The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-27 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 27, 1867.

Three of the parties accused of participation in
the plot against the life of the French EMPEROR
have formally protested against the charge. M.
CAMPANELLA first came forward, declaring
innocence, and stating his address, at which he
may at any time.be found. M. MASSARENTE fol-
lowed in a similar tone ; and this day M. LEDRIT
ROLLIN has written a long letter, most positively
asserting the total falsehood of the accusation !
M. MazzrNl will also, doubtless, act in like man-
ner whenever a favourable opportunity arises for
the purpose. So the matter stands for the, time,
and so we should permit it to remain, were it not
for certain significant rumours to the effect that
communications had been voluntzrily made
from the English to the French Government
to the effect that, in the event of a conviction
of the accused parties, par contumace, they
would be forthwith expelled from the British
dominions--rumours that derive additional weight
from the fact that the Times had intimated on
Thursday last that if they were convicted, even in
their absence, and without the opportunity of
being heard in their own defence, they will, " as
convicted assassins, be no longer able to show
themselves in this country, and will have to find

some other part of the earth more congenial to
the indulgence of their sanguinary dreams."

well, in endeavouring to promulgate the facts
contained in this pamphlet, which at a time
when it was believed that our Indian
army, at all events, was under safe
command, and on a sure footing, showed by those
same facts, given on independent testimony, from
the camps of the Anglc-Indian itself, that that
army was in the state of insecurity proved by re-
cent event, and by such particu4rs as leaving
our military magazines and fortresse4 wholly under

It would seem, then, as if there were to be a
new and organised attempt to get rid of that
which has always been the bugbear of continental
despots—the extension of hospitality to political
refugees of all ranks, and of every grade and
variety of political opinion. A tiiai par conta
mace could easily be got up, and a verdict adverse
to the defendants, under the circumstances, would
be certain. It is, however, an axiom of the
English law, that no man can be declared
guilty without the opportunity of being heard in
his own defence. Shall we obandon that glorious
principle in deference to the commands of others
Shall England no longer be the sanctuary for
those who have sought protection on her shores,
and availed themselves of that hospitality which
she unhesitatingly extends to all without exo:•p-
tion, and by which the Emperor has himself
profited in his hour of trial ? It will not, it can-
not be done. No true-hearted Englishman would
for a moment listen to such an appplication, no
matter what might be the consequences of a re-
fusal. To deliver up persons thus accused, would
eto surrender them to certain death. " Extra-
dition for political offences " would, as M. LEDRU
ROLLIN justly declares, be " a stain upon civilise.-
tion—a scourge to humanity ! " The nation
capable of granting it, for the sake of whatever
earthly considerations or momentary expediency,
would infallibly lower itself to the lowest stage of
ignominy. And yet the principle asserted by th•
Times would go to that extent. A little compli-
cated machinery should be put in motion, but
that would not be wanting wherever the quarry
might be deemed worthy of sufficient ammunition.
A plausible pretext might easily be got up, but
the infamy of yielding would be the same, and
thenceforth the name of Britain would -stink in
the Nostrils of Europe. She would, indeed, merit
the title " perfidious Albion," so freely accorded
on less conclusive grounds.
The letter of M. LEDRU ROLLlN—which will be
found in another part of our impression—although
a little stronger, in some parts, than we should
desire, so fairly grapples with the great points at
issue, that we have not hesitated to give it inser-
tion. He deals with the assertion that "itis no
question of pOlitics but one of murder," by asking
where is the overt act?—where the proof of the
conspiracy? There has been no attempt to carry
the design into execution. If the project ever
had existence, it might have been repented of,
—and, therefore, no conviction could follow, ac-
cording to the English law, and we could not
consent to the extradition on any ground.
It is truly said that the exiles received in this
country must, so long as they are sheltered here,
abstain from all acts calculated to overturn or in-
jure a Government recognised by It is
the price they pay for protection—the moderate
return for our liberal hospitality. They are not
to embroil us with others because we accord them
a place of refuge, Most assuredly not. But the
English law is powerful to punish any wrongful
acts committed within her MAJESTY'S dominions,
and to that law M. LEDRU ROLLIN fearlessly ap-
peals. He declares himself in duty bound openly
to meet justice, and to enlighten it respecting his
conduct. He challenges investigation before an
English tribunal and an English jury, where
lie would at least be assured of a fair
and unbiassed and impartial trial. This
meets the question boldly and independently,
and the justice of the demand cannot be im-
peached. Should it be denied or evaded, we
should only cover ourselves with opprobrium.
As M. LEDRU Ronnix truly declares " The ques-
tion is one of political extradition, the bearing of
which is not confined within the narrow bounds
of individual or even national interests, lofty
though they be, but a question which involves
the highest principles of liberty, justice, morality,
and human conscience."

