The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-14 00:00:00

Aion- CONTRACTS.

If an article could be extended to about 150 co-
lumns we might hope to be able to deal at one view
with the question how to clothe an English soldier.
It need not be so dull or dreary as at first sight the
subject might appear to threaten. Shoddy cloth and
boots of many patents are not in themselves invit-
ing subjects of meditation, but the adventures of a
soldier contesting with his regulation enemies is not
incapable of lively illustration. Choked by his
tight stock in all climates, toiling under his porous
greatcoat through tropical rains, shivering in the
same useless garment during night watches in
Canada, footsore from boots so contrived as to let in
the sharp atoms that strew the line of march, tor-
tured by that heavy shako which has once or twice
within military
.memory saved a man from a sabre
cut, but which, in every military experience, kills
men by apoplexy, such incidents of his pilgrimage
might give scope to the imagination of a military
Bunyan, and perhaps enlist the sympathies of the
most cruel and hardhearted member of the Peace
Society—if that stony-souled and most pugnacious
congregation of mortals should still exist in a cor-
porate form. But these elaborations are beyond our
possibilities. It may be as stated, that when our
men saw the loose-clad and well-gaitered Zoua'res,
springing like cats from rock to rock up the
Alma heights, they envied them the free use of
their limbs, and it is a notorious fact that when
the Chinese first saw our red coats they taxed
their ingenuity, not to find means to kill them, but
to invent contrivances for throwing them down,
for they were convinced that, once down, they
could never get up again, and might be killed off
at leisure. It is a common trick of sailors on board
ship to catch their pet monkey
.and dress him in a
tight-fitting imitation of a marine's uniform ; then
they stand round and enjoy the agony and, grimaces
of the creature as he vainly strives to exercise his
natural agility. But this prison of cloth and mul-
tiplication of impediments are first principles in the
minds of our martinets. They are institutions
which we must leave unquestioned. We are going
to deal only with a small episode in the great mili-
tary clothing epic.
Mr. Coningham, the member for Brighton, has
just been making the usual after-session speech now
expected by every popular constituency ; and he
does good service by keeping this subject before
the public eye. It must not be allowed to fade
away, although, no doubt, it is disagreeable to
many sympathies. Mr. Coningham truly says—" If
you attack the military system, every colonel and
general, and cornet and ensign, thinks it necessary
to get up and protest against such attacks on the ad-
ministrators of that department. They are the most
energetic and responsible people in the world—men
who have. been just cut out for the place—only, by
some accident or other something- went wrong and
some horrible malversations took place ; but they
knew, nothirig about it. Why; COl. •Boldero, the
chairman of, the committee appointed to inquire
into certain proceedings at Weedon, came down to
the house. and made disclosures sufficient to make
the hair of every honest man's head to stand on
end. They 'were substantiated by evidence which
cannot bediSputed. It was proved that those abo-
minations had been committed. Well, had any one
man been suspended? Not any one. The history of
this Weedon business ought to be read aloud in
public places once every week until
.the Whole sys-
tem is thoroughly abolished and reformed.
Time was,.not long ago, when the soldier was
clad by his colonel, who, having certain allowances
for that purpose, might, if he choose, make a profit
of some. thousand a-year by the transaction. The
shako, the stock, the coat, the trousers, and the
boots were then provided, at a .profit, out of an
allowance of 2s. 6d. per man. This was a sylltem
discreditable• to the rank of a field- offices, and
open to other more practical objections. Rich
colonels, of great military zeal, spent sums beyond
their allowance in dressing their. regiments in
fantastic splendour. Poor colonels, or avaricious
colonels; served out to their men such miserable
garments that the captains were ashamed to
march their Companies through Coventry. Public
opinion,: noting.these things, became first sarcastic
and then angry, and the system was abolished.
The stage was now clear for a new act. It was a
great opportunity for original administrative talent.
The object to be accomplished was to buy good
military clothes and accoutrements and serve them
out to the Men.' All the lights of the nineteenth
century shone upon the enterprise. Waterproofers
and anatomical tailors, boot pluggers and wool-
dyers, with a crowd of proprietors of thousands of
registered garments, were all eager to assist ; and
book-keepers, cunning in double entry, were not
wanting to keep everything in order. Great brick
buil dings of businesslike ugliness arose in the cen-
tre of England ; principal storekeepers and deputy-
storekeepers, and inspectors and viewers—a long
catalogue, 'with very_ liberal salaries at the top and
very wretched salaries at the bottom--were duly
appointed. That everything-was done with rigorous
attention to precedent in official life may be trust-
fully relied upon, for the laborious student finds
that the' first name that becomes prominent during

