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a fy a, >. . . > . o > o *. .* Nee > Son See “ew Sn See Sa Sn S&S 4 Ss ght » “wa Sa’ Sa’ Ma’ “Qa Sa Se “a” Ma “Sa Se CQ SS The following article is from the pen | as far as they could be allotted, two- of General sir Evelyn Wood, V. C., thirds were still on board. As the ship

. 6. 3B. o 1837, when her Majesty the Queen came to the throne, the troops had never pefore, Within this century, been so weak in numbers and efficiency. On the re- tumof the Army of Occupation from France, wholesale reductions were Ccar- ried out, 33,000 men being discharged in the month of November, 1513. Now, after 60 years, her army has, if consider- ed us 8 machine of war, reached the high- est point ever attained, but the calls on it have become incomperably greater. Although, in order to arrive at the pumbers maintained, it is not safe to trust the actual sums entered in the an-

pual estimates, because changes have been made from time to time in voting money for the army and navy—as, for

instance, army estimates used to provide large sums for naval stores, and the navy estimates found money for the transport of the army on the seas—yet for practical purposes, the estimates fur 1537-3 may be accepted as the lowest of the decade prior to her Majesty’s The economy was in pursuance of the policy of those who objected to the maintenance ofa standing army. Such politicians were imbued with views Lord Carteret early in the 1sth century, when he said: ‘‘A standing mercenary army in any free country necessarily de- stroys the martial spirit of the rest of the people,” and after the Reform Bill ef 1832, the constant endeavor to keep the estimates down tu the figures voted in that year, resulted in a further reduction of amillion and a quarter below the sums voted in 1827. ‘The estimates of 1837 provided for 80,000 men United Kingdom and colonies, and 690, including four cavalry regiments, stationed in India.

This reduction was not obtained, how- ever, without causing entire efficiency to the army as such, and terri- ble subsequent suffering to our soldiers. They were then enlisted for life, 21 years, and, although in

accession,

were made by His Royal Highness Prinee Consort to form an army reserve, somewhat on the same adopted in 1872, yet, the idea posed by the commander-in-chief, Duke of Wellington, the matter allowed to drop till Franco-Prussian war awpke the nation to a sense of its danger. *

the

British

—_—

A battalion of infantry at the com- mencement of the Queen’s reign general- ly consisted of ten companies, six of which, when required, went abroad to the colonies, four remaining as a depot, while one company remained in the United Kingdom as a nucleus for each battalion in India. From the four depot companies of a battalion in the colonies every efficient man was withdrawn, and, moreover, it was generally necessary to call for yolunteers from other to make up 600 men, the foreign estab- lishment. The depot of one distinguished

regiment, which is a fair average ex- ample of the system, consisted’ in 1537, of between 40 and 50 worn ous soldiers.

These cripples were kept serving on in

order to save their pensions, and as each : or became !

one of them was discharged, unable to perform even garrison duties, his place was taken up by a recruit. Amongst the forty or fifty soldiers in the particular battalion which I have in my mind, it was nearly impossible to find any man capable of acting as an Officer’s servant.

From the small number of recruits in the ranks,a great majority of the privates in the Service companies were of middle age, andin one important respect ex celled the seldiers of this decade. In those days the size and weight of kmap- sacks were, according to our present ideas, enormous; there were no such things as kit-bags, and the soldiers car- ried heavy loads, indeed every article they possessed, without apparent difficulty. Yet little attention was paid to their heaith at the time, and we cannot say how many men were invalided on ac- count of heart disease, induced by the

pressure of the front straps which passed |

over the pectoral muscles. The number | was, however, doubtless considerable, as we know from later experience of the same evil. The battalion of which I am

writing marched in 1841-2 from to Portsmouth to and aiter the first few

Carlisle for Canada, days men were

embark

constantly seen in the evenings soing out walking, after having earried these loads on their backs throughout an | ordinary march.

Long marches cannot be i

unless the discipline of the troops is sound, and one result of this very lone service in the ranks was that the habit of obedience, became deeply engrafted | into the rank and file. In 1852 even ina

force chiefly made up of drafts of young | soldiers for the battalions then in Africa |

& memorable Cipline was given.

manifeststion of this dis- : These were proceed- Ing in the steamship Birkenhead round the Cape of Good Hope, and when the vessel struck at 2.a.m. on February 20, On arock near Danger Point, the sol- diers,encouraged by the examples of their Officers, remained steady at the pumps, While the sick, women and children were the only available boats. re 638 son's on hoard, and 2

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removed in Thor.

