The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-14 00:00:00

7'llL MILITARY .PE ACAS A 1,11 z: # - a• a
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it might have been stii Vosett t -.:k:- Af •
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11,7 i ie. the Crimea would ha.-v. ..
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oilicersof the Mimic ficilts a ftil. ' ''''',.. - -J". " 1., 0;:z?
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this unfortunately is'no't I 1 to c ' • --i,.••• ..y4VAIy
y6s:terday . rot/mare US',
scents, these discredit,:bh) pr, -t4e.Mitll:l,;;- -.4Ae;
):2arte., statement, and
ren34.d. We printed
repo. , which are current u,. 'on the s'ec't This
saunchea ht 'atement is wori h.
name is to be
must be taken simmupellyi
as
ss
therefore :or as
One of ti.e young officers whoa '
broUght before the public had alreao:v distinguished
himself in the annals of practical joking.. Lord
E'!•riest Vatic Tempest—for it is the incr.° of the
Windsor Theatre who has recently been endeavour-
jug to cover himself with fresh glory at I:rig:11ton
—has just been placed under arrest, and with. him
a certain Cornet Birt and a Lient. Wiustsieley,
Whose names are as yet unknown to fame. Tr: 'lore
is :-:e little of imagination or invention in the tr. icks
of the'n own-J.-own schoolboys ti.tat We can scare ely
hope to gra•,ty- the curiosity of the public by a ro ci-
till of their enormities. It is just the old story ,of
breaking into bedrooms at night, throwing the
patient's clotlos into water, pouring water into his shaving the hair, whisker, and moustache ott
one side of his head, so as to convert him into an.
emblem of peace and war—in fact, just what
occurred a year or two ago at Windsor and Canter-
bury. This time, to be sure, there has been no
mock duel ; but, as a set-off, there was a new teic
Pan-trick, played off the
other
rh
day
yy be called the
at
Brighton. The young officer who-
was marked out as the subject of this, pleasantry'
was forced into a chair and firmly strapped
dew:: in it, a napkin was tied under his chin,
and when he was in that position pap was thrust
into his mouth with a spoon. The young rioters,
it seems, must have studied the manipulations
of nurses with peculiar zeal. They had ob-
-served that when infants refused their food the
ladies who are most deeply versed in the mysteries
of nursing are in the habit of slapping the backs of
their interesting charges, and of accompanying
these slaps with cries which seem to stimulate the
powers of deglutition. This system was imitated
in the case of the Dragoon-babf•who had bee.o fas-
tened itt-the chair at Brighton the other day. We
read " that he was fed with par, and, on resisting,
was slapped behind, and treated in every respe et
like an infant." It may, perhaps, also be est€•n ed
something of a novelty in the annals of practical
joking, as understood at military messes, that in
the case of another young officer who had beou
marked out by his associates. as a fit subject for
forcible ridicule they stole some of his clothes, with
them dressed up a mannikin in the resemblance of
their companion in arms, and suspended it by the
neck from a dome in the barracks. These are th e
only two points of novelty in the recent transal:.-
tions at Brighton which appear to deserve particu -
lar notice. Nothing is alleged to the prejudice of
the young gentlemen who have been the victims of
these cruel absurdities but that they refused to join
in the pranks and bear's-play of their comrades.
The late Lord Hardinge in the last years of his
life set his face very determinedly against the sys-
tem of practical joking: It is true that it was not
until he bad been stimulated into forcible action
by the indignation which had been so generally
and vehemently
.expressed on the subject of the
Windsor Court-martial that he was roared to ex-
ertion. The point of honour with , tho military
authorities seems to be to show that they are in-
dependent of public opinion. This is called pre-
serving the army from the " dictation " of civilia.'is,
and redounds greatly to the honour and glory of
the advocates of the theory, who, we may renaNrk,
are chiefly composed of fussy old Generals, who,
.maunder about " anonymous " writers,
.and thi tik
themselves at liberty, so far as the press is c(_ fa-
cerned, to violate all the decencies of society. \V°
question, however, if the system would he mai :a-
taiued if its professors could at all appreciate ate
amount of disgrace and ridicule they bring upo•,u
that which should be a noble profession. Whoa.
civilians stand by and see suck a mockery of j ustict,
as that which took place in the case of Lieutenant
Perry at Windsor, or the farce at Chelsea Hospital
the other day, an amount of contempt for military
men and military administration-is aroused which
will one day most surely make itself felt. Mean-
while it operates to bring the military character
into discredit and to lower .the prestige of every
officer who wears the British uniform. With the ap-
pointment of the Duke of Cambridge as Coinmancler-
in• Chief, we hope, for the sake of the army, to see an
end of these absurd and mischievous traditions of
milirary rt ). He has entered upon his adminis-
tration . th clean hands ; let him ' avoid tlio
coon f the - self-opinionated old gentlemen
who w persuade him to disconnect the ideas
of mi:iar and of ordinary justice. Whenever
an .. e or a crime is brought under the
notice of the Commander-in-Chief—whether it
be committed 44y officer or by private let his
simple rescript be "Fiatjastitia," arid let justice be
rendered at once in the broad light of day, without
mystery and without prejudice. If what the advo-
cates of our present military system tell us be true,
they have everythiu,,,,, to gain, nothing ti lose, by
the utmost amount of publicity. We are informed
by them that the young officers who disgrace them-
selves and their profession by the perpetration of
these practical jokes are infinitely few in number—
that they constitute but a small percentage even of
the younger officers. Why, then, allow wealthy
and titled libertines to bully a young man of a
different disposition out of a regiment, and thus
ruin his military career for ever ? Above all
things avoid secrecy in these inquiries. No ono
supposes that the 28,000,000 of people who con-
stitute, the population of the British isles are habi-
tual pickpockets because a certain number of per-
sons are openly condemned for the commission of
that offence every year. If they were tried in
secret, and before judges whose first principle it was
to set the opinion of the public at defiance, it may
be that speculation would run in the other direc-
tion. .

