The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-06 00:00:00

211 E ARMY.

The following •movements and appointments in
the Royal Artillery are announced in a general
regimental order, dated 4th inst :—Lieut. D. M.
Wilson, 4th brigade, is raised to increased pay
therein, vice Sandilands ; Lieut. S. Windham has
been appointed to the horse brigade, vice Sandi-
lands, promoted. The following removals of officers
are also announced :—Capt. Sandilands, from Ire-
land to Corfu; Lieut S. Windham, from Corfu to
Ireland. The following is to be the distribution of
the assistant-surgeons of the brigades serving in
India :-11th brigade, J. H. Hearn, froni 13th bri-
gade ;L. H. Halahan, M.D., from 14th brigade ;
T. J. Orton, from 14th brigade ; W. Y. Jeeves, from
13th brigade ;I. W. Rimner, as per general regi-
mental order, April 1, 1859; 11. F. Paterson, M. 1).,
from 14th brigade ; R. D. Burn, M.D., from 14th
brigade; A. P. Cowan, M.D., as per general regi-
mental order, July 2, 1860, 13th brigade; R. A.
Chapple, from 14th brigade ; It. U. Cashman, M.D.,
as per regimental order, April 1, 1859 ; S. H.
Finnemore, from 11th brigade; A. J. L. Hep-
worth, as per general regimental order, April 1,
1859 ; R. W. Clifton, from the 14th brigade ; A.
D. Gulland, M.D., from the 14th brigade ; A. W.
P. Pinkerton, M.D., as per general regimental
order, April 1, 1859 ; R. C. Crean, as per general
regimental order, 25th November, 1859. 14th
brigade, J. Barker, from 13th brigade ; W. Haugh-
ton, M. 8., from 11th brigade; G. Sharp, from 11th
brigade; A. R. Smith, from 11th brigade; J. M.
Taylor, from 13th brigade ; D. F. de Hodgson,
M.D., as per general regimental order, Ist of April,
1859 ; G. D. Milne, M.D., from 13th brigade ; W.
Tanner, from 11th brigade. The following appoint

ments and removal of master gunners have been

approved by his Royal Highness the General Com-
manding-in-Chief, viz. :—Battery Sergeant Major
Matthew Renham, of the Coast Brigade, to be
master gunner at Shoreham, vice Wright, pen-
sioned; Sergeant Bernard Dolan, of the Coast
Brigade, to be master gunner at Ware Basin Bat-
tery, Sunderland, by augmentation, and Master
Gunner Robinson to be removed from the North
-P°lt, Liverpool, to the Heugh battery, Hartlepool.
"racers commanding brigades
of the Royal Artil-
lery are directed take such measures as will insure
correct mad complete requisitions for annual cloth-
ing being received at the Horse Guards at the
periods fixed .
by the clothing warrant page 18,
7
paragraph , ranch .
inconvenience having been ex-
perienced through requisitions not coming to hand
at the proper time, and many of these received are
comparatively useless in consequence of the num-
bers and sizes of the surplus clothing being omitted,
and it not being stated in the requisitions whether
the surplus had or had '''t)3een deducted.
A notification was 3. esterday received at Adni Wool-
wich from the
Board of ty stating that
henceforth the good-conduct medalsir
awarded to
men serving in the Royal Marines Corps Would be
delivered as follows:—the first, after three years'
service, instead of five, as heretofore; the second,
after eight; the third, after 13 ; and the fourth,
after 16, in cases well recommended.
Orders were yesterday received at the head- "
quarters of the Royal Engineers at Chatham,
directing the necessary quarters to be prepared at
Brompton barracks for the officers and men of the
32d Company, who will arrive at the Royal Engi-
neer establishment to-morrow from Alderney,
where it has been stationed a considerable period,
and employed in the repair of the defences of that
island.

In compliance with a garrison order the regi-
ments of the line and militia stationed in Portsmouth
garrison have commenced a course of drill with the
32-pounder guns in position on the walls of the
fortress, which will be continued daily throughout
the winter.

