The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-29 00:00:00

'ME SUN, LANDON, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 29, 1867.

according to their services and qualifications which
are totally wanting in the present system." The
different sources of promotion according to his
method would be comprised under the following
heads :-1. Invaliding on half-pay previously to
20 years' service ; 2. Invaliding on full pay after
20 years' service ; 3. Compulsory full pay retire.
mcnt at the maximum age to be fixed for each rank ;
4. Voluntary full pay retirement after 30 years'
service ; 5. Voluntary retirement without pension
previously to 30 years' servia?. ; 6. Death vacancies ;
7. Staff corps, depot battalions, army of reserve,
militia, &c. Whatever apparent expense these
arrangements might be attended with, there can be
no doubt that if our army were put on a new and
equitable footing the country would save a great deal
in actual outlay, as well as in obtaining more efficient
service, while officers would have less cause to com-
plain of the hardships and injustice of their treat-
ment. As Sir CHARLES very sensibly observes—

The system is so framed as first to create a dead
weight, and then to throw it off upon the shoulders
of the public ; and we have gone on so long com-
pensating officers for the losses occasioned by it,
and have incurred such heavy and indefinite expense
in the attempt to mend it, that we might return to
correct principles of army administration without
incurring additional expense—perhaps with consi-
derable ultimate saving." As it is the arrangements
are most hurtful to the honourable independence of
officers of moderate means. A man is compelled
to sacrifice all his private fortune to obtain promo-
tion, and then, in case of his death in action, his
widow and orphans have to be recommended as
recipients of public charity whereas more than
sufficient provision has been sacrificed by
the purchase system. Sir E. TREVELYAN cites
several painful cases of this nature, one in which,
after an investment of £12,000 in commissions, the
officer in question lost his life at sea in a transport.
Ile had been unable to insure from want of suffi-
cient income, and his widow was forced to depend
on the receipt of a pension. The sum provided in
the estimates for widows' pensions, compassionate
allowances, Royal allowances, and Relief Fund,
amounted in the year 1857-8 to £158,600. "This
multiplication of eleemosynary arrangements is
characteristic of a system which first de-
prives military officers of the means of
providing for their families, and then treats
their wives and children as objects of
charity." Without doubt the families of officers
who have lost their lives in the public service are
entitled to some provision from the State if their
circumstances require it, but if the purchase system
were altered officers of any standing or length of
service would be able to insure their lives, and thus
make their families independent of the capricious
gifts of favour and fortune.
The Military Reserve Fund, which has greatly
extended its operations of late years, is derived from
two sources, both of which, as our author remarks,
have a strong tendency to narrow the limits of pro-
motion without purchase. Officers are allowed to sell
commissions which they never purchased, and to re-
ceive a portion of the price, the remainder being
paid over to the Reserve Fund. But though the
officers who sell these commissions get only part of
the value, those who bay them are entitled to sell
them again at full value, so that every such free
commission passes to the purchase system. The
other source is a change in the management of the
cavalry commissions, so th It the purchase system
is strengthened and extended by Government

agency.
The excessive dimensions of the half-pay list is
another of the mischievous results of the purchas?.
systlm. Lithe French army, with 16,000 ofil .;ers, the
list on half-pay is small. In the Indian army out
of nearly 7,000 officers only 404 were on half-pay
in 1856. The original object was to enable officers
to retire on account of ill-health, but as every one
knows it is now altogether altered. The colonelcies
are pure sinecures, to which general officers descend
to get the pay. The regimental ag mcies are worse
than sinecures, for which over £40,000 a year is paid
by the country. Such is the verdict of au expe-
rienced and dispassionate observer, and it is surely
time to ask whether we cannot altogether amend
the cumbrous and costly machinery of our
military administration. With an immense
annual outlay there are yet constantly occurring
cases of individual hardship and suffering. While
we are overpaying the holders of sinecures we are
absorbing the private means of hardworking officers
of lower grades. It is no great wonder that, not-
withstanding all the attractions of a military life,
our army is no longer popular with the great middle
classes.

