The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-20 00:00:00

eitenttit

LONDON, TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 1849.

The Secretary of War last night, in submitting
the Army Estimates for the ensuing year, entered
into a very clear and satisfactory statement respect•
ing, the improvements that have been effected of late
years in the management of our military establish-
ments. Much has undoubtedly been done. The
situation of the soldier has been materially ame-
liorated ; his health and morals are now in some
degree thought of. He is looked upon as a
human being, and the brutalizing and degrading
punishment that was so frequently resorted to in
former years, if not altogether abolished, is yet
very rarely resorted to, and then only for
crimes of an infamous and disgraceful character.
There has also appeared an inclination to keep down
the non-effective branch of the service. Many
reductions have already been made, not perhaps to
the extent we might have desired, but such changes
must be gradually, almost imperceptibly, brought
forward. It is by keeping a steady eye to all
vacancies, and abolishing all unnecessary expenSee,
that economy can ultimately be obtained.
The main question to be decided last night related
to the numerical force to be employed during the
forthcoming year. It was proposed on the part of
the Government " that a number of land forces
not exceeding 103,254 men (exclusive of the men
employed in the territorial possessions of the East
India Company), commissioned and noncommissioned
officers included, be maintained for the service of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, from
the Ist day of April, 1849, to the 31st day of March,
1850." The Right Honourable Secretary stated that
it had been the intention of the Government to pro-
pose a reduction of ]O,OOO men in the numbers en-
rolled last year. The recent intelligence from India
had, however, led to some modifications. When
the account of the sanguinary skirmish at
Ramnuggur arrived it was deemed prudent
to reinforce the Indian army. Three regiments of
infantry, amounting to 3,300, were selected for the
service, and it was consequently decided that 7,000
men only should be discharged. The subsequent
tidings of the still more fatal conflict at Chillian..
wallah rendered an additional force advisable, and
two other regiments were placed under orders for
India, and the reductions were consequently limited
to 5,000 men. So it was stated by the Right Hon.
Gentleman ; but from the numbers voted a more
considerable diminution would appear-413,847 men
were borne on the army estimates last year, while
the number demanded by the Government, and even-
tually carried, amounted to 103,254 only, or 10,494
less than the number voted last year. There was
altogether a decrease in the expenditure on the non-
effective service of 48,0291., and of 330,5291. in the
half-pay and non-effective votes, showing in the whole
saving of 378,6241.
The Right Honourable Gentleman subsequently
entered into a comparison between the military ex-
penditure for the model year 1835 (which Mr.
COBDEN has selected
as the basis of his
budget) and the present votes, and there
certainly does not appear to be much ground for
complaint so far as the army estimates are concerned.
Aibis true that there are 30;000 men more in the ser-
:"WSP erikresent than in 1835. The strength of the
j -.717:: :ill4 s been materially increased, and it •
ee,e• ,' gv,is now in
e 1 ore efficient condition than it was in the
reekiere.,:,el4 „`")." • -ar • but the increase of expenditure is by
107. •
proportioned to the increased force. In
e gross charge on the army estimates was
4A1'445:7, 821. The gross charge for the army during
the ensuing year is 6,142,211/, the difference being
only 234,0001., for which we have, as already stated,
30,000 additiomal troops. But this is not all:
many charges have since 1835 been transferred from
other derartments to the army estimates, so that if
the same subjects that are now included had then

