The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-08 00:00:00

HONOURS TO MILITARY SURGEONS.

A general feeling prevails amongst medical offi-
cers of the army, and in the civil department of our
profession, that in meting out the honours and
rewards incident to the late war, military surgeons
have not been treated with impartial justice. This
feeling is also very generally shared in by all classes
in the army. The principle established by the
Commander-in-Chief hasbeen, that honours should
be awarded only to those medical officers who were
present at the battles of Alma and Inkerman. This
principle excludes many military surgeons who were
with the army the whole of the campaign previous
tothese actions, and who served subsequently during
the whole of the siege of Sebastopol. Their absence
on these occasions was caused either by illness con-
tracted during their attendance upon the cholera
as mentioned some time since
bpaytiSeinrtsin Bulg
Edwardaia
Codrington,r in the House of Com-
mons, or by serving with the army elsewhere.
But. the duties of the army medical officers through-
out the siege, and especially during the trying
winter of 1854, were far more dangerous and
arduous than any services rendered during the
battles mentioned. In fact, the sick were sent
away to Scutari to the hospitals immediately after
those actions. During the siege minor sorties were
of constant occurrence, and the night attacks upon
the Redan and other batteries were amongst the
most desperate encounters of the war. Military
medical officers were exposed to the dangers of shot
and shell during these assaults, and afterwards spent
whole nights in operating upon, and attending to
the wounded. Yet these services have been alto-
gether ignored in the adjudication of honours. One
very sore point is, that the principle thus laid
down by his Royal Highness the Commander-in-
*Chief, has been departed from in favour of the
other officers of the army. Many have been deco-
rated who were not present either at Alma or In-
kerman, and who did not, in fact, join the army
until after these battles had been fought. This
bears with particular hardship upon some of the
most meritorious surgeons of the war, and has
led to the docoration of a comparatively small
number of military medical officers, and
particularly of the regimental surgeons. We
may mention, for instance, the cases of Mr.
Blenkins, surgeon of the Grenadier Guards ; Mr.
Lawrence, assistant-surgeon in the same corps,
and Mr. Trotter of the Coldstreams. Mr. Blenkins
was absent from Alma and Inkerman only from
sickness through duty, and Mr. Lawrence and
Mr. Trotter were absent from these actions because
they were selected, as seniors of their rank, to re
main at Varna in charge of the sick. The same
thing happened to many others. Yet such men
have received no step whatever of promotion for
their services during the whole war ; some, indeed,
have narrowly escaped being put on the retired
list, and all are omitted from. the list of those se-
lected to receive military honours. Others have had
decorations who were present atAlma and Inkerman,
but who were absent for a whole year subsequently,
during the most trying period of the siege. As al-
ready mentioned, the principle has been broken
through with reference to other military officers,
but adhered to most stringently in the case of mili-
tary surgeons. In the French army, if a selection
were made at all, the preference would, according
to the rules and practice of the French service, be
given to the medical officer. In France a large num-
ber of the medical officers have been decorated. It
would, indeed, be a rare sight to see a French surgeon,
who had passed through the Russian war, without a
decoration. Bill; inthis country the case is widely dif-
ferent, and deep dissatisfaction naturally prevails.
The injustice has been done not only as regards our
own honours, but in the case of the Legion of
Honour presented by the Emperor of the French to
our Government, for distribution in the British
army. We trust, however, it is not too late to
remedy the mistake which hes Leon committed,
and from the known liberality of the, Duke of Cam-
bridge, who would have lost his owns life but for an
assistant-surgeon of the 7th Hussars, we hope a sup-
plemental list of decorations may yet. be issued. It is
not only Ps regards honours that the military surgeon
is placed at a disadvantage. Many a youth who
left Eton or Harrow at sixteen or seventeen, to join
the army in the Crimea, without any previous
military education, has acquired bis captaincy or
his majority ; but an assistant-surgeon, joining the
army after a special education of several years, at
the age of twenty-one, and Beni rig through the
whole of the war, could, by the r ules of the ser-
vice, be nothing more than an assisstant-surgeon at
the end of it. There is the more need for liEera•
lity in the distribution of honours.—Lancet.

MALT AND Hors.-r—ln the year ended the 31st of
March last 38,127,378 bushels of malt were brought to
charge, against 33,524,494 bushels in 1855, 35,208,563
in 1854, and 41,020,381 in 1853. The average price of
barley was 435. 2d. per quarter. The amount in " old
duty' charged on English hops was 267,7051. The
quantity of foreign hops iroportecb into the United
Kingdom was 11,261 mitt