The fort at " Lumpsinear Southsea Castle, Forts.
mouth has been completed by the contractors, and
is now ready for arming at the hands of the War
Department The work has been eonstructed to
mount 17 guns, nine on its sea face and four each
on its east and west flanks; 14 of the guns will fire

through embrasures on the parapet, the remaining
three will be pivot guns, and mounted on circular
bastions, or cavaliers, on the salient angles of the
front of the work; all three sweeping each flank
as well as the front, and dominating the whole
work. The rear of the work is undefended by artil-
lery, being closed from each flank by an earthen
parapet, with a brick wall, pierced for a rifle fire, a
building for officers' and men's quarters, and the
entrance gate. The whole is surrounded by a wet
ditch, not revetted, of good depth and breadth in
front, but greatly diminishing in both points on the
rear or landward side. The entrance gate on this
side is gained by a drawbridge, the rolling part of
which being withdrawn leaves a gap over the ditch
four paces wide. The whole width of the ditch at
this point is 16 paces. The ditch in front is flanked
by three caponnieres, one at each angle. The front
of the work is covered by an earthen glacis, which
extends to a short distance within high water mark.
The front or sea face thus presents a bold profile,
but the ditch not being revetted, and the sides and
bottom of the ditch consisting of nothing beyond
shingle and loose sand, it is not likely to maintain
its present angle for any length of time ; even now,
the late rains have caused several fissures to appear
along its slopes. During south-east gales a heavy
sea rolls in along the beach in front of the work,
and makes continual encroachments upon the beach
line, washing the earth away in large masses; in
fact, so much has the sea encroached upon the land,
that a portion of the foundations of the works
erected during the French war at this same point
is now below high-water mark. To counteract this
serious evil, the original contract contained provi-
sions for the construction of a sea-wall in the imme-
diate front of the work. Subsequent investigations
have, however, proved the utter impossibility of
doing this, owing to the nature of the ground, and
it now remains to erect groins or devise some other
means to resist the action of the sea, which else may
soon clear its way to the very escarpment of the
work itself. The rear of the work is weak, as the
brickwork could be breasted by a couple of field-
pieces, and the circular bastions are perfectly open
to rifle fire from the adjoining fields and hedgerows.
The interior of the work contains accommodation
for about 50 officers and men. The whole of the
works, masonry and earth, have been finished in a
very superior style:

MR. BRIGHT AND FREEHOLD LAND

SOCIETIES.

(From the Times.)

