The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-26 00:00:00

17118
,24125

DECEMBER 26, 1848.

I SPIRIT of the PUBLIC
JOURNALS.
HERALD.—We are not ashamed to confess that we
regard the appearance of Mr. Cobden's budget with some
alarm. We have not to learn to-day the power of agita
lion sustained by unblushing falsehood. We have lived
to see miracles achieved by daring democrats, unscrupu-
lous in their means, and:indomitable in the pursuit of a
well-defined end. The masses are impotent in the pre-
sence of appeals to their passions, founded on a well-
affected sorrow for their privations, and upon a burning
desire to place them superior to misfortune, and beyond
the reach of suffering. It is little to the purpose that
facts are against the agitator, and that experience denies
the cogency of his logic. It is nothing that a reference
to records destroys in an instant the solidity of hid
fabric, and that a moment's reflection is sufficient to
scatter to the winds the inflammatory harangues of a
night. The reflection never comes. That which is
disagreeably true is by no means so acceptable as that
which is pleasantly false. Mr. Bright, upon the hustings
in Yorkshire, bellowing to a crowd, asserts that upwards
(146,000/. a year are paid out of the taxes to support the
colonial bishops, and a general groan is elicited in con-
demnation of the extravagant expenditure. What avails it
that the statement is untrue, and that proofs are in ex-
istence to make it clear that 14,7901. only are paid for
the support of the hooted dignitaries 2 " This year,"
writes Mr. Cobden, addressing physical force throughout
the land, "frill be memorable for having witnessed the
ciestruction of the last remaining powers of feudalism in
all the countries of the Continent, excepting Russia.
But I know of no privilege which the nobles of Prussia,
Gallicia, or Hungary have been compelled to surrender,
as a tribute to the enlightenment of this age, more unjust
in principle than that which is conferred upon our landed
proprietors in the statute, passed by themselves, imposing
duties exclusively upon the inheritanee of personal pro-
perty. Let us not boast of English freedom, or equality
before the law whilst this injustice remains. In what form
could aristocratic privilege assume a more offensive and
costly aspect than in that of a bold and palpable ex-
" emption from taxation?" What are prosaic figures
and unobtrusive facts presenting themselves to biassed
minds a week after hatred has been secured, and class
placed against class, with fire kindled at the heart and
passion quivering on the brow? Landlords may preach
till they are hoarse—the owners of real property protest
till they are spent, it matters not. A friend of the
people declares that the rich are living on the poor, are
passing laws for themselves at the expense of all beneath
them—and, do what you will, the people believe him.
Aristocrats claim no beld and palpable exemption from
taxation. Their burdens are proportioned to their
strength, and their duties correspond with their privi-
leges; but declare it in every market-place in England,
and the ear shall be stone-deaf through which the abomi-
nable lie has once passed. The difficulty of legislation for
the future consists in this very circumstance. As in Ire-
land nothing useful can be accomplished until tran-
quillity is restored, so in England no permanent
advance can be made till agitation is silenced, Class
must be reconciled to class, ill blood must subside, truth
must be spoken and tolerated, before we can move an
inch forward with safety to the nation. We have lega-
lised illegal combinations until they boldly usurp the
work of the Legislature, and openly perform it with a
natural view to their selfish ends. Sir Robert Peel did
homage to the League, when, as Prime Minister, he
welcomed Mr. Cobden as the hero of a triumph ; 'and
a now league now puts the same hero forward with the
full assurance of a second and a greater victory. When
and where are we to stop ? That the humbler classes
will remember the false promises held out to them during
the agitation of the League we entertain no hope. The
theory of free trade may fail a hundred times in practice,
but so long as poverty lasts and wealth abounds, the suf-
ferings of the former will still seek for elucidation in
the comforts and enjoyments of the latter. 'We were
to have had a social millenium with the corn-laws
repealed and protective :duties abolished ; something
very different arrives, and instead of a confession
of failure we receive a declaration of war ; a determina-
tion to gain at all risks the prosperity which has eluded
us, and to destroy and distribute what yet remains, if
