The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-22 00:00:00

quarters it is right that the voice of public opi-
nion should at once unequivocally and irrevocably

pronounce against the monstrous suggestion.

The propriety, not to say the necessity, of
offering additional inducements to the militia to
enlist in the regular army, and also of removing
existing obstacles to such enlistment, was too
obvious not to be generally recognised. The
volunteer, on enlistment, found, to his great
chagrin and permanent disgust, that one-half of
the bounty money, on the faith of receiving which
he had enlisted, was withheld' in order to supply
him with underclothing and other necessaries of
the service, and was not slow in communicating
his dear-bought experience to others. The con-
sequence was, those whom the full bounty would
have tempted to volunteer were not to be
had for one-half. How such a short-sighted
and inequitable policy could ever have been
adopted might well excite surprise, were
it not that errors of equal magnitude were
to be found pervading our entire military system.
It is consequently a matter for congratulation that
Lord PANNIIIRE has come to the resolution to do
away with this forced contribution, and has
secured for the volunteer the fulfilment by the
State of the bargain into which it has entered ;
so that henceforth the sum of 1/. in cash will be
handed over to each man when accepted, and the
remainder will be credited to his account in the
regiment into which he enters.
Another hardship—viz., the period in which
he had served in the militia counting for nothing
on his volunteering into the line—has very pro-
perly been considered, and it has been ordered
that for the future every volunteer above nineteen
years of age is to be allowed to reckon one-hay of
his militia service after he is eighteen as a part of
his service iu the line, in order to entitle him " to
pension and any other advantage; such as good-
conduct pay, &c., belonging to the regular army,
provided he shall have completed six months'
military service." Both of these cessions are
likely to work well and to opeiate as additional
inducements to volunteering, however far they
may fall short of what is required. Volunteer-
ing, we may add, will be permitted into any of
the regiments of ca►alry, artillery, sappers and
miners, foot guards, infantry, and royal marines,
where the parties are of the requisite height, and
not under eighteen or over thirty years of age,
save in certain cases where, on an application to
the Inspecting Field Officer of the district, men

between twenty-four and thirty-five years of age
may be enlisted. The minimum height in the

Guards is to be five feet six inches, in the cavalry

five feet five and a half inches, and in the infantry
of the line five feet four inches—by no means

high standards in this country, whatever they

may be elsewhere ; but then volunteers aro

wanted from the militia regiments in the propor-
tion of 25 per cent, of their county establishment ;
in other words, the militia establishment for the
three kingdoms, which consists of one hundred and
twenty thousand men, is expected to contribute
tb,irty thousanfi volunteers to the regular army!
The inducements offered have not, it must be
confessed, arrived before they were wanted.
State exigencies now and then come between
the nobility, when engaged in seldiv playing,
and the indulgence of their private inclinations.
Thus during the present War the strange anomaly
has been presented of commanding officers of mi-
litia regiments doing their utmost to prevent their
men from volunteering into the line. "It was too

bad," they seemed to think, " after they had been
at the trouble of giving the men a soldierly ap-
pearance, and were beginning to take pride in
commanding theta) for the recruiting serjea,nt to
ome and run away with their best nen I.to ben- e

campaign be rendered necessary--shoilld the
Western Powers show themselves resolved on the
vigorous prosecution of the contest—She leTiathan
malefactor will have to endure a bitter expiation
for her manifold transgressions, and be compelled'
permanently to renounce the traditional policy in-
augurated by Prisn, and continued by CA Till-
RINE, by ALRXANDER, and by NICEOL.A.S. An
avenging NEMESIS might change the tables, and
compel her in turn to give material guarantees—
not to Austria, in the rectification of her boundary
with Turkey on the line of the Danube, but to
Europe, in far more stringent and unwelcome
conditions. Under existing circumstances she
will struggle for her darling projects—will en-
deavour to retain the power of doing mischief,
and to avoid making any reparation for past
atrocities. We regret to say that the opportu-
nity has been most unwisely afforded. For oven
if she new assume the affectation of frankness, and
assent to a fair and liberal interpretation of the
Austrian Propositions, she will still have ample
reason to rejoice at the undue lenity with which
she was treated.
But if we are tied down within these
exceeding narrow limits. If the Fifth Point, by
which the power is reserved of " producing in
an European interest special conditions over and
above the four guarantees," be not pushed to its
legitimate results, we have at least the right to
expect that there shall be no yielding on any of
the matters which are already to a certain extent
at least developed. The first symptom of trickery
or special pleading should be the signal for break-
ing off the negotiations, which should never be
renewed until Russia come as the humble suitor
for peace, on terms so clear and explicit that
there could be no possible doubt or difficulty as
to their meaning. We have already seen in-
terpretations attached to documents which the
lowest English pettifogger would be ashamed to
support. We have seen a thorough disregard of
every honourable understanding ; and, judging
from past antecedents, and from the notorious
perversity of the Muscovite disposition, we can-
not, and we do not, suppose that there will be a
more auspicious result in the present instance.
There is but one possible chance of there being
so. The Allied Powers must carry on the
discussion with inflexible firmness—must not
evince the slightest appearance of indecision
or yield on even the most trivial point;
but, above and beyond all, must urge the
vigorous and energetic conduct of the
War. /cot only should gigantic preparations
be made, for the time when our successes may be
fairly followed up in the Crimea, and against
Kherson, Nicolaieff, and Odessa, in Bessarabia
and in Asia, in the Baltic, and Finland, Courland,
Esthonia, and Livonia—but we must strike
wherever and whenever there is the opportunity.
An armistice in any shape or form would be fatal
to the interests of the Western Powers. It would
induce Russia aye) and Austria to back
out of all their engagementi, and leave the Allies
to renew hostilities under the most unfavourable
circumstances—all their past triumphs being
neutralised, and having the arduous work to
commence de novo. It is the " unholy thing"
that should be avoided with intense horror—which
would inevitably sacrifice the reputation of any
statesman who under any circumstances listened
to the insidious suggestion. We shall not even
for a moment insult either the French or English
Governments, by the supposition that they or
either of them could be so grievously misled--
hut as the idea has bean thrown out, in German