The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY. APRIL 17, !Qat

endangering our scheme for the improvement of the
force in the class of Field-Officers.

This evil of advanced age in a subordinate rank was
also shown to us to be considerably on the increase
from an extract which Lieut.-Colonel Cator produced
from a statement published by Sir Augustus Fraser, in
1818. It appeared therefrom that the average set vice
of the juniors of each rank at that time, as compared
with 1838, was as follows :

1818. 1838.
Average Service. Average Service.
Colonels 36 years 41 10-12th years.
Liestenant-Colonels '24 years ... 34 4-12th years.
First Captains
Second Captains
This advance of age must be regarded as a serious
evil, tending to produce a very baneful effect on the
efficiency of the corps ; and we think we should be fail-
ing in our duty to your Majesty, if we did not earnestly
press upon your Majesty's attention the necessity of
adopting some general system of removing inefficient
officers from the class of Captains. The service the pre-
sent officers eave performed, appears to us to give them
every claim to indulgent consideration, and we are
therefore disposed to recommend, that provision should
be made to empower the Master-General to grant re-
tired full pay to a certain number of Captains, not ex-
ceeding four in each year, on the same principle, and
subject to the same conditions as to unfitness for ser-
vice, which we have proposed for the retirement of Field-
Officers.

Objections may possibly be taken to a retired estab-
lishment, apparently unlimited in amount, but in an-
swer we would submit to your Majesty that it is above
all things expedient to state clearly what must be the
natural result of maintaining any description of force
from which there is no escape for old age and infirmity,
except to a retired list, viz., that the existence of such
a force in a state of efficiency can only be supported by
a proper outlet for the meritorious officer, who has
been worn out in the service ; and that in our opinion,
it is far better that the charge for the effective and non-
effictive portion of that force should appear on the
same estimates, than that any arrangement should be
adopted which should transfer a part of the retired
charge for one service to the non-effective portion of
another.

In the preceding remark, we have reference to a
proposition much urged upon the Commission, that a
certain number of officers of the seniority services, and
more especially of the Ordnance corps, should be al-
lowed to retire annually by the sale of half-pay commis-
sions in the line.

The precedent for this proposition was established for
a temporary purpose in 1823, and repee.ed at intervals
during the next four years ; and the following teas the
mode in which the sales of commissions by officers of
seniority corps were arranged.
. _

An unattached halt-pay- commission of the rank cor-
responding to that about to be vacated by the officer of
the Arti,lery or Engineers. was sold as a step of pro-
motion to a full-pay officer of the line, and the money
paid by him and his successors in the line for advance-
ment was handed over to the officer retiring, as the
price of his commission. Each sale of commission by a
Field-Officer of either of these corps, therefore, created
an additional Field-officer of the line on the establish-
ment of half-pay.
The vacancy in the Ordnance corps was filled from
the half-pay list of that department as far as it was
available, and by promotion throughout the corps when
the list was exhausted ; but as, with very few excep-
tions, a suitable candidate could only be found in an in-
ferior rank, the general effect produced by the permis-
sion to sell out, thus granted to the officers of the Ar-
tillery and Engineers, was to add to the number of
Field-Officers of ,he Army, without any diminution of
the number of officers of that rank in the other services.

The proposition for the revival of this system was
supported by the authority of the recognised precedent
to which we have referred, and was much pressed upon
the Commission by the members whom your M ijrsty
had been pleased to select from the Ordnance corps—
viz , the Master-General and Sir Alexander Dickson.
We beg at once to declare our perfect sense of the
value of the army privilege, which in this respect was
earnestly sought for by the Ordnance Officers, and de-
sire carefully to secure ourselves from the suspicion of
entertaining any opinion inimical to such a privilege,
which question we shall, perhaps, feel ourselves com-
pelled ter discuss more at length in our Report upon
that branch of the service where such sales form matter
of reguletion.
The:Objections which influenced us to reject the pre-
positicktbat Ordnance or Marine Officers should retire
by sale of commission to Line Officers, the latter by
purchase obtaining promotion in their own service, may
be thus stated :

Ist. That it tends to deceive the public as to the
real extent of the cast of maintaining those corps, in
which no right of retirement by sale is recognised, in-
asmuch as the retirement granted appears on the non•
effective charge of another department in the shape of
a fictitious commission.

