The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-20 00:00:00

S rEr N 7 MARCH. 20, 1848.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE
BRADFORD REFORM ASSOCIATION.
Sir,—On Wednesday, the 15th, an opposition was
made to the issue of a new writ for Harwich. It is a
borough with about 340 electors, who send the same
number of Members to Parliament as Marylebone
with its 17,000; making the proportion of 50 to 1.
And as well has Harwich fulfilled the objects ex-
pected from it. It has in all time been the seat of
a continuous bribery, which a Tory Member de-
scribed as conducted by " insensible perspiration ;"
and it was stated without contradiction, that there
alse more Harwich people holding Government ap-
spintments, than voters in the constituency. It
is of no use to create these carrion boroughs,
and then set Committees to count the blue-bottle
flies. Those who will the cause, will the consequences;
or, more correctly, they will the cause for the sake of
the consequences. A legislation based on such
arithmetical absurdities, cannot stand long in the
present times. In the immediate case, proceedings
were postponed till the evidence before the last
Committee should be in the hands of Members.
After this, came another question connected with
elections, and remarkable for the puzzle it led to in
the House. The question itself was one on which
it was not easy to take a side. The recognizances
required by law from petitioners against a Member's
seat, are referred to a certain officer to pronounce on
their sufficiency. The recognizances in seven peti-
tions were so referred, and certified as sufficient,
and afterwards proof was advanced that the decision
of the officer was wrong ; the defect being understood
to be, that the parties had been bound for separate
fragments of the sum required by law, instead of being
all made responsible for the whole, the effect of which
was urged to be the diminution of the security in-
tended. A Bill had been read a first time, to allow
the petitioners to amend their recognizances. The
interested parties therefore stood thus. On one side
were the Members petitioned against, who naturally
pleaded that statutes must be construed strictly, and
that a flaw having been discovered, they had a right
to have the benefit of it, and to escape the expense
and trouble of defending their seats. On the other
side the petitioners urged, that if they were in
error they had been led into it by the public
officer, and if he had told them they were
wrong, they were perfectly prepared to have amended
their recognizances. Among those who were to be
the judges, the opposing arguments were these : on
one side, the dangerous tendency of ex post facto law ;
on the other, the fact that all which was concerned
was examination, and the apparent harmlessness of
setting this upon its legs. It was difficult to come
to a determination ; and I believe the argument
which finally weighd with myself and many others,
was that in doubtful cases the safest way is to leave
things as they are found.
But all this was nothing, compared to the per-
plexity which afterwards arose. The original ques-
tion was, that the Bill be now read a second time.
On which Mr. Spooner moved an amendment to leave
out from the words " that the," in order to add words
to the effect that no further proceedings should be
had on the Bodmin petition. How then
were Members to vote, whose object was to throw out
the Bill? Upon division, the floor of the House was
a scene of confusion, Members running to and fro
and at their wit's end, and the active parties in the
question pressing their friends to go two ways at
once, on the assurance that each was the way which
said friend wanted to go. The result is supposed to
have Leen, that as many Members found themselves
in the wrong lobby as in the ene they wished. On
counting, it was found that Mr. Spooner's amend-
ment was carried by 126 against 124; nearly half
of these as afterwards appeared, and among
whom I was one, voting for the amend-
ment under an impression, not warranted on
examination, that to give a majority on the other
side, would be to carry the second reading of the
Bill. But as soon as this was over, the Speaker put
the new question, that the words of the amendment
should be added to the Bill ; and then the intention
of the House broke out, in the shape of negativing
it by 165 against 73. So that the Bill now stops at
the words " That the ;" and some fifty Members,
among whom I was one, stand in the odd situation
of having voted for an amendment, and five minutes
afterwards voted against the amendment being in-
serted in the Bill.
On inquiring how all this arose, the answer seems
to be, that if on any given occasion it was desired to
do it again, the way would be by introducing what
may be called an illusory amendment, or one so
framed as not to answer the ends of those who want
to throw out the original motion. In this manner
something is produced like a triangular duel, with
one of the parties behind a hedge. In ordinary cases,
the remedy is in the fact that there is another vote to
come. But it is possible to imagine a case, where
the vote should be the last. An illusory amendment
therefore is a weapon which might be made a bad
use of by the ill-disposed.
On Thursday the order for proceeding on the Bill
for amending the recognizances was read and dis-
charged; so it may be presumed there is an end. The
live fate befell the order for resuming the debate on
the Treaty of Adrianople; so that the Secretary for
Foreign Affairs no longer gets up with a crick in his
neck.
