The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-19 00:00:00

nr. rig:

to be once more led again, the enemy, " deem-
ing nothing accomplished, while anything re-
mained to be done." It was said that the force
under Sir IlvGn ROSS, together with the division
under Brigadier HICKS, from Jhansi, and the
column under Colonel SMITH, from Chunbrace,
were already before Gwalior, and there was a by
no means improbable rumour, that the town had
baen recaptured, with terrible loss to the enemy.

Sir EDWARD LIIGARD had gained another vic-
tory on the 27th of May, having defeated the
insurgents at Jugdespore, and
_captured all the
guns taken at Arrah.
__

Et great act of justice had been executed. The
Chief of Nurgoond, who had brutally murdered
Mr. MANSON, the political agent, was tried on the
11th, and hanged at Belgaum on the 12th June.
The atrocity required exemplary punishment, and
the prompt and unhesitating manner in which it
was inflicted will strike terror into many chiefs
who would aot in a similar manner if they dared.
Rohilcund is tolerably quiet, and the people of
Oude are gradually making submission, while the
disarming process goes quietly and regularly for-
ward. We must expect these chequered accounts
for some time, and be contented so long as no
formidable reverse has been sustained,

We earnestly invite public attention to a letter
headed " An Officer's Complaint," which wo have
extracted from the columns of a respected con-
temporary, the Northern Ensign. It exposes a
case of gross hardship. The writer may be re-
garded as a representative man—one that fairly
shows the class of those who, by steady and meri-
torious conduct, have worked their way upward
from the very beginning, and who have at length
been seriously injured by what was facetiously
termed a reward for valuable services.
The writer states his case simply and clearly.
He gives a plain statement of facts. But what
facts ? After being engaged as sergeant at the
Alma and Inkerman, and during the whole siege
of Sebastopol, never absent from duty during that
arduous campaign, performing an officer's duties
before he received his epaulettes, he was at length
rewarded with an Ensigncy.

What "competitive examination" could be
equal to this stringent test of competency—one
spread over years and sealed with the blood of
England's enemies, if not his own
But he had soon mime to regret the delusive
kindness. Scarcely was he a commissioned officer
than ho was put on half-pay, and consigned to
wearisome inaction for the remainder of his life.
Could he have foreseen the future he would
never have relinquished the halberd. He might
naturally have conceived that the services
of a tried and experienced man, "free, able,
willing to serve, and not yet twenty-
eight years of age," would have been
anxiously sought after, whenever the time
of " playing at soldiers" should again be
brought to a conclusion. But, alas ! he has no
wealth to purchase an appointment ; he cannot
" coin his blood into shekels ;" nor has he an aris-
tocratic relative or patron to transmit such a
valuable hint as "Take care of D0W8.," along the
magical wires. He has nothing but proved
merit and faithful and unflinching devotion
and bravery. These, alas !do not suffice, and
notwithstanding the numerous commissions that
have been bestowed " without purchase" within
the last two years, no crumb has fallen from the
overladen table at the Horse Guards to the share
of a true-hearted "Sutherland Highlander."
We believe that it only requires to bring such a
case to the notice of General PEEL to insure
prompt inquiry and speedy redress. We should
not have much hops from L.ad. PANmur.E. But
the present Secretary at War has done more in
weeks than his predecessor did in almost as many
years, and ho has displayed an anxiety to do his
duty fairly and honestly. With him, we believe,
the Sutherland Highlander would have as good a
chance as even the mighty " Down." himself.

Everybody who glanced through the melan-
choly records of the Committee of Inquiry into the
wrongs endured by Mr. BABBBIt must have been
startled by those cruelly accumulated upon his ill-
starred but innocent head in Norfolk Island,
chiefly, as it appeared, through the gratuitous
brutality of the Commandant.

It would be well, for the sake of humanity,
that Major CHILD should clear his name from the
odium, the ignominy, the abhorrence attached to
it by this part of the evidence, by his own revolt-
ing and odious revelations. We are loth to credit
the accuracy of the statements to which he him-
self appears to have acknowledged. We would
fain believe that his memory is flawed in the
matter by some singular hallucination. Can it
be really possible, according to Maj )r CHILD'S
own statements, that upon the arrival in
Norfolk Island of the two wretched convicts—
Mr. BARBER even then presumed by many
to have been wrongfully convicted, and FLETCHER
clearly and glaringly proved to have been guilty
of Forgery—the villain was employed at once
and permanently as a medical dispenser, with
superior rations and a private apartment, while
the presumed victim of his crime, poor Mr. BAR-
BER, whose innocence was happily in the fullness
of time clearly demonstrated, was infamously put
to the loathsome office of a wardsman, relieved
once by stonebreaking on the roadside and later
by working in the open fields chained, heavily
laden with irons, among the dregs of that hell-
upon-earth—murderers, and the friends of mur-
derers. As to the filthy duties of the wardsman
Major CHILD has himself described them in one
sickening sentence—" lie— rllr.
BARBER, this
gentleman of education, this innocent • man,
as it turned out, weak in frame and shattered in
health by hie cruel persecutions]—he was put to
the offensive employment of cleansing and scour
ing out the urinals used by 200 prisoners."
He had no extra rations, like the Forger
FLETCHER. He had no private apartment of his
own, but had to sleep amongst the miserable gang
of these wretched creatures. No marvel his weak-
ened health gave way under the filthy occupation
and the foul surroundings. Ho goes to the hos-
pital. He is sent by the medical superintendent to
break stones on the road, instead of cleansing and
scouring those detestable urinals. While he is
one day breaking the stones by the highway, rides
up to him Major CHILD, the Commandant.
" What do you hero ?" he asks. " Sir," says
Mr. BARBER, 64 I am ordered to break stones by
the medical superintendent." " I will not have
that," is the curt rejoinder. The Commandant
rides up to the station and issues his instructioLs
that the poor gentleman shall forthwith return to
his abominable office as wardsman. Mr. BARBER
is engaged shortly afterwards at his loathsome
task over the urinals with his health
again sadly dr,oli.ig—when Major CHILD ap-
preached him with the query,." What is yutr
objection
mteoeleatniinsL"your ward ?" Mr. BARBER'S
reply
it is destroying I have made no objection :
my health, but I have made no
objection." "How does it injure your health ?"
asks Major CHILD. Mr. BARBER explains that
the work is most disgusting, that the office is
fraught with humiliation. Major CHILD wain
asks (as though he had been deaf), 4; Hew does it