The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-05 00:00:00

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LONDON. MONDAY. JULY 5. 1847.

Protectionist consistency has long been the derision

of the multitude.

Protectionist candour, and fair

be the abhorrence of those who are
dealing will now
the possessors of the elective franchise. Lord GE.oa.oo
BENTINCK has displayed very conspicuously his in-
capacity to continue the leader of any party
(la party in
.in
the
Rouse of Commons raising
the most so
to political respectability. On Friday the garb of
statesynapAhip so recently assumed by the Noble Lord
the mor
2,l,,inber for Lynn was shown; ej.glaringly
than ever, to be already threadbare. By the time of
the dissolution it will be hanging
about his shoulders
in tatters. The thinness e moral
, the poverty, she
of that croak
were on FritiflV revealed before
the ey Bof tuuotry b` /".'"l4
glare of Lord GEORGE BENTINCICS shuffling
and prevaricating egotism. Instead of bat ling man-
fully for the furtherance of his own partic lag views.
with, the weapons of logic—instead of I
command the adoption of his° own partii
ciples, by an earnest perseverance and
enumeration of arguments—instead of leas
ranks of the Opposition, with the gallant
a plain-spuken politician, Lord GEORGE eni
thwart the purposes of the Cabinet, and to
the condition of Parliament, by an igno

triving-: to
bular prin-
ja forcible
ling on the
baring of
deavours to
t embarrass
ale subter-

fuge, and a dis courteous disregard of the common

usages of the ;House. Stung by the majority in
favour of Lord Ai ORPETEI'S Sanatory measure, the
representative of Lynn tried to worst the
inte:tions of tie Administration by abruptly
calling upon the .SrnAKEn to count the House
before the adjournment from four oclock till
five, P.M. Supposing this insidious and paltry
trick !lad succeeded, the Health of Towns Bill must
have been retarded, and a day must necessarily
havfl been lost to p!_lblic business. Lor l GEORGE
BENTINCK would have made one step toga, ds bur/41.'1g
a measure which lau.ais open zntagoni,rn to scorn ;
he would have kil ed a certain
portion oil' the time
which is just now so precious to the empire, and he
would, though in a very trumpery and cc ntemptible
manner, have thrown the arrangements ofi the House
or (..:otrnons into a temporary state of
Had the Nolble Lord succeeded, he w
crowed exultingly at his barn-yard prowe
are satisfied the public would have regards

confusion.
lould have
o.s, but we
d his petty
1.. _._

success with indigmLtion. As it is, Lo;

GEORGE

BENTINCIE failed deplorably; the partially sepa-
rated Mernbe rs rallied at the 'attempted count out, and
the Member for Lynn was compellt d to satisfy _him-

self with the barren credit of having in vain violated
the implied, if not expressed, rules of the House of
Commons.

These incidents must inevitably " tell" at the
general election. The constituencies will be no better
able to forget how the nominal leader of the Protec-
tionists proposed to appease the famine in Ireland by
laying down so many miles of cold iron in the shape
of Railroads, than they can lose a recollection
' of his abortive effort at counting the House out, in
the hope of strangling the Health of Towns Bill, and
embarrassing the close of the present Parliamentary
session. The fantastic tricks of Lord GEORGE BEN-
TINCK will survive as vividly in the recollection of
the country as the memorable taunts of Mr. Ron-
BUCK to Young Ireland, as the masterly elucidation
of British interference in Portugal by Mr. MA..
CAULAY, or as the beautiful and impassioned panegyric
pronounced upon the Liberator by the eloquent lips
of Mr. SHELL. But those celebrated speeches will
redound to the honour of Mr. SHELL, of Mr. MA-
CAULAY, and of Mr. ROEBUCK, while the proceedings
of Lord GEORGE BENTINCK can only render him in
the public estimation both culpable and ridiculous.
Nothing could be more suggestive of the different
merits of the Protectionists and the present Govern-
ment. While the leader of the Cabinet is making
every exertion to hasten the progress of the Health of
Towns Bill through Parliament, the leader of the
Agricultural Monopolists is striving to quash that
measure altogether, or, at the least, to procrastinate
the period of its enrolment on the statute-book. The
Prime Minister takes the social necessities of his
countrymen into serious consideration. The repre-
sentative of Lynn considers only the possibility of
thwarting a Government of which he is not a portion,
no matter whether by so doing he endangers the
health or the happiness of the community.
Although we cannot possibly regard the Bill intro-
duced by Lord MORPETH as other than a prelim.lnary
to some more bold and comprehensive measure, and
although we are especially disappointed at the omis-
sion of London from the influence of the proposed
enactment, we are grateful to the Cabinet for the
ardour evinced in behalf of the neglected million by
hurrying through Parliament a measure of a charac-
ter so peculiarly generous and benevolent. The
channels are being dug—before long the waters Rill
irrigate the moral wilderness of the population.