It is to be desired that slave •traders would not
exhale their supernumerary piety in the names of
their vessels. I thought the Speaker hesitated, in
reading the concermbents of the captain and crew of
Her Majesty's ship Acorn, with the slave-vessel
" Jehovah." This must have been the property of
some of the Southern churches.
On Friday came on in Committee Sir Benjamin
Hall's motion for extending the income-tax to Ire-
land. It was a question where there was a good deal
to be said on both sides. The Irish Members repre-
sented, that it was an unhappy time for taxing Ire-
land ; that nobody who had voted against the income-
tax for England on the ground of its being unequal
and oppressive, could vote for the extension of so bad
a tax to Ireland ; that if Irish Members had voted
for the imposition of the income-tax on England, this
did not form an excuse for voting it on Ireland ; that
even though the tax was only to fall upon the rich,
the expenditure of the money would be taken away
from Ireland; and finally, which appeared te be rather
a suicidal argument, that the tax ought not to be
extended to Ireland, because there would be nothing
for it to take. On the other side was urged, that an
income-tax, above all ethers, would not be a tax upon
Irish poverty but upon Irish wealth ; that if there
was nothing that would be touehed by it, this would
be proof that the tax was exactly adapted to Ireland's
case ; that it was eminently hard that a widow in
England with 1501. a year should pay three per
cent., while an Irish landlord with 10,0001. a year
was to pay nothing ; that, though the expenditure of
the money might be taken away from Ireland, the ex-
penditure of public money in Ireland was already
greater than in proportion to the taxes raised there ; that
English Members would not vote for the extension of
the tax to Ireland because it was bad, but because it
was fair that the people of both countries should row
in the same boat ; and, which was the sweeping argu-
ment, that since the great majority (eight-ninths) of
Irish Members bad been for saddling England with
the income-tax without alteration for three years,
there was no method of preventing a possible combi-
nation of Irish Members with the Ministry for voting
any imaginable taxes upon England as the condition
of their not being extended to Ireland, except raising
the standard of equalization between the two coun-
tries. Which was accordingly done, to the extent of
getting up a minority of 138 against 218 ; and the
country will have time to think of it, against another
opportunity.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. PERRONET THOMPSON.
lackheath, London, 20th March, 1848.

SOUTHAMPTON, SUNDAY, MARCH 19.—The Penin-
sular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company's ship
Montrose, Captain Bowen, arrived here on Saturday at
midnight, with the usual Spanish and Portugese mails,
in charge of Lieutenant Rainer, R.N., Admiralty agent.
Her dates are—Gibraltar, March 9; Cadiz, 10; Lisbon,
13; Vigo, 15. In consequence of the boisterous state ,
of the weather no communication with Oporto was at-
tempted. The Montrose has the following cargo :-90
chests of oranges, 22 barrels of dates, 8 cases of saffron,
11 casks of wine, 12 orange trees, 34 boxes of hams,
two oxen, four bales of bacon, 11 cases of eggs, 22
packages of specie (value 17,0001.), and 40 packages of
general merchandise. The French war steamer Solon,
Captain Liston, arrived at Lisbon on the 11th, having
on board the Prince do Joinville, Duke d'Aumale,
families, and suite. Their Highnesses immediately
landed and paid a visit to the Queen of Portugal, and
embarked again on the 12th. The Solon left Lisbon at
daybreak of the 12th for England, but returned on
She
the
morning of the 13th, the gale being very heavy.
sailed again on the 13th, but was at anchor in Cascaces
Bay when the Montrose passed. On the 11th instant
the Montrose spoke the Madrid, at eight A.M., in lat. 40
20 N., long. 9 18 W., and saw the Jupiter at four P.M.,
in lat. 41 8 N., long. 910 W. The Hon. Hector Loring,
Commander of her Majesty's ship Howe, died at Lisbon
on the 7th inst. His health had been in a declining
state for some considerable time.
MONMOUTH COUNTY ELECTION.—We understand
that the election for the county of Monmouth, in the
room of Lord Granville Somerset, will not pass off with-
out a contest, and that, too, a very close one; a re tin;si-
tion having been got up by the partizans of the late Lord
Granville Somerset, to Sir Charles Morgan, Bart., 01
Tredegar Park, which it is said he has accepted.

[PWICE SD.

THE HONOURABLE ARTILLERY
COMPANY.
" Arms, pacis fulcra."
TO THE EDITOR OF THE UNITED SERVICE GAZETTE.
