The Sun.
London, England, 1827-01-13 00:00:00

THE LATE DUKE OF YORK.

His Majesty's eight beautiful black horses are in daily training
for the solemn ceremony of the much lamented Duke of York's
funeral, the procession of which, attended by all the Military in
the vicinity of the Metropolis, will, on the day appointed, move
from London at half-past eight o'clock in the morning. This
early hour is fixed in order that the procession, which must of
necessity move the whole way at a foot pace, may reach Windsor
in a suitable time.

The exterior splendid, and most elaborately finished Coffin,
will be removed this evening from his Majesty's upholsterer's in
Mount-street, to St. James's Palace, there to receive the sacred
remains of the Illustrious Duke.

(131" SIR IVALTY.R SCOTT.)
In the person of his Royal Highness the Duke of York we
may justly say, in the labotage of Scripture, " There has fallen
this day in our Israel, a Prince, and a great man." He has, from
an early period of his manhood, performed a most important part
in public life. In the early wars of the French Revolution, he
commanded the British forces on the continent, and although we
claim not for his memory the admiration due to the rare and high
gifts which in our latter times must combine to form a military
genius of the first order, yet it has never been disputed that in the
field his Royal Highness displayed intelligence, military skill, and
his family attribute—the most unalterable courage. He had also
the universal testimony of the army for his efforts to lessen the
distresses of the privates during the horrors of an unsuccessful
campaign, in which he acquired, and kept to his death, the epithet
of the soldier's friend.

But it is not on account of these early services that we now, as
boldly as our poor voice may, venture to bring forward the late
Duke of York's claims to the perpetual gratitude of his country.
It is as the reformer and regenerator of the British army, which
he brought from a state nearly allied to general contempt to such
a pitch of excellence, that we may, without much hesitation,
claim for them an equality with, if not a superiority over, any
troops in Europe. The Duke of York had the firmness to look
into and examine the causes which, 'ever since the American war,
though arising out of circumstances existing long before, had gone
as far to destroy the character of the British army as the naturally
good materials of which it is composed would permit. The heart
must have been bold that did not despair. at the sight of such an
Augean stable.
In the first place, our system of purchasing commissions—
itself an evil in a military point of view, and yet indispensable
to the freedom of the country—had been stretched so far as to
open the way to every sort of abuse. No science was required,
no service, no previous experience whatsoever; the boy let loose
from school the last week, might in the course of a month be a
field officer, if his friends were disposed to be liberal of money and
influence. ' Others there were, against whom there could be no
complaint for want of length of service, although it might be dif-
ficult to see how their experience was improved by it. It was no
uncommon thing for a commission to be obtained for a child in
the cradle; and when he _came from college, the fortunate youth
was at least a lieutenant of some standing, by dint of fair promo-
tion. To sum up this catalogue of abuses, commissions were.in
some instances bestowed upon young ladies, when pensions could
not be had. We know ourselves one fair dame who drew the
pay of captain in the dragoons, and was probably not much
less fit for the service than some who, at that period, actually did
duty, for as we have said, no knowledge of any kind was de-
manded from the young officers. If they desired to improve
themselves in the elemental parts of their profession, there
were no means open either of direction or of instruction. But
as a zeal for knowledge rarely exists where its attainment
brings no credit or advantage, the gay young men who adopted
the military profession were easily led into the fashion of
thinking that it was pedantry to be master even of the rou-
tine of the exercise which they were obliged to perform. An
intelligent sergeant whispered from time to time the word of com-
mand, which his captain would have been ashamed to have known
without prompting ; and thus the duty of the field-day was huddled
over rather than performed. It was natural, under such circum-
stances, that the pleasures of the mess, or of the card or billiard
table, should occupy too much of the leisure of those who had so
few duties to perform, and that extravagance, with all its disre-
putable consequences, should be the characteristic of many, while
others, despairing of promotion, which could only be acquired by
Money or influence, sunk into mere machines, performing without
hope or heart, a task which they had learned by rote.
To this state of things, by a succession of well-considered and
effectual regulations, the Duke of York put a stop with a firm yet
gentle hand. Terms of service were fixed for .every rank, and
neither influence nor money was permitted to force any individual
forward, until he had served the necessary time in the present
grade which he held. No rank short of that, of. the Duke of
York—no courage and determination inferior to that of his Royal
Highness, could have accomplished a change so important to the
service, but which yet was so unfavourable to the wealthy and
to the powerful, 'whose children and protegees had formerly found
a brief way to promotion. Thus a protection was afforded to
those officers who could only hope to rise by merit and length of
service, while, at the same time, the young aspirant was com-
pelled to discharge the duties of a subaltern before attaining the
higher commissions.
In other respects, the influence of the Commander-in-Chief
was found to have the same gradual and meliorating influence.—
The vicissitudes of real service, and the emergencies to which in-
dividuals are exposed, began to render ignorance unfashionable,
as it was speedily found that mere valour, however fiery, was
unable on such occasion for the extrication of those engaged in
them ; and that they who knew their duty and discharged it,
were not only most secure of victory and safety in action, but
most distinguished at head-quarters, and most certain of promo-
tion. Thus a taste of studying mathematics and calculations ap-
plicable to war, was gradually introduced into the army, and
carried by some officers to a great length, while a perfect ac-
quaintance with the routine of a field day was positively demand-
ed from every officer in the service as an indispensable qualifi-
cation.

