The Sun.
London, England, 1852-06-08 00:00:00

down to later times, they found that sovereigns like Henry
IV. of France and our own Elizabeth had formed a • plan of
general pacification on the same principles; and coming
down to a still later period, the Spanish statesman Alberoni
declared that such a scheme was not unworthy of his consi-
deration. Far from deprecating the efforts or the motives of
men who not ouly preached but practised the principles of
general benevolence and good-will, he concurred with them
in opinion that, whoever reviewed the history of our past
continental wars would coma to be of opinion with a popu-
lar writer, that taxes had been raised net to carry on wars,
but that war had been raised to carry on taxes that our
greatest glory was earned by an increase of taxation, and that
our most expensive luxury was a successful general.—
(Hear, hear, and laughter.) But at the same time he drew
a distinction between armies raised for the purpose of aggres-
sion, and armies for the purpose of defence; and he would
submit to those Gentlemen—if there were any such—who
doubted the lawfulness of defensive war, that in the Utopia
of Sir Thomas More, though he depicted a society in all the
enjoyment of perennial happiness, detesting war, despising
glory, and prohibiting alike lawyers and soldiers—(Laugh-
ter)—neither allowing Martello towers nor briefs iu Chan-
Fere—yet even he did not debar the natives of his happy
island from the use of arms, nor from defending themselves
when they were attacked. Now he could not imagine that
anybody, either in that House or, out of it, would be more
Utopian than the Utopians themselves.—?(Great laughter.)
He must say, for himself, that he could not look upon
the present state of the
satisfaction, filled as it Continent of Europe with
was with gigantic armies
and with reactionary rulers
at the head of these
armies. It might be very well, though he could hardly
th
follow the Honourable Baronet e Member for Bedford
through his medley of Martello towers, rifler, and Louis Na-
poleon—(Laughter)—it might be very wl,ll for the Hon.
Baronet to say that he had confidenceinpuis Napoleon.
He ( Hr. Osborne) did not wish to say anythingthat would
trench upon the feelings of the most fastidious
Frenchman,
Baronet's
who but he Could not say that he shared in the Hon
confidence. Ile thought it was natural that a ma' B
n
raised to power by the military'order should act in accordancew
with military prejudices. And after all, what did the
Gentleman say? I have confidence in Louis Napoleon, but
for all that double your army - increase your rifle eer3
man your Martell° towers—get ready your swivel guns—but
still I have great confidence in Louis Napoleon.—(Laughter.)
It was better to say at once they had no confidence in Louis
Napoleon, and they had no right to have confidence in him.
He was surprised that no Honourable Gentleman had ever
quoted in the House the revelation which was made by M.
Thiers in the Chamber of Deputies, which told heavily
against Louis Napoleon, and which would amply justify the
Government in seeing that the defences that they had—and
which he maintained were amply sufficient—were put in a
most efficient state. On the 17th of January, 1851, M.
Thiers told the French Chamber that in an interview he had
with Louis Napoleon, the President said that it was neces-
sary to occupy the public mind in France, and that to do
that it would be necessary to undertake some enterprise
abroad which would captivate the attention of the masses,
and attach them to the Government. He thought Govern-
ment mdst be blinded indeed if, after that, they did not take
every precaution to put the defences of the country in the
most efficient state consistent with the large sums of money
they voted for that purpose. But in granting that, he
thought that Ministers were bound to supply fuller and
greater information as to the state of the defences, and of
the condition of the army. Had any statement of that kind
been made to the House? They had from year to year
enormous estimates submitted, and yet no satisfactory account
was ever given of the manner in which the money was laid
out. He was prepared to say that the sums annually
voted were quite enough for national defence, without
either militia, Martello towers, or riflemen.—(Hear, hear.)
