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

THE ARMY.

The iollowing movements and appointments in
the Royal Artillery are announced in a general
regimental order, dated 4th just :—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, from 13th bri-
gade ; L. H. Halahan, M.D., from 14th brigade ;
T- 7. Orton, from 14th brigade ; W. Y. Jeeves, from
rah brigade ; J. W. Rimner, as per general regi-
mental order, April 1, 1859; H. F. Paterson, M.D.,
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 ; It. A.
Chapple, from 14th brigade ; R. U. Cashman, M.D.,
as per regimental order, April 1, 1859 ; J, 11.
Finnemore, from 11th brigade ; A. J. L. Hep-
worth, as per general regimental order, April 1,
1859 ; It. 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, nth 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
meats 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 he removed from the North
-Fort, Liverpool, to the Heugh battery, Hartlepool.
Officers commanding brigades of the Royal Artil-
lery are directed take such measures as will insure
correct and complete requisitions for annual cloth-
ing being received at the Horse Guards at the
periods fixed by the clothing warrant page 18,
paertra. graph
7, much inconvenience having been ex-
at the
penced through requisitions not coming to hand
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 -‘et been deducted.
A notification was ddterday received at Wool-
wich from the Board of Admiralty statin that
g
henceforth the good-conduct medals awarded to
men serving in the Royal M ;
--ar'nes Corps would he
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 eatablishinent 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 he continued daily throughout
the winter.

The fort at " Lumps," near Southsea Castle, Ports-
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 sweepin; 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. BRIGlir 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 as will 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 tie 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 ve:ould, if practically carried out,
elevate the:poi,' tical character of the nation, improve
its social "prospects and confirm its public liberties.
W`e have said that on this occasion we can go
b:aif 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 lauded 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 course,
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 accu-
mulate. There are no people so tenacious of land as
the small proprietors of Trance, who will cling to
their plots, in spite of debt and' mortgages, long
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 abominations 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 " tl'e 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 ? Arc 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-
t unste 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
gentlemen 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.
Bright, no doubt it might be attained here ; but it
is as certain as experience can make it that the
Where Mr.
country would be none the more prosperous for it,
or its liberties the more secure.
which
Bright
nichofthtehet cumbrous and complicated forms by
was right was in his desetip-
should giverhainsfer of land is impeded, though we
the point if weingreater credit for his agitation on
measureshad ever
whichbeen activecouldhit ve
been
ht
recollect. that he or his friends
supporting the numerous
ihnetroduce.d for mitigating
the evil. Beyond doubt
either by law or lawyers aboueotmtlPiellesaalteloonts. land are
ilnuot
ut(i)iedii.esgiutsits an
landholders
th
themselveshis
o
are the chief sufferers. They,lkild their land at
tunes 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
and expense of the inquiries requisite for establish-
hp, them, and the length of time over which the
process of transfer is protracted are all so many
obstacles to the purchase, and consequently to the