been provided for, the estimates of 1835 would consi-
derably have exceeded those of 1849. Among the
recent charges were some so wholly unobjectionable
that we cannot suppose any Englishman could be
found to offer an objection thereto. Such as the
votes for the erection of military prisons, rendered
necessary by the disuse of the horrible " cat;" the
votes for education and military libraries ; the
good conduct pay, the regimental savings'
banks, and, above all, the allowance to mar-
ried soldiers, to avoid the demoralization atten-
dant on a number of married and single men herding
together in the same sleeping-room--an act necessarily
destructive of the modesty and feelings of self-respect
in the wives of the soldiers, feelings that should be
fostered and cherished to the utmost degree. The
most rigid economist, we say, cannot object to such
charges, which amount in the whole to 253,0001.,
that has been imposed since 1835, so that in fact our
army estimates for the present year are actually
lower by no less than 19,0001. than in 1835,
although we have 30,000 troops in addition.
Much improvement has also taken place in sanitary
matters, by which the general mortality of the
troops has been materially lessened, with some few
unfortunate exceptions. The most satisfactory part
of the statement, however, was that in which the
Right Hon. Gentleman bore his testimony to the
good conduct of the troops since the practical abolition
of corporal punishment. It shows how frivolous
were the objections of the martinets who
asserted that discipline could not be maintained
unless the lash were freely resorted to, who
looked upon the British soldier as of an inferior
class, who could only be controlled by such brutalizing
punishment. It confirms the views of the conqueror
of Sinde, the hero of Meeanee 'and Hyderabad, the
Commander-in-Chief of her Majesty's forces in India,
who did justice to the characters of his gallant asso-
ciates, and contended that they were not less re-
spectable in character or conduct than the soldiers of
other nations—that they might be treated as men
open to more gentle influences.

The honourable Member for Montrose moved as
an amendment that a further reduction of 14,000 men
should be effected, leaving only 89,254 for the service
during the ensuing year. The amendment was
however rejected by a majority of 142, the numbers
being for the original proposition 182, for the
amendment 40. Several votes on account were sub•
sequently taken, which do not call for particular
notice.

Parliament had reason yesterday evening to thank
the Earl of EGLINTON for provoking a discussion by
no means characterised, to say the very least of it,
by its decency. It has been the fortune of the Noble
Lord—the good or ill fortune, just as he may happen
to consider it—to figure before the public, on one or
two prior occasions, in rather ridiculous attitudes.
But he certainly never contrived to render himself
mere supremely ludicrous than last night, when he
demanded a return showing the nature of the medical
treatment received by the Polish refugees dur-
ing the year ending on the 28th of March,
1849. By a lamentable self-forgetfulness, Lord
STANLEY allowed himself to be decoyed into
a participation in this invidious and melan-
choly attack upon the unfortunate. Aware
that the benevolen"e of the nation cannot be diverted
from the right channel by arguments of a candid or
rational character, the opponents of the grants of as-
sistance to the miserable exiles from Poland are now
actually endeavouring to drive the countrymen of so
many heroes to destitution by aspersions more suited
to the lips of porters and fishfags than to those of the
hereditary aristocrats of England.
Scarcely a decade has elapsed since the population
of these islands was amused with the pompous eccen-
tricities upon which Lord EGLINTON squandered so
many thousand pounds sterling—we mean of course
the ever-memorable Tournament. How many " starv-
ing agriculturists" (upon whose hypothetical wants
the Noble Lord last evening dilated with such im-
passioned eloquence) might have been supported by
'the moneys lavished upon that extravagant exhibition
—is a question which we shall not trouble ourselves
to estimate even at a conjecture. But it assuredly
does strike us as rather out of the limits of good taste
for any man who had rendered himself notorious by
an act of such absurd and profligate expenditure to
quarrel with the Government because a few I

hundred pounds are devoted annually to the suste-
nance of an ill-doomed race, driven to our shores
by no fault of their cwn, but by the
ruthless cruelties of despotism. Is it de-
corous, we ask, for a person who has
spent so much upon one preposterous tomfoolery to
talk about the culpability of the Legislature in de-
voting a periodical stipend to the aid of individuals
groaning under sentence of banishment, and who but
for the generosity of the people and the Parliament
might perish with hunger or die from want of the
commonest items in the Pharmacopoeia. It cannot be
forgotten that upon the occasion of the Mock-Tour-
nament at Eglinton Castle there were among the
knights who rode armed cap-d-pie into the list with
their vizors down—such men as the Marquis
of WATERFORD and the Prince LOUIS NAFOLEON.
With them, however, the adventure (so time has
proved it) was attended merely in sport "in their
hot youth," not " when GEORGE THE THIRD was
King," but when Lady SErmouß was the Queen of
Beauty. They were only going through that plea-
sant agricultural pastime called "sowing their wild
oats." Tutored by experience and ripened in wis-
dom, the one has become a model landlord in Ireland,
while the other has risen into the sagacious and
statesmanlike ruler over the great Republican Go-

