The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-22 00:00:00

stated, some time back, that the second letter o:

Captain REYNOLDS was so clearly a breach of
military discipline that he must be found guilty.
It was from the first plain that he had nothing to
hope from the partiality of his Judges. They shut
out all the evidence which could in the most re-
mote degree explain or justify his conduct; they
even excluded evidence to character which might
have weighed with compassionate men, as if they

were resolved to steel their hearts against every
human feeling. Like perfect mirrors, undisturbed
by any kindly influence, they appear to have re-

fleeted unaltered the images of the Horse Guards,
and the Articles of 'War ; or, like automatons, they
gave out the sounds they received without any
change. They confined themselves most rigidly to
the second letter, and accordingly have cashiered
Captain REYNOLDS. His namesake may think
himself fortunate that he was only traduced behind
his back. Had he been subjected to a court-martial

for frowning on the Earl of CARDIGAN, or
for telling Captain J. JONES that he would hold
him responsible for bringing impertinent messages,
instead of receiving a reprimand, he too would
have been cashiered. The other Captain REY-
NOLDS, must now be fully sensible that it is for
the advantage of subalterns to receive reproof from
the mouth of Lord HILL or the Military Secretary ;
and that when it is desired effectually to ruin a
man, the proper instrument to employ is a sub-
servient court-martial composed of officers of high
rank.

In one respect the court-martial has not confined
itself to merely reflecting the image of the Horse
Guards. It had on one point an opinion of its

own. It said—
The Court having performed its duty, cannot sepa-
rate without recording its opinion on the following
points of Evidence :
" In the course of the Evidence to Character, wit-
nesses have stated, that they considered the accused was
incapable of insubordination without some extraordinary
causes of provocation; or unless under provocation
which no man qf honourable feeling could endure :
thus apparently sanctioning the idea, that there might
be circumstances of private irritation which would jus-
tify a Soldier breaking from the established order of
Military Discipline,—a doctrine so totally subversive of
the fundamentll principles by which all Armies arc go-
verned, that the Court feels called upon to Etamp it
with marked Reprobation.
What spirited young man would not aspire to be
a subaltern officer after such a decision and such a
remark ? " Whatever may have been your con-
duct," it says, " however long and meritoriously
you have served, though yoit'have under the most
trying circumstances evinced the greatest respect
for your superiors, and have shown yourself
most anxious, even at the expense of pri-
vate feelings, to promote public service, and
whatever provocation you may have received to
forget the respect due to your superior—character,
conduct, provocation, all avail nothing; discipline
must be preserved ; and for the slightest offence
against an ill-tempered, ungentlemanly commander,
you must be cashiered:! Who would not give
three or four thousand pounds to have the honour
of showing a reverence for such a decree, or of
eating the dirt of the Horse Guards ?
To inquire of a gentleman whether he have
grossly insulted you, seems to be a breach of disci-
pline ; to bring evidence to prove that you are
incapable of insubordination, unless from a good
cause, is destructive of all the principles by which
armies are governed.- High-spirited young men, who
like to give away a fortune to purchase the privi-
lege of being insulted with impunity, will hasten
to buy commissions in the army. Many of the
subalterns who already possess commissions will
be ready, we presume, to relinquish them, on re•
ceiving the price they have paid, for they can only
regard the money they have given as so many
bonds binding them to submit to insult whenever a
favourite of the Horse Guards shall please to inflict
it, and enforce it by a backbiting complaint, or a

subservient Court.
We regret to add that her MAJESTY has been
so ill-advised as to approve of, and confirm the
finding and sentence of the Court. By that, a
severe blow has been struck at the army. It may
hereafter retain the mere form of subordination—
the spirit will be dead. Enterprise, zeal, energy,
will all be extinguished by such a proceeding. A
service which, by its rules, can give effect to the
personal views of the Earl of CARDIGAN, must
be unworthy of men of honour.

In other times testimony as to character was
regarded as of some importance ; an act of insu-
bordination was in all ranks considered in relation
to its exciting cause ; but this Court has decreed
that however insulting and injurious may be the
conduct of a 'oerior, it must be submitted to in
silence. The Earl of CARDIGAN is a fortunate
man in having a friend at the Horse Guards, but
the Horse Guards will be "stamped with marked
reprobation " for taking on itself all the errors and
follies of the Earl of CARDIGAN. From the mo-
ment that we read the names and qualities of
the members of the Court, we were satisfied that
Captain REYNOLDS would be sacrificed on the
pretended altar of military discipline. We at the
same time believe that not above one or two officers
in every regiment will approve of the finding of the
court, and of the reprobation with which it has
stamped all attempts to prove by evidence that the
conduct of;the personwho provokes insubordination.
and the character of the person accused of it, are
of some consequence in determining the exact
quantum of guilt.

