The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-21 00:00:00

Wlsaarr-otifiocethbecoPksayzaster-General, extracted from the
" WHITEHALL, 28TH SEPTEMBER, 1711.—Sir, Her
Majesty having been pleased to grant to Fitton Mir:-
shull, a child, a commission of Ensign in Brigadier
Stanwix's regiment of foot, in order for the support of
his mother and family, in consideration of the loss of his
; father and uncle, who died in the service, and has like.
wise given him a furlough to be absent from his duty
until further order : I am therefore to signify to you her
Majesty's pleasure, that you pay unto the agent of that
regiment his subsistence from the time he was last paid,
to be by him paid over to the mother of the said Ensign
Minshull, and continue it from time to time, as it small
grow due, that the said pay may be applied to the pur-
pose intended by her Majesty.—l am, &c..
(Signed) " C. GRANVILLE.
" Mr. Brydges."
This irregularity of admitting children to commissions,
certainly much changed from the system sanctioned by
Queen Anne, continued until the period when the Duke
of York was appointed Commander-in-Chief. The ap-
pointments to commissions which took place under his
re commendation were of persons of proper and suitable
ages, with exceptions perhaps ; but in all cases the young
mien appointed by him, whether of 16 years of age or
not, proceeded to do duty with their regiments.
Indeed, his Royal Highness carried this principle so
fully out, that in the year 1796, and subsequent years,
he actually superseded many officers who were children
or boys at school.
For the future conduct of military affairs, there can
be no doubt that the regulations introduced by the Duke
of York will have generally the best effect, as far as the
,etriciency of regiments is concerned, in securing proper
oificers for the duties of Field-Officer, by prescribing a
certain term of previous service, and by putting an end
to abuses which had prevailed in the grant of commis-
sions. But even these recognised and sanctioned irre-
gill arities of admitting children, or of rapid promotion to
Fie ld-Officer's rank, were not unproductive of some ad-
var stages to the public, as may be seen in the evidence
of Lord Fitzroy Somerset, who states that in the last
campaigns of the Peninsular War, there was not, with
tw o exceptions, any General Officer above the age of 40
ye ars.

GREECE. f

It is of great importance to Russia that Greece
should remain a small and dependent state, as, while its
political and religious connection with the Christian
subjects of Turkey render it a powerful instrument to
weaken the Ottoman empire, its own feebleness com-
pels it to seek for foreign support. In order to in-
duce Greece to look solely to Russia for this sup-
port, it was necessary that King Otho should be
involved in a quarrel with the British Government.
Step by step Russia, aided by the Bavarian and Aus-
trian ministers at Athens, and by the. Bavarian coun-
cillors who surround the King, pushed matters so far
that in the month of May last the Greek Court circu-
lated a printed manifesto, complaining of the conduct
of Great Britain' • and every Court of Europe. King
Otho, by this document, waived the usual forms of
diplomacy. which required that he should carry his
cause before the conferences of the three allied powers,
who arc his virtual Suzerain, and canvassed the demo-
cracy of Sovereigns for their voices in his favour. By
this ill-judged proceeding lie authorised Great Britain
to submit her reclamations for justice to her own sub-
jects, and her demands for the fulfilment of the consti-
tutional pledges of the Bavarian house to the Greek
nation to the votes of the people of England and Greece.
While Russia was thus victorious at the Bavarian
Court of Athens, the condition of Turkey suddenly
rendered the affairs of the East so complicated, that
the Autocrat ben in to fear he had proceeded too
openly in opposition to the feelings o the Greek
people. As he could not gain credence in Greece by
pretending to support the political rights of the nation,
he hoped to succeed by affecting zeal for the national
religion. A curious struggle took place between the
Russian and English Ministers at Athens, but, as the
Greek nation had a voice in this matter, Russia was
defeated. Angry at the failure, and alarmed at the
late hatli schtriff, which turned the attention of the
Greeks in Turkey from foreign protection to internal
improvements, the diplomacy of Russia ventured to
adopt the Phil-orthodox Society as a political agent.
Tnis society is an association for uniting an orthodox
monarchy in Greece. The Courts of the Patriarch of
Constantinople and of the King of Greece were filled
with proselytes of this association.

Greece was selected for the scene of action of the
society, though its branches were extended far through-
out Turkey. The present year favoured these intri-
gues, as many prophecies are current that 1840 is to
produce
great changes in Greece and at Constanti-
nople. The Russian legation at Athens assisted in
printing and circulating these prophecies. Count George
Capo d'lstrias and the celebrated General Niketas
were placed at the head. of the desperadoes who were
to commence the commotion ; their names gave weight
among the people, the military, and the bigoted party,
while their weak characters left the direction of the as-
sociation in the hands of those who kept behind the

scenes.

