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

WHAT FAVOURITISM CAN DO.

We erce've by our military it-ad igenee, that a draft
of the 74th Regiment, consisting of six officers, four ser-
i( eats, arid 170 rank and file, is ordered to le held in
readiness to march from the depot in Waterford, for Cork,
for embarkation for Canada, to join the service companies.
This announcement might, as an every day affair, a mere
matter of military detail, be supposed as liable to no fur-
ther notice ; there is, however, connected with it that
which affects tie seivice generally, and loudly calls fur
refrrm ; and we believe that in no department of IPr Ma-
jesty's service is reform so imperatively required a 3 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 Captain Alves, a soldier
in the strictest sense of the word, who, after thirty-
two years' bard service in every quarter of the globe,
the warrior of many a well fought field, is ordered
to rejoin his corps, a second tunic on foreign ser-
vice as—Calt sin 1 while, by the London Gazette of
sth inst. we perceive that a beardless at ipiing, a Subal-
tern of no service, the Hon. E. A. Keane, of the 37th,
has been appointed to a Brevet Majority. This is too bad:
in Oirect oppositiou 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 long list of veterans
over whose herds Major Keane has be2n thrust, we take
leave to select the service of Captsin Alves, as one who is
well known to our fellow-cif VHS as a man and a gentle-
man ; and we are fully aware that to no individual except,
to the gallant and worthy officer Morsel% need we apologise
for rep, ating their. Well. then, Captain Alves served the
whole of the campaiges of 1810, 1811, 1812, 1813, and
1814, wi;h the 74th regimeet, in the third division in the
D. of Wellieg,on's army, in the Peninsula, including
tne battle at Busaco; actions at Pombal, Redinha,
z d'Aronce, Guerda, and Sahugal ; battle of Fuentes
d'Onor ; actions of El Bodon, and Aidea de Porte; siege
of Badajos; in June, 1811, siege and storming of Ciudad
Rodrigo, siege and storming of Badajos; battle of Sala-
manca ; capture of Madrid ; battle of Vittoria ; blockade
of Pampeluna; the battles of the Pyrerees (27th, 28ch,
and 30th July), Nivelle, and Ortbes ; the conflicts cf Vic
Bigorre and Tarbes, and the battle of Toulouse. What al
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 father's Staff—who never
saw service as a Captain—and who was just thirty five
boors promvei as a Captain when he oltiiaed his ma-
jority. Captain Alves bas been thirty-two years on full
pay, and two years on half-pay, having been promoted
to an unattached company of five shillings a day,
an indulgence gteintel to him Lf,er twenty years'
service as a subaltern officer. He has served seve-
ral years in the West Indies, and yet we find him going
out lagain as Captain, while the Gazette records the
promotion, to a majority, of a youth who has just served
eight years, without being in any way qualified far this ad-
vancement, Shame, shame on such a system ! What 'is
there in the British service to induce men of wcrth and
valour to spend their best strength, and exert their ever,
crie-gy, when they meet with such an ungrateful re-
comi.ense—when such a system of favouritism, is shame-
ful oppositien t recorded regulations, is observed ? We
sincerely trust that this matter may be brought under con-
sideration in the I.roper quarter, and that this crying evil,
adi grace to the country, may be dune away with. As
regards the gallant gentleman whose name we have tclecn
the liberty thus to allude to, we shall only further add,
that he end his brother officers leave our city attended by
the good wishes and respect of the public in general.--
Watevrord

ELLING—By .the 'ALxican lows, if a man
i• ills another in a duel, be Lecornes answerable for all his
debts. If we had a similar law fur Great Britain and Ire.
I.nd, " affairs of honour" would be of rare oecurrence.