The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-21 00:00:00

p
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LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 1846.

The attention of the House of Commons was, on
Wednesday, called by Sir DE LACY EVANS to the
claims of old officers in the army to rewards, and the
neglect to which they have hitherto been subjected.
A more fitting time for bringing forward the subject
could not have been selected than that at which a
boon justly due to the gallant veterans of the sister
service is about to be granted.
It is far from our intention to say one word in dis-
paragement of our naval officers; indeed, anything,
uttered against that distinguished bo ly would
inelitably recoil on the speaker, but we may
say, that the services of the old war officers of the
army may claim a comparison with those of any men
in the world. Those veterans of the Peninsula,
whose gallantry, whose invincible bravery through a
series of years, under the most arduous and trying
circumstances, Jed to the final success of our
arms, to the happy termination of hostilities.
burn under a• deep sense of injustice, of
unmerited neglect. Their mere fortunate brethren
who were present at Waterloo, many of whom
had not seen the tenth part of the service of
those who had for years stood the brunt of the war-
fare on the blocd-red fields of Spain, received the
marks of a nation's gratitude—the cheap distinction
—which, while it cost but little to the donors, con-
ferred the highest gratification, the noblest, the
proudest feelings on the receivers. It may be said
that persons who have only discharged the duty they
owed to their country have no right to ex-
pect any extraordinary mark of gratitude
oa the part of the nation, that medals would no longer
be valued if they were conferred on every occasion ;
in fact, that they should be confined to the com-
memoration of great events. This may be partly
true, but when medals have been so often distributed
of late years, when those who fought in China and
in India are permitted to wear the much coveted
decorations, for services certainly not more
arduous or more distinguished, surely the
Peninsular heroes have a right to demand
that they shall be placed on a footing
of equality,.and,q!at, the badge of honour, which may
fairly be4l9okictufac-italaishe expression of satisfaction,
on the part of the natio for the manner in which
thy conducted themselves', while actively employed,
0411 no longer be witbheld. This moderate demand
bit, of late years, been repeatedly put forward, and
moat egy wed. In the cora of last year M;.

GRATTAN, formerly an officer of the 88th, or
Connaught Rangers, put forward a most ad-
mirable and unanswerable pamphlet on be-
half of those who, like himself, had participated
in that glorious campaign; he urged the brilliant
triumphs they had achieved, the unceasing good
conduct, the skill and bravery they exhibited on all
occasions, which made them the wonder and ad-
miration of the world, and he indignantly remon-
strated on the contumely and neglect with which
they were treated. We venture to say that a
perusal of that gentleman's work will bring con-
viction to any unprejudiced mind, and
satisfactorily establish the necessity of according to
tl:e survivors the well-earned, the richly-deserved
distinction. It is not becau,e a long period has
elapsed—that many years have passed away since
those services were rendered—that the nation should
still withhold the honour. The statute of limita-
tions is the last plea that should be put for-
ward by a Government ; the only reason that
such a defence is ever permitted is, that other-
wise the person called on to answer a demand
might suffer serious injury from his means of justifi-
cation being lost by the lapse of time, but it has ever
been considered as reflecting a certain degree of dis-
credit on the person making use thereof. Why, then,
should the British nation meet the well-founded de-
mands of those calling for justice by such an argu-
ment? We sincerely hope that the subject will not
be suffered to drop, but that it will be constantly
brought forward, and kept before the House and the
country until tardy justice is at length done to the
gallant veterans.