we cannot avail ourselves of the present or restore the
past. Agitation is still in advance of the age, let the
age itself be never so revolutionary. We would simply
warn politicians of every class that the present design
of Mr. Cobden is to uproot everything. If it be true,
as Sir Culling Eardley states in his parting address to
the electors of the 'West Riding, that he has " been
defeated, not by the Tories, but by a section of the
Whigs," it is especially to such Whigs, who have at
length taken alarm at the proceedings and tendencies of
Messrs. Cobden and Bright, that we would address in
time a word of caution and advice. Let them
comply with the demands of the Leaguer to-day, and
the last blow will have been struck. Reform will
in deed be consummated with colonies given up, our
army disbanded, our fleet paid off, and the empire
, z
;3. deliberately placed at the mercy of the world. There
a will be no need to discuss matter in detail when all will
hive been decided at one fell swoop. Conservatives do
7 well to wrangle about the petty differences which keep
14 them now asunder, with the common enemy at the
gate, and with a question impending, which, ridiculous
and monstrous as it may look, will, once started, be
4 freely discussed in every city of the United Kingdom,
n and entertained with a steady belief in its speedy and
18 satisfactory solution. All parties in the state can afford
25 to wait for the verdict which experience shall give of the
1 triumphant success or utter failure of the measures of
8 1846, but no party attached to the Throne and the in-
'ls stitutions of the country, .loving order and abhorring
'22 the doings which have disgraced the continent during
29 the last twelvemonth, can afford to deliberate a
6 moment upon • the propriety of crushing in their
13 birth designs subversive of all the country holds dear,
20 of all that Englishmen cherish, of all that, as loyal
'27 sons of our common fatherland, we care to uphold. Mr.
Cobden has oftener than once declared himself a citizen
3 of the world. He proudly acknowledges that he cares
10 not to legislate for England, save and except as a por-
-17 tion of a peopled world; he has publicly declared his
24 disgust for national anthems and those spirit-stirring
1 themes which treat of our supremacy on the seas, and
15 of our hardly-acquired influence throughout the globe.
'2 The undisguised dislike which the gentleman has evinced
for the :aristocracy, and the impudent allusions which,
from time to time, he has made to the useless splendours
of a court, indicate the bent of his mind and the final
aim of his political aspirations. But it becomes a ques-
tion for us all to consider, whether we are prepared to
pull down the pre-eminence of Great Britain, and to ex-
change our monarchy for modern republicanism, at the
call of ono so manifestly unfit, from his want of nation-
ality, to judge of what is good or fitting for the nation in
the present crisis to adopt. The question needs an
answer. Before mischief takes root in the soil it must
be driven from the land. Before the poison works, the
antidote must be given. Let the people of England be
protected from Mr. Cobden by the counsel and aid of
their best friends. The new league in its infancy must
be met by another, The league of specials which put
down Chartism on the 10th of April is a model for our
imitation. The combination of the good, the wise, the
loyal, the orderly, and the well-disposed, must interpose
forthwith, in steady and compact phalanx, between Mr.
Richard Cobden and the men he would make his instru-
ments as well as victims.
TIMES.—We acknowledge that it has not been with-
out considerable uneasiness that we have perused a
pamphlet " On the Deficiency of European Officers in
the Army of India," by " One of Themselves." We
need certainly prefix no introduction, and we seed
scarcely add any comment to the following facts and
figures, which we condense from the statement alluded
to. The Royal regiments OR the Indian establishment
consist of twenty-five corps of infantry and five of ca-
valry. These thirty regiments have a complement of
1,440 officers. - The regular army of the East India
Company consists of twenty-four regiments of artillery,
eight regiments of engineers, twenty-one regiments of
cavalry, and 161 regiments of infantry. These two hun-
dred and fourteen regiments have a complement of 5,161
European officers. Stated more particularly, the pro-
portion of officers to a regiment of the Queen's or the
Company's service respectively is as follows:
Queen's Cavalry. Company's Cavalry.
2 Lieutenant-Colonels... ... 1
2 Majors
9 Captains ...
18 Lieutenants „,
S Cornets ••• ••• •-
1 Adjutant „,
1 Quartermaster
1 Paymaster ...

