The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-28 00:00:00

REFORM YOUR TAILORS' BILLS.

A GENTLEMANLY SUFI. of the Best
LA Quality £3 12 6
Superfine Dress Coats
Ditto Frock Ditto, silk facings
Taglioni, or Great Coats 1 10 0
Fishing or Shooting Coats
Morning Dressing Gowns (1 15 0
Buckskin Trousers
Summer Trousers
Summer Waistcoats
Suit of Best Liveries
Army Cloth Blue Spanish Cloak, I) yards round- 2 10 0
The New Waterproof Cloak
Ladies' Elegant Ilidirg Habits
DOUDNEY and SON.
49, Lombard-street. Established 1784.

BLOSSOMS INN, LAWRENCE-LANE, CHEAPSID

LONDON.
C--
HARLES ItADENHURST (late of the
New Royal and Nelson Hotels, Birmingham) having
entered upon the above establishments, situate in the very centre
of business, near to the Guildhall, Bank of England, Post-
face, &c., respectfully solicits the support of his friends and
the public, assuring them, that nothing on his part shall be
wanting to render every convenience and accommodation to
those who may favour him with their patronage.
Tb• Coffee -Boom, having undergone considerable alterations
made elegant and spacious, and a large commodious apart-
ment is appropriated for a Dining Room.
Dinners provided at Two and at Half-past Five o'clock.
Fish, Stakes, Chops, &c., on the shortest notice.
Wines and Spirits of the choicest Vintages. Bottled and
Draught Ale, Stout, &c. &c.
All Articles of the best quality and moderate charges.
Private Sitting Rooms. Well-aired Beds, &e.

A herringß . ist,t
ienr eaS ting
physiologicalas tile
orgarrsofTvistijoEn andEY EtheAseNnspe ofE
point of view, there attaches to them a deep importance when
they become the seat of disease ; complete or partial losses of
Sight or Hearing are by all regarded as the most severe of hu-
man afflictions, and vi hen we consider the causes which are so
constantly in operation to produce them, we need not be
astonished at the frequency of their occurrence. We find the
means which science puts it oar disposal are very often effec-
tual in altogether removing those defects. The newly-invented
Spectacle Lenses of the Messrs. S. and 13. Solomons, 39, Al-
bemarle-street, Piccadilly, surpass any thing of the kind ever
yet placed before thepublic ; the clearness of the transparency
brings every object by candle-light as well as by day very dis-
tinct, thus at once bringing back imperfect vision to its origi-
nal and natural state. Those gentlemen's operative Voice
Conductors far deaf persons are the size of a seven-shilling
piece, fit into the cavity of the ear, and the faintest whisper at
a public assembly is heard with Ilistinctness.-39, Albemarle-
street.
" JACK ASHORE." BY THE AUTHOR OF
" RATTLIN THE REEFER."—ht this novel Mr. Howard has
traced an entirely new character, under circumstances alto-
gether out of the usual conception of writers of novels, and
right ably has he filled up his outline. Jack is all that a
sailor of the days of the war with France was, or ought to have
been, and he is completely a character, which our country used
to delight in, and at the same time, depend upon for its de-
fence and glory. He is a singular compound of simplicity
and shrewdness, of confidence and caution, whilst he is disin-
terested, generous, and careless of any thing beyond the fun
and frolic of the present hour. In fact, honest Jack True_
penny is the most accurate delineation of a perfect sailor that
is to be found in our language. The novel may Ise considered
as a perfect camera obscura, reflecting accurately and clearly
not only the interior, the equipment, arrangements, and in-
ternal economy of a ship-of-the-line, but all the habits, pro-
ceedings and actions of those on board of her. The represen-
tation could be given in such perfection only by the powerful
faculties of a first-rate writer, who had been familiar with all
that he places on the canvass. The plan of the work gives op.
portunities for an infinite variety of scenes of every descrip-
tion, some of them pathetic, some awful, others very satyrical,
and others again fraught with every species of humour, from
the most broad to the most refined. Jack Ashore is an ex-
cellent novel, well calculated to become a standard work,
from its exquisite representation of a seaman's character.
D ispatch.
The Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Hart., M.P.
comes to town from Drayton Manor at the close of the week.

