The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-20 00:00:00

NAVAL PROMOTION.

Tho moral of the debates last week on the ques-
tion of navy promotion is, in one word, that very
old, trite, and familiar fact that there are too many
of us—the world is too full. This is, a piece of ex-

perience under which the world has groaned a long
time, so long indeed that we have come to the con-
clusion that it i 3 of no use complaining any more
about it—that it is the fact, and that we must take

things as we find them. So in a general way we
bear the burden silently. But a really distressing
subject cannot always be disposed of in this way;
it " must out" sometimes; a loud murmer is heard,

threatening tones reach us ; it is evident that men
are getting exceedin ly angry about something or
other, and on inquiry we find that it is ,the old sore
that has broken out again, the ineradicable old

grievance—" The world is too full ; there is really
no such thing as promotion now ; we are all stand-
ing in each other's way, and everything is at a dead
Soinetimes—it- Is world that`is too full,

sometimes it is another. On Thursday night it was
the. Admiralty world that was complaining. The
debate was a perfect lament on the fulness of the
service, and, had it been conducted by bards and
pipers, and attended by sea nymphs who came up
the Thames to weep on the occasion, it could not
have been more impassioned. Sir John Pakington
was more than serious—he was pathetic on the
subject of this incorrigible repletion —" Who
leaves the Navy ? Nobody." He turned round
with indignation upon the old admirals, and ex-
claimed, with an almost poetic fervour, " Nobody
goes out at the top of the list." Admiral Walcott
thought it necessary to get up and apologise for
living still. He assured the house that it was not
his fault, and that it was an evil which time would
remedy, if hon. members would only have a little
patience.
There can be no doubt that the navy is singu-
larly ill off on the article of promotion, and suffers
peculiarly from the stagnation of a crowded ser-
vice ; that its lieutenants cannot get captaincies, and
that its captains cannot get ships. There is a
melancholy want of promotion for the subordinate
officers, and want of employment for the higher
ones ; at a certain time the profession hangs heavily,
and breeds nothing but listlessness and disappoint-
ment. In no single line of life is the sensation
produced so early of there being nothing more for
you in the world, and that ,you have nothing to do
but go on as you are, though you are not nearly
half way as yet, according to the standard of origi-
nal hope and expectation. The lieutenants can
procure employment, indeed, if they are tolerably
efficient officers, and only remain lieutenants ; but
this is paying a heavy penalty for active ser-
vice. Promotion is, of course, the aim of every
officer, and to grind on at a lieutenant's pay
when you think you ought to be a commander is
enough to embitter any employment. This is felt so
keenly that it is a common saying in the navy that
nobody would enter it if he were not "caught
young." But let us suppose our lieutenant,
by a marvellous bit of good luck, made
a Commander ; he is, of course, delighted with ,his
new title, and thinks himself for a short time the
most fortunate man in the world ; but as soon as
ever he wants to he a real captain afloat, then comes
the blank and disappointment. * There is no ship
for him. Unfortunately there can only be one cap-
tain to a ship, and there are only so many ships at
sea. The Russian war or the Chinese affair may
give him a post for a year or two, but when he
comes back and asks for more employment, with
the confidence of one who knows he has distin-
guished himself -and earned it as the reward of past
merit, as well as shown his decided capacity for it,
he is told that he has had his turn, and that now
others must have theirs. His turn may come again,
but it will be years hence, when his interest in the
service has subsided for want of practice, and when
he will not be nearly so good and effective an offi-
cer as he is now. In the meantime he must remain
an idle man on shore on half-pay. The veterans of
the French war, indeed—the conclusion of which,
by reducing our Navy to one-fourth,cut short many
a pt omising young officer's career and stranded an
immense number upon half-pay—have most of them
either died off or ceased to desire service ; but,
though the estabishment is now, perhaps, on a
higher scale than it pointed been for a peace scale,
the number of disapp and unemployed officers
is distressingly large.
How is this grievance to be remedied ? Sir J.
Pakington says by a superannuation scheme. He
relieves the service of all the admirals over
the age of 60, and transfers them to the rank
of the great departed; they cross the Admi-
ralty Styx, and find themselves in the realms
of peace and repose, where the bustle of this
restless scene has ceased, and a quiet rubber
is the only, excitement of the nautical Elysium. But
the old Admirals do not particularly relish this
proposal, and, with great, gratitude to Sir John
Pakington for his benevolent intentions, say that
they had rather not put off this mortal coil just yet
—this vulgar earth, with its turmoil and contention,
has still its charms for them. They do not consider
themselves quite past work ; they feel vigorous and
healthy., in perfect possession of all their faculties,
bodily and mental, and able and ready to serve their
country whenever they are called upon. They
treat Sir John Pakington's scheme as of the nature
of a Ghaut murder. The Hindoos, we know, have
a way Of getting rid of the older portion of society
which they think very convenient, but which does
not chime in with our notions. The old admirals
protest against this funereal rite, performed though
it be on ever so patriotic a principle ; no religious
observances, chants, hymns, or any beauty of
ritual would reconcile them to it. They had rather
not have anything to do just yet with the blessed
water of Oblivion.
So, then, it is a sad fact that we are standing

