The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-15 00:00:00

RELIEF OF TROOPS ABROAD.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sia—The attention of the public press has been
lately directed to the petty squabbles of a frippery regi-
ment of Dragoons, while the interests of that part of
the Army, one which comprises the very " pith and
marrow" of the service, is comparatively neglected. I
allude to the Infantry of the Line, by whose exertions,
combined with those of our gallant Navy, England has
acquired a far more extensive dominion than the 11.3-
mans ever possessed even iii the zenith of their power.
The press, Sir, owes something to the Army of England,
but for whose devoted gallantry you, Sir, would be at
this moment subject to a censorship, Such as Napoleon
established over the press of France.

The gross acts of injustice and favouritism daily prac-
ticed towards this branch of the Army, is engendering
a vast degree of discontent, and unless it is put a step
to, may lead to consequences which it is fearful to
dila of.

Among the many causes of complaint, the allotment
of torein'n stations is a most fruitful one, and the late
order for the embarkation of the 22d Regiment has
created the most • unbounded disgust among military
men. A Correspondent of the Times, has attempted to
justify this arrangement, but his defence has been a
most impotent an,' lame one.

No regiment, Sir, would complain of being sent
abroad, even out of their turn if the exigencies of the
service required it ; but they do complain that there are
certain regiments who monopolize the good stations,
while others are as sure to go to the bad ones. It is
in excuse for this injustice to the 22d, that it was the
firsufor foreign service ; but, Sir, all who know any-
thing of the subject, agree that they became the first by
one of the most flagrant acts of jobbery that was evar
practised. ' • •

- When it became evident, from the cloudy state of af-
fairs in :India, that a reinforcement would be required,
and whenit so happened that four,of the corps,,which
the Army generally denominate " Pets," stood first for
for foreign service, i. e. the 7th, 88th, 42(1, and 79th,
neither of which have ever served either in the East or
West Indies, the two first were immediately sent off
to the Mediterranean, and at the moment when a
peremptory order from the Secret•try of State ar-
rived for a force to be sent to India, the 42d were at
Cork, under orders for Gibraltar. Now Sir, the most
obt ions means of obeying the call was to embark them
for India, but this arrangement would not tuit the con-
venience of the " Pets," so they were, as if in mockery
of the wants of India, hurried off to their original des-
tination.

It may also be said that men were wanted also for the
Mediterranean : to this I answer, that this could not have
been the case, as the 79th Regiment had at that time
formed their depot, and were -.already for that station ;
but they are at this moment at home, so that it was as
evident as the sun at noon day, that the plan was to
get the 42d out of England as fast as possib'e, to secure
them from a twenty years' Indian tour.
Now, Sir, mark by what a glaring departure from all
decency, was the 4th Regiment on the list saved from
India. When the requisition for troops arrived, the
Rifle Brigade'(another of the pets by the by) were ab.mt
embarking for Malta, and a small detachment, consisting
of 100 men, were hurried up per railway, from Manches-
ter to Deptford, and embarked in the same transports
with the Rifles, a thing I should tell you never done
before, as when a regiment goes abroad the head quar-
ters always are the first to go, 100 men 'could not have
any effect on the affairs of the Mediterranean, as is
evident from what I have said of the 79th, who were
then, and still are, in readiness for that station. But it
was necessary to say that the 79th were not available
for India, as they bad embarked for another station,
and they have been cunnicgly so returned in the Mili-
tary Papers, while the head quarters have actually until
the last week, been snug at Weedon, consisting of 700
men ; and even the convenint detachment of 100, ha.ve
only sailed within thedast ten days.
Nov, Sir, is not this enough to excite the disgust of
every man in tl:e kingdom'who has the welfare of the
State at heart? for believe me, that if the Army be-
comes discontented the Sate will stand on a sandy
foundation. • •

Lord Hill has the character of being a good man at
heart, but he has alto the character of yielding too
much to•men-who have introduced .and fostered a sys-
tem of partiality and favoritism; which is the curse of
our Army. He has served his country well in the field,
but it is possible that he may find the fatigues of office
too great fOr him ; the mind will give way with an in•
crease of years.. We are told that even.'.' Marlborough
died a driveller."

HECTOR COUNTERSCARP
[We have been obliged to curtail very. considerably
the letter of " Hector Counterscarp," on account of its
great length and personal allusions to certain authori-
ties at the Horse Guards.]

