The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-29 00:00:00

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THE SUN,
LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 1860.

Though we differ from Mr. MILLS's conclusions,
we must agree with him in maintaining the right
of civilians to exercise their own judgment cn such
a question as the amalgamation of the Indian and
Imperial army, or the retention of a local army, in
our great colony. It is not merely the right of
civilians to judge for themselves, but the state of
the question has constituted them the judges of
final appeal. No one will deny that there is a great
deal to be said for either view ; so much that the
most upright and intelligent men who have studied
the subject may yet come to different conclusions.
It is very observable, too, that such men appear to
be biassed in their diverse opinions by the services
to which they have belonged, a fact which
is no imputation on the motives of either
class ; still with the varied considerations
which must be taken account of, it forms an addi-
tional reason for civilian judges to exercise their
right. Without imputing to gentlemen who have
served respectively in the Company's or in the
QUEEN'S Army the slightest intention to sacrifice
Imperial objects to personal predilections—for the
influence of such partialities we believe to be
wholly unconscious—we must yet, practically, re-
gard these gentlemen as advocates, pleading before
a necessarily impartial judge or jury. And we
must think that after hearing all they have to say,
unprofessional Englishmen are the best judges
of what, on the whole, seems desirable for the Em-

pire at large.
We have seen nothing in the debate of last night
to alter the impressions we have received from
former debates. The case is pre-eminently one in
which the decision must rest on a balance of advan-
tages. And, after weighing them, we still think
the preponderance is on the side of one army for
one empire. Indeed the general principle is so
self-obvious, that India could not claim a local
army without making out a special case for it. All
our other colonies, except so far as they have
created or are creating a militia in local defence,
which like our own militia is of course a localized
force, are defended by soldiers of the Royal
army, bound to do service wherever their
QUEEN and their country require it. Many
of these colonies are in climates as warm as that of
India, and several of them are more unhealthy.
Indeed India is not, generally speaking, unhealthy.
European intemperance—or even European ordi-
nary indulgence in food and beverages of a stimu-
lating kind, may be unhealthy, and it may be diffi-
cult to restrain such habits in private soldiers, but
the climate itself is not dangerous to health. The
distance and arrangements r
or necessary changes of
regiments are matter of detail, and
are likely to
become every year less difficult to deal with.
The return of the Great Eastern
probably point the way towards may
very
an easy
transmission of troops backwards and forwards
between us and oar remotest dependencies, we
do not share the fears of some that the French
will block up our road via Alexandria ; we could
speak on that question, should it ever arise, from
Gibraltar, Malta, and Corfu; but even if M.
LESSEPS' idle dream should ever be realised, we
certainly think it more than probable that Mr.
SCOTT RussELL'S magnificent machine will have
shown us, if not literally a shorter route, yet one

which, all things considered, will be a better and
cheaper one round the well known old Cape.
Tbe,autiny of the ten,..lkousand men of the
local army, who turned their backs on what we
must think:to be their duty, in India, may have
been exaggerated, but we can hardly think so.
'We cannot believe that regiments of the Line,
could they have been in the same circumstances,
would have communicated with the Sikhs, with the
view of driving out the QUEEN'S army and consti-
tuting themselves the sole army of India; and that
with, of course, the awful result of their becoming
the Praetorians of India. There must be a tendency,
in the double effects of complete separation from
the mother country, and of a climate which tends
to laxity of discipline, to generate the feeling of
loyalty to the land of their adoption rather than
that of loyalty to the land of their fathers—
perhaFs, we should rather say of selfish
disregard of their relation to the mother country.
It is indeed alleged that, by salf-banishment to
India, our soldiers and their officers become more
considerate of the tastes and habits of the natives;
and in a certain sense this may be true. We know
too well that they have iu former times purchased
their goodwill by sharing with them in the most
debasing and degrading of their heathen vices. But
we cannot think that Englishmen generally would
be wanting in that consideration and friendly
feeling towards a subject race which they would be
both taught as a part of their duty, and their own
good feelings would suggest. The sentiments
engendered by the Sepoy atrocities in the late
mutiny, could not be expected to subside all at
once, but it is fast becoming apparent, that those
were right who regarded the mutiny as a military
one, and as in great part due to the extreme igno-
rance in which we had intentionally kept the
Sepoys, combined with the way in which we had
petted them and pampered their prejudices. A
better feeling between Europeans and natives is,
we are happy to observe, gaining ground, and we
have little doubt that if we prove the benefactors
to the country in legislation, and public works,
and commerce, which it seems now certain
we shall be, the disturbing memory of the past

