The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-09 00:00:00

THE ARMY-POORLY PAID.

(Front die Times.)
Now it is decided that England shall have an
army equal in discipline, if not in numbers, to the
hosts of the continent, it is as well at once to in-
quire into our military position and prospects, lest
when the time for action comes we be again told
by the authorities of the day that all has hitherto
been on a false basis, and that the British army is
from its nature incapable of entering into a cam-
paign. As it seems left to civilians to point out
defects even in the minutest detail, there can be
no assumption in calling attention to a most im-
portant fact of the late war. A return has been
made showing the number of non-commissioned
officers and men borne on the strength of the army
from the fat of June, 1854,:t0 the Ist of April,
1856, and how far the number so borne fell short of
or exceeded the authorised establishment of the
army. The progressive deficiency of the actual as
compared with the authorised strength is the fact
in question. It appears that on the Ist of June,
1854, the establishment voted by Parliament, and
nominally existing, consisted of 8,721 non-commis-
sioned officers and 153,308 men, while the effec-
tives were only 7,610 officers and 126,089 men.
At the outset of the war, then, before a shot was
fired, and when our army was supposed, as far as
men went, to be in its most palmy state, more than
a sixth part of the numbers voted was deficient.
But the evil made rapid progress. On the Ist of
January, 1855, after the first disasters of the
Crimea, the effective strength fell short of the es-
tablishment by 1,964 non-commissioned officers
and 46,618 men ; thus more than one-fourth of
the authors id army was deficient. The deficiency
increases to 49,247 men on the Ist of July, 1855,
and 53,738 on the Ist of April last, the deficiency
was 1,320 non.-commissioned officers and 42,270
men.
These figures require little to convey to men's
finds the sense of their importance. The fact that
a year since much more than a fourth of our sup-
posed establishment had no existence is sufficient to
show that humiliation and danger may result from
other causes than the mere unskilfulness of military
chiefs. After all men are the substance of an army
—numbers the only basis of a system of defence.
There is a limit which the most gifted General can-
not pass, and without an adequate strength in his
divisions and brigades he will have to woo victory
in vain. Although, therefore, no immediate danger
presses,. we ought to look for the means of insuring
a constant supply of men. Of the conscription in
any form it is, of course, useless to speak ; not
even for the defence of the country are we able
practically ,to force service on men against their
will ; much more, then, must India or the colonies
be supplied with troops by voluntary enlistment.
How, then, are we to make such enlistment plenti-
ful and regular ? We commenced the campaign of
Sebastopol without a reserve, our only army wasin
the field, and when destruction threatened it, people
thought that British military power must be at an
end for a time. Happily the great exertions of the
country, a favourable spring in the Crimea, and a
long cessation of actual fighting enabled the Go-
vernment to raise the army on service to fair di-
mensions. But, with the difficulty of recruiting,
what would have been our condition if the season
of disease had been prolonged or the struggle be-
fore Sebastopol had been more bloody ? It is plain
that we cannot trust entirely to voluntary recruit-
ing, unless the attractions of the service be in-
creased. Ia this rich and busy country human la-
bour is every day becoming of higher value.
Population is increasing much more slowly than
commerce and manufactures. Emigration still
draws away thousands yearly, and we may
expect that with increased facilities of transit
the drain will continue for an indefinite num-
ber of years. A rise of wages is gradually
taking place all over the kingdom. Education in-
spires yearly a larger mass with the desire of rising
in the world. In these circumstances it must be
expected that the attractions of a soldier's life will
be yearly weaker. Even the peasants of Con-
naught have now learnt that they can earn their
dollar a-day in America, and are less confiding in
the eloquence of the recruiting sergeant. In fact,
men will not give up their liberty and go round
the world, wherever they are bid, for a shilling
a-day, when they can earn twice or three times as
much as free men at home. It is useless therefore
to vote a large establishment unless some means be
found of inducing men to enlist. As long as peace
lasts, and men live the natural term of life, the
defect is not so much perceived ; the army approxi-
mates to its authorised numbers by the recruiting
of several years, and the men, once enlisted, remain
iu the service. That it is widely different when any
great increase is required, or when the chasms
created by was ago ttl Lie bud...lox/1y filloA alp_ It is
then proved that the demand does not meet with
a corresponding supply. The price which Govern-
ment will pay for men does not come up to the
market price, and is therefore not accepted. The
love of excitement and adventure no doubt has its
effect, but it is useless to count on such a feeling
as a trustworthy basis of military recruitment.
It may also be mentioned as a mistake of the late
war that the men enlisted for several semi-civilian
corps received higher pay than the actual fighting
soldiers. The Land Transport and the Army Works
Corps were in this respect direct rivals to the regu-
lar service. Men who had to work and watch in
the trenches, to be out in all weathers by day and
night, to face the shell and bullets of the enemy,
received much less than their comrades who had
come out under the auspices of some civilian, to
do comraeatively light work and to incur no dan-
ger. Such things are not easily forgotten by the
soldier, and, if we wish to insure a due supply of
volunteers on a great occasion, similar inequalities
must be carefully avoided. We have now time to
inaugurate a new system, and, if late experience
has not enlightened the authorities, then its use in
the affairs of the world must be pronounced but
small. Whether the pay of the private soldier
should be increased, or the bounty be higher,
whether the term of enlistment should be shorter,
or the attractions of a larger pension be added, it
is plain that something should be done to make
tl4 army much more popular with the labouring
man. He has little knowledge, no ambition, and
much respect for the classes above him. These
qualities are likely to make him a willing soldier
when once enlisted ; but he has, on the other hand,
a spirit of independence which makes him unwil-
ling to give up his hitherto free life for the restraint
of a barrack. Either pay, or the prospect of pro-
motion, or some hitherto undeveloped advantage
in the soldier's lot, must be made the means of at-
tracting him ; and when we have got men we must
be more careful of them, and not use them except
for the legitimate purposes of national or iinperial
defence. By these means a smaller force will be
made to suffice as an effective preparation for war,
and the troops, kept together in something like an
army, will learn a spirit which may hereafter spread
through our labouring class, and make them more
ready to embrace a military career.