ARMY MEDICAL OFFICERS.
The Medical Department of the Military and Naval
Services necessarily came under our review in the exa-
mination of the condition of the Officers of the Army
and the Navy ; and seine evidence from the principal
Medical Officers of both services will be found in the
Appendix to our Report, as well as Returns prepared
for the purpose of exhibiting the state of this depart-
ment, and the prospects of promotion and retirement
that were open to Military or Naval Medical Officers.
We would beg to observe to your Majesty, that the
general impression produced on our minds by the exa-
mination of the evidence, both verbal and documentary,
• which was placed before os, was that the condition of
the Army Medical Officers was not unfavourable ; that
the great advantages of increased pay and increased
retired allowances which were given to this class of
officers by the regulations of 1830, were well calcu
fated to secure a succession of accomplished Medical
Officers for the military service ; and that but few changes
in those regulations would be requisite to place that
branch of the service in a satisfactory position in rela-
tion to other ranks in the army.
According to the existing establishment of Medical
Officers, as laid down in the warrant of 1830, there
are six classes, viz.:—

Inspector-General of Hospitals,
Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals,
Assistant Inspector of Hospitals,
Staff- Surgeon,
Regimental Surgeon, and
Assistant. Surgeon ;
and the course of promotion is regulated throughout
upon a principle of selection.
The Assistant-Surgeon is eligible for promotion to
the rank either of Staff-Surgeon or Regimental Sur-
geon, upon vacancies in the authorised establishment ;
while his subsequent advancement from the rank of
Surgeon, must, under the warrant, be made through
the Commission of Assistant-Inspector.
The Deputy-Inspector-Generals' appointments are
filled by selection from the Assistant-Inspectors ; and
the Deputy-Inspectors furnish the candidates from whom
the Inpectors-General are taken.
But while we in general approve of the regulations
established by the warrant of 1830, they appear to us
to require some amendment for the purpose of renderieg
more clear the demarcation of the comparative rank
and respective duties of medical officers of the different
grades, and also for that of diminishing the time which
elapses before they can expect, under. the present ar-
rangement, to receive the first step of advancement in
their profession. The Staff-Surgeons ought, we conceive,
to be considered a superior appointment to that of ltogi-
mental Surgeon ; but this superiority can hardly be said
at present to exist, since anAssistant-Surgeon may
now be appointed to be a Staff-Surgeon,
without having
previously gone through the rank of Regimental Sur-
geon ; while the Staff-Surgeon, who throughout the
war was accustomed equally with the Physician, whose
place is now filled by the Assistant-Inspector of Hos-
pitals, to look forward to the rank of Deputy-Inspec-
tor, as the step immediately above him, is now required
to pass through the rank of Assistant-Inspector, for
which the Regimental Surgeon is not considered less
eligible than himself.
The difference of pay
.between the lt. gimental and
the Staff-Surgeon is also insufficient to counterbalance
the advantage which the former derives from his mels
and other Regimental privileges, in so much that it is
practically found that Regimental Surgeons arc fre•
quently unwilling to accept the appointment of Staff-
Surgeon. It appears to us also that the nature of the
durties which should properly belong to Medical Officers
on the Staff does not require that there should be so great
a number of different ranks of these officers as at present
exists. For these reasons we would beg leave to recommend
that the rank of Assistant-Inspector of Hospitals should
be abolished ; and that the pay and comparative rank in
the Aamy now enjoyed by.this
,class of officers, should
be conferred upon the Staff- Surgeon ; which appoint-
ment should be in future considered the intermediate
grade between the Regimental S.
arrange-
ment,urgeon and the Deputy_
Inspector of Hospitals- But in adopting this
we conceive that it would be necessary to provide
some further means for the promotion of Assistant-
Surgeons, since it appears to us, from the statements
furnished by the Director-General, which are included in
our Appendix, that too great an interval now elapses
before the first step of promotion can he gained by
Medical Officers of the Army.
It is shown by these statements that in the five

