The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-19 00:00:00

THE MILITIA. AND THE LINE.

WE last week expressed an opinion that if the
Militia continue to be regarded as a fuud
from which to draw recruits for the regular
army, it would be well to conduct the system
on more wholesale principles. To take men
one by one, or by twos and threes, from a
militia regiment must inevitably retard, if not
altogether prevent, its attainment of a high
state of efficiency. Nor would the regular
army profit so much by recruits so taken as
by whole companies or regiments with con-
fidence in each other, and accustomed to act
together. This idea has been taken up during
the week by a field officer of militia, who
makes the following proposal in the Times :
I humbly, therefore, submit a plan by which the fifteen
Line battalions can be raised before two months. Call out
several of the strong militia regiments—none tinder an
eight company corps. When each is recruited to any
number over $OO ( the number required for a second bat -
talion of ttte Line) let a circular be addressed to the com-
manding officer, informing him that, should his regiment
be disposed to volunteer with a strength of not less than
800, they will be kept together and placed as a second bat-
talion in one of her Majesty's regiments of the Line; that
half the number of the field officers, of the captains, and o f
the subalterns will be appointed to her Majesty's regular
service with their present rank, and in the same regiment
with their men ; and that the adjutant will receive au in-
rease of 2s. per day to his pay, or a bonus of 500/.

c This scheme seems feasible enough. But
there is one feature in it which does not sewn
quite equitable. Why should only half of the
officers of the Militia accompany their men?
The field officer seems to intend that of the
eight militia companies of which that second
battalion would consist, four should be com-
manded by their old captains, and four by
newly appointed ones. Where is the justice,
the policy, or the necessity of such a limita-
tion us this ? The remaining militia officers
would be worse off than they were before, and
have all their labour to undergo afresh. This
we suppose to be his meaning from the follow-
ing sentence :

A regiment with a second battalion seems to have told
off as its strength of regimental officers six field officers,
twenty captains, and forty subalterns. Surely one or two
field officers, four captains (men of some wealth and county
standing in those ranks), and eight subalterns would b•
no monstrous or dissgreesble infusion.

But if he should possibly mean that all the
eight militia captains should go with the
battalion, but only four receive her Majesty's
commission, what is to be the ultimate desti-
nation of the other four ? To be turned
adrift when the crisis is over, and others to be
put in their places? or is one-half of the
second battalion to be disbanded and its
officers with it? Either way this is very
small encouragement to either men or officers.
The latter especially would much prefer re-
n►aining as simple militiamen to joining a
regiment of the Line on an inferior footing to
their brother officers.
We do not believe as a rule that militia
officers are men of less social position than
officers in the regular infantry. The latter
consist 'hiefly of the sons of professional men
and of the poorer country gentry, and the
former are very much the same—nay, in many
instances the militiaman is the higher of the
two. Many a young country gentleman who
never thought of any profession at all, and
who is now too old for the Line, looks to a
year or two's service in the Militia as an agree-
able change. Such a man, if he had entered
the army in the regular way, would have been
iu the Guards or the Cavalry. If we take these
and the old linesmen and the sons of profes-
sional men together, we shall leave but a small
margin for the entrance of objectionable cha-
racters, whoever these may be supposed to
consist of.

It is well known that Government finds
more difficulty than was anticipated in pro-
curing recruits. Stormy discussions are
alleged to have taken place in the Cabinet upon
this subject. All, however, that we can pre-
tend to say is simply this—that while the
country is as prosperous as it is at present,
Government must. act with liberality if they
mean to enlist soldiers. As a means of liveli-
hood the musket cannot compete at present
with the loom and the plough. Vengeance,
even though we do not for a moment doubt
that our mechanics and peasantry sympathise
with their ill-fated countrymen, will not lure
the well to-do Englishman from his pleasant
home to the thousand perils of India. "A fair
day's wage for a fair day's work " must be the
rule in the army as it is beginning to be else-
where ; and if the Militia is to be regarded as
the mainstay of that army, it must be treated
with both justice and generosity.