I..e,in
Active exertions arc making by the Directors to
accelerate .the completion of the Docks now constructing
at Southampton. The great Tidal. Dock, embracing an
area of 16 acres, is
dproongriets,
men being employe siancgeorrdaiindgi yt,o frthoem 0
aothe tor 700
addition to a large 'force of steam and horsepower, at work
day and night. It is expected to be ready for the recep-
tion and despatch of eight .steam-ships belonging to the
Transmarine Mail Steam Packet Companies.
The Observateur des Pyrenees mentions that
during the last week of December, an enormous bear made
his appearance on a mountain near Saint Engrace. Eight
hunters, hreiaele(.l Brbuy a miller, went in pursuit, and c(1-
aiu to an elevated summit, whence be
lvod tn •
drive
had no escape, but by throwing himself down a precipice.
Tillie miller wha was in advance of ' his brother sportsmen,
met the beast face to face, and firing, bit him in the
head, The bear fell, and rolling forward, came in contact
.with the miller. A desperate and doubtful struggle en-
sued, but the weakness of the animal from his wound, ena-
bled the miller to escape from his grasp, and kill him with
another shot. The game was carried to Sainte Engrace
in triumph. He yielded.4olbs of grease, and his skin was
sold for 60 francs.

IVIORNIN G E ITI ON.

■

MORNING EDITION-

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS,

'CYRON.I THE DAILY PAIPERS OF YESTERDAY.)
(From the Morning Chronicle.)
"There is often a long leap from a general principle, of
'undeniable "soundness, to the partisan purpose of a day for
which that principle is cited. Thus the limes very justly
affirms that " the character of this country is essentially
Conservative." But a marvellous distance has to be tra-
velled over, and, as we apprehend, insurmountable ob-
stacles to be encountered, between that proposition and
tart reference of the Times, that Toryism will find itself in
a majority at the next general election. That " the
character of tli country is essentially Conservative" is
a truth, and it is also a truth that the people " are Con-
servative, not because they prefer one set of partisans to
another, but because their tendencies are to fixedness
rather than to change." Neither of these facts will
help the Tories. Their fraudulent assumption of the
epithet " Conservative " &sea not make them in-
heritors of the good that belongs to the prin-
eip!e of conservation. The impudent adoption of a
family name makes no legal conveyance of the family
estate. One reason why the domination of Toryism be-
came intolerable, and why it never can be permanently
resumed is, that its character, on this very point, is at
mortal variance with the character of the English people.
Toryism is anti-Conservative; its whole history is that of
change ; and the necessity of progressive Reform (the
real Conservatism), has arisen out of the long progression
of its corruptions and abuses, Of not one national insti-
tution has Toryism ever proved itself a faithful and suc-
cessful conservator. It erilled the monarchy by pro-
mising absolutism. It abased popular representation into
mere nomination. It swamped the ancient Peerage by an
inundation of political and legal adventurers. Tee spiri-
tual character of the Church was sunk by it into an
offensive compound of worldliness and fanaticism.
With law it tampered until there was no terror for
the rich and no remedy for the poor. It has not
been conservative even of its own concessions; but
having apostatised into the enactment of Catholic Eman-
cipation, treated its own measure as a dead letter. And
when the people, as one man, demanded the reform,
which it oppose 1, there and there only, was the real Con-
servative principle. The Times represents the popular
feeling which obtained the Reform Act es " a siugle de-
termination," art isolated outbreak. This is very shallow
philosophy, and a most suicidal argument. Were it so,
the British would be demonstrably a most theoretical
people. They would be capable of intense excite-
ment for a sheer abstraction. Every body knows the re-
verse. The Reform agitation was anything but unprac-
tical. In its most formidable demonstrations it neither
sprung from, nor tended to any defined and coherent theory I
of representation. The old system was found not to
work well in the popular estimation. It accumulated
grievances. Scots were bought and sold, like the
cattle in Smithfield Market, and with them the
ro-',,ts and interests of the community. The
House -of Commons degenerated into a taxing-
machine, with whatever worse purposes the Minister
of the day might desire to accomplish. Among the mil-
lions whose mighty voice enforced the passing of the Re-
form Act, there were none who cor.fined their views to a
mere change of forms. All contemplated results. Re-
presentation was desired for the sake of the consequences
of representation. Law that should protect, a Church
that should instruct, and taxation pressing lightly and
tailing fairly ; these were the ends, of Conservative cha
racier as to the spirit of our institutions, to which Reformers
looked, through the medium of a more equalized representa-
tion. They were not the idiots which the Times re presents
them, regarding the means only, and resting there with-
out any ulterior purpose. They were true to the national
character. They hoped, as they desired, that anti- Conserv:ti-
t:ye Toryism would be crushed by the reform. That agi-
tation was not, what the argument of the 7'imes requires
it to have been, an irrational and singular effort, a por-
tentous aberration, an effect without a cause.. In the
order of moral causation, it necessarily arose from the col-
lision between the Conservative character of the nation
and the corruptions of Toryism. A wide-spread disap-
pointment has followed. The party resources of Toryism
had been miscalculated. Its sneaking perversion of the
epir:t by means of the letter of the Reform Act—its relent-
less hostility to the rights, instruction, and improvement of
the people—its disgraceful pandering to every class
prejudice acd sinister interest—aed its sordid sacri-
fice of the very semblance of principle to the regain-
ing of place and profit, had been underrated. Hence
discontent with the avoliors of the Reform Act, and
with their disinclination to confirm their work by
such further organic charges as were needful to its
practical efficiency. Hence the unnatural apathy of
some; the schism of others; and the co-operetion (only
for the purposes of retaliatory annoyance) of others with
the anti-Conservative Tories themselves. And hence the
very phenomena to a pith the Times refers, for a very dif-
Lrent purpose. We mean the Tory successes in Parlia-
mentary and Municipal elections. They arc very easily
accounted far by the foregoing statement. It could not
happen otherwise. But to take them as predictive of a
general and permanent support of Toryism by the nation,
is building their house upon the sand with a vengeance.
Let us see how the fact that " the character of this country
is essentially Conservative," acts upon the Carn-law ques-
tion. Is it Conservation to repress the regular growth of
that manufacturing system by which the nation has been
enriched and aguran+z ^d ? Is it Conservation to deny work
acid food to the mulLiduciinous population that is al-
ready brought into existence under this system? Iv it
Conservation to annihilate our foreign markets, turn
away our foreign customers, and play the game of
cur fureign competitors? Is it Cunservation to block up
the greas and on'y owlet for the increasing surplus popu-
laiisn of our starving agricultural labourers? Is it Con-
ace ration to rely, fur the nation's food, on an agriculture
which in no our year grows a sufficient supply, even with
all the stimulus and advantages of an inhuman mono-
poly ? Is it Conservation to tax the non-agricultural
consumers (Jewel nine millions of pounds sterling pee an-
eum for no earthly purpose but to keep rents up to
double what th ey were a generation since, and thus enable
bankrupt proprietors of land to cheat their mortgagees
and plunder the public? Such policy is Tory, but it is
not Conservative. And this, as we have lately shown,
has now become, and will continue, the hustings' question.
It will have much more to do with the next election than all
the ward polling between Mr. Higgins and Mr. Wiggins
fur a town" councillorship. If the Tories could take cffiee,
ve would dare them to take it, and to appeal to the
tyunfry,. as a Bread-Tax Administration. Even the