Sir,—ln fulfilment of the promise I made in your last
number, I now resume the subject of the senior Volunteer
Corps of this country. Events of the utmost poli,ical
moment have, since then, thoroughly awoke the " British
Lion;" the wand of the mesmerisers and peace empirics
is snapped asunder, and our " Lion" ought now to
assume a noble attitude, equal to all the possible
exigencies of " National Defence!"
Thus I take up the theme of my former letter, to
show how existing machinery may be extended and
applied as preferable to novel and expensive schemes,
and so proceed with the modern history of the Artillery
Company.
The internal economy of this corps must be viewed
in connexion with its " Rules and Orders," orignally
made in 1658, and severally revised and amended up to
the year 1842, when they were sanctioned by the war-
rant of her present Majesty, Queen Victoria, by which
all the "immemorial rights and usage, of the Company
to make laws for its own government," as confirmed by
her Royal predecessors, were granted, with the exception
of the heretofore exercised right of annually electing
the Field Officers and Adjutant, which, thenceafter was
to be exchanged for the nomination by " the Crown."
The existing " rights and usages" thus sanctioned by
the royal warrant, consist in the annual election, by
the body at large, of all the Staff (Adjutant excepted)
Captains, Lieutenants, Sergeants, and civil servants.
Also of 24 members (of all ranks indiscriminately) to
serve on the, "Court of Assistants" which is the general
governing body of the Artillery Company.
To this Court of Assistants the " exclusive cognizance"
of all civil and military offences belongs. Also any
alterations in the uniforms can only take place, " with
the approbation of the Court of Assistants, upon the
recommendation of the Military Committee."
Then again, it is provided, " That the Military affairs
of the Company be regulated by a Committee consisting
of the Field Officers and Adjutant."
The revenue of the company is derived from freehold
property and houses, and the annual subscription of the
members at present only 1/. ls. each.
The operation of the foregoing heads results in a
battalion of six companies, two flank companies (Grena-
dier and Light Infantry), a rifle company, and an artil-
lery division.
There are drills and field exercises all the year round,
on each Thursday. Salutes fired from the field-pieces
(two 6 and two 3-pounders) on public days, and oc-
casional musters of the whole corps on national anniversa-
ries, such as the Coronation, birthday, es.c.
The company's officers, commissioned as well as non-
commissioned, are elected, without any military qualifi-
cation, by the free choice of she members of their own
companies. In consequence it has often occurred that
in the case of skeleton companies (six or seven at most)
officers have annually re-elected themselves. To this
evil, as I shall show hereafter, the inanity of the com-
pany, since the termination of the war, is chiefly at-
tributable.
It %ill be perceived from what I have just described,
that the "Rules and Orders" are based upon the free
exercise of the principles of self-government; and, how-
ever inconsistent such popular freedom may appear to
the purely military eye, it is, nevertheless, well adapted
to the average intelligence of a volunteer association ;
and when considered as applied to a self- sustaining body,
wholly unsupported by the revenues of the State, its
fitness must be admitted. At all events, I feel assured
that the permanence of the Artillery Company is mainly
attributable to the popular spirit of its constitution.
The proof of this was, at all events, satisfactorily evi-
dent in the year 1804, when, as mentioned in my last
letter, the company was able to take the field with an
Artillery Division, and 4 brass guns, a finely-equipped
Rifle Company, and a regularly organised infantry bat-
talion, collectively, 1,000 strong. From this period I
take up its progress and modern history. ,
Similarly to other metropolitan corps, it entered with
spirit into the sham fights at Hampstead, Notwood, and
Woolwich, which, in the palmy days of volunteering
were most agreeable as excursionee to ilhe citizen, and
at the same time eminently instructive to the soldier.
But, as the chances of foreign invasion diminished, a
corresponding decline in the numbers of the corps-took
place, and in 1811, at the review on AVimbledos,,Common,
their strength was tinder 400.
In 1813, the Court of Assistants put f to the eiti-
zenintn address, in the shape of ap3 et, dartailing
theadvantages of the company, and xhorting them
rujoio its ranks. volunteering, wever, Was now act
only discoantenauced, but even la euled wit sin the walls
irof Parliament ittf, and uugrate ly so indeed, when in
the hour of extrsne peril it hail hailed as the palla-
dium of the nation !
Napoleon at least felt it to be so !
But now both citizens and senate could view at a dis-
tance the approaching close of the great European mili-
tary drama. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at
that the appeal of the Court of Assistants was not re-
sponded to. In 1814, at the review in Hyde-park, the
field return showed further decrease in limbers.
Several well-intentioned, but mis directed, efforts
were made by the Court about this period to encourage
the musters, as well as the recruiting; even medals were
awarded to such members as had attended a certain
number of the field days, but all without success !
