The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-03 00:00:00

[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.]

There is little doubt but that we are essentially
a warlike nation. But, notwithstanding this in-
herent bellicose disposition, there are few amongst
us who, for the purpose of giving vent to martial
ardour, would relinquish the comforts of a home,
the ties of consanguinity and friendship, and the
emoluments arising out of a profitable way of life.
For, it should be remembered that we are consti-
tutionally and accidentally a commercial as well as
a warlike people. It may be very well to talk
about soldiers in the poetical and rhetorical sense,
sons of bright-eyed Bellona, and gallant disciples
of fiery Mars. The " pride, pomp, and
circumstance of glorious war " are terms, no
doubt, that represent the profession of arms
in a most favourable light, and are
calculated to arouse even phlegmatic temperaments

to something like a thirst for military renown,

national grandeur, and the love of glowing
patriotism. But this is only warfare and its
results in one aspect. There are such incidents to
a military career as long and fatiguing marches
and counter-marches, wasting and ravaging ,
diseases, famine and. cold, and even death without
a moment's warning. Subject to the•ill effect; of
opposite climes, the soldier may be one month
totting in the trenches before Sobastopol, and in
another stationed beneath the burning sun of
India, and momentarily dreading death, in some
cruel way, at the hands of inhuman foes. And,
for such a dangerous;service as this, there is the
brilliant remuneration of one shilling per diem.
But in the face of these facts, our con-
temporary the Times is expressing its a.to.

nishment, and mourning, to a certain extant,

that a great portion of the youth of the land
should be employed in our commercial marts, and
not devoted to the service of their country. Now,
we do not intend entering into the argument res-
pecting the fitness of young men to the calling
of shopkeeping and the vending of goods, an em-
ployment, in our eyes, that seems to require fully
as much intelligence, if nob more, than the ma-
nufacturing of the goods sold thereby—the latter
is undoubtedly a masculine calling, and both, we
believe to be necessarily and honourably so. But
we cannot help noticing the fallacy of thinking
that men would resign positions that yield them
remuneration, on an average, three times as much
as a soldier's pay, for the sake of accepting the
latter. There is a great ignorance of the prin-
ciples of political economy, or rather common
sense, evidenced in upbraiding any class of indi-
viduals for not doing an act that would compro-
mise their interests and lower them in the social
scale. As it is, young men in shops enjoy many
of the comforts of life, mix in comparatively re-
peatable society, and have the prospect of rising
in the course of time to independence, and,
may be, eminence. Now, if the lower ranks of

the army held out such inducements as those,
and no response be made, then there
would be some reason in thinking that de-
generacy of some kind had taken hold on us.
If it is expedient and necessary to increase the
army and fill its ranks with a more respectable class

than it is at present composed, there are two or
three courses to be taken. Firstly, increase the pay
of the common soldier, and make it an object
. _ _ -
worthy the desire of a properly behaved man to
receive, and sufficient to meet the exigencies of
life, and to satisfy the wants of those who have a
natural claim on his support. It is, indeed, de-
plorable to see a wife and children dependant on
a poor soldier, as it sometimes happens ; it may be
that he was married before he enlisted, and able
to earn sufficient by his calling or trade to sup-
port his family in a way suitable to his position
in life ; but in a moment of drunken insanity he
took "the shilling " and left his children on the
pariah, and his wife to seek similar support; and if
vice should be ever looked upon with an eyeof com-
miseration, and crime be made venial by the cir-
cumstances, it is such a case as this. If the pay
were larger such instances as we have men-
tioned might not occur. Secondly, it would bs a
wise regulation to admit only men into the army
whose characters would bear investigation,
and whose companionship would not de-
grade and cast a slur upon the man of
unimpeachable conduct, who might have adopted
the profession of a sol.lier from the love of arms.
And, thirdly, some little difference of rank and
remuneration should be awarded according to the
information and education of the individual at
the time of enlistment. If these regulations were
in force, there
would be inducements sufficient
to entice a class that would
not now avail them-
selves of a common soldier's rank and
pay in their
worst extremity, and who would not be obliged
to think their avocation cast odium upon them,
and, by a necessary consequence, a separation
from the rest of tho world. If ever such changes
as these we suggest should occur, there will be
very little necessity for our contemporary of
Printing-house-squire to rail at any class of incli•