; militarv officers ordered the

expressed by |

een, © Creme

in the }

20,- |

loss of |

or for | the first ten | years atter the Queen’s accession efforts | the |

lines as those | heing op- :

was | the events of the |

regiments |

accomplished |

broke into two parts the captain called | | out to the

men standing

on the poop: ‘‘Jump and swim to the

boats.’’ Two men not to do so, lest the boats should be swamped. All but three obeyed, and into the water among sharks thus per- ished, those only in the boats escaping

death. The King who was afterwards | the first Emperor of Germany, paid our Army the remarkable compliment of |

ordering this heart-stirring story to be read on parade at the head of every regi- ment in his Army

se

In January of this our Sovereign's and ' | nation’s

year of thankfulness, a some- what similar proof of discipline has been reproduced, but happily without loss of life. The Warren Hastings, a troopship of the Indian Marine, struck on a rock off the Isle of Reunion. The ship ‘‘listed”’

over, and on the captain’s advice the officers. King’s Royal Rifle Corps, and

York and Lancaster regiments, marched their companies down below, where they remained until they were ordered up to make for the shore.

I have often read that latter-day sol- diers on the Continent allege there is a lack of discipline in the British Army. In the Continental sense (inapplicable to Britons) it may be imperfect, but while our soldiers, at the word of command, promptly face death, whether by suffoca- tion between decks or by ravenous sharks brought out by our Army system.

Sixty years ago, for about six months of the year, there was absolutely no par- ade at all at the depots which I have mentioned above, and in those held by the battalions on home service the evolu- tions had no resemblance to anything which could occur in war. The usual movements were ‘‘marching past in slow and quick time,’’ ‘‘counter marching,’’ which may be likened to a complicated form of ‘‘ladies’ chain’? in a quadrille, and ‘‘changing front to the rear on the two center companies.’’ The cavairy and artillery practiced the same sort of evolu- tions, the former ‘‘inverting line to the rear by the wheel inwards of wings,’’ and by the ‘‘wheel about of troops,’’ and the latter ‘‘changing front to the rear on the center sub-division.’’

These movements were still practiced by the infantry as late as 1866, and both in their method and in their value for war, even as understood in those days, may be aptly described by the old nursery rhyme of ‘‘Turn about and wheel about and do just so—and every time you turn about, you jump Jim Crow.’’ Nor is this state of ignorance in tactics difficult of explanation. The greater part of the officers who had practical knowledge of war had left the Army, and those who had entered since the great war in the Peninsula had seen no service in the Field.

As the lessons learnt under Generals Craufurd, Picton, and other fighting leaders were forgotten, so our books of military exercises became longer, more fantastic and theatrical. Nor are we sing- ular in these respects, for it was found that in Prussia, during the 20 years in which they had no annual manoeuvres, the drill became markedly more suited for show than for service in the field. It is strange that no one in authority amongst us remembered that it is only the simplest formations which are used in war. When, on March 2ist, 1801, the Gloucester Regiment gained the unique distinction of a double-tronted head-dress for its conduet while being attacked simultaneously in front and rear, there was no ‘‘counter-marching,’’ the com- manding officer simply shouting: ‘‘ Rear rank, right about face. Fire!’’ Simi- larily, the rear rank of the Essex (44th) Regiment was faced backwards to repulse a rear attack at Quatre Bras, June 16th, 1815, and the 8th Hussars at Balaklava, October 25, 1854, went squadrons ‘‘ Right about wheel—charge!’’ at a Cossack regiment advancing to attack the Royal Irish Hussars in rear. Some old officers maintained that if ‘‘Chinese puzzle-like movements’’ were not practical, yet they made the soldiers handy; but the prin- cipal effect was to destroy a man’s indi- viduality.

The chastisement inflicted on the sold- jers up to the Queen’s Accession inhu- manly severe, was now reduced, the sent- ences for corporal punishment being limited to 200 lashes. It was gradually reduced later, 50 lashes being the maxi- mum in 1830, and it was iinally abolished in 1850.

