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

_HAVELOCK'S INADEQUATE HONOURS.

(From the Examiner.) -E
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 neglect
with which he was treated. Havelcck, 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 full justice as can be rendered by words.
The question that occurs to every mind is wby so
little is given where so much is due, and comparison
is provoked between the honours and rewards
showered with such hot baste on the Crimean inca-
pables and the requital of the man who has enve-
loped our disasters in India in such a blaze of glory.
What is the ancient fame of Leonides compared
with that of Havelock and his band of thrice three
hundred. He has established a renown that will
go down to the admiration of ages, buthew paltry,
how niggardly, and unworthy the dole of the na-
tion's gratitude. Mr. J. White only gave expres-
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
noble family. He begged to say those who had
returned from a humiliating 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 lion.
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, he must have forgotten the months of priva-
tion, and danger, and difficulty, which nothing but
the courage of Englishmen could have enabled an
army to surmount—he must have forgotten teat
the army having landed, 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 *facers 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 had to encounter
difficulties unexampled, 1 believe, in 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, in a state of perfect discipline, and performed
services of which the country was justly proud."
We do not believe that Mr. White had 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-
Mg severe privations seven miles nearer the enemy.
He remembered how the Sybarite soldier 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- Geueral, 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 ;othat—
" 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 house."
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 I He has glowingly recited a long
list of names to be enrolled amongst Eng-
land's noblest champions and benefactors, 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 •
tinction, 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, bo 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 ono of her Majesty's
Ministers.
"Nothing could exceed the difficulties and dan-
gers encoluitered,by tho fwes under Gou.Wilaon and

[PRIOR 4D. STAMPED st).]

General Havelock, except the distinguished bravery
by which those difficulties and dangers were me
and I hope that I shall not be thought to encroach
unduly upon the proper province of her Majesty's
Government if I observe that, c)nsidering how
diminished by the fortune of war and the effects-of
climate those two little bands now are—consider-
ing how few men still survive who have either
gone through the entire siege of Delhi, or have fol-
lowed Havelock from the beginning to the end of
his marches ; I cannot help entertaining a strong
wish that it may be deemed right and consistent
with precedent by those who advise the Crown on
these subjects, that some distinguishing honour and
reward should be conferred on the remnant of
those gallant men to whom the country owes a debt
of gratitude which it is impossible to over-
estimate."

GElvElat, SIR PATRICK GRANT.

(Front the Inverness Courier.)

His Excellency Lieutenant-General Sir Patrick
Grant, K.C.8., Commander-in-Chief in Madras,
late in Bengal, is the first of the Company's officers
who has ben allowed to hold these high and
responsible posts, which have hitherto been re-
served as political patronage at home. Sir Patrick
Grant is one of the many Scotsmen that have risen
to high eminence in India. Second son of the late
Major John Grant of Auchterblair, in the county
of Moray, he was born April, 23, 1804, so that he
is still in the prime of life. He entered the
military service of the Hon. East India Company
in 1819, and on July 20, was appointed to an
en.signcy in the 30th Regiment afterwards the
59th Bengal Native Infantry.) Having at-
tained the rank of Captain in 1832, he was,
in 183 G, selected by Sir Henry Fane, to raise
the Iturriana,h Light Infantry Battalion, for which
service his Excellency appointed him Assistant-
Adjutant-General of the army.. He served as
Deputy-Adjutant-General of the army during the
whole of the Gwalior campaign, under General Sir
Hugh Gough, for which he was made a brevet-
major, and received the bronze star for the battle
of " Maharzpoor." He subsequently served as
Acting Adjutant-General of the army during the
Sutlej campaigh, being severely wounded at good-
kee. Notwithstanding this, he carried on the whole
duties of the department to the end of the war, to
the entire satisfaction of the Commander-in-Chief,
Lord Gough—receiving a medal and clasps. At
the same time, he was made a brevet-lieutenant-
colonel and Companion of the Bath, and was con•
firmed as Adjutant-General of the Bengal Army.
In the above capacity he also served through the
Punjaub campaign, being present at the crossing
of the river Chenab, and the battles of Chillian-
walla and Goozerat, for which he received a medal
and clasps. He was also Adjutant-General of
the army for some time with General Sir Charles
Napier, and under him had the advantage of
seeing further service near Peshawur. He left
India on account of his health in 1851, and returned
to it as Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army
in 1850, when he was summoned by Lord Can-
ning, upon the death of General Amon, to fill the
post of Commander-in-Chief in Bengal. This he
held until relieved by Sir Colin Qampbell. While
at Calcutta, among other good services, he fixed
upon General Havelock to command the expedi-
tion to Lucknow, and, throughout that gallant
leader's noble strife, lent him every support. He
has since returned to the command of the fine
Madras army, which, under the most severe trials,
has shown itself worthy of every confidence. In
1832, Sir Patrick was first married to Jane Anne,
second daughter of William Fraser Tytler, of Bal-
nain, county of Inverness, who _died at Simla in
1838, leaving him two sons—Alexander Charles
at present acting as A.D. C. to his father at Madras;
his second son, Aldourie Patrick, fell at Lucknow
on the night of the first outbreak there, when no
entreaties could induce him to quit his post in com-
mand of a picquet. His death was announced by
Sir Henry Lawrance on a mere slip of paper, which
a cossid, or native messenger, managed to convey
to his father in these. words, " Your boy died
like a soldier, at his post." In 1844, Sir Patrick
was again married to the Hon. Francis Maria
Gough, fourth and youngest daughter of General
Lord Gough, who was at that time Commander-
in-Chief of the Forces in India. Sir Patrick Grant
is one of Her Majesty's Aides-de-Camp, and was
made a Knight Commander of the Bath in
January last year for his Indian services.