We cannot, then, under such circumstances,
believe that the English Government would yield
on such a point—that they would, in obedience
to foreign dictation, or the prevalence of the Ger-
manic element in the National Council, abandon
a principle which our ancestors would never have
controverted or denied. And this is our belief,
not withstanding the significant rumours alsove
alluded to, and the still more significant feeler
put forward by the Jupiter Tonans of Printing
house-square.

the charge of native troops, who to properly 'ln-
formed persons are well known to be prepared for
mutiny. The most melancholy corroboration of
the state of the patronage appointments, and ad-
ministration displayed by those facts has been re-
cently presented by the instances of suicides of
officers, following those in tho army during the
Persian expedition, arising from compunction on
the part of the victims of the system, at the false
positions in which they found„ themselves placed,
with the stern necessities of which they have
found themselves unqualified to contend. The
facts put forth in the pamphlet to which we
advert were chiefly derived from the narrative of
Mrs. COLIN MACKENZIE, the wife of Captain COLIN
MACKENZIE, an officer in the Indian army,
displaying the disasters of battles and
mismanagement passed over, or disguised
in despatches, but which were notorious in
the camp, and a state of command which renders
not the occurrence, but the absence, of the most
dangerous commotions a matter of surprise. We
may depend upon it, that when the causes of the
wide-spread mutinies are examined, it will be found
that the affair of the greased cartridges is only one
of a series of gross imprudencies affecting the
condition of the native troops, and arising out of
the state of the commands, and an ignorant or an
insolent disregard of the feelings of half civilised
and morbidly sensitive men. We give from the
pamphlet the following, as small incidents, but
indicative of the character of minds which have
ruled in the military administration of India :
The disp'ay in the commencement of the Russian
war, in sending soldiers tightly stocked to the
eaattrn climates has its reflex in the following ex-
perience in India :
Her Majesty's 32d have been marched from
Amballa to Ferozpur, and have suffered very
severely on their march. It is said from 200 to
300 are on the sick list, and six or seven, inclu.iing
one officer, have died from a coup de soleil. It is
supposed that they have been unnecessarily exposed
to the sun. Queen's officers are often obstinate on
this point (I suppose from ignorance of the climate),
end seem to think it manly to run every possible
risk. A staff officer in China, who was present on
the occasion, told my husband that two of her Ma-
jesty's regiments were landed under a scorching
sun, and went into action. One was commanded
by an old Indian, who allowed his men to take off
t'veir stocks ; they suffered very little from the
heat. The other regiment was commanded by a
stiff European martinet, who could perm t no such
irregu'aritie, and lost ten men on the field from
apoplexy ; surety, in the case of the 32d, it would
have 13,..en better to expose the troops to this heat
for some purpose.

Attention has just been properly directed to
some predictions, in the recently published me-
moirs of Sir WILLIAM NAPIER, that we should be
brought to sorrow by placing the Native Indian
army, composed of men of deep seated caste preju-
dices, requiring the exercise of the highest dis-
cretion and mental influence, under the command
of mere boys, who are respected by men nowhere.
But what sort of boys has it been the practice to
place, by patronage, in positions of command, in the
remote districts of India? The "North British
Review, for August, 1857, actually made it a
matter of merit, that