The courts-martial which have just taken place at
Portsmouth on two of the officers of the Lily will
be perused with considerable interest. They strongly
illustrate the position which may be assumed towards
his subordinates by a captious commander, and the
utter impossibility for even the most zealous and
efficient in the discharge of duty to escape from the
multitudinous snares and pitfalls by which he is sur-
rounded, if his superior should wish to make him a
victim, and to sacrifice his professional prospects.
They also exhibit the strong reliance that must have
been placed on the well-known feeling of naval
courts-martial to support the commanding officer in
every instance, and under almost any circum-
stances. No person who was not thoroughly
satisfied of the extent of that feeling, and
the extraordinary lengths to which it has been
carried, A-, uld hare dared to suspend his brother
officer from duty and to keep him under arrest for
so long a period as seventeen months, on charges
such as those which were preferred, and supported
by such ridiculously trifling evidence as that which
was brought forward to sustain them. For once we
are rejoiced to find that the system has received a
check. A judgment has been pronounced in the
case of Lieutenant BRANCH that we trust will have
no trifling effect in henceforward preserving deserv-
ing and meritorious officers from persecution such as
he has encountered, in proving to tyrannical corn-
wanders that there is a limit which they cannot
transgress, and that so long as their junior officer
discharges with propriety the duties of his station, so
long will he be protected, although he might have
had the misfortune to incur the animosity of
the despot under whom he is placed. The Court not
only fully and honourably acquitted Lieutenant
BRANCH, but declared the charges to be frivolous and
vexatious, and the President, at the conclusion of the
proceedings, stated " that he was directed by the
Court to express the pleasure they felt in returning a
sword of which he had been so long and so unjustly
deprived."
In the present case Lieutenant BRANCH was most
fortunate in being enabled to produce the highest
testimonials as to his character and ability,
alike creditable to him as an officer and a gentleman,
from a number of most distinguished officers under
whom he had served from his first entrance into the
navy. He was fortunate in being able to produce
direct evidence to establish the real facts as they oc-
curre i on each of the three occasions which were
definitively fixed on by his accuser in support of the
rather vague charge " that he was on several occasions
between the 9th day of October, 1845, and the 11th
day of May, 1846, highly insubordinate and disre-
spectful to his superior officer." Here was, indeed,
i a wide margin, more than *ix months, out of which
to discover any instance of what might be tortured
' into disrespect or insubordination. In our civil tri-
bunals it would be considered most unfair to require
a prisoner to answer such uncertain accusations. He
should know clearly and explicitly what it was that he
was called on to rebut and disprove, the specific instances
of misconduct should be fully set forth, but there is
no such protection for the party brought to a court-
martial ; he cannot know what will be produced
against him until it is actually given in evidence, and
consequently he may be wholly taken by surprise,
and unable to establish his innocence, as he might
have done, if fully apprised of the particulars about
to be brought against him.
Mr. YOUNG, late master of the Lily, was less for-
tunate than his brother officer. Unhappily for him
his trial took place in the first instance, and before
the Court was fully aware of what his commander
considered to be disrespectful, as evidenced in the'fol-
lowing case, and while yet his credit was unshaken.
True it was that he succeeded in disproving of the
most weighty of the charges made again-t him for the
transaction of the 21st April. He established by the
evidence of his brother officers that his commander
was in error in asserting that he was in any degree
inebriated on the occasion. His commanding officer
had falsely accused him in that which was capable of
refutation. But no witness was present at the
interview in the cabin. The commander asserted
that he was drunk and disrespectful ; it was proved,
to use the mildest language, that he was mistaken in
the first part of the charge, and yet his uncorro
borated assertion is suffered to prevail, and to ruin
and blight the prospects of a meritorious young
officer. In our lavecourts, where a witness was so
fully contradicted in one part of his statement, but
little credence would be attached to the residue.
imn tlie severe and arduous character of the double
duties which Mr. YOUNG had been called upon to
perform, and the indisposition under which he was
u
ffering, are taken into consideration, we can hardly
s conceive that his sinking on one occasion to sleep,
when worn out is sufficient in itself to
warrant so severe a
bYsentencefatigue, is
as that which was passed
upon him—"dismissal from her MAJESTY'S Service."
tMenodstedsint hope that pardon may be ex-
acknowledged fault, that
mercy, and that our
justice may be tempered with .
sincerely do we
services of a gentle-
mane that
navy may not be deprived of the .
himself since he
who apps to have conducted
joined, with that one exception, in a manner highly
creditable to himself, and such as to merit and receive
the approbation of the several officers under whom he
was placed.

