The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-04 00:00:00

British Army Reform.

Sir CHARLES TREVELYAN has reproduced as a
pamphlet, his five letters to the Daily News on
Army Reform. Ile brings a broad, liberal mind,
lengthened practical and official experience, together
with an intimate knowledge of detail, to bear upon
the subject, which is of greater importance than is
generally supposed. The British army system is rotten
to the core. It embodies more that is objectionable both
in theory and in practice, than any other institution
of the country. It is an inheritance of the worst
times of English corruption, legalised by custom,
and continued with scarcely an effort at reform. It
is only lately that Line Regiments beyond a few thou-
sand men, served in England—the army being re-
moved from popular observation by its foreign
duties ; and thus abuses have been maintained,
wholly opposed to the spirit of our institutions.
Fairly to represent a nation, an army should em-
body all classes of the people ; but the British army
only represents two. The officers come from the
highest, the privates enlist from the lowest, and the
system Sir CHARLES condemns fosters and maintains
the disparity, placing between these extremes an im-
passable barrier. The absurdity is committed of
basing the supply of recruits on their voluntary act,
while every inducement ti.) volunteer is withheld.
It is a well-known fact that men of energy, spiced
with a little ambition, will not adopt a calling which
holds out no prospect of advancement; which sub-
jects its members to stringent restraints and in-
fringements on their liberty ; giving them in return
but a bare pittance, condemning them to an exile
extending over three-fourths of their service, with-
out the gain that gilds and rewards a voluntary
exile's lot. The difficulty of obtaining recruits
grows steadily, and has now assumed serious pro-
portions. An attempt is being made to meet this
difficulty by patching—adding little bits to the per-
quisites and pay of the soldier. These efforts
are, however, futile, and must end in failure.
The system requires a radical reform. It
is opposed to the whole spirit of English
institutions, which daily grow more liberal, and if
it could be maintained—which it cannot, for it
must break down of its own weight unless re-
formed—it would end in a glaring and ridiculous
contrast. Englishmen demand a voluntary system
for their regular army. The supply under a volun-
tary system calls for strong inducements ; to main-
tain the voluntary system the strong inducements

must be given. Although the deduction is clear
the Government endeavours to avoid it, and seeks
to maintain the army on a plan which must
necessarily, and indeed has ended, in failure. The
way in which recruits are obtained is simply dis-
graceful to a civilised nation. The late Mr. GOD-
LEY, who for several years held the highest per-
manent post in the War-office, c mdemned it in the
strongest terms. " I believe that system," he said,
"to be essentially evil, based on falsehood and
fraud, and tending directly to infinite immorality.
I believe that no thoughtful man can have observed
the scenes that take place daily and nightly at the
taverns frequented by our recruiting staff, or the
head-quarters of a militia regiment on the day that
volunteers for the line are called for, without feeling
shame and disgust that such proceedings should
form part of the recognised machinery of the
British military service." Sir CHARLES says " the
recruiting of the army is conducted entirely in
public-houses, to which the recruits are inveigled
by bringers,' who are Crimps' of the worst
description, touting about in all the lowest haunts
of a town." Failing, therefore, in proposing in-
ducements which honest and sober men can by a
free exercise of their judgment accept, this great
nation descends to the lowest form of trickery and
imposture. The consequence is that they get
together an army which it is found impossible to
keep together. In 1858 twenty-nine per cent. of
the army at ham had their names inserted in the
Hue and Cry as deserters, or 20,360 men out of
70,000. Of these 18,212, or 33 per cent. to
strength, were from the line. In order to prevent
the army from disbanding, flogging was re-enacted
in the Mutiny Act of 1859, with a special applica-
tion to desertion, and the punishment now known
as " branding" was directed to be inflicted with
increased particularity.

The present Minister of War has, under pres-
sure of the House, introduced a motion to expunge
the clause, and flogging in times of peace will be
restricted to the crimes of mutiny, aggravated in-
subordination, and disgraceful conduct of an inde-
cent character, and even then will only be applic-
able to the few men in the army whose previous
misconduct has reduced them to the second class.
The lash, therefore, can have no further terror for
oof all expensive
nations
the deserter. Nor does the wholesale desertion re-
present the chief loss to the country. The British
army i
in the world.
in tho se It standsrity o f
alone
among the most
those
its foreign service. Enormous sums are demanded
from the taxpayers to meet
the expenses of the
transport and support of the British soldier iu
tropical countries. It is above all things necessary
that the men should be hardy in consti • tution, and
of careful and sober habits, to maintain their effi-
ciency under every vicissitude of climate, when the
expense of placing them in distant stations has been
so large. Every loss by death and invaliding, re-
presents a large sum sunk. Yet the system now in
force directly aims at securing the most dissolute,
reckless, and worthless class, those most calculated
under the circumstances to fill the hospitals and
graveyards. Nor does the evil end here. A drunken
debauched soldier, whose iron constitution defies alike
climate and dissipation, is a source of weakness in-
stead of strength. When at large his days are
passed in corrupting his comrades, in introducing
into the barrack-rooms immoral habits, and in
fighting against authority. But the chief part of
his time is consumed in military prisons, where the
substance of the nation is wasted on him, and the
time of his comrades occupied in guarding him.
The waste in this way is beyond calculation. If the
Government has constructed the British army with
the direct intention of absorbing into its ranks the
most worthless class of the nation with the view of
freeing the country from those that might be a
burden and a danger to it, we may congratulate
it on its success ; and the plan, on the whole, may
not be without its merits. But if the national force,
on which England will some day have mainly to
rely for her very existence, is to be worked up to
such a standard as will then insure its thorough
efficiency-, the whole system must be changed. We
hold with Sir CHARLES that PURCHASE is at the
root of the evil. It may not be apparent on the
surface, how the money qualification which regu-
lates the promotion of officers can affect the privates
in the ranks ; but we will endeavour to show this
in a future article. In the reformed Parliament
that England must soon have, the question of Army
Reform will be one of the earliest and greatest
subjects debated, and such pamphlets as that on the
Purchase System, by Sir CHARLES E. TREVELYAN,
will pave the way for generally acquainting people
with the facts. Messrs. LONGMANS, GREEN, and
Co. might have published
the pamphlet at a cheaper
rate than two shillings if they desired to push this
epitome of the talented author's valuable know-
ledge and experience into general circulation.—
Anglo- American 7 biles.