We might take a lesson from the way in which the French
estimates were prepared in 1848, from which it would appear
that in one sense one Englishman was still worth two
Frenchmen, for an English soldier was just double the coat
of a French soldier.—(Hear, and a laugh.) He had the
French estimates in his hand, and he would read one or two
extracts from them to show that our service was managed in
the most extravagant and reckless way, and that we should
do well if we took a leaf out of our next door neighbour's
book. The English army consisted of 113,287 men, and it
cost 9,337,0001., or 821. Bs. 4d. a soldier. The French army
in 1848 was composed of 338,653 men, and cost 12,138,0001.,
or 411. 12s. Bd. per man.—(Cheers.) But he would go fur-
ther. What was the number of generals in the English ser-
vice? We had no less than 117 generals for an army of
113,287 men, while the French army, which in 1848 was
treble, and was now quadruple the amount of our force, had
but eight marshals and 143 general officers. He would take
also the staff of the two armies, and compare the proportion-
ate expense incurred. In the English army the charge for
the effective service was 3,270,000/., or about 3814 per cent.
upon a total expenditure of 9,337,0001., while the French
staff cost bat 2,260,0301., which was a charge rather under
19 per cent. on an expenditure of 12,183,000!. When,
therefore, Honourable Gentlemen talked of the country not
being in a proper state of defence, he would advise them to
look a little into these French estimates, and the House
would bear in mind that in this comparison no account
whatever was taken of the dead weight. He found also that
the French soldiers, being clothed on a system of open con-
tracts, were clothed at 12s. a head less than our own soldiers,
though their uniforms were furnished in a country which
ought to be the cheapest country in the world for woollen
clothing.--(Elear, hear.) Another thing which he found was
this—that in the French army, trebling our own in amount,
military justice was administered at a cost of 8,0001., while
in the English army it cost 32,0001. There must be some-
thing wrong in all this: There must be some great waste
somewhere. The money which the House of Commons voted
annually for military purposes could not be laid out to
the, best advantage, or else why was so great a difference
observable in the French estimates and our own? It was
true that we spent but 22,0001. in powder, while the French
outlay in that article quadrupled that amount; and the
French soldiers were armed witn the Minis rifle, and equipped
with every improvement suggested by modern military science,
while the English soldier was only supplied with the miser-
able musket. He repeated that it was evident that some-
thing wrong was going on, and that the House ought, be-
fore they agreed to the third reading of the Bill, to insist on
some better information being given on (he subject of mili-
tary expenditure than had been afforded. He thought that
if an intelligent foreigner had come into the House during
the debate un the introduction of the Bill, he would have
been rather surprised to -see the Home Secretary, who was
very skilful, no doubt, as a Chancery law-yer, coming for-
ward to propose that 50,000 men should be raised to form a
militia. What could the Right Honourable Gentleman know
about military matters? In saying this he did not attribut,
any blame to the Minister of the day; what he found fault
with was the system. He thought these matters ought to be
in the hands of a War Minister, who ought to be able to ex-
plain to the House the condition of the army and the nature
and extent of our resources. The consequence of the present
system was, that the House was about to pass a Bill in a
panic, which no one in his heart believed to be of any ser.
vice,„ inefficient
for and which, the majority of military men, and all civi-
'oans, with some few exceptions, believed to be
for its purpose. • He said,- " with some few exceptions," be-
caused he had perceived to-day in the papers an address
from the Right Honourable Gentleman the Chancellor of
the Exchequer to those confiding. farmers who were his con-
stituents in Backinghamshires The Right Honourable
Gentlemen recounted in that address those rapid acts of
statesmanship for which he wished his Government to go
down to the admiration of posterity.—(Hear, hear.) The
Right Honourable Gentleman plumed himself on one " as a
measure of internal defence, which it issbelieved"—the Right
Hon. Gentleman did not state his own opinion on the subject
—" will soon prove both popular, economical, and efficient."
He (Mr. Osborne) would take leave to parody the words of
the Right Hon. Gentleman, and to assert his belief that this
" internal defence" would soon •become an internal com-
plaint, which would prove neither economical nor beneficial.
He was very much mistaken if even the confiding farmers
of Buckinghamshire did not ask the Right Hon. Gentleman
some more questions about the .origin of this Bill. He was
rather surprised to find that tne Right Hon. Gentleman
should have assumed the parentage of this measure, but he•
was prepared to prove that he was only its putative father,
and that he really had nothing to do with such a miser-
able abortion. He could prove that the idea was taken
by the Home Secretary from a pamphlet written in 1848,
by Mr. Frederick Hill, inspector of prisons, but with the
omission of some useful adjuncts to the plan; an omission
which would remind the House of two tolerably well-known
lines—
Quern recitas meus est, 0 Fidelline, libellus,
Sed malt' cum recites, incipit esse taus."
