The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

A public dinner, attended with circumstances
of peculiar interest, was given on Thursday in
Dublin to Lord Morpeth, a young Nobleman
already distinguished by acquirements character-
istic of the better class of English youth, and by
a political spirit and liberality
.which render
him not unworthy of the name of Howard. To
this entertainment his Lordship was invited by
the Friends of Civil and Religious Liberty:—
Th,e Duke of Leinster, a'; became his blood and
station, and known attachment to the cause of
st, Protestanto Catholic,ost
con-
spicuous Irish liberty, presided. A long train of Irish
Noblemen, Alembers of Parliament and-
tlemen of high rank and extensive influence . in
the country, were assembled to do honour totheir
gipt e r ando o the
con-
nected with this great and still advancinF
crisis in the affairs of Ireland, and thronqh
sand most
Ireland of the empire itself, were called upon
in the course of the evening to deliver their
sentiments in return for toasts, either personal
or political ; and it is equally animating and sooth-
ing to find, that throughout the whole series of
such discourses, though proceeding from nearly
twenty speakers, Protestant, Catholic, lay, and
ecclesiastic,—there was not a single expression
hazarded, or feeling detected, that could be -re-
gretted by the most susceptible observer of ap-
pearances, or disapproved by the most judicious
and jealous anticipator of effects. The Pro-
testant friends and advisers of the Catholics,

from Lord Morpeth to Lord Cloncurry, ap-
peared to he sensible of no more solemn duty
than that of impressing on the minds of English-
men, as well as Irish, the necessity for super-
seding all subordinate and speculative differences
by an absolute fusion of every English and Irish
liberal, of every English and Irish Catholic effort,
into one mighty power for the working out the
paramount end of emancipation. The repre-
sentatives of the Catholic body who were
present, in the persons of Lord Killeen
and of Messrs. O'Connell and Shiel, ma-
nifested their acceptance of this gene-
rous policy, by language equally frank and for-
cible. We heartily concur with these gentle-
men in believing, that amongst other evidences
of the progress of the Catholic cause in Eng-
land, " the rising generation of intellect and
rank" is on its side ; and we are proportionably
the more anxious that nothing should occur in
Ireland to turn that most efficient of auxiliaries
from the course in which it is rapidly and stea-
dily moving, that the Catholics should trust
their English friends and lean upon them-, con-
vinced that the prejudice which fears emancipa-
tion will be most softened, and the malignity
which hates it most disheartened, by the 'growth
and improvement of a league reposing on such
international confidence.—Times,

It is generally stated that Sir Herbert Tay-
lor, since his appointment to the 'office of Ad-
jutant-General, has matured a plan of extensive
and highly salutary reformation in the dress and
interior economy of the army. The great ob-
ject with this estimable officer is said to be the
reduction of useless expellee in military equip-
Ments and regimental practices, and the conse-
quent,relief of young men—chiefly subalterns—
from the severe oppressioa frequently inflicted
on them by.the unieeliog caprice or vanity of
those who are placed in,the- coMmand of batta-
lions throughout the line. It is, as a mere
spectacle, quite disgraceful to see British officers
of infantry daubed over with all the gold or sil-
ver lace that they can carry. It looks as if the
point of honour with those to whom the public
defence is entrusted were the same as that of a
lady's footman at Court, viz., who shall wear the
most tawdry livery. But with reference to the
officers themselves, and the resources provided
for theme at the public cost, can any thing
be more barbarous than forcing a poor
youth, who may not, by possibility, have
a shilling beyond his pay,—that pay, for
an ensign, being ss. 3d. per diem, or some-
where about 961. per annum,—to spend nearly
three months' subsistence on the one article of a
coat ? We assert that there are infantry coats, in
the army which, with a single epaulet, cost A.ove
20 guineas ; from 15 to 18 guineas it a Com-
mon charge, of which one-third at least is for.
lace only,—a sort of trimming which twelve
years ago was, by the King's orders, prohibited.
It is no better with the pantaloons, the lace on
which (in the teeth of existing orders Iyhiekfor-
bid guy lace) is sometimes three inches broad,
An when young men- are asked by their friends
" what is the meaning of all this nonsense ? and ~why do General Officers permit it ?" they receive
for answer—" Oh, it is the commanding officeiA
desire ; and as for the generals, they wink at it,
except on guard or at a review. Every body
Ineisl Ostra to teN
eons= vi ii
knows that it is out of the question for a suhaf_
tern, eistpite.c.icalolyloane7;unagridonset,iitiomroelo
plain of him, for such arbitrary and tyrannical
violation of his own duty, and of the prOfeSsiOnal
rights and professional means of his- juniors,
We all know what a life such an unhappy ,ninr-
murer would lead, and what a ready advantage
would be taken of kis first venial inadver•,,eney
to destroy him. It is -the same A;;lth the
charge for messing and for 'die band,
which last ought to fall exclusively on the
Colonel; whereas the derk.retion on account
of it in infantry feginwits, which some o!
our correspondents ge willing to name, is even
from subalterns, twelve days pay in the year.
The mess-mil;s also shamefully prodigal in most
mop, Even the wine allowance, liberally
axtended
regi
to the messes of battalions on home
service, has been turned over (we mean the va-
lue of it in money) to other purposes, and all
the wine drank is paid for from the officer',
pocket. Frcan these and other instances of e-<.
pensive management, it follows that young mili-
tary men cannot exist on an income w,iich not
wore than twenty years ago suffier,Cl for their
current necessities. When the, paper-money
was every where, and pre.:s a fourth higher
than they are at present
Subalterns were able to
live with econom,
.11 and " get on" like gentle.-
men with the • •
‘egunent, on an allowance from
their famil:
-es of 601. per annum in addition- to
their Sy, Now, we may venture to a—rm, that
nine.tet
is of them are scarcely able to keep
themselves decently on 1001. a year besides their
pay ; and. that many of them are, in certain regi-
ments, forced to draw upon their friends for
150, per
annum ; and this not from the high
price of necessaries—for, as we said before,
money goes farther than twenty years.ago—uor
from any wanton extravagance on their parts,
but because they are driven into foolish expends
by those who ought to be their protectors, and
to restrain the.n, if requisite, from all waste- of
their weans ; that is to say, by the commanding
officers of regiments, who, to use a mild term,
inconsiderately sanction the rule of compellins,
those who have just enough of income for th.!
decencies of life, to bedizen themselves like pea-
cocks, and to feed like Aldermen,. ',hider di-6
•