The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-28 00:00:00

L?NDOX, TH.URSDAV, FEBRUARY 28, 1856.

In another part of this day's impression will
be found a copy of the Royal Warrant appointing
a Board of General Officers to inquire into the
statements contained in the Report of Sir JOHN
NP/lerri and Colonel TulLocu, and the evidence
appended thereto, affecting certain officers on the
General Staff and others in the Army. As to
the parties implicated there need not be the
slightest reserve or mystery. They have C3lll-
- of the accusations not preferred against
them by the Crimean Commissioners, but found
to be fully and completely established. They
have demanded further inquiry, and to that they
were entitled, but not in the present form. It
should have been in such a shape as would, in case
of conviction, have insured the punishment of
the offenders. A Court-martial er an impeachment
would have afforded the required opportunity,
of, at the same tires, vindicating their charac-
ters—and public justice. If innocent, they would
have passed more triumphantly through the ordeal.
If guilty, the proceeding would not have been
altogether vain an useless, for decided action
might have followed the verdict. The present
course, however,' seems to be neither one thing
nor the other. It\is simply giving an additional
chance to the accused, of evading the conse-
quences of their alleged misconduct. The vete-
ran Generals appointed to the task may be sup-
posed to regard, in a more favourable light, the
peccadilloes of officers of the highest rank and
aristocratic position. But another loophole is
kept open, in case they should prove as intract-
able as the member of the preceding commission.
They can only make a further report, or a report
which, so far as the public are concerned, will
merely be "to gild refined gold, to paint the
lily, or cast a perfume on the violet." In case
of its being adverse, there must be a further in-
vestigation. If otherwise, it will be at once
accepted as final and conclusive ; and Sir JOHN
W/sTerr, and Colonel Turzomi will be sacrificed
as scapegoats, to shield the damaged reputation
of men of high rank and considerable political

influence.
It will be seen that the contemplated proceed-
ing is not an ordinary military inquiry, which
is invariably conducted secretly. It is to all in-
tents and purposes a Reyal Commission, and,
therefore, may be conducted in such manner as
the Cormitissioriers think proper. It has already
been stated, ex cathedra, that it will be conducted
with open doors, and that the evil of secrecy will
be carefully avoiilecl. This is, in one respect, as
it should be. It will give much greater weight
to the decision of gte Generals, when the grounds
on which it is based shall also be before the public,
so that every man throughout the length and
have an opportunity o
breadth of the land may

judging for himself on authentic data. But it
also adds to the indignity inflicted on the pre-
vious Commissioners, and must render their
friends—and all who admire the straightforward
manly course which they adopted will be in-
cluded iu the category—still more indignant at the
unmerited slight so unfairly cast upon them.
The office of judge will not be a very desirable
one, if he be compelled to change places with the
criminal, and bound to enter into an elaborate
defence of his judgments. The celebrated Judge
LYNCH, of Kentucky, was always prepared to
fight with revolvers and bowie knives any one who
impugned the justice or propriety of his decisions.
But he was a man of peculiar tastes, and we could
scarcely hope to find persons in these degenerate
days, and in the atmosphere of the United King-
dom, who would accept an arduous and thankless
duty, subject to such extraordinary incidents.
The inculpated officers, however, were to be
saved at any cost, and under any circumstances.
The umbra of the Horse. Guards—the shadow
that sits behind the seat of the nominal Com-
mander-in-Chief, antFexercises the patronage of
that coveted position—may be desirous of getting
rid of the odium that must follow, the heaping of
honours and rewards on those deserving very
different treatment. But no tricks, however
clever, no devices, however ingenious, will
divert the public attention or permit the mat-
ter to be shelved quite so easily as was antici-
pated. The important question is before Parlia-
ment, and the representatives of the people of the
United Kingdom will speak out fearlessly and
intelligibly. At all events, the Fourth Estate
will not be gagged ! With a Free Press—such as
England may now boast- of—there is no great
danger of public opinion being violated with im-
punity ; attempts may occasionally be made, and
parties may suppose that -.the dangerous ex-
periment has proved successful. But soon©r
or later the mistake will be discovered.
The gigantic bubble will burst, and the experi-
mentalists will too late deplore the reckless fatuity
that induced them to persevere in the ob-
jectionable course. The Horse Guards and its
irresponsible controller have not of late had any
surplus popularity to spare. A little more,
and the cup of national indignation will be
filled to overflowing. And woe betide those
who postpone until too late the submission to the
popular will, which can alone obtain impunity for
the past and indulgence for the future. It is
quite clear that the Horse Guards must be vlaced
under some authority responsible to Parliament,
and the sooner it be effected the better for all
parties concerned.