The shiftlessness of the officers and their want
of power of new adaptation to new habits, is dis-
played in the following passage
Moreover, they (the 6ikbs, who were newly en-
listed) all wear their hair at full length, which
1-ng cb, I am assured, commonly extends from three
feet to six feet, and -ometimes even to eleven feet ;
—four feet of hair is frequent. The.whole is formed
into a knot on the top of the head. Now, "here's
a coil" which effectually prevents a man from wear-
ing a very shallow forage cap ; and as Lord Hard-
ing gives them leave to keep their Bair and beards,
neither of which they ever cut, and at the same
time insists on their wearing this obnoxious topi ;
the veterans positively refuse to have anything to
do with a service which makes a saucer-cap a sine
qua non.
Some of the finest recruits draw back, and will
not enlist when the topi is shown to them ; and
truly the effect of it is molt absurd. C. bas risked
the safety of his Glengarry bonnet, by sending it to
head-quarters, with a request to be allowe 1 to give
similar ones to his men. Major Mackeson and the
Commander of the 3d Regiment of Frontier-
Bigado are bah anxious for its adoption, as the
Sikh tresses could be stowed away most conve-
nieut:y under it, but no answer has yet arrived,
although the abhorred topi may prove as fatal as
Gesler's.

The proposed resolution of Sir Ds LACY EVANS
for the general adoption of open competitive exa-
minations, as a means of testing the qualifications
for commissions in the army, will go to the root of
the evil. We entirely agree with the writer of
the pamphlet that
"The first step in reform would be to ensure spe-
cial education, tested by proper examinations for
admission, and new securities for promotion by
merit. All who are acquainted with the subject,
treat with contempt the doctrine put forth by
Lord Seymour and others in the House of Com-
mons, in defence of the system of purchase, that
it is practically impossible to discriminate merit in
commands ; and, therefore, that the rule of pro-
motion for merit would soon become practically
promotion for favour. Under a proper system of
" intendance," as in France, it is practicable to
show, from particular facts, and from the state of
the troops commanded, the state of a command ;
and it is practicable to make those evidentiary facts
matter of record, independently of favour, with the
certainty and almost the exactitude of a money
account.

In respect to special tra'.nings, and examinations
to test them for eon-missions, proximate evidence is
afforded by the English army itself.

The officers of theeencrineers and the artillery, form
the only branches of' the service for which any
special training is required, and they are generally,
socially as well as profe,sioually, distinguished from
the rest of the army. The artillery was Vie only
branch of the English service, which, in the Crimea,
*is acknowledged to have proved itself superior.
The ex aninat. ons for the engineers, as well as for
the artillery, have b3en, however, merely pass exa-
minations, and the promotions ill conducted, and
the engineers have displayed the insecurity of that
mode of examina: ion. Of the engineering of the
several armies in the field, competent impartial
testimony gives the first rank t ) the military works
of the Russian engineers, the next to the French,
the next to them the Sardinians (and even the
Turks have been generally more haw...ly), and to
the English military engineers thelast. The
officers of the engineers, however, and of the
artillery, are not found mixed up in the low pur-
suits, or in opprobious scenes with the officers of
the line ; and they are met in scientific associa-
tions and intellectual societies, and are frequently
proved to be well fitted for civil administrative
officer".

The system of purchase, and even to some ex-
tent, the., possible oper ,tion of favouritism, attract
to the army precisely those young men who, if they
did not do that would do nothing, and are far too
numerous and too remuant a class to remain unem-
plop d with impunii y. The young nobleman who
can find no occupation to fill up the years which
must elapse between leaving college and succeeding
to the family honours an estate, and whose desouvro
c mdition now, if they are not in Parliament,
makes them almost objects of compassion ; the
younger sons of the aristocracy, who shrink from
the laborious professions, and have means sufficient
to save them from the necessity of toil, who have
not talent enough for the bar, nor steadiness for
the Church, nor capital enough for commerce, nor
taste or vocation enough for any of these careers ;
(and for India chiefly) the children of wealthy
citizens a'_id bankers, who have time to waste, and
money to spend, and who have no great objects to
arouse them, and no res angustce to stimulate them
to exertion,—those who would otherwise be men
about town, mischievous dawdlers and loungers, a
burden to themselves, and a plague to all around
them, now eagerly press into a profession in which
wealth and connexion secure advancement.

The civil service commissioners have just declared
the fact, as the result of their first year's trials, that
the candidates obtained by competitive examina-
tions were of considerably higher attainments than
those who had undergone simply pass examinations,
or who had gained appointment or simple nomina-
tion.

