The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-14 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONLON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 14, 1866

the 16th of that month he was created a K.O B.
He became ten days later a Lord of the Admiralty;
and on resigning that appointment was constituted
May 12, 1841, Naval Commander-in-Chief in the
East Indies, whither he sailed with his flag in the
Cornwallis, 72. As a reward for his services in
China, where he superintended all the operations
from the taking of Amoy in August, 1841, to
the pacification of Nanking in 1842, he was nomi-
nated a G.C.B. Dec. 2, 1842, and raised on his re-
turn to England in 1844 to the dignity of Baronet.
Since Feb. 27, 1845, Sir Win. Parker (he had be-
come a Vice-Admiral Nov. 23, 1841) has been in
chief command on the Mediterranean station with
his flag in the llibernia, 104. He was awarded the
Good Service pension of £3OO per annum April 26,
1844 ; and appointed Dec. 19, 1846, First and
Principal Aide-de-Camp to the Queen."
By the death of Sir Win. Parker, Vice-Admiral
Sir T. S. Pasley, the present Naval Commander-
in-Chief at Portsmouth, becomes a full Admiral
from Vice, Rear-Admiral the Hon. Joseph Denman
becomes a Vice-Admiral, and Capt. Astley Cooper
Key, C. 8., the Director-General of Naval Ord-
nance, takes promotion to Rear-Admiral's rank,
and Capt. Sir R. J. Le Mesurier M'Clure, K.C.8.,
becomes senior Capt. on the list.
The following appointments were made on Mon-
day at the Admiralty :—Sub-Lieut. Count F. C.
Metaxa, to the Reindeer ; J. St. J. Wagstaffe, pay-
master, to the Urgent; S. S. L. Needham, assist.-
paymaster, additional, to the Bristol; C. Warren,
clerk, to the Bristol; G. Johnston, assist.-clerk,
additional, to the Bristol.
The following appointments were also made yes-
terday at the Admiralty :—Capt. J. Edye, to the
Satellite, vice Capt. Purvis ; Sub-Lieut. E. Festing,
to the Hector; C. Serjeant, chief engineer to the
Fisgard, for charge of the engines of the Crocodile ;
E. Newman, chief engineer, to the Urgent ; N. Far-
rant, chief engineer, to the Sparrowhawk, with
seniority of April 21, 1866; A. Nettleton, paymaster,
to the Mutine, with seniority of March 5,1866 ; W.
Morgan, paymaster, to the Victory ; and G. Smith,
naval cadet, to the Victoria.

Major-General Dix's Address to the 7th New
York National Guard.

On the 31st January last the 7th Regiment Na-
tional Guard, State of New York, gave a grand
reception to its members who had served in the
army and navy of the United States during the
great Rebellion. The proceedings were opened by
an address from General Dix, who was in.troduced
to the assembled guests by Colonel Clarke. Al-
though several months have elapsed since the occa-
sion, the address is now of more than usual interest,
as both the officer who delivered it and the men to
whom it was addressed are likely soon to be among
us. Major-General John A. Dix has been appointed
United States Minister to Paris, and it is probable
that he will be installed in office, and will welcome
to Paris his old companions in arms, the 7th, on
their approaching visit to that city. The peculiarity
of the circumstances under which he was addressing
the Regiment was, that though there was a crowd
of officers who had won distinction in the battle-
fields of the United States during the late war, it
was not under the banners of the 7th that they had
been brought into contact with the enemy, but in
the ranks of the 7th they had received their military
training. It was not that the regiment as a unit
of the United States military organisation had won
renown in the field, but that it was the school from
whence had been taken the assembled officers, many
of whom had gained high distinction in the contest.
" Giving you all the praise," said the General,
" which is most eminently your due for your
promptitude, your patriotic spirit, aßcl your alacrity
on all occasions in accepting and courting military
service, yet the crowning distinction of your regi-
ment is in the large number of officers which you
have furnished for other prganisations. I hold in
my hand a roll of 557 of your members, who
received commissions in the army, the navy, or
the volunteer service. Nine-tenths of the number
were serving with the regiment when the
war broke out. Three rose to the rank of
major-general, nineteen to the rank of brigadier-
general, twenty-nine to the rank of colonel, and
forty-six to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Many
whose names are on this roll of honour arc sleeping
in soldiers' graves. Others are moving about with
mutilated limbs and with frames scarred by honour-
able wounds, the silent but expressive memorials of
faithful and heroic service. For years be fore the
war you devoted yourselves with an assiduity and a
zeal worthy of all commendation to martial exercises,
and I believe I may safely say that there was
scarcely a man in your ranks who was not capable
of leading other men—of commanding a platoon, a
company, a battalion, or a regiment. And the gra-
tifying result is, that under nearly every battle-flag
which the State of New York unfurled fon had an
honoured representative. The historian Justin, in
his account of the preparations of Alexander the
Great for his Asiatic expedition, says that some of
the corps he organised were so well disciplined that
one would have considered them not so much sol-
diers as the chosen leaders of soldiers :