will soon pass away.
As to all the difficulties raised respecting finding
a supply of the requisite ability for officers for the
Indian Service, we cannot believe it. This is not
the day for the love of featherbed service to spread.
Our middle and upper classes are roused to emulate
in general education, but especially in professional
education, their compeers in foreign armies. We
do not think they have ever been really
inferior—but, even if they have, young
men will enter the army now more and
more with the idea of qualifying themselves for
any required service. If to know an Indian lan-
guage were the desideratum, we trust they would
show in six months that they could give any order
or make any inquiry in it, which the service re-
quired. Why we cannot take up a book on Indian
field sports, without seeing that to enjoy them
thoroughly an officer must be able to make his
native guides and servants understand his meaning.
The patronage question depends on public opinion
and watchfulness. There is, however, much less
danger of its being unfairly exercised in regard to
India, than in regard to home service. Practically,
however, it will always depend much on the Indian
Administration. The Governor - General, and
his chief military coadjutor in India, will be almost
sure to have in their own hands the rewarding of
merit in Indian service ; and in first appointments,
we are told, there is now little scope for favour.

Again we have the painfully interesting ques-
tion about Harbours of Refuge, about Shelter for
Shipping—as the phrase is—ventilated. Literally
and very recently we have had this done in a
frightful manner along a terrible extent of our
coast line, through the resistless agency of the late
tremendous gales or hurricanes. But the indict-
ment thus brought directly against the Admiralty
and Trinity Board authorities by the elements
themselves was last evening referred to explicitly
in the House of Lords by the Marquis of CLAN-
RICARDE. And if in reviving this subject for
the reconsideration of the Imperial Legislature the
noble lord failed to adorn a more than thrice-told
tale, he certainly.contrived to point the moral of
the late disasters consequent upon our perverse and
protracted negligence or procrastination. It is
true that Lord CLANRICARDE was constrained in
the end, in compliance hardly less with the dictates
of common sense than with the suggestions of his
Grace the Duke of SOMERSET, to withdraw the
motion last evening submitted to the House of
Peers, the notice of which had been duly given in
the Parliamentary papers—the motion, in point of
fact, for a Committee of Inquiry ! As if any addi-
tional light were required to be thrown upon a
grievance that glares, year by year, with more appal-
ling vividness upon the national recognition ! As
if we needed to learn nowadays whether or not it
may Fe advisable to put an end, if possible, or, at
any rate, to strive to put an end, to a peril that
swallows up periodically in the remorseless deep
hundreds and thousands of lives, and millions upon
millions of money ! No, it may be safely and con-
fidently asserted that no new ray of light what
ever is requisite in this direction. At the same
time, however, that we should be disposed to depre-
cate, as earnestly as the Duke of SOMERSET did
last evening in the House of Lords, the notion of
any further committee of inquiry being appointed
to investigate anev► the blackness of this blot upon
the national escutcheon—regarding every such in-
vestigation as altogether superfluous—we are for
that very reason all the more disposed to commend
to any one who, upon any plea whatever, at any
period of the session, in either House of Parliament,
under any conceiveable circumstance, undertakes
to recall to the remembrance of our legislators the
need there is of some attempt at its
obliteration. This good service it was that
was only yesterday once more performed
in the interest of all those " who go down to the
sea in ships," by the Marquis of CLANRICARDE.
And for the doing of this good service we heartily
commend the noble lord—what though the motion
submitted by him to the Upper House was, as
we have intimated, of a character that could only
be mooted, to be withdrawn immediately after
wards.

The acknowledgment made during the course
of last night's discussion by his Grace the First
Lord of the Admiralty was of itself of a character
sufficient to compensate Lord CLANRICARDE for
the subsequent withdrawal of the motion—as to
the success of which he may be presumed (from
mistaken motives) to have been somewhat, and to a
certain extent, naturally solicitous. No amount of
expenditure, his Grace frankly avowed, would, in
his opinion, be refused by Parliament, when the

object was to secure prote.cti3n for the lives and

property of our mariners. Added to this, the Duke
of SOMERSET, while requesting from the Marquis
of CLANRICARDE the withdrawal of his motion for
a committee of inquiry, manfully proposed that the
responsibility of the matter in regard to those har-
bours of refuge, should devolve upon, or rather
should rest entirely with her MAJESTY'S Govern-
ment. As many as fourteen distinct plans, it
should certainly be borne in recollection, have been