The Saint Paul globe., 1897-06-07

trading companies, the British army
mas fought in great or small expedi-
tloLs, for fifty wears, leaving ten years
only OF ahsolute peace
IN 1872, We had good battallions, but
hea no generals trained and practiced
Z III the duties ofthat rank; for as soon
as colonel was promoted he was
piaceo on half-naya and was very sell
Qon employed afterwards. There was
no star, known as such, no field COM
1 hlssaflat ambulance corps, nor trans
/ port There was no generl qualified to
! handle more ,han one arm, i. e., the
cavalry or Infantry. while the artillery
was Kept as distinct from the rest of
/ the army as if it had been a separate
profession! The army was in this
! Sc when England drifted into a war
with RLssia, OF which the only recol-
! lection to be recalled with thorough
/ satisfaction is that cur soldiers save
/ TO all time an enduring example of the
! hlghest form OF discipline Forty per
/ cent OF those who served before
! Sebastopcl, in the depth of the winter
| OF ieo4-5, rest en- the uplands OF the
Cflmea, or in the Scutari cemetery at
! Constantinople. These heroic men, who
were destroyed by unnecessary and
pfeVentable privations, exposure, di-
sease, and undue exertion, never gave
IN, and lay down to die without evan
murmur
In spite OF our loss, however, when
peace ensued in 1856, England stood
IN better position for war chan two
years previous, when the great strug-
gle commenced. The $4,000 men who
| dlsembarked in the Crirnea in Sep
| tember, 1854, had practically all dis
appeared, but they had been replaced
by another 52,000 with So field cannon,
or treble the number landed in 1854.
1t is strange how slow our countrymen
are to learn. While the inGescribable
miseries We're still fresh in the public
mind-eVen befarc the treaty of peace
was signed-the cabinet was consider
ing what retrenohnlent could be made
in the army and navy. Nor is this
extraordinary when We reflect that in
those days no British cabinet, so far
as L know, had ever understood war,
and that our expenditure was at the
time about three millions sterling a
month; but the misfortune was, we
commenced 10 reduce the army with
out considering what the military
policy Of the country was to be-
In 1897, our hospital arrangements
were as unsa tisfactory as those which
L have described in regard to the regi-
mental system. In practice, at all
events, nothing beyond a bare diet.
and medicine, was allowed for the sick,
| all the articles now termed medical
| comforts being obt>;ned, if ct al at
! the expense Of the officers. One good
result springing from the sufferngs
| Of cur soldiers in the Crimea was the
increased attention given to the care
| of sick and wounded men. It was
furthered in a marked degree by: the
eXertions OF women. Miss Nightin-
gale, and, tha ladies who accompanied
her to the East, did great service in
araehorating the position of the sol
12dier when in hospital! Il March, 1855.
the queen, after a visit to the sick and
wounded at Chatham, While eulogis-
| ing the attention paid to the men in
| hospital added ''the windows being
SO high nG one could look out of them,
and that the wards are like PRISONS -
The immediate result of the interest
evoked was the erection of the great
military hospital at Netley, and, some
| what later. the Herbert hospital at
| Woolwich.
The same influence brought about
the acquisition of the land on which
| Aldershot camp now stands, and many
| other important changes in the army
Eurlng a visit to the troops collected
| in Aldershot camp in the summer Of
! 1885, the queen pointed out that She
| had that day seen regiments which
/ after eighteen years foreign service in
| a trying climate, had spent but seven
months in England, when they had
| been dispatched TO the Crimea, and
then. after but one year at home, had
been put under orders for India,
| where at that time the tour of service
| was for twenty years.
| Immediately following the return Of
| our troops from the Crimea came the
| revolt of the Sepoys, beginning in the
! spring of 1857, which was not put down
| for two years, during which time both
the queens and the East India COM
| pany'S soldiers performed q succession
Of heroic deeds Two years later the
excitement of some senior officers in
| the French army, consequent on the
| attempt made by Orsini on the French
emperor's life, an attempt which was
arranged in London, gave rise to the
| fear Of invasion, the result of which has
! been the formation of an auxiliary
army of 100000 volunteers, which has
grown steadily in numbers and eff
ficency up to the present date. In
! 1870 imperial troops were withdrawn
| from our larger colonies and ten years
| later there was a further concentra-
| ton, it being recognized that imperial
| garriSonS are to be maintained only at
certain coaling stations held to enable
the navy to protect our mercantile
fleets.
In 1871, Mr. Cardwell then secretary
Of state for war. carried out the aboli-
ton for purchase in the army. In that
system, bad and unjust as it was, there
were good points, the principal one
being that it secured rapid flow of
promotion, though this was obtained at
the expense of the individual officer
Under the new. system the state has
had to take over that charge, to the
enormous increase of the non-effective
vote; but, on the other hand, it has
abolished that quasi-right of ownership
in a commission which existed, and
while it lasted rendered difficult the
practice of selection, to which we have
only Just now come. Thirty-n nine years
after it was suggested by the queen
| to Palmerston, and quarter of
century after the country paid the
| price of Mr.. CardwelTs great reform.
The hardships of the purchase sys-
tenn were exenplified in 1912 in the
battalion the unwritten history of
! which I quoted in the earlier sentences
! of this paper when q young lieutenant
| colonel of the guards was permitted to
exchange with the lieutenant-colonelo Of
| the battalion, in spite of the fact that
the senior major had nearly forty
years service, had been in several ac
lions in the Peninsula, was engaged
! at Waterloo, and whose name was
| 0hoc h11t xyh