It is pleasant to find a speech of Mr. Bright's
with half of which we can agree. That energetic
orator has just been promoting a " movement" in
favour of the Freehold Land Societies of Birming-
ham;and, as was to be expected, has delivered him-
self of some decided views on the tenure of land in
this country. The societies in question are formed
for the purpose of facilitating the purchase of land
in such small plots aswill place the bargains within
the reach of all who have saved a little money—the
ultimate object, of course, being the acquisition of
the vote which the land will convey. On this sub-
ject we need say very little. The scheme, whether
judicious or otherwise, has been adopted by all
political parties in turn, and the result will proba-
bly leave them where they stood before. Mr.
Bright's argument, however, took a wider range
than the mere advocacy of this particular "move-
ment," and embraced the various conditions affect-
ing the sale and purchase of land under our present
system. According to this argument, the law of
primogeniture and entail are especially pernicious
to the wellbeing of the population, and the practices
connected with the transfer of land scarcely less
so, Together, they have the effect of locking up
the land in few hands, and excluding the people
at large from the possession of any " small portion
of the soil of the country" in which they live. All
such laws and usages ought to be swept away.
Land ought to be free, just as cotton and corn is
free. It ought to be readily negotiable, obtainable
at a moderate price, and distributed among the
population more generally, instead of being accu-
mulated in the hands of particular families or pro-
prietors. That is Mr, Bright's theory, which,
indeed, he has inculcated upon many previous
occasions, and he, of course, concludes with an
inference that it would, if practically carried out,
elevate the politicai character of the nation, improve
its social prospects, and confirm its public liberties.
We have said that ou this occasion we can go
half way with Mr. Bright's arguments, but we are
by no means clear as to the exact scope of his pro-
position. If his object in denouncing the law of
primogeniture and entail is simply to dismember all
considerable estates, and dispossess all large pro-
prietors, we can comprehend his sentiments, though
we do not share them ; but if he was .addressing
himself to the object before the meeting we do not
see the force of his harangue. People are already
free to associate and buy land, nor is there any
difficulty in finding land to buy. In all but a few
exceptional districts of the country land may be had
at almost any time and in almost any quantity.
Our advertising columns give proof enough of this.
It is pretty nearly as easy to make an investment
in land as in the funds or in railways; nor is the
price at all extravagant in comparison with other
securities. Notwithstanding the solidity of the
property, and the favour in which landed estate is
always held, it can be brought to pay a better in-
terest than Consols. At this moment a working
man who had saved enough to buy an income of
40s. a-year in the funds could buy a larger income
in freehold land with the same money. Of oourse,
there is some difficulty in meeting with a number
of small bargains in the market, but that is pre-
cisely the difficulty which Land Societies are cal-
culated to remove, by purchasing large estates for
the purpose of dissection and distribution; and it
would certainly not be experienced in a less degree
if Mr. Bright's theory were in full operation. Our
Land Societies would be a good deal more puzzled
in France, where estates are perpetually cut up,
than in England, where they are allowed to *cu-
mulate. There are no people so tenacious of laced as
the small proprietors of France, who will cling to
their plots, in spite of debt and mortgages, lone.
after they should have been sent into the market.
°
Mr. Bright evinced a remarkable consciousness
of the infirmity of his own case. He could not so
much as describe the aheminations of the law of
primogeniture and entail without observing that
he should, no doubt, be told by " editors of news-
papers" and others that the restrictions he spoke
of did not exist. He was fain to qualify his own
words, and that so materially as to leave very little
residue behind. We certainly must remind him,
exactly as he had anticipated, that " there is no
such thing in England as the law of primogeni-
ture," and that " the laws of entail are not as they
used to be." A man may dispose of his estate pre-
cisely according to his own caprices, and if, failing
such disposition on his part, the law gives it to his
eldest son, that is because there is a fair presump-
tion from the majority of examples that he would
have done this very thing himself if he had done
anything at all. We have no wish, however, to
! blink the question. It is quite true that in this
country tradition favours, and the law to some
extent admits, the accumulation of landed property;
whereas in some other countries tradition and law
work in the opposite direction, and it is perfectly
reasonable to inquire which of these two principles
is the better one. For the answer we can hardly
do better than turn to France, where exactly such
a revolution as Mr. Bright contemplates has within
the last 70 years been actually accomplished. The
soil of France is for the most part parcelled out
among an infinity of small proprietors, and the
Legislature has done all in its power to perpetuate
this distribution and prevent the accumulation of
that species of property. Looking at Frenchmen,
then, from Mr. Bright's point of view, are they
better off than we are ? Are the agricultural classes
of France more enterprising and prosperous than
ours ? Do the French people generally enjoy
greater political freedom ? Have any of those for-
tunate results ensued which Mr. Bright now con-
fidently predicts as contingent on the adoption of
his theory ? Not one, and that Mr. Bright knows
as well as we do. Landed proprietors and country
gentlemenliright,
n o have, indeed, almost ceased to enter as a
class into the composition of the French nation, and,
if that result would be sufficient to satisfy Mr.
countryis as
doubt it might be attained here ; but it
certain
as experience can make it that the
would be none the more prosperous for it,
nor its liberties the more secure.
Where Mr. Bright was right was in his d
esciip-
tion of thecumbrousufland
and complicated forme by
e 7 creditdi forsimpeded
shouldwhicfi thegiv
e transferhim
greathis
agitationt ng hwo
on
the point if we could recollect that he or his friends
had ever been active in
supporting
h e numerous.
measures which have been introduced
the evil. Beyond doubt the complications
sittirrotTng
either by law or lawyers about the sale of land Le
enough to disgust any purchaser with his bargain,
but, even here it is the landholders themselves who
are the chief sufferers. They find their land at
times almost unsaleable, though they may be really
anxious to sell, while others are as desirous of buy_
ing. The disputable nature of titles, the obscurity
i
and expense of the nquiiresrequisitLfor whichrest theablish
ing,them, and the length of time
profess of transfer is protracteclare allso
tmany
obstacles to the purchase, and consequently