The other part of the subject touched upon that
which we have ever considered a most vicious
system, essentially unjust, and productive of much
mischief to the service. 'We allude to the system of
promotion by purchase. No matter how
well, how efficiently an officer may perform
his duties, how zealously he may devote himself
to the acquisition of the knowledge of his profession,
if he is not possessed of wealth to enable him to pay
for that promotion, which should only be granted to
merit, he will be subjected to the annoyance, the
bitter mortification of seeing mere boys prornote3
over his head, hose only claims consist of the in-
fluence they can bring to bear, and the length of their
purses—persons who enter the army for the
purpose of playing at soldiers, who play their
parts during the peace campaigns, and who, in the
event of the regiment being ordered for foreign ser-
vice, will frequently vote it a bore, and exchange or
sell out, thus evading the perLrmance of their duties.
It is well known that large sums of money, far ex-
ceeding the regulation price, are generally paid by
young officers desirous of getting on, and the prac-
tice is connived at by the authorities. If rank was
obtainable only by desert, a better class of
officers would be procured—men who would make it
the object of their lives, and who would with all
their energies seek to qualify themselves for profes-
sional advancement. The officer who has purchased
each step, and at length retires, after thirty or forty
years' service, will find that the money he has sunk,
together with the interest thereon, would give him a
larger income than that afforded b 3 his country as
compensation for his exertions, for all the best
years of his life devoted to their service ; and if he
should happen to die in the interim, the money so paid
will be totally lost to his family. Many heroes who
perished in the field of battle, fighting bravely for
their country, paid sums far exceeding that which
they received as pay, and their friends and relatives
had to mourn, not merely the loss of their valuable
lives, but also the sums of money, procured, perhaps
with difficulty, in order to give- them advancement
in their profrssion. Such things should not be per•
mitted to continue. We trust that a full inquiry
will be instituted, awl that some better system may
be devised and carried into execution. It is only in
the English army that such things can be found, and
the reproach should as speedily as possib:e be re-
moved from the British nation.

With peculiar feelings of gratification—we may
indeed say, of exultation—we observe that our illus-
trious countryman, RICFIARD COBDEN, is receiving
the congratulations of our ctlntinental neighbours.
tin Tuesday evening a grand banquet was given in
Paris to the leader of the Anti-Corn-law League—
a banquet of the more particular importance, first, as
a symbol that the lustre of intellect and the gene-
rosity of heart h-j- tho cLevaloprnont of which Mr.
COBDEN has acquired the admiration and affection of
his fellow-countrymen, are appreciated by foreign
natitlis ; and, secondly, as an augury that the
triumphs of free trade are not destined to be restricted
to a single empire, but that that moral revolution
will ultimately pervade all the civilised territories of
the globe without exception. It is but consonant with

that exalted position which France has assumed
among the nations of Europe, that her children should
be foremost in welcoming the eminent man whose
tongue first pronounced the doom of monopoly and
emancipated the commerce of Great Britain. Much
that is instructive, and much likewise that is encourag-
ing may be gleaned from this demonstration in the
metropolis of the French empire. The facts that the
notion of such a tribute originated with the Societe
des Economistes—that the banquet was presided over
by the Due DITARCOURT, a Peer of France, and
President of the Societe des Libres Eehangistes—

that many distinguished political economists were
present on the occasion—that among the motet
remarkable personages were M. VERNEZ (De
puty Governor of the Bank of France) ;

B iron BILLING ( Mihister of France at the
Court of Denmark), M. MICIIAEL CIIEVALLIER
(Prgfessor of Political Economy in the College de
France), and M. JOSEI'II GARNIER ( Professor rf Po-
litical Economy at the Athenee), besides various
Peers and Deput.es, and literary and commercial men
—form a sufficient testimony that the demonstration
was not one of those pieces of domestic adulation
which are occasionally presumed to be the embodi-
ment of public opinion and the spontaneous indica-
tion of a principle. And what makes the knowledge

of this demonstration so peculiarly gratifying to our•

selves, is the earnestness and enthusiasm which it
tended to elicit. The speeches delivered during
the evening were no mere bandying of com-

pliment ; the punctilios and formalities, too fre-
quently the characteristics of an after-dinner
oration, were altogether subordinate to those hearts'
emotions which animated the utterance of the differ-
ent speakers with such graceful and potent eloquence.
On rising to propose the toast of the evening, Al.
._..

tlottAcESAi exclaimed, "To RICHARD COBDEN !
Is it necessary, gentlemen, I should say more ? This
name is on every lip; it lkindlt•s in each of us the
same feelings, the same sympathy, and the same ideas.
COBDEN ! It is to us the tableau of the dow•nfal of

feudality in England, consummated under the reite-
r.tted blows of good sense. COBDEN ! It is the eman•
cipation of those who work, and find in the freedom
~f exchanges the complement of their right of pro-
perty in the produce of their labour. COBDEN ! It is the
ueace of the world in consequence of the ties which
free trade will establish between all nations."
['hose were the beautiful and stirring epithets
which were coupled w;th the name of our great re-
rormer. The: downfal of feudality !—the emancipa-
tion of the poor !—the peace of the whole world !