gatheringT
he present fine weather is most favourable for
in
the yet outstanding crops in the
'r North, and
for sowing the seed for the next year's
crop, which is always of excellent augury. Two
or three good seasons will make the price of corn
fall very low, but not so low as if the Corn-laws
had not been evaded. By working the averages
last year and the present year, about 3,000,000
Iquarters of corn were introduced into consumption
at a nominal duty. But for that, our population
would have wanted these 3,000,000 quarters of
food, and would have been starved down nearly to
the level of the supply produced in England.
Evading the law, then, has contributed to keep our
ahead of our own supply. If a plentiful
1)
harvestopul
a shouldpopulation
bless us next year, the consequence
of thus evading the law, against which mr,

THE SUN L

HANDLEY has made such loud protestations, will
be, that the price of corn will not fall so
much as if the law had not been evaded.
With a population wholly dependent on the home
growth, corn must be at every bountiful harvest a
complete drug. The farmers must sell to carry on
their next year's work, and pay their liabilities. The
moneyed men, who buy to store up corn, will only
buy it after the price has fallen as low as possible.
We are quite clear, therefore, that the evasion of
the law, by introducing corn at a nominal duty
has kept the population ahead of our own supply,
and will ultimately be a great benefit to the corn-
growers.

The Times is either the most ignoraut or the

most impudent of journals. It asserted yesterday
that the larger manufacturing communities enfran-
chised by the Reform Bill have never yet availed
themselves of their electoral privileges in any way
that could be the smallest advantage to their pecu-
liar interests. It refers for illustration "to such
useless lumber as Mr. BUCKINGHAM, Mr. WARD,
Mr. BROTHERTON, Mr. BAINES, Mr. MARK
PHILLIrS, Mr. ATTWOOD, and Mr. MUNTZ.
"On no one question," it says, " connect-
ed with British manufactures, have these
men rendered the smallest conceivable service."
" The pressure of the Cotton duty, the tariff of the
Prussian League, and the competition of foreign
fabrics are triumphing over British industry as in.
juriuusly as ever." The Times makes these asser-
tions either in ignorance of the facts that Mr,
BROTHERTON, Mr. BAINES, Mr. M. PHIL•
LIPS, and Mr. WARD, have zealously ex
erted themselves on every feasible occasion
to get the Corn-law modified or repealed ;or
it makes them knowing their incorrectness, which is
as gross a piece of impudence as can be conceived.
If the Times be not ignorant that the tariff of
the Prussian League has a less injurious effect on
British industry than the tariffs which before ex-
sted in Germany, to make it a reproach to these

gentleman that they have done nothing to get it
repealed, is another piece of impudence ; moreover,
the Times must be extremely ignorant, or very im-
pudent, when it accuses these gentlemen of not
getting that tariff lowered or altered, when its high
rates were avowedly framed as a retaliation for our
own Corn-laws.

We have not the slightest wish to defend Shef-
field for choosing Mr. BUCKINGHAM and passing
over Mr. BAILEY ; but Salford has obtained an
honest and an excellent representative in Mr.
BROTHERTON. Next to Lord ASHLEY, no man
has done more for behoof of the factory chit-

dren, with whose privations and sufferings
he is well acquainted. .Mr. M. PHIL-
LIPS, too, is an appropriate representative for
Manchester, which formerly gave him Lord Sy-
DEN HAM for a colleague. In Mr. BAINES Leeds
has a most zealous and useful representative,
though he be not a chatterer like Mr. GLADSTONE,
or a talking bore like Mr. HARDY. Mr. WA RD
may have no personal connection with Sheffield,
but no second-rate man commands more respect in
the House than IVIr. WARD. The standards of
excellent representatives for the Times are Sir
JOHN BECKETT, Mr. HARDY, Mr. W.E. GLA D-
STONE, and Sir GEORGE MURRAY. With the
exception of the last, to whose merits we are not
blind, these gentlemen are in nowise superior to
the present representatives for the manufacturing
towns, whom the Times maligns. To be ignorant
of their merits must arise from gross neglect ;
1 but to be aware of them, and yet so to abuse them,
is studied impudence. The Times may choose
which it likes ; but it trust admit either that it is
consummately ignorant, or consummately impu-
, dent.

h is with feelings of unfeigned sorrow that we
this day announce the death of Lord HOLLAND—
one of the sincerest and most enlightened friends of
liberty that this country ever produced. Ushered
into public life under the auspices of his illustrious