The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-15 00:00:00

„ ,

LONDON:
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 1840,

The Royal Assent was yesterday given, by commis
sion, to a great number of Bills, for the names of which
we refer to our Report.
The Earl of CHARLEVILLE inquired of the Marquis
of NOILMANBY whether lie had heard anything of the
disturbed state of Limerick caunty. The Noble Mar.
quis replied he had heard that outrages of an agrarian
character had been committed, but a reinforcement of
police had been sent, and peace had since been effectually
maintained.

In reply to the Marquis of LONDONDERRY, who is
always as busy as a hen with one chicken, Viscount MEL-
BOURNE stated that Lord JOHN HAY had no precise
instructions to act as he acted, and the British Govern.
merit was not a party to the Convention of Bergara.
A short conversation took place on the Marquis of
WESTMEATH moving for same returns, which appears
to indicate, we are afraid, that the Duke of WELLING-
TON ha% lost his temper with his health.
That the Irish landlords are terribly frightened, and
live, in fact, in continual dread, is evident by the com-
plaint the Earl of GLENGAI.L made about persons in
Ireland havinc, arms. Why should they not ? Is
nobody but an Earl or a Duke to carry a gun ? The
Noble Earl moved for a return, which was ordered.

After transacting some routine business, their Lord-
ships adjourned for the holidays, at Seven o'Clock, till
the 30th instant.

In the Commons, after the transaction of much
private business, and the presentation of several petitions,
notices of motions were given by Mr. PLUMPTRE to
prevent further grants being made to Maynooth ; by
Mr. EWART, that all subordinate Government offices
should be bestowed on the principle of competition ; by
Mr. HAWES, for a Bill to establish general affirmation;
in room of oaths in Courts of law ; and by Mr. HUME
for certain correspondence between_ Lord PONSONBY
and Lord PALMERSTON.
In reply to Sir C. GREY, the ATTORNEY-GENERAL
stated he hoped the decision of the Courts in the case
of the Birmingham and Manchester Charters would
enable the Government to give Charters to other Cor-
porate towns.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL announced his intention to
move to-day that Mr. HOWARD, jun. and Mr. PEARCE
be discharged, and that the order for attendance of the
Sheriff be discharged.
Mr. WARBURTON obtained a return of the rules and
regulations observed towards prisoners convicted of mis-
demeanour, with a view, we believe, of contrasting the
treatment of COLLINS and LOVETT with the treatment
of the officers at Wig in who resisted the Sheriff's officer.
Correspondence relative to the American Boundary
was laid on the table of the House by Lord J. RUSSELL.
s:r J. FREMANTLE presented a petition complaining
of the returning officer for Totness who appears to have
been absent from his post, and the Hon. Baronet gave
it be understood designe.llyabsent.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL objected to any such case
being entered into, unless the Mayor had received due
notice. The petition was ordered to be printed.
In reply to Mr. AGLIONBY, Lord J. RUSSELL said
he should have no objection to lay en the table the plan
matured by the Deans aid Chaplains for the better
appropriation of ecclesiastical revenues, but the authors
of that plan considered parts of it to be private property,
and objected to have it produced. The Noble Lord
also stated that he had no scheme tq propose to enfran-
chise ecclesiastical leaseholds.
The Bills for any2.nilit:ii and continuing the Poor-law
were rend a second time.
Mr. HUME, who had given notice of his intention to
ask a question of Lord PALMERSTON, relative to the
treaty with Turkey, complained with some asperity of
the Noble Lord's absence.
Lord J. RUSSELL, having refused to answer K.veral
questions concerning China , put by Mr. J. PALMER,
that gentleman gave notice that on the 30th he would
move a resolution that the refusal of the Chi to
pay for the cpin-n delivered up to them
should not
be considered a justification for commencing. -
Oa the motion of Lord J.
sset it assßu or adas 4rt..•.red
that after the Ist of June orders 4
ou'ld on Thursday,
take precedence of motions. a
lu a Committee -en the subject, Mr. NI A ULE passed I
a resolution to etto,ie himtobrio in a Bill
late the trade of Chimney-sweepinig and top
rtettule-
.an end to sweeping chimneye y means of finallychiuldren3
all parties. *
The resolution was appleedea by
Mr. LAS-I:HOPE tfruught forward the case of NATHA-
N' NUL. CAVE, the man whe was some time ago wrongly
vemnakled to prison by a Magistrate of Hertfordshire
(Mr. MOUNTAIN), and who could get no satisfaction or
redress. Mr, EASTHOPE moved br a Select Committee
to inquire into the case.
Mr. :eleueE requested it might be left in his heeds.'
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE thought that was relying on a rotten
Iced ; but Mr. EASTIIOPE, after a short conversation,
withdrew his motion.
Mr. WARBURTON, in moving for copies of the cor-
respondence between the Hon. Member fur Warwick,
Sir F.
•,1_1.140T, and Lord J. RUSSELL, relative to the
prison regulations of Warwick, made an interesting •
statement relative to the treatment which had been re-
;ceived by Messrs. C.:I.LINS and LOVETT. The Hon.
Member showed that the class of off •nces of which / these gectlemen had been convicted, had never before
been so severely and unworthily punished.
Mr. Sergeant Teevouen seconded the motion, and
,!
quoted several instances of persons sentenced to inepri-
sonment for libel who had books, music, and visitors al-
lowed. One such person, Mr. Wieteeaeoler.on, far
from being excluded front the company of a wife. was
married whilst in prison.
Mr. Fox MAULS admitted the propriety of • •
power to the Secretary of State to order differkiegn nitovinregata-
ment for such off.nders which at present he co;
he w'Aild have no objection to introduce the clZsi
which Mr. WARBURTON wished into the Prisonsaßill.
VtNeeNT, he admitted, was in the Penitentiary,
and would be treated like the rest of the prisoners. Mr. Fox :MULE found an excuse for
the Government in the excited state of the country at the
time Cowss and LOVETT published their libels, and in
Mr. VINCENT'S character, whom he described as
dangeious, for the severe treatment to which these so-

