The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-06 00:00:00

MILITARY ORGANIZATION:

(FROM THE TIMES' CORRESPONDENT LATE WITS
THE FRENCH ARMY IN ITALY.)
I have tried to point out that the great revolution
going on in military matters, which no one in his
senses will deny, aims at the superiority of the in-
dividual soldier, physical as well as moral ; that
this principle is the most congenial to the English
character and to English institutions ; that its appli-
cation has produced the most glorious epoch for
British arms, and that it is only from a return to
it that a successful organization can be expected—
one which should answer in every emergency, and
enable British military organization not only to
compete with, but to surpass those of the conti-
nental nations.
I have been lengthy in establishing this basis,
because it is only a firm conviction in the necessity
of it which can overcome long-rooted habits and
prejudices. In a country which pays such worship
to everything old, and where a change even in the
most trifling matters is liable to be looked upon as
an attack at the very root of an institution, the first
thing is the recognition of a principle. Until this
is general even the most obvious improvements be-
come impossible ; while, the principle once recog-
nised, some radical reforms become a natural con-
sequence. IC was the same with all the great revo-
lutions in the internal policy of England which
have taken place for the last 30 years—Parliamen-
tary reform, the colonial system, the financial sys-
tem, Catholic emancipation, and numerous others ;
and so rapid have been the changes when once the
principle has been recognised that a few years suf-
ficed to efface almost all traces of the old system.
This recognition of the true principle of modern
military organization will, it may be hoped, be
facilitated by the tacit, or rather unconscious intro-
duction of it which has already taken place. By
the adoption of the rifle as the arm of the British
Infantry, and by the establishment of the rifle
school at Hythe, the military authorities have,
without suspecting it, laid the axe at the root of
the old system; they have appealed to the indi-
vidual qualities of the soldier, and, by this appeal,
condemned the system which converted him into
a machine. But they seem not to have hitherto
perceived the principle which they thus admitted ;
for else they would have seen the incongruity of
introducing an arm requiring the greatest possible
development of all the faculties of the soldier under
a system calculated to produce the very reverse,
and they would have hastened to bring the whole
military organization into harmony wish this prin-
ciple. As it is, there exists on odd anomaly—a
working, as it were, in two entirely different (Erec-
tions, neutralizing one effort by another, and making
things in many respects worse than before.
The more the soldier is perfected in the use of his
new weapon, the more will he perceive the absur-
dity of playing the automaton. While lie was armed
with Brown Bess and sytematically stultified, he
felt, no doubt, the inconvenience of a tight, uncom-
fortable dress, of the stock and knapsack ; but he
considered them up to a certain point as an inevit-
able evil,—something absolutely to keep him in
harness, like the cabman's horse in Punch ; but,
now that he is given a beautiful weapon, and taught
to use his faculties to make it formidable in his
hands, he feels every moment his efficiency im-
paired by every incumbrance which impedes the
free movement of his body. If the soldier got so
easily " out of hand" when everything was done
to impress him with the idea of his helplessness as
an individual, how much more will this be the case
now when he is taught his individual value, but not
shown how to use it under all circumstances !
I heard that a high military authority and fer-
vent admirer of the old system, returning from an
inspection of the Armstrong gun, shook his head,
and expressed his doubt about all these newfangled
ideas, which were only calculated to destroy the
good old system. According to his views the per-
cussion musket was a deterioration on the old flint
lock, the rifle ou the percussion musket, and the
rifled gun on the good old gun. The old gentleman
was consistent front his point of view, which con-
sidered the old system as the highest perfection,
which cannot long co-exist with the newfangled
notions.
As the great majority of the British people aro
not quite so convinced of the infallibility of the good
old system as to go back to the lint lock, they
ought to see and press the necessity of adapting the
system to the weapon, instead of adapting this latter
to the former. They ought to study how to raise
the physical and moral qualities of the soldier to the
highest point, to protect such a precious and costly
being by the most comfortable and least cumber-
some clothing, to make him as hardy and full of
resources as the North American squatter, to drill
hiai so as to give him the full use of his muscles and
his intellect, to reform the system of promotion so
as to stimulate his ambition and to attract the intel-
ligent and energetic class of the British community
which now seeks fortune in other climes, to relieve
the military administration of the fetters of routine,
and to base it on the principle of responsibility.
All this may sound very radical and impossible
at first sight, but, if tried, most of the difficulties
I will disappear, the only condition being that the
mind be free of prejudice. All the boasted perfec-
tion in England has been acquired by seeking im-
provement in every branch, and by the greatest
possible attention to each little detail. Take those
thousands of patents which are getinted every year;
small as the benefit may be which each little im-
rualteee
every m b
year
e ao
rf
themprov makes
emeinßtrroidtiuschesinatuhsetraygag g
dve
with gigantic steps. Every one contributes his mite
in the application of a physical, mathematical, or
chemical principle. What is so, successful in every
other specialite should likewise be so in the military
specialite. This is not exempted from general laws,
whatever be the opinion of the high priests and
jealous hierophants, who try to shroud military
matters as if they were the mysteries of Eleusis, in-
, accessible to the eyes of the uninitiated.
Mysteries are fine things in the age of supersti-
tion, but they are unveiled by the impertinent spirit
of curiosity and criticism which characterises our
age. They require study and practice like every-
thing else, but follow the laws which regulate
everything else. The higher the individual deve-
lopment of the parts, the greater will be the per-
fection of the whole.
This individual development does not mean that
the British soldier should become a Bashi Bazouk—
every one for himself and no one for all ; on the