The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-19 00:00:00

templates. It is then to be hoped that Rome may not
become a curtailed and factious-torn state like Greece,
but rise from its ashes to what it formerly was—the
admiration of the world.

Could not Lord Dudley Stuart, who has shown him-
self so indefatigable in the succour of the oppressed, be
solicited to head an undertaking, whose object should be
to raise subscriptions all over the country for the assist-
ance of the struggling Romans, and to devise means to
come to their assistance in the best manner, without
transgressing the laws of this country? Thousands
would no doubt come forward, and the aid so collected
and effected would not only be of the greatest material
service to this oppressed nation, small as it now is, and
beset by four mighty states—France, Austria, the Two
Sicilies, and, forsooth! Spain—but this benevolent sym•
pathy would, doubtless, shortly spread to other nations
in Europe, even in France itself, and then the world
might again perceive, as it did twenty odd years ago about
Greece, that an oppressive policy never can prosper,
when public opinion. is with the oppressed.
I ate, Sir, &c.,
GOTHUS.

London, June 18, 1849.

NAVAL PROMOTIONS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlR,—Same months ago I noticed in your spi-
rited journal a letter, signed " A Lieutenant when
Captain Peel entered the Navy," upon which you
penned and published some judicious observations, and
expressed a hope that the predominance of interest over
merit in the naval promotions would speedily cease. I
regret, in common with hundreds of other officers, that
daily occurrences forbid the expectation.
The patronage of the Admiralty ever bas been, is
now, and ever will be, bestowed upon those who have
the greatest amount of family, political, or naval interest,
no matter whether they have any claims for services or
not, and the hard working officers are doomed to wait in
vain, hoping to share in the promotions which it is evi-
dent they never will, so long as the middle classes are
neither fully nor fairly represented, and the aristocracy
locust-like, eat up all the good things Government has to
give.

Your obituaryrecords the death of Lieutenant Walker,
who had served at Trafalgar, at the capture of the
Marengo and Bellepoulle, at the attack of Buenos Ayres
in 1807, in the action of the Cleopatra and Topaze, at
Guadaloupe, at the reduction of Martinique, and many
other brilliant engagements. The last of which was
Algeirs, where he was wounded, yet this gallant officer,
whom I personally knew, was continually tantalized with
alternate hopes and despair of promotion to the day of
his death. Imagine his feelings, and the opinion he and
his family must entertain of the gratitude of his country,
or rather those who rule it, on reading the papers which
just before his death announced the promotion of Lieut.
Parker, son of the Commander in-Chief of the Mediter-
ranean station. This young officer was made a Lieute-
nant in September 1846, immediately he had passed his
college examinations, and is now very modestly pro-
moted over the heads of 2,165 Lieutenants, his seniors,
solely, it would seem, because he is the son of Sir Wil-
liam Parker ! Is it not enough, I should like to know,
that Admiral Parker has for the last eight years, out of
his turn too, been holding lucrative situations in India
and China, where be has pocketed some millions of dol-
lars, besides C. 8., K.C.8., and other honorary distinc-
tions, and Loot without limit, and whose grasping pro.
pensities in the Yang- tze-Kieng earned him the appella-
tion of " Old Brown Sugar "(a name well known among
the China Bricks), is not this, I ask, a sufficient reward
for such services without loading his family unfairly
with favours withheld from other more deserving officers?
If this is to be the rule of promotion, it would be far
better at once to avow it, and not longer insult and dis-
courage the hard working old servants of the Crown and
country who have no Lords, Generals, or Admirals, to
befriend them, and are, therefore, shut out from the re-
wards in every branch of the naval service; in fact, it
appears to be the chief study how best to get rid of me-
ritorious old officers and their importunities, and make
room for the advancement, at a rail-road pace, of the
children and grandchildren of the Admirals and the
Aristocracy.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
II A CONSTANT READER.
London, June 15, 1849.