called 1 bellers, who have taken away no man's cha-
racter, have been exposed.
S r E. WILMOT spoke of the unexceptionable be-
haviour of COLLINS and LovErr, and said they were
proper objects for the exercie of the prerogative of
mercy. In that recommendation several Members
joined. The motion was agreed to, and the recom-
mendation cannot, we believe, be too soon carried into
effect.

The House only sat till a Quarter past Eight.

The observations which we yesterday made on
the " acknowledged inefficiency of a large portion
of every class of Naval Officers for service, com-
bined with the enormous amount of our dead
weight, to reward past and secure future exertions,
cannot fail to attract. the attention of Mr. HUME
and, we hope, of the public. The fact is, and it is
known to every man the least acquainted with the
Navy, that for many years the aristocracy have
jobbed the Navy in the same way as they have
jobbed every department of the public service.
They sent thei r sons and dependents on board ship,
and provided for them by procuring them annuities
under the honourable titles of Lieutenants, Cap-
tains, and Admirals. There were, during the war,
twice or thrice as many officers as were employed ;
and the number seems very little to have diminished
since the peace. The public ought to know that,
under the name of veterans, it is really paying an-
nuities to a large brood of the same class which in-
flicts the bread-tax on the community. The corro-
borative proof of this is to be found hi the state-
ment of the services of the officers given in the Re-
pert. . _