The quality of the men appointed in India, is
shown by the results of some preliminary siftings
with very wide-meshed sieves,—the partial exam-
nations recently appointed. Of 437 sons of gen-
tlemen, and men of high social position, examined
during the years 1851 to 1856, both inclusive,
one hundred and thirty failed in reading and
spelling, and two hundred and thirty-four failed
to do the common rules of arithmetic ; an extent
of failures to be found in no decent English
charity schools 1 The Indian army has been sur-
charged with mere " wastrels," the worst eda-
cited, the worst prepared, those for whom no
places could be found at home—men often lower
than the class of commissioned officers in Eng-
land, of whom the late Duke of WELLINGTON
said, that however brave they were in the field,
lin the management of men in the camp, quarters,
or cantonments, they were but "poor creatures."
A pamphlet on " Army Worm : and the Aris-
tocratic Standard of the Army Expenditure and
its Results," was published a year ago, at the
instance of Mr. INGRAM TRAVERS, Mr. GASSIOT,
and Mr. MORLEY, containing very important fiLot4
on this subject ; and whatever may have been the
failures of those gentlemen in _respect to
,the
Administrative reforms which they endeavoured
to promote—and much excuse must be made fox
men of large occupation—they certainly aiv.tit.i

The Duke of Wellington, who had himself
obtained a military educationi,in a French school,
favoured scientific officers wheresoever he could get
them. _ _

The writer of the article on Military Education,
iu the last number of the " Westminster Review,"
after speaking of the French system of military
education for the higher commands, says :--
"The principle of competition pervades the
whole, it opens the door of the profession, it intro-
duces to the higher rooms and upper seats. We
regard competition as the salt of the system,
purifying and preserving it, as the governor of the
enizine, adjusting its propelling force to the resist-
ance it has overcome." " But the question has
passel from the region of discussion into that of
fact. What was an experiment is a proved success.
Napoleon, with a marvellous prescience into
France, applied to the army the system we propose.
If we are wrong in putting up commissions to
literary competition," (i.e., to competition in the
literature of the practical sciences applicable to war,)
—" Napoleon was wrong, Fr ince, faithfully fol-
lowing his plans for the last half centory, has been
in error, and the reputation of her arms a mistake.
The law which reorganised the Polytechnic on its
preseA basis is remarkable as being the first indi-
cation of the great dcsignsof the First Consul. The
law promulpt,-,d thirty-seven days after the 18th
of Brumaire, declares that the purpose of the now
institution is to train pupils for all the public ser-
wices, and particularly for the more scientific
;branches of the army : the mode of admission by
~pen literary competition among all young French-
-71, ten of the required age ; their appointment to 9:-
ta ii brancht.s of the public service also by compe-
tit'ou ; the object, manner, and duration of the
instruction ; the different boards for teaching, were
all I:.id down by this remarkable decree, the lead-

11 II SUN, L'ONEON, MONDAY EVENING JULY 27 ,

inn principles of which have been respected and
enforced by all succeeding governments, and which
at this moment regu'ate the school.
" Himself educated at the military school of
Brienne, military education ever engaged the at-
tention of Napoleon. He never took his hand off
the schools. Consular and imperial decrees esta-
blished and regulated the Prytanee Franais, now
the junior military school at La Fleche ; l'ecole
speciale militaire, now at St. Cyr ; l'ecole speciale
militaire de cavalrie, now at Saumur ; the ml!tary
school at Chalons ; the engineer school at Mez.
In fact, every exiting military school, except that
of the staff, owes its origin to Napoleon ; and the
same system of competition, where applicable, per-
vades them all. After the peace of Tilsit, Napo-
leon lent the Emperor Alexander ten professors,
for the pnrpose of establishing a polytechnic in
Russia. To the last he insisted on military educa-
tion. He dictated ti Montholon, at St. Helena,
these words Brought to France when fourteen,
Louis entered on the life of a man at the siege of
Toulon, on hearing me say to him, in the midst of
the corpses of 200 grenadiers slain through the
ignorance of their commander, at the assault of an
impregnable side of Fort Pharou—lf I had com-
manded here, all these brave men would be still
alive : learn, Louis, from this example, how abso•
lutely necessary instrucA.on is to those who aspire
to command others.'"