vernment of France. The Marquis has devoted the
years of his manhood to the amelioration of the
sorrows of the peasantry. The PRINCE has dedi-
cated his intellect to the solution of that
almost inscrutable problem, the extinction of pauper-
ism. Unhappily for the Earl of EGLINTON, he has
employed the same interval so indifferently, that we
find him, on the 19th of March, 1849, insulting the
refugees from Poland by insinuations that he should
have spat out of his mouth in the lobby of the House
of Peers rather than have uttered in the presence of
the Lord Chancellor of England. Profligate at one
time in his own disbursements, the Noble Earl is
niggardly at another in regard to the disbursements
from the Exchequer.

While others are filled with sensibility on the
consideration of the misfortunes of the op-
pressed Poles, Lord EGLINTON and Lord STAN-
LEY would examine their doctors' bills with
eyes as scrutinizing as those of a broker appraising
the furniture of a house distrained by its landlord.
While some are lamenting over the adverse fortunes
of a race whose ancestors were the saviours of
Christendom under the walls of Vienna, my Lord
EGLINTON is hungering and thirsting with an
insatiable curiosity after the details of the medical
treatment of the refugees. He would pry into the
exact nature of the ills that their flesh is heir to,
while others would grant them unconditionally the
aid of a generous nation. He would subject them to
a severe cross-examination before soothing their
miseries, while others would apostrophize their un-
fortunate country as M. LAMARTINE, twenty years
:---
, Poura‘go, addressed
ua AnidaldsammeemEomirieLE
:v.DocintiGe rDIN
mage,
Je to voie, rce,l 6:eint par la Tulle et les pleura,
Sans couronne et sans lyre, et penchant ton visage
Sur un lit de douleurs !"

It must be remembered, however, that the grant of
8,7001. for the assistance of the Poles is supported by
more than the sentiment of which it is expressive—it
is the tribute of humanity—it is the token of the
gratitude with which England, as a Christian nation,
remembers the heroism of JOHN SornasKl and his
companions in arms, when they saved Europe from a
triumphant incursion of the Mussulmen. To
withdraw the help afforded by our Government
during so many years to the refugees from
Lithuania would, moreover, by this time be a grievous
act of injustice, seeing that we have by our preceding
conduct accustomed those exiles to count upon the
charities of England as upon a certainty.

At the very period when the Earl of EGLINTON
and other distinguished philanthropists are declaiming
against the good treatment of these unhappy fo-
reigners,
the Sublime Porte is extending his protec-
tive arms to them with a cordiality that should put
those Christians to the blush. A firman of the Divan
announces to the banished children of Lithuania,
of Gallicia, and of Posen, that shelter and rank
will be afforded them at Constantinople and,
although the motive is evidently to increase the

number of soldiers capable of fighting under the
banners of the Sultans, the mere fact is a striking
contrast to the simultaneous efforts of Lord EGLINTON
and his colleagues. Happily for the lives of the
Poles and for the honour of England the Government
does not derive its inspiration from the promoter of
cockney tournaments.

THE UNITED STATES.

ARRIVAL OF THE SARAH SANDS.

LIVERPOOL, MONDAY NIGHT.—The steam-ship
Sarah Sands has arrived at our port this afternoon,
bringing advices to the following dates : —New York,
Ist of March; Philadelphia, Ist of March; Boston
and Baltimore, 28th ult.; Now Orleans, 25th ult.;
Montreal, 24th ult.; Quebec, 23d ult.; and Halifax,
4th instant.

The news of this arrival does not possess any poli-
tical interest. The inauguration of the President was
the exciting topic for the moment.
In business affairs our advices inform us that there
had been little change.

The Money Market continued in a satisfactory con-
dition. Money was by no means scarce, and trading
prospects were, on the whole, what may be consi-
dered good.