How many Admirals have never been at sea as
Admirals, is not stated, but nearly one-half
of the Captains and Commanders have never been
at sea in their present capacities. As we yesterday
mentioned, 530 Lieutenants have never served as
Lieutenants, 386 have served less than one year,
and 656 less than three years as such. But while
there are so many officers who have never served
afloat in the ranks they now fill, it is an "ano-
maly," says the Report, " peculiar to the Nava!
service, that by mere seniority on the list, without
the slightest reference to the service performed, an
officer acquires a right to an increase of half-pay."
The first 300 Lieutenants on the list receive 7s.
a day, the next 700, 65., and the remainder .ss. ;
so that 530 persons who have never served as
Lieutenants, and may now have ss. a day, as they
outlive the others will receive first 6s. and then 7s.
a day. The Commissioners propose a slight cor-
rective of this anomaly, but one of their recom-
mendations we are inclined to think will add mate-
rially to the existing evil of supporting, for the I
presumed behoof of an inefficient establishment, a
considerable number of inefficient persons.
The Commissioners nowhere propose to place
any additional restrictions on the power of the Ad-
miralty to employ volunteers and midshipmen, the
number of whom is the great souree of having too
many officers of a higher rank to provide for.
Nor do the Commissioners recommend any restric-
tions on the power of the Admiralty to promote
officers from the d:fferent ranks beyond those which
already exist, and which have not been found suf-
ficient to diminish the dead weight, though they
have not secured, as the Report states, efficient
officers. They propose, however, to establish an-
other class of officers to receive half-pay. They
recommend the institution of what we shall call a
body of Sub-Lieutenants. The Mates are to re-
ceive commissions or warrants, their sea pay is to
be increased to 51. per lunar month, and after three
years' service as Mates they are to be entitled
to half-pay at the rate of 2s. 6d. a-day.
After an actual service of twenty years
they are to be allowed to retire with a pension of
2s. 6d. per day. These are the recommendations
of the Report, which in fact create a new class
of half-pay officers, while every page and every
line of the Report bears testimony to the ser-
vice being already swamped by them. The Mates
should be provided for by promoting them to
be Lieutenants. While they, however, go on
serving eight, ten, twelve, or twenty years, after
they have proved, by passing their examination as
Lieutenants, that they are capable of filling any
station in the Navy, they see four, five, six, or ten
broods of youngsters, who bear a noble name, or
have some aristocratic connections, successively
promoted to be Lieutenants and Captains. The
influence of the aristocracy jobbing the Navy is the
root of the evil, and it will only be strengthened by
providing a retreat for the deserving Mates on
half-pa) and pensions, who ought to be promoted
instead of the striplings of the aristocracy the in-
stant they have served their six,years.
Our readers will see that our remarks are dic-
tated by a desire to serve the best interests of the
Navy. For the veterans who have borne aloft our
meteor flag "amidst the battle and the breeze"
we have the highest respect, and it is only by un-
masking the usurpers of their honoured name that
they tan be secured in their just rewards and in the
national esteem. The public may be compelled by
an imprudent Legisliture to pay a multitude of
persons as officers of the Navy, who have never
been at sea as such--but no art, and no Act of
Parliament, can shield such usurpers of the rewards
and honours of veterans from public contempt.
We take up this subject not only because the
Report of the Commissioners gives us an occa-
sion, and furnishes facts, but because we are given
to understand that the present practices through-
out the Navy tend to confine every superior situa-
tion to the members of the aristocracy. At pre-
sent, by the practice of buying commissions, &c.,
no person can well become an officer of
the Army except one of the upper classes
It has been proposed, in order to keep
the Navy select, that commissions in it shall
likewise be sold ; but though the proposal has not
been agreed to, there seems to be a practical ten-
dency to confine the office of Lieutenant, and con-
sequently of Captain and Admiral, exclusively to
one class. Tu us it appears that the recommenda-
tion of the Commissioners to give half-pay to
Mates, by which that meritorious class will he pen-
sioned off and excluded from promotion, is intended
to throw all the Lieutenancies into the hands of
the aristocracy, and so promote that object.
We trust that our remarks may awaken public
attention to the subject, and nip the design
we have indicated in the bud, for so sure as all
the honours and rewards of the Navy be mo-
nopolised by the aristocracy, while all the work is
left to the lower classes, so sure will it be ruined.
The very reverse ought to be the practice as it is
the theory. The highest offices in the Navy ought
to be freely opened to all, and the enterprising and
ardent of all classes should be enticed to enter the
service by a certainty that merit, and merit only,
should receive promotion. Both to lessen the de-
mands for half-pay, and to entice well- educated
Voting men from the merchant service into her MA-
JESTY'S service, the Navy, we repeat, ought to
look to that service, on the breaking out of war, for
a large portion of its officers as well as for a supply
of men.