The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-17 00:00:00

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Amidst the 'general impressi tra
war is imminent, we British have a special interest
in studying the course of affairs which seems to be
leading to a rupture of peace, without necessarily
involving us in the quarrel. Although there is no
desire for war anywhere in England, from the
highest to the lowest class of society, the proclivity
to war on the Continent is interesting to us for
other reasons than the immediate questions in dis-
pute. Our attention has been forcibly directed by
circumstances to the facts of our military strength,
positive and comparative; and we are just begin-
ning to see that, after our fearful sacrifices of- men
and treasure in the Russian war, and after our
campaigns in India, and in prospect of keeping a
large army there permanently, or for some time to
come, we are likely henceforth to hold a better 'posi-
tion in face of the military nations of the world than
we have ever held yet, and to be secure under de-
fences better proportioned than- ever hitherto to the
value of what claims to be defended. It is true, wo
are not a military nation by taste' or passions. The
age for that has passed by; and we have plenty to do
that we like better and approve more : but yet we
are a nation of soldiers as far as heart and brain,
courage, and-constancy are concerned; and there-
fore all that is necessary under any- circumstances
is that the permanent, latent military strength of
the nation should be rendered susceptible to appeal
when needed, and that the military art should be
carried to the highest perfection disclosed by the
knowledge of the age. That branch of knowledge
which is called Army Hygiene is that which pro-
mises to secure us our due rank among nations
which are in the military stage of civilisation, and
to guarantee our safety and dignity, without, such
sacrifices as were formerly supposed necessary for
either the support or repulsion of war. The fact is,
we have become capable of learning by experience.
It does not concern us now whether our new
teachableness is more owing to the expansion of
the press, or the letter-writing capabilities of our
soldiers, or to advanced notions of social claims and
duties, or to other causes. The fact remains that
the painful experience of the loss of armies, which
did us no good formerly, has certainly roused us
now to learn. If we can carry out our new know-
ledge into act, with good sense and completeness,
we need fear nothing at home or abroad, from in-
vasion, rebellion, or a continental struggle. It may
be added that unless we carry out our lesson into or
ganised practice, we have everything to fear. The
country once subjected to a drain of soldiery, while
the service is conspicuously comfortless and perilous
from the constant pressure of disease, we see, and
the world will see, clearly enough, the end of our
resources. We have, happily, no conscription, or
other methods of forcing our felloW-citizens into,the
army. Under a strong liability to disease, and the
shortest known probability of life, our recruits will
be men who can do nothing better, and to whom
our safety cannot be prudently confided. But when
our soldiery everywhere is raised to that quality of
health, comfort, and discipline which was attained
during the last winter in the Crimea, we shall have
no more to fear from foreign foes, and no difficulty
in levying the reduced reinforcements required for
a robust army.
We had a dismal lesson at Walcheren half a cen-
tury ago. There must have been some notion in the
minds of our rulers that it was as well not to kill
off troops by disease, for Lord Castlereagh -would
not confide to anybody the scheme of sending a
force to command. the Scheldt and hold Antwerp,
lest he should be stopped by objections about the
swamps. The objection had deterred Mr. Pitt and
others, and Lord Castlereagh therefore consulted
with the King and the Duke of York alone. Nearly
700 vessels sailed past our Sussex, coast, with the
thousands who were never to return. Among them
was one hospital ship—the Minister having refused
to supply even one more, though the history of a
former fever on that spot was pressed upon his
notice. When 11,1)00 men were down in the fever
in the swamps, Thames water to drink was sent
over at great cost ; and 100 bricklayers, with tools
and materials, were despatched to put roofs over the
sick ;' but they were among the sick before they
had well begun their work. 'ln the. last place, the
army medical officers were applied to ; they could
not agree, and, for the most part, refused to go. In
97 days nearly 13,000 men were sent home, and
less than 4,000 remained effective. After the 'dis-
astrous close of the enterprise, above 36,000 fever
patients crowded our hospitals ; yet from all this
we learned no lesson ! It is now understood that
by a slight change of position the greater part of
the evil might have been avoided. But a few
months showed how slow we were to understand.
