The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-18 00:00:00

TO TUB EDITOII Dl' THE EXTIIrss

Stn,—The establishment of the camp at Chobhani
is sure to do at least two things—it will give useful
experience and instruction to our troops, and will
draw public attention to the arrangements of our
military system. Both may do good. In England no
reforms are thoroughly made unless the general public
take them up. Cannot the public be induced to
"take up" military improvement? Would it not
be well if those who inspect the new camp would do
so in some sense as critics, and thus help army re-
formers to lessen military abuses? Our army is
gallant—hut costly. Nor is its efficiency so complete
as it would be if some wise changes were made in
our plans for its management. Ought wo not all to
ask how it may best be set to rights ?

Our artillery, for instance, has been frequently
criticised, but without any very great results at pre-
sent. Still, the continual letting in of light upon
the faults of our system must induce reform of the
true kind in the end.

The alleged grievances of the artillery arc threo
in number—The patronage of the Master-General,
the Horse Artillery, and the Woolwich appoint-
ments. The patronage of the Master-General is
supposed to extend univer.ally over the Ordnance,
but in matter of fact he seldom troubles himself to
do more then give away every now and then a troop
out of the usual routine. These occasional false steps
are doubtless caused in various ways. At one tiino
a handsome looking fellow is escorted to her Majesty's
Drawing-room by an influential lady, who will intro.
duce him to the Master-General, and recommend him
to his kind notice. The polite nobleman bows, and
says, " Happy to do what ho can for his young
friend." The young friend, by no means bashful,
trusts he may have the next vacant jacket, and his
lordship, not knowing how to " back out " be-
fore the lady, ends the scene by giving
the desired promise there and then. Another
time, his lordship may be dining out at the Duke of
ltichborough's. Warmed with claret and a cordial
reception, he cannot well refuse the request made to
him after dinner by the noble host in favour of Iris
Grace's nephew John. And so it goes on. Tlos
jobbery is a decided drawback to the service for com-
missions thus bestowed, try the tamper of good men
who have served, and who arc looking anxiously for.
ward to every vacancy as prizes which belong to such
as have seniority and who have done their duty
well. This jobbing of commissions is the real grie-
vance within the service; but there are many who—
envious of every button and piece of cording which
adorn the outward covering of their more fortunate
competitors—can see nothing in the Horse Artillery
beyond a job, forgetting that to the country it
matters little who are the cfficers, as long as each can
do his work. With the present state of perfection
in continental armies, we might as well try to do
away with cavalry as with horse artillery. It is a
corps as near the beau ideal as it can be, and is
designed for certain duties which it only can
perform. That a true soldier would prefer
seeing it clad in a more serviceable dress,
is not to be denied, but its abolition as a body is a
thing no commander-in-chief would be foolish enough
to advise. To send the Horse Artillery on colonial
service would be equally absurd. Wo want it here
in England, in case of an emergency, and if Smith
or Brown get off five years in the West Indies, it is
a piece of good luck which no one should begrudge
them. Our artillerymen have been too much in the
habit of obtaining their ideas of service from the
evolutions on Woolwich Common, where our field
batteries caper about to the imminent danger of dis-
locating all the gunners' bones, and many earnestly
believe that in war time they would also find soft
meadows to carry on their manoeuvres. But those
who have seen the men putting their shoulders to
the gun wheel imbedded in mud up to the axletree,
or dragging it over the rugged mountain path, will
form a very different estimate. The field battery
has to protect and defend infantry. The Horse
Artillery to defend cavalry. And if ever a coati.
nental war does arise there is far more probability of
a field battery being turned into horse artillery then
vice versa. As to the charge that the Horse Artillery is
extravagantly officered : it is not. There are seven
troops, each troop equal in men and horses to about
three troops of a cavalry regiment, and on service it
will be necessary to have a field officer for every two
troops. Yet for this force of some fifteen hundred
horses, there aro only four lieutenant-colonels, the
two full colonelcies being merely appointments kept
up as a kind of reward for distinguised services, and
the regiment could not find two more meritorious
soldiers than the present holders.
Another grievance is, however, founded on stronger
grounds. There aro a certain number of appoint-
ments in Woolwich, such as the superintendents of
the several departments, &c., which appear to have
got into the hands of a select few. It was strongly
recommended by the Parliamentary Committee on
Ordnance Estimates that these posts should be
vacated at certain fixed intervals, in order that as
many officers as it was possible should become fully
acquainted with the manner of casting guns, con.
structing carriages, &c. ; so that on service there
would be no lack of men capable of under.
taking such work in a time of emergency.
This is where the French do really surpass us. A
French general in Moldavia could at any moment, in
case of reverses, organise a complete field artillery.
He would find men capable of carrying out any
orders on this subject they might receive. With us,
a general would have to wait quietly till he could
obtain more guns from Woolwich. For though the
arsenal appointments arc vacated at certain intervals,
they are merely so for their holders to change their
carde. They go through a sort of perpetual round
robin, unless something better turns up—such as tho
command of Gibraltar, or of Ireland, which causes a
vacancy, and some man holding a staff appointment
gets into a good berth. This system requires to be
checked, not because it vexes other claimants, but
because it is pernicious to the public service. Colonel
So and So may be a very clever, able man, who
knows his duty thoroughly : but there are others
equally capable, and the public want as many to be
capable of carrying out the public work as possible.
Who knows how many may be required, even in this
present year? Yet beyond those absolutely wanted
to carry on the duty of the arsenal, there aro
it may be said, none who would be found efficient
to accompany an army in the field. Who is to be
blamed for this state of things at Woolwich? No-
body, and yet everybody. The routine has existed
ever since Woolwich was Woolwich. These places
have been handed down as heirlooms from father to
son or son-in-law, from uncle to nephew, and have
become so much part and parcel of the place that
no man, even in authority, likes to attack so formid-
dable and ancient an abuse. But that it must be
attacked, and that right speedily, is obvious to every
one who has a knowledge of the subject, from the
Master-General to the drummer-boy.
Having stated three grievances of the artillery
let the three remedies be named also. The two first
mischiefs would be obviated either by heading over
the horse artillery to the Guards and allowing com-
missions for it to be prizes at the Royal Military
Academy, or else by making the appointments a
reward tor meritorious conduct, and energetically
setting to work to render the field batteries as per-
fect in their way as the horse artillery are. The

Ibiza Foist shoo •1 bo recommended strongly to the
I,ov 1 (
and ho will doubtless be
a ~,
w arty vut the wishes of a committee 'flys
170.: t, c teoullt to examine the most competent
'fiat) in EngLit.d.—leurz.,
A PRACTICAL SOLDIER.