This state of things was, however, by no means with-
out a remedy, but the Court of Assistants, composed
as it then was of a great majority of the battalion, still
continued to struggle on with a skeleton corps, and did
so because unable to see that, although public excite-
ment was gone, there yet remained the public taste to
draw upon; of this the efficient state of their numerous
and splendidly equipped Rifle Company was a glaring
proof !
Battalion officers, with but a handful of men, could not
very well go through a field day, and so they used their
majority on the Court to compel the Artillery and Rifle
divisions to form part of the Line, and enture the sick-
ening monotony of a few battalion rnaneevres, while the
exercise of their own peculiar arms was neglected ! Can
it be a matter of surprise that the " Blues" and the
" Greens" should have fallen off from these musters, and
that the latter should prefer their morning's ball prac-
tice at " Chalk-farm," and consider their efficiency as
rifle shots of the first importance to the welfare of the
corps at large ? The Rifle company was at this time
commanded by the samo enterprising officer who origi-
nally formed it, by order of the Court of Assistants, in
1803, when the complement of men was fixed at 100.
No personal sacrifice was ever wanting to bring their
skill as marksmen, and their general equipment, as near
as possible to perfection. Ile infused into them un-
bounded
confidence when on duty, and an esprit de corps
quite unatainable by any other company.
Their practice was almost unremitting, and although
they never sent challenges to other corps, the Rifles of
the Artillery company accepted several, and beat their
competitors. In 1810 some gentlemen at Stamford ima-
gined themselves to be unapproachable in this arm, and
challenged, by advertisement, in the daily papers, the
Rifles of England generally; those of the Artillery at
Once took up the glove, travelled down to Nottingham-
shire, and returned to London, bearing off the prize, an
elegant gold medal, which remains among them to this
day; it is to be found described in the Illustrated News
of the 26th August, 1843.
But, as a specimen of effective skill, the practice at
Woolwich of this spirited company was, probably, never
surpassed. It took place on the 15th October, 1323.
The target was 5 feet 6 inches high, and 15 feet long,
which is nearly the space that nine men would occupy
in line; nine men were stationed at 250 yards, and eight
at 200 yards from the target. Cartridges were not used,
every man loaded with loose powder and ball. The
period allowed for firing was 30 minutes, during which
580 balls struck the target, and were well distributed
over its surface.
The idea was to show the efficacy of a small detach-
ment of Rifles to check an attacking column advancing
over a bridge, or through a defile. The rest only proves
dexterity in handling their arms, as it is not likely that
in other situations the enemy would allow the head of
his column to be peppered at for more than a few nai-
nutet, without extending or retreating.
I have dwelt thus much on the Rifles, because it is
the arm which all military men now consider to be best
suited, in war, to volunteer troops; while in times of
profound peace even the practice forms an agreeable
pastime, and the emulative feeling is nourished by
shooting for prizes, Btc., added to which, the uniform is
gentlemanly and inexpensive.
In 1817, the Duke of Sussex bad been proposed in
the usual form, by some members of this company, and
being elected by the Court of Assistants as Colonel,
vice Curtis, resigned, his Royal Highness remained in
that rank subject to the annual election of officers,
agreeably to the rules explained in the early part of
this letter, until 1831, when William IV., in granting a
new warrant, nominated and confirmed him as Colonel.
The numbers of the company, under the blind
fatuity of the Court of Assistants to prop up their
" scarlet abomination" at all hazards, continued to de-
cline, until, in 1820, they stood below 200, when for-
tunately the great novelty of a coronation, that of
George IV., and the promise of an honourable post being
assigned to the corps, brought an augmentation of some
50 members. New uniforms were supplied to the corps.
The 19th July, 1821, found the Artillery Company in
line near the Abbey on duty, on that interesting and to
the Government) somewhat anxious occasion.
Their services were afterwards suitably acknowledged
by the Secretary of State. The preponderance of the
blue and green uniforms on that day (tbe Rifles, alone,
mustering at least 50) could not please the battalion
officers; at least, from that time the idea was actively
pursued to reduce their numbers. Accordingly, in
August following, the Court of Assistants decreed that
each company of the battalion should be complete at 30
men (on the Muster Roll), the Artillery Division at 40,
and the Rifles also 40. Now, as the latter had already
about 70, it followed that 29 men must die off, or resign,
before they could enlist one single recruit! This sense-
less attack upon the most effective arm of the corps,
appears almost incredible ! The battalion companies
were then mere skeletons, averaging 10 at the very
most: the artillery division was under 40; so the crush
of this wanton act fell exclusively upon the Rifles'.