We welcome those few, but significant, sen-
tences, because in them we recognise an as-
surance that a foreign population comprehends
the motives which Lave actuated the bene-
ficent consequences which will reward, and
the ultimate consummation which will itnniorta:ise,
the members, and especially the great leader, of the
Anti-Corn-law League. Those sentiments are an
avowal that Frenchmen do not perceive in our recent
struggle for the abolition of the protective imposts
any of the ignominious palterings of private interest,
but rather the striving of a whole people for their
own improvement and the benefaction of the entire
human family : that while we were endeavouring to
prevent the enrichment of the indolent and affluent
by the taxation of the bread of the industrious and the
poor, we were riving asunder the last fetters of hu-
manity, and making one friendly race out of many
hostile nations. As Mr. COBDEN himself most nobly
expressed it, we wanted " the liberty of industry" as
well as " the rights of conscience, the liberty of
speech, and the inviolability of the press"—we wanted
to destroy, beyond all reparation, that villanous
system " by which the balance of peace and war
between two great nations trembles upon the finger

of diplomacy ! " It was because he championed ,
this gigantic and beneficent revolution, and because
he spoke with the eloquence of a large heart, filled
with great thoughts and splendid aspirations, that
RICHARD COBDEN has, in a few years, gained such a
permanent, and catholic, and enviable celebrity. It
is for these reasons that his name is in such estima-
tion in England and excites such enthusiasm in
France.

The speech in which Mr. COBDEN responded to
the congratulations of the Parisians at this banquet,
though delivered through the stunting medium of an
unfamiliar language, is not one jut less remarkable fur
shrewdness of logic, keenness of argument, condensa-
tion of facts, or felicity of expression, than any one
of those memorable orations uttered by him either in
Covent-garden Theatre or in the Commons House of
Parliament. We gladly refer our readers to a trans-
lation of that very interesting and remarkable address,
printed at length in other columns of The Sun. In
perusing it, they cannot fail to recognise the acute
and generous mind from which the ideas flowed, and
the benignity of that bosom from which those ideas
received their persuasion.

Mr. COBDEN was evidently conscious throughout
of the importance of the character of his language ;
and though he disclaimed the appellation of a
propagandist, he was aware that he was then
addressing the whole of continental Europe.
He never forgot for a single instant that, according as
his words were selected, the commercial emancipation
of France might be expedited or retarded. In that
harangue he presented to the French reformers a
model for their guidance, by explaining the machinery
and intentions of the League, while in so doing he in-
cidentally vindicated that great association from the
charges of its traducers. And as an encouragement
to the Societe des Libres Echangistes, he pronounced
the following emphatic sentences :

"If you ask me whether the question is settled for ever, I
answer yes ; for in England we never recede OLC inch in the
path of reform, when every step has been gained by the
torte of reason and argument. Besides, we have Lo man
deserving the name of a state9m:m who would undertake a
Government founded upon the protective principle. Ido
not spe4k merely of Sir R. Peel, who ha: immortalised his
name by the part he took in the emancipation of our com-
merce; or of Lord John Russell, who so nobly-supported him ;
but I mean that there is not one member of the late or pre-
sent Ministry who now advocates the principle of protection.
One and all have modestly repudiated, on the part of Go-
vernment, the right of interfering with the freedom of indi-
vidual industry and enterprise."

Any endeavour to epitomise the address of Mr.
COBDEN would only militate against its energy and
persuasiveness—every segment of his oration is in
itself an epitome. We rejoice, for his sake, that
RICHARD COBDEN has been so honoured by France ;
and, for her sake, that France has so honoured
RICHARD COBDEN.

On the 6th the POPE convoked a congregation of
Cardinals to consider the propriety of remodelling the
criminal cote. It is reported that there will be a
commission of jurisconsults appointed to consider of
the matter. As a proof of the dislike with which the
Absolutists regard the liberal measures of the POPE,
more particularly the amnesty, we may mention that
the King of NAPLES has prohibited the circulation of
the Diario di Roma in his dominions. This is a
curious sign of the times. The temporal Prince puts
the works of his spiritual superior a l'lndex. The
vassal refuses to receive the rescripts of his Suzerain
and Lord Paramount, as not sufficiently despotic and
tyrannical, and the professed son of the Church re-
jects the ordonnances of its infallible head as
erroneous. The POPE, however, still continues the
beneficent course by which his reign has hitherto been
so favourably distinguished. In addition to the
numerous reforms already effected, or in progress,
his Holiness is endeavouring to introduce great
ameliorations in the hospitals, charitable establU-
ments, and convents. He visits these places fre-
quently, and when he is entirely unt xpected, and
insists upon receiving full details of the way in
which they are conducted. He has already made
some of the richest establishments of monks con-
tribute funds towards the re-establishment of an
institution for the reception of repentant prostitutes.

