New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-09-03

l
NAL anniversary of the Institution OF the order.
The pre1ent Gar contents himself with the second
class, granted to him by his father In recognition
OF his services az commander Of the Rustschuk
division during the Turkish war OF 1877. The
only other member OF the imperial family VINO
has ever figured among the knights OF TIE second
class is the Grand Duke Constantine Psulovitch,
who 30 mysteriously surrendered his rights OF
| succession TO the throne in 1926 to his younger
brother, Nicholas lie received it for his splendid
gaanuy al the battle Of Lcpsic.
One OF the most popular and successful generals
| in the French Army Is mainly indebted TOT M
present high rank TO an act OF dIsobedlencc our
| ing time. lie Is General de Nesrier, ana
| the incident occurred while in AIgiers on the
| frontier of Morocco. At the time he was IN
command OF a regiment OF Classenrs dAfrfquc.
| Two companies lad been sent forward on out
/ post duty or to select the ground for camp, ana
| had been surrounded by the enemy. An Arab
scout brought in the news OF their perlous con-
| dtion, adding that they would be unable to hold
| out long. Colonel dc Neercr Immediately gave
| orders to hasten TO tie rescue. and the troops
| were about to start when suddenly orderly
| arrived from the general IN command OF the ex-
petition bidding the colonel to reioin the main
body Of the army with his regiment, and 70
You. my friend" exclaimed Colonel de Neg
rcr addressing the orderly, will have TO arrange
TO reach me with this order some time tomorrow,
but not before. SO right aoout, face.'
With that the Colonel placed himself at the
head of his regiment and gave the order to march
forward to the rescue. After an almost unpar-
alleled and continuous march Of eighteen hours,
the regiment reached the two companies, already
half decimate1 by the enemy. just in time 10
save the remainder from Massacre. In this case
the COlonels disobedence to the orders Of HE
superior officer was rewarded by his promotion -
the rank of General and By the grant Of that most
highly priced of all French decorations, tho
Medalle Mitaire," which is only conferred for
conspicuous CALAMITY in the field of battle or in
naval warfare.
! am glad to hear that somewhat analogous
and fortunate case Of dsobedence TO orders oc-
CURED at the time of the loss of the Victoria the
other day. 1t appears that soon as the COLI
sion had occurred and il was that the flag
ship was doomed boats were quickly gotten of the
davits and launched from nearly every vessel Of
the squadron. Then came the late Admiral Sir
George 1ryon's unaccounable semaphOre ordering
the boats not to come, command which WAS, re-
peated by the officers Of each vessel, with ditec-
tons to rehoist the boats on board. Everywhere
where the men openly mutinicd and declared they
did not care for the Admiral and they were going
70 save their mates. The boatswan explained the
situation to the captain and the lieutenant in
charge of the deck, whereupon these two officers
repeated the Admiral's order Notwithstanding
this. the men broke away, lowered the boats with
rush and pulled off at fNl speed to the Vic
toria, where they succeeded N rcscuing less
than / 20 men. Scores would have been drowned
but for this disobedience and open mutiny on the
part of the sailors of II. NJ s. Edgar. Under tho
circumstances it was deemed advisable by the au-
thorties to take notice OF their disregard OF
ORDERS while the men have been made the object
of much good will and appreciation on the part,
not only Of their messmates but even OF many
of the officers.
There are many other similar cases that misht
cite, including that OF the great English naval
commander, Lord Nelson, who was only able to
win the battle of st. Vincent, which earned for him
a peerage and undying fame, by refusing to obey
the order of his commanding officer. under the
pretext that he could not make out through his
spygIass the signals TO. retreat. This was not
astonishing seeing that he purposely kept his tele
scope applied, not to his sound eye, but to the
blind one.
From this j. will be seen that obedience must
no longer be OF that blind and unquestionlng
character which by many Is accounted as tho
very foundation of all recognized system and DIS
cipline. If to judge by tho cases men
toned above commands received from superlofs
should be duly pioneered over BEFORE being carried
into effect arl ncir execution should depend upon
the discretion. of the person t, whom they are adj
dressed. Pushed to its Dglcll extreme, the
principle demonstrated by these examples and
enunciated so recently by the Victoria court
martial, composed of the principal admirals Of the
leading naval Power Of the world. means chat
every body must henceforth constitute himself the
Judge of how an order given ~ his superior
should be interpreted, and whether 1t should be
obeyed This, of course increases responsibilities 4
and anxieties tenfold, since as the matter now
stands an officer who receives command IRON
his superior exposes hin self just as much 10 bs
court-martalled for obeying as for disopedlense;;
Ne is in fact on the very horns OF dilemma, and
there are many vino will be tempted TO pe or
the opinion of the old Duke OF Cambridge, the
eptuagenariun generalissimo OF tho British Army
Who with the finding of e." Victoria court,
martial fresh upon bis mind. Informed the cadets
of the Military College at Woowich, while DIS
trbuting the prizes there the other day, that it
was far better to go wrong in accordance with
orders than to go wrong in opposition TO .,
supcrior's command
While il is impossible to do otherwise than 20
approve of everything calculated 10 increase the
SELF reliance and moral independence OF man
kind, yet the axiom that disobedence Is some.
times duty seems destined 70 produce more evil
than beneficial results There is already 3
popular tendency TO question and discuss every
law and every provision that has beea made ny
the people for the good of the community, and 70
d,cli,. submission thereto the ground that
they unjustifiablc al any rate in the eyeS OF
those whom they are destined 10 restrain TINS
procivity, e fatal &c all orsan:1cI discipline and
40 calculated to render impossible that concertea
action Indispensable in the eNertion OF great
force" cannot bar be fostered both by the cenbure
OF Admiral Markham and by tine lcncncy shown
TO the mutinous sailors on board II. NJ > Edgar.
EA-ATTACItE.