Times • - doss not venture to put the question on that
ground. It smuggles a pretended proof of the popularity
of Toryism under the false colours of a perverted word.
It shill s between national Conservatism, which is one
this g, and a great reality, and Tory Conservatism, which
is quit^ a different thing, and a peat humbug. Will our
Contemporary put the argument plainly, and then stick
to it? Will he say, "the character of thin country is
essentially taxed-bread eating ?" Will he prove that the
English Constitution can only be nourished by taxed
bread? Then there will be some basis for h s prognos-
tications. Short of that he only plays a plausible game
with verbal counters. The first thing of which the people
arc conservative is of themselves. Whigs and Tories will
both find this as they come to the poll-booth. The par-
tisan catechism will be cut short. With the man in the
Lace, to the Tiestion " What are you ?" they will answer,
I hungry." Will all the word-jugglery of the
Times persuade them to he conservative of hunger? and
of bread tax ?

(From the Morning Herabl.)

Mr. Powell, surveyor to the Waterloo Bridge Company,
denied, on the inquest held on the body of the unfortunate
Scott, that the deceased had been hired by the Company
to exhibit his dangerous tricks to a morbid, sight-hunting
generation. Be it so ;we will concede that no bargain
was absolutely struck between the Company and Scott—
that no terms were stipulated for the show; we will allow
that the Company " did not meet until the 16th instant,"
and that, therefore, no express engagement could be en-
tered into between the parties. Scott, however, " had
had money made him a present by the Southwark Bridge
Company, and thought it likely the Waterloo Bridge
people would do the same." Such in the testimony of
Godfrey, Scott's landlord. Mr. Powell, howeser, would
give no express consent to the exhibition : " the Company'
did not meet until the I6sh instant," was his peremptory
reply. Now, what follows? Scott, with a remembrance
of the hberality of the men of Southwark, has every con-
fidence in the gratitude of the men of Waterloo. Ile
says to G idtrey, " I have a scaffold; erect it." Upon
the:, Godfrey takes the scaffold on the bridge, and, in his
,wen words, was never interfered with." The scaffold
is put up, and stands the whole of Sunday, as most sig-
nificant advertisement of the doings of Scott on the suc-
ceeding day. Thousands saw the scaffold—thousands read
the bills placarded at either end of the bridge, announcing
the tricks of the diver; but somehow, the people connected
with the bridge—the people employed by the Company,
were so busy at the toll-places that they never beheld the
preparations " over the second arch of the east side" of the
structure never read the advertisements narrating the
aeoroders of the show. We really were not aware that the
aneney-takers at toll places were such Areachants—such
unwordly people. Henceforth, we shall have
the loftiest notions of the innocence of all turnpikerroen.
Let US, however, suppose that certain parties had erected
a scaffold, and with effective instruments for the mischief,
had ssished for a whole day to employ themselves defacing
aotl injuring the bridge. Would the scaffold have been
tuffered to remain, if loss, and not profit to the Company
had been the result of its erection ? Let the truth be said.
Were not the servants of the Company too much rapt by
the prospect of an increase of pennies at the toll to con•
sider, as they ought to have considered, the scaffold at the
second arch?

