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

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. ROE-
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. SHEIL. But those celebrated
speeches will
redound to the honour of Mr. SIIEIL, of Mr. MA-
CAULAT, 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 thelsetaednetrhe progressoftheof
Cabinet
the .
Health s makingof
every exertion to ha
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 preliminary
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 will
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, would have 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
%las brought for ward 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 com-
manders 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 BRANSH 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-
curred 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,
a wide margin, more than six 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 hi disproving of the
most weighty of the charges made against 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 law courts, where a witness was so
fully contradicted in one part of his statement, bu

little credence would be attached to the residue.
I,Vhen the severe and arduous character of the double
duties which Mr. YOUNG had been called upon to

perform, and the indisposition under which he was
suffering, are taken into consideration, we can hardly
conceive that his sinking on one occasion to sleep,

when worn out by fatigue, is sufficient in itself to

warrant so severe a sentence as that which was passed

upon him—"dismissal from her MAJESTY'S service.'

Most sincerely do we hope that pardon may be ex-
tended to him for that acknowledged fault, that
justice may be tempered with mercy, and that our
navy may not be deprived of the services of a gentle-
man who appears to have conducted himself since he
_ _

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 eba-

racter should be preserved. Our officers should not

be turned into cringing slaves in the earlier part of

heir 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

atter. 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 bound to render to their

superiors.

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