:Id. That it necessarily operates to swell to an em-
barrassing
extent the number of, officers of the higher
ranks in the Army, creating candidates for the rank
and command of a General Officer to an amount not
warranted by the demands of the service.
3d. That it must have a tendency to generate dis-
content in the minds of the non-purchasing seniors of
the Army, and there are several of as lowg service as
any in the Marines or Ordnance corps, if they found an
arrangement adopted which would ensure promotion
to the seniors of those corps, even in cases of sale of
commission, without any exnenditure on their part,
while the same system of sale and purchase, according
to authorised regulations, has operated to keep the non-
purchasers of the Army in their present position.
We do not consider that these objections were re-
moved by the proposal to bear the charge of the Line
half-pay, so to be created, on the Ordnance Estimates.
The principal difficulties would still remain, viz., that
the arrangement would add unwarrantably to the num-
ber of Field-Officers of the line, an evil of great mag-
nitude, and that it would produce a sense of being un-
justly dealt with in the minds of the non-purchasers of
the Army.

Acting upon this conviction, we propose ins:ead that
the retired establishment of the Artillery Corps should
be such as to ensure perfect efficiency in the service
portion of the regiment, and to provide a suitable re-
ward for the wore-out and meritorious officer.

In consideration further of the few opportunities
that are afforded for the employment of unattached
General Officers of the Royal Artillery, and the con-
sequent limit which is thus placed upon their income
while unemployed, to the amount of their unattached
pay, we would beg to recommend that, for the pur-
pose of marking extraordinary merit among such
General Officers, your Majesty should empower the
Master-General to select from the unattached Generals
of the Artillery two whose pay should be made up to
6001. a-year, until they shall be appointed Colonels of
Battalions.

The small increase of expense which this indulgence
would occasion, not exceeding 2501. a-year for the
Artillery, might be considered as some compensation to
the General Officers of that force for the proportion of
garrison appointments, to which they might have laid
claim previously to the abolition of the garrisons in 1833 ;
and we have no doubt that the selection would be ap-
preciated as a distinction and a reward for good and
faithful service.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

PRICE OF SUGAR.

EFFECT OF MONOPOLY.
Table showing the ex-duty price of West India Sugar in
Mincing-lane, and comparing the same against that of Foreign
Sugar:—

London, April 10.
The Gazette of this evening will quote the average
price of British Plantation Muscovado Sugar, Per Cwt.
exclusive of duty, at 39s. 104 d.
The actual quantity of West India sold on account of the im-
porters, in the week ending the 14th instant, according to the
returns made upon oath, by the West India Sugar Brokers, in
conformity with the Act of Parliament, and on which quantity
the above price is computed, consisted of 959 hhds. 100 tra and
14 barrels.

The amount of duty on West India Sugar, received at the
Custom-house, at this port, from the 4th to the 10th of April,
both days inclnsive, was 21,1211. 4s.
Foreign Muscovado sugar is difficult of sale, about 2,000
chests of Yellow Havannahs were offered at auction this week,
and were nearly all bought in. We may quote the differ-
ence of price between Foreign and West India Muscovado
Sugars, quality for quality, at about 18s. per cwt. in favour
of the latter. Refined Sugar manufactured from Foreign Raw
Sugar is being sold in London for exportation at
(deducting the charges of shipping) 335. per cwt., being
7s. per cwt. cheaper than West India Sugar. Treacle ad-
mitted to home use duty free, under the pretence of supplying
the poor man with a cheap sweet—but, in reality, oat of fa-
vouritism to the West Indians, readily commands 33a. 6d. per
cwt., while Treacle of a superior quality resulting from the
process of refining Foreign Sugars, has been sold in London
this week for Foreign Markets, at (deducting shipping charges)
13s. per cwt. ; the pretended indulgence conferred on the
poor man by this notable scheme for protecting West India
produce, consequently consi-ts in his having to pay 20s. 6d. per
cwt. more for bad treacle than he would have to pay for good,
provided the monopoly in Sugar, &c., were abolished.
Sir Robert Peel has taken good care that the nation should
thoroughly comprehend its position, with regard to the humo-
rous monopolies which now cripple the energies of the many
for the benefit of a few. Ile has emphatically announced, that
a repeal of the Corn-laws must inevitably lead to an early re-
peal of the various costly privileges and preferences which in-
fest , our fizeal laws. All parties whop do not belong to the
favoured and protected classes are called upon, therefore, to
unite in agitating for an unqualified repeal of the bread tax ;
seeing that the reward for their generous exertions will be not
only a riddance of the starvation laws, but also of those mono-
polies with which the Tories, chile in power, saddled the
country, in order to enrich their friends and-to brie their
satellites.

