The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-24 00:00:00

GENLRA LS' NEPHEW'S.

The following letter has hien addressed to the
editor of the Times : _

" Sir,—The admirable report of the Commis-
sioners on Military Education, published in the
spring of this year, Mates that in the armies of
continental Europe it is considered an advantage to
the public service that a general officer should be
surrounded by the most skilful and best educated
military family his country can supply. With us,
on the contrary, it has been hitherto tolerated that
the personal staff of a general officer should be
jobbed solely for the convenience and advancement
of his sons and nephews.
" Grave inconvenience to the service, incalculable
loss in money and life, and gross injustice to the
working officers of the army have resulted from
this chronic abuse. It was to be hoped that the
new regulations for the better organisation of the
staff of the British army would have put a stop to
it, and that in future general officers would have
been compelled to select their personal staffs from
among the students at the new department at
Sandhurst.

"But the very limited number of which that
class is to consist plainly indicates that with the
personal staffs of general officers the Minister of
War has not ventured to interfere, and that you
are premature in declarin that " the dynasty of
generals nephews is at an end.'
"It appears that the officers of the rank of lieu-
tenant-colonel and officers of proved ability in the
field are to be exempted liom the educational
tests to which all other candidates for the staff are
to be subjected.

" The first exception
will ualif every captain in
the Guards as well as every lieutenant-colonel in
" The second will work thus
the army for every situation on the staff without
proof of study or acquirement.
y
q
:—Major-General
Bearskin proceeding to take the cc mmand, say, in
a Caffre war, will, as uswil, appoint hii son Charley
Bearskin, of the Coldstreams, and his nephew Dick
Dolman, of the Hussars, as his two aides-de-camp ;
and ho will be quite sure to do so, for it is
the time-hououred custom of the service, and he
would be a bad father and a worse uncle if he ab-
stained from removing these lads from the tempta-
tions of London and Dublin,
and giving them a
chance of seeing a little real service in a pleasant
and easy way. _

_
" As soon as the general and his aides have had
a brush with the Caffrey,
despatch, towards the end of which he statcs that
he cannot forbear recording tho reckless devotion
of Cornet Dolman, the he painfully composes his
Hussars, and the remark-
able coolness under fire of Eusian and Lieutenant
Bearskin, of the Coldstreame,
Who remained by his
side daring the whole day and afforded him the
most important assistance.

"From that day forward Dick Dolman and
Charley Bearskin became officers of proved ability
in the field, and as such will be eligible for any staff
employment they can contrive to obtain.
"It appears to me that when all the lieutenant-
colonels in the army who have got good interest at
the horse Guards, all the captains in the Guards
and all the young aides-de-camp who have been
favourably mentioned in despatches by their fathers'
and uncles', or their fathers' and mothers', or
uncles' and aunts' personal friends, havebeenaccom-
modated to their liking on the general staff of the
array, very few crumbs of the loaf will remain to be
divided among the 30 students who are invited to
qualify themselves
,for Staff employment at the new
department at Sandhurst.
" I cannot forget what occurred when the war
with Russia broke out. We had then a senior
department at Sandhurst, at which officers were
invited—as now—to qualify themselves for staff
employment. But during the long peace the Horse
Guards authorities never thought of employing
those students on the staff of the army a bit the
more because they had studied successfully for that
purpose.
" When our army was going to the East the late
Lord Hardinge, the Commander-in-Chief, stated in
the House of Lords that the authorities at the Horse
Guards, anxious to get the best men for staff em-
ployment, had written to Sir George Scovell, the
appeared,
Governor of Sandhurst, to ask him the names of
the successful students there in the senior depart- i
ment during the last few years. It
therefore, that the names of of cers who had been
studying under the supposition that their labours
would ultimately place them upon the staff were
not even known at the Horse Guards until the war
broke out.
" Unless the personal staffs of general officers
are placed in the same category as to educational
acquirements as the general staff of the army,
very
little in the way of staff reform will have been
effected, , It in no in all other armion of Europe ; it