The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-27 00:00:00

THE OVERLAND MAIL.

By the arrival of the Overland Mail we receive
despatches from Calcutta to April 22; Madras,
April 27. The news from Calcutta is five days

later than that received via Bombay. This mail
brings to England the report of the commission
which has been sitting in Calcutta to arrange the
details of the amalgamation of the armies. It was
finally amended and approved of by the Supreme
Council on the 19th ult.

The general order, which was published on the
22d inst., occupies 14 of the large columns of the
.Englishman in small print. The Englishman thus
notices the main features of the scheme :

What are the main principles of this scheme ?
They may be briefly stated, so far as concerns the
officers of infantry and cavalry, in the following

divisions :

Twelve regiments, nine of infantry and three of
cavalry, will be raised from the debris of the Euro-
pean infantry and cavalry of the Indian armies.
These will be officered by volunteers from the offi-
cers of those armies. We will not here allude to the
limitations prescribed for the several Presidencies
in this matter, but will at once advert to the more
striking conditions that are common to all officers
volunteering. In the first place, we are glad to see
that in one most material point the conditions of the
general order are in advance of those laid down in
the despatches. Some weeks ago we commented on
the grievous hardship which would be entailed on
all officers volunteering for general service, if they
were at the same time restricted to count for pen-
sion two years service out of India as one in India.
The general order, in its 65th paragraph, rectifies
this great error. It lays down that officers ordered
to serve out of India with their regiments will be
permitted to count year for year, whereas those only
who may volunteer for that service hereafter will
be brought under the less favourable condition. It
follows, then, that officers who may join the new
European:regiments will, when ordered with those

regiments to England, to Canada, or elsewhere

serve for pension on precisely the same terms as
those on which they are at present. The more rigid
interpretation of the despatches would have been in
the highest degree impolitic and unjust ; it would
have kept back some of the best officers from volun-
teering ; we cannot, therefore, withhold our ex-
pression of the sense of the politic liberality with
which the Government have on this point exercised
the discretionary powers adverted to by them in the
second paragraph of the order. It is further laid
down that officers volunteering for the new regi-
ments, if they belonged to the old regiments, -which
will be represented by the new ones, will be secured
the regimental position they held at the time of

transfer; that all the advantages of the funds wil

be secured to them ; that they will rise by seniority
to the rank of major, but the promotion from major
to lieutenant colonel will be determined by fitness.
They are, in fact, to be precisely on the same con-
ditions of service as the officers of the royal army,
except that they are not subjected to the system of
purchase. The twelve European corps will, how-

ever, a very small proportion of the officers of the

three Indian armies. The question remains, how
the:remainder are to be provided for. The General
Order answers by a staff corps, and by service with
native regiments.

The staff corps is intended to be an institution,
which eventually will provide officers for all the
staff appointments in the country. It will not do
so at once, because officers now holding staff ap-
pointments are, under paragraph 72, permitted to
retain them without joining the staff corps. The
conditions under which entrance into the staff corps
is open to officers may be classified as follows
1. All officers under the substantive rank of

colonel now holding appointments permanently, we
presume, on the staff may, if they record their wish
within six months from this date, join the staff
without examination of any sort, and be promoted
under the rules of that corps from the 18th Feb.
last.

We are happy to observe that amongst those who
are entitled to count past services towards promo-
tion, adjutants, and interpreters, and quartermasters
of native infantry regiments are included. Few

details in the General Order will give more satis-
. faction than this, if we may judge from the multi-
tude of letters we have received on the subject ;
and no class, we are certain, had juster claims to
consideration.

2. The same liberty of counting past service to-
wards promotion is extended to all officers who,
within three years of the 13th Feb., 1861, or who
at the commencement of their present unexpired
furlough, served permanently on the staff, under
certain restrietionD ao to pacQing in thy IfillellageS
and ;food onminet: This is an interpretation of the
royal warrant as liberal as it is wise, and will include
many deserving officers whose absence from the
staff would have been a loss to the state.

