The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-13 00:00:00

ALL t GED FAVOb lUTIS2II.

It is just a year since it was our most disagree-
able duty to call the attention of the public to
the appointment of an offs-er to the colonelcy of
a distinguished regiment whose main qualification
consisted in the fact that he had for several years
filled with credit a civil office near the person of
the Prince Consort. As a soldier his claims were
not to be mentioned beside those of many other
officers of his rank before whom he was preferred,
and the whole transaction created a painful feel-
ling in the public mind, which reached its highest
point when the Secretary of State for War said
in his place in Parliament that it would be a
" mean and cowardly" thing to pass over this
Court soldier in favour of the many camp soldiers
who were his seniors in the service, and who had
fought and suffered in the field. Of the appoint-
ments made since then to regimental coloncicies,
some have been good and some indifferent. The
Gazetto of last night, however, contains one so ut-
terly unjustifiable, so incomprehensibly bad, that
we are almost forced to the conclusion that his
Royal Highness the General Commanding-in-Chief,
at a loss to decide between conflicting claims, must
have put the names of all the Generals on the
list into a lottery, and drawn that of Major-
General Morton Eden, to his own and that officer's
intense astonisnment. By no other means can we
imagine such an appointment to be suggested ; and
when Mr. Baring comes to justify it in the Nouse
of Commons, we shall be curious to know for what
reason he will say it would be "mean and cowardly"
to avoid such a selection. Major-General George
Morton Eden entered the service in 1822, and his
the Scots Fusilier
pmeial
ci tea. r y
Hcoa rweae
sr
phraosm
obteeedn f
roonme of uninterrupted
Guards when the regiment was on its way to the
Crimea, and since then has held the command of
the western district. This is in one word his history,
and this his claim to the first-class reward for distin-
guished services, which the colonelcy of a regiment
admittedly is. There have been appointments of
men without any claims on the grounds of active
service, which were yet not wholly unaccountable;
but General Eden's nomination to the 50th Regiment
is incomprehensible to a most perplexing extent.
It is to be accounted for on no principle as yet
accepted, or even propounded, with reference to
these matters. We exhaust every species of claim
to such a reward when we enumerate the grounds
upon which colonelcies have hitherto been bestowed.
They are-1. Seniority on the list ;2. Seniority in
the army ; 3. Distinguished service in the field ; 4;
Meritorious and efficient service in time of peace or
in the colonies. If General Eden has been selected
for the first reason, a mean and cowardly act has
been done in passing over 21 generals who stand
before him. If he has been selected for the second,
it is a mean and cowardly act to neglect the 75
generals who were in the army before he was, not
a very small propartion of them having been soldiers
when he was yet in his nurse's arms. If haeson, tis
has-re-
ceived this substantial prize for the thirtod ~ a.:
prefer him
a most mean and cowardly proceeding Gen medal, and
to—we will say at random—
his five Peninsular clasps, his ILI, Franks or Sir
have braved
his Indian service—to Sir r9.rooro rendering l
Edward Lugard, both fres:lls g errjiloo
Jackson,
k 1
sii
oo
ntt with
.w i t h
allant serviceable
India—to 11Iajor-
and substantial
__to:isouw„mool_rlei
Gs_,T_erireural Bell or General Mac-
,NmasPnP cwreh o
pherson, or somebattlefield, and who
his ten clasps
bear honourable
scars and .breasts, If General r,
theirl,uen has
scars upon
vrard for the fourth -
this re__ reason, meritori-
ous it is mean and cowardly
ous Service, it Generals on the to neglect for
him t-- does not seem good-service list, for
which be
ble, although he is considered a fit recipient of the
superior reward of a regiment. W eshall even sug-
gest a fifth reason, and
Guards a turn, and appo
int a
General from that service to a colonelcv. But even
here we are still if bti perplexed; for this were tho
actuating motive, it was mean and cowardly to pass
ever Lieut.-Gen. Colville, Lieut.-Gen. Stanhope,
and Major-General Angerstein, who arc all before
General Eden, The more we turn the thing round,
the more we examine it in various lights, the more
we are puzzled to guess how on earth such an ap-
pointment could come to be made. About one
thing, however, there is no uncertainty. This act,
coupled with a few more a somewhat similar,
though perhaps
of a less unpardonable character,
will have struck a final blow at the present adminies
tration of military patronage. The Duke of Cam-
bridge's term of office expires on the 15;h of July
next. If he were anxious to get np a storm among
those who constitute public opinion against his re-
iopointment, he could hardly have devised a more
. fficacious means than this Selection of °Vara'
Eclei24+4rmy grid Navy Gazette.