The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-22 00:00:00

prepossessions, the whole subject must be considered
as placed before unprofessional common sense for

its arbitration.

It would, of course, be strange indeed if on such
a question much could not be said on both sides.
The intelligence, skill, and courage of numerous
Indian officers, and the bravery of the troops they

have commanded, no one would think of question-
ing ; all, on the contrary, would be disposed to
glory of their countrymen's achievements in India,
as well as everywhere else. Not only that, but
authorities on what we deem the wrong side, and
first-rate authorities, too, may doubtless be found
in abundance. But then so they may on the

other; and sometimes their opinions at one

time may seem to be in conflict with those
expressed at another. We apprehend, therefore,
that we must hear the arguments of each, and de-

cide for ourselves. The subject is a great and Im

perial one. Difficulties and advantages may be
alleged on both sides, and Imperial considera-

tions must decide.

The past principle of the Indian army has been
that it could ask troops of us, and we could not
not send a regiment to India without its request
bat, that it could send one home whenever it pleased,
While all the management, the promotion, and
patronage, depended on the Indian authorities. The
Indian army was not, therefore, at the orders
of the Imperial Government. This, we say,
ought not to be. We ought to be able, if we
felt it to be necessary, to renounce our entire
Indian Empire in a day. We hope that such
an event may be in the far future—indeed, that it
may never arrive—but, suppose that the safety of
the seat of the Empire demanded the recall of the
legions which defend its Eastern subjects—that we
must leave them, for our own sakes, to the Rus-
sians, perhaps, as the Romans left us to the Saxons
—that, however it might imply the decadence of
England's sun, we yet must have all our forces at
home—ought we to be in a position in which
it could not be. Or, not to take so extreme and
unlikely a case, ought we not to have our troops
disposable for the advantage of the Empire as a
whole, according to the best judgment of the
rulers of the day ?
Lord STANLEY enumerates several difficulties in
finding a substitute for the present plan, but he
certainly mentions none which are insurmountable,
not indeed, according to our best judgment, easily
surmountable. He thought that there would be
a difficulty in getting officers of the Line to choose
service in India, or to retain it. General PEEL,
who ought to know best on this particular point,
thinks the difficulty will be rather the other way,
and that Indian service will be scrambled for. We
should certainly think so. It must always be at-
tractive to the numerous young men of pluck, and
adventurous spirit who abound in our service, and
would abound yet more if there were more scope for
their energy and talents. Then, again, he says
that the Indian Government would be at a loss for
the very numerous military officers whom it has
been accustomed to draught from the army into the
civil services. Now we remember to have heard
certain complaints that the army and the civil
service were to a very large extent managed in a
way which enabled old directors to retain the
patronage of which Parliament intended to deprive
them by a round about process—but, acknowledg-
ing the full merits of numerous civil servants
whose first training was a military one—acknow-
ledging that in a great part of such a country as
India, a little of the discipline of military despotism
and its " rough and ready" justice would be a
qualification rather than otherwise for civil service
—we cannot at all comprehend why officers of her
MAJESTY'S troops should not be allowed to do
civil work in India. We know they do it in
England. We know for instance that an officer
in her MAJESTY'S Army can do the very civil work
of writing letters for Prince ALBERT (perhaps for
Louis NAPOLEON to read), and can not only take
his civil pay for that, but rise to the rank and
emolument of a Colonel also. Why, in India,
should not every officer qualified for civil service
exercise his talents in that way, if the Indian
Government, representing her MAJESTY, judged it
best for the public interest ? Why should there
not be in this respect, in India, the carrying out of
the good rule of putting " the right man in the
right place ?"
After all, the fact cannot be got rid of,
that when an army has long ceased to consider
itself an Imperial army—when it has, indeed,
so separated the services that it came home
rather than serve under the QUEEN without a fresh
bounty—when in consequence of forgetting its Im-
perial allegiance it approaches the very borders
of mutiny—it cannot be denied that the system
which produces such results is one which we can-
not safely continue. The old Indian army is gone.
We have a clearer field now to begin with than we
can have for a long time to come, and we must avail
ourselves of the opportunity to have one Imperial
army for Imperial purposes. India is governed now
by the QUEEN, it must be defended by the QUEEN'S
Army. It is destined, we trust, soon to become
both in a civil and military aspect quite another
country. Our army there is to have the benefit of
sanatory positions, from which railroads will make
their services promptly available, at great distances.
Government, for the natives, not for the enrich-
ment of a Civil Service, and better employment for
the former by the introduction of English capital,
are to attach the natives to our rule ; and, even at
the worst, a few thousand Europeans have always
been able, since the days of the younger CYRUS, to
traverse all Asia in any direction they may please.

We are fast coming to the end of our periodical
panics about invasion. The days of the alarmists
are numbered. England is no longer without a
Channel fleet. There is a truce put at length to
her protracted apathy about her military and ma-
ritime organisation. At the Horse Guards and at
the Admiralty, an entirely new regime has been
established. The royal navy is by this time either
reconstructed or in course of reconstruction. In

lieu of promotion by purchase and advancement
*by interest, we have our system of competitivo exa-
minations, The application of the screw-propeller
to our men-of-war is no longer the exception—it is
the rule. The rifle has distanced brown bess as
effectually as the revolver the horse-pistol; or as the
horse-pistol before it did the blunderbus; or as the
blunderbus had previously the crossbow and the
sling. There is not much probability now-a•days
of any future NELSON eating his heart out in a
futile appeal for " frigates;" or of another NAPIER
having his energies crippled by a want of gunboats
with a light draught of water. Even the whole of
our gigantic system of ordnance has been raised and
amended. The era of the old cumbrous fieldpieces
has gong by—yea, as completely as the age of the
arquebuss ! There has been an advance or two in
this way since the year in which ScnwAßTy. in-
vented gunpowder. If we have lost the secret of
the Greek fire we have at any rate been supplied of
late with a few tolerable substitutes from Captain
NORTON'S repertory. And, in appropriate com-
panionship with the development of the system of
electric telegraph, there has been witnessed the
realisation at last—through the agency of Mr.
WHITWORTH and Sir WILLIAM ARMSTRONG Of