We are fully aware of the absolute necessity of a
strict adherence to discipline, and that an inviolable
respect should be observed towards every superior
officer ; but the independence and manliness of cha-
racter should be preserved. Our officers should not
be turned into cringing slaves in the earlier part of
their career, or into tyrannical autocrats in the later.
And essential as it is to preserve the greatest subor-
dination in the former, it is still more essential to re_
press anything like tyranny or oppression in the
latter. We trust that the cases which have just oc-
curred will not be lost sight of by the authorities,
but that advantage may be ultimately derived from
them, and that all officers may be impressed with the
idea that they owe a duty to their juniors and the
men placed under their charge, no less. important
than that which they are buund to rend?r to their
superiors.

Ntws from Greece up to the 20th ultimo inclu-
sively has been received by the Levant mail.

Satisfaction is expressed by the Llfoniteur Gree,
at the circumstance that a prospective reconciliation
is visible in the intelligence just then arrived frour,
Constantinople. Without placing any implicit re-
liance upon the sincerity of Prince METTERWICH in
the negotiation of a peace-making between the
Sublime Porte and King OTHO, the Government
organ is rejoiced at the probable torraination of this
deplorable misunderstanding.

Every one interested in the political position of the
kingdom was alert when the intelligence started
respecting the approaching elections ; and no incon-
siderable chagrin was expressed by the Athens
Courier at the unconstitutional efforts being made
by COLETTI and his colleagues to bias the people in
favour of their own particular candidates. The spirit
of faction was running high, and the evil inflitences
of that spirit were being exaggerated through the
instrumentality of the French representative.

Accounts from Constantinople to the 17th ultimo,
bring little more of interesting news respecting the
arrangements about to be effected between the Otto-
man Porte and the King of GREECE.
News had reached the capital from Kurdistan of the
most disastrous character, declaring that the Turks
had suffered a loss of either 3,000 or 4,000 men in a
conflict with the marauding mountaineers. Van was
described as garrisoned by a large body of the rebels,
under BEDERHAN BEY, and it was believed that
that stronghold could not be wrenched from their
possession saving by a most sanguinary bombard-
ment.

Our intelligence from Madrid is up to the 26th
ultimo.

According to the Correo the Cortes will not be
convoked before the ensuing October. The same
journal states that a compromise has been effected
with the Bank of San Fernando, whereby the ad-
vances recently made to the Government will be in a
great measure rendered secure.

While the Faro has repeatedly asserted that the
misunderstanding between her MAJESTY and the
KING-CONSORT has been sedulously aggravated for
their own benefit by members of the Administration,
the Union, an organ of the Cabinet, protests that, on
the contrary, the Government have used every device
they eould conjecture for the purpose, if possible, of
removing all impediments to a permanent and speedy
reconciliation—without effect, of course, without the
feeblest glimmering of effect.
The reports that Don FRANCISCO, the uncle of her
Most Catholic MAJESTY, was about to leave the capital
appear to be dying away; and all the mysterious in-
ferences deduced therefrom are disappearing in like
manner.

The Three per Cents. were done at 30 for cash
the Five per Cents. at 17k; the Debt without Interest a
511; and the Coupons at 15.

Paris papers of Thursday have been duly received.
" We lately announced," says the Presse, " on the
authority of the Semaphore of Marseilles, that MA-
HOMET ALL would this year visit Italy ; we learn,
however, that the Viceroy has renounced this inten-