In some stations abroad at that period soldiers were virtually confined racks for long. periods. General Charles Napier wrote in a book published ‘Within three months two men shot off their feet, in a regiment quar- tered in the same barracks in which I was living, in order to obtain their dis- Besides the irksome monotony duties, the discomforts f barracks were great. The cubic space allowed by regulation was from 300 feet

: man, but as in 1837, in epite of regulations issued in 1807 forbid- ! e, the barracks were over- was seldom

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in 1857:

charges.

jury of the soldiers

to 400 feet per

ding the practic

erowded, this allowance available. ; of a Parliamentary enquiry elicited the that in some regiments men had less

The present

faci than 2509 enbic feet per man.

being thrown |

; to bar- |

Even 10 years lates the resalt |

es we ee a oe -~

im 1837 were low, insufficiently warmed, and without light after sunset. Thus the few men who could read had no oppor- tunity of doing so.

There were no Ablution rooms and no Laundries, all washing being carried out in the barrack-rooms. There were no reading-rooms, libraries nor regimental schools. In some battalions a non-com- missioned officer was detailed as a school- master, and sergeants who were unusu- ally badly educated were ordered to at- tend for instruction, for which they paid. In 1837, one of the pay sergeants in the battalion I have taken as an example, could neither read nor write, and the company accounts were kept by his wife.

The recruit on enlistment received a

bounty of £4, out of which he paid for | his kit £3, and after various other neces- |

sary articles had been taken over from the Quartermaster’s store, there remained a balance of 7s. 6d. payable to the man. The following clothing was furnished by the colonel: A coatee, a pair of trousers, one pair of boots, and ashako. When the colonel was of an illiberal turn of mind he naturally sought out the cheapest contractor he could find, and as the sizes of the suits issued to him were limited, the soldiers had considerable sums to pay for alterations. Greatcoats were furnished by the Ordnance Department, and were miserably thin in texture In the hottest climate the soldier was sent into the field wearing a high stiff leather stock and closely buttoned jacket, with a thin cover

for the forage cap, generally worn at home, with the result that many died

from heat apoplexy.

All necessaries were purchased by the Quartermaster, or by order of the com- manding officer. This system gave rise to much fraud and illicit gain at the ex- pense of the men. My informant, now a general officer, when acting as Quarter- master for a few days received £20 from the clothing contractor. The writer him- self, having, as acting Quartermaster in 1557, rejected the meat for two successive days, received a £19 Bank of Ireland note sent anonymously. In each of these cases the amounts were credited to regi- mental funds.

The soldier paid 8'%d a day for mess- ing and washing. He received free, % pound of meat and the same allowance of bread, but paid for cofee, sugar, vege

THE DAILY EXAMINER, CHARLOTTETOWN, JUNB 21, 1897

physical efficiency of officers. In one gar- rison in Canada in the early forties there were two colonels, supposed to command battalions who could not mount their horses unless provided with a chair or mounting block. It was doubtless diffi- cult to maintain efficiency, for the ad- ministration and government of the army was divided between several heads, the Secretary of War, Colonial Secretary, Home Secretary, Commander-in-Chief and Board of Ordnance.

It is interesting, when observing the names of private soldiers Killed or wounded in action, now telegraphed from our most distant possessions with the same care as are the names of officers, to look back to the debates in the Houses of Pariiament on the subject of the ser- vices of soldiers, and the scanty recogni- tion of the acts of courage which helped to gain for Europe peace lasting forty years. There had been several attempts to obtain a medal or decoration for the pri- vates who, in the Peninsula, had carried our flag from Lisbon across Spain to Madrid, and thence to Paris. All these attempts were, however, defeated, until 1847, when the Government gave way, mainly owing to the efforts of the Duke of Richmond, who presented a petition from the undecorated officers who had served in the Peninsula, asking that their case might be considered by Her Most Gracious Majesty. The Duke of Wellington, on this as on previous occa- sions, opposed the consideration of the petition, arguing that if a medal were given to every soldier who had fought in the Peninsula it should be equally given to the sailors who had blockaded the coast of France during the wars with that nation. Throughout these debates the Duke of Richmond was apparently the only person who urged that sergeants and private soldiers should be granted a medal for their services in the Peninsula campaign. Eventually, on June Ist, 1847, the order was issued for the pre- paration ot the rolls, but it was not till four years later, in 1851, that one of my relatives, who had left the army in 1814, received the medal.