(From the Globe.)
It would be difficult to fix on an instance in which
gross misrepresentation has been more unblushingly
persisted in than is afforded by the statements respect-
ing Frost and his fellow-convicts, with which most of
the Tory Papers still abound. We cannot but
repeat what we have already, in everyform of
language, stated, that in thn treatment of these
no departure from the course
Well there has been
inv,.:riably pursued. No instructions were sent
to the Governor of the colony respecting them ; he
was left to the ordinary regulations which be is bound
to follow in all cases, and from them there is no reason
to believe he has departed. It it be meant that Frost
ought to have been placed in a gang of convicts working
in chains upon the road, we take leave to differ fromAe
opinion. To have subjected a man of his years, who had
never been accustomed to muscular labour, to such work,
would have been torture, to be speedily followed in such a
climate by death ; and would have laid any Government
which had issued such directions, or had allowed such an
0-1410 M the,charge of vindictive cruelty. Hit be
there has been, in the ease of Frost,
-.,-i_
~..
c'
Or--- - i•-#t
14( les by which the treatment of con-
. ..., ~
~,, ,: aim 7govcr
..,.
~ r by any reward, in any form or
_ ~.. . ,sal‘c.;.,r they tar they perform, we beg again to
04
~, deny that tit*. . ecn any such remission, relaxation,
-. , of reward ; and demand of those who' venture on the 1

' assertion that there has been, to adduce the proof.
We have reason to believe that the letter which has
appeared in the public papers as written by Frost, has
undergone material alterations and interpolations ;
especially as we have seen a letter from Frost of a
very different kind, in which be states that
" he and his fellow-convicts were placed on board the
Mandarin in the prison dress, and suffered severely
from the cold, until pieces of tarpaulin were given
them, which they threw over their shoulders." 'i his
certainly is at: variance with the statement that they
were allowed, on reaching Port Arthur, to retain and
wear part of their own clothes. We shall here close
the controversy.' If there be any Member of Parliament
so utterly demented as to place the slightest confidence
in the reveries in which the Tory journals have e in-
dulged, let him move immediately on the meeting of
Parliament for all the correspondence, and all other
papers, papers, which have any relation to the matter in issue,
and we will undertake to say that the motion will meet
with a ready assent from the Government.
(From the Courier.)
There is no foreign news of any importance in the
Paris Papers of Tuesday, and the principal subject
of interest in domestic matters is the disgraceful at-
tempt of the students and other revolutionary scions
of Young France to assist in an insidious attempt
to insult both the Queen and Prince Albert,
through the medium of a theatrical performance;
to which we alluded yesterday. This choice speci-
men of mischievous nonsense is entitled " Il etait
une fois un Roi et une Keine" (there was once a
King and a Queen), but the good sense of the Go
vernment prevented this exhibition, which, although
intended to ridicule England and the English, would
probably have been chiefly remarkable for covering its
authors and all who assisted in carrying out their views,
with contempt. Elsewhere we have given some inte-
resting particulars from the Times respecting this pre-
cious concoction, which appears exceedingly well calcu-
lated to exhibit the character of the French agitators in its
true light. They appear to be precisely the men who would
injure in the dark, not having the courage to give effect
to their vicious imaginings in an open and direct man-
ner. " Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike," these
French patriots, as they style themselves, seem deter-
mined to show to the world that they merit the con-
tempt of all reasonable and thinking men. The journals
are of course still occupied with the Fortification Bill,
in which, it appears, M. Tillers intends to propose seve-
ral essential changes. M. Tillers was to make his re-
port to the Chamber on the subject yesterday.