The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-26 00:00:00

TILE ARMY.

1,1
ta.:lnoi'sfssppheerooertCotiroion willini
anm, 11a be a
Commander-in-ChTef will leave town early
far Portsmouth. The garrison at
assembled for his Royal Ifighnec,'s
tieinisdßoovlariTlluie:divatalo.mssy and at Portsmouth at 4 p.m.
oawt Portsmouth. will ex_
Another improvement
smtaZi.
to the Duke of in tents has been sub-
mittedofßCoambridge, by Mr. Turner,
anlvetontboer,maanddehNivsith these tents at Chatham gar-
rison.
Highness has directed
a the
tr
ii
.0
changes in the stations of several of the de-
pots of the Indian regiments being now completed,
the following are the Indian depots attached to
the three battalions of infantry at Chatham gart i-
son :-Ist battalion under the command of Col. H.

Jervis ; Ist battalion of the 7th Royal Fusiliers, Ist
battalion of the 24th Regiment, 35th Regiment,
43d Light Infantry, 53d Regiment, and 77th Regi-
ment; 2d battalion, under the command of Col. R.
N. Phillips, Ist battalion of the 20th Regiment, Ist
battalion of the 23d Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 29th
Regiment, 31st Regiment, 52d Light Infantry,and
73d Regiment; 3d battalion, under the command
of Lieut.-Col. C. E. Fairtlough, Ist battalion of the
Bth (The King's) Regiment, Ist battalion of the
19th Regiment, 75th Regiment, 81st Regiment,
91st Regiment,• and 94th Regiment. In conse-
quence of the intention of the authorities at the
War-office to reduce the number of depot batta-
lions, which now number 23, several additional
Indian depots will be attached to the battalions at
Chatham. Notwithstanding the numerous detach-
ments just despatched from Chatham to India, the
total strength of the battalions is nearly 4,000 of
all ranks, and recruiting for most part of the regi-
ments is still proceeding.
The whole of the available force at Chatham gar-
rison were marched from their respective quarters
to Chatham Lines on Saturday afternoon for the
purpose of being inspected by Major-Gen. Eyre,
the commandant. The troops were drawn up in
review order at half-past two o'clock, shortly after
which the Major-General, attended by the usual
officers of his staff, arrived on the ground, and was
received with the customary salute. After march-
ing past in slow and quick time, the whole force
broke up into companies, and executed a variety of
brigade field movements, which occupied about two
hours. These field-days, which have taken place
at frequent intervals during the summer in order to
instruct the young officers and troops in brigade
movements, will shortly be discontinued, on ac-
count of the season preventing their being any
longer carried out.
On Saturday the 4th Royal Irish Dragoons, Col.
Bentinck, were inspected by Lord Cardigan, In •
spector-General of Cavalry, at Brighton. At the
termination of the inspection Lord Cardigan ex-
pressed his extreme satisfaction at all he had
witnessed.

Colchester Camp has been inspected by Mr.
Alexander, C. 8., Director of the Medical Depart-
ment of the Army, who expressed himself satisfied
with the arrangements which had been made. A
few married women have left that vicinity to join
their husbands now serving in India, each woman
having been previously provided with a sovereign
for herself and 10s. for each child, to provide them
with necessaries during the voyage.
In consequence of the deficiency of military en-
gineers experienced in India, a number of men from
the depot at Warley have proceeded to Chatham
for the purpose of receivinc, instruction in sapping
and mining, pontooniug, &e.
The Chatsworth Rifles (2d Derby Militia) have
assembled at the Militia Depot, in Chesterfield, for
21 days' training, under the command of Lieut.-
Col. F. Cavendish. the following officers being pre-
sent :—Major the Marquis of Hartington, Captains
W. G. Cavendish, F. Arkwright, Darwin, Milnes,
and Wilkinson; Lieuts. Smithers, Lucas, Goodwin,
Fox, and Poyser ; Surgeon Newbold and Captain
and Adjutant Elliott. The men have come up re-
markably well, 380 being present, and more are ex-
pected in the coarse of a few days.
On Saturday afternoon Col. Mountjoy Martyn,
of the 2d Life Guards, reviewed, in Nylands-park,
Chelmsford, the Essex Yeomanry Cavalry, the Hon.
Artillery Company of London, the Victoria Rifles,
and a detachment from the Uxbridge Cavalry. A
variety of manceuvres were executed, and the pro-
ceedings passed off satisfactorily.

NEW SOUTH WALES.

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)
SYDNEY, JUNE 14.