~s

sale of land, though they would be felt less by the
members of land societies than by any other persons.
But the truth of the matter is that Mr. Bright's
leading theory respecting the value of " small por-
tions of the soil" is altogether a mistake. Excepting
for incidental advantages, a small piece of land is
of no use to anybody, and is decidedly a bad property
to hold. A man may buy it for the vote it carries,
or for a garden or paddock or poultry-yard, and, if
he has the money to keep it up, it will yield him a
good return in gratification or amusement. To
suppose, however, that the mere possession of an
acre or half an acre of the soil will confer upon a
man any peculiar advantage not derivable from its
equivalent under other forms of perperty is an utter
fallacy. In point of fact, such plots of land cost
money not only to buy, but to keep. They are little
luxuries ; very agreeable, but absolutely unremu-
nerative ; and if a poor man had such a bit of pro-
perty the wisest thing he could do would be to sell
it at once. If he attempted to " live on it" he would
find himself in the hands of mortgagees and money-
lenders before twelve months were over, as is seen
in France, where half the petty proprietors are held
in bondage by the tradesmen of the nearest towns.
The accumulation of land, in short, which after all
is not greater than the accumulation of money, is
so
strictly consequent upon the very nature of
things that it requires arbitrary laws to prevent it,
and that fact ought to be pretty decisive of the
whole merits of the question.