—(flear, hear, and a laugh.) Every Hon. Member recol-
lected the proposition which the Right Hon. Gentleman
made to give militiamen a vote after two years' service;
and they also remembered—the most sudden fit of Perlis-
Gen-
mentary repentance on record—when the Right Hon.
tleman came down to the House on the following kto,ir at).';
and said that he did not mean to give them a vote.
Someiae
was a great variety of opinion about this movement.on. Gentleman
said that the tendencies of the
were democratic, others that the proposal was
owhaesliaevjeodkethaotf
Lord Derby's. But it was no joke at all.e
the
the Government had deliberately
He knew
propoeal, but
where the Right
it was Mine of their thunder. He
Helook it from a speech of
Hon. Gentleman stole it from.
Mr. Windham's, in 1805, who proposed to induce soldiers
to enlist by giving
Thisßill bore on its face the marks
their sergeants a right to shoot game.—
(Laughter and cheers.)political patchwork,
of hasty compilation. It was a piece of
not
intended for the defence of the country, but for the poli-
tical exigencies of a Ministry in its.
bd moments. The
country did not want it, it had no beliefin it, and what was
more. it would be of no use to the country.—(Hear, hear.)
There was a perfect apathy about it out of doors, and no
one out of the House talked about Martello towers. But
then it was said " Let us have an army of reserve." The
Right Honourable Gentleman seemed to think that it was
enough to put a man in a red coat and make him shoulder a
musket, to make him a soldier. He should have supposed
that he had read Mr. Windham with sufficient attention to
satisfy himself that mere numbers were not a suffi-
cient defence of a country. The Right Hon. Gentleman
proposed to raise the militia by giving a bounty, which it
was clear would operate most unequally in different parts of
the country. In the rural districts it would deprive the
farmer of a great deal of labour, probably when he most
wanted it, while in the manufacturing districts, where the
bounty would be of no avail, the Government must resort to
the ballot, a proceeding contrary to the " genius Of the
epoch," which no statesman ought to disregard.—(Cheers
and laughter.) With regard, however, to this army of re-
serve, the Right Honourable Gentleman the Secretary for y
the Home Department told the House with considerabler
aplomb and confidence, that he proposed to make them effi-
cient soldiers by drilling them for twenty-onedays. lie was
really quite astonished at the simplicity of the Right Hon.
Gentleman. Where had he been living all his life ?
Had
his briefs been so numerous in the Court of Chancery
thatad
he knew nothing of the organization of arms? He defied
her Majesty's Ministers themselves, though he admitted that
they were active recruits, to acquire a knowledge of their
profession in twenty-one days. Lie admitted that
the Noble Lord at the head of the Government had shown
much skill in performing a rather difficult evolution—
namely, changing his front in the presence of his adversary.
—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) The Chancellor of the
Ex-
chequer was well versed in light infantry movements, and
knew well how to advance and retireon a budget.—
(Laughter.) The Home Secretary
was equally expert in
avoiding the file-firing of questions.!--(Laughter.)
His
neighbour the Right Hon. Member for North Essex (the
Secretary-at-War) was an experienced soldier,
and would
avoid danger at any quarter ; but the Attorntheye -General bad
not been able to get much farther than rudiments of
" goose step."—(Laughter.) But the farce which was
proposed to be raised would be a farce, even as
an organized hypocrisy.—(Laughter and cheers.) babey
Bill was not worth the paper and would more PI:1
tempt invasion than repel aggression.—(Cheers.)
were to be
end of five years,after 121 drill, the rnen
days f tue
dismissed to their homes. Why, such a force would be no-
y,
thing but an irregular horde, more likely to be danger_o_us
to the regular soldiers than to their foes.—(Cheers.)
henever contem-
Pitt was a great advocate for militias, but Mr.
plated such a militia as this. that the men
ffiviciasent state. Some
should be brigaded and kept in an e
His idea
Home Secretary in his
gentlemen, who resembled the
amiability and general want of undenHr.siddrinis,onhtuhtemserp.opinittts
—(Laughter)—had proposed
said, 44 I beg to any trankivg wan whether it is possible
a 20 _ay