3. Previous service of a nature to count for pro-
motion is held to include all service of a permanent
nature which an officer may, from the date of his
arrival in India, have passed on the staff. Again
we commend the liberal spirit which prompted this
just interpretation. The days have been when the
meaning would have been strained in the opposite
direction, and we note with much pleasure this
growth of liberal and enlightened reasoning.

4. Officers not now on the staff corps, but who
may wish to join it, as well as those who have been
for less than one year on the staff, will not be per-
manently transferred to the staff corps without
undergoing probation and passing certain tests to
be hereafter laid down. Officers of both armies
will be alike eligible to the staff corps.
Officers going to the staff corps, or volunteering
for general service, will not cause vacancies in
their respective regiments. Those regiments will
be maintained in the Army List at present. The
only difference being that officers who may leave
their regiments for the purpose referred to
will have their names entered in italics, and will
be promoted, on the occurrence of a vacancy, just as
if they still belonged to their regiments. Their pro-
motion, however, will be only so far real in that it
will maintain on the existing basis the promotion
of officers junior to them who may not join the staff
corps or the line. This arrangement will not in-
fringe the privileges of officers, although it is less
liberal than we could have hoped for. The second-
ing principle might have been adopted without
much expense, and it would nave rendered only a
bare justice to the less fortunate officers who have
never been on the staff. This is a point to which
we shall shortly return.

We notice, respecting furlough, that whilst the
conditions now in force regarding officers in gene-
ral are unchanged, those who may join the staff
corps receive an additional boon. It is laid down,
for instance, in the 93d paragraph of the General
Order, that the leave of officers who proceed to Eng-
land on private affairs or on sick furlough is ex-
tended to 20 months. We are very sure that this
boon will be universally received with gratitude.
It has long been acknowledged that 15 months is
too short and two clumsily defined a period for an
officer to avail himself of for a visit to Europe. If
he goes home at the best season of the year, he must
inevitably return at the worst. The terrible heat of
April and May renders nugatory the benefits de-
rived from a December and January in Europe. It
is the state that suffers from the ill-health of its
officers. Sir C. Wood has rightly calculated that
state's interest when he devised a scheme which,
without extra expense, would prolong the services
of India's ablest officers, at the same time that it
rendered them more capable of resisting the evils
of the climate. But whilst we commend the boon,
we can seo no reasons for restricting it to the staff
corps. Other officers who may prefer their locus
stand': are equally liable to the influences of the
climate, and will receive equal benefit from a pro-
longed residence in Europe. This is an amendment
which, we would fain hope, will yet be introduced.
We cannot quit the conditions which regulate the
cases of officers of the infantry and cavalry without
expressing a hope that the pledge given in the 62d
and 63d paragraphs of this order will be fully
acted up to. Even in the staff corps 'there is
but little place for old and deserving officers. Six
months after this date officers under the rank of