After all, the judges of the land contrive to get •
through a good deal of business in the year in the
broad light of day, and to give general satisfaction.
Whenever cases are tried before them, the press—
that nightmare of General officers—preserves a
rerigious silence, because we are all aware that they
will do their duty. It is because there is a feeling
abroad of a diametrically opposite kind with regard
to military tribunals that their proceedings ordi-
narily excite clamoUr and discontent. They are
not trusted, and hence the pnblic attention is keenly
alive to their proceedings. A change Of policy on
their part would soon lull to rest all this jealousy
and suspicion. At present the received opinion is
that the morality of a military tribunal is lower
than that of any other judicial board in the king-
dom. Let us hope that the Duke of Cambridge will
introduce changes_ in the military administration in
this particular, for it closely concerns the honour of
the profession of which he is the recognised chief.
To pass from this more general view of the case to tho
particular instance now before us, can there be any-
thing more lowering in the public estimation to the
younger officers of the army than this system of
practical joking The Duke of Cambridge, who
has an extensive experience of the usagesof foreign
services, must be well aware that, had such an
affair as the one which has recently occurred at
Brighton happened in any regiment in the employ-
ment of France, Austria, or Prusiia, the unfortu-
nate young man who had been the subject of the
practical joke could not have remained in the ser-
vice unless he had successively met and slain every
one of the officers who had so grievously insulted
him. We doubt if any minor wound would have
been held sufficient to atone for the offence ; but at
least the offended officer must have challenged his
assailants to mortal combat, and risked his own
life to purge his honour. Now, we have no wish
to z.ee the army turned into a school for duellists,
but at least let it not be a cockpit for unmannerly
schoolboys. Blows and practical jokes are not for
those who have arrived at man's estate, be they
soldiers or civilians. [tough play begets rough play,
and there is au end of all dignity and self-respect.
Should the charges against Lord Ernest
Tem-
pest and his associates be proved, we trust thatin they
will not be allowed to remain a day longer the
service.— Times.

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