There was not any material alteration to note in
the market for breadstuffs. Flour, grain, Indian
corn, and corn meal, are all held firmly, and prices
are steady. The following are the quotations :
Western Canal flour, 5 dolls. 621,.!. to 5 dolls. 75c.
per barrel, very firm ; Genessee prime wheat, 1 doll.
to 1 dollar 2c. per 601b5.; Southern wheat,
1 dollar 12c. to 1 dollar 14c. per boll ;
round yellow Indian corn, 62c. to 64c. per
bushel, steady; southern white, 54c. to 56c. per
bushel ; Indian meal, 2 dolls. 75c. to 2 dolls. 87ie.
per barrel.

- There has been a fair amount of business doing in
cotton "at New York, and former quotations were
steadily maintained. The following were the rates at
the departure of the mail :—New Orleans rnd Mo-
bile, middling fair to lair, Tic. to 711 c. per lb. ; Up-
lands, middling fair to fair, 71c. to 'lie. per lb.
There was a great demand for cotton at New
Orleans, at full prices.
The latest quoted rates for freights were very low,
and but little business doing.

ARRIVAL OF THE EUROPA.
(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
LIVERPOOL, TUESDAY MORNING.
The North American steamer Europa has arrived
with accounts from New York to the 7th inst.
The inaugural address of the new President was
delivered to Congress on the .sth.

It renews the various pledges heretofore made by
General Taylor to follow in the footsteps of
Washington in the administration of the Go-
vernment, to exercise no proscription against political
opponents who may chance to be holders of public
offices, to regard not merely local interests, &c. He
also makes the declaration that his country will pre-
serve a strict neutrality in any national disputes or
convulsions that now exist or may hereafter arise in
Europe. At the same time he proclaims a deep sym-
pathy with all struggles for the rights of the people,
and the extension of the blessings of liberty.
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
NEw YORK, MARCH 7.—The commercial and
money relations are easy and tranquil. The impulse
imparted to some of our staples, by the intelligence
of the Europa, has subsided, and prices are pretty
much the same as before that arrival. Some
400,000 dollars were drawn on account, which will
have the effect of relieving the money market. The
present deposit in the Sub-Treasury is alone
1,250,000. The rate of exchange on England does
not seem to have been raised, as was anticipated
would be the result by this operation, and best bills
are offered at 7i. on London ; although 8 is asked by
some drawers large amounts of sterling have been
sold during the past few days at from 74 to 71.
Paris bills ranged at from 5 25 to 5 32, and even
35 for short sight.
The demand for the Stocks, both of the United
States and of the States, continues active.
United States 6's of 68 command 1131 to f.
Treasury Notes, 6 per cent., 110 k to 11.
Pennsylvania s's, 80f to 81.
Money is in fair demand at high prices, but there is
no scarcity of it.
The West India mail steamer Dee arrived at
Mobile on the 23d ult. She had on board 4,000,000
of dollars specie.

IRELAND.
(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
DUBLIN, MONDAY EVENING.—Lord Londonderry
has addressed a remarkable circular to his Lordship's
tenantry in the north. Making reasonable allowance
for the due right of remonstrance and petition against
an obnoxious tae, the Noble Marquis roundly rebukes
the tone adopted by certain Noble Lords at recent
meetings in Down and Antrim, adding the fol-
lowing emphatic declaration:—" I have perhaps
more right to my opinion than many whom
I address, as personally the burden will fall
heav:er on me, and I was at first fully disposed to
resist it; but, could I for one moment believe that the
advice tendered at the late meetings in Ulster would be
followed, and that not only resistance would be made,
but that it is proclaimed that it would take 50,000, if
not 500,000 men, to collect this rate•in-aid, I would not
only support the measure with all civil interest and
power, but as an old soldier I would consider myself
bound to enforce the law against my own tenants and
adherents; so firmly and irrevocably am I determined
ever to uphold my loyalty to the Sovereign power and
the will of the united Parliament."
DREADFUL MURDER..
On Saturday night last the house of a man named
Robert Arnold, a tenant on the estate of Mr. Ormsby
Gore, residing on the lands of Leganormmer, in the
parish of Cloone and county of Leitrim, was attacked
by an armed party, who fired several shots through the
windows, whilst Arnold, his wife, child, and uncle,
Robert Todd, were eating their supper; one of the
shots took fatal effect upon the uncle, who instantly
expired.