The general election for members to serve in the
Reformed Parliament has just commenced. The
greatly increased number of representatives that
have to be returned, the re-arrangemet of the elec-
toral districts, and the:introduction of vote by ballot
add considerable novelty to the usual excitement.
Candidates were rather slow in coming out at firs!,
but by degrees every constituency has been accom-
modated, and most of them are favoured with a
choice. East Sydney has returned Mr. Cowper, the
Premier, at the head of the poll, his clever and suc-
cessful administration of affairs having won the
good-will of the mercantile interest, and the Liberal
party supporting him as still essential to the pro•
gress of reform. The second on the list was Mr.
Black, a newcomer, formerly a servant under the
Hudson's Bay Company, and for whose sudden
popularity it is difficult to account, except that he
is the president of the Land League, a society lately
formed to agitate for a free selection of land as
opposed to the present practice of sale by auction.
The third on the list was Mr. Parkes, the late
proprietor of the Empire newspaper. The fourth
on the list is Mr. Martin, formerly Mr. Cowper's
Attorney-General, who avows his intention to leave
no stone unturned to upset the present Ministry.
That the same constituency should return two men
so bitterly opposed to each other may seem strange,
but Martin was returned mainly by the votes of the
Irish Catholics, who are said to have given him a
thousand plumpers, and who as a body dislike and
distrust the present Premier. Sir Daniel Cooper,
the late Speaker, has been re-elected for the suburb
of Paddington. Sir Charles Nicholson, the Speaker
of the old Legislative Council, and our only colonial
baronet, has declined on a point of etiquette to con-
test any constituency. He alleges that it is not the
custom in England for any one who has been
Speaker to take an ordinary seat on the floor of the
House, it being more usual to promote him to the
Upper Chamber. As the Cabinet have not taken the
hint, and have not appointed Sir Charles to a seat
in the Legislative Council, we thus lose altogether
from Parliament the services of an able and dis-
tinguished colonist through a point of dignity.
In West Sydney the Rev. Dr. Lang has been
returned at the head ef the poll, taking in with
him as colleague Mr. Pe,nmel, a man quite new to
politics. The ether two members are Mr. Brough-
ton, a city alderman and formerly mayor, and Mr.
Plunkett, for many years Attorney-General under
the old regime, and who like Martin in East Sydney,
is returned mainly by the Irish Catholics.
There are four great questions agitating the pub-
lic mind at this time—the LandLaws,the State
Support of Religion, the Constitution of the Upper
House, and Popular Education. There are some
other minor matters on which candidates are inter-
rogated, among which may be classed protection to
native industry—a doctrine that has been unceas-
ingly advocated by a small knot of politicians.
They have not, as yet, however, made much head-
way, the chief agitator having had less than 000
votes recorded for him at the late East Sydney
election. Among a certain class of politicians,
though, the doctrine seems to grow gradually in
favour, notwithstanding all the unanswerable free
trade arguments that are argued against it.
They are impatient to see the colony grow
faster than it has hitherto done. Discontented
with the pastoral character of its industry, they
long anxiously to see it also a great agri-
cultural and manufacturing country ; and as this is
impossible at present, while free importations con-
tinue, they desire such protection as shall be suffi-
cient to stimulate home production. Without pro-
tection, they say, we may continue to be a thriving
colony, but we shall never grow to be a great nation.
America, which is incessantly pointed to here as the
model for our imitation, has grown rich and popu-
lous and has developed a manufacturing industry
under the regime of protection, and Canada is trying
to do the same, and Australia, if she wishes to be
great and prosperous, must walk in their footsteps.
Such is the popular logic, and, as it appeals to na-
tive patriotism, to the growing sentiment of na-
tionality, and the apparent interest of certain
classes of workmen, it is not to be refuted by argu-
ments which appeal not to prejudice, pride, or self-
interest, but solely to reason and experience. For
the present, however, the Protectionists are in a
decided minority, and will have but few earnest re-
presentatives in the corning Legislature. The land
question is the great battle-groLnd —how to
manage this great national estate of millions of
- acres, which has been handed over to about 300,000
people. The popular cry is " Free selection and de-
ferred payment." But "free selection" is used in so
many different senses by different candidates that it
is impossible to define it. Some mean that any man
may take up any block of land anywhere in the
colony not exceeding 040 acres, surveyed or unsur-
veyed, settle down upon it, and take 10 or 20 years
to pay for it. In defence of this doctrine it is urged
that a man knows best what land will suit him, and
that he should have a right of choice, and not be
compelled to await the discretion of the surveyors.
On the other hand it is urged that all the eyes of the
country would be picked out at once, leaving notlnic,g
but unsaleable leads for the next corners ; and that
the fortunate speculators, instead of settling down,
would sell their blocks at an advanced price and leave.
There are many parts of the colony, especially t',e
pastoral portions, where the good land lies in small
patches and isolated spots. These are near the wat r-
holes, or along the margin of running streams. The
possession of them virtually commands the sur-
rounding country. Whenever such a section hap;
pens to be put up for sale, the squat ter always bus
it, as being the key of the whole run, and many
take time by the forelock and secure possession of
such choice spots by exercising their pre-emptive
rights. They complain that, under the free selec-
tion system, they would have no chance of buying
such lots from the Crown, for they would be taken
up by little speculators who knew their worth to the
stockholder, but who had no capi`al to turn the
land to advantage themselves, and who would force
the Crown lessee, in order to got rid of them off

his run, to buy their rights at an enormous pre-

min rn .

