The public will have perc...
The Times, 1824-10-25T00:00:00

The public will have perceived, in the Queen-square Police Report, an account of a riot anid various assaults committed by certain Life Guards-mncn at Chelsea, iramed Fife, Croauche, and Seaton, Wc dio not wish to press upon these men in(lividtially, anid shall say nothing in aggrava- tion of thclr offetnce: but we think the subject connected with the most important interests of the country, and shall thereforc vcnture some remarks on the dangers wlhichi me- nace a free Conistitution from a statnding army during peace. It will have becn observed, that the men abovc-uamed, though their offence was not of a military nature, refused to surrender to any other than a military powver. They considered themselves as belonging to a class separated from Lle people, and set tIje civil force at defiance: but to a guard frotn the conitiguous barra4cks ithcy immediately sur- rendered. " They swore that they would kill every devil "opposedI to them, before they wvould surrender to any b4t " the nmilitary." When brought up, also, for their final ex- amination, and at the poinit of being committed, two officers, a Colonel anid a iMajor, appear to bail themii. The bail is un- exceptionable, and( is of course accepted. Now, had these meni remaine(d in their origginal stations of life-had they not been taken from the people and converted into soldiers- it is more than probable that they wvold not have found bail so easy, but that they would have lain in prison till they took their trial. Their situation at present may not be a very commodious one: but of. that the law and the civil magistrate know nothing. They commnit a breach of the peace,-they refuse to_submit to the civil power,-tlacy surrender at last to the military; and when brought up for examination, persons, their officers, with whem. they bave no other connexion than that of a military nature, matep in and rescue the*r from the ordiiary process of the-law, ex,c empt them from the necessity to which eiery other Eng- lishman is sibjected, in a similar case-that of finding com- petent friends of his own to bail him, or of going to prison. Now, withoutentering into many of the partictulars which have been stated in the different aceounts -given of this transaction,-as that the guard, in the first in tance, let one of the offenders escape, who was afterwvards taken, and that the constables who followed the party to the barracks to state their complaints were roughly treat. ed,-may wve not,at least say, that if such as we have stated be the privileges which soldiers possess above other men in that rank of life from wbhich they spring, the fewer we have of such privileged men the better? What England has to do with a standing army, and, above all,with such a staud. ing army, in a time of profound peace, we know not. Even if the maintenance of th? military establishment were not dangerous to our liberties-were it an harmless plaything- it still entails an unjustifiable expense uponl the couiltrv. We are throwing away all the advantages of our insular situation, which would guard us against a sudden attack if we had not one man at home under arms, and are adopt. ing that policy or practice which has enslaved all the na- tions of the Continent, bht for wlich there exists there a reason or pretext, in the ready access which they have to each other's territories. WVhat the soldiers stated at the beginning of the fray is very true-thiat "they wvere above the fellows with whom "they were drinking, and had a right to be waited on by "them." We shall all come to wait on them by and by, if we do not take care in time to diminish their numbers, and humble their pride. No poor man, however industri- ous, and howeyer industrious his wife may be, can live in the manner in whiph Englishi soldiers live at present; and they throng every'pabrt of tho metropolis, in various dresses it appears to us, at various parts of the day-their morning dress, or dishabille-their mid-day dress, or neglig6e-and then their grande costume. And who pays for this frippery and foolery? We confess we had rather tire money went to make the peasant and labourer comfortable in their cot- tages. We aTe pleased with the bravery, and struck by the magnificenit appearance and military teaue, as the French call it, of our troops: we hope we shall not be like the ch ild in the fable, who admired anid stroked the speckled coat of the sleeping leopard, till the monster awoke, and made the unsuspecting innocent his nrey.