The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-04 00:00:00

TBE GERMAN MERVENARIES.—A SUG-
GESTION for " WEEDING" the POLICE.

We are informed by certain of those new-fangled
Englishmen who are concerned in the ruin of the
Empire, and who are content to be " guarded" by
foreign mercenaries against foreign foes and them-
selves, that the " British" Foreign Legion has been
carefully " weeded." There is nothing now save
flowers in that Jager Corps. Let Britannia wear
this expensive, but not very fragrant bouquet of
exotics in her bosom proudly and carefully. She
has certainly not hitherto exposed it to any very
great danger. The Scotch thistle, the Irish sham-
rock, and English rose, she has remorselessly scat-
tered on the ground. Many leaves and blossoms
have been trampled in blood and mud upon Cri-
mean soil. But these German battalions are now
" weeded"—they form England's chosen and pecu-
liar nosegay, and should she not be persuaded to
retain the sweet smelling expensive luxury herself,
urged by the representations of the generous crea-
tures of the J enkyns class, who would crawl on
hands and knees into the antechamber of any Co-
burg Court, we shall present it full-blown to the
people of the Cape—while plants of British growth
wither and die for want of bare sustenance and
culture, and are trampled in the dirt, even as
paupers are thrust into the shallow graves of star-
vation, suicide, and despair.
We are about to send these "weeded" German
troops to the Cape, each man with an Eufield
a camp equipage, and a wife. Those who are not
married are to take unto themselves English
maidens. Dedea Redanies was in too great haste.
It is evident that he has missed a chance. He is
not, however, a German. Celestina Somner is.
Why cannot she have a free pardon, and a passage
to the Cape ? We do not learn where all the
" weeds" have been cast that have been rejected
from the Legion. Are they left to grow wild in
England ? We will answer for it that they are not
sent back to father-land. They are handy fel-
lows these Germans. Look at the creditable neat-
ness and ingenuity displayed in their camps. So,
therefore, we know that some have gone into the
engraving (of Bank of England notes) line, and
others ' probably have set up, with the British
bounty accorded to them, in various other branches
of trade. All this is, of course, highly favourable
to science and art. We are such an ignorant
people. We want Teutonic instruction, and it
seems we are to have it, from the highest as well as
the lowest professors. But must we lose our brave
defenders, our protectors, our champions against
Russia, the warriors who fought through the ar-
duous campaign of Heligoland, the heroes of the
siege of Shorncliffe, who may inscribe on their ban-
ners Aldershot, Malta, Corfu, 1855.6, and whose
glorious career wound up with the gallant affair of
Browndon, under Field-Marshal Prince Albert,
the battle of Wyvenhoe Park, and the storming of
the fortress of Gurdon Rebow ? Must we be de-
prived of this "national" guard ? Supposing that
there should be a riot from high prices and low
wages, on whom could we so well depend to put it
down ? Suppose that it were found necessary to
break up that ill-working machine, the British
Constitution, which for all practical purposes is
useless, and, rococo, likely to become as much out
of date as " puddling" iron, or, to make use of a
simpler comparison, as backsword and wrestling
forbidden in Windsor Castle pastimes ! Must we go
to the expense of purchasing another foreign army ?
Must head-money be supplied to Baron Stutter-
heim again ? Must fresh sets of Jagers be con-
tinually bought and given away to hyrid Anglo-
Dutch colonies, leaving our "fair side all un-
guarded," save by "drunken Highlanders and 41st
men ?" Forbid it, Homburg and Hesse Casel !
Forbid it, Tour and Taxis ! Forbid it, Baden !
To prevent this unnecessary expense, we too have
a plan. We propose to repopulate the Highlands,
instead of colonising the Cape. We can march the
Legion up to the north, quartering them in
English towns, and getting them married en route.
If the Court were to set the example, with
the powerful aid of the Duchess of Sutherland, this
suggestion might be adopted and carried out with
the utmost ease. The tenure would be, of course,
military service. The " camp equipage" might be
dispensed with, and the money saved expended in
marriage dowries, model cottages, musical instru-
ments, and materials for the cultivation of science,
animal-stuffing, high-farming, and the arts. The
German language is as musical as Gaelic, and for
deer-stalking might be substituted battues dla
.Royale. Even the wild boar might be cultivated
as well as the stag, and every barren spot where
ejectment has taken place, that the stalking ex-
ploits of the aristocrat might be recorded in the
Morning Post,' would become a smiling "little"
Saxe-Gotha, with sporting attractions after its
kind. The " little" is a pleonasm, but we wish to
express something endearing to the British heart.
