The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-23 00:00:00

AN OLD SOLDIER. ON OUR NATIONAL DEFENCES.

Octogenarians art youngmennow-a-days. Veterans
Well on towards 00 years
of rsof age think themselves as
m
fully qualified as
only half their years to
preside over a Cabinet, or a diocese, or an army.
Here is Sir John Burgoyne,for.
.Ity years ago, who is
instance, who helped
to capture Malta more than sixty
now 87 years old, and who has just published a
vigorous pamphlet on " Our iN7ational Defences."
The Field-Marshal does not believe that
the millennium has come so far. He thinks it not
at all improbable that we shall have to hoist the flag
which has " braved a thousand years the battle and
the breeze." He is evidently by no meanscertain
if that " meteor flag " will " terrific burn." The
whole art of war has altered since he bombarded
Valetta and retreated under Sir John Moore.
However firmly we may adhere to non-intervention,
"there is no security from being bullied, plundered, and
trampled upon, unless a country has means of guarding
itself by force of arms." lie does not believe that anavy, however powerful, would render ussafe against.
invasion. He holds it to be " the most dangerous'
delusion into which a community can fall " that if
an invader did land on our island he would be met'
by such large numbers of armed, patriotic, . and
determined men, as to be unable to advance against
them. He considers that our condition is " very
disheartening," and he goes on to consider
how we can improve it. In the first place,
we shall never have a sufficiency of regular troops to
defend the country, and we must therefore make the
militia our mainstay. But he is thoroughly dissa-
tisfied with the organisation and constitution of this
force. He objects to the time allowed for training as
insufficient to give the men " the knowledge, steadi-
ness, and habits of soldiers." The officers, as a body,
from the army not being their profes4on, can hadly
be expected to be thoroughly efficient, or capable
of imparting that confidence to the men so essential
to success; and the non-commissioned officers would
probably be found in a great measure inefficient
He pronounces emphatically for short terms of ser--
vice, in order chiefly to leave the militia VS ith trained.
men pissed into it out of the regular regiments.
He favours the idea of posting all the shoil
service men fo the militia, and of using the militia
rather as an " army reserve'' than as a "reserve
army." That is, he would fill up the caches cf the
regular corps to war strength from the militia. He
attaches considerable importance to the volunteer
force, and thinks that it would be most useful fur
" detached duties," and would form " admirable
garrisons for our fortifications." Even when the
troops to he recalled from the colonies this year
have assembled in the kingdom, end have raised
*the home regular force to 00,000 men, Sir John
Burgoyne calculates that under no ' conditions
could more than 40,000 regular infantry take
the fled. The mode he would adopt of increasing
this to a respectable figure is to strengthen
each weak battalion of 500 men by 500 men drawn
from the militia, by which means we should have
80,000 regular infantry. To there he would add
militia regiments to the extent of one-half, and
Liana produce a T.ramceilYring for of 190,000. W