The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-23 00:00:00

All KY REFORM.

The question of army reform raised by Sir Charles
Trevelyan in his excellent pamphlet on the army is
still being discussed. The absurdity of our present
expenditure is thus " shewn up " in the Daily News.
A correspondent writes ; " The pay of a regiment of
cavalry is about £21,000 a year. We have 31 regi-
ments, each with a colonel (a sinecurist) who is paid
from £1,200 to £l,BOO a year for doing nothing. The
pay of an infantry regiment is about £30,000: we
have 117 ; each has also a colonel (a sinecurist) who
is paid at least £l,OOO a year for doing nothing. All
these colonels are generals on the active list ; if em-
ployed as generals they likewise receive the pay and
allowance of their grade of general, from £1,200 to
£3,000 a year. A reorganisation of regiments would,
in this one item of colonels, save annually £92,000,
even if generals were still allowed to be colonels of
regiments of three battalions or of six squadrom."
Then enormous reductions might be made in the way
of lieutenant-colonels and majors) now on full pay
without duties.

But whatever opinions there may be as to the
reorganisation of the army, there can hardly be two
as to the accommodation of our troops. They ought
to be well fed, housed, and provided for. That they
are not is a lamentable fact. The Lancet has already
done much good in the way of exposing the wretched
holes in which they live and sleep. There is our
Household Cavalry, composed of most splendid
fellows. The absurdity of two of them sitting at the
gates of the Horse Guards, on horseback, in
full uniform, for the special admiration of
nursemaids, has often been commented upon. But
if the Lancet may be believed, outside must be bliss
compared with what they would have inside. The
guardroom is described as " wretched," with a
miserable fire and a few bare benches and tables.
" Not a single comfort to be seen. The windows are
small and dark, and the place is more conformable to
the back kitchen of a pothouse than to a place where
decent men, in a clean and splendid uniform, might be
expected to abide. There were thirteen men on guard,
two corporals being lodged in separate rooms—one
in a solitary cell below, the other in a dirty and
neglected room above, where, most erroneously, he is
supposed to sleep." The other parts of the building
itre the same. The kitchen, "an ancient-looking
crypt," is without even an oven. Everything the
soldiers eat is boiled. The barrack-room is comfort-
less, and the sleepers, when cold, keep their uniform
upon them, as there is only a gaslight to keep them
warm. Surely, if these are facts, some inquiry
should be made into the state of our barracks.
"YOUNG OIFOr D."

"M.A." writes to the Standard complaining of the
Young Oxonian of the period. There are two types
which excite " M.A.'s " indignation—the erudite
sceptic of Balliol, and the superstitious Ritualist of
Christ Church. His wrath is directed chiefly against
the latter. This type of the Young Oxonian is thus
described :—They are languid and feeble ; they have
neither the pluck to hunt nor the brains to read.
They spend their time in getting up extensive
toilettes, and in sipping vintages which are called
rare. They pass their days in unprofitable idleness;
their nights in rehearsals of dissipation. But they
have consciences which sometimes maketheir existence
known, mostly during the " brmdy and soda" hours
of " the next morning." It is at this stage that they
think it desirable to get rid of the burden of their
sins, and so they go to Dr. Pusey, who absolves
them on the condition that they do not dine in hall
on Wednesdays and Fridays. They rigidly perform
this act of penance by having a quiet and a select
dinner-party at the Randolph or the Clarendon, or
by a recherché supper in their own rooms, given to
men of the same religious set. Supper is succeeded
by the same dissipation, and that by confession and
absolution da capo. " M.A." holds Dr. Pusey re-
sponsible for this "pernicious hypccrisy." Dr. Pusey
will probably deny most strenuously the statement
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