The General Steam ,Niligation Company's pac-
ket Ocean, J. Fife,
_arrjrej from Rotterdam yesterday, after a
favourable passage of.- hours, bringing the Dutch papers of
Wednesday.

A GOOD TRENCHERMAN.—A fellow of the
name of William Longstaff, of Mickleton, near Middleton-in-
Teesdale, on Monday evening, the 30th ult., ate thirty-eight
eggs raw, the largest that could be got, twelve of them duck's
eggs, of which one was rotten, and afterwards ate of other
solids what to an ordinary appetite would be considered a good
He ha% made a hit !lett *lt • fir,t. tiro' !!t" is a: trim
will devour five scure of eggs.—Durham Adeertiser.

THE DUKE OF SUSSEX.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
It will be in the remembrance of our readers that, a
short time ago, we tock occasion tit etpose the falsehood
of certain statements relative to his Royal Highness the
Duke of Sussex, which, originating with a Dublin news-
paper, were copied into the columns of one of the London
Morning Journals. Our contemporary has again given in-
sertion to an extract from the same Dublin paper, and
has added to it a commentary of his own. In that com-
mentary it is SIFSer ted that the Duke of Sussex bas, since
1831. and particularly within these last few weeks, exened
his energies to bastardize his children by his former mar-
riage; while, in the article upon which the comment is
made, it is asserted that the demurrer of the Attorney-
General to the bill filed in 1831 by Sir Augustus D'Este,
was not the act of the Prime Minister or of the
Attorney-General, but was the act of the Duke of
Sussex; and it is insinuated that it was through the in-
fluence of the Duke of Sussex that Sir Augustus
D'Este was deprived, shortly after his bill was filed, of the
situation he held in the household of William IV. To
the statement of our contemporary we do not feel called
upo❑ to reply in terms more courteous than by calling it a
gratuitous falsehood. To the assertion of the Dublin
paper we answer, that the Duke cf Sussex had nothing to
do directly or indirectly, with the demurrer of the Attor-
rvy-General. His Royal Highness had no knowledge of
either the bill or demurrer having been filed, or intended
to be filed, until after the events bad occurred. The insi-
nuation of the Dublin paper is as unfounded as its fact.
The Duke of Sussex was neither party nor privy to the
suspension of Sir Augustus D'Este from the perfo'mance
of the duties of his situation in the household of William
V., nor to bis subsequent removal from that situation.
The suspension and removal were the personal acts of the
King. .

To these facts we add another. At the time of the
marriage of the Duke of Sussex to Lady Augusta :11wray
in 1793, each of them gave to the clergyman by whom th
ceremony was performed, a pledge neither to reveal his
name, nor permit him to Incur peril on their account. The
Duke of Sussex has kept his word.

COURT CIRCULAR.

\ViNuscn, TIMPSDAY.-1-16r Arid Prince Aloe,:
rode out in a pony phact a to-day, or an litho, in the
Great Palk. The whole of the Royal suite drove out in
carriages at the sarhe tithe. His Royal Highness Prince
Albert drove the Queen, and hit Sei-ene..i-iighness the
Heredit.,ry Prince drove the Countess of Errol-.
The Duke and Duchess of Sutherland arc expected to
arrive at the Castle to-day.
The Royal Dinner party this evening will include the
Hereditary Prince of Saxe Coburg.Gotha, the Earl and
Countess of Errol and Lady Ida Hay, Earl of Uxbridge,
Baron de Gruhen, Lord Robert Grosvenor, Countess of
Charlemont, Hon. Miss Paget, Hon. Miss Anson. Baroness
Lehzen, Lord Byron, Hon. Charles A. Murray, Sir
Robert Otvray, Hon. Colonel Grey, Colonel Bouverie, and
Mr. Francis Seymour.