The "thin red line" of the aborigines is getting
thinner and shorter each year, and we feel that it
will hardly bear extension at a second Balaklava.
Truly the idea is promising, and bids fair to be
supporti.d by fashion and frivolity, more powerful
in the nineteenth century than any antiquated
ideas of England for the English, Ireland for the
Irish, and Scotland for the Scotch. Where a Pan-
mure could " hobble" his single deer, he will be
• able to shoot down ten. The Germans will form
a ring and hunt the game into a circle, as in Ger-
many. We believe that the Duke of Atholl, or
some other popular nobleman, has already inau-
gurated in Sco land t'sat species of sport. On one
occasion, the moment of onslaught was lost by the
inopportune juncture of the Royal hour of lunch.
The Billies had all their work in vain. But in
Germany the animals are so much tamer, and the
thing is altogether so pleasantly organised, that
luncheon, or even dinner, may intervene without
causing more than a temporary prorogation of the
battue.
Warmed by our subject, and the consciousness of
the great reward that we have earned by this sug-
gestion, so much in accordance with the manners
and customs of the British in this enlightened cen-
tury, we have a second proposition to make. We
are inclined to think that the police force of the
metropolis is in great want of " weeding" at this
present time. Neither liberty nor property— to
say nothing of life—is secure from their guardians.
There is connivance in robbery—there is apathy in
murder-cases—there is brutal violence towards fe-
males. The married woman is confounded with
the street-walker, and the latter is subject to a
species of tyranny, somewhat resembling the bru-
talities exercised towards the nuns of Minsk.
Every one knows that formerly blackmail was
.levied in the Highlands. It is now not unfre-
quently " collected" in the streets of the Sassenach.
Moreover, an Englishman's, or Englishwoman's,
house is no longer his or her castle ; for we read
(vide Police Report, Bow-street, Aug. 27) that a
constable, armed with a rattle, pursues a woman
into the den, or retreat called home, and drags her
out of bed. Moreover, the policeman seems to lay
claim to whatever money au unfortunate creature
may possess, for we find him coolly putting the
contents of her pocket into his own—a proceeding
which she and her female associates had the unpa-
ralleled insolence to stigmatise as robbery, thereby
exciting his wrath to the attack. As if a police-
' man, on duty, could rob !
Even Mr. Henry was not quite satisfied with
such conduct, and thought that the razzia in the
house was, to say the least, " imprudent." By
Mr. Henry, as well as to him, policemen are ac-
customed to swear, but it seems that worthy magis-
trate would place a limit somewhere to the police-
man's power. We may recur to the topic of the
partial demoralisation of the police. East and
west of Temple-bar there is a great difference iu
favour of the former. Undoubtedly, the stipend
iary magistrate is more despotic, more Austrian, iu
• his views of the impunity of the " Force," than the
municipal Lord Mayor.
We hold that the interference with the liberty
of the subject, frequently exhibited on the
part of a licentious or tyrannical policeman,
is worse, in one respect, than the impunity
of the French or Neapolitan conservator
of "order," since the latter only enters
the
domicile of the citizen upon political pretexts. That
is a state of things we are fast approaching, but to
which we have not quite arrived. The interciange
. of ideas with Napoleon led to mutual hints for im.
provement. He has borrowed part of the system
of Sir R. Mayne; our authorities were struck with
aa?miration at his paternal sway. The New Police
Bill was meant as a step in the despotic direction.
Only it was somewhat curtailed by Parliament of
its intended powers. As, however, the " system "
is under process of development, it would be as
• well, while there is yet time, for us poor frogs to
- entreat beneficent King Stork to weed " our. own
blue-coated and domestic " Legion." Kaffir war-
fare is cruej, unrelenting, pitiless. We could spare
a few well-drilled, active, and intelligent men and
officers out of the army of Peel, to prosecute the
Savageries of that border strife. The moral effect
of the truncheon might supersede the baton of the
commander in bush conflict. We feel persuaded
that the Amazons of,the monarch of Dahomi him-
self would fly before Such practised woman-quellers
as the more sophisticate 1 portion of the London
police. The wife of Sandilli would tremble with a
species of fascination at the sound of the deadly
rattle plastered with blood and hair, even as the
bird loses its faculties when it hears the rattle of
the snake in the parched grass of the wilderness.
Let, then, a strong body be drafted from the vari-
ous divisions of the Force, which, taken as a whole,
performs its " duties " so adniirably, but which,
like the German Legion, ere it became perfect
stands in some need of "weeding," and let us
despatch it as a gift to the borderers of the Cape.
If the German element be neceuary, the Govern.