I field officer will be alone eligible for admission to
1 that corps. Still less room for employment for
them is there out of the staff corps. It cannot be
doubted that the army will be greatly reduced in
numbers, and there will be in future still fewer
regimental commands than exist at present. What
is to become of those field officers who have no
employment ? There is but oue way that we can
see. Fur the sake of discipline, of good order, to
prevent the terrible scandal of leaving all the heads
of the army discontented in this country because
they are unable to live at home, it is necessary that
sufficient inducement should be offered to them to
retire. They have deserved liberal treatment. For
nearly four years have they been the sport of for-
tune, buffeted now by the sepoys below, now by the
authorities above them ; for four years have they
borne without a murmur trials the most painful to
a soldier's temper. They awake at last to find
every chance of recovering their position vanished
away, every soldierly aspiration perished for ever.
Surely, these men are deserving the consideration
of their country.
We have scarcely time at the close of this un-
usually lengthened article to advert to the case of
the Artillery and Engineers, but it is the less ne-
cessary because in the general order and the de-
spatches their conversion is fully described. Hap-
pily for those branches of the army, their position
had been but little affected by the mutiny. The
storm left them but slightly injured, and immedi-
ately after it had passed over, great promotions
were showered upon them to put them on the same
footing as the Royal Artillery. They are now too
strong, too compact a body to be swept away
at a blow. It is not possible, however, to avoid
noticing that, under a covering of fine words,
the axe is laid at the root of their tree likewise.
Though the glories of the regiments may yet be
chronicled in the Army List, and though the in-
terest of officers now in the service will not suffer,
the assertion is not less true that this day, the
Artillery of which all were so proud, has com-
menced its first step towards annihilation.
We have now summed up more briefly than we
could have wished, but at as much length as time
allowed, the main provisions of this famous order,
so far as it affects the officers. The points affecting
the soldiers were published by us some weeks ago,
and need no further reference at present. Respect-
ing the order itself, we would remark, in the first
place, that it would seem plain that the Indian
Government is not responsible for it. By the pub-
lication of the despatches simultaneously, the
responsibility lies fitted upon the shoulders of those
who have directed the action of this drama. We
cannot congratulate the authors and their plot ; a
more involved scheme has seldom been promulgated.
Still, imperfect as it is, it is not to be denied that
its publication at this moment is most opportune,
and that as terminating the doubt and uncertainty
of the past four years, it will be accepted as a relief
to wearying and spirit-breaking suspense. For
that portion of it which places officers on the staff
in a better and higher position than those not on
the staff much indignation will doubtless be felt
and expressed. None will be surprised at this ; but
with the royal warrant before us, we do not see
how the authorities in India could have made any
alteration in favour of those upon whom the distinc-
tinction will tell most hardly.
Mr. Laing was to produce the budget of 1861-2
and make his financial statement in the Legislative
Council on the 27th ult.

In a debate in the Legislative Council on the
20th ult., the Chief Justice questioned the power
of the Governor-General in Council to make grants
of crown land in India without the orders of the
Secretary of State in Council.

Sufficient funds have been raised in India to
meet the wants of the famine-stricken districts up
to the end of July. Should the rains then fail it is
said the calamity will be terrible.

The Scinde Railway has been thrown open as far
as Kotree, TlO miles from Kurrachee. A special
train started on the Bth, and general traffic com-
menced on the 18th ult.

The Governor of Madras had gone to Calcutta to
see the Governor-General.

A new planet has been discovered by the Madras
government astronomer. It is to be called Asia.
This is the first discovery of the kind ever made in

India.

Honorary magistrates are to be appointed in the
North-West Provinces.

CALCUTTA COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
(From the Englishman, corrected up to Saturday, April 20.)
The English mail steamer Bengal reached Galle
on the 19th instant with London dates to March
28th ; telegrams of the naws reached Calcutta the
following morning.
IMPORT MARKET.—Adviees from the principal
marts up•countr_y are on the whole encouraging,
stocks being so moderate as to admit of recent sup-
plies meeting with toady sale on arrival. This news
added to the advices of short exports from England
would doubtless have the effect of hardening our
prices, were it not for the continued anxiety mani-
fested by many of our importing houses to sell at
current rates. The early setting in of the rains,
after the extreme drought we have had this year,
would be a great help to the consumption of goods
as this would not only tend to give confidence as
to prospects for the next crops, but would be the
means of providing speedier and less expensive car-
riage for goods than are available at present.
MONEY MARKET.—The amount of unemployed
money in this market has been considerably dimi-
nished, but the demand for commercial purposes is
so limited that it has not been found necessary to
advance the rates.

EXCIIINGE.—The present mail closes so soon
after that by way of Bombay, that there has not
been much time for business in exchange. Bank
bills on London have sold at 2-0-L credits at 2-1,
and documentary at 2-11. On France rates remain
as before, with limited transactions. On China
sales have been made at from 214 rs. to 215 rs. for
100 dols., and on Mauritius, 53 for 60 days' sight.
FREIGHTS.—Arrivals of shipping have been ex-
tensive, but rates have not suffered any decline.
The late accounts from Europe are encouraging,
and probably rates may in consequence still im-
prove.