The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-29 00:00:00

SIR CHARLES NAPIER.

When we remember the general enthusiasm with
which the appointment of Sir Charles Napier to the
chief command in India was so recently welcomed,
we may presume that the early and unsatisfactory
conclusion of his career in the East will have caused
in many minds a feeling of disappointment. It is un-
derstood that the Indian Government had no alterna-
tive but to accept his resignation. The refusal or
neglect of the Commander-in-Chief to carry out an
order of the Government, respecting the regulations
of the army, was necessarily followed by a reprimand,
which led to his immediate determination to lay down
his office. It is greatly to be regretted that an im-
practicable habit of mind should so often tend to ren-
der Sir Charles Napier's high and brilliant qualities
unavailable to the public service. His intemperate
attacks upo❑ some of the East India directors delayed
for some months, his appointment to the command ;
and they would certainly have prevented its being
made at all, if the alarm of the country at the unskil-
ful
conduct and balanced success of the Seikh war,
had not induced the authorities of Leadenhall. street
to overrule all personal considerations. It appears
that a similar ebullition of temper has occasioned his
premature withdrawal from office, and the interrup-
tion of the vigorous changes in the conduct of the
Indian army which he is understood to have been bent
on accomplishing.
It is difficult to judge of the justice of the stric-
tures which Sir Charles Napier has so freely bestowed
on various portions of the army under his command.
The India papers are generally warm partisans i❑
matters relating to the civil and military services ;
and the late Commander-in-Chief had, in his former
period of service i❑ India, incurred more than an or-
dinary share of hostility among the conductors of the
public journals. One of the ablest and most widely-
circulated newspapers in India no sooner received the
announcement of the promotion of the General who
had, for years, been denounced in its columns—when
conqueror and Governor of Sinde—than it promul-
gated a report that that appointment had been pur-
chased by a bribe to one of our London contempora-
ries. With a minuteness which showed the accu-
racy of its information, the paper to which we
refer specified the exact sum which Sir Charles
had paid for the insertion of an article
which was supposed to have inspired the
Government, and to have overruled the hesitation of
the India House. 7,0001. was the exact amount
which changed hands in this nefarious transaction;
and we only wonder at the moderation of the Indian
journalist in abstaining from an account of the sums
which must have been paid to the rest of the news-
paper press, or employed in buying up the general
voice of society. When we find, on similar authority,
that Sir Charles Napier's judgments were harsh, and
his complaints unfounded, we deem it prudent to
hesitate before we decide between the conflicting au-
thorities.

It must be confessed that there are peculiarities in
Sir Charles's character which, in some degree,
weaken the authority of his opinions and statements.
He has proved
.himself on the Indus a most able
general, and in many n field in Europe and Asia a
skilful and fearless soldier. He is also—the 7,0001.
bribe notwithstanding—unmistakably honest and
straightforward. His love of discipline and
his determination to do his duty ara tho-
roughly genuine and unselfish ; but, unfortunately,
with a lull share of the vigour and geniva of his
race, he has also the fatal facility of language which
has so often led his eloquent relative, the historian,
into exaggeration and bombast. Some of Sir Charles
Napier's dispatches are models of point and vigorous
compression ; but his genius is habitually averse to
the colourless language of business which best suits
an official style. His minutes on courts•martial and
general orders are too uniformly pithy and severe. A.
negligent colonel or a dissipated subaltern is reproved
with an epigrammatic indignation which might have
proceeded from Tacitus or Juvenal. It is conse-
quently difficult to judge of the standard by which he
judges the state of the Indian army. If we look at
the letter of his minutes, we might fear that it was
little better than a rabble, till wo remember how dif-
ferent its character might appear if its chief, in addi-
tion to the qualities of a great commander, had not
also possessed the genius of a vigorous and eloquent
writer.

Nevertheless, after making all reasonable deduc-
tions, we cannot but fear that the dissatisfaction
which Sir Charles Napier has so frequently manifested
at the condition of his army is, to aconsiderable extent,
well founded. It is not unknown that officers of experi-
ence have confidentially communicated to the home au-
thorities their unfavourablejudgment of the discipline
of the Indian troops. The laxity of former Commanders•
in-Chief is said to have left too much ground for the
irritation of the last holder of the office ; and there
can be no doubt that, in the recent wars, the confi-
dence of the generals has, in too many cases, been re-
posed almost entirely in the European regiments.
That the Sepoys, when well officered, are only se-
cond to English soldiers, is an opinion which is en-
tertained by those who know them best, and which
Sir Charles Napier himself has often publicly ex-
pressed ; but it is certain that the competence of the
officers is even more essential to the efficiency of such
troops than in the case of an army like onr own. An
English infantry regiment would he a formidable
impediment to an enemy if all its officers were sud-
denly removed from their posts ; but in the Indian
army the whole machinery is set in motion by the
Europeans who direct it, and it stops if they are un-
equal to their duties. The necessity of mastering a
foreign language, and of understanding Oriental
habits and feelings, imposes a responsibility on those
who command the Sepoys from which the officers of
the Queen's army are exempt. It is by no means a
matter of boasting that our army has less professional
knowledge among its officers than any other in Eu-
rope. Abundant courage and the spirit of gentlemen
torm the ordinary qualifications of our future generals,
but, at least for the Indian army, more special fitness
is required.
Although Sir Charles Napier may have, in some
instances, been unjust or excessive in censure, it can-
not be doubted that his vigorous resistance to laxity
and indiscipline has had a useful effect in checking
and preventing abuses. It is one of the most urgent
duties of the Board of Control and of the India House
to select a successor who will direct his attention to
the subjects which employed his predecessor. The
chief command of India is the most important mili-
tary appointment in the empire, and one of the most
responsible which can be held by any soldier in the
world. Such a rank is not a fitting retirement for a
favoured veteran, or a subject for a family or official
job. A war may prepare itself in India without our
notice, as we found to our cost, in two instances, in
the Punjaub ; and a weak or incompetent general,
even if he does not incur losses as fearful as those of
Affghanistan, may destroy the prestige of the English
arms by blundering and indecisive contests, At
present, else, while there is a reasonable prospect
inof
peace, a victorious general will have enough to do
Therearmy.competent to the
task, and it is to be hoped that neither are
or effif ()ere
interest nor
Army organization
List
ht thear
e
mrsiniff theee
cognition of their claims.— Chronrcle.
carelessness will be allowed to interfere. with the re-

THE LATE ATTEMPT AT MURDER AT GATEHOUSE.
—We learn that Dr. Mason, who was so severely wounded
by his wife at Gatehouse, on the 17th inst., has been pro-
nounced convalescent. The unhappy woman is still of
course confined in Kirkcudbright prison, and a remit has
been made to medical men to inquire into the date of her
mind.
An equestrian statue of her Majesty is about to
be erected in Glasgow, in commemoration of the Royal Tibit
1844•