The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-17 00:00:00

THE LATE YR. WEIR.

(From the Globe.) ,
The _Daily News announces the death of its
principal editor, Mr. William Weir; an announce-
ment which will occasion genuine regret, and not
alone within the walls of the office. A student at
the universities of Scotland and of Germany, and at
the Scottish bar, Mr. Weir had acquired a most
accomplished familiarity with history, literature,
and law, in the spirit of those studies as well as in
the letter. Endowed with natural taste, which his
friendship with congenial minds had developed and
refined, he was widely read in the artistic as well
as graver sides of modern literature. It may be
said that he was master of the library of Europe.
Of geography he had made a special study, and was
at home in any part of the map of the world. His
friends justly anticipated for him a brilliant career
at the Scottish bar, and ultimately no doubt in
Parliament, whose debates he would have en-
lightened and adorned • but a strong, incurable, and
increasing deafness drove him from the profession
of law into journalism ; to which he brought attain-
ments such as few writers command, a
generous heart and a flowing pen. Indeed one
of the two faults, that beset him in his career—the
barrier which his deafness opposed to easy conver-
sation being the second—was almost a redundant
readiness with the pen, which at times induced him
to do scanty justice to his own maturer thought.
But wise at heart, almost universally informed,
possessing a memory tenacious and ever at call, he
could not hold his post without earning a high re-
pute. The grief of those who knew him at their
sudden loss is lessened not increased, as we some-
times fancy—by the reflection that, if there was
one thing of which William Weir was incapable,
it was to do anything ungenerous, coldhearted, or
ungraceful.

(From the Times)
Under this title the Daily .News publishes a well-
earned tribute to the memory of its late editor—a
gentleman to whom :the public is greatly indebted
for the able and honest conduct of that journal.
We have often differed with it, but never without
sincere respect for the ability and the gentlemanly
spirit in which it was conducted--a spirit which
has made it, the youngest of our contemporaries, a
worthy representative of the English press.

THE _RECONSTRUCTION OF THE
INDIAN ARMY.

We have at present two boards deliberating on
the reconstruction of the Indian army, one sitting
in London and the other in Bengal. The English
board consists of the Marquis of Tweedda le, formerly
Governor and Comthander-in-Chief of Madras ; of
Lord Melville, better known as Col. Dundas, who
commanded the 60th Rifles in Scinde, and after-
wards in the Punjab between 1848 and 1852 ; Sir
Harry Smith, low, Adjutant-General of Queen's
Troops in India, and afterwards so famous at Budi-
wal and Aliwal in 1846 ; Gen. Hancock, long our
Adjutant-General, represents the Bombay army ;
Gen. Montgomery that of Madras; and Gen. Burl-
ton and Col. Tait that of Bengal. The committee,
we confess, does not seem a promising one. The
Marquis of Tweeddalc was never in a position fully
to realise the character of the sepoys. Lord Mel-
ville's violent prejudices against the Bengal army
are on record, and one and all of them
have the fatal objections of being wholly of
the traditions of former years, and not• up
to the time or the events to be dealt with by them.
They are nearly all sure to set about restoring the
system which has been shown to be obsolete and
incapable of restoration. The Sepoy army, to all
rational men, can only beregarded as a thing of the
past ; even the Sepoys of Madras and Bombay
must have new functions and a new place assigned
to them, and the maintenance and defence of India
must hereafter, be entrusted to European hands.
What we esteemed a vase of porcelain, beautiful as
it was strong, has turned out a miserable potsherd,
which lies in fragments at our feet, after having
cut and briiised the hands of those who cherished
it. Its pieces can never be cemented. The attempt
to restore it without its fancied strength or appa-
rent, seemliness, gives it back to us with its only
dangerous qualities left. Sir John Lawrence, Cal.
Edwardes, and Col. Durand constitute the Tiidian
Board. The names of these gentlemen are too well
known to require us to speak of their qualifications.
We should expect them all to be biassed against
sepoy.soldiers of the line, and against anything like
caste in the army at all. Whoever we intrust with
arms in their hands, and in whatever capacity they
appear, whether as irregulars or police, we trust
their appearance as regulars is a 'thing so utterly
out of the question as to be regarded as an impossi-
bility, they must be made aware that only one power
can be recognised amongthem ; that the commands
of competent authority are supreme, to which
everything, caste prejudice .included, must give
way. They are perfectly at liberty to enlist or
decline enlisting on these terms ; having once en-
listed, they must_ abide by the bond. When the
State sets aside a part of its citizens intrusted with
weapons, and which they are authorised to employ
against the people, care must be taken that in no
case shall they be used for other ends than those
for which they were issued. We should strongly
impress upon officers at the same time, as they value
the affection and respect of their men, cautiously to
abstain from doing anything calculated to hurt
their feelings or interfere with their prejudices.
To ignore caste as a power is not necessary to
assail it as a nuisance. The men should be made
to understand that we no nothing and care nothing
about their caste ; we do not recognise its existence ;
we neither assail it, nor do we submit for one.mo-
nient to its tyranny. Brave, temperate, and obe-
dient men will be dealt with as such,--neither be in.
terfered with nor be permitted to interfere.—Bonz-
bay Standard, Aug. 16.

. --
We (Gla6fioa; Daily Mail) understand that the
Right Hon. W. E.Gladstone, M.P., has, within these few
days, been on a visit to. Glasgow. Possibly an early period
of next session of Parliament will reveal some Scotch Ima-
m: to the result of hts xitatto the north,