The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1891-05-15
THE sHirIsH ARMY.


weakness In Psane aud war.
The total expenditure ON the army,
out of faxes, In the year In the case Of
the United Kingdom was last yenr.
according to Sir Charles Dixie 4l6.-
300 900. says the London Saturday Re-
bteU. and In India the same. or Esq.,
10000 (f34. 900. 600 in the present
year). besides the expenditure out of
loans and that Of the self-governing
colonies for the armies OF the British
empire. The colonies altogether spend
for themselves about E1. 100000 year
for army purposes. In addition to the
contributions made by some OF them
toward the imperial forces and toward
marine defense. While the armies of
the British empire cost about E35, 500,-
600 year. the German empire costs
about E33. 600 900 and the French army
a little over f2s. 900. 600.
Our armies cost u.s. therefore, con-
siderably more than theirs. but while
each of these powers would have in the
Held on the twenty-ilrst day of mobili-
zation over 1000. 600 OF men. with be-
tween 5000 and 1900 guns and be-
hind this vast force large garrison
and territorial army in reserve, we
could altogether muster but $50, 600
men from all the resources at our conn
mand. But tie ingenious Briton will
retort that, though our forces ara
small, they are of exceptional quality;
that one Englishman is equal to two
Frenchmen; that one volunteer is as
good as two pressed men. and so on
und so weiter etc. Not so.
The 100000 active German or
French troops. of whom we have inst
spoken. are pretty much the same all
throughn-that Is to say. they are of
uniform quality. even II II be granted
that their standard be not as high as
ours. Our muster-roll. on the con-
trary, Ia built up from the most hetero-
geneous sources, and the quality, when
the training and education of the SOL
dler are considered, II in some cases
high. is in others deplorabia. Ths1s
total we arrive at is made up ofr
900 troops. excellent thongh deb
in some particulars; So 600 to 55,
first-class army reserve. useful but ne
| periodically drilled as is the reserve o
| every continental army; 1900 seeons
class army reserve. hardly wor
counting; 113. 900 militia. who may
| said to be without half their Office
| 8 900 Channel island militia; abe
1000 Malta and st. Helena milit
1000 yeomanry; 224 600 yoluntee
1900 regulars in India (undoubtes
n splendid force); 68,000 good nat
1 tNpOpS III 0UsVOO BHu nat
troops. and 21 600 of what Sir Chal
Dixie terms ,odds and ends.f
| In other words. the figures we
produce include everything we
possibly term q soldier. from n guar
| man to a native policeman. They
| clude some regiments OF Indian
| fantry which are recognized even
| ourselves as worthless, and whom
| from time to time disband as sue
| They include the st. Helena milf
and the Royal Irish constabulary. whgs.
however efficient in their own sphere.
would probably be SO occupied in il
| that they can hardly be available to
| fight foreigner. But. more than this.
not only is our force thus variable and
sometimes unsatisfactory as regards
the quality of its component parts, but
it is siugularly badly proportioned as
regards the arms of which it is COM
posed.
II there is one thing which recent
/ experiments have established more
than another. and upon which there is
complete unanimity of opinion among
| military men, it is this-tiiat modern
/ armies should in future campaigns be
| remarkably -eli furnished with both
cavalry and artillery; infantry will be
unable to face modern musketry un-
less they are well supported by guns.
and have the way of their attack pre-
pared for them by artillery lire. A
thick veil of horsemen will shroud the
movements of a modern army from its
/ opponent. and an army which has not
| q strong force of cavalry. both TO gain
information for 1t and to ward off its
| opponents scouts, will be at the mercy
| of better-informed antagonist.
1t with neither be able to see nor re-
main unseen. Yet how do we find
that our attenuated levies are furnish
ed with these necessary adjunctsP
Contemptibly so. it seems. as regards
artillery. We have but a nominal 800
guns all told. against 1000 to 1000
belonging to the powers that may op-
pose us. and of these we could not
place above 320 in the field.
Not only have we an absurdly small
number of batteries. but we propose
on an outbreak of hostilities to reduce
them by fourteen in order to make up
ammunition eolumnsl That is to say.
we organize, equip and educate a
scientific body of men in order that
|, they may on the outbreak of hostilities
be equal to the duties which Pickford' s
or Carter Paterson's draymen daily
perform in our stroetsi The Germans
on Oct. last added to their artillery
/ almost as many guns as we have in the
, whole world, and Roumania and Swift
zerland can each of them put in the
field about as many guns as can the
British empire Nor when we come to
analyze our cavalry returns are mat.
ters more reassuring. We have only
~, 200 horses to mount 19, 600 troopers
both in India and at home together.
.Religion Was Looking Up"