horrors of war, would Germany owe us nothing in
return ?" The Siecle, in conclusion, contends that
a refusal by Prussia to evacuate the fortress of
Luxembourg would be to sacrifice the maintenance
of peace from culpable pride. The friends of pro-
gress and peace in Germany can only make one
answer to the pacific addresses of the Parisian
people, and reply that they consent truly and
firmly to the proposal of the neutral Powers. "But
if,, unfortunately, our neighbours iu Germany
should believe in the idea of the decay of the Latin
race, an idea promulgated by the Gazette Nationale
of Berlin, war is inevitable. In that case, let.not
Germany deceive herself. Those who in France
are now the most sincerely pac fic will, perhaps,
be the last to liy down the arms which they have
been forced to take up."
There was a Cabinet Council yesterday at the
Tuileries at which the Emperor presided. The
Empress was present.
Yesterday the Emperor reviewed in the Court-
yard of the Tuileries the first division of infantry
of the first corps d'armee. The first division, under
the orders of General Count de None, was formed
in five lines opposite the Palace in the following
order :-Ist line, Ist battalion of Chasseurs ; 2d
line, 14th Regiment of Infantry, 2d brigade ; 4th
line, 31st Regiment of Infantry ; sth line, 58th
Regiment of Infantry. The Emperor passed along
the lines on horseback, and was enthusiastically
cheered. His Majesty was accompanied by Marshal
Canrobert, Minister of War ; General Fleury,
Grand Equerry, General of Brigade ; Viscount
Pajol, Aide-de-Camp ; General de Courson, Chief
of the General Staff of the Ist Corps d'Armee: and
the officers on service in the household of the Em-
peror. After having inspected each line his Majesty
bestowed medals and decorations upon several offi-
cers of different ranks. The troops defiled in ex-
cellent order, with cries of " Long live the Em-
peror, the Empress, and the Imperial Prince !"
A letter from Bagdad, dated the 21st of
March states that in consequence of the rup-
ture of the sluices which repress the waters of

the Tiger, the city of Bagdad has been subjected
to an inundation. The river suddenly inundated
the surrounding country, destroying the crops, and
also entire villages. The mass of water was only
arrested by the ramparts of Bagdad where the in-
habitants were engaged in endeavouring to stop it
from overwhelming the city.
A private telegram from Madrid states that the
Spanish Government, by orderi of the Queen, had
remitted the punishment pronounced against the
officers and soldiers who took part in the insurrec-
tions of the months of January and June last year,
on condition that they shall make their submission
within three months.

The weather is again unfavourable. It has rained
heavily during the afternoon, but it was seasonably

warm.

The Ilfoititeu; announces in its non-official part
that the marriage of the Count de Flandre with
the Princess Marie de Hohenzollern took place on
Thursday at Berlin, In conformity with the cere-
monial which had been arranged. . .

A private telegram from Messina states that the
King of Greece had arrived in that city, and was
to leave yesterday for Marseilles.
The Florence Gazette contradicts in a very posi-
tive manner the report that the new Minister of
Financ3 intended to propose the issue of paper
money in the form of assignats.
Monseigneur Gros, appointed Bishop of La
Tarentaise, will be consecrated on the Ist of May
at Chambery, by the Cardinal Archbishop of the
diocese. Mons. Mellon Jolly, Archbishop of Sens,
has sent in his resignation, which has been accepted
by the Pope, and his successor will be appointed
immediately.
The strike among the journeymen tailors has
entered upon a new phase, in consequence of many
of the workmen having agreed to a proposal of the
masters to give a general increase of 10 per cent.

upon all descriptions of work. There is, however,
still a strike among some other classes of workmen.
The Parisians have invented a less alarming word
for a strike : they call it a " cessation."
The Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid, one
of the finest buildings in Spain, has been totally
destroyed by fire.
A charitable indi% idual has left a legacy of I,ooof.

to the Hospital of Sculls in the department of the
Oise, the interest of which is to be laid out in the
purchase of snuff for the poor inmates of that hos-
pital. The donor thus literally bestows a luxury
without making the recipients pay through the nose
for it. _ _

A young girl, residing in the environs of Zvetch,
is blessed, or the contrary, with a tremendous ap-
petite. A day or two ago, after having eaten an
abundant dinner at home, she went to the house of
a friend, where with little or no persuasion she ate
a second dinner. They served her successively
with six enormous slices of bacon, one of them
sufficient for a reasonable person, which to the
stupefaction of the other guests she despatched in a
very brief space of time. Among them was a
young shepherd, to whom the girl is engaged, and
the account adds that the extraordinary appetite
of
matter. hisintended has made him " reflect" upon the

The Dreadful Tragedy at Buckhurst Hill.

LATEST PARTICULARS.

BucKIIURST HILL, Saturday Night.