42 19
Queen's Infantry. Company's Infantry.
2 Lieutenant• Colonels... 1
2 Majors
10 Captains 6
23 Lieutenant• 10
8 Ensigns ... ••• 6
I Adjutant ••• ... 0
1 Quartermaster
1 Paymaster ... 0

48 23
These figures are startling enough, but they do not tell
one-half the tale. In the first place, there are the stern
necessities of furlough induced by the climate and dis-
tanco of India. Nearly all the colonels of regiments,
217 in number, though included in the total of 5,161
above mentioned, aro; and have been for many years,
absent from their corps. One of them expired since this
pamphlet was published—a veteran who had served
under Clive himself. and who was a field-officer when
Warren Hastings was dilating upon the woes of the
Begutes. Nobody can possibly object to such an ar-
rangement, but it is proper to show out of what items
this singular total is compounded. But too many junior
officers are driven to a premature retreat by the contin-
gencies of the service, and, indeed, we have repeatedly
advocated the expediency of still further facilitating
those opportunities of furlough to which we now refer.
In the next place, from this body of officers are supplied
all the civil, military, and political functionaries of the
general and regimental staff; and, lastly, from the same
source are sought the requisite European officers for no
fewer than ninety irregular and local regiments. By a
calculation made from the returns of the present year it is
found that there are actually on furlough 686 officers,
on general staff 1,000, on regimental staff 395; so that
3,080 officers aro all, upon the highest computation, who
axe left for the service of au army of 214 battalions,

doing war duty on a field about as large as Europe!
When we come to details, the state of affairs seems still
more astounding. There aro only 222 officers of artil-
lery for 12 troops and 42 companies kept constantly
ready for immediate field service. For the ten regular
cavalry regiments of Bengal there are only at this mo-
ment available I 1 1 officers, being eleven officers to a
regiment! and this where the whole essence of the service
consists in imparting the advantages of European disci-
pline to native troopers! Leather gloves, sleeves stiff with
silver lace, shakos, and bear-skins--all that the Indian
holds in aversion, we furnish in abundance, but that
symbolgnidan we
eade
ofndolcoounttr:,itlhthe
whiemh
ossutchwattheihnigusl
parsimony.areonlya
As for the operation of all these practices on the effec-
tive strength of infantry regiments, two simple facts will
be more illustrative than any comment. In the latter
part of 1846, out of four regiments cantoned together
at Barrackpore there could only be mustered two cap-
tains present and available for duty ; and at this very
moment, under the walls of Moultan, there is a regi-
ment from which every single captain and the two senior
subalterns also are absent on other calls. This requires,
perhaps,- a little fuller elucidation, as our readers may
be naturally perplexed to conceive how such officers as
those, which are the boast of our Indian army, could ever
be found absent from their regiments in time of action,
whatever indulgence they might reasonably require at
periods of less exigence. But the truth is, that they are
absent, not on their own affairs, but the affairs of the
state. They are detached from their original duties to
duties for the performance of which no provision has
been otherwise made. On inquiry it would very pro-
bably be found that the absentees from the regiment en-
camped under Moultan were either raising Paten levies
on the Indus, or commanding some irregular corps in
Bunnoo, or discharging some similar duty in the very
war which is supposed to be demanding and receiving
their services in another capacity. Major Edwardes
himself is a conspicuous example of the practice. While
ho was beating Moolraj on his own territory, and giving
his superiors an opportunity of finishing the war at a
blow, his place in his regiment was left to be taken by
another. The case is precisely the same with those offi-
cers who are holding Peshawur and Attock, and keeping
Chuttur Singh in check in the Hasareh.When the Seikh
corps was formed after our occupation of Lahore two cap-
tains were required for it. They were selected from the
11th and 33d Regiments of Native Infantry, and their ap-
pointments left the former corps with only two captains
remaining, and the latter with one. We are very far
from imagining that these arduous and critical duties
could ever be better discharged than by that class of
men to whom they are entrusted at present. The Go-
vernment and its officers are alike gainers by the prac-
tice ; but it must be obvious that the service, on its