His Royal Highness also introduced a species of moral discipline
among the officers of our army, which has had the highest con-
sequences on their character. Persons of the old school of Capt.
Plume and Capt. Brazen, men who swore hard, drank deep,
bilked tradesmen, and plucked pigeons, were no longer allowed
to arrogate a character which they could only support by deep
oaths and ready swords. If a tradesman, whose bill was unpaid
by an officer, thought proper to apply to the Horse Guards, the
debtor received a letter from head-quarters, requiring to know if
there existed any objections to the account, and failing in render-
ing a satisfactory answer, he was put on stoppages until the cre-
ditor's demand was'satisfied. Repeated applications of this kind
might endanger the officer's commission, which was then sold for
the payment of his creditors. Other moral delinquencies were at
the.same time adverted to; and, without maintaining an inquisi-
torial strictness over the officers, or taking too close inspection
of the mere gaieties and follies of youth, a complaint of ally kind
implying a departure from the character of a gentleman and a
man of honour, was instantly inquired into by the Commander-
in-Chief,
.and the delinquent censured or punished as the case
seemed to require. The army was thus like a family under pro-
tection of an indulgent father, who, willing to promote merit,
checks, with a timely frown, the temptations to licence and ex-
travagance.

The private soldiers equally engaged the attention of his Royal I
Highness. In the course of his superintendence of the army, a
military dress, the most absurd in Europe, was altered for one
easy and comfortable for the men, and suitable to the hardships
they are exposed to in actual service. The severe and vexatious
rules exacted about the tying of hair, and other trifling punctilios
(which had been found sometimes to goad troops into mutiny),
were abolished, and strict cleanliness was substituted for a Hotten-
tot head-dress of tallow and flour. The pay of the soldier was
augmented, while care was at the same time taken that it should,
as far as possible, he expended in bettering his food and extending
his comforts. The slightest complaint on the part of a' rivate
sentinel was as regularly inquired into, as if had been preferred by
a General Officer. Lastly, the use of the cane (a brutal practice,
which our officers borrowed from the Germans) was entirely pro-
hibited, and regular corporal punishments, by the sentence of
a court-martial, have been gradually diminished.
If, therefore, we find in the modern British officer more in-
formation, a more regular course of study, a deeper acquaintance
with the principles of his profession, and a greater love for its
exertions—if we find the private sentinel discharge his duty with
a mind unimbittered by petty vexation@ and regimental exac-
tions, conscious of immunity from capricious violence, and know-
ing where to appeal if he sustains injury—if we find in all ranks
of the army a love of their profession, and a capacity of matching
themselves with the finest troops which Europe ever produced—
to the memory of his Royal Highness the Duke of York we owe
this change from the state of the forces thirty years since.
The means of improving the tactics of the British army did
not escape his Royal Highness's sedulous care and attention.
Formerly, every commanding officer manoeuvred his regiment
after his own fashion ; and if a brigade of troops were brought
together, it was very doubtful whether they could execute any
one combined movement, and almost certain that they could not
execute the various parts of it on the same principle. This was
remedied by the system of regulations compiled by the late Sir
David. Dondas, and which obtained the sanction and the counte-
nance of his Royal Highness. This one circumstance, of giving
a uniform principle and mode of working to the different bodies,
which are, after all, but parts of the same great machine,. was in

itself one of the mast distinguished services which could be ren-
dered to a national army, and it is only surprising that, before it
was introduced, the British army was able to execute any com-
bined movements at all.