each other's way, and that it is very difficult to clear
the ground, and persuade old officers to think that
their country can do without them. There is
always a difficulty, too, in mentioning an age,
because, whatever the age is, there is certain
to be some signal recent example of the most
heroic services having been performed after it-
Sir CharleS Wood mentioned immediately Lord
Lyons, who would have crossed Sir John Paking-
ton's superannuating line before the Crimean
War brought him out. Facts are sure to be
awkward whenever a superannuating plan comes"
out. We cannot, with a Prime Minister of 75, a
Lord Chancellor of 79, and a Minister for Foreign
Affairs of nearly 70, say that men uniformly lose
their senses at 60. Everybody, as 'soon as you
whisper about age, talks of Radetzky, who seems
to have been born in order to prove that the Duke
of Wellington was once in his life wrong when he
said that a man should not be a General after 60.
And an Admiral has this advantage over a General,
—that he has not to ride. There is always this
.difficulty about-the first introduction of a superan-
nualion scheme,—that the persons affected by it
can say that they had all the disadvantage of the
old system•when they were young, and. that it is
hard they should not have the advantage of it
when they were old. " You cut us off at both ends,"
they say ; " we had to make our way in our day
against a whole mass of 01-struction in front of us,
and a hard struggle it was ; now, having attained
our position so late on that very account, we are not
allowed to' enjoy it, but are requested to move off,
in order that others may be better off than we
were." The great ethical philosopher of the an-
ciepts mentions, as the greatest test that true friend-
ship can submit to, the willingness to give up the
performance of noble exploits to your friend. Our
old Admirals may have something 'co say for them-
selves, but it must be frankly z:onfessed that their
love for their younger brothers in the service does
not stand this test,=-that they are grandly selfish
on this subject, and wish the noble deeds of the
service to be achieved by themselves, and have no .
idea of handing them over to their juniors.—Times.

"'Ram- THE GAZETTE OF LAST NIGHT

WHITEHALL, JULY ,19.
The Queen has been pleased to present the Rev. Donald
McCaig to the church and parish of Muckairn, in the pres-
bytery of Lorn, and shire of Argyll, vacant by the resignal
lion of the Rev. John Sinclair.

' FOREIGN-OFFICE, JULY 9.
The Queen has been graciously pleased to appoint Henry
Adrian Churchill, Esq., C. 8., now her Majesty's Consul at
Jassy, to be her Majesty's Agent and Consul-General in
Moldavia. '

FOREIGN-OFFICE, JULY 16.
The Queen has been pleased to•approve of Mr. F. K aster-
ruann as Consul at Penano•' for his Royal Highness the
Grand Duke of Oldenburgh
FOREIGN-OFFICE, JULY 19.'
The Queen has been pleased to approve of Mr: Diego
Mahony as -V.ice-Consul at Dublin for the Repitblic of
Honduras.