' Non tam milites quam magistros militia] electos putares.
You have fairly earned the same praise, and are
justly entitled to the honourable appellation of
militia magistri—the leaders of soldiers ! Ido not
know so striking an illustration of the truth of a
maxim which is usually considered of modern origin,
but which is as old as the Augustan era, when it was
proclaimed by the most graceful of the poets of
imperial Rome, in that pure Latinity for which he
was so distinguished—

In pace, ut sapiens, aptarit idonea belle ;'
which may be literally interpreted, In peace, if you
are wise, you will prepare for war.' To have fur-
nished the most remarkable proof of the profound
wisdom of this ancient maxim is a distinction to
be remembered with gratitude by your fellow-citi-
zens, and to be cherished with a manly pride by
yourselves."
The people of England will be astonished at the
fact stated by General Dix. But when they under-
stand the constitution of the 7th they will see how
natural the circumstance waA. It is probable that
there is no other Regiment, either in the United
States or in any other country, whose members, from
the colonel to the drummer-boy, hold a higher social
position than the 7th New York. The privates of
the 7th arc the gentlemen who, in England, Aus-
tria, Russia, and Prussia would be selected for com-
missions, and when their services were required for
actual war, the Government availed itself of the
opportunity of officering other organisations from
the material in this, ready to its hand. It would
have been a waste to use up men of such quality
as private soldiers, while the war languished, and
failed for want of leaders. When the contest
opened the Northern Government could command
men, but it could not manufacture at once officers
fit to lead them, and to have sent the 7th into action
as a regiment would have been a foolish waste of
its resources. Although the 7th was used mainly
as a training school to supply the army with offi-
cers, whenever the emergency arose the regiment as
a body was brought up to the ,scene of danger.
Thus, as the General said—" At the outbreak of
the rebellion, when the Sixth Massachusetts Regi-
ment was attacked at Baltimore, and the deepest
concern was felt for the safety of the capital, you
were among the first to hurry to the scene of action.
A gentleman high in position at Washington gave
me, two or three years ago, an account of the con-
dition of things there at the time of 3 'our arrival.
Open communication with the North ha‘d been en-
tirely suspended ; railroad travel and ti to transpor-
tation of the mails through the State of M:lryland had
been broken up by force ; and no intelligence could
be obtained from the loyal portions of the Union
except through secret messengers and couriel rs, whose
journeys were always performed with difficulty,
and sometimes not without absolute dange •r. At
this juncture, when all was uncertainty and doubt,
when each revolving hour came freighted with some
new burden of anxiety or peril, a column_ of anned
men, with bayonets glittering in the sunlight, was
seen entering the Pennsylvania Avenue, near the
Capitol ; and the feeling of relief and secttrity was
unspeakable when the welcome intelligence spread
throughout the city, as if by some magnetic infl Luence,
that the Seventh New York had cope to voppose