The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-12 00:00:00

FIRST CLASS.

Duncan Charles Home—First Mathematics, first Hin-
dustani, French, second good conduct.
Benjamin Martin Hutchison —First Fortification, Mili-
tary Surveying, first Good Conduct—a handsome sword,
in presenting which the Chairman addressed Mr. Hut-
chinson in the following words :
It affords me the truest gratification to present you
with this sword, in testimony of the high approbation of

the Court of I)irectcrs for your exemplary conduct
during your residence at this seminary. The sphere of
action you are now entering upon is more extended, but
the duties are unaltered, and the exercise of the same
qualities which have here won for you this honourable
trophy cannot fail to ensure in your future career the
regard of your associates in arms, and the confidence of
the Government you serve. I cannot doubt that
throughout your service you will fulfil this early pro-
mise of distinction, and when you retire from it, may
you be attended by honours and regrets such as those
which accompany your departure from this institution.
Augustus Satchwell Johnstone—Second Mathematics.

I"ticfiard Ilierom Sankey—Second Fortification, Civ

_
Drawing.
Jonathan York Worthington—Latin.
James Henry Reid—Second Hindustani.
Daniel Clare Alexander—Military Drawing.
SECOND CLASS.

James F. Tennant Mathematics, third Good
Conduct.

Julius G. Medley—French.
Frederick F. Taylor—Fortification, Military Sur.
veying.
Samuel Humfrays—Military Drawing.
Henry R. Brownlow—Latin.
John S. Trevor—Hindustani.
Henry St. Clair Wilkins—Civil Drawing.
Francis W. Stubbs—Geology.
THIRD CLASS.
J. Goddard—Fourth Good Conduct.

The report, which was publicly read by T. R. Clarke,
Esq., chief of the cadet department, spoke of the satis-
factory conduct of the gentlemen cadets during the term,
and of the remarkable degree of discipline, good order,
and gentlemanly propriety, which had prevailed during
the whole period. Due praise was bestowed on Mr.
Hutchinson, and the other corporal cadets, for their
strict yet concilitary mode of performing their duties.
At the close of the proceedings Sir JAMES lIOGG
rose, and addressed the cadets in the following impres-
sive words:—

Young Gentlemen,—lt is one of the most pleasing
ditties devolving upon my colleagues and myself to visit
this institution when we are able, as upon the present
occasion, to congratulate you on the advance-
ment made in your studies, and to express our high
sense of your steady, orderly, and gentlemanly conduct
and demeanour. An unusual number of cadets have
been declared fit for the more scientific branches
of their profession ; and I am happy that the
exigency of the public service has enabled us to receive
into these branches all who have proved themselves
duly qualified. Eight have been selected for the Engi-
neers and twelve for the Artillery, being, I believe, the
greatest number ever chosen for those services. Thanks
to you, my young friends, who have so nobly seconded
the efforts of your instructors in producing results so
honourable to yourselves and so creditable to this insti-
tution. I venture to hope that the commendation of
those to whom you are indebted for your appointments,
and to whom is entrusted the government of that
country for which you aro destined, will not be unac-
ceptable to you; and I trust it is only an earnest of the
approbation and distinction that await your future
career. You are about to join your families and your
homes at the approaching sacred and festive season, and
you wili da so with the happy consciousness that your
conduct has been such as to carry joy to your parents,
and to diffuse gladness around the circle ready to wel-
come you, I am fully aware that your studies here
are numerous and severe, and that you are as much oc-
cupied as is consistent with that relaxation equally
necessary for body and mind. But I entreat of you to
consider how important to your future interests
in life are the two years passed in this seminary,
and how varied are the objects to be attained.
You join this institution at an age when you can have
acquired little more than the elements of education, and
when your general studies must be carried on simul-
taneously with your professional pursuits. It is no easy
matter, in the short space of two years, to acquire a
competent knowledge of those branches connected with
a military profession, and, at the same time, to pursue
the studies indispensably necessary for the culture of
your mind, and taste, and the formation of your cha-
racter. I believe it to be most injudicious, when ad-
dressing youths of your age, to underrate the duties you
are called upon to discharge, and the difficulties with
which you have to contend. On the contrary, I broadly
admit them, and I call upon you to summon energy and
perseverance to overcome them. You have not, I am
sure, so mean an estimate of the noble profession for
which you are destined as to suppose that mere physical
strength and animal courage, combined with a know-
ledge of the ordinary military manoeuvres, would enable
you adequately to discharge your duties. I should deem
a youth unfit for the British ranks who had such an
ignoble impression as to the character and duties of a
soldier. The exercise of war by civilised nations is an
art founded on the principles of science, and without a
competent knowledge of that art no officer can success-
fully direct the operations of an army, or even under-
stand a series of extended and combined movements.
In Europe an officer is rarely entrusted with the
most limited command until he has attained con-
siderable rank in his profession ; not so in India.
There our troops are necessarily much detached, and
the command often devolves upon a subaltern on occa-
sions requiring the soundest judgment, and he must
not have to require the requisite knowledge at the mo-
ment when he ought to be exercising it. There is no royal
road to knowledge. It can only be attained by long
and patient application, and he who will not undergo the
toil must not hope to reap the fruits. If the occasion
should arrive when an officer has an opportunity of
whining honourable distinctions, and an enduring name
in the annals of his country, how bitter must be his
regret to feel that he is unable to avail himself of it, that
he isemergency,study u
thaast
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should
frivolity, and that to him the path to renown is irrevo-
uhnaevqeuableeu to
devoted
irrevo-
cably closed ? Most serious is the responsibility at,
to
tached to the exercise of an independent command, how-
ever limited. An officer thus entrusted is accountable
fot the lives of his men, not less than for the accom-
plishment of the object which he is ordered to effect.
Whatever that object be, it must be achieved. The word
" impossible" has no place in the soldier's vocabulary,
but the duty of achieving it, with the least possible
sacrifice of human life, and the least possible human
suffering, must be ever borne in mind, and thus military
skill will be found as valuable an aid to the cause of
humanity as to the successful proseoution of war. India
is the country eminently calculated to bring into notice
and distinction the officer of judgment and talent ; but
it is equally calculated to expose the incompetenee of
the man unequal to the discharge of his duties. There
every man is thoroughly known, and bared to the
view of his superiors. The Government, in their
selection of individuals, are influenced by no con-
siderations but those of the public weal. There,
polities and family connexions are of no avail.; and
every public man is advanced according to his cora•
potence to the discharge of his duties, You may
sometimes hear it alleged, that a particular young
officer has been entirely indebted to what is termed good
fortune in having an opportunity to distinguish himself,
Dipend upon it that such observations are always made
tither in ignorance, or in that spirit of detraction in-
dulged in too commonly by the indolent and incompetent
towards those of cuterproo 4u4 talqut. trues that a 1