THE ENTHUSIASM FOR CAPTAIN REYNOLDS.
IT is a trite remark, that men who can with great sagacity censure folly in others, can the next moment go and with the gravest face commit the same folly. When the unenfranchised were making a show of the Dorchester labourers after their return from banish- ment, every Liberal middle-class-man you met was sighing- " Poor fellows, what a false position the selfish love of parade among the leaders of the working-classes is ruining their prospects in life." And yet in the case of Captain RuyxoLos, our middle- class Liberals seemed bent upon "ruining" the Captain's prospects in life, in order to indulge themselves in a sensation. The course recommended by the Morning Chronicle to the rest of the enthu- siasts must necessarily have led to this result—to divert public attention front the necessity of reform in the Army, and therefore to leave the Horse Guards and their pets as powerful and self- willed as ever ; to widen the breach between Captain REyNoi.ns and the superior officers in the Arinv, to embitter the feelings on both sides, and to render the attainment of justice for him im- possible. The persons who wilfully incurred such an obvious danger, deceived themselves when they Fancied they cared a straw for Captain REvxot.ns—they only sought the indulgence of an agree- able sensation. We wish any one Who doubts of this would read a pamphlet, published some time ago by poor SOMERVILLE, W110 was flogged about the time of the Reform Bill burlv-borly, in which he describes his treatment by the managers of the Dispatch and others, who took hint up and made a hero and idol of hint for a time. A parallel fide would have been the lot of Captain RsyNouts had he given himself up to his "enthusiastic " admirers. The Captain saw this, or was taught it by wiser friends, and has declined the honour of canonization as a martyr, in a newspaper letter, to which we have no objection; except that it might have appeared a little earlier, and that it is rather too humble and penitent to be quite sincere. However, Captain Itsersoi.ns has acted wisely : seeing that his professing friends were doing their best to keep upright the wall against which he ran his head before, he has declined being again projected against it by their accumulated impetus. The effect produced by this letter upon the meeting of the admirers of Captain REYNOLDS, held on 'Thursday last, seems on the whole to have been salutary. They have extended their opera- tions : they are not only going on to collect subscriptions, but have passed resolutions, to the effect that the conduct of Lord CAR- DIG AN ought to be inquired into, that Lord HILL ought to be removed from the Horse Guards, and that a petition Ibunded upon these resolutions ought to be presented to the Queen. This is nearing the right track—one step further and they will be upon it. It is not so much Lord CARDIGAN or Lord Him., as the system of the Army, which has made them what they are and enabled them to annoy and oppress deserving officers, that ought to be attacked. Captain REysiows, although not exactly a hero, and although animated by few or no popular sym- pathies, is a gallant officer who has been unjustly dealt with. Even it' be had no other claim upon justice than the way in which he has
been dealt with by the Court-martial, the conduct of that body has shown the unworthy treatment under which tnanv deserving officers In the British Army are suffering, and to which every man in the
service is momentarily liable. A full and deliberate Parliamentary investigation of the whole circumstances of Captain Rnymn.ns s case, with a view to set right whatever wrong may have been done, and with a view to prevent the recurrence of such eases by amending the Army-organization, is what is wanted.
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