The avowed object of the conspirators was to excite a
popular insurrection, to compel King Otho to change his
religion ; the tacit understanding was, that his throne was
to be placed under Russian protection by a Greek counter-
pi.-.rt of the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi. Supporters of the
plan were found in the Greek Ministry, and in the
Household of King Otho. The conspiracy was dis-
discovered, and an admirable account of it was pub-
lished in the Universal Gazette of Augsburg, January
20, drawn up, we believe, by a personal friend of
the King.
The singular conduct of King Otho at this crisis has
made a deep impression in the European Cabinets. We
believe his life to be in danger, and he declares that he
now appreciates the sincerity and truth of Sir Edmund
Lyon's admonitions ; yet be only enrages the conspira-
tors by a few dismissals from office, without destroying
the conspiracy. Before he takes one step to secure his
position in the country, he 'waits for advice from King
Louis of Bavaria and Prince Metternich. The King
of Bavaria, for some years, has occupied a front seat
in the Russian mob of sovareigns ; Prince Metternich,
with all his talents, labours under symptoms of consti-
tutional antipathy : so that both think that Russian
protection ought to be preferred to constitutional liberty.
Under these circumstances England, having raised
her warning voice in vain, can now only take care that
her honour remains unsullied ; and this, we must ob-
serve, is as much the concern of the English people as
of the Cabinet. The steps to be taken are simple.
King Otho must summon a national assembly, in order
that England may redeem the pledge that she gave to
the Greeks in favour of their definitive Coustituticn. A
national assembly must also grant equitalile security for
the loan of 1825, and for the payment of the interest
and sinking fund of the loan of 1832. Great Britain
may than demand from Greece a receipt in full of all
demands for tke Bavarian dynasty, and our Cabinet
will be authorised to enforce without delay the recta,
mations of British and lonian subjects who have been
imprisoned, outraged, and defrauded, and even to
pea the Greek Government to recal and aP';',ogise for
its insolent and false manifesto of the 10t!', of Mar.
But should the constitutional plcdges of the confer.. ences of Londo.l remain unredeemed, th;, loan of 1824
unacknowledged, that of 1832 unpalif, the manifesto un-
cam_ielled, and the Greek Court fun of Bavarian officers
paid from our arrears of interest,
and openly advocating
Russian protection,—then we leave our countrymen to
choose the epithet foreinalera will annex to the name
of Britain,

(From the Morning Herold. )
AN IMPORTANT SECTION OF THE
EASTERN QUESTION.
At this particular moment, many circumstances, but
especialiy the fact of a secret political association under
Russian direction having been discovered in Greece,
make the future policy of that country a subject of
some interest as connected with the duration of peace
in the East. As things stand, it will be no apology
for neglecting to examine the conduct of the Kraig
of Greece, that our Cabinet has to plead the supe-
rior, or more immediate importance of the affairs of
Turkey and Egypt, in the solution of what statesmen
(by way of embracing a very compleatA series of
political combinations and national antipathies in a
single phrase) term the Eastern Question, That ques-
tion is, indeed, the great international problem of our
day with the Cabinets of Europe, and tor arriving at
the solution of its difficulties a knowledge of the exact
relations betwen Greece and Russia is an important
element.
The Greek revolution commenced in 1821, and the
share Count Capo d'lstrias and the Russian Cabinet took
in the secret society which excited the rising, as well as
the manner in which Russia attempted to smotherit, when
it became apparent that the struggle was one for
national independence, are now portions of history. At
the Congress of Verona, the Greeks. could not obtain
a hearing, yet early in 1824 the Russian Cabinet pro-
posed that Greece should be separated from Turkey-, and
divided into several principalities. Tins would have
rendered the country immediately dependent on Russia,
who controlled and protected tile Greek Church terougn
the Patriarch, who then enjoyed a civil as well as rub-
glens jurisdiction over the Greeks. Tne proposal com-
pletely opened the eyes of Great Britain to the neces-
sity of preventing Greece from becoming an instrument
in the hands of Russia for destroying the o.toinaa em-
pire at her own time end pleasure.
A long series of negotiations between England, Rus-
sia, and p ranee followed, which terminated in the se-
lection of Prince Otho of Bavaria to reign in Greece
In 1832, a national assembly was sitting, whose duty it
was to prepare the definitive constitution of Greece, in
order that the nation might receive the coronation
oath of the selected Sovereign. By the intrigues
of the allied powers, as revealed in the pulehearions
of Professor Thiersch, of Munich, the King of
Bavaria's agent, and Mr. Parish, the English Secre-
tary of leg,dien, this national assembly was suddenly
and illegally dispersed. The real document by which
Prince Otho is constituted King of Greece is a ticket of
admission to the throne, signed " Talleyrand, Palmer-
ston, Lieven, Matuszewic," requesting the Greeks to
aid him in giving the State a definitive Constitution,
and in securing the observance of the laws.
In 1833, Prince Otho arrived in Greece, attended
by a regency composed, according to the promise of
the King of Bavaria, of men " professing constitu-
tional principles." The liberty of the press and the
virtual independence of the Hellenic Cnurch were
already established. The existence of the Order, the
most valuable gift that the presence of Otho confers on
Greece, and to the continuance of which he owes his
maintenance on the throne, is due entirely to the moral
influence that a knowledge of the phytical force of the
allies exercises over the minds of the Greeks, and
would equally avail Count George Capo d' Istrias the
Phil-orthodox Viceroy, if de facto President, as Prince
Otho of Bavaria, the de facto King.
But we only wish to examine the cannection of Great
Britain with King Otho's actual position. Our Govern-
ment stood pledged to give Greece a constitutional Z.-,0-vereiga,
vereiga, and to secure his observance of the laws. Now
the King imposed on the country has made himself a
despot, and united in his person all the legislative as well
as the executive powers of the Government ; while our
Minister at Athens has been compelled to make nume-
rous official reclamations against his systematic violations
of the laws of Greece. Still, England has but
coldly supported the constitutional cause, indeed
only so far as to alarm King Otho, and induce him to
throw himself into the arms of Russia. The adminis-
tration of the country is placed in the hands of the
despotic party, and Russia has ventured to preach in
the highest circles the necessity of establishing the
censorship of the press, and of re-uniting the Hellenic
Church under the Patriarch of Constantinople, in order,
as the Russian Cabinet argues, by extinguishing the
constitutional and national spirit, to consolidate the
Bavarian dynasty.