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    /fiWrttr /fPVrtrtff-tl W^Etl UbUUUnU -—

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    tlte guard of its own liberties , it can hold them only on sufferance . The English people is a disarmed people , but the extension of the militia is a step towards restoring to it its arms and its honour . As the want of the people is felt , the people will rise in value , not only in the wages market , but in the nation . They will gradually Yergain a consciousness thai their consent is a matter of importance to the Government . We descry in various quarters the elements of a

    national party ; that party , however , seems at present struggling and incompetent to shape cut ; for itself or set up , distinctly , a positive object for which to unite . * We have before named the truly national object -which ought ¦ to animate all Englishmen , as Englishmen : it as the restoration in full of those rights ¦ w 'hich were secured to us by the Bill of Bights—a standard round which no Englishman could Scruple to rally , and the restoration of which would T > e sufficient for every object that the most extreme Liberals could desire . Such a

    party will Watch the development of a militia as furnishing a powerful key to that restoration .

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    THE PURCHASE SYSTEM . Ostly one libel can be worse than that which declares our officers in the East to be recreant . It is said that many of * them are dandies , Sybarites , who are sick of the hardships of warfare , who tremble at the perils they may have to undergo again , and are returninghome . This is untrue . The British officer is

    one of the most daring and enduring animals in existence . The captain's post is , properly , at a certain distance in front of his regiment ; but , we believe , there is scarcely an exception to the rule that the captain is always found in advance of his right pla . ce . The attempt to enforce obedience , and to restrain him within bounds where he becomes a less obvious mark

    for the enemy , has been given up as hopeless . The only libel which is worse than that now levelled at our officers , is the wicked statement that some other class , the middle class or the working class , is tainted with cowardice . Every action in the Crimea has answered for the working class , to whom the bulk of our soldiers belong . The middle class is also represented ; but if there were any ground to give consistency to the libels upon our officers , it must be laid at the door of the system of purchase .

    That system has had many ill effects , which help each other . By stamping the position of an officer as a mark to a certain extent of wealth , it makes that position coveted by those who are nnxious to be thought grand and wealthy ; the consequence is that men are picked to be officers in the British army , not on the score of their qualities , but on the score of their desire to be thought grand and wealthy , and of their having the means for indulging that desire . You want men to fight at places like Jnkerman

    and Alma , and you rum about in English sooidty to pick out men who can pay 700 Z ., 100 ( M ., or more for wearing a red coat . What is the practical effect ? You pick men who are capable of paying 700 / ., 1000 / ., or more , strongly impressed with the desire to wear a red coat j and it so happens that tho majority of men thus selected are bold , during fellows , who , being put to the pinch , " come out strong" with officer-liko qualities . TIio reason

    is that tho ruder part of tlxcso qualities is common to tho great bulk of tho English people , but by such a plan of selection you run a chance- of igotting idlers , dandies , Sybarites , and © von cownrds . TUoy have been found —yen , at Alrnn . But do not say that it is our aristocracy that , as a class , produces thcac cowards ; it is not from the families of Russolle , Stanleys , or Somorspts , ithat tho cowards come .

    Some person has said that it is the sons of hatters and grocers who creep into the ranks , and yield the supply of cowards and renegades ; but the gallant officer who mutinied against an order to advance in pure terror , or the other gallant officers who resign active service to come home—Lord George Paget—these are

    not sons of hatters or grocers . And we will ask Lord Raglan whether the working classes as a class have shown themselves cowards on the fields of the Crimea . The class which is , stigmatised is that of the paying dandieB—men whose ambition is for show , and who can pay , and who , therefore , alone get into the ranks of officers .

    If the system of commission is one that selects without reference to officer-like qualities , so the system of appointments in the higher grades is one that operates , apparently , without reference to the qualities for those grades . "We have more than one ^ Greneral of Division coming home ; we have another General likel y enough to succeed to the first command , whose past occasions a positive alarm at the idea of his taking that post ; and we have others whose

    very remaining m the Crimea is an occasion of mistrust * We cannot conceive what qualities directed the choice of Lord Cardigan , of Lord Lucan , or of the Duke of Cambridge . Of Sir de Lacy Evans we say nothing that is not full of admiring respect ; hehadj by hard work in the field , earned his right to remain there as long as possible ; and age was not a sufficient ground for refusing him the appointment . But more flagrant . even than , the Cambridge case is that of England .

    The Times has ripped it all up . In the beginning of 1842 , Sir Richard England was charged with the duty of leadiug reinforcements from Scinde , where he was in command , to General Nott , at Candahar . To do that he had to traverse tke Kqjuck ~ pass in the intervening mountain Tange . He attempted it on the 28 th of March , was repulsed by a paltry band of natives , retreated , entrenched himself

    in alarm , and sent a letter to General Nott , offering to co-operate with the latter if he also > should retreat ! He received an angry letter , intimating that Nott had no intention of retreating , and demanding his advance ; he again approached the Kojuclc pass , and sat down , literally in his own chair , debating whether he should proceed or not , and silently denying the importunities of his officers to go forward . At last he resumed march with his

    forces when other regiments from the opposite side had manned the pass , and thus showed that it did not include the " dangers" that he had apprehended . That is the gentleman to whom the fortune of death and of succession might hand the command of the armies that had to plough then * bloody way to victory at Alma and Inkerman ! And who was the . general at Candahar , whose duty it was to expose TSngland ' s conduct to himself ? It wa 3 ¦ William Nott , tho son , we believe , of a country inn-keeper ; one of those middle class men who have " crept into commissions . " There are more of such

