The Potteries Examiner : — 1874-07-18 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

NOLAND'S MILITARY SYSTE?I.  The proposed Congress at Brussels, however, will have fL tendency to aid the cause of peace, by drawing the attention of the working classes to the means to be devised by the representatives of the European mist°. cracy to alleviate the sufferings of those who will be injured in future wars. Whether the means they will devise will ever be afforded an opportunity of being practically tested, is a question which the growing intelligence of the people must answer. There are many who contend that the question of the justiee of the people being compelled to maintain a large fighting force is of secondary consideration cow. pared with other evils which oppress the working classes of this country, but those who argue thus lay themselves open to the charge of not having given the subject that attention and consideration which its importance demands. Let them read the histories of the military system of England—from the time when the Norman conqueror, with his nnsatiable love of blood and plunder, invaded her shores, murdered her inhabitants, and divided their lands between his followers, on condition that they should place at his command an equivalent in the form of armed vassals—up to the time when the aristocracy, with their characteristic love for confiscation, repudiated the contract, and while saddling_ the maintenance of the fighting forces on the nation, kept poesession of the land—let them read these things and they will not then deny the claims the advocates of peace principles put forth, that these question deserves to be treated as one of paramount importance. On material grounds the injuatice of the present military system is clearly demonstrated, when we consider the efforts which have been made to reduce the taxation of the country, by the formation of Poor.law and Local Government Boards, and by various enactments which have been passed with the intention of curtailing the continual influx into our workhouses, is it not a paroday on their efforts, that while endeavour. ing to rednee the pauperism of the country, they should legalise the causes which produce it. tt So long as conetitutional a' loud has existed, there ha, been a jealousy among all classes against the exist""" of a eandiag ar,ay. Now we have a standing army of large amount, quartered, brigaded, and encamped permanently in England, and fed by a considerable and constantly inreas:ng reserve. It will, in due time. be officered by a class of men eminently scientifie, but with no relations necessarily with society, while the militla is withdrawn from all local influences, and placed nnder the immediate I command of the Secretary of War. Than, in the 19th eenhsry, ice tore si baye standing army octal,. listed in England, contrary coal? the traditions of the Med." Such are the words of an eminent statesman— the Right Hon. Benjamin Disraeli—when addressing the citaens of Manchester, in April, 1872. -knd he spoke truly. There is a jealousy among classes, a jealousy among the working class, a feeling of indignation, that, contrary to all traditions of the land, contrary to all ideas of civilisation, they should have to maintain a large standing army-500,000 men. Men withdrawn from all the occupations of productive in. duery, men who might be producing wealth for the country., and whom labour might materially reduce the toil of their fellows, but who, on the contrary, not only consume what they have never assisted in producing, bat who are trained, and their lives devoted to the destruction of the production of others. With such knowledge, and such feats before him, well mar the present leader of ! the Conservative party admit that the existence of a large armed force has the effect of creating jealousy among all classes. It would be well for the nation; it would be a lasting honourto the present Premier. were I hate nee the power with which the °matey has tea rated him, to the amelioration of the system aTZ Which the above remarks were uttered lb . mig t sure of the caoperation of thetworlring Classes:" y hare no interest in war, they have no desire for war,  and they look upon a standing army, as the greatest came a country can maintain. But twelve years have elapsed since the sentences quoted above were uttered, and to-day a Tory Premier must be a supporter of that moot cherished and most necessary of Conservative institution—a large military force, as well as an advocate of a' spirited foreign policy."  (To bcontinited.)