The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-30 00:00:00

lights.
The report was adopted. Messrs. C. F. Kemo
and J. R. I'eill were re-elected auditors, and the
proceedings terminatei with a vote of thanki to the
Chairman.

REGEN i"S CANAL.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
on Wednesday at the offices, City-road Basin Mr
W. Parker in the chair.

The report stated that the gross receipts amounted
to £34,299, and the net profit to £21,104, to which
was added £603 from the preceding half-year, mak-
ing the available balakce £21,707. After providing
£1,276 for interest on new shares, and adding
£1,055 to the reserve fund, the balance would al-
low of a dividend of 14s. per share, free of income
tax, leaving £462 for the next account. Calls on
the new shares had been paid to the amount of
£78,798.
On the motion of the CHAIRMAN, resolutions
were passed adopting the report, declaring a divi-
dend of 14s. per share, payable on the 6th of May,
and authorizing the directors to raise £10,500 on
mortgage for the purchase of 4i acres of freehold
land near the Hertford Union Canal.

,

Trumpets versus Sabres.

Those numerous Englishmen who never hesitate
to draw contrasts between the military institutions
of the French and those of their own country, to
the prejudice of the latter, may learn a useful lesson
from two circumstances which have occurred almost
simultaneously within the last few days.
The Emperor Napoleon has promulgated an order
which abolishes music in his cavalry regiments, and
this for no better reason than that the musicians are
mounted at the expense of combatants, and that the
weight and bulk of musical instruments impede that
rapidity of movement desirable in cavalry.
About the same time that our warlike friends
acro-s the Channel thus sacrificed music to military
efficiency, the Queen of England presented the
second regiment of Life Guards with a cream-
coloured horse, to be ridden at the head of that
distinguished corps by " the celebrated kettle-
drummer, Corporal-Major Woodhouse," and yet we
are to believe that we are nut a military people!
Let us tell those meddling civilians and
those radical soldiers who pretend that our
army is capable of improvement that there
is no other country that possesses anything
at all like our Household Cavalry—the officers of
which are wealthier, the men of which are taller and

more expensive, and the horses of which carry
heavier weights than in any other cavalry in the
world. Why the boots, helmet, and cuirass of a
Life Guardsman would alone break the back of an
ordinary French troophorse ! Talk of military
spirit! What other nation in the world would ex-
pend about £lOO,OOO a-year upon 1,200 men to
mount guard in London and Windsor ? It is true
these 1,200 men have only 80) horses, but if one-
third of the combatants are dismounted all the
bandsmen have horses to ride; and we do not envy
the feelings of that man who could without emotion
hear the stirring notes of that gorgeous band on a
fine day in St. James's Park, or see the cream
coloured horse and the celebrated kettle drummer
without thanking Heaven for having made him an
Englishman.
We admit that our army is numerically weak,
and that we experience difficulty in recruiting the
ranks; but if there has. been a progressing falling
off in soldiers, there has been a more than corres-
ponding progressive increase year after year iu the
Army Estimates. Though only a small proportion
of our army is in possession of breech loaders, we
have not yet fallen so low that we should do away
with music in any arm of the service, and would as
soon agree to the purchase system or flogging being
abolished for ever, as allow the number of bands-
men in our cavalry corps to be reduced by one
trumpet.—Examiner.