To prevent this collision between tho grazier
and the small settlers, it is proposed by others
that the free selection should be restricted to
what is called the settled districts, in which
the pastoral leases all expire next year, and
where the land, therefore, is available for any new
experiments.

Others, again, propose that certain agailcultural
areas should be marked out, in spots whore there
may he a considerable extent of fertile In nd, and
that free selection should be permitted witlain those
limits, by which it is thought that the e►gricultu-
rists will be concentrated, and not scattennd abroad
all over the face of the country, a s would
be the ease under a system of indiscriminate
free selection. As it is, the population under
the pastoral regime is in the interior so scat-
tered that it is exceedingly difficult and. ex•
pensive to supply them adequately with schools,
churches, courts, police protection, and postal con-
venience.; and if the agricultural population is to
be similarly scattered, the difficulty and the cost
will be aggravated.
But the real fact is, that bona fide agriculturists
will not scatter themselves over the country, for the
simple reason that there is no inland market for
their produce, and the cost of transit to the coast
is so great as to absorb all the chance of profit,.
Those who would take up land if they could get it
wherever they like would not do so with a view to
raise for sale agricultural produce, but for the chance
it would give them of keeping stock. Hence with some
the cry of free commonage is made to keep pace
with that of free selection ; for what is the use of a
little bit of land to a poor man, it is said, when he
cannot keep his bullocks upon it ? Yet it is obvious
that free commonage upsets altogether the present
Pastoral system, for the same land cannot be leased
to Crown tenants and yet be available at the same
time for as many poor men as like to run their stock
upon it. The present revenue derived from the leases
of Crown lands, together with the assessments, is
about £lBO,OOO, far more than enough to pay the
interest on our colonial debt. What should we gain
by foregoing all this, and throwing the grazing right
open to an indiscriminate scramble ? We should
gain, our land reformers tell us, in population and
in industry. The great squattages would be broken
up, every industrious man would have a chance of be-
coming a stockholder according to his means, and the
pasturage would be more completely utilised than
at present. The defenders of the existing system,
on the other hand, contend that free commonage,
besides being a glaring violation of existing leases,
would lead to endless collisions b_tween the small
stockholders, would destroy the natural grasses by
allowing the land no rest, would put put a stop to
the improvement of breeds, and would facilitate the
spread of infectious diseases.
Tho price of land, though not so much mooted as
the right of free selection, is also a Wuch disputed
question. There is no magic in 20s. more than in
any other sum that it should be considered the na-
tural price of an acre, and very much of the land in
the colony is not worth that, But then it is urged
that the land is the real security on the credit of
which the English capitalist lends us money to make
railroads, and if we sell this land prematurely for a
price which barely covers what has hitherto been
the cost of survey we shall destroy that security.
On the other hand, it is contended that the Eng-
lish capitalist is not such a goose as to look to the
land for his security, inasmuch as bare land is
worthless—that he looks to population and indus-
try to create revenue, and would rather that the
land should be given away than kept unsoldthrough
a prohibitory price being put on it. It may be in-
teresting to the British capitalist, if he should
chance to have any ideas on the subject, to know
how his opinions are confidently vouched for, and as
confidently disputed on this side of the world.
Amid the discordant opinions and confused
clamour of a general election, it is impossible to
foresee what sort of a land law will pass. Candi-
dates are apt, under the pressure of the hustings,
to concede more than they wish, and to catch after-
wards at every opportunity of retracting. It is
doubtful even whether any Land Bill at all can be
passed this session ; whether public opinion is as
yet sufficiently matured, and whether any possible
Ministry can propose any bill that shall enlist the
support of a majority in both houses.
The Cabinet policy has not been propounded.
The Minister for Lands and "Works, indeed, has
openly avowed his personal attachment to the doc-
trines of free selection and deferred payments, as
applicable to all lands not under lease and as to be
applied hereafter to all leased lands as the leases
fall in ; he is opposed, however, to free commonage.
But the Premier has declined to commit himself
definitively to any plan, whether because he does
not quite agree with his colleague, or whether be-
cause he has not made up his mind he does not say.
The general impression is that he is waiting to see
how the elections go, and will adapt his scheme
to what appears to be the prevalent public opinion.