(Front the Morning Herald.)
John Bright is, for all his burly proportions,
shallow in heart, narrow in mind, poor in principle.
He has no deep thoughts, no enlarged views, no
ennobling aspirations. He has been little in his
whole career. Like a bluebottle, he has buzzed
about, making a noise and tainting whatever he
fastened upon. What in his entire lifetime has he
done ? In the corn-law repeal movement he was
only second fiddle, and this by an act of forward
presumption. He has sat in Parliament many
years, and he has not set the seal of amelioration
or improvement on one page of the statute-book.
He has stedfastly withstood any real amendment
in the condition of the working classes. He opposed
the Ten Hours Bill, the' Dyeing Works Bill, and
assisted with all his might in the ruin of the
Coventry weavers. His ideas are froth, and must
come uppermost. He talks well, as many such men
must, but there is no substratum of education,
knowledge, or sound intellect beneath. He has
just been effervescing in Birniingham. He had got
hold of a subject just suited to the grasp of his
mind. The abrogation of the law of primogeniture
is just such a matter as he could dwell upon. It
looks so equal and honest, so clear, simple, and demo-
cratic. What more easily comprehended by the
rabble than that property should be divided evenly
—that each child should carry off his stick, and
break and bend it as he pleased. Thus the bundle
might be got rid of, and the hated aristocracy fall
to pieces. He chooses to forget the old apologue.
He is for equality and independence, not strength
and union. He does not know that this usage of
primogeniture (we shall not call it a law) is deeply
seated in nature ; that it arises from an intuitive
perception of the power of combination. A river
broken into rills, and scattered through meadows,
evaporates and is lost ; assets cut up into small
dividends become Id. in the pound ; when the
cake is sliced among the whole family, they can
each have but a morsel. And so it is with pro-
perty. What would be or real worth, bulk, and
use, if left to one, dwindles to almost nothing
when shared among the many. If we go dividing,
subdividing, and retailing without end from
fathers to sons, the entire estate disappears. It is
worth nobody's while to look after it, and so it is
neglected and forgotten. We wonder considerations
as simple and ready as these, and withal so natural,
so forcible and reasonable, did not present them-
selves to the tribune's mind as he expatiated on the
rights of younger sons and the privileges of the
working classes. More begets more, and A left an
estate, has every motive and opportunity to im-
prove and augment it ; but if it happened to be
separated into small allotments there would be no
means for proper cultivation, and the attractive and
accumulative force inherent in property must be
gradually weakened and finally vanish. If the
equal partition is so just and wise we wonder that
fathers should delay it for a single day. Why not
tell off each child's share every night, or every
week, or at least once a year ? Why go on gather-
ing, and hoarding and agglomerating till the hour
of death ? Justice and wisdom cannot come too
soon, and if the equal division is so good and pru-
dent in itself, it is cruel to postpone it so long. But
if, on the other hand, the accumulation is thrifty
and sound, it must be politic and sensible also to
perpetuate it for a reasonable number of years, by
the law of the land. Why should a man's material
property die away with his death ? If he writes a
book. if he achieves a name, they live after him. Is
it asking too much that the result of his anxieties,
exertions, and labours for gain should not be en-
tirely snuffed out by the finger of death, as it would
he if the rule once got into vogue of infinitesimal
division ? Mr. Bright, in his narrow-mindedness,
is striking at the enterprise and prosperity of his
own order. If business men are to be the only class
of thriving mortals who are to build up nothing
for posterity, but to share their fortunes and die,
what becomes of the motive to continuous labour ?
We shall have a nation of small people, a poor
country; we shall have a level area just brought
down to the scope of universal suffrage and ab-
solute tyranny. America is no fair example. She
is young, and has boundless territories as yet to
grow upon. But France is before us, and to what
has its landholders fallen ? They are peasantry, not
gentry; they are not placed to stand between the
throne and despotism, but to elect and promote
supreme and autocratic rule. There is too much
strong sense, to :deep a respect for natural ambi-
tion, too grateful a recognition et' successful expe-
rience among Englishmen-, to desire that the law of
primogeniture were swept away. With this would
go the power, the prosperity, the glory, and the
freedom of the country. We should all shrink
down to Mr. Bright's class, and become a very
small people. But, in truth, there is no binding
law of primogeniture; there is nothing to compel a
father to leave his real property to his eldest son if
he wills to the contrary. He may cut up his estate
into as many fragments as he likes and dispose of
it where he wishes. There is only the prescriptive
usage, which is, indeed, a very strong law. If the
parent does not will otherwise the eldest son will
take the real property ; and eves if it is entailed,
the father, with the consent of the son or next-heir,
can cut it off, thus leaving it free again for partition
or dissipation. Mr.:Bright knows this, and has
admitted it, and yet he has the iniquity to parade
so wise, considerate, and equitable a dispensation
as a cruel injustice to the humbler classes.
The truth is this, Mr. Bright is strenuously
labouring to destroy the constitution of this coun-
try. In his lifetime he would see a republic in
England. He would have the lumber of the Throne,
the Church, and the aristocracy swept away, and,
as a safe beginning, he wants to abolish 'what we
call the law of primogeniture. To effect this pur-
pose he hunts up his books to cram himself with
assertion or argument. He finds the" Encyclopaedia
Metropolitana" against him, and he runs across the
Atlantic to Bancroft ; this, too, not sufficing, he
dips into Fraser, and takes a gleaning from the
" Recreations of a Country Parson." The great
unwashed of Birmingham, are as a matter of course,
astounded at his information. That " one small
head could carry all" John Bright knows is, in-
deed, a prodigy, especially when Smith's " Wealth
of Nations" was added to the other learned cata-
logue. He had not a word to say to the condition
of the weavers, whether in Coventry, Lancashire,
or elsewhere. He did not sympathise with the far-
mers. His only bowels of compassion were for
those wretched slaves the agricultural labourers.
Their lot was, indeed, miserable, and to improve
it we must establish agrarian laws; we must, in
fact, have a revolution. To make this clear to the
Birminghamites he ventured a plunge into'the law
of real property, and had sunk far enough to get
into the mud, which he flung up plentifully to the
meeting. Mr. Bright has been long enough in the
House of Commons to know that no lawyer of any
weight or authority, or any landholder of respect-
ability and influence, defends the present state of
the law in all its particulars, and that the mode of
conveying land is one of the subjects which is ad.
mitted on every side to be largely capable of
improvements. It may be, too, that any peculiar
grievances of the freehold land societies might be
removed with general advantage, for these in them-
selves are excellent institutions. But all this, and
much more, in the way of law reform, we hope to
see effected without a revolution or any breach in
our constitutional safeguard of primogemture. It
is not hard for Mr. Bright to talk down to the
capacity of the mob; but he must born again to
level the bulk of strong sense and respect for suc-
cessful usages inherent in Englishmen.

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