They were the company for choice with the public ;
the Court, when the battalion was full, had made them
as attractive as possible; and how could any young man
hesistate
,between the two regulation dresses, which I

Leather buttons."

I think this is quite'enough on the item of uniforms
The Rifles who had been thus tastefully set up by the
Court, rendered themselves eminent by their assinuous
and successful practice. One would have hoped that the
whole corps had been proud of them, but it was otherwise,
the " public taste" was to be yet more openly despised,
and at the coronation of his Majesty Wil. IV., a new uni-
form was again issued, and the whole corps dressed in
irlet, and thus travestied, the Artillery Division and the
Rifle Company appeared, for the first time since they had
been formed, as part of the line drawn up at Westmiti
ater to salute their King, which they had had the honotir
of doing to his predecessor in the blue and green no*
disallowed by the Court of Assistants to be worn, even
on detached :et-vice! The Artillery and Rifles were
disgust,d; the favourite colours totally withdrawn from
what may be to rmed the enlisting class, and the triumph
of an ignorant and envious majority in the Court of As-
sistants, was completed!
Happily, since that period, better and more practical
dispositions have grown up in the Court. Already, in
1838-39, six C“ptains, men of the day, and advocates for
improvement, succeeded to the seats of an equal number
of old offi2ers who had, in their way, for so many years
been amusing themselves by clipping and popping at
the Rifles, and lata rly by " boiling" the Artillery
' Division!
In 1543 the corps was honoured by her Majesty in
appointing her Royal Consort Prince Albert Captain-
General and Colonel. This in itself was hailed by the
members as the " Auspicium melioris crri," and I trust
this earnest and dutiful expectation may yet be fully
realised!
In 1845 the Major and Lieutenant-Colonel resigned.
These estimable officers, although naturally attached to
old habits and associations, had been in the corps for
nearly half a century, they had successively been
elected, by the members, to all the ranks, including those
of field officers, in which they were also confirmed by
the Crown, in 1842. As volunteer officers their
acquirements were most respectable, and their atten-
tion to the interest of the corps unceasing, while
their amenity to the members of all ranks won
for them the esteem of the whole company! They
assigne,l as the grounds for their retirement, that the
discipline and ardour of the corps was in such a promising
condition, that they felt it desirable now to vacate their
appointments in order that the Crown, by the nomination
of younger men, might give further scope to the capabi-
lities of the Artillery Company. The hope of the speedy
realisation of this further development tended much to
reconcile the corps to the loss of its old and valued field

officers.
On Sir James Graham, as the Home Minister of that
day, devolved the responsibility of advising the Crown
on the appointment of the new field officers; and my
next, and concluding letter, will show how that duty
has been p,rformed, and its influence on the best inte-
rests of the Artillery Company, whose reorganisation,
as the centre of a metropolitan volunteer system, I shall
then endeavour to explain.—l remain, Sir, your obedient
servant, VOLUNTEER.

LATER FROM AMERICA.
We have received New York papers to the 29th
ult. inclusive. The following are extracts from the
New York Herald of that date :
" Our telegraphic summary today will be found in-
teresting and important.
" The intelligence from Washington, respecting the
treaty with Mexico, renders the prospect of the ratifica-
tion of that instrument, in its present shape, by the
American authorities, more doubtful than ever. Much
of the favour with which it was, at the first blush,
regarded, has disappeared upon a careful consideration
of its provisinus, and, to judge from our latest informa-
tion from the seat of Government, peace with Mexico
may yet be more distant than many suppose."
TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.
" WASHINGTON, FEB. 28-12 M.—The Senate will go
into executive session to-day at one o'clock.
" The opposition to the treaty has wonderfully in-
creased since its provisions have become better known,
and I have now the best reason to believe that it will not
be ratified. I have this from a source which is entirely
reliable, and yet such a one as does not permit me to be,
at present, more explicit.
"I think I can say with confidence that the treaty will
not be confirmed.
THREE STEAM-BOATS BURNED.
"CINCINNATI, FEB. 28.—The steam-boats Hendrik
Hudson and Circassian, lying at the wharf at Mayzville,
fully freighted for New Orleans, were entirely destro
by fire. The Maysville wharf-boat was also burnW.
r.ribie fire broke..out,. aisidnight, 27th, and ao sapid Its
tn. progress of the conflagration that four persons were.
unable to escape, and perished in the flames. The boats
and cargoes are aiiktal loss."
RENIOVAL THE WILMOT PROVISO IN