We cannot but notice the Duke of York's establishment near
Chelsea for the orphans of soldiers, the cleanliness and discipline
of which are a model for such institutions; and the Royal Mili-
tary School, or College, at Sandhurst, where every species of
scientific instruction is afforded to those officers whom it is desir-
able to qualify for the service of the Staff. The excellent officers
who have been formed at this institution are the best pledge of
what is due to its founder. Again, we repeat, that if the British
soldier meets his foreign adversary, not only with equal courage,
but with equal readiness and facility of mancsuvre--if the British
officer brings against his scientific antagonist, not only his own
good heart and hand, but an improved and enlightened know-
ledge of his profession, to the memory of the Duke of York the
army and country owe them.

The character of his Royal Highness was admirably adapted to
the task of this eitended reformation, in a branch of the public
service on which the safety of England absolutely depended for the
time. Without possessing any brilliancy, his judgment, in itself
clear and steady, was inflexibly guided by honour and principle.
No solicitations could make him promise what it would have been
inconsistent with these principles to grant ; nor could any circum-
stances induce him to break or elude the promise which lie had
once given. At the same time, his feelings, humane and kindly,
were on all possible occasions accessible to the claims of compas-
sion; and there occurred but rare instances of a wife widowed,
or a family rendered orphans, by the death of a meritorious officer,
without something ,being done to render their calamities more
tolerable.

As a statesman, the Duke of York, from his earliest appear-
ance in public life, was guided by the opinions of Mr. Pitt. But
two circumstances are worthy of remark. First, that his Royal
Highness never permitted the consideration of politics to influence
him in his department of Commander-in-Chief, but gave alike to
Whig as to Tory, the preferment their service or their talents deserv-
ed. Secondly, in attrehing himself to the party whose object is sup-
posed to be to strengthen the Crown, his Royal Highness would
have been the last man to invade, in the slightest degree, the
rights of the people. The following anecdote may be relied upon.
At the table of the Commander-in-Chief, not many years since, a
Young officer entered'into a dispute with Lieutenant-Colonel —,
upon the point to which military obedience ought to be carried.
" If the Commander-in-Chief," said the young officer, like a second
Seid, " should command me to do a thing which I knew to be
civilly illegal, I should not scruple to obey him, and consider my-
self as relieved from all responsibility by the commands of my
military superiority." "So would not I," returned the gallant
and intelligent officer, who maintained the opposite side of the
question. " I should rather prefer the risk of being shot for dis-
obedience by my commanding officer, than hanged for transgres-
sing the laws and violating the liberties of the country." " Yon
have answered like yourself," said his Royal Highness, whose at-
tention had been attracted by the vivacity of the debate; and
the officer would deserve both to be shot and hanged that should
act otherwise. I trust all British officers would be as unwilling
to execute an illegal command, as I trust the Commander-in-Chief
would be incapable of issuing one."
The religion of the Duke of York was sincere, and he was
particularly attached to the doctrines and constitution of the
Church of England. In this his Royal Highness strongly resem
bled his father; and, like his father, he entertained a conscien-
tious sense of the obligations of the coronation oath, which pre-
vented him from acquiescing in the further relaxation of the laws
against Catholics. We pronounce no opinion on the justice of
his Royal Highness's sentiments on this important point, but we
must presume them to have been sincerely entertained, since they
were expressed at the hazard of drawing upon his Royal Highness
an odium equally strong and resentful.
In his person and countenance, the Duke of York was large,
stout and manly ; he spoke rather with some of the indistinctness
of utterance peculiar to his late father, than with the precision of
enunciation which distinguishes the King, his Royal brother,--,
Indeed his Royal Highness resembled his late Majesty perhaps the
most of any of George III:'s descendents. His family affections
were strong, and the public cannot have forgotten the pious ten-
derness with which he discharged the duty of watching the
last days of his Royal Father, darkened as they were by
corporeal blindness and • mental incapacity. No pleasure,
no • business, was ever • known to interrupt his regular
visits to Windsor, where his unhappy parent could nei-
ther be grateful for, nor even sensible of, his unremitted
attention. The same ties of affection united his Royal Highness
to other members `of his 'family, and particularly to its present
Royal Heid. Those who witnessed the coronation of his present
Majesty; will lonrremember, as the most interesting part of that
august ceremony, the cordiality with which his Royal Highness
the Duke of-York performed his act of homage, and the tears of
affection which were mutually shed between the Royal brethren.
We are aware that under this heavy dispensation his Majesty will
he chief mourner, not in name only, but in all the sincerity of
severed affection. The King's nearest brother in blood was also
his nearest in affection ; and the subject who stood next to the
throne was the individual who would most willingly have laid
down his life for its support.
In social intercourse the Duke of York was kind, courteous,
and condescending—general attributes, we believe, "of the blood
royal of England, and well befitting the princes of a free country.
It may be remembered, that when, " in days of youthful pride,"
his Royal Highness had wounded the feelings of a young noble-
man, he never thought of sheltering himself behind his rank, but
manfully gave reparation by receiving the (well-nigh fatal) fire of
the offended party, though he deciined to return it.
We would here gladly conclude the subject, but to complete a
portrait, the shades as well as the lights must be inserted, and in
their foibles as well as their good qualities, Princes are the pro-
perty of history. Occupied perpetually with official duty,
which, to the last period of his life, he discharged with the
utmost punctuality, the Duke of York was peculiarly negligent
of his own affairs, and the embarrassments which arose in con-
sequence, were considerably increased by an imprudent passion
for the turf and for deep play. Those unhappy propensities ex-
hausted the funds with which the nation supplied him liberally,
and sometimes produced extremities which must have been pain-
ful to a man of temper so honourable. The exalted height of his
rank, which renders it doubtless more difficult to look into and
regulate domestic expenditure, together with the engrossing du-
ties of his Royal Highness's office, may be admitted as alleviations,
but not apologies, for their imprudence.
A criminal passion of a different nature proved, at one part of
the Duke of York's life, fraught with consequences likely to af-
fect his character, destroy the confidence of the country in his
efforts, and blight the fair harvest of national gratitude, for which
he had toiled so hard. It was a striking illustration of the senti-
ment of Shakspeare—
." The gods are just, and of oar pleasant vices

