The Press.
London, England, 1857-07-04 00:00:00

THE MILITIA.

WE desire to call the attention of our readers
to a very suggestive article on this subject
which has appeared in the recent number of
Fraser's Magazine. We cmfess we are not
sorry that circumstances should have occurred
to revive the consideration of this ancient and
useful force. None can doubt the capabilities
of the Militia who witnessed the excellent
discipline and soldierly appearance of nume-
rous militia regiments during the late war
Nor is it a very extravagant supposition that
they would have shown themselves quite as
efficient in the field as the young untrained
recruits of the line who in the assaults on
Sebastopol confessed their inability to dis-
charge their own rifles. For home service,
such as the suppression of riots, or attend-
ance on ceremonials, a militia regiment would
perform all the duties of regular soldiers,
without exciting anything like the same
jealousy. And certainly in the remote, but
still not impossible, event of a foreign inva-
sion, a well-trained militia would feel, in
addition to the general patriotism and esprit du
corps of the linesman, a special interest in the
defence of actually existing homes with
stationary families and property.
We are not alarmists. In fact, we have all
along sought to cool down the excessive
military ardour of certain of our contempo-
raries, and to throw discredit on the idea that
Europe was " a vast volcano " or a " hotbed of
rebellion," and such like rubbishing rhetoric.
But we must not be seduced into the opposite
extreme. It is a circumstance worthy of
notice that within little more than a twelve-
month of the Treaty of Peace England has been
involved in three successive wars. Intelli-
gence arrived yesterday of an outbreak at
Naples—probably suppressed by this time,
but a symptom, nevertheless, that we cannot
afford to disregard. And during the past year
we have not been altogether free from dangers
' on our Caffrarian frontier. Under these cir-
cumstances the mode of placing our military
service on the most efficient footing becomes a
proper subject of inquiry, and we trust that
dui ing the recess this question may receive
full and unprejudiced investigation.
The two most obvious and practical diffi-
culties in the way of turning our Militia to
more account are, first, the expense, and,
secondly, the inconvenience of withdrawing
our population from agricultural labour.
On the first point we shall only say briefly
that we have excellent reasons for believing
the objection invalid. These columns are not
the place for a long arithmetical demonstra-
tion ; but we fancy it will be found on in-
quiry that we should positively save money
rather than lose it by the employment of the
Militia. Supposing it possible to give the
latter an efficient training, it is clear that their
numbers would he such as to enable us mate-
rially to reduce the regiments of the line in
time of peace, and in time of war to dispense
with so large an increase as usual. These are
matters of detail that must of course be worked
out hereafter ; but we entertain no doubt of
the justice of our own anticipations.
The second objection is truer, as far as it
goes, but then it goes a very little way.
Twenty-eight days in the year, Sundays and
other inevitable interruptions deducted, are
confessedly quite insufficient to make, we do
not say an actual soldier, but even a soldier

in posse. But, us is well suggested by the
writer in Fraser, if the recruits cannot go to
the sergeant, there is no reason why the
sergeant should not come to them. Half-
holiday drills in the less busy times of the
year is the expedient he suggests, derived front
the practice of the Swiss. In this there would
be a double advantage—agricultural work
would suffer but a slight interruption, and, on
the other hand, we should get rid of the billet-
ing system, with all its drawbacks of drunken-
ness and license, one month of which is suffi-
cient to convert a tolerably steady village lad
into a confirmed profligate. The whole neigh-
bourhood, too, lookers-on as well as actors,
would then acquire something of a martial
spirit. And what harm would accrue to the
country if our peasants were able to stand
upright, walk in step, and hit a mark six times
out of ten instead of three, we are at a loss to
comprehend.
Of professional objections to the employ-
ment of the Militia we shall only say simply
that those who entertain them ought to be
ashamed of them. The author of the essay in
Fraser has very properly treated them with
silent contempt ; and we can only hope that
when his plans are a little more matured he
will favour the public with his views on this
important question.