The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1852-03-04
The British Army.

The anxiety, bordering alarm, manifested
by some Of the London journals in reviewing the
condition and management of the British army,
is not unwarranted, if the accounts they publish
are true. The military establishment of Great
Britain, at home and abroad, costs the country
about forty-two millions of dollars per annum ;
and according to the London Times, this vast
sum is expended in maintaining an army of
non-affective men, While the in
PRODUCTION of improved weapons and new sys-
TENS of discipline in France have, within the last
ten years, almost doubled the efficiency Of her
troops, the arms, accoutrements, and cvolutiOns
of the British soldier, whether on horseback or
on foot, are very nearly the same as they were
a quarter of century ago. Under these cir
cumstances, it is not strange that Louis Napo-
Icons 100000 soldiers, drilled after the most
approved modern system, armed in the most eff
fective manner, and commanded by Il chief whose
policy is war, should occasion some solicitude
in the minds of the people of England.
The reverses which the forces under Sir Har
ry Smith hage sustained in Kaffirland speak for
themselves. They have been defeated in fair
fight by half-naked savages, whose superior
light arms and equipments, ne
cessarily give them great advantage over their
disciplined antagonists The heavy armour and
weapons of the crusaders were scarcely more
unsuited in warfare carried on under the bur
ming skies of Syria than are the ponderous ac-
coutrements of the British light infantry of
South Africa to the climate of that region, and
the nature of the service in which the troops
were engaged The English foot soldier carries,
even IN a forced march, burden of sixty pounds
His clumsy musket is the perfection of ineffi-
cheney, if we may use the phrase. Such is the
width of the bore and the windage, that what
ever may be the elevation of the barrel, the va
ration of the range amounts to half the attaina-
bic distance Of two equal balls shot at the
same elevation, from the same musket, at differ
ent discharges, one may be expected to go twice
as far as the other. The cocks are so stiff that
the degree of muscular exertion required to draw
the trigger precludes the possibility of taking
aim. Moreover, u London paper truly says
the British soldier is carefully trained not to be
a marksman-his entire allowance of ball car
tridges for years practice being only thirty
rounds. The fire of regiment may sometimes
be destructive, just as the round blow of tyro
in pugilism may bring down a more experienced
boxer; but the odds are fearfully against such
result.
The British ''light" dragoon is o still more
cumbrous piece of military machinery. lie
weighs, with his arms and equipments, three
hundred and eight pounds, while his horse, the
regular price of which is about Sl20, is quite
unfit to sustain the burden. A regiment of this
class of dragons was recently sent to the Cape
but it was found impossible to find chargers ca
pable of carrying them, and they were transfer
med into grenadiers!
What deplorable contrast does this state of
things afford to the training and weapons of the
French soldiery, as described in an article pub
lished in the Sunday Times two weeks ago.
Even the indomitable pluck of the British veter
could not equalize the chances of battle in
contest with adversaries whose artificial advan-
tages superior to their own. \ regiment
of marksmen armed with repeating rifles, or with
the long range muskets now used in the French
army, would would annihilate the like number
of British musketeers before the latter could
come to close quarters with them. Even the
bayonets of the English infantry are of bad con-
struction, being made two or three ounces hea-
vier than they ought to be in order to save ex-
pense. Unless a new system Of discipline and
more effective arms shall be introduced in the
British army, . the flag that for thousand
years has braved the battle and the breeze,
may lose much of its historic glory in the next
European wary y. Sunday Times.