21 JANUARY 1837, Page 13

TORYISM AT THE HORSE GUARDS u THE

BREVET PROMOTIONS.

Mist sults acknowledge that they are responsible for the general conduct of the War Department, though not for each individual appointment. They are responsible, therefore, for the late Bie- vet promotions—for a large and lumping creation of General Officers in time of peace. On the face of it, such a measure is indefensible. The People have a right to say, " What do we want with two or threescore of new Generals? Why should we bare to them? It will be time enough to increase the cost of the Army, already so enormous, when its services are required in war." What will Lord How ICE reply to such complaints ? Will he say that our stock of Generals previously to the Brevet was too small ? Not if he is aware of the facts stated in the letter on the Abuses of the Army, which we publish in the present Spectator. It is there mentioned, that before the late creation we had 395 Gene- rals, of whom only 43 are in actual service ; so that, if more Ge- rel Officers had been wanted, there was a reserve of upwards of u to draw upon. With our Army of about 85,000 men, we had actually more Generals than are requited for the French Army of 41'0,000. And yet there must be a new creation ! The Ordnance or Artillery regiments consist of 7,000 men; and how many Ar- tillery Generals does the reader suppose there are?—Only 56 !— ;.initit one General to every 125 privates.

For particulyrs of the late Brevet promotion, we refer to our correspondent's letter. It furnisbee instances of the grossest abuse of patronage, and the most abeminable j bbing. Our pre- sent business is with Lord Howlett; and we beg to ask his Lord- ship, how, as a man of common spirit, lie can submit to be the agent and apologist of the present system at the Horse Guards?

He, the aspiring son of the proud Earl GREY, acquiesces in and sanctions Tory jobs. He does what Sir Beene HAP DINGE, and even Sir EDWARD KNATCHBULL, his predecessor at the War

Office, would spurn. They would never incur the responsibility

of wholesale Whig jobbery. They would never serve under a

Whig Commander-in-Chief—be his jackalls, purveyors of pro- visions for his friends and their foes. Yet this is the main employment of Lord Howlett, who is retained by Lord Huh for that especial purpose. However, it is Lord Howica's own choice; and he must bear the blame of a system of which the bitter opponents of the Whigs reap the chief benefit—save the dishonourable wages which Whigs draw in official salaries for their mean-souled compliances. Lord Howlett will not be al- lowed to shield himself under the plea that he has only to coun- tersign commissions. He will be called upon as a Cabinet Minister to defend a proceeding against which, it is understood, be un- availingly protested. He will again have to enter into explanations of his responsibility, and again undergo the humiliation of admit- ting that the Whig Government has no control over the Army, or over the expenditure of five or six millions of the public money.

Ministers, we suppose, will suffer this ignominy as long as the House of Commons will let them. It is the duty of our Repre- sentatives to insist on the system being altered. This they can do despite of the Court, the Peers, and the Tories. They can postpone the Army Estimates till a Minister of War is ap- pointed who will not be a man of straw or a mete tool. They will be told that they are traitors—depriving the King of the command of Ms Army ! If they would merit the support they claim against their rivals, for a single night of the session, they will know how to despise such intolerable nonsense, worthy of those who profit by the uncontrolled expenditure of several millions per annum, and the enormous jobbing thereunto belong- ing. With a responsible Minister of War, or an Army Board, the King will have just as much command of the Army as he has of the Navy. His Majesty is commander of the Fleet, though there is a Board of Admiralty ; he i . the fountain of justice, though he does not sit in the Courts at Westminster. The public good requires that Parliament should insist on having a respon- sible chief of the land as well as the maritime forces to deal with ; and they pay the King a very poor compliment who say that he would regard the exercise of their proper functions by the Com- mons as other than a patriotic service. Whether be so regard it or no,, the Army is too costly as well as too dangerous a toy for the King of England to play w ith.

If this subject be allowed to slumber, the Army will become disorganized and inefficient to an alarming degree; and when a war does break out, we shall be found in the worst possible con- dition for it, with a fifth of the privates in gaol, and four hundred drawing-room generals, experienced in—smoking cigars.

One word to. Lord PALMERSTON. Is his Lordship aware that the order to prevent Half-pay Officers from going to Spain is still in force at the Carlo-IVIiguelite-Tory Horse Guards? Does he too, like Lord HOWICK, bow to Lord FITZROY SOMERSET, and pla- cidly allow his Majesty's Army to thwart the foreign policy of his Majesty's Government? The naval officers employed at Bilboa have received promotion and honour, but Lord PALMERSTON cannot get a Brevet advance for the soldiers. How despicable is his submission !