The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 4, 1870.

meat or the insurgents, and demand liters retire-
ment. They have from four to five hundred men.
Thus the insurgent half-breds have to contend both
against the Canadian Government and against a hos-
tile force in their own settlement.

try the experiment. When robbery, for instance,
combined with violence, assumes the proportions
which threaten a reign of terror, when the consi-
deration of the ruffian for the peaceful citizen con-
sists in fracturing his skull, or kicking in his ribs
while he is lying stunned, robbed, and helpless at the
feet of the brute whom he had never before even
seen, then it is about time for the inhabitants to
demand whether the sentimentality of their philo-
sophers should be permitted in any way to shield
such persons from the scaffold they deserve. There
is no necessity for Lynch law or Vigilance Commit-
tees in New York if the people sternly demand
that their own laws shall be executed. Were every
murderer hanged, murder would be less frequent ;
and this is undoubtedly a fact, that nothing being
so dreaded as the death penalty, if it were inflicted
for every wanton and malicious murder, it would
almost abolish murder, and thereby put an tnd to
the ncc2ssiity for executions. New York, more
than any oaler city, requires a stern enforcement
of the law ; yet there is more sentimentality there,
than anywhere else, and often we are inclined to
agree with the World in regarding the Tribune as
the bulwark of the worst of the scamps, but from
a very different reason.

SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.

THE ARMY ESTIMATES.

Although, observes the Times from the publication of
the army estimates it has been possible to anticipate the
tenour of Mr. Cardwell's statement on Thursday evening,
yet there was enough of interest in its details amply to
reward public attention. If the plans of the,
Secretary for War do not present anything abso-
lutely novel, he has the merit of having seized
what is best in the ideas that are current, and of
placing himself in accord with the tendencies of the time.
The call for reduced estimates has been loud and general,
and reduced estimates Mr. Cardwell gives us. There has
been a prolonged complaint that, though we pay for a
large army, our shores are insufficiently defended, and Mr.
Cardwell is able to announnce that there are more armed
men in the 'United Kingdom than ever there
have been in our time. British troops are, for
the first time during this century, mainly stationed
on British shores. In our opinion, this concentration
is, independently of the saving that it allows, the most
satisfactory point in recent arrangements. If this country
is to have a really effective army, it must not be frittered
away in colonial garrisons, but massed at home, where it
may.learn the art of war, and not merely the details of
drill and the routine of barrack life. Henceforth we shall
know that in return for the vast sums spent on the army
we have real security and a force efficient in numbers and
discipline capable of taking the field.
The Standard says that the army estimates fell flat
upon the ears of the House of Commons. The fact that
Mr. Cardwell has been for some 'days unwell may to some
extent account for the dulness and want of connection
exhibited in his speech ; but it was impossible to avoid
noticing that the task before him was beyond his powers.
The endeavour to prove that military strength is
increased by the reduction of twenty-four thousand men
in two years was too much for him ; and the knowledge
that it was impossible to build up a fabric on such a basis.
which would not be demolished by the first speaker who
might rise to reply, weighed like an incubus
upon him throughout the two hours and a
quarter during which his speech lasted. As Sir
John Pakington observed, it was without doubt
a difficult speech to deliver; but it was a far
more difficult speech to follow and understand. Turn the
matter round and examine it on every side ; it presents
even on that side which Mr. Cardwell has coloured the
bare truth still apparent—a reduction of twenty-four
thousand men in two years, and no provision for reserves,
and against this there is no constitutional remedy. It is
for the Government to fix the number of forces necessary,
and not for the House of Commons to declare that it
should be increased.