The cavalry was scattered in small de- tached bodies all over the United King- dom, some of the squadrons being at great distance apart. In 1857 the Horse Artillery in the United Kingdom con-

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Lord Wolseley, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army.

tables, salt, etc. The meat was always supplied by a local butcher, and the gro- ceries were purchased by the orderly cor- poral, who, as arule, received a monetary consideration from the hucksters. There were no ovens, and, mutton never being issued as a ration, boiled beef was the invariable dinner. The potatoes were boiled with the beef. No puddings or pies were supplied except at Christmas. In those days there was no such thing as a tea meal, and the men went with empty stomachs from 1 p. m. one day to 8 a.m. the next. They provided a bowl and plate at their own expense. AJl non-commis- sioned officers had their meals with the men, as sergeants’ messes did not then exist.

There were but a few married quarters, and, as a general rule, a man, _ his wife and children, lived in a corner of a bar- rack-room, blankets being hung around

the beds to screen the family off from the | | his assistants remained in that position

single men. There were certain rooins named married quarters, and in them numbers of families were accommodated. My friend, to whom Iam indebted for most of the information of the first 10 years of the reign, tells me that he saw in Corfu, after the Crimean War, 40 families collected in one very large room.

I have endeavured to write accurately of the Rank and File. As for the officers, they were ignorant of even the words of command, and were often prompted by a sergeant, or an old soldier placed imme- diately behind them on the flank of the squadrons or companies. In 18387 the general officer commanding what is now called the Northwestern District, wrote: “The officers are very fine fellows, full of life and spirit, but the Devil could not make them read a book.’’ It naturally followed that of ‘‘outpost’’ was ho knowledge at the Accession, and it was not till Lord Frederick Fitzclar- ence, When commanding at Portsmouth, took up the subject that the lessons learnt in the

I do not wish to impute blame to the officers. If they would not study they were willing to face death, at the short- est notice. Moreover, nobody required them to have any military knewledge, and, indeed, in 1865, there was a colonel,

who had commanded a battalion for

many years, who during his service of | 35 vyeans had never seen a brigade field | with the | which which I paper, to do naid to the '

day; and this was the case commander of several battalions came to Chobham in 1853, of

sha}! write presently.

~~ shy anther +3 ys i

duties there |

Peninsula were re-taught | to some battalions of the army at hone. |!

sisted of seven troops of two guns each, muking a total of 14 guns. There were six batteries of four guns each, besides four batteries of instruction. When the Emperor Nicholas of Russia visited this country in 1844, he was shown three batteries of Horse Artillery at Woolwich, of four guns each, and in 1874—30 years later—-when the Emperor Alexander came, he saw 96 Horse and Field and a 40-pound battery, total 100 guns. Now the guns of Horse and Field Atrillery number 574, capable of augmentation on mobilization to 648. Of these, about half the Horse Artillery, and one-third of the Field Artillery is in India, or abroad elsewhere.

At the time of the Queen’s Accession the Staff arrangements were as peculiar as those in the regiments. Officers once on the Staff remained for years in the same appointment. One officer was 40 years quartermaster-generai, and one of

29 years, each serving on until removed by death. These arrangement were not calculated to further improvement in the Army.

As regards firearms, also coincidently with the Queen’s Accession flint locks were discarded, and the percussion prin- ciple adopted. The army is conservative in its ideas, and does not readily accept changes, as is seen by the history of this innovation. The patent for percussion muskets was taken out in 1827, yet it was not till 1834 that it was tested, and then, although the result was satisfac- tory, it was five years before it was adopted in the service.