The question of an improved representation of
the people in Parliament, absorbed by the deep
and general interest felt throughout the three
kingdoms in the prosecution of hostilities against
Russia—the most wakeful, determined, and
powerful enemy *f free institutions in Europe—is
likely, before long, to become the absorbing topic
of the day, and will, in all probability, have to
be entertained in a more liberal spirit than it ever
was before.

The pressure of taxation has, in all ages, been
the chief moving cause of agitation for the re-
dress of popular grievances, and to such agitation,
whatever concessions of popular rights and privi-
leges have been made, were generally owing, and
in no secondary degree has this been the case in
this country, where ithe Democracy have vindi-
cated the claims of their order, if not more strenu-
ously, certainly more persistently than anywhere
else. By no means the most logical, nor the most
foreseeing animal in the world, and exhibiting an
amount of patience, which, if shown iu meeting
or tolerating inevitable, instead of removable,
evils, would be sublime, JOHN PULL has been
accustomed to carry his ganglion cf political energy
perhaps quite as much in his breeches pocket as in
his heart or head. Flattered he might be, and
that to his hurt, and he would lay the unction to
his heart with gratifying. complacency— trifled
with he might be, and he would again believe his
betrayer—humbugged, to use a vulgar but expres-
sive phrase, he might be, and he would grumble
himself into something considerably short of a mar-
tyr's sleep ; in either case he would content him-
self in the long run in forgetfulness. But touch
his breeches pocket, tithe his hoarded angels or
his annual hundreds, and he stood up at a bound
in his defence, and rumbled and threatened like a
lion. Of course this description is inapplicable,
as every description of national, characteristics
must be to all. In almost every period of our
history as many foreseeing, enlightened, freedom-
loving, and chivalrous spirits as ever adorned the
annals of any nation since the world began
have adorned our own—only, however, to
be appreciated, in most instances, in the next
generation.
Of this characteristic there is, as we have al-
ready intimated, a strong presumption JoHN BeLL
hasnot been deprived; and as with the termination
of the War the excitement it occasioned will neces-
sarily cease, while the expenditure of the War
will remain to be met by taxation, he will, if
experience is to go for anything, be roused by
the pressure, and having the additional stimuli
of the gross mismanagement and comparative
failure of the War to stir him, will be led to in-
quire whether he who has to pay the piper would
not be all the better if he was a little more a
party to State expenditure, and, as the result,
come to :he resolution to insist on a greatly en-
larged suffrage. Already indications of a bias in
this direction are perceptible. Pamphlets on the
subject of an improved representation begin to
make their appearance, and -with the motion of
Major REED, despite its want of novelty, fresh
indications will probably be forthooming.
That gallant officer, it will be seen, intends
to ask leave this evening to bring in a bill
for the enfranchisement of all who are as-
sessed for the Income Tax—a movement, as
many will believe, in the right direction, and
unquestionably in harmony with that principle of
our Constitution which associates the right of
representation with the assessment of taxation.
What the fate of the motion may be we cannot
undertake to predict ; but we hope the Ministry
will have the good sense not to oppose the intro-
duction of so reasonable a measure per se,
or in, the absence of a more comprehen-
eve scheme. It is one to which
party will have some difficulty to frame
an objection undeserving of being characterised as
frivolous, and in which those who favour
an edt tcational suffrage may fairly be expected to
concur., To be Sure assessment to the Income
Tax is no absolute proof of knowledge or discre-
tion, 'Neither is the ability to read and write
and reaseat by rote, many who could pass
muster under either test being likely to
be I:audited under one more stringent ;
but it is t a notorious fact that a class, probably
man for inferior in point of intelligence and
character .to no class in the kingdom, however
exalted, the higher, class of employes, such
as cOMlDerilial travellers' clerks, &c., as well as
professsziona,l4 and others of a like calibre, who
live in lod gitigs, and who have to pay a con-
siderable ►poltion of Income Tax, are excluded
from all voico whatever in the repreaentaticn.
Who will, undertake to say this is as it should be ?