Under a r, formed administration, every regiment
would be a school, of which the commanding officer
would be the master, imparting, with instruction,
qualifications and habits which would be us-ful in
peace, and to the men and officers in civil life.
The proof that many of the evils of army malad-
ministration male manifest during the campaign
in the Crimea, are common to the army in India,
where there is " no long peace," but incessant war,
show that those evils are not accidental or transient,
but deep seated and chronic, demanding institu-
tional reforms.

The main allegations in respect to that maladmin-
istration are based on the testimony of professional
authorities of the highest class.
For the prevention, then, of the repetition of
vast disasters and losses of life and money, and of
grievous and t.nnecessary augmentations of per-
manent public burl hens;—for the abatement of the
horrible interests in war on the parts of those offi-
cers whose time in pans hangs so heavily on them-
selves and others ; to'ensurhigher social as well as
professional qualifications to, men in influential
%o,litions, who must be maintained as military offi-
cers ;—to purify the House of Commons from prac-
tice of bribery for party support, by the 'gifts of
commissions and promotions—it is submitted to ad-
ministrative reformers, that it should now be de-
manded that the concession obtained in respect to
one branch of the military service shall be extended
to the whole line, and commissions be no longer
sold, but given to merit, tested by competitive
examinations."

The question to be put before the House of Com-
mons by Sir DE LACY EVANS admits of a very
simple issue, "Do you, the opposers, mean to
say that for command in the line of the English
army, unlike other armies, no special qualifica-
tions or no qualifications whatsoever are requi-
site ? If you admit that improved qualifications
are necessary, why do you object to the applica-
tion of the like tests of those qualifications that
you have already adopted, and that are proved to
work so well in res➢ect to admissions to the
Artillery and to the Engineers ?" The conduct
of particular Members and of the House should
be watched with great suspicion, and the names
be noted of those who do, or who do not direst
themselves of future participation in the present
patronage system, for the resolution of Sir DE
LACY EVANS is of vast importance as well for the
disqualifications which it will be the means of.
excluding, as .for the good qualifications which it,
may be made the means of preparing, admitting,
and securing. It is, in truth, in part a measure
of Parliamentary Reform also, for it goes to this—
that the House of Commons shall divest itself of
the military patronage by which Members pay
their supporters, or themselves, at the expense of
the country.

SIR COLIN CA MPB ELL.

Our correspondent at Malta, in a letter dated the
19th, announcing the arrival of Sir Colin at that place,
says :

"Sir Colin Campbell passed through Malta on the
17th, looking very well and hearty. He was not long
doing his littie shopping, and went off with his purchases
under his arm. He came in the Vectis on the 16th and
left in the same vessel next morning for Alexandria."

A Cabinet Council was hell on Saturday afernoon
at the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury,
in Downing-street ; all the Ministers were present.

Her Royal Highness the Dachess of Sent, attended
by Lady Anna Maria Dawson and Sir George Cooper,
arrived in town on Saturday afternoon. The royal
duchess visited the Duchess of Cambridge at her
residence in St. James's Palace, and afterwards returned
to Frogmore.
His Excellency the Ambassador of France and the
Countess de Persigny have left the French Embassy for
Naneham Park, Oxon, on a visit to Frances Countess
Waldegrave and Mr. G. G. Harcourt.
His Excellency Baron Bentinck will have the honour
to receive the Queen of the Netherlands to dinner on
Wednesday next, at the Netherlands Legation.
His Excellency the Peruvian Minister (Domingo
Elias) and suite have left the Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn-
street, for the United States.
Tne Duke of Devonshire has abandoned his intended
visit to Lismore Castle, Ireland, for this autumn, and
will reside at Chatsworth, after his visit to Bolton Abbey
next month.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford left Stafford
House on Saturday for Trentham, on their way to Scot-
land.

The Marquis and Marchioness Cholmondeley have
returned to C:►rlton House-terrace from Houghton Hall,
Roughen], Norfolk.

