The Royal Commission on the distribution of prize-money has commenced
hearing evidence. It is said that its labours close this week, but the work seems a little too arduous for so premature a decision. The endless series of heartburnings on the subject -ought to be ended by distinct rules, and rules can hardly be framed without evidence of the practice in Continental armies, a full examination of the difference between actual and con- structive capture, and a settlement of that everlasting Kirwee prizennoney question, the literature of which already fills eighty- nine folio pages, and will, if Sir Hugh Rose keeps on reporting, fill some hundred more. It was that dispute which led to the Commission, and it really is time that it were decided whether the magnitude of a prize is to be a reason for refusing it to the army which look it. If it is, the next little force which gets one will say nothing about it.
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