Our army in Spain was scattered along the roads
in melancholy detachments of sick, so as to need
reinforcements, when its miseries were aggiuvated
by those very reinforcements, Which were partly
composed of Walcheren convalescents. While
25,000 of our troops and those of our_allies were in
hospital, only 14,000 could be mustered for duty.
The dreadful details -will never be forgotten by
those who have read the " Wellington Despatches."
The troops who were employed in mountain forti-
cations and well fed were iir high vigour, while so
fearful a contrast was presented by tens of thou-
sands in hospital. Wellington learned the appro-
priate lesson ; but as a nation -we did not. It
,was true, all the time, that the 'flower of
the ' youth of Britain died like dogs on a
foreign shore; that thousands of widows, and
hosts of children, became 'a bUrden to this over-
taved country; that every sick soldier was
a heavy cost to the sufferm jaXiffers ; that
the Army became demoralii Its of misery
and the attendant spirit of rec ess ; and that
the military profession assumed u.terrifying aspect
to men at home. And yet we ilid not learn that
due attention to the soil and water, food, shelter,
and clothing, would have saved our soldiers, and
brought the war to a more rapid and infinitely less
costly conclusion. We 'may say this because
Napoleon could no more save his forces than Wel-
lington, while others failed to see what they saw.
It was not the fierce cold which destroyed the army
of Moscow. Nearly six-seventh's of the Three had
perished from sickness and hardship before the
fierce cold set in. Such was the constant testimony
of 'Wellington, and we have statistical proof of the
fact. Any party, therefore, which had been able
to act on the principles of Army Hygien,e would
have been able to close the war at pleasure by
insurmountable superiority of force. It was not
yet time.
This was cruelly proved in the late Eastern war.
We need not recite the fearful facts of the morta-
lity which swept off the best part of all the armies
engaged. We British had not yet learned our lesson ;
but bfore the war was over we had made a• good
beginning in the task. We knew before that the
deaths by violence make up but a small proportion
pf the peril of warfare ; but we were never so
thoroughly aware how small. We knew before limy
the fortunes of a campaign hang on the accident (as
it has hitherto been) of the army's health; but we
cduldatot have conceived, till we saw the thing done,
how a force ybe lifted up, as it were, out of the
grave, and,. vii wed with fresh vigour to. run its
race. Theres oration of our army in - the Crimea,
during the- second season, was the event which
lip
brought our lessmi home. We had seen several
armies destroyed rwe had never before witnessed
the reverse process; do the same spot, and under the
same circumstances of climate in which the cala-
mity had occurred. The great question is whether
' the lesson is really learned yet. Everybody admits
the facts, historical and sanitary. The important
inquiry is whether the case is to be left to take its
chance of being pursued or neglected. We know
that in half a year in the Crimea while the average
effective force was 28,623, the number that passed
through the hospitals , there, without reckoning
Scutari, was 52,548, a mortality far exceeding that
in London at the worst time of the great plague.
We know also that by improved methods, the health
of the army on the same spot was so restored and
sustained, that for the last six months the sickness
and death in our Crimean force was less. by one-
thirdhome
that
too small to
t on the population, or
favourable to health and life than. many of the
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We know now
how small our national debt might have been in
comparison with its present extent, if our rulers
and administrators had understood the care ana
management of soldiers, as we are bound to see
that they are understood henceforth.
It is the duty of the Press to keep alive the
memory of the lesson ; and, yet more, to urge the
national will to obtain more knowledge, and the
full-realisation in practice of that 'which we have
dearly bought. It is easy to say this in a general
way ; but there is something more to be done, viz.,
to point out the principles of Army Hygiene, and
the main points of the organisation by which the
army at home and abroad may be preserved in the
Tsthaetese inofaaltgtoeursr which
unichhdears reenidnspeir.oastTiedn possible.
These
Government; but nothing is done when the national
will flags, or is diverted. The present threateninge
of war in Europe should operate upon us as a
stimulus to make full use of our new science, and
life-saving art of Army Hygiene.