The average distance from the muzzle at which the bullet of the musket struck the ground, when fired horizontally at the height of 5 feet, was 120 yards. Tar- get practice was carried out at 50 and 100 yards. A man who could put one-third of his bullets into the target, 6 feet by 3 feet, at the latter range was classed as a marksman. It was not unusual to find a target without a single hit on it after the company had fired a volley at 100 yards’ distance. Even when the Army went to the Crimea there was still one division armed with the ‘‘Brown Bess’’ musket, the same weapon that was used

in the Peninsula, but with new locks. The remainder of the Army kad then, however, received the Minie rifle, which

was superseded in 1855 by the Enfleld. This change was not accepted in principle until Lord Harding became Commander- in-Chief, the Duke of Wellington having opposed it. It is not possible, in this more than glance at the military operations which took place in

the first decade of the Queen’s reign. The first war of any importance was that against Doset Mahomed, undertaken in 1839. A perusal of its events, although instructive for commanders and _ for statesmen, makes unplesant reading for the British public. The lessons to be learnt from its history, however, are that to ensure success, generals in the fleld should be young, to have retained vigor of mind and body, and that they should not be hampered in the field by the pres- ence of political agents.

Expeditions and wars followed in China and in the Punjab, but the most important event occurring in the army at home was the substitution of the 10- year enlistment Act in 1847 in place of the service for life or 21 years, which was so distasteful even 60 years ago that the effectives of the army were seldom or never within 10,000 of the authorized establishment. The increasing difficulty of obtaining 10,000 men, the number annually required, helped to bring about the 10-year act. At that time _ three- fourths of the infantry were always abroad (about one-fifth was in India), and, as Lord Wolseley pointed out in an essay written 10 years ago. one battalion had spent 137 years abroad ont of the 187 years it had been in existence.

In the decade of 1847-57, the army was:

fully employed, and with varying for- tunes. In the north of India we suffered a decided repulse in November, 1545, at Ramnugger, and at Chilianwalla the British and Sepoy army fought from noon till dark against double the num- ber of brave Sikhs. This fight cannot be claimed by us as anything more than a drawn battle, in which, indeed, we lost four guns and five stands of colors. The British public had always been accus- tomed to hear of victories in its far-dis- tant possessions, and the news of this event in the Punjab caused the super- session of Lord Gough, the commander- in-chief, who was replaced by Sir Charles Napier, to whom the Duke of Wellington observed: ‘Either you or I must go out,”’ Before the new commander-in-chief ar- rived, however, the victory of Goojerat and the capture of Mooltan hada been followed by the acquisition of the Pun- jab, which was carried out in the spring of 1849.

In 1852 there were signs of unrest on the continent, and in June the Ministry passed a Militia Bill authorizing the en- rollment of 80,000 men. Various efforts had been previously inage to revive the old constitutional force, but not always on a reasonable basis. Perhaps the most futile proposition wes that of loca! militia, who were never to serve out of their own countiy. The Duke ef Welling- ton in this year told the Ministry plainiy that the British army had nut suilicient men to do more than just relieve bat- talions on duty in the colonies. It num- bered 145,000, the population of the Uni- ted Kingdom at that time being 2d mil- lions.

While the British public were still en- joying the belief that the millennium of peace having arrived with the great In- custrial Exhibition of 1851, there would be no more wars in Europe, our Minis- ters, feeling less confident, were induced, mainly by the efforts of the Sovereign and the Prince Consort, to assemble at Chobham the first troops ever brought together since the Waterloo year.

In June, 1852, a division of all arms was assembled on the Common, near what is now Sunningdale station on the London and South Western Railway, and these treops were succeeded by another division in August, which broke up after three weeks’ exercise. It is interesting to 10tice that the staff and regimental officers wore full dress coatees at their daily work, a fact which was impressed on my mind by hearing, many years ago, that the Assistant Quartermaster-Gen- eral, being irritated by the complaint of the cavalry commanding officers that the horses would be drowned in the ponds which had been made for watering pur- poses, insisted on their galloping after him, in close formation, through the whole of the ponds, to the great detri- ment of their clothes. ‘Two years later the officers landed in Crimea, in Septem- ber, 1854, wearing full-dress uniform.

