The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-05 00:00:00

THE DUKE OF CLEVELAND AN.,
COLONEL GARRETT.

In the letter to the Mayor of Windsor, in which the
Duke of Cleveland enclosed his subscription to the fund
for Mr. Perry, his Grace expressed his opinion, as a mi—
litary officer of rank, that the 46th Regiment, as regards
the Young officers, is in a disgracefully undisciplined
state, and that this state is the fault of the commanding
officer. The former opinion has, most probably, not a
single dissentient voice—out of the Horse Guards, the
messes, and the barrack-rooms ; but it is, after all, rather
inferential than warranted by established facts. Never-
theless, it began to prevail among the people as soon as
the shuffling conduct of the parties interested iir procur-
ing Lieutenant Perry's conviction became notorious, and
that result was prepared by the members of the court-
martial themselves, who, when the prisoner remarked
that his material witnesses had been despatched to the
army in the East, sneeringly observed, "We thought so,"
and thereupon indulged iu " a laugh," What, people
asked themselves, did these men, who were foisted out of
the humble sphere of their capabilities into the. seat ofjus-
tice, consider to be laughable ? Was it the mischief in-
tended
to Mr. Pefry's defence, or the success of the piti-
ful trick by which his material witnesses were got rid of
on the eve of the trial, because it was felt certain to be most
conclusive against the characters of the prosecutors, and
most likely the whole of the commissioned part of the
army ? Nor were these facts, damaging as they were to
the reputation of all the parties concerned in bringing
them about, the whole of the causes of public condem-
nation of the 46th Regiment in particular, and of strong
suspicions that other regiments were not one whit batter.
It is obvious that we refer to the partial manna in which
a military advocate unblushingly interfered, as a judge
of the propriety or impropriety of questions for the de-
fence ; to the prevarications of most of the witnesses,
and the perjuries of others ; and finally, to the tameness
with which the quasi jud.;es endured all these irregu-
larities, neither rebuking offendrrs, nor committing them
for contempt or the felenes of which themselves were
witnesses. By no act weitever di.l these soldier judges
vindicate the honour and d?L•mity of their court—a thing
hitherto unheard of in any constituted tribunal. What
more could be wanted to convince a 'nation which has
long been accustomed to pride itself on the integrity of
its judges, the dignified propriety of its trials, and the
strict impartiality of its j mlieial proceedings, that much
worse 'was kept in the dark than was suffered to
come into the light? To make matters still worse,
and to convince a people already suspicious of the truth,
that the 46th'Regiment was not a solitary instance
of neglected discipline, the Commander-in-Chief obtained
the confirmation of the questionable decisions of this
precious court. If the object were to save the credit of
the regiment and its commanders, or that of the other
regiments, a step more completely unwise could not
have been devised. •
Such was the state of the case when the Duke of
Cleveland wrote his disapprobation of the 46th Regi-
ment and its Commander. The latter, we perceive by a
very long correspondence with the Duke, objects to his
judgment on the following grounds :—" The Duke has
served in the army only eleven years, and has probably
never seen foreign service." If we understand this ob-
jection, it is to the effect that, unless a man has served
twelve years in the. army, the whole or part of the time
being spent on foreign service, he cannot judge whether
or not a regiment is undisciplined in which it has been
proved that the shameful practices described in the evi-
dence had apparently been ordinary occurrences fgr
many past years. After this remarkable specimen of
acute reasoning, Colonel Garrett writes :—" As you have
unscrupulously pronounced me unfit, and my regiment
for years past, as regards young officers, undisciplined, I
think I may be permitted to doubt whether your military
experience imparts any value to such opinions and asser-
tions. What weight ought they to have when contrasted
with the reports of the numerous general officers who,
being duly authorised, have pronounced my regiment, in
all its branches, to have been iu a most efficient state of
discipline ?" •
All men will permit Colonel Garrett to doubt whatever
he pleases ; but it is for bun to judge of the prudence of
publishing his doubts, and the reasons on which he founds
them. In the present instance, he seems to have been
as unfortunate in the choice of advisers as those officers
were who procured the nomination of lieutenants, mate-
rial witnesses, for foreign service, so conveniently as to
save them the trouble of narrating their experience of
the doings in the 46th Regiment, and insure the con-
viction of a man not proven to be guilty. Colonel
Garrett has not taken warning by their fate, and the ill-
consequences to the regiment which has the honour to
be commanded by him. But this portion of his letter,
the second, is of greater importance to the country than
the rest of the correspondence, or the 46th Regiment
itself. It conveys a notion of the nature and character
of tho reports of Inspecting-Generals ; and it must now
be a public question—of what weight, after the disclo-
sures before the world relating to this regiment, arb "the
reports of numerous general officers, who have pro-
nounced the 46th Regiment to be, in all its branches,
in a most efficient state of discipline ?" There probably
is not a judge of a tribunal in Europe who, if acquainted
with the truth, would value them at the paper on which
they are written. '
The conduct of the Horse Guards in reference to the
Windsor courts-martial suggests another question—Of
what sort of value are the reports of inspecting-generals,
seeing that numbers of them have pronounced such re-
giments as the 46th to be in a most efficient state of dis-
cipline "in all its branches ?" But for this expression,
and the behaviour of the Horse Guards, the reports
might have been received as passably true, for, in all
opinions, they would have Leen understood as referring
to none but the privates and non-commissioned officers.
They may, however, be true in this sense, that the gene-
rals saw the regiments on parade, and that they inspected
the barracks at the time they had appointed for the visit,
and consequently they would see nothing of what tran-
spired on evidence, and has since been confirmed by nu-
merous letters from the towns in which the 46th had been
stationed before it graced Windsor with its residence. It
is to the character of the regiment, as it appears from evi-
dence and notorious facts, that the Duke of Cleveland's
letter alone applies, and it is clear, that if he had
never seen spur, or feathei', his opinion must have
infinitely greater weight than the whole of the com-
mendatory reports which Colonel Garrett cites before
the tribunal of public opinion, seeing that they were
made by officers who, if they were cognisant of such
facts as are on record, wrote what they knew to be
on the wrong side of the truth ; or, if they were not
so cognisant, wrote what they could not know to be
true. There is no escape from the dilemma in which.
Colonel Garrett has unconsciously imprisoned them.
Inspection reports, it is now reasonable to believe,
are utterly worthless as regards the character of -a
regiment and its staff of officers. The Horie Guards.
have taught the country what confidence is to be
placed in the honour of the highest military authorities.
The depravation seems universal in the 'official branches,
and no doubt owing to the sale of commissions, and
to the prostitution of patronage, in return for political
pr other services to the men in present power. If the
army is to be respected, and it its officers are to be
received as credible witnesses, it will be absolutely ne-
cessary to remodel the whole system, en the rational
basis of preferment by service and capability alone.--
Morning Advertiser.