present footing,
.can never support such a demand.' Of
the alternatives proposed—either that the complement
of regimental officers, or that the civil staff, should be
immediately and considerably increased, we incline at
first sight to prefer the former ; for, though the general
aptitude developed by good military discipline
enables a soldier to make an excellent civilian, there
is no such reason for anticipating that a civilian could,
upon emergency, become a soldier. In one suggestion
which this pamphlet revives we cordially concur. It is
to the effect that the commissions of these officers should
cease to be limited "to the East Indies only." In its
principle this scheme is known to have received the
highest •military authority living, who recommended
Nearly half a century ago that the Company's officers,
after attaining a certain rank, should be eligible to serve
the British Crown in any part of the world. We cannot

afford to lose the advantages of such a school as India.
It is true that we secure them to some extent by the
turns which the royal army takes in this peculiar ser-
vice; but what would have been the result had the Con-
queror of Assayei been a Company's officer? And
why should the country be deprived of the service of any
new Sepoy General whose abilities may be developed on
the plains of the Punjaub?
lIERALD.—Our readers will find to-day in another
portion of our paper a second letter from " A W alla-
chian," touching countries but little known to theinha-
bitants of Great Britain, but which, nevertheless, pre-
sent a double claim to the interest of Englishmen. The
principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia are interesting
—firstly, on account of the wide field they open to Eng-
lish enterprise; and, secondly, because of the misfor-
tunes which hays hitherto retarded the full development
of their great natural advantages. Nor are the Danubian
principalities alone rich in the fertility of their
soil. They are wealthy also in the variety and supe-
riority of its produce, in the multitude of the herds and
flocks fed on their rich pastures, in the numerous rivers
abounding in fish which intersect them, and in the
mines of gold, silver, and copper which the princi-
palities abundantly contain. More especially rich in
agricultural produce is Wallachia—called by the
Turks Carabog Land, or land of black wheat—Walla-
chia—concerning which our valuable correspondent for
the second time addresses us, to-day', a com-
munication which should commend itself to the

attention of every Englislunan who bestows the least
thought on fore ii;,n politics. It is not alone, hos ever, as
rich and productive lands that we ought to regard these
Danubian principalities. Favoured by an admirable
geographical position, they form strategetical as well
as commercial station", whose importance cannot be too
much over-rated by any great military, naval, or com-
mercial power. Near to the mouth of the finest river