    remaining , and they are to be found , not by tho score but by tho hundred , in England , or in the Crimea . But the system of purchase excludes the class from tho rank of officers when they do got into tho army , and excludes still larger numbers from entering tho army at all . Tho twenty sorgeants who have lately received commissions aro a grand confession that tho

    system . is bad . Tho new rule , for giving commissions to two sergeants in each battalion is a further step * breaking in upon the system , and so fur good ; but it i 8 another confession that tho system is absolutely bad , and needs not tinkering or nibbling , but reforming altogether . Those who maintain it have boon obliged to break it . Yot , they venture to

    continue to exclude , as a class , the Sullivans and Plunketts , who may be found strewn among the ranks in . the Crimea , while they continue to admit home-sick , paying dandies who have been permitted to buy in and are leniently permitted to sell out . And so it will be while the posts of officers in the British army are subjected to the rules of stockjobbing .

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    There is no learned man but will confess he habh much profited by reading controversies , Iub senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If theft , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , ; at least , betolerablefor his adversary to write . —MUJTOET .

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    LORD DEKBY'S HISTORICAL KNOrTXEDGE . ( To tke Editor qfihe Leader ;) Deo . 14 , 1864 . Sin , —In the Times' report of Tuesday ^ debate , Lord Derby is represented as thus quoting an epigram , well known , he suggested , to many of their lordships " Lord . Chatham with his swordrfrwwn , Stood waiting for Sir Richard StrSchau , Sir Bichard longing to he at "Aim , Stood waiting for the Earl of Chatham . " He considered it a . propos to the relative attitude

    of Sir Charles Napier and the Russian Admiral in the Baltic . Was his lordship horn in the . prehistoric no less than in the pre-scientiflc period ? The lines refer to the Walclieren expedition ; Chatham an& Straehan were coadjutors , the one commanding by land , the othec by ' sear they waited , according to the epigrammatist , each fortheother ' shelp , to attack the Eiench . The much injured poet wrote thus ::: " LoTd Chathafli with his BWord undiwam , Stood waiting for Sir Richard Sttachan , Sir Richard , longing to be at ' etn , Stood waiting for the Earl of Chatham . "

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    LOUIS NAPOLEON AND THE 'COURT OF AUSTRIA . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Kemptown , 12 th ^ December . Sib , —The Times stated in a leading article thismorning , that " the conclusion of an alUaricB ' . between the Courts of Austria and France" ( said by ite Berlin correspondent to be the result of Lord Palmerston ' s visit to Paris ) " is an event of incalculable importance to the politics of continental Europe , " , that "it is the most conservativecombination in Europe . " The same leading article also contains an allusion to the rain attempts of Louis Napoleon to ally himself to some of theprincipal continental courts , hut " he fell back on th& alliance with England , "

    At thrtt time Napoleon ' s schemes of aggrandisement were adverse to England but favourable to » Russia , and M . de Persigny was commissioned tt > make the following proposals for a " revision of-the map of Europe" to two of the principal ' German courts . ITor his share of tho spoil , Napoleon demandeJl Belgium , the Rhine , and Egypt ; to Prussia he offered Hanover ; Moldavia , WaHachhv , and the -Legations to Austria ; Constantinople to Russia ; and Piedmont to the late Duke de Leuohtenberg , hi& " alliance defamiilc" with the Own * .

    Nnpoleon , as far back as November , 1849 , wh » vros then planning a coup dUtat ( ho turned out the Odllon Parrot Ministry for that purpose ) , Bent M . de Persigny to "Vienna to make proposals nearly similar to these to Prince Schwarzonborg . Bahwwrz 1 - enberg sent for M . de Beaumont , then Minister . ' . for Ifranoe at tho Austrian court , and showed the proposals to him , stating that they were matters which ought not to be concealed from him . Tho Bonapartist coup < F < 2 tat , however , was adjourned , and vA the Assembly would not have entertained any such proposalsM . de Pcrsigny ' s mission failed .

    , Your renders should compare this precious schonife with Napoleon ' s more recent and anti-Russian platt for tho revision of the map of Europe / ' repriittoa by Mr . . Teffa , of tho Burlington Arcade , nnd « may profitably meditate upon tho contrast affoTtWp . by Napoleon in 1849 and In 1854 . An alliance . , however , with Austria led to tho downfall of Napoleon Honaparte , and may prove fatal to Louis Napoleon . Lot him and his English « Ultes , therefore , beware of alltiinoo * , defensive or pffenttv * , w » Uf a State whose ninxim Ima been t " Wars let otUers wage ; but thou , lucky Auatmv

    marry ! . ,, I am , Blr , your obedient norvaniv William tioHU * nnA *» vi

    /Fiwrttr /Fpvrtrtff-Tl W^Etl Ubuuunu -—

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    [ IN THIS DBPAKIM 6 NT , AS . ALL OVOtlOKB , llOWYXb EXTREME , AJ&t ALLOWED AN EXPRESSION , THE EDITOR HKCKS 3 AKK . Y HOU > S «( MBBIif BE 8 PONSIBI , E FOB NONE . ]

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    December 16 , 1854 . ] ftHE tJBADEB : tqW .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 16, 1854, page 1191, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2069/page/15/