FINSBURY REGISTRATION.—Yesterday morning Mr.
\V. F. Macqueen, the revising barrister, sat in the Lords
Justices' Court, Lincoln's-inn-fields, to revise the lists
of voters for the several parishes comprised in this Par-
liamentary district. Nothing worthy of a report came
before the court in the course of the day, and this bo-
rough, which has hitherto been warmly contested on
these occasions by the Liberals and Conservatives, was
yesterday represented by neither party. There were
about 60 claims made by the overseers, of which about
50 were allowed.
_ _

THE WAR Dereneeterr.—The Duke of Newcastle,
Minister at War, we understand, was closely engaged
on Tuesday at his temporary offices at the Premier's official
residence, in Downing-street, with his private secreta-
ries, Colonel Mundy (military), a relative of his Grace,
and Mr. Roberts (Civil secretary), whose business in the
department of the noble Duke is transacted at Sir George
Grey's office, relative to the important intelligence of the
conflict at Sebastopol. We understand that Lieutenant-
General Sir Hew Dalrymple Ross, Deputy Master-
General of the Ordnance, with the sanction of his
Grace, and of the General Commanding-in-Chief, Lord
Hemline, ordered the Park and Tower guns to fire a
royal salute on Monday, at the early hour of 6 a.m., to
celebrate the conquest of the Russian city of Sebastopol
by the allied forces ; and Government despatches on the
receipt of the intelligence were transmitted to the Queen
at Balmoral.
On Thursda
the right hon. gentleman and Mrs. Disraeli left Mn. DISR&ELI IN CORNWALL.—y last
Ply-
mouth, and proceeded to Trevince, the seat of Michael
v'in'espto, polities, 110 sooner heard of his in-
Williarne, Esq., 31. P., for the western division of
aeli,tl,l:,,,ldeeik
idinsciatiTyii:lg:tirv.hanoeesfirysabhlciv:icdiiiesttiier
s)tpte°:di
,drdi:t•yy.
the
v,W,
Great
United
inelli:huyglai hospitalityr ved to himself
Cornwall. This gentlemau, thenogrmehaeitannlssmelifanalifnniegdd awutitoh-
cLart. ofpi
srtaheeli
lien Archdeacon Phillpotts and
during
were invited to meet him. On
tention to visit the west of England than be offered
lady,
Trevince on the
of a
working
stayork :
no
gf 31
I thei.n tap 43
, hours,mine.attended
plained the whole process
by their host, who,
eitlxn.
Saturday the party proceeded to Falmouth, and drove
direct to Pendennis
men Castle,
re-
ceived by Captain ' Vesey, where they were e
D erinzy and of the Royal
Artillery, and remained two hours, examining the
various
ce
striking features of that manifi t
harbour.
from thence they proceeded to Capt. Triscott's, R.N.,
where they partook of lunch, and all the various plans for
the improvement of Falmonth Harbour were shown and
explained to the right hon. gentleman. On Sunday they
attended the parish church of Trevince, and left that
hospitable mansion on Monday. after expressing in the
strongest terms the high sense of the extreme kindness
and attention of Mr. Williams. Mr. Disraeli was
warmly greeted by crowds of persons on passing through
the various towns on his journey down and up. The great
fair of Liskeard was held (.11 Monday ; the town was
crowded with farmers and yeomen from the neighbour-
hood, who deputed one of their number to express to
Mr. Disraeli the high estimation in which they held
him, and their great delight in seeing him in the
county, which they hoped he would revisit, and
which the right hon.•gentleman told them he should
surely do. Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli left on Tuesday by
the twelve o'clock train for Torquay. Mr. Williams,
than whom no one is better acquainted with the means
of promoting the interests of Cornwall, lies acted with
his usual discrimination and tact, in being the first to
introduce into the county such a distinguished person an
the late Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, no doubt,
this gentleman perceives, cannot be long kept 'from
holding a distinguished position In the government of
thin cenntry,—Pluntoutk tail.
•