If in the field with an army of 10,000 men and up-
wards, the principal Medical Officer is allowed 20s.
a-day ; with 5,000 men, Iss. ; any less number, 103.
If in a colony where the force exceeds 1,500 men,
ss. a-day.
With these additional advantages thus conferred upon
the Medical Department, it does not appear to us that
there is any sufficient reason for regarding the single
precedent of 1830 as justifying the very large charge
which would result f.om an extension of substantive
promotion to the Medical Officers of the Army, on
occasions of general Brevet advancement, without re-
ference to the demand which may exist for their services
in the higher ranks. We think such a course would
be the more inexpedient, because, as the opportunities
for employing the higher class of Medical Officers are,
in time of peace, necessarily very limited, and as every.
vacancy which may occur is filled by promotion, any ge-
neral promotion contemporaneously with Army Brevets,
would in effect be granting retirements in ranks superior
to those the officers have filled in employment. This
does not appear to us to be proceeding on a sound prin-
ciple, or acting in accordance with the Public announce-
ment made in the Warrant of 1830, under with a term
of service in the rank is required, even before the ad-
vantages of the full-pay attaching to it are granted.
Upon full consideration, therefore, we are not pre-
pared to support the claims of the Medical Officers to
profit by the introduction of a system of general pro-
motion to be conferred with Army Brevets, as it is new
to the Service, and not called for on any public grounds.
We would beg to take this opportunity of recording
our opinion against a practice which has occasionally
prevailed, of advancing to higher rank Medical Officers,
after a long retirement to half-pay. Considering how
strong must be the inducement to endeavour to remain
on half-pay, which the hope of obtaining private practice
must afford to the Medical Officer, we think it of the
utmost importance that service, and service only, should
be the means of obtaining promotion, and that no claim
to military advancement should he recognised in any
officer who shall have ceased to discharge the active
duties of his profession, and shall have retired into
private life.
It appears to us that, in place of an indiscriminate
selection of officers for promotion and retirement en oc-
casions of general Brevet advancement, it would be tar
better to arrange the details of the Service in such a
manner as should exact some duty in the new rank
from the Medical Officer before he quits the active for
the non-effective list, and at the same time preserve a
constant stream of promotion, by opening amccession to
the higher Medical appointments, in addition to the op-
portunities afforded by the casualties of the Service.
It is in evidence before us that such a course has
been followed in regard to the appointment of principal
Medical Officer in the West Indies ; and the adapt
tion of that course to other stations appears to
us to be
well calculated to encourage a hope of promotion in the
active and zealous Medical Officer, and to spread more
widely the opportunities of obtaining, the lucrative em-
ployments in the. department. The practice to which we
advert is that of conferring the appointment of Inspector-
General of Hospitals in the West Indies on a Deputy
Inspector, selected for the station, who fills the situation
for three three years, under a commission which gives him
local and temporary rank. That period of service
being past, his rank. is made permanent, and be retires
to make room for a fresh appointment. We arc informed
that this principle has been recently extended to some
other foreign stations and we are disposed to agree
with Sir James M'Grigor, that It may be regarded as
a valuable addition to the means of giving promotion
for actual service to the deserving Medical Officers of
the Army.
Is our investigation of the condition of the Medical
Officers of the Staff, one point was much pressed upon

" Between Lakes Huron and Erie the British have
three sets of barracks—one at Windsor, opposite to
Detroit ; one at Sandwich, a little lower down ; and
the third at Malden, 18 miles from the first; all built
of sawed logs, strengthened by block-houses, loopholes,
&c. Malden has been a military post, with slight de-
fences. These have been recently strengthened. The
works at Sandwich and Windsor have also, I think,
bcen erected within the last six or eight months.
" Near the mouth of the Niagara the British have
two small forts—George and Messianga. Both ex-
isted during the last war. The latter may be termed a
permanent work. Slight barracks have been erected
within the last two years on the same side, near the
Falls, and at Chippewa, with breastworks at the latter
place ; but nothing, I believe, above the works first
named, on the Niagara, which can be termed a fort)
" Since the commencement of the recent troubles
in the Canadas, and (consequent thereupon) within
our limits, Fort William Henry, at Kingston, and
Fort Wellington, opposite Ogdensburg (old works),
have both been strengthened within themselves, be-
sides the addition of dependencies. These forts may
be called permanent.
" On the St. Lawrence, below Prescott, and con-
fronting our territory, I know of no other military
post : twelve miles above, at Brockville, there may
'be temporary barracks and breastworks. I know
that of late Brockville has been a military station.
" In the system of defences on the approaches to
Montreal, the Isle Aux Noix, a few miles below our
line, and in the outlet of Lake Champlain, stands at
the head. This island contains within itself a system
of permanent works of great strength. On them the
British Government has, from time to time, since the
peace of 1815, expended much skill and labour.

" Odletown, near our line, on the western side of
Lake Champlain, has been a station for a body of
Canadian militia for two years, to guard the neighbour-
hood from refugee incendiaries from our side. I think
that barracks have been erected there fbr the accom-
modation of these troops, and also at a station, with
the like object, near Alburgh, in Vermont.
" It is believed that there are no important British
forts, or extensive British barracks on our borders, from
Vermont to Maine.

" In respect to such structures on the disputed ter-
ritory, Governor Fairfield's published letters contain
fuller information than has reached me through any
other channel. I have heard of no new military pre-
parations by the British authorities on the St. Croix or
Passamaquoddy Bay.
" Among such preparations, perhaps I ought not to
omit the fact that Great Britain, besides numerous
corps of well-organized and well-instructed militia, has
at this time within her North American provinces
more than 20,000 of her best regular troops. The
whole of those forces might be brought to the verge of
our territory in a few da3s. Two thirds of that regu-
lar force has arrived out since the spring of 1838.

"1 remain, Sir, with great respect,
" Your most obedient servant,
~ WINFIELD SCOTT."
" Brigadier-General R. Jones, Adjutant-General
United States Army."