"Make whips to scourge us.
The Duke of York Married to Frederica, Princess Royal of
Prussia, Sept. 29, 1791, lived with her on terms of decency, but
not of affection ; and the Duke had formed, with a female called
Clarke, a counexibu justifiable certainly neither by the laws of re-
ligion nor morality. Imprudently he suffered this woman to ex-
press her wishes to him for the promotion of, two or three officers,
to whose preferment there could be. no Oho: objection than that
they were recommended by such a person. • It might doubtless
have occurred to the Duke, that the solicitations of a woman like
this were not likely tube disinterested ; and, in fact, she seems
to have favoured one.or two persons, as being her paramours-‘—•
several for mere prospect .of gain, which she had subordinate agents
to hunt out for,—and one or two from a real sense of good nature
and benevolence. The examination of this woman and her
various profligate intimates before the House of Commons occupied
that assembly for nearly three months, and that with an intense-
ness of anxiety seldom equalled. The Duke of YOrk was acquitted
from the motion brought against him by a majority of 80 ; but so
strong was the outcry against him without doors, so much was
the nation convinced that all Mrs. Clarke said was true, and
so little could they be brought to doubt that the Duke of
York was a conscious and participant actor in all that person's
schemes, that his Royal Highness, seeing his utility obstructed by
popular prejudice, tendered to his Majesty the resignation of his
office, which was accepted accordingly, March 20, 1809. And
thus, as according to Solomon, a dead fly can pollute the most
precious unguent, was the honourable fame, acquired by the ser-
vices of a lifetime, obscured by the consequences of what the gay
world would have termed a venial levity. The warning to those
of birth and eminence is of the met serious nature. This step
had not been long taken, when the mist in which the question was
involved began to disperse. The public accuser, in the House of
Commons, Colonel Wardle, was detected in some suspicious deal-
ings with the principal witness, Mrs. Clarke, and it was evidently
expectation of gain, that had brought this lady to the bar as an
evidence. Next occurred, in the calm moments of retrospect,
the great improbability that his Royal Highness ever could
know on what terms she negociated with those in whose fa-
vour she solicited. It niay well be supposed she concealed the
motive for interesting herself in such as were his own favoured
rivals ; and what greater probability was there, that she
should explain to him her mercenary speculations, or distin-
guish them from the intercessions 'which she made upon more
honourable motives. When the matter of accusation was than
reduced, to his Royal Highness's having been, in tsvo or three in-
stances, the dupe of an artful woman, men began to see, that
When once the guilt of entertaining a mistress was acknowledged

