ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS.
WE not unwillingly give insertion to the following letter : we asked " questions," and must expect answers. We cannot be ,justly accused of persecuting any individual : Captain KING was mentioned as an example of a system which we consider un- just to the service. The exact amount of his emoluments is of little Consequence: his place is universally reckoned a " good thing ;" hut "turn and turn about" is fair at sea as well as on land. We are ene- mies to monopoly. The service has by no means many opportunities of even procuring a competency. Why should this situation be held for life, any more than the command of a ship ? Our correspondent is not logical when be tells us that Captain Kin's politics have nothing to do with his post. Thew- have, if he uses the influence which his situation gives hint, for political obiects. The Mayor in question has perhaps been changed since August or Septem- ber last-we know not bow this fact stands.
In the observations as well as the aspirations which our Corinthian friend breathes so devoutly in his last paragraph, we fully sympathize, though we do not express our sentiments in the same energetic style.
" Mall, 10th December. "Ma. SPECTATOR-I am a great admirer of your Paper, and one ot' your earliest sub- scribers; and shall continuo, to be both, as long as you persevere in follow ing the public path of honour, but no longer. You should LA endeavour to persecute individuals be- cause they entertain a difft.rent opinion in ha dities to yourself, but :auIi you did last Sunday. In a list of Questions vim put forth, you ask, why Captain K Tx a is continued 50 long on the Falmouth station, in the receipt of upwards of 1,2001. per ; maim? Now, Sir, his income is not near that amount: and even it' it were, Captain :It Nn, or any other Commodore on this station, should not have less, for he is expected to keep a public /able at least twice a week, and to incur other heavy expenses in ltoeping up the respec- . lability of his command. Captain Krxo's politics have nothing to do pith his publi- office; he has no patronage; Ile does not even recommend the LientenaLts to the Ad 3niralty; has no sort of power in the town of Falmouth, and does not interfere in any of the public meetings whieh are held there. Neither does he oppose the Mayor of the town; for that gentleman, like the Captain, is a decided Anti-Reformer. But you call -upon Government to supersede him for his Toryism. If so, why not sops; sede Admiral Sir Mssmy DixoN, at Devonport? Lord JAMES TOWNSEND, the Comn More on the South American station? The Tory Colonels and Generals, Captains and Lieutenants, in whatever command? Sir, this would not be justice: then why do you call for a par-
tial infliction of this tyranny? I do not believe you would desire this; butt do believe that some disappointed person sent you the spiteful paragraph 1 am now complaining et, .'Again, you ask why the Commanders of the Falmouth packets are not turned out every three years ? Why select the Falmouth Commanders ? Why not look to 11013'- head, Portpatrick, Milford, or Harwich, anti other places ? I tell you, Sir, why thee are not replaced every three years by otlwr officers, because the command is a ierfeel lot- tery : you may be very unsuccessful-indeed money out of pocket-1hr years ; the tit ting- out is a heavy charge ; and, to sum up with what I should will a elincher, the officers vise spell erpectation gribrther promotion when they are appointed to a packet. It is an arduous and unpleasant command: and sorely, Sir, it is not too much to say the Com- manders should not have a chance of making a little money as a reward icr their great deprivations.
" Radical as in my soul I am, I do confess that all grades of lawn; in our Navy and Army are paid too low. Knock off the damnable sinecures and pensil mists. and I■ther cursed offices in which nothing is done for the publie good, awl i la Tease at r naval officers' pay, and few, I fancy, would complain; but Reform, thank I at ! will do this.
" I ttm, dear SerayrA•rott,
" A. COUNUDIAN RADICAL."
Captain KING lias met with a warm advocate in answer to our pies- tion : not so Captain BOWLES. A correspondent informs us, that though he cannot tell us why the Captain is retained so many years as the Comptroller-General of the Coast Guard,, lie Can inform us that it is not for his superior qualifications. We must, however, in can- dour declare, that it is the galhuit Captain's deficiencies in grammar on which our correspondent dwells. Captain 13owr.Es has published an official volume of " Instructions," which assuredly is as high and mighty in its style as it is woftilly lame and impotent in its grammar. The instances quoted are absurd enough ; and if we had space, we would transcribe some of them. As it is, we con only say, that, like most sinecurists, Captain BOWLES probably felt the little he had to do
too much, and banded over the task of writing " instructions" to his Irish footman.