TEE 'SATANIC DRAMA.

(From the Times.)
" Let me write the songs of a nation, and I
care not who makes the laws," is an old enough
_ saying, and ono correct enough in principle, for it
- is better to take possession of the minds of the
millions than of the few. If this be true of mere
ballads, of the compositions which excite but a
passing emotion in the mind, what shall we say
to the results produced by dramatic literature ?
The agency is a fearful one, when there exist men
of sufficient genius to direct it for evil or for good.
What ArtistopharLetsteffected at Athens in the old
Socratic days is matter of history. The dramatist
fairly beat the
asopher out of the field, and out
of life—drove him,say, to his hemlock
by way of loving cup. Time
was when Beaumar-
chais effected in imePaulo-post-revolutionarye France
something more than thesehn
iciireclopeedists, for all
their ponderous tomes. r drove the youth
vof their of Germany to the forests anli cages
father-
land, in person or idea, so itron
sugges-
tions of his "Robbers." Wee strop,;
fear
rerme the
Ystw ght , who
stage, Mr, garrison
Ainsworth, or the servile pl a
adapted " Jack Sheppard " to the
quite free from participation in various burglaries
i
snot
and minor felonies. Nor, to come nearer to the
point upon which we propose to touch, is the
modern school of Satanic writers in Paris guiltless
of the immorality which unfrequently prevails in
that city. Wo entreat of our excellent friends and
allies not to think of us as hypocrites and impos-
tors because we advert to such a subject. London
has its hideous vice as well as Paris. It is unfor-
tunately hut necessary to walk our streets at night
in order to see what must give abundant subject
for
thought and regret t. the spectator. We ac-
knowledge all this, simply desire that bad may not
be made worse by the addition of Parisian stimu-
• lailts to .London abominations. Our English
dramatists 'to enormous extent, and our
English writersanh in a far ess degree,
have been
offor some years past far too much in
the habitof o,orthe worst portion of the
brilliant literature
againsnteifebours. Our object
is but to 'protest
oriethintroduction into
, this country at second-hand
tI unqualified
original state must have received the in its
condemnation of every right-minded Frenchman.
• Is there nothing in human life but harlotry and
worthy
incest, adultery and seduction, which h
of the alembic of the imagination? Surely, this
beautiful world, with its starry canopy and its
glorious sun—with its rich carpet of vegetation
clipped by the great unresting sea, is not one vast°
brothel ! Surely so many millions of human beings
as exist at any given moment on its surface, with