The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-15 00:00:00

HAVELOCK'S INADEQUATE HONOURS.

(From the li'etminer.)
General Sir John Keane obtained a peerage and
a pension of 3,0001. a-year to himself and his two
immediate successors-for taking Guznee, an exploit
of no great magnitude, the merit of which, what-
ever it was, belonged to an engineer officer, who
retired from the service in disgust at the wglect
with which he was treated. Havekek, whose name
speaks his fame, and dispenses with any addition
or enumeration of his inestimable services, is re-
warded' with a baronetcy and a pension for his life
only, precisely the third of that awarded to Lord
Keane ; in substantial value much less than the
third. Yet there is no want of appreciation of Sir
Henry Havelock's services, to which Lord Palmer-
ston does as fell justice as can be rendered by worth.
The question that occurs to every mind is why so
little is given where so much is dug, and comparison
is provoked between the honours and rewards
shoWered with such hot haste on the Crimean inca-
pables and the requital of the man who has euvt-
loped our disasters in India in such a blaze of glory.
What is the ancient fame of Leonides compared
with that of Havelock arid his bancLof thrica three
hundred. He has established a renown that will
go down to the adiniration of ages, buthlw paltry,
how niggardly, and.unworthy the dole of the na-
tion's gratitude. Mr. J. White only gave expies-
sion to a feeling very generally entertained in say-
ing—
" He could not forget the fact that Gen. Have
lock had not the honour of belonging to any very
nobltfamily. He begged to say those. who. had
returned from a huroili9.fing and degrading cam-
paign in the Crimea had received' higher honours
than it was now proposed to bestow for glorious
achievements which would adorn the annals of this
country."
Upon this Lord Palmerston observed :

"I cannot allow the expressions which the hon.
gentleman has thought proper to use with reference
to the Crimean campaign to pass unnoticed. The
hon. member must be in a state of entire ignorance
as to what took place in that campaign. He must
have forgotten the battles of Alma and of luker-
man, ho must have forgotten the months of privet
tion, and danger, and difficulty, which nothing but
the courage of Englishmen could have enabled an
array to surmount—he must have forgotten teat
the army having lauded, suffered most severely
from cholera ; he must have forgotten that, after
having undergone privations for two or three months
without those ordinary conveniences which are pos-
sessed by soldiers during a campaign—the men
without their kits, the officers without their bag-
gage...the troops still performed their duty without
flinching, and in a manner honourable to them-
selves and to their country. I think that the hon.
member must have forgotten that the army, having
commenced its career under such difficulties, closed
that career in a manner which elicited the admira-
tion of the officers of other Powers. He must have
forgotten that the army—which bad to encounter'
difficulties unexampled, I believe, iu history—
' instead of meriting the terms of reproach which
the hon. member—most improperly, I think, and
so unlike an Englishman, has applied to it, having
covered itself with honours, was, at the end of the
war, is a state of perfect discipline, and performed
services of which the country was justly proud."
We do not believe that Mr. White bad forgotten
any of the glorious truths which the first Minister
so well recites ; but he had in vivid recollection
another class of facts. He remembered how Lord
Cardigan had lived in luxury in his yacht while his
troops were exposed to every hardship, and suffer-
ing severe privations seven miles nearer the enemy.
He remembered how the Sybarite aol tier was re-
warded with the appointment of Inspector-General
.of Cavalry, in requital of the peculiar care of that
important branch of the service, evidenced by the
extraordinary destruction of the horses under his
command. He remembered the disastrous omis-
sions of the Quartermaster-General, causing scarcity
with abundance at hand, and the rewards which
nevertheless have been heaped upon him, and in-
deed upon every one else in a high position who
proved miserably unequal to an arduous occasion.
They were honoured for succumbing to difficulties
in about the same measure that Havelock is ho-
noured for rising superior to a stupendous emer-
gency.
Mr. Gladstone preaches patience. He says, re-
serve your gratitude to men who are making no
reserve of their blood. Wait till you see the end.
"Let us consider the importance of time in these
matters ; let us consider that we are dealing with
transactions still in progress, that the service of Sir
J. Lawrence and those other heroes to whom we
owe so much is an unbroken, and as yet uncom-
pleted service, and that the proportion of reward
must depend in no inconsiderable degree on the
precise time at which it is administered and the as-
pect which events have assumed."
But this was not the rule acted on with respect
to the actors in the Crimean tragedy. There was
no waiting in that case for a complete view. The
unbroken disservice was rewarded in the person of
the first comer who happened to be a man of rank
or "of good friends." He who first ran home from
duty was presumed to have best acquitted himself.
It was a race home for the plate.
Truly and wisely, however, observed Mr. Glad-
stone t that—
" Much is taken from the grace and value of
these acts of reward when bestowed by the Crown
if they have been suggested by individual members
of this honse."

• Why, then, is not her Majesty's Government
beforehand in acts of grace, which are sure to be
demanded and extorted by the public feeling, if not
spontaneously performed ? Has not every one felt
that there was something wanting in Lord Pal-
merston's eloquent review of the merits of our
Indian heroes ? He has glowingly recited a long
list of names to be enrolled amongst Eng-
land's noblest champions and benefactor?, the
'honours and bulwarks of our land, but there is no
mention of the gratitude and rewards due to those
who serve as bravely and devotedly without dis
unction, the hope of advancement and the stimulus
of ambition. We repeat what we observed some
weeks ago, that it will be foul shame to our country
if every man of Havelock's corps and the Lucknow
garrison be not both decorated and provided for for
the rest of his days. The service they have done
to the empire, the renown they have restored to
the English name—nay, more than restored, splen-
didly augmented—cannot, indeed, be estimated,
but some sense of its value may be betokened in a
generous care of the future days of these matchless
warriors. Every one of them should pass the re-
mainder of his days with the substantial proofs of
his country's gratitude upon him.
Right well has Sir J. Pakington spoken on this
theme, and our only regret is, that his suggestion
has not been anticipated by one of her Majesty's
Ministers.

"Nothing could exceed the difficulties and dan-
geoeuoQuutered by glob:mew under Gen.Wilion and