The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-30 00:00:00

Commenie at 7.

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.
Manager, Mr. Edmund Falconer.
THIS EVENING, the New Comedy of EXTREMES;
or, %Lea of the Day. Supported by Messrs. Leigh Murray,
Emery, .E. Rogers, and Barrett ; Mrs. A. Mellon (lath Miss
Woolgar), Mrs. Weston, Miss Rate Saxon.

After which the Ballet of THE RENDEZVOUS, in which
the Lauri Family will appear.
Doors open at half-past 0, to commence at 7. Box-office
open from 11 to 5 daily.

TOYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Lessee and Directress, Miss Swanborough.
THIS EVENING, MY AUNT'S HUSBAND; Mr. Swan.
borough, Mrs. Selby, Miss Ternan.
After which THE LAST OF THE PIGTAILS ; Messrs.
C. S,,lby, J. Bland, and J. Clarke, &c.
Followed by THE BONNIE FISH WIFE.
And I'LL WRITE TO THE TIMES.
Commence at 7 o'clock.

CANTERBURY HALL, Westminstei-road.--
OPEN EVERT EVENING.—The following Company
of Vocalists are engaved for the performance of Selections
from all the popular OPERAS, MADRIGALS, CHORUSES,
GLEES, D'#-ETS, Rc., viz. :—Miss Russell, Mrs. Badsey,
Miss Brunell, Miss Ray, Madame Bartoletti, Miss Montague,
Mrs. Lawrence, and Mrs. Anderson ; Herr F. ionxinans,
Mr. Renshaw, S. Jones, J. Barker, W. Melling, Senor Antonio,
E. L !lime, Mr. Badsey, Senor Tiroli, Mr. Cozens, Mr. Bell,
Mr. Barnard, and Mr. St. Albyn. Mr. John G. Forde and E.
W. Mackney. Pianoforte, Mr. Cecil Hicks—Harmonium,
Mr. Courtnay—Director, Herr F. Jonghmans. Commence at
7 precisely. Suppers, &c., until 12 o'clock.
NOTICE.—The Proprietor begs respectfully to announce
tnat in the month of October,
A FINE ARTS GALLERY,
now in course of construction, will be thrown open in con-
nexion with the above Hall.

TIIE WEATHER.--SUN OFFICE, SEPT. 30.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.

67—highest since noon yesterday.
63—lowest this morning and during the n'ght.
69—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-. 29.66.

WIND, North-West ; moderate breeze, and fine.

THE SUN.

THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 30, ISSS.

Lord ADOLPHUS VANE TEMPEST'S select com-
mittee upon the Land Transport Corps, though it
achieved long since a signal and undoubted success,
is still in a particular manner deserving of being
recalled thus distinctly to popular remembrance.
It was in itself a chivalrous movement generously
undertaken and energetically carried to a happy
result, in spite of much apathy and many obstructions.
It involved, however, from first to last the necessity
of the ultimate recognition of a great principle
seemingly for a long while forgotten altogether
at the War-office, under the regime of the pseudo-
Liberal Administration. It necessitated, in fact,
as its issue, the recognition of the simple principle
of Justice in the relation subsisting between an
intevesting group of brave and patriotic men and
the heads of the War Department of Her MAJESTY'S
Government.

The treatment experienced by the officers of the
Land Transport Corp 3 was indeed, to our thinking,
" throughout" what it was pronounced to be by the
Report of•the Select Committee-Hill one partietaar"
-7-namely, "anomalous and exceptional." It will
be remembered that, upon the original formation
of the corps during the height of the Crimean con-
flict, several of the gentlemen receiving commissions
in it, as officers holding military rank under the
sign manual of the SOVEREIGN—did not receive at
the same-time with their commissions the proper
amount of outfit allowance to which as
eilvolry- officers they were beyond all ques-
tion perfectly entitled. A circumstance, that,
surely, to begin with, most anomalous and most
exceptional? Again, at that same period of the
original formation of the corps it is proved to have
been established as—a non-purchasing corps! "But,"
says the Report of the Select Committee appointed
by the House of Commons, and presided over by the
noble and gallant lord the member for Durham—
" but your Committee doubt whether this condition
was made known to the officers before they ac-
cepted their commission !" Surely, here again was
something most anomalous and most exceptional ?
It was anomalous and exceptional, under the cir-
cumstances, that this corps, in the first place, should
have been established as a uon-purchasing corpe—

and, secondly, that having been so established, the
recipients of commissions in the corps should not
have been apprised of the unusual pc uliatity of
their position prior to the acceptance f (as it has
proved) the somewhat questionable b on of a com-

mission.