This morning Dr. Horne reports that the young
girl is progressing favourably. The most dangerous
wound which she has received was one three inches
in depth, inflicted by the dagger, under her right
shoulder blade. It was out of that wound that the
brass sheath protector was extracted. None of the
other twelve wounds which she received are more
than an inch in depth. If she does recover Dr.
Horne states it will be simply owing to the extra-
ordinary power of endurance of her wonderful:3r
strong constitution. All here take the greatest
interest in the case, and the sufferer is receiving
considerable attention.

The girl has told Dr. Horne that she did not hear I
a clock strike while she was lying in the field on
the night of the tragic occurrence from ten o'clock
until she heard Buckhurst-hill Church strike four..
The sound of the striking appeared to awake her,
and she got up and leaned against the fence, where
she Was found by the policeman. She had become
sensible two or three times before that, but she was
only able to crawl along the grass. It was very
cold, and the rain fell heavily.
The prisoner is quite unconcerned about the
whole affair, and speaks about is with the greatest
freedom. When he was being taken to prison on
Thursday afternoon, as he was riding in a railway
carriage along the Great Eastern line, he saw some
lady he knew on one of the station platforms. To
the surprise of the people he nodded, laughed, and
waved his handcuffed hands at her.

LATEST PARTICULARS THIS DAY.
The prisoner Frederick Watkins will be examined
to-morrow before the magistrates at Ilford, when
➢lr. Abrams will attend to defend the prisoner. A
number of witnesses will be in attendance on the
part of the prisoner, to prove that the prisoner for
the last tight or nine months had caused great
anxiety to his relatives in consequence of his very
peculiar conduct. A great deal of trash is being
written about the matter, in order to please the
palate of sensation readers, but beyond the facts
we have already published nothing is known.
The girl, there is now great hope, will recover ;
and under such circumstances the magisterial in-
quiry to-morrow will be merely a repetition of the
facts already known, and the prisoner will be re-
! tnanded from time to time until the fate of the
wounded girl is known. Watkins conducts himself
very quietly in prison. lie at tittles falls into a
state of apparent deep distress of mind, but on the
whole he treats the matter with great indifference,
he having, he says, made up his mind for the worst.

A Reform meeting was held on Friday night in
the City Hall, Glasgow, and resolutions were passed speci-
fying the faults and omissions in the Government Reform
Bill, and declaring that the proposal of a £5 rating quali-
fication was as little calculated to settle the question of
reform as the Government measure, and that the only
true and permanent basis of representation consisted of
manhood ouffrap and the ballet.

LA TEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.

SOUTHAMPTON, April 29.

The North German Lloyd steamer Hermann,
Capt. Wenke, from New York, has arrived with
189 passengers for this port, Havre, and Bremen,
27 sacks of mails for London, and $119,422 also for
London.

The Hermann left New York on the 18th inst.
On the 26th, in lat. 48.34 long. 20.1, passed the
North Gorman Lloyd steamer Union, bound for
New York ; and on the 27th, in lat. 49.30 long.
11.20, spoke the English bark Economist, from
Milford Ilaven, bound west.

NEW YORK, April 18 (Morning).

General Sheridan is reported to intend ordering
several participants in the New Orleans riots to be
tried by Military Commission.
A national Scientific Expedition to explore
Russian America is being organised at Washington.
Advices received here from Vera Cruz to 7th
instant state that the city is still closely besieged.
According to Imperial accounts Miramon, after
defeating Escobedo, marched upon Guadalajara.
Escobedo was besieged in San Luis by Mejia.

Republican accounts state that Porfirio Diaz had
captured Puebla. The Emperor Maximilian
attempted to break the siege of Queretaro, but was
defeated, and the town is still besieged. Juarez
had ordered that the Emperor, if captured, should
be treated as a prisoner of war, with the considera-
tion due to unsuccessful valour. An American
steamer has arrived at Tampico equipped as a
Republican man-of-war.

QUEENSTOWN, April 29.

The Cunard extra steamship Tripoli, from New
York, arrived hero at 12.10 a.m. to-day with 34
passengers, including nine cabin. She landed five
passengers, and proceeded for Liverpool, at 12.30
a.m. All well.

THE CANDIAN INSURRECTION.
ATHENS, April 25.

Advices received here from Candia announce
that Omar Pasha had let Canea with a large force,
including artillery, and was marching upon
Sphakbia.

Another Turkish General had sA out for Kis-
samos by sea for the same destination, in order to
surround the insurgents.