in EurUpe—the "dark-rolling Danube"---ta;y
are
bounded on the ono side by the Black Sea, and on the
other by a chain of mountains most favourable to pro-
duction and vegetation. Nor is the character of the
people such as to render them unworthy of :the rich
gifts which nature has bestowed upon them. The Ro-
maic people which inhabit these regions, known to us
under the name of Wallachians, are a sober, laborious,
generous, and intelligent race—a race which for many,
centuries has formed a bulwark of Christianity and civi-
lization, however imperfect,
.against the invasions
of fanatic Islamism and Turkish barbarism.
Our correspondent's version of the so-called
Wallachian revolution we believe to be in the main cor-
rect. Curiously enough it is corroborated, in all its
principal features, by the letters of our Constantinople
correspondent, written at the time, and published in
England in June, July, and August. The Wallachian
revolution, in the proper sense of the term, was no revo-
lution at all—or if a revolution, was one of those peace-
ful revolutions so in every way preferable to bloodshed
and barricades. It was, in a word, a mere modification
of the fundamental laws of Wallachia, which the reign-
ing Prince first accepted, and immediately after abdi-
cated. The new Government was recognised in the
name of the Porte by Soleyman Pacha, and the exam-
ple of the Turkish Plenipotentiary was followed by the
representatives of the different Powers at Bucharest.
Soon after, however—while the amended constitu-
tion, in which Soleyman himself bad suggested
modifications, was working, or, as the French
would say, " functioning" well—a Turkish army
presented itself before Bucharest—an army whose
chiefs professed, and probably truly professed, that they
were sent thither in order to deprive Russia of all pre-
text for interference. Confiding in the honour and
honesty of the Turks—our correspondent, "a Walla-
chian,' states
.that 100,000 of his countrymen—Out
here there must, we conceive, be some mistake, for
Bucharest does not contain much above 80,000 inhabi-
tants)—went out to meet the Turkish army. Fuad Ef-
fenidi, the Turkish Commissioner, invited the Walla-
chians to send a deputation to his camp; but the deputa-
tion were made prisoners, and were dragged from one
dungeon to another by order of the foreign adventurer,
Duhamel, who has attained the rank of General in the
Russian service. Reams hile Fuad Effendi's army pre-
cipitated itself by forced marches on Bucharest, the
cavalry trampling down those Wallachians who had
gone out to meet them as friends, and the infantry
firing on and shooting down the Wallachian soldiers.
This movement of the Turks was, no doubt, directed
by the Russian Commissary-General, for the Walla-
chiming had always hitherto looked on the Turks as
friends, and had on more than one occasion abstained
from resistance to deprive Russia of all pretext for in-
terference. On the present occasion it was impossible
there could be a mistake as to the facts. The voice that
commanded was the voice of the Turk, but the hand
that directed all was not a Moslem, but a Moscovite
hand. In four and twenty hours, this was plain to the
most unbelieving. The day after the entry of the Turks
into Bucharest a proclamation of ithe Russian General
Luders announced a violation of the Wallachian terri-
tory by Russian troops. A Russian army arrested
several of the Wallachian functionaries, and dragged
them in chains through the public streets. The money
in the Government chest was seized by Russian hands
and pocketed, and booty taken either by fair means or
foul was sold by Russians in the public market place.
Whole herds and flocks were carried off by the
Muscovite troops, and the resources of the country
having by these means been exhausted within a
few days, the Turkish Government came to a re-
solution to defray the expenses of their army of
observation. Not so the Russians. As if to have
a mortgage on the Wallachian soil, the Russian
Government caused a credit to be opened in Petersburgh
for the army stationed at Wallachia, and every penny
paid to that army has been placed to the debit side of
the account of Wallachia. Russian and Turkish com-
missaries, together with Cantacusene--a creature of
Russia—were subsequently installed in the place of the
native
_Government. A Paella ss as nominated military
commander of Bucharest, and all concerned in the revo-
lution, or rather in the peaceful change of the funda-
mental laws, were at once proscribed. General Maguero,
however, in this sad state of affairs, stood out for the
liberties of his country. With a force of about 20,000
men he withdrew to the mountains, but after a time, at
•I,_

. ,
the suggestion and request of the British Consul General,
our correspondent " A Wallachian" alleges, he dissolved
his army and retired beyond the Carpathians, being
assured that his presence in armed force paralysed the
action of diplomacy. Such is the state of affairs warmly
and indignantly denounced by the writer of tho letter
to which we to-day direct the reader's attention.
The warmth of the writer's expression is, under the
circumstances, certainly excusable, and the indignation
ho certainly feels may Ise well conceived by a Britain to
struggle for utterance, when it is remembered that he
speaks of the independence and neutrality of his coun-
try, which he alleges have been grossly violated. It is
plain from all our advices from Constantinople that the
Ottoman Cabinet has fallen into a pitfall—into a snare
dexterously laid for it by tha Russian Goreraznent, and