There is yet another correspondent in the field. VEllITAS takes a very different view of the subject from the CORNCRIAN RADICAL, and seems quite as much entitled to speak.
" I.ondon, 97111 December.
" SIR-Certain Questions in the Spectator of the 17th. whi-di I0 the NalT, have ztrrestett my attention. It is asked, why Cr :Mtins ;nut K t xis Sh011111 lie allot% t.,1 to continuo,' to bola thus, lucrative appoint melds 0 lii, b they have had, the one nearly ten years and the idlier nearly nine: and why Cap• sin MING ‘VE should have 1:oett permitted to hold the voluntaial of t he Coast I; imul on :lie coast Sussex, Pith eheut 4700/. per annont, for about s■w-en years? l'crhaps 1 im best an-wer to these queries, as regards tla• greater part of the time, is the simple cum, that, under I ia■ late hiNt Lord of the Admiralty, justice had but very little to do with the appoin; moots. It,,; were made: lint why th- two first-nanted oftivers, toet'der with ses oral ethers, sher.1.1 be cull' led by a Whig Government, is huh professes to hay- put an end to pa- 1 rona,z,. and thNottritisin, to centitme to hold tlieFe situations which they have bad so lug, i0 the exclusion of °dicers a al toast equal merit.; and pretensions, is a mystery 5. hiditlm present head of the Ni' y ;11one ean solve. In the Cons! Guard service, we find not only Captain ltowt.Es. wit° obtained his appointment :IA Comptroller-Ceneral
uun tile :Ali 1522, but al," the ibllowing, at page St*, °film Navy List, tic S'ptens-
lv Deputy Comptreller-I teueral, Commander S. Sy:sit-um-yr, a: pointed Irth May Inspector-C:01mnd, Co-01,in G. W. IF liNtoter, appointed 311th January 1••2; Deputy Inspector-General, (*■untaander C' ItumisriA7,7, appointed 1311t Jute. I:42n. Now, as the salaries attavited to those otliees are such as very. many Captains 1O, LiSL would end:41111y execute ti,. ■ltities of for the sake of the return-the least twine*, it is said, fall 500!, per annum. in-Iodine:to. officer's half-pay,-it would be bot common ins- tiee :cid fair play that theso appointments, and all others similar, should be changed every three years, and bestowed Oil Capt,ins whose merits in active sem ire in their profession entitle them to Riese rewanls; thus fulfilling the promise, that • patronage is al an end: Next, with n•_•ard to the question, why are not the Lieutenants of the Packets changed :eery three years? It is earnestly to he hoped t hat !his will hencefor- ward be done; end when the First Lord of the Admiralty learns that these appoint- ments are, on the average, estimated to be worth above a thousand per alumni, and that one Oiliest, a Lieutenant Mootts, has lately retired from the comniantl or the Rinaldo packet, in which, within five year:, lie saved fifteen thousand pounds; and that others; it is stated, have put by, in ;old it in to the keeping up very expensive establishments, live to six thousand pounds eaelt Within a few years, it is confidently to be expected that Sir JAMES GRATIAm will cause these valuable situations to be shared in succession by the remaining three thonsawl Lieutenants on the List, who would each and all re. joins to have one of them but for three years. All that the Navy look for is, that they should have fair play; and if the situations to which I have alluded, together with all others, be given in rotation to those officers who have the best claims to them, without favour or proteMion, no one caliis it'a reason complain. Merit. however, heretofore, has been but little regarded, unless it was Ign-ko,1 by a vote or two in a rotten borongb!- 'Ti, now we look for jti,diee to ;ttt Administration which has promised. to reform. all abuses, and I ate:in:1st y trust 11,5' shall taut look in vain.
Vi-merAs."
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