The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-05 00:00:00

Q3Alrelll3lll Ant

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1851.

I❑ the House of Lords, last night,
Lord MONTEAGLE presented a petition on the subject
of the transportation of convicts to Van Dieraan's Land.
Earl GREY regretted the necessity which had com-
pelled the Government to transport so many convicts to
that colony, and expressed a hope and expectation that
ere long the colonists in Northern Australia would ask
to have supplies of convict labour. He agreed that it
was highly improper to send convicts to Sydney and
large towns, but he thought that in the sheep-rearing
districts of North Australia they might be advantage-
ously employed as shepherds.
Their Lordships thou adjourned.
The Commons did not meet.

In one particular at least the Overland intelligence
must be regarded asinteresting to the majority of
people in the "United Kingdom. The portion of the
ne%is from Hindostan relating to the withdrawal of
Sir CHARLES NAprnt from the supreme military
command of the forces in India possesses an attraction
paramount to all others, whether considering the irn_
portance of the position vacated, or the greatness of
the illustrious warrior's reputation. Anything which
tends to elucidate, even in the most trivial manner, the
feelings which have led to this remarkable resignation,
cannot fail to be regarded by all parties with an
earnest and unwinking scrutiny. During the course
of the progress made by the cx- Commander-in-Chief
from the interior to the seashore for the purpose of
taking ship to England, he has occasionally given
utterance to his sentiments upon the subject
of his retirement, more or less explicit, according to
the inducements of each opportunity. But in no in-
stance has he been more plaia•spoken than in his
remarks uttered when bidding farewell to his old
companions in arms at Kurrachee and Bombay.
There, to use a homely expression, he fairly let the

cat dttkof the bag, attributing his abandonment of
authority to his indignation at certain interferences
with 14,4cialTiciwz`kand prerogatives. " When I
was first 'isirte Co ''l der-in-Chief," said he, "1
thougb I was to be Co lihder-in-Chief in truth,
%s
latitlbogp, found out that I w s ,not to be Commander-
in- Chief at all, but only a sort of monster adjutant."
He intimated, in addition to this, that he had more
than once been dictated to on military matters by
" boy politicals," who knew nothing whatever of
military science. If this has actually been
the case—and Sir CHARLES NAPIER is not the man
to utter anything but words of the most scrupulous
veracity—we marvel not that his heroic nature re-
volted from a situation of affairs so ill according with
his, supposed supremacy in matters of a military
character. Our only astonishment is that sooner than
this he did not most indignantly tender his resigna-
tion. The conqueror and ex-governor of the gigantic
province of Scinde is surely not the personage to be
unnecessarily degraded from the exercise of the mili-
tary jurisdiction properly appertaining to his office,
and to be reduced to a mere subaltern by individuals
who should in reality have appeared, when compared
with himself, in a merely subordininate capacity. No
wonder, we say, that a captain so distinguished
as the victor of Aimee and Hyderabad revolted from
a position, so anamolous and, in a word, so contrary
to all decency ; and that, venting at last his long-
suppressed disgust at the ill-treatment, he flung down
his sword and prepared to quit for ever the scenes of
his many splendid achievements.

Annoying as these occurrences have naturally proved
to Sir CHARLES NAPIER, we have the satisfaction, at
any rate, of thinking that they must ultimately tend
to prevent the possibility of their recurrence. What
has been_shown to be so excessively reprehensible in
his instance can never again be tolerated in regard to
any one of his future successors. The office of Com-
mander-in-Chief must henceforth, we conceive, be
placed upon a positive and satisfactory footing, and
no longer remain liable to those intermittent and most
impolitic encroachments. Otherwise the Administration
of both civil and military affairs through Hindostan
must be perpetually involved in confusion. From
the resolution recently shown upon this point by
Sir CHARLES NAPIER we are sanguine that be may
prove in this instance, as in so many others, the author
of very considerable improvement. To him have
been attributable some of the most estimable changes
that have taken place in the organization of the armies
of the east. His interference might consequently be
regarded as the most appropriate for the due regula-
tion of the supreme authority in military affairs
throughout the whole of our Oriental possessions. The
reformer of the soldiery, the hero of Scinde, may be
thus enabled to prove himself an equally welcome
reformer in reference to the chief leader of that
soldiery in theAsiatie dominions of Greatßritain. That
he possesses the moral audacity requisite for the carrying
out of these peculiar views we may rest assured. It
is consequently with feelings of eager expectation that
we await his arrival amongst us as the man destined
to reduce existing anomalies in the administration of
affairs in Hindostan to some sort, at least, of partial
order and regularity. Sir CHARLES NAPIER has de-
monstrated by his conduct, by his language, by his
resignation, the bitterness with which he has felt the
weight of these anomalies. We may therefore remain
hopeful that he may be incited by a remembrance of
his own chagrin and discomfort to demand, both by
word of mouth and by the more widely-extending
voice of the pamphleteer, the revision of the system as ,
at present existing in Hindostan.

