The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-05 00:00:00

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garrison towns. The Board is to report Ole result 1
of the inquiry to the Government with all possible
despatch.
The hired troopship Nugget, Capt. Bona, sailer'.
of
from Woolwich on Saturday evening, in 1 ow
foa
steamtug, for Gravesend, having on boar d - the l-
lowing troops :—Lieut. Warburton, Royal. Engl.-
neers, three sergeants, six corporals, and 30 :privates
belonging to Capt. Mairis's Sixth Company ;Nod a e-
tachment of the 65th Foot (2d Yorkshire rth
Riding), consisting of one officer and 167 rank and
file, to make up deficiencies in those corps now sta- '
tioned in Auckland, New Zealand ; and Captain
Queade, five officers, and 111 men belonging to the
Ist battalion 12th Foot (the East Suffolk), for
Sydney. Staff Assist.-Surg. Grace is in medical
charge of the whole. The embarkation of the
troops, and the inspection and verification of the
ship's qualifications for the voyage were superin-
tended by Capt. Freeth, Deputy Assist.- Quarter-
master General Royal Artillery. The Nugget,
although of small burden, has the reputation of
being an admirable sea vessel, is well ventilated,
and fitted with much comfort.
The left wing of the City of Dublin Royal Militia
left Plymouth on Friday in the British and Irl9ll
Company's steamship Lady Eglintoun, Captain
Bishop, for Dublin, where the regiment will be dis-
ied. .

CAVALRY COLONELS.

A writer in a contemporary says :
Sir H. Stracey is reported to have put the fol-
lowing question to the Secretary of State for War
in the House of Commons,—" Whether general
officers appointed to regiments of cavalry will in
future be obliged to repay the difference of £1,675,
although the prices of commissions in infantry and
cavalry have been equalised." As your columns
are open to the exposure of every species of jobbery,
I trust you will permit them to become the medium
of explaining the practice to which that gentleman
alludes, one which: although apparently collateral
to, is as immediately destructive of the good of the
service, or the efficiency of the English cavalry it-
self, as any of those enumerated in the able letter
of the Secretary for War to the Lords of the Trea-
sury, or your own comments on the subject.
When a lieutenant-colonel of cavalry has com-
pleted his six years in the rank of field officer, be-
comes weary of its monotony, or is ordered on fo-
reign service, he casts about for a mode by which
he may attain a triple result—first, to regain the
money he may have expended on his promotion ;
secondly, how to effect it without selling out; and
thirdly, how not only to retain his rank and
_reim-
burse himself, but how to form all those expedients
to the best future advantage. He finds out some
poor aged lieutenant-colonel of infantry desirous of
realising the price of his commission, £4,500. He
then informs the officers of his regiment that he is
willing to exchange to the half-pay of infantry,
provided they will make up the sum of £lO,OOO or
£12,000, as the case may be; if they consent, all
the excess above £4,500 is put into his own pocket,
probably from 17,000 to £B,OOO. Our lieutenant-
colonel of cavalry having thus accomplished the first
two of his meditated projects now quietly vegetates
on half-pay, enjoying the " otium cum dignitate."
In the usual course of promotion he becomes an ef-
fective major general, and aspires to be colonel of a
regiment of dragoons, worth £1,300 a year. Ac-
cordingly, after having enjoyed the £7,000 or £B,OOO
for years on half-pay, he applies to be installed as
colonel of a regiment on paying to Government the
paltry sum of £1,670. This, however, if I understand
Sir 11. Stracey's question correctly, does not satisfy
his cupidity ; for he hopes, under recent regula-
tions, to be restored by paying next to nothing.
But let that pass. The object of my letter is to ex-
pose the injustice of his obtaining a regiment un-
der any circumstances. When the retirements
have been accorded to seeing foreign service, wounds,
or ill health, they may perhaps be defended with a
show of reason ; but the reverse of this has been so
repeatedly the case, that instances have been known
when a double compact has been entered into, in
which the major purchasing the lieutenant-coloneley
of cavalry has pledged himself at the expiration of
12 months to re-enact the same, or sell out; which
has been done. Can it be matter of wonder that
this arm of the national service, so prostituted to
private vanity and ambition, interest and cupidity,
should degenerate into utter inefficiency, under a
job More worthy of a Government contractor than
the dignity of a great nation ?
It is by practices such as these that officers who
have expended all their little patrimony on the pur-
chase of their commissions, and the best part of
their lives on foreign service, are disgusted when
they see opulence and ease take precedence of merit
and actual service.