The Earl and Countess of Derby and Lady Emma
Stanley leave town to-day on a visit to the Duke and
Duchess of Richmond, at Goodwood Park, during the
races.
Lord and Lady Holland gave a fete champetre on Sa-
turday afternoon, at their fine old mansion at Kensing-
ton, on which occasion the noble host and hostess were
honoured by the presence of the Queen of the Nether-
lands, the Duchess d'Orleans, and several members of
the ex-royal family of France, the Duchess of Cambridge,
and a host of the members of the fashionable world.
Harvesting commenced at her Majesty's farm near
Osborne, last week.
DEPARTURE OF THE 2D DRAGOON GUARDS FOR
INDIA.—The 2d Dragoon Goards, ordered for India,
embarked on Saturday at Gravesend, on board the
frigate built ships Monarch and Blenheim. The men
OPS FOR INDIA.—On Saturday
appeared
ikeuKin good
ATio s;
li OF,irTitEs.
o
the Ist battalion of the Ist Royals embarked at Kings-
town on board the Caledonia, transport, for India. The
troop ship Robert Lowe, now in Kingstown harbour,
will receive another battalion to-day ; the remainder ,of
the Ist Royals will be embarked in the course of the
pre,ent week.
EXECUTION OF A MURDERER.—On Saturday last John
Le who was convicted of murdering his wife, Gwen-
lien Lewis, on the 4th of January last, was executed in
front of the gaol at Cardiff, in the presence of a very
large concourse of spectators.
Finch, or the murder at Rivenhall•will be executed
on Wednesday next. The Rev. G. B. Hamilton, the
chaplain, is in daily attendance upon him, and though
wretchedly ignorant, the culprit evinces contrition and
religious feeling.—Chelmsford Chronicle.
COMMUTATION OF SENTENCE.—In accordance with the
recommendation of the learned judge who tried the case,
Elizabeth Jamieson, convicted at York Assizes for th e
murder of her chill, has had her sentence of death com-
muted to penal servitude for life.—cbserver.
THE LATE MURDER AT WOODFORD.—Great exertions
have been made by the police during the past week for
the apprehension of Jonathan Geydon, the perpetrator
of the late brutal murder at Woodford; who is supposed
to be conc?aled in Epping Forest, and it is believed
that a clue to his hiding place has been obtained, and
that he vjill be captured in a day or two. A. reward of
2001. hr/s been offered for his apprehension by the Go.
vornment.
THE AMERICAN MAILS.—LIVERPOOL, Saturday.—
Tee British and North American Royal Mail steam-
ship Persia, Captain C. H. E. Judkins, sailed from
the Meioey at noon to-day for New York, with the usual
mails for the United States and British North American
provinces, 190 pas.-engers, and a full cargo of merchan-
disc, on freight. The Royal Mail steamship Niagara,
Captain J. G. Wickman, with advices from New York
to the 14th ; Boston, 15th ; and Ilaloas to the 17th
inst., may b- sxpected to morrow-morning.
THE AUSTRALIAN MAILS.— MALTA, July 19.—The
Scamander, belonging to James Moss and Co., c f
Liverpool, brought the Austra,lian mail, which ought to
have left Australia en the 15th May, but which left on
the 30th May. The admiral has no steamer to go on
with the mails, which are in charge of Mr. Green, the
consul's son, of Alexandria. This is a bad arrangement
for Vie Australian mails. Eight boxes go via Mar-
seilles, the other 150 go on by the Scatnander. There
Was no news from India when the Simla passed Ceylon.
Toe Stade has 12,000 ounces of gold on Vard, and 30
passengers. The Great Britain had left Australia with
36,000 ounces of gold on board.

g 4 nri
LA _I ke.l If V •

MARSEILLES, JULY 26.

The Indian mail is expected here to-morrow.

Advices from Naples have been received to the
23d inst. The trial continues. None of°the pri-
soners have as yet been shot. Nicotera has re-
vealed the whole plot. He has justified the
conduct of the crew of the Cagliari. Some of
the papers found on Pisacane are in cipher, and
have not been made out.

Foschini, the refugee, who escaped from Lon-
don, after committing a double assassination, is
among the wounded. Padula has blown his