Furthermore, it is particularly deserving of note
that—according to the petition presented to the
House of Commons on the 14th of August, 1857,
into the allegations of which the Select Committee
was subsequently appointed on the 26th of April,
1858, to inquire searchingly and scrutinizingly—
lieutenancies in the Military Train were ac-
tually offered to some of the officers holding
the grade of captains in the late Land Trans-
port Corps : offers by the way accepted in
some instances, but in others indignantly refused.
It is in reference to that particular fact that the
report observes emphatically, according to the terms
already intimated, that " From evidence before
your committee, it appears that the course of offer-
ing lower grade to that previously held is anomalous
and exceptional." This, however, constituted
not by any means all the grievances of which
the petitioners complained. The conduct pm-
sued by the Government in regard to the
treatment of the unfortunate officers of the
Land Transport Corps was, according to familiar
parlance, so entirely of a piece—from its
commencement to its conclusion—that when
—upon the close of the late war—the Land Trans-
port Corps was disbanded, and the officers of that
corps found themselves suddenly, unexpectedly,
and peremptorily denied the rate of half-pay, to
which they were by right entitled—as officers duly
appointed in the London Gazette, as officers hold-
ing commissions signed by Her MAJESTY'S hand.
This in truth was the most cruel and harsh of all the
cruel and harsh proceedings to which the petitioners
had found themselves subjected in a way so
systematically and pertinaciously anomalous and
exceptional. Several among their number had
been promoted from the rank of non-commissioned
officers in other branches of the services, more parti-
cularly from the position of non-commissioned
officers in the Artillery. Others had been appointed
to command in the corps from civil situations—one
of these latter, for example (Captain HUDSON, to
wit), having resigned a lucrative post at the
Cape of Good Hope, a situation bringing him
£5OO a-year in that colony under the
Ordnance Department. It is epecially observable,
moreover, in this instance, that Captain HUDSON
had done good service in the field during all the
Kaffir wars of '46, '47, '5l, '52, '53 ! Yet, actually
after all this service in the field, after giving up
£5OO per annum to serve his country again during
actual warfare in the Crimea—by reason of the
anomalous and exceptional arrangements accom-

panying the disbandment of the Land Transport
corps, this officer, by entering that corps, " lost his
claim to a superannuation allowance of about £lOO
a-year, of which he would have been entitled for

his civil services." And, beyond this, by obtain-
ing the position of Captain in the Land Transport

Co.rps, he found himself on the disbandment of that

corps in receipt of 7s. 6d. a-day for a term of three
years, at the expiration of which this provi-
sion would cease altogether ! A fact which
brings us back to the most cruelly ano-
malous and exceptional of all these proceedings,
the diminution of the half-pay to which the officers
found themselves entitled, by reason of the
sequel to the now well-known order from Horfield
Barracks, dated Feb. 26, 1857. The ordinary rates,
it should be remembered, are, by the regulations-
7s. 6d. to captains, 4s. Bd. to lieutenants, and 3s. 6d.

to cornets. Yet upon the morrow of that strange
order from Horfield Barracks, by which the officers
ofthe Land Transport Corps were informed that their
services were dispensed with—with the exception

(another anomalous exception) of nineteen, whose
names were duly specified—these unlucky gentlemen
holding commissions signed by the QUEEN herself,
were severally informed, through their army agents,

that they were divided into two classes under a
special rate of half-pay ! Those promoted from the
ranks—to receive half-pay according to this very
novel scale: ss. captains, 3s. 6d. lieutenants, 3s.
comets ! And those appointed from civil situations

—to receive the full rate of half-pay, but only for
a temporary period, ranging from two years to
three at the outside—when, of course, they would
have the gratification of finding themselves left by
a grateful country wholly penniless !
It was into this systematic injustice towards

the officers of the Land Transport Corps that
Lord A. VANE TEMPEST'S Committee was appointed
to inquire. And admirably, because both effec-
tively and effectually, did the Committee acquit
itself under the weight of its self-imposed respon-
sibilities. We have reverted to the fact of the
exigence of this Sclect Committee with peculiar
satisfaction. Its success does not surely the less
entitle it to some grateful remembrance.

We have frequently had occasion to notice the

public meetings, which, during the Parliamentary
vacation, are the safety valves, by means whereof
the surplus political steam escapes, not only without
danger, but with advantage, to the community.
Much instruction is derived from the observations
made on such occasions by duly qualified parties,
which, under different circumstances, would be made
in either House of Parliament, and the public thus

learn the views of Ministers, which may be duly
considered during the interval that must elapse
before the process of legislation will be again re-

sumcd.

The usual Michaelmas banqut of the Fishmongers
Company, given at their ancient hall, was cele-
brated under peculiarly favourable auspices. The
Prime Warden proved that he was fully qualified
for the pleasing duties imposed on him, and he had
ample scope for displaying the ability and good
will with which he Gntercd on the agreeable under-
taking.

There had been a great alteration in the political
and, we may add, social position of 150,000,060 of
our fellow subjects during the past year. Twelve
months since the nation was exasperated by
accounts of horrible atrocities that made the blood
run cold. The struggle at Delhi was fresh in every
recollection. The fate of the refugees at Lucknow
was still trembling in the balance. It was impos-
sible to say whether they could hold out until the
brilliant self-devotion of HAVELOCK, and the gallant
soldiers worthy of such a leader, should relieve

them at so heavy a price as the life of the gallant
NEILL and his daring associates, who shed their
blood in that glorious exploit, or.until Sir COLIN
could complete the rescue so admirably commenced
and restore them to their respective homes and
anxiously-looked.-for . friends and relatives.
The fugitives at Agra were still in jeo-
pardy, and there were many formidable bands
of rebels in the field. The future govern-
ment of India was still undecided. It was impos-
sible to say what might be the ultimate result of
the conflict. Although every true-hearted English-
man had full confidence in the eventual triumph of
truth and justice, many professing friends boldly
predicted the overthrow of British supremacy, and
the complete subversion of the Anglo-Indian
Empire.

These biniater auguries have all been, aYerted.

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