The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1888-08-08 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

THE HERALD ESTABLISHED JANUARY 10T14. 1863.  BARKONV-IN-FURNESR WEDNESDAY, AUGUST STII, ISBS.  SOME rather grave discussions are going on about the national defence, and the public looks on with somewhat mingled feelings. There is no scare but there is uneasiness. The fact is that in army matters there is now what there never used to be—a very large and intelligent portion of the public very well able to criticise to a certain point many military matters. Since our Volunteer Army came into existence the number of our countrymen who have at one time or another been connected with it is surprisingly large. And no man who has served ' as a volunteer but has acquired some idea 'at least of military preliminaries. He knows at any rate that a soldier is useless ' and merety " food for the powder" unless he is perfectly provided and equipped aS well as armed and disciplined. It does not ' take much argument to persuade him that if an army on the march is not supplied in all respects it will soon cease to be effective. Not only food and ammunition must be furnished as well as weapons and all ! accoutrements, but if he has bivouacked or been in camp, or been on long marches, he will have found out that soldiers must have many things such as good boots and great coats, and water bottles, and ration pouches, etc., etc:, as well as powder and ball. When our Volunteerlias been longer in the service he will have found out other wants. He knows that good hospital arrangements and ambulance arrangements, and plenty of surgeons, are a very necessary requisite for the Army. Men may face bullets who do not like to face the hideous chance of dying neglected from severe wounds upon the field afterwards. And above all he will have learned that there is no safety except when the most perfect discipline becomes a second nature to every soldier, and is cornbin:A with high intelligence and knowledge on the part of his officers. With more knowledge our Volunteer advances to criticism of our present cumbrous system of manceuvres and sees clearly that half of them are useless and worse than useless. Many of them date from a time when " Brown Bess" was the best known military fire-arm. Then he learns the utility of the various branches of the service. What help the artillery ought to be to the infantry, and the infantry to the artillery. And in the same way he learns how cavalry may assist each and be itself assisted by each. At length he may even study the "War game" and become a tactician at least in theory. When we remember clearly the time when there were no volunteers and no such military knowledge through the population, and when the military opinion of the the country was confined wholly to officers and members of the " Service," and when, moreover, such members of the service looked with utter scorn upon the ideas of civilians on such matters, we cannot estimate the great change that has come about. It has not come too soon. It has undoubtedly preserved the public from the hideous and senseless scares that were so common and periodic 25 years ago; but it has also made it clear that important reforms are needed. If LORD WOLSELY now talks about how long it would take to throw 100,000 men on our coast, or to march them fighting from the coast to London there are a hundred Volunteer officers, as well as a large number of Army men, who can follow him, or who can detect errors or miscalculations he has made. Such men know what it would be to land such troops if opposed, and what the d:fficulties would be if the enemy tried to march them to London. They would be attacked from every point of vantage by innumerable pitched shots all the way. As we commenced by saying the knowledge or partial knowledge of matters military has provided an intelligent criticism and opinion, and that opinion is well aware of many grave defects in our present system. What for instance can be more absurd than that all our principal arsenals and great deposits of military stores should be in the South? If by the accidents of war we could possibly lose Woolwich for instance—What then ? Plainly we should go on fighting to the last. But if we are to rally or to organise fresh armies in the North, or in the Midlands, we ought to have arsenals in the Midlands, and the North too. Plainly there ought to be vast stores of all an army would require at some points in the North, as well as at the present southern arsenals. Again, plainly there ought to be some perfected and well-ccnsidered scheme for mobilization. Is everything to be confusion at a national crisis should one occur And what regiment, we will not say of the line, but of the Tolunteers or Militia even, is there that has more than the most vague idea where to go or where its supplies would come from if it got hurried orders to march? Such matters are only second in importance to discipline itself, and if the present discussion should do no more than bring about salutary changes, especially in the present War Office system and arrangements, no small good , will have been accomplished.  At Beverly, on Sunday night, a.married man named Eflrper shot a girl named Carr, with whom he was in love, as she was leaving church, and then committed suicide. The girl is still alive. The London and North-Western Railway Company on Monday commenced miming a train between London and Edinburgh in eight hours. The train ran from Euston to Crewe, a distance of 158 milts, without stopping. Prestn wa the next etopp ng place. Carlisle was reached eight minutes before the appointed time, and the train reached Edinburgh at 5 52 p.m., or eight minutes to spite.