the disposition to gratify such a person, who must always exer-i
vise a natural influence over her paramour, follows as a matter of
course. It was then that the public compared the extensive and
lengthened train of public services, by which the Duke had dis-
tinguished himself in the management of the army, with the
trifling foible of his having granted one or two favours, not in
themselves improper, at the request of a woman who had such
opportunities to press her suit ; and, doing to his Royal Highness
the justice he well deserved, welcomed him back, in May, 1811,
to the situation from which he had been driven by calumny and
popular prejudice.
In that high command his Royal Highness contined to manage
our military affairs During the last years of the most momen-
tous war that ever was waged, his Royal Highness prepared the
most splendid victories our annals boast, by an unceasing atten-
tion to the character and talents of the officers, and the comforts
and health of the men. Trained under a system so admirable,
our army seemed to increase in efficacy, power, and even in
numbers, in proportion to the increasing occasion which the
public had for their services. Nor is it a less praise that, when
the men so disciplined returned from scenes of battle, ravaged
countries, and stormed cities, they re-assumed the habits of pri-
vate life as if they had never left them ; and of all the crimes
•which the criminal calendar presents (in Scotland at least), there
are not above one or two instances in which the perpetrators have
been disbanded soldiers. This is a happy change since the reduc-
tion of the array, after peace with America in 1783, which was the
means of infesting the country with ruffians of ern), description ;
and in the prison of Edinburgh alone, there were six or seven
disbanded soldiers under sentence of death at the same time.

This superintending care, if not the most gaudy, is amongst
the most enduring flowers which will bloom over the Duke of
York's tomb. It gave energy to Britain in war, and strength to
her in peace. It combined tranquillity with triumph, and mo-
rality with the habits of a military life. If our soldiers have been
found invincible in battle, and meritorious in peaceful society,
when restored to its bosom, let no Briton forget this is owing to
the paternal care of him to whose memory we here offer an iinper-
feet tribute.—Edinburgh Weekly Journal.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRENCH PAPERS.

(From the Moniteur of Wednesday, Jan. 10.)
" MADRID, DEC. 28.—" Notwithstanding the holydsys, which
in this eountry make every day from the 24th of December to the
3d of January a day of festivity, our Ministers have not quitted
their cabinets, except to go to mass and to dinner. Messrs. Sal-
mon, Zambrano, and Ballasteros, have of late passed even part of
the night in transacting business.

" Two couriers were despatched yesterday by our Government :
one is gone with a message to Lisbon; the other,'with two mes-
sages, is gone to Paris and London.
" The Ministry of his Majesty has just caused the sum of
6,000,000 of reals (1,590,000 francs) to be paid into the general
Exchequer of the kingdom, out of which two months' salary has
been paid to all the tribunals, and two months' arrears to the
widows and military on half-pay. It seems that Don Gaspard
Remisa, the Treasurer-Gene al, in concert with the Ministers, has
negotiated Treasury notes in order to be able to make these urgent
payments. This is the most positive and opportune measure that
the Government could have adopted under present circumstances.
" PARIS, JAN. 9.—The Austrian Observer of the Slat of
December quotes a letter from Zante of the let, which contains
only news of the sth of November, stating, that Ibrahim Pacha,
having left 1,000 men at Tripolizza, had gone with 5,000 men
to Modon, where he received the presents of the Sultan, for
himself and his principal officers ; the sabre for himself was
worth 10,000 piastres.
" Some days before the Egyptain fleet arrived at Alexandria,
the Aurora transport, which had accoutrements for 6,000 men,
was burnt in the port. The Viceroy immediately sent orders to
Cairo to repair the loss, and received an answer in two hours.
Many of the fellahs of the Delta, of whom it is intended to make
sailors, have embarked on board the fleet.