The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-09 00:00:00

British Army Reform.

From time immemorial arms have been held to
be a noble profession, demanding the greatest
sacrifices and returning the fewest material rewards.
The soldier sought honour, not gain. Yet, strange
to say, so inveterate is the money qualification by
which England measures all earthly good that she
has managed to import into her own service this
as the only qualification she recognises. If NA-
POLEON I. had wished to illustrate his saying, that
the English were a nation of shopkeepers, he could
have alluded to the fact that commissions were sold
at the War-office like bales of cotton. To measure
a man's qualification fot command by the length
of his purse, is one of the strangest acts ever sanc-
tioned by a nation. Once the
principle was intro-
duced it could not be limited by regulations fixing
the price, and decreeing that the senior of each
grade, who could pay that limit, was entitled to the
promotion. The wealthy man, determined to se-
cure the command, induced his poorer seniors by a
douceur to forego their right of priority, while he
tempted the holders of the higher commissions to
sell by offers far beyond the fixed limits. Money
freely spent became a quick and sure means of pro-
motion, enabling the possessor by a succession of
jumps to leap from grade to grade over the heads
of his seniors, till the command of the regiment
fell into his hands. Thus a direct premium is held
out to money, and wealthy men are induced to pur-
chase commissions at sums far beyond their intrinsic
worth, buying baubles at a cost which would fall
heavily on their families in case of death, and by
fancy prices placing the legitimate objects of ambi-
tion to their fellows beyond reach. At the same time
every inducement is withdrawn to young men to
enter the service as privates. That the system is
opposed to the teachings of human nature can be
readily discerned. The most wealthy officer of a
regiment may be the best, and, on an average, he
will be found to be at least as good as his poorer
brethren. None are more imbued with the spirit of
honour, none have displayed a more daring gal-
lantry, none have more cheerfully endured the
inevitable privations of field service. But men of
wealth will not seek these privations ; they
avoid them where possible, and only endure
them when fairly caught. In a word, they are
not spurred by inducements to risk their lives
and health for the rewards the service can give.
They seek command for the pleasure they derive
from its exercise, and the personal importance
it confers, but they do not seek to toil and die in
ditches or in obscure skirmishes, to return bereft
of every future enjoyment by ruined constitutions
or frames shattered with wounds. They are not
therefore the men on whom a nation should rely in
an emergency, and this was fully shown by the
cavalry (the essence of the system) during the cam-
paign of the Crimea. If the case be looked into
deeply, it will be perceived that all other considera-
tions are sacrificed in the British service to secure
this class, and yet this is the most unreliable
class a nation can have. While the army re-
cruits in the gin-palaces of the large cities,
trusting to the starvation =lung from

failures in various walks of industry, and to the
craving for drink, it is not probable that many
thus obtained will be qualified for the grade of
officer. As a rule, promotion from the ranks has
been a failure, for the line is too broadly drawn over
which the man is thrown. The whole atmosphere
around the new-made officer instantly changes.
He finds himself in a society which has scarcely
anything in common with himself, and barred from
all intercourse with the society he has just left.
From a non-commissioned officer of weight and
consideration, he becomes an ensign or cornet of no
account whatever— with inadequate pay to support
a dignity which, instead of being an ascent, he finds
in reality to be but a descent, with little chance of
anything beyond. The position is nearly 'always
attained too late in life, when the character is not
easily moulded, when the hopes are less buoyant.
He becomes a man by himself, however kindly re-
ceived by his brother officers—ejected from the old
society, unfitted, and therefore repelled from the
new. When the extremes meet in his case they do
not amalgamate, and he is the victim. The great
question to be solved is, can the nation offer to re-
cruits sufficient inducements to attract an ample
supply of the sturdiest young men of the kingdom ?
Can the army be framed on such a system
that there will be no desertion, and that it
will be a punishment to be dismissed from its ranks ?
We believe this can never be accomplished while
promotion is mainly based on a money qualification.
Few doubt that the supply of recruits would be
ample, if every grade were freely open to the pri-
vate ; if study, exemplary conduct, and good ser-
vice were the passports to promotion. Such a
change would draw thousands of young men who
now fill the ranks of volunteer regiments. If the
ranks could be purged of all the open and
audacious wickedness, barrack-rooms would cease
to be the repulsive dens they now are. Young men
of the common habits and training of a respectable
class would not shrink disgusted from such con-
tact, and if they were free to come and go, without ,
a binding obligation strictly enforced to serve, the
experiment would be freely tried. The change that
such a class would introduce into the army would
be magical. The restraints that at present act as a
strong barrier to recruiting would disappear ; roll-
calls, punishment parades, restricted hours, and the
hundred annoying restraints which mar enjoyment
in a soldier's life would cease, the men would be
freely trusted, and those who could not be trusted,
or infringed the liberty given, would be dis-
charged. Such discussions as that now occupy-
ing Parliament would be out of place ; there
could be no flogging in such an army.
Though the condition of the soldier must
be improved as well as the prizes of commissions
thrown open to his ambition, yet what the nation
gave with one hand would come back to it through
the other. A small army of this class would be
worth a large army of the other. Trained men
would be constantly passing from its ranks, and a
general knowledge of drill diffused. It is extraor-
dinary the speed with which a large superstructure
can be built on such a ground-work. Tens of thou-
sands of recruits could be absorbed into such a machine
without clogging its working powers. The nation
would possess a skeleton which could be filled up
for war with surprising speed. We advocate a
small army of highly-trained men as the nucleus
fora big army when England takes the field. In
that army she will have an abundance of what
is mainly required—officers and non-commissioned
officers, qualified to command and to instruct. The
army would become what it ought to be—a gigantic
school to prepare leaders for the nation, in time of
war. We grant it is easy to theorise and hard to
put into practice. Yet the writer has had better
opportunities of practically learning this subject
than even Sir CHARLES E. TREVELYAN. He
has served in the British army, in barracks and
in the field, through every grade of regimental
officer. We would go further in Army Reform than
Sir CHARLES, though we fear even his moderate
measures are more than the Government would
venture on.—Anglo-American limes.

CO UN 'LUX MaitKEIB.

COLCHESTER-APRIL 6.

A very short supply of grain, and millers had to pay
very full prices for what wheat they required. The supply
of barley may be now considered exhausted, and we shall
not quote it again for the present. Beans and peas very
scarce, and prices against buyers.

Wheat, white 658 t9s Beans, Mazagran......3 is 40s
red.: 628 67s Middle and small_ 44s 48s
Barley .... 428 56s Peas, white 38s 42*
Oats ..... ... —S S grey ...39s 428

NORTHAMPTON-APRIL 6.

New white wheat, 58s to 655; new red, 46s to G4s ; old
white, 62s to 68s; old red, 61s to 66s per 36 stone. Barley
for malting, 42s to 51s per qr. ; grinding, 29s to 36s per 30
stone. Oats, old, 26s to 33s ; new, 23s to 32s per 24 stone.
Beans, old, 46s to 49s ; new, 42s to 45s per 38 stone. Peas,
38s to 42s per 36 stone.