The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-07 00:00:00

DOES OFFICIAL
__RESPONSIBILITY

EXIST?

" A Civilian" writes to a contemporary as follows:
• --Sir,—lt has been announced that General Lloyd
is under arrest, and is to be brought to court-mar-
tial for not having displayed proper activity and
vigour at Dinapnre.
The Psalmist has told us " that the days of our
age they are but three score years and ten, and
though men be so strong that they do come to four
score years, yet is their strength then but labour
and sorrow, so soon it passeth away and we are
gone."
And yet we are about to try a notoriously infirm
septuagenarian for a lack of activity and vigour
Sir, if we try General Lloyd we shall try the wrong
man. Whose duty was it to see that such com-
mands as that of General Lloyd's were in compe-
tent hands—to report upon them if they were not
—to act on such reports ? We take almost '
vexatious pains to ascertain that a recruit is
sound wind and limb. We strip him naked, we
pommel him all over, we make him go through all
manner of probatiqnary contortions, and we reject
him at once if we espy the slightest defect in his
physique, considering him unfit in such a case to
be intrusted with the responsibility of a private in
the British army
But when we have to appoint a General to a
position in which the lives of thousands, his
country's honour, the fate of an empire may depend
on his soundness of mind and body we take none
of these precautions. If we see that he is an obvious
cripple and dotard, we appoint him all the same ;
"it would be so hard upon the poor old man
to pass,him over." Yet if he fails when he is so
appointed—as we know he must fail when put to
the test—we inexorably try the poor old creature
by court-martial !
That there have been septuagenarians and octo-
genarians who have done good service to the State
in spite of their years is true ; but there have been
'very few of them. Palmerstons Napiers, and
Radetzkys are rare fowl ; it will not answer to
reckon on a regular supply of them in the market.
As a general rule, it is safest to assume that a man
of 70 is unfit for any public duties, military or
Certain passages occur in the evidence given be-
fore the Purchase Commissioners by Sir James
Simpson which are so apt to General Lloyd's case
that I must submit a precis of them to the public.
(See qq. 2,877 to 2,895).
General Simpson informed the Commissioners
that before the Russian war he was Inspector-
General of a district in England, and in that
capacity he occasionally came across certain old
gentlemen in command of regiments who were
perfectly unfit for their positions. Ho felt it his
duty to report them, officially, as superannuated,
dull, and useless. No notice was taken of his
reports ; and the dull, u-less old gentlemen thus
reported on-remained at the head of their regiments
Just as if they had been able and efficient officers.
Two cases General Simpson specified, in which one
of the incapable Lieutenant Colonels remained
in command of his regiment till he died ; the other
is in command of his regiment still, " much to
the detriment of the pale service," adds General
Simpson.
The reason why the Commander-in-Chief is thus
regardless of the reports of Inspecting-Generale is,
we are told, twofold. In the first place, it is con-
sidered at the Horse Guards very hard to deprive a
man of his command merely because he is officially
reported to be unfit for it ; and, in the second
place, the officer so ejected might possibly take
offence at his ejection, and " give trouble." These
are the ipsissima verba of Sir James Simpson—an
officer of great experience at the Horse Guards and
elsewhere.
General Lloyd appears to come up to General
Simpson's idea of an effete veteran whom it would
be hard and might be disagreeableto supersede. He
is old and infirm, he is probably not very acute,
and, to use General Simpson's words, " pretty use-
ess."

The Governor-General and the Commander-in-
Chief have doubtless been aware of these slight de-
fects in an officer intrusted with au important post,
but they have, with a curious mixture of good na-
ture and selfishness, refrained from superseding,
him, partly because he might not like being super-
seded, and partly because, if superseded, he might
" take offence and give trouble."
They are now, however, about to make up for
their mistaken lenity by trying the poor old man
by court-martial for the absence of qualities which
they never supposed him to possess, and which his
age and infirmities obviously precluded him from
possessing.
If a railway accident occurred in consequence of
the want of energy and vigour of the driver, a man
of 70, long known to be ruptured and gouty, and
if lives were lost, what would the verdict of the
jury be, supposing the directors defended them-
sel-res by alleging that it would have been hard
upon the poor old driver to supersede Lim, and
that he would probably have been very importunate
for a pension had he been superseded?