The Swiss Diet has been engaged for several days
in discussions on the question of the convents, but in
raking the votes there was no majority on any point.
The affair may be regarded, therefore, as at an end
for the present.

The committee of the inhabitants of Cologne ap-
pointed to investigate the circumstances attending the
recent riots in that city, have announced that they
will shortly publish their report, which will be a
Complete refutation of the statements made in the
PrusAian State Gazette, which asserted that the mili-
tary had not been guilty of any provocation. We
rind the following in the German Gazette of Frank-
fort :

"Some time age a deputy for the provincial diet was
elected here, but the superior authorities refused, on the pre-
text ( f some informality, but really because he is a member
of the German Catholic Church, to sanction the return. He
has since been re-elected. The president of the district hav-
in announced that he would not be received, as by a Clbinet
orderof May 28th, no memberof the German Catholic Church
can be a provincial deputy, or even an elector, the electors
aa• e declared that they will not proceed to another election.
It has been resolved to send an address on the subject to the
King of Prussia, and several districts have applied for a copy
of the Cabinet orcer, with a view to examine its contents and
decide upon the course to be taken."

According to the Cologne Gazette the Austrian
Government is about to raise a new loan to defray the
great expenses to which it has been put by the outbreak
in Galicia, and also to provide funds for the construe-
!ion of new railroads. The same journal states that
there is little probability of the Congress of the Cus-
toms' Union coming to a satisfactory understanding
as to the proposed modifications on the tariff's, most
of the delegates having received positive instructions
to in,itt upon particular points to which their col-
leagues will not agree. The Chamber of Deputies of
Baden have recommended that the representative of
Baden in the Germanic Diet should vote for the in-
tegrity of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.
It is said that the spontaneous dissolution of the
Holstein Diet had caused a great sensation in
Denmark, and that the KING had, in consequence,
dispatched a special envoy to Berlin. On this
subject, the Swabian Mercury announces, "that
before the vacation the Germanic_Diet will publish
an official notice, calculated to satisfy the public
mind relative to the letter-patent of the King of
DENMARK."

The Duke of NASSAU is about to be married
to the Grand Duchess CATHERINE of Russia. The
Grand Duchess, who is nineteen years of age, is the
daugnter of the Emperor NICHOLAS, and the sister
of the first wife of the Duke of NASSAU. The fol-
lowing is an extract of a letter, dated Leipsic,
August 11 :
" We understand that a new investigation, of a 'severe
character, is about to lie instituted against the studentg.
Proofs hays been discovered at Dresden of a Burchenscluif
(associa:ion of students) being in existence at Letpsic. On
the morning of the Bth the polica paid domiciliary vists to
three st tidents, opened the it desks and seized on papers, which
were forwarded to Dresden. It is sail that they discovered
atnongst them the rules and regulations of the association.
So person has been imprisoned, but the Minister of Worship
and Justice is expected to arrive here to day."

Madrid papers of the 14th instant have arrived.

With the exception of a report that the English
quadron of evolution was expected at Algeciras,
terse papers do not contain a single article of. intern-

gt-nce.
Nothing was doing at the Bolsa.

We have received the Paris papers of Wednesday.
The Chamber of Peers, on Tuesday, elected Count
DARU, Count DE SEGUR, M. DE CAMBACERES, and
General D ESPA NS DE CARIERES as the four secre-
taries of the Chamber for the ensuing session. The
Due DE BROGUE is a member of the Committee ap-
pointed to draw up an answer to the Speech from
the Throne.
The President has fixed Tuesday next for the tiial
411
The Chamber of Deputies has been engaged it,
the verification of the returns. Thirty-three returns
are opposed, viz , twenty-five Ministerial and eight
Opposition. On the subject of the actual amount of
the Ministerial majority in the new Chamber. The
D (hats says :—"The number of Deputies in the bureaux
yesterday was 340. Of these, in the nomination
of presidents, 214 were Conservatives and 115 Oppo-
sitionists, 11 votes being lost. According to this
calculation, the Conservatives have a majority of 99.
This number would come near that which we gave
in classing the various fractions of the Chamber after
the elections...
Marshal SOULT still remains in the country, and
has of late taken no part in the Government.
The Abb6 PE Qraioirp;_, viho.igts eye: pingo the