WAR-OFFICE, JULY 19.
6th Regiment of Dragoon Guards—Cornet William Duff
Pereira to be Lieutenant, by purchase, vice Russell, pro-
moted, by purchase, to an Unattached Company; Cornet
Thomas Macnaghten Turner to be Lieutenant, by pur-
chase, vice*Bird, promoted.
10th Light Dragoons—Cornet George Houstoun has been
superseded, being absent without leave.
15th Light Dra,goons—Cornet Thomas Churcher, from
half-pay, late Transport Corps,- to be' Cornet, vice Mann,
promoted ; Cornet Thomas Churcher has been permitted
to retire from the service by the sale of his Commission.
16th Light Dragoons—Cornet Edwin Andrew Corbet, from
the 17th Light Dragoons, to be Cornet, vice Bagenal,
appointed to the 13th Light Dragoons.
Scots Fusilier Guards—Henry Farquharson, Esq., Page of
Honour to the Queen, to be Ensign and Lieutenant,
without purchase.
Military Train—Cornet Robert Davies, from half-pay, late
Land Transport Corps, to be, Ensign, vice •Baird, whose
appointment was cancelled in the " Gazette" of the 31st
May, 1859.
Royal Artillery—The surname of the Lieutenant appointed
on Ist April, 1859, is Loughnan not Loughman, as stated
in the " Gazette" of the Bth April, 1859.
15th Regiment of Foot—Surgeon Thomas Rose Dyce,
having completed twenty years' full-pay service, to be
Surgeon-Major under the Royal Warrant of Ist Octo-
ber, 1858.
17th Foot—Gentleman Cadet Francis Napoleon Bingley
Gore Benson, from the Royal Military College, to be
3354tsttEh9ht nabFffsign, e
—OOl
34th Foot.
tbsignw_Eeit;iglutipurchase, vice Sharpe, appointed to the
vice Jones, deceased:
A. Ass ss ss tt
Assistant-Surgeon,
Henrynn tt-. Ss uu rr Egg e ooSunh,avr3- iPae Join
Patterson,e h rom ho
n frome 17 th
whoF the
changes.
40th Foot—Ensign Edward Toseland, from the Bedford-
shire Militia, to be Ensign, vice Gwyn, appointed to the
2d Foot.
, •
41st Foot—Lieutenant Henry David James Mableod, from
half-pay Unattached, to be Lieutenatt, vice John
McKay, promoted to be-Captain of the -School-of Muit-
ketry ; Lieutenant Henry David James Macleod has been
permitted to retire from the Service by the sale of his
Conamission.
52d Foot—Henry Frederick Barker, Gent.; to be Ensign
by purchase, vice Cowburn, promoted.
60th Foot,-Lieutenant James Joseph Collins to be Cap-
tain, by purchase, vice Roe, promoted ; Ensign William
Keith Murray to be Lieutenant, by purchase, vice
Collins.
64th Foot—The Christian names of Gentleman Cadet Als-

ton, appointed to an Ensigncy, without purchase, on the
24th June, 1859, are " Arthur Richard."
70th Foot—Lieut. Robert Whigham to be Captain, with-
out purchase, vice Brevet-Colonel Edward 'L'Estrange,
who retires upon full-pay; the Christian names of Gen-
tleman Cadet Feneran, appointed to an Ensigncy, with-
out purchase, on 24th Jane, 1859, are " William Saun-
ders Ford."
92d Foot—Surgeon Thomas Bassett Reid from. the Staff,
to be Surgeon, vice Stewart, deceased.
99th Foot—Lieut. Charles Burton to be Captain, without
purchase, vice Williams, deceased; Ensign. Henry Rich-
mond Sayce to be Lieutenant, without purchase, vice
Burton.
100th Foot—Robert Edward Colborne Jarvis, Gent., to be
Ensign, without purchase.
Ceylon Rifle Regiment—Breiet-Lieut.-Colonet William
Twisieton Layard; to be Lieutenant-Colonel, without
purchase, vice Brevet-Colonel Samuel Braybrooke, pro-
moted to the rank of Major-General ; Brevet-Major
George Richard Campsie to be Major, without purchase,
vice Layard ; Lieutenant William Joseph Gorman to be
Captain, without purchase, vice Campsie ; Ensign
-Arthur Hansard to be Lieutenant, without purchase, vice
Gorman; Lieutenant Alfred Randall, from the Royal
Elthorne Militia, to be Ensign, without purchase, vice

Hansard. v
, -
Gold Coast Artillery Corps—tieutenant Edward Nathaniel
Robert Gatehouse to be Captain, without purchase, vice
Taylor, who retires upon half-pay; Ensign Edmund
Westropp Sinyth to be Lieutenant, without purchase,
vice Gatehouse; James Thomson, Gent., to be Ensign,
without purchase, vice Smyth.
ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE.

Deputy-InWector-delerid;i Hospitals Edward Brad-
ford, upon half-pay, to be Surgeon, vice John Pickeriug,
M.D., who retires upon half-pay as a Surgeon-Major under
the Royal Warrant of Ist October, 1858.