The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-31 00:00:00

WHAT FAVOURITISM CAN DO.

We ierc&ve by our military intel igence, that a draft
of the 74th Regiment, consisting of six officers, tour ser-
jeants, and 170 rank and file, is ordered to Le held in
readiness to rearth from the depot in Waterford, for Cork,
fur embarkation for Canada, to join the service companies.
This announce:meat might, as an every day affair, a mere
matter cf military detail, be supposed as liable to no fur
they notice; there is, however, connected with it that
which afleets the service generally, and loudly calls fur
refarm ; and we believe that in no department of her Ma-
jesty's service is reform so imperatively required as it is in
that now under notice. On running our eye over the list of
officers who leave this city to join the service companies in
Canada, we find the name of Capt in Alves, a soldier
in the strictest sense of the word, who, after thirty.
two yea* hard service in every quarter af the globe,
the warrior of many a cell fought Sold, is ordered
to rejoin his corps, a second time, on foreign ser-
vice as—Captain I while, by the London Gazette of
sth inst. we perceive that a beardless Et ipling, a Subal.
tern of no seivice, the Hon. E. A. Keare, of the 37th,
has been appointed to a Brevet Majority. This is too bad:
in direct opposition to every principle of justice, and such
as, if persevered in, will brand the Military Service of
Great Britain as the most ingrate to her scarred defenders
on the face of the globe. Of the lung list of veterans
over whose -heads Major Keane has been thrust, we take
leave to select the service of Captain Alves, as one who is
ell known to our fellow-cif z::ns as a man and a gentle-
man; and we are fully aware that to no individual except
to the gallant and worthy officer himself, need we apol, gise
for repeating them. Well, then, Captain Alves served the
whole of the campaigns of 1810, 1811, 1812, 1813, and
1814, rot iAt the 74th regiment, in the third division in the
Duke of Welliugton's army, in the Peninsula, including
the battle at Busaco; actions at Pombal, Redinha,
Fez d'Aronce, Guarda, and Sabugal ; battle of Fuentes
d'Ouor ; actions of El 13odein, and Aldea de Ponte • siege
of Badajos ; in June, 1811, siege and storming of (2iudad
Rodrigo, siege and storming of Badajos; battle of Sala-
manca; capture of Madrid; battle of Vittcria ; blockade
of Pampeluna; the battles of the Pyrerees (27th, 28th,
and 30th July), Nivelle, and Orthes ; the conflicts of Vic
Bigorre and Tarbes, and the battle of Toulouse. What a
contrast does this form with the actions of Major
Keane, whose only service that we have on record is
that of being attached to his fa•her's Staff—who never
saw service as a Captain—and who was just thirty.five
hours promo ci as a Captain when he obt:ined his ma_
jority. Captain Alves has been thirty-two years on full
pay, and two years on halflay, having been promoted
to an unattached company of five shillings a day,
an indulgence granted t-e him after twenty years'
aervice as a subaltern officer. He has served seve-
ral years in the West Indies, and yet ye find him going
out (again as Captain; while thp Gozeite records tLe
promotion, to a majority, of a youth who has just served
ight years, without being in any way qualified for this ad-
vancement. Shame, shame on such a system ! What is
there in the Britiah service to induce pipe of worth and
valour to spend bcit str,ngth, and exert thtir every
energy, when they meet with such an ungrateful re-
eompense—wlaen such a system of favouritism] in shame.,
ful opposition to recorded re!guiatioria, in observed
rl.
?
.'incerely tryst that this matter may be broughtmer
con-
sideration in the j.roper qua.ter, ttod mss crying evil,
a disgrace to the country, may be done away with, As
regards the gallant gentleman whose name we have taken
the libertl thug t 9 uitucle rFa, we shall only further add,
that by aad Itis broil= officers leave our city attended b
the good tv:d respect of the public in general. Y
Walefid

Lord and Lndy Francis hgellon and family
'
have left Belgrave-squar,, for Worsley Hall, his Lordshi s
seat in Lanca hire, wi:ere they purpose staying until after the
Easter holidays,