The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-22 00:00:00

THE FOREIGN LEGION.

It could hardly have been imagined last spring that
by Christmas-day we should have a Foreign Legion.
This is the toy which has dropped from our Christmas
tree, and, if we cannot be unfeignedly thankful, we must
be content with our portion. Government has pro-
claimed it a necessity, and we have no help for it but to
submit to it, as the least of two evils. They must have
been well aware how unpalatable the proposition would
be, and how requisite it was that the bitter draught
should be gulped down at once, for never was so grave
a measure so abruptly announced, so peremptorily en-
forced. Without one word of preparation to anybody,
withoat a hint in the Queen's Speech, the Minister of
War gets up and informs the House of Lards that he
must have a Foreign Legion, and, as the means thereto,
the power of keeping a depot of foreign troops in this
country. The measure is pushed fast enough through
the House of Lords, and without loss of time brought
into the Commons, where this evening—exactly ten days
after the opening of the session—the bill is to pass into
law. Not a minute is lost. Nec neoro, nec requics. No
time is allowed for the indigeation of the provinces, for
the remonstrances of half-pay officers ready for employ-
ment, and economists dreading the flow of British money
to f 3reign troops, foreign courts, and foreign pensioners
till A.D. 1900. Children are accustomed to he sur-
prised. It is one of the iniquitous modes of action pur-
sued towards them by their superiors, and they know
they mus,:-, bear it, as they bear all kinds of follies and
barbarities. Men do not like to be surprised, and,
having the power to resist, act accordingly. An
Indian officer, much to the amusement of his host and
fellow-gusts, was almost frightened into fits by a tame
leopard springing on his shoulders as he sat at the
dinner-table. He had to redeem his credit for
courage by challenging and shooting his host. So,
we think it a very great mistake to surprise England
into a Foreign Legion—a foreign army-10,000 at
home, 30,000 abroad, gathered from all parts of
the world. It is announced one night, and the next
the people are told that Government will resign, and
throw everything into confusion, if it is not allowed its
40,000 foreign soldiers. We shall now, probably, be
told that the surprise has succeeded. Unhappily, there
are surpries that answer at first, but somehow lead to
nothing, There is the famous flank march to Balaklava.
People have not yet done puffing it, and now that the
famous " flank march" is exactly three months old
what has come of it ? Only the necessity for another
famous " flank march," not on Sebastopol, but on the
British people, in the sudden and peremptory demand
for a foreign army.
We are accused of inconsistency. If it is inconsistent
to say that we bate the thing intensely, that we distrust
it, that we expect it to bring discredit on,our army both
abroad and at home, yet feel that we must acquiesce as
a matter of confidence in the powers that be, then we
confess we cannot satisfy those who abuse the Govern-
ment, whatever it does, and for the present measure
only as much as for all its measures. It is not pleasant
to find ourselves thus early as deep in a European war
as we were in 1804. Think of all the old names—
Hanoverians, Hessians, Brunswickers, Danes, and
twenty other denominations—reviewed in Hyde Park !
What a host of German princes and barons will turn
up ! All this is on the most favourable hypothesis. It
supposes that we have caught our hare and have only
to cook it. But it is possible we may not catch our
hare ; and if we go out recruiting over the continent,
and do not succeed in bagging more than a few wretched
criminals and vagabonds, the good cause we are fighting
for will be considerably damaged by the failure of this
appeal. What next ? If we are compelled at last to
trust to ourselves, there will then arise the question bow
to get up our own army and make it more efficacious.
Of all the social questions that " loom before us" in
the mist of futurity, that is not the least diffi-
cult. We dropped a few words the other day
about increasing the inducements to enlist by open-
ing promotion to the ranks, and so far surrendering the
aristocratic character of the British officer. Fur this, of
course, we have, as we expected, the hearty approba-
tion of physicians with half-a-dozen fine tall sons, small
placemen without promotion, and everybody whose
soul is above his condition, and whose family is too large
for his purse. But then what becomes of the messroom,
the little community of military peers, respecting one
another, and all but worshipped by their soldiers ?
Olympus could not be more alarmed and indignant at
the imprudence of the Titians than the messrom would
be at the prospect of an invasion of corporals and ser-
geants. Think of a sergeant—a man who keeps accounts
in a neat schoolmaster's hand, and who thinks it a great
grievance that his wife is not allowed to keep a mangle
and take in washing, seated at table by the side of his
Colonel, Lord Chargeagain ! Except that the British
ofllcer would not know where to go, the service would
soon be intolerable. But so many other places and
occupations are intolerable also, perhaps, as a choice of
evils, our lords and honourables would consent to shake
hands and receive the word of command from respectable
men who had once stood in the ranks, and whose wives
had actually taken in washing.
But, before we part with the peculiar characteristics
of the British army, there are various resources as yet
untried for increasing the number and efficiency of the
forces at our command. There is the militia, which is
already doing its work and promises to give us still
further aid. Much has also been done, and mere may
still be done, by improving the condition of the soldier
and by increasing the bounty. Much remains to be done
in this respect. To improve the condition of the common
soldier in barracks is of comparatively small importance.
The great object is to improve his condition in the field,
and, to our cost, this has not been done in the present
campaign. A day of examination will come sooner
or later, and somebody or other will be called to
account for the terrible maladministration which has
frustrated so much trouble and cost, and thrown away
so many lives in the Crimea. With comfort in the
camp and on the march, and victory in the field or the
assault, we shall never want recruits. Even if the pos-
session of Sebastopol should cost us fire thousand men,
in addition to the ten thousand British, French, and
Turks that have fallen or sickened before its walls, their
places would soon be supplied. War, indeed, often
begins with these fearful sacrifices, and, as the first
authors of a revolution are said to perish and make way
for another race of men with less principle and more
tact, so it is possible, the first army destroyed and its
first generals passed away, another nay reap its
triumphs. If there is any truth in the boasted common
sense of our race—if there is any virtue in a responsible
Government and a representative constitution, we shall
at least learn something by this glorious but disastrous
year. We shall so improve the organisation of our
army as not to waste the valuable lives we soon confess
we want. Government in the present instance has
taken the country by surprise ;—it has prepared an am-
buscade, as we may call it ; it will soon have to prepare
for a more deliberate and solemn encounter. The whole
administration of the army will be scrutinised by a Par-
liament and a nation excited, and possibly by disgrace-
ful failure. Out of that examination good must cer-
tainly come, but it would be far better for the country
if we could obtain the good without the lamentable
cost at which we learn of such blunders and shortcom-
ings as had to be confessed last night.—Tames.