may rest assured, to
keep him back, if he could not be degraded ; and the
Horse Guards chose to throw a slur upon the honour of
the whole army, by refusing to accept as true the decla-
rations of two of its officers, in order to withhold merited
promotion from so unfashionable a soldat as a Radical
Reformer.
The Horse Guards are still determined to maintain
their character. We have seen the constitution of Par-
liament altered, slavery abolished, the East India trade
opened, municipal corporations reformed, and free-trade
infused into every public interest ; but the Augean stable
of the Horse Guards remains uncleaned—its affairs are
managed on the self-same principles that prevailed, as
Byron has it,

In our hot youth, when George the Third was King.
The proof of this allegation will presently appear.
Lieut.-Col. Thompson has shown himself a most able
man. Besides political literature, he has employed his
pen in writing treatises on military strategy ; and, as if
in anticipation of the present European complexities, he
long ago qualified himself to address an Arab audience,
and to pen a remonstrance or an explanation in modern
Greek. Thus able to render efficient aid, the patriotic
veteran recently applied to be admitted into active ser-
vice. He received a favourable answer, but having, it
appears, subsequently intimated that in the event of an
expected brevet taking place he should look for being
nominated colonel, to date from that time, he was told
that his name should never appear in any future brevet.
Is not that scandalous ?—occurring, too, in the era of a
Ministry who had at least the nomination of the head
of the Horse Guards at their disposal, and whose First
Lord of the Admiralty elicits an abundance of cheers at
the Reform Club by congratulating its members on two
Liberals commanding our Eastern and Western fleets.
Lieut.-Colonel Thompson now claims the promotion
which was his due in the brevet of 1846, his place in the
Army list being in the list of colonels " between Sir Ord
Honyman and William Bush." It should be understood
that brevet promotions bring no additional emolument.
They are purely honorary, and consequently doubly
covetable in the eyes of a sterling soldier.
It is understood that General Sir de Lacy Evans will
bring the subject before the House of Commons at the
earliest convenient opportunity, and if there be a spark
of true liberality in that house, such an intimation, at
least, will be conveyed to the Horse Guards as will
secure justice being rendered to the gallant corn-law-re-
pealing colonel. Not long ago he was among the Re.
formers of Bristol advocating the adoption of the ballot.
He really looked not a whit less hale than he did ten or
a dozen years ago, when stirring up the country by per.
sonal appeals to effect the abolition of the corn-laws.
The same logical sententiousness and general vivacity of
mind characterised his later ballot and his earlier anti
corn-law orations. Designedly to snub sucli:n.naicaeinurtad
in his cepacity of soldier too, is positively disgraceful
the individual of the coterie that possesses the power to
inflict the wrong.
We have spoken of the Colonel's desire to enter upon
"active" service; and the word reminds
that he is
remarkably distinguished for activity, zeal, and faithful-
ness.
During the last Parliament,
n if
e he sat, we
mistake not, for Bradford, in Yorkshire, he was without
exception, the
li
most regular attendant
of the house.
Perhaps at no single division was he abse t
The weak-
ness, the lassitude, and the failings of ordinary. humanity
do not seem capable of affecting his wi /raw, ; and we
feel confident that, whether for head-work or for physi-
cal activy—some consideration beinggiven to his age—
not an abler man has been or could have been, sent
into European Turkey,
We strongly recommend that the attention of every
reformer whom our circulation reaches should be be-
stowed and kept upon this case. Though we have a
nominally Liberal Government, neither in army nor in
navy is Liberalism looked upon as favourable to promo-
tion among its officers. Na pier and Dundas are but
partial exceptions to the rule : indeed the latter suc-
ceeded by seniority, and the former--like his lately-de-
ceased namesake—was selected, at a peculiar time, as
the possessor of peculiar qualifications. All honour to
the individual—Sir J. Graham—who made the selection ;
but Reformers will have to bestir titenschles if they
would have the Horse Gnarls to render long-deferred
justice to Colonel Thompson.

THE SECRET CORRESPONDENCE.—Since the publica.
cation of the secret correspondence on the fate of Tur.
key a remarkable change of opinion has been manifested
amonc, the Greek merchants resident in London.
Hitherto
large majority of these gentlemen had been
6
warm partisans of Russia, but the exposure of the mt•
tare of her designs, and of her hostility to any approach
towards free government in Turkey, either under a
Byzantine empire or in any other shape, has now caused
them apparently to regard her with unconcealed antago.
nism,