- It may be recollected about twelve months since Mr.
Lauder, the agent of Mr. Gore, was compelled to eject
several defaulting teiants from this property, and to
substitute in their places a more respectable class of
persons. Arnold was among the latter.

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
Mademoiselle Nau made her deblit for the season here
last evening, in the character of the Syren, in Auber's
opera of the same name—a character in which, by
her delicious singing and acting, she acquired great
fame with the English public some three years since.
She has returned to us as fascinating as ever, and the
sparkling music of Auber was most brilliantly given by
her last evening. She was encored in the beautiful
cavatina in the second act, and in the bravura " I cannot
sing." We hail the return of the Syren of the Princess's,
and consider the triumph of last night as but the prelude
to a succession of brilliant successes. Allen resumed
his old character of Scopetto. Weiss was the Italian
manager, and Rafter was Scipio, The opera was well got
up, and was to the full as successful as it was on its first
production.

ACTIONS IN THE PUNJAUB.—Another map, most
admirably timed, has just issued from the establish-
ment of Mr. Wyld, at Charing-cross. It represents
in five compartments—Cavalry affair on the left bank
of the Chenab (22d of November, 1848)—Action at
Sudoowalla (December 3d, 1848)—Action near Soo-
rujkoond (November 7th, 1848)—Moultan and its
Environs, together with the Siege of that formidable
and almost impregnable fortifications. In one of the
last mentioned there is one spot which will be looked
to with peculiar interest, showing, as it does, the
entrenched camp of the heroic Edwardes. The ac-
tion near Soorujkoond is the one in which he led over
his troops against the enemy with so much daring
and success. Every word and line upon the map is
fraught with deep and immediate interest.

Yesterday evening the Lord Mayor and the Lady
Mayoress entertained in a most hospitable mangier fifty
gentlemen of the ward of Farringdon-without.
Henry F. Richardson, Esq., has been unanimously
elected Secretary to the Charter-house Infirmary.
Mr. John Wood, Chairman of the Board of Inland
Revenue, had an interview with the Chancellor of the
Exchequer yesterday, at his residence in Downing-street.
FRENCH PLATS AND OPERA COMMUE.—ST.
JAMES'S THEATRE.—Her Majesty and his Royal High-
ness Prince Albert honoured the performance at this
theatre with their presence last evening. The Royal
suite consisted of the Viscountess Jocelyn, the Hon. Miss
Dawson, Lord Byron. Colonel Grey, the Marquis of
Abercorn, and Colonel Bouverie. There were also pre-
sent her Serene Highness the Hereditary Princess of
Parma, the Russian Ambassador, the Baroness Brunnow
and Mdlle. Olga de Lechner, the Turkish Ambassador
and suite, the Marquis of Douro, Earl of Belfast, Lady
Webster, Sir Ralph and Lady Ilobvard, Lady and Miss
Tyrwhitt, Sir John Lyster Kaye, Mr. and Miss de
Horsey, Mr. and Madame

ROYAL SURREY THEATRE.—The lesseeship of this
theatre has ,now devolved on Mr. Shepherd alone, who
promises a higher class of entertainments than those
which, except at intervals, have served to delight the
transpontine public. As the taste for music and the
lyrical drama has spread among the higher and more
wealthy classes, the passion for the drama proper has
been more keenly developed among the middle and
lower. The success of Mr. Phelps at Sadler's Wells,
and of Mrs. Warner and Mr. Watts at the Marylebone,
prove what may be done with a one shilling and two
shilling public by the stimulus of superior pertormances.
If, the quality being preserved, the character of those
performances be more adapted to modern ideas of taste,
it is to be hoped that a permanent foundation might be
laid for the development of that dramatic talent which
unquestionably exists in the country. As we construe
Mr. Shepherd's professions, we infer that he aims at
something of this kind, and if so, we wish him success.
We hear of engagements of Mr. Anderson, Mrs. War-
ner, a new tragedian, together with Mr. W. H. Harrison
.and an operatic force.