after inquiries is Elliot, and the second is Grey.
. And now the work commenced.. First came the
contracts. • They were drawn with such strict at-
tention to the public advantage that the contrac-
tor who signed that document was no longer a free
man. Whatever the representatives of the mili-
tary clothes-buying public did or said, rejected or
accepted, delayed or expedited, was under the terms
of that contract well justified in law. Grave counsel-
lors in after days pored over these: stamped papers,
and vainly tried to pick a hole in them ; but the rivets
were all sound--.--nothing but the Court of Bank-
ruptcy could break them. Whether the contractors
ever showed these documents to • a legal adviser
before signing them we are not told. Most pro-
bably they did not even read them themselves.
They signed them " as a matter of form," just as
Wou might, possibly accept a bill forthe O'Mulligan.
hen came the execution of these contracts, and
the contractors found that the matters of 'form be-
came 'very terrible realities. Gooils .of all kinds
were shot into the warehouses, and there they lay
indefinitely waiting examination. • During the in-
terval they were tossed about, damaged, and ren-
dered inferior to pattern, and were at last rejected.
When a piece of cloth was passed it was commonly
sent to Limerick to be made up, then sent back to
Weedon to be inspected, and again returned to
Limerick to be used. To one firm 12,000 out of
20,000 yards of cloth were sent back, and the ex-
amination was so capricious that when a tradesman,
smarting under a recent, rejection, furtively cut
from the rejected mass a piece of the same shape as
the pattern-piece, and invited the viewer's atten-
tion to the two, the _viewer chose the recently cut
piece as the better • and real pattern-piece.
Under this system• no man could live. Then it got
abroad that ali.the contractors did not thus suffer.
Some adopted the practice of setting deception
against tyranny. They nailed up the soles of their
boots with brads to prevent the viewers finding out
defectS ; they erased the rejection marks and sent
back the rejected goods, which the second time passed
unquestioned ; they put shoddy into their cloth and
bad leather in their accoutrements ; but these tricks
did not answer as a whole, and many men dis-
dained to haVe recourse to them. Then it became
whispered that these delays and vexatious rejections
were not quite universal,• and it occurred to saga-
cious tradesmen that confidential officials, who only
received 225. a-week, might naturally wish to in-
crease their income by perquisites. After this dis-
covery had been made,—and, to give the officers
due credit, it was not the fault of all of them that
the discovery was not made at an early stage,
before so much money had been log- by delays and
rejections,—the machinery worked much more
easily. Some of the examiners worked as journey-
men upon the work they examined ; a viewer for-
tified his energies by comfortable potations of
brandy-and-water and a bonus to boot in the back
parlour
comprehend, he was followed home, of the contractor. If a tradesman was
slow to .
and made to understand what was the correct
practice: • Sometimes, after holding out., the trades-
man at last consented " to do as other contractors

have done," and a percentage was duliiai:47,—nd-
entered:in the partnership books as " expenses."
The system was getting into easy gear, and people
were beginning to understand each other, when
some unfortunate jealousies arose, a proper gentle-
man-like Secrecy wits not preserved, and a Select
Committee of the House.of Commons came upon
the stage. It is scarcely remarkable that the 12
hundred pages of evidence which they have pub-
lished teem with rank abuses. It requires con-
siderable credulity indeed to believe that when im-
mense quantities of stores are bought at contract
price, sold by auction at a waste price, and re-
ceived into store again at contract price, this
cycle of waste has its origin in no worse quality
than negligence. But, even if we believe that in
the principal officers. unaccountabld and glaring
folly is more probable.than actual corruption, there
is throughout the whole of the two great volumes of
evidence such numerous cases of actual bribery
among the underlings that the atoms form an at-
mosphere.
The people actually proved to have been bribed
are all inferior folk ; but the Is aste of public stores
has been as great as if every officer in the establish-
ment had been bribed. Who can tell which was
paid by Sloth. and whj.ch by Mainmon ? How can
we say what proportionate part of the actual truth
hbflaeuensenyeebeteircoot out ? If we may credit the whispers
thatlieve we
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NIIIMINIONisi