Alarmists, of all people in the country, are, to our
hinking, the most appropriate objects of ridicule.
Nevertheless, we are by no means blind to the neces-
sities of vigilance in regard to the defences of a
nation, no matter how tranquil soever may be the
aspect of surrounding Governments. While, there•
fore, we are very far indeed from desiring to attach
any undue importance to the recent lucubrations on
this subject, penned by Sir FRANCIS HEAD, and
almost simultaneously by Sir CHARLES NAPIER, we
are solicitous that proper attention should be paid to
the arguments put forward by those intelligent ob-
servers. The inquiry itself, which they have under••
taken in their respective volumes to prosecute,has been
proclaimed a most legitimate and commendable
one by one no less than the first subject of the
Crown, his Grace the Duke of WELLINGTON. We
are disposed, moreover, to watch the progress of the
investigation just now with a peculiar feeling of corn-
placen cy—vicwing,the reasons advanced in its behalf
as a wholesome counterpoise to those put forward
rather unnecessarily by the sticklers for wholesale
retrenchment. Granted, beyond all contradiction,
that the annual amount of the national expenditure
exceeds by a vast deal the sum which might
reasonably be expected to support our various
establishments ; granted, that the need of economy
is obvious and even glaring ; granted, that
the present distribution of our resources is
characterised less by judgment than by ex-
travagance. Yet, in the very teeth of these
considerations, we maintai❑ that no necessity what-
ever exists for a large decrease of either our land or
£34 forces; but that, on the contrary, it were most
advisable to re-organize upon a broad and comprehen-
sive system both our military and maritime arrange-
ments. The peace of Europe is no valid cause for
a display of parsimony in these particulars. Si vis
pacent, Para bellum, is one of those memorable and
oracular truths we can never tire of repeating; more
especially whenever we liste❑ to the fallacious reason-
ing employed in periods of tranquillity against
the advisability of maintaining a sufficient
number of armed forces. Not that we are
anxious to observe any lavish expenditure in
reference to army or navy—not that we would con-
tinue either upon anything like a war footing—but
that we would most indisputably insist upon the ad-
vantages accruing to a great power from a proper
regard being had at all times, and under all circum-
stances, to the magnitude and efficiency of its de-
fences. In no instance, again, is this more pecu-
liarly requisite than in regard to an insular power
like England. Exposed on all sides to the possibility
of assault, it would be nothing short of the most
reckless and unjustifiable imprudence to repose
an overweening confidence in its own ill-regulated
and unsupported prowess. History consists in the
main of narratives of the downfall of the most
puissant and gigantic races. Upon its tablets we
can trace the record of those calamities ; and in
every instance we may detect the seeds of rui❑ in
the rise of national arrogance. It behoves conse-
quently the mightiest empire upon earth to look well
to the efficiency of its naval and military armaments,
what though surrounding nations may regard its
power with awe, and though the epoch may to all
appearance be one of the most serene international
alliance.

Now-a-days reform, as a principle, has entered into
the bosom of almost every class and of almost every
establishment. People have discovered in the spread
of intelligence among the masses the absolute and
imperative necessity for setting their houses in order.
The surrediance of a press that has come at last to be
regarded as little less than actually übiquitous may
have done much, we are willing to believe, in the
way of rousing the sluggish to activity. With the
majority, however, the reason of this general aptitude
for innovation is unquestionably the universal and
perpetually increasing spread of enlightenment. What-
ever may be the mediate or immediate means of the
change, the fact of its manifestation amongst
us is altogether incontrovertible. Even the Univer-

cities are being driven, like the rest of the world, to

use the Poet Laureate's noble simile—
"Down the ringing grooves of change!"
As in politics, as in education, as in reference to taxa-
tion and to diplomacy, so also in regard to maritime
and military regulations, the influences of improve-
ment are every day becoming more perceptible, The
Royal Navy
writings of several distinguished ornaments of the
have demonstrated beyond all contradic-
tion the nature of the alterations required in that
service. Other advocates of innovation have insisted
upon the want of equivalent modifications in the
sister profession, the armies of the United Kingdom.
Among these few have displayed more intelligence
than the writer of a pamphlet* recently published,
and dedicated by its author very significantly to the
body of Taxpayers. In the argument here most ably
putforwardthe pamphleteer explains a very rational
which 7,9001. might be saved upon
-s than 248,000/. upon infantry
cavalry, and no le.
arrangement b y
organization—making a total of 255,9001. by way of