Her Majesty the Qaeen Dowager, and her Serene
Highness the Duchess Ida of Saxe Weimer. took an air-
ing yesterday afternoon, in a pony phaeton and four.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent took up her
residence at Ingestrie House, Belgrave-square, yesterday.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, arid the Prin-
cess Augusta of Cambridge, attended Divine Service, yess
terday morning, in the Chapel Royal, St. James's. The
Bishop of London held a Confirmation in the Chapel of
toe juvenile nobility and gentry. The Chant was Rus-
seli's ; the Te Dews: and Jubilate Arnold's, in F ; the
Sanctus and Responses, Davy; Sir George Smart pre-
sided at the Organ.
The Queen's Royal Maunday was distributed yesterday
(Maunday Thursday), in Whitehall Chapel, with the
usual formalities, to as many poor, aged and infirm men
and women, as her Majesty is years old. A Procession
was formed at three o'clock, at the Almonry Office in Scot-
land-yard, composed of the Yeomen of the Guard (one
of the Corps bearing the alms to be distributed on a large
gold' salver), the Dean of Carlisle, the Sub-Almoner,
Joseph Hanby, Secretary, and Yeoman of the Almonry,
four Chil,iren of the National School, Westminster, and
two Children of the Schools of St. George, Hanover-
square, chosen for their good conduct. The Procession,
on entering the Chapel, was joined by the Rev. Dr.
Slcath, Sub-Dean, Rev. Dr. Vivian, Rev. J. H. Dakins,
and the Rev. Dr. Wesley, Priests of,the Chapel Royal,
Messrs. Hawes, Knyvett, Hobbs, Clarke, and Evans,
Gent.emen of the Chapel Royal, and also the Boys.
The usual afternoon Service then commenced. The
Grand Chant was then performed. The first Anthem
performed was. " Blessed is he that considereth the poor
and needy " (Nees), when the Sub-almoner and Officers
distributed to each woman 1/ 155., and to each man shoes
and stockings: 21 of each sex received the Royal bounty.
At the conclusion of the second Anthem, " Hide not thou
thy face " (Farrant), the men received woollen and linen
cloth. At the cra.clusion of the third Anthem, " 0 Lord,.,
grant the Q. een a long life " (Child), both me
women received purses of money, a white purse, co in-
ing 21 silver pennies in the varieties of 4d.. 31., 2d. and
pence, being the age of the Sovereign ; and a red purse,
enclosing 2/. 'los., of which the sum of 11. lOs. is the
amount of the commutation for provisions, which were
formerly given to them. After the fourth Anthem, " Who
is this that cometh from Edom?" (Arnold), which was
sung by Messrs. W. Knyvett, Hobbs, and J. B. Sale,
two prayers, especially composed for this solemnity, were
read. The National Anthem was performed at the close
of Divine Service. Sir George Smart presided at
the Organ.
On Monday and Tuesday the Royal Minor Bounty of
five shillings each, was distributed, under the orders of
the Lord High Almoner, by Mr. Hanby, Yeoman of the
Almonry, to upwards of 900 aged, poor, and infirm per.
sons, of whom a considerable number were blind and
disabled.

The Duke cf Sussex and the Duke of Cambridge
vis;ted the Princess Augusta yesterday, at Clarence Howie,
St. James's.

Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar arrived at Marlborough
House yesterday afternoon, from the Royal Military Col-
loge at Sandhurst, or, a visit to her Majesty the Queen
Dowager.. . _

The Princess Augusta and the Duchess of Gloucester
took an airing together yesterday in a carriage.
Mr. Alston, M.P., awl Mr. Woolnch, Al P., had an
interview with the Marquis of Normanby yesterday at the
Home, ffit.e.

A Deputation on the subject of Glass, including Mr.
Ord, M P., Mr. W,od, the Chairman, and Mr. Dehany,
the Solicitor of the Excise, had an interview with the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer yesterday in Downing-street
Mr. H. Kt able, M. P., Mr. James Patti.:on, M.P.,
Colonel T. Wood, M P., Messrs. J. W. Shears, H.
Pheasant, T. Pocock, Thomas Bish, A. Galloway, J. P.
Walker, and the Hon. Secreturv, Mr. Henry Cope, jun.,
composed the Deputation to Lord MelbJurno on the
Metropolitan Bridges on Wednesday.
The Speaker of the House of Commons and Mr. Mark
Phillips, M. P., had interviews with the Marquis of Nor-
manby yesterday at the Home-office.
Viscount Melbourne left town yesterday for Panshanger,
Harts, the seat of Earl Cowper.
The Marquis of Lansdowne left town yesterday for his
scat Bow•ood Park, Wilts.

PRAYERS FOR. THE DEAD.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—A correspondent of yours asks, ‘. Are there not
prayers for the dead in the Liturgy of the Established
Church ?" 1 answer " No." The expression:" Remember
not the offences of our forefathers," in the Litany, refers to
the Second Commandment, where it is said, " God visits
the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third
and fourth generation ;" and is merely a deprecation of
bcirsg blob of our ancestors.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your faithful servant,
FRANK HEWSON,
Incumbent of St. Paul's, Worcester.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDPE TOMORROW.
Morning C minutes after 3 1 Evening l6 minutes after P.