The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-16 00:00:00

Army Reform.

Considerable discussion has been going on in the
London papers regarding army organisation. A
" Progressive Officer " deals with the soldiers' kit
and equipment; another finds fault with his drill
and system of training ; a third considers the army
organisation defective, and the system of officering
the line susceptible of beneficial changes. Some
growls come from the ranks about food and barrack
accommodation, though officers in reply generally
maintain the excellency of the army as it stands.
The Pall Mall Gazette is the most thorough in its
call for army reform. The American notion of the
British army is that it is the most dandy in the world
—very imposing to look at, very pleasant at mess
and in quarters, but scarcely as efficient as it might
be in the field. It is there believed that with less
pipe-clay more intelligence and field training could
be advantageously introduced; that a looser
system on parale, and less worrying and binding
rules in quarters, might well be exchanged for
more individual knowledge and trustworthiness.
At the time the Confederate army had attained to
its highest point of renown, its best,regiments—iu
dress, discipline, and evolution—would have
shocked an old Martinet Colonel of her MAJESTY'S
service. " Let me see your troop go through the
" sword exercise," exclaimed an English cavalry
officer, travelling in the South at.the time of the
war, to a Confederate captain. " Our exercise,"
replied the Confederate, " is•—draw swords,
and charge." This was the exercise and
tactics of several Confederate chiefs, whose
raids embraced hundreds of miles through
hostile States, and will long be remembered and
quoted as examples of cavalry enterprise. A vast
deal of the British soldiers' work, both in dress and
drill, is known in the army to be superfluous in
promoting efficiency in war, but is kept up to em-
ploy idle time, to smarten the recruit, to impose on
the public, and to give an esprit to the service. The
question is, How could this time be better em-
ployed? Many have undertaken to answer this
question, Lut most of the writers know little of the
character of the men about whom they are writing.
.The Confederate army was a levy en masse of the
population. The private in the ranks might be a
"mean white" or a planter of one of the best South-
ern families, both actuated by the strongest
motives, and each lending his best energies
to further the cause for which he was perilling life
and all he possessed. Where every man's heart is
wholly in the work in which he is engaged the greatest
latitude of action can be safely allowed him. But
the case would be very different with a body of
reckless " ne'er-do-weels." The British soldier who
has any money employs idle time in getting drunk,
and a few drunkards in a battalion will create a
scene of confusion and demoralisation if any lati-
tude were allowed them. However depraved a sol-
dier may be, it is almost impossible to get rid of
him. Recruits cannot be obtained, and, where
hundreds are anxious to obtain their discharge,
to dismiss a man for debauchery would be

but to offer a premium to vice. If the ser-
vice could be so constituted that thousands
were willing to take the place of those discharged,
and a sentence of dismissal would be as much of a
punishment as it would be to a policeman, the
whole character of the service would instantly be
changed, and nothing could then be more easy than
to introduce sweeping measures of reform. The
first step is to make the army popular, so that the
ranks can be filled without an effort. All other
changes, then, with regard to the men, would be
easy enough. Dress, restraints, drill, and occupa-
tion of time are mere details which could be soon
settled if that one great change could be wrought.
The Government increase the inducements to
enlist in such a manner that they are not
easily seen by the recruit. They add a quar-
ter of a pound of meat to his rations, shorten
the period in which " good-conduct" pay can
be obtained, and allow extra articles of clothing
free of cost. If money be given instead the induce-
ment might be more quickly perceived, but it is
known that the effect would be but to increase
drunkenness in the ranks. The question is a very
difficult one, and will tax the powers of Parliament
to the utmost ; but the people may depend upon
this, that no effectual change for the better can be
wrought until the service has been rendered popular ;
when a commanding officer can dismiss from the
ranks a drunkard and other incorrigible bad cha-
racters on his own authority, and that punishment
is felt severely by the men discharged, Army Re-
form will be effected, but till then all change is but
patching old garments with new cloth. —Anglo-
American 7imes.

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