The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-22 00:00:00

CLOTHING FOR THE ARMY.

The evidence taken by the Select Committee of
the House of Commons appointed to inquire into
public contracts suggests, incomplete as it is, many
grave reflections. The British army is the worst
clothed in Europe, and that in every sense of the
term. The cloth, to begin with, is bad ; it is poor
in texture, as the soldier knows ; its colour soon
fades under the sun, and still more so under the
rain of this humid climate, as anybody who has
seen a soldier can testify. For this bad clothing a
very large price is paid, the estimate for the cur-
rent year being little short of 2,000,0001. sterling ;
a war estimate, no doubt, but still a good index of
the exigencies of the tailoring department. The old
system, by which the colonels of the different regi-
ments were clothiers too, has happily been abo-
lished ; but the new system does not fairly come
into play until the beginning of the next financial
year ; and we are naturally called upon to consider
what are its details and how far they are likely to
be beneficial. Now, accordinc, to the old plan, it is
well known that the colonels' who supplied the
clothing to their different regiments through the
medium of agents made large profits by means of
this perquisite, the average of profit being 7501.
a-year in the infantry. No matter what the
actual strength of the regiment, a colonel received
an allowance for the nominal number, so that the
profits of this officer when his regiment, being on the
war establishment, was supposed to contain 2,000
rank and file, would amount to more than 1,500/.,
and, although the army when the war ceased was
40,000 below the number sanctioned by Parliament,
still, if the old system of clothing were in force,
the heads of the different regiments would be paid
for the clothing of these 40,000 men who are not
in existence. It is impossible to imagine a scheme
more absurd in principle and more vicious in
practice ; and it is not much to say that the new
method is a decided improvement on it. There is
to be a clothing establishment at Weedon. The
Government contract for the cloth, and send it
down to Weedon for inspection ; from Weedon it
is sent to London or elsewhere to be made ; when
it is made it is sent back to Weedon ; it is there
inspected, and comes again to London to be dis-
tributed. All this seems very roundabout ; but
there is at least one good result to be anticipated
—it is cheaper than the old system. The private
soldiers will in future be clothed in the same qua-
lity of cloth as that which is now used for the ser-
geants and drummers, while the cost will be no
greater than before. The price of his Old tunic,
trousers, and shako was 1/. 16s. 6d., and now he
is to have a much better suit at the same price.
We hope that we are not very ungrateful if, in
accepting this improvement, we suggest that a
still greater reform is needed. Even at this re-
duced rate there is a profit of Gs. 6d. made out
of the clothing of each man, which might be saved
by having the clothes made up in the regiments
themselves. That is the system pursued in the
Artillery, and the congeluence is a saving of 14,00.,g.
on the old expenditure. It is not merely on the
ground of economy, however, that such a method
seems desirable ; it is only in this way that the
clothes can really be made to lit, and it is because
this system is adopted in the French army that the
clothes of the French soldier fit so much better
than those of the English. In our army the uni-
formS are made from the size rolls of the different
regiments, the clothing being made in sets. There
is, in fact, an experiment of the kind we refer to
about to be made by the Guards, and it is calcus
lated that a contingent of 24 men for every regi-
ment will be sufficient to provide that portion of
the army with every necessary of clothing better
and cheaper than by any method which has }'et
been tried. The great objection to the intro-
duction of a scheme so promising into the line is
that the depots of the different regiments are not
stationary. Now, even granting the soundness
of that objection, it is very easily answered.
We are going to brigade our regiments, an I
not only the regiments but their depots,
. and the depots, therefore, necessarily become
fixed. But the fact is that the raisi:eg
of this question brings back the whole
story of the Crimean mismanagement and ineffici-
ency. Division of labour is a very fine thing in
political economy ; but war is not very considerate
of political economy, and, being waged in defiance
of its maxims, its machinery must be modelled on
other principles. Why should not our soldiers be
trained in other exerciecs than those of drill and
the use of the ride ? Why should there not be at-
tached to each company a certain number of
trained workmen, who in the practice of the more
necessary trades might be of the greatest service to
the regiments when abroad ? It is the very want
which was so much felt in that fearful winter in
the Crimea. Of what priceless worth to many of
the poor fellows wln) perished in that helples-,
hopeless struggle, with the apathy of those in
power, would a few buotmakers have been or a
few tailors ! And surely it is carrying routine a
little too far to insist that it is impossible to nave
soldier tailors attached to the regiments of the line,
because the depots are not stationary. Such fogy-
ism will not now be endured in this country. \Ve
have overcome our (;,),jection to a standing army,
but we shall never be reconciled to an army stand-
ing still while all around is progress.—TLies.

11, it; is A IS D

THE LATE EARL OF SHREWSBURY AND

JOHN SADLEIR.

DUBLIN, SEPT. 20.

A statement which appears in the leading co-
lumns of the Tablet of this day, and which I have
reason to know is perfectly authentic, relates a fact
about the late John Sadleir that can hardly fail to
surprise the world even with reference to that no-
torious individual, as evincing iu a very striking
manner the extraordinary amount of confidence
which he contrived to obtain in all circles. Tea
statement is as follows :

A will has been discovered amongst the papers of the
late Earl of Shrewsbury bequeathing- his estates to the
late John Sadleir absolutely and unconditionally. The
existence of this will was unknown to Mr. Serjeant
Bellasis and Mr. Hope Scott (the executors of that no-
bleman) until within the last few days. It is of a date
anterior to the will in favour uf the infant son of the Duke
of Norfolk, and is understood to have been made previous
to the short stay of the earl in London when he took his
seat in the House of Lords. Tue subsequent will was
not, however, made in consequence of the public ex-
posure which followed the suicide of John Sadleir ; but
before returning abroad the earl was advised by a digni-
fied ecclesiastic to place his affairs in the hands, and
seek the counsel of Catholics of known probity and hon-
our, and we believe that the executors of the existing
will were recommended to him. The earl, however,
never made these gentlemen acquainted with the dispo-
sition he had previously made of his property, and it is
understood that he overruled the advice they tendered
to him in many respects, and e:;pecially in not leaving
anything to his nearest relatives. The intention of the
earl was, that his property should be applied by John
Sadleir to charitable and ecclesiastical uses, and no plau-
sible reason can be•alleged for his choice of the person to
whom he confided the distribution of his property ex-
cept thathis own solicitor and the solicitor of John Sad-
leir were one and the same person. It is, of course, not
to be supposed that this gentleman was acquainted with
the Sadleir frauds, or even with the fact of the specula-
tions in which John Sadleir was involved. And it is pro-
bable that so astute a man as Sadleir would, as far as
possible, keep from the knowledge of his Catholic solici-
tor everything which would tend to lower his opinion of
him, and seek other and less scrupulous advisers to
carry out the details of his frauds and speculations.

AMERICAN MA.ILS.—LIVERPOOL, Sept. 20.—The Bri-
tish and North American Mail steam-ship Africa sailed
to-day for New York with the mails and 111 passengers.
The Montreal Ocean mail steamer Anglo-Saxon takes
her departure on Wednesday, when the Liverpool Post.
office box closes at 2 p.m., but letters may be received
with a late fee at 2.45 p.m., and on the landing stage at
3 p.m. _ _

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