We had, in 1852, done something to exercise our troops for the first time in thirty-seven years, but, as the Prince Consort pointed out, though we had got battalions we had no generals trained and practised in the duties of that rank; for as soon as a colonel was promoted he was placed on half-pay and was very

seldom employed afterwards. There was no staif, known as such, no field com- missariat, ambulance corps, nor trans-

port. There was no general qualified to handle more than 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 pro- fession! The army was in this state when England drifted into a war with Russia, of which the only recollection to be recalled with thorough satisfaction is that our soldier gave to all time an enduring example of the highest form of discipline. Forty per centum of those who served before Sebastopol, in the depth of the winter of 1854-5, rest on the uplands of the Crimea or in the Scutari cemetery at Constantinople. These heroic men, who were destroyed by unnecessary and preventable privations, exposure, disease and undue exertion, never gave in, and lay down to die with- out even a murmur.

In spite of our lcsses, however, when peace ensued, in 1556, England stood in a better position for war than two years previously, when the great struggle com- menced. The 25,000 men who disem- barked in the Crimea in September, 1854, had practically all disappeared, but they had been replaced by another 52,600, with 96 field cannon, or treble the num- ber landed in 1854. It is strange how slow our countrymen are to learn. While the indescribable miseries, the narration of which by the ‘limes’ correspondent had overturned the Ministry, were still fresh in the public mind—even before the treaty of peace was signed—the Cab- inet was considering what retrenchment could be made in the army and navy. Nor is this extraordinary when we re- flect that in those days no Eritish Cab- inet, so fer as I know, had ever undoev- stood war, and that our expenditure was et the time about three millions sterling a month; but the misfortune was we commenced to reduce the army without considering what the military policy of the country was to he.

Immediately following the return of our troops from Crimea came revolé cf the Sepoys, beginning in

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spring of 1857, which was not put down for two years, during which time beth the Queen’s and the Hest India Coi- pany's soldiers performed a succession of heroic ceeds.

Two years later the excitement of

some senior officers in the French army, consequent on the attempt made by Or- sinion the French Emperor’s life, an attempt which was arranged in Londea,

| bound to is by the ties of loyalty to

gave rise to the fear of invasion, tie tw

sult of which has been the furmazion cf an Auxiiiery Army of 220,000 yolun- teers, which has grown steadily in murm- bers and efficiency up to the present date.

In 1870 Imperial troops were with- drawn from our larger colonies, and ten years later there was a further concen- tration, it being recognized that Imperial garrisons are to be maintained only at certain coaling stations held to enable the navy to protect our mercantile flects.

In 1871 Mr. Cardwell, then Secretary of State for War, carried out the aboli- tion of purchase in the army. In that system, bad and unjust as it was, there were good points, the principal one being that it secured a rapid flow of promotion, though this was obtained at the expense of the individual officer. Under t!e 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 ex- isted, and while it lasted rendered diffi- cult the practice of selection, to which we have only just now come, 39 years after it was suggested by the Queen to Lord Palmerston, and a quarter of a cen- tury after the country paid the price of Mr. Cardwell’s great reform! ‘The hard-

To enumerate merely the numerous wars waged by our army during the Queen’s reign would unduly extend this paper, and it may suffice to state that during the 60 years Her Gracious Majesty has sat on the throne, exclusive of the operations of Chartered and other trading companies, her Majesty’s Imperial sol- diers (officers and men) haye fought, in great or small expeditions, for 50 years, leaving 10 years only of absolute peace.

The young soldier of to-day, on join- ing, is in a very different position from that of his predecessor 60 years ago. He is supplied with a complete outiit of clothing, and a kit containing all such necessaries as brushes, combs,razors, etc. He is supplied periodically, later, with the principal articles of his uniform with- out charge; but he has to keep up the necessaries, which include underclothing, at his own expense, and to pay for any repairs to clothing while it is in wear.

He pays for groceries, vegetables, and personal washing, the cost of which varies now from 3d. to 4d. per diem, but his bedding is washed by Government. It is a fair estimate to put a soldier's rations, pay, lodging and clothing as equivalent to 15s a week, which sum in- creases gradually, according to the sol- dier’s conduct, and consequent promo- tion. He is credited also with a sum of £3 per annum under the head of ‘‘de- ferred pay,’’ which is given him on his joining the Army Reserve, or at the ex- piration of his service. After deducting all stoppages, a well-conducted soldier of our infantry—the lowest paid of our army—may reckun on having 4s. a week as pocket money. On the other hand, he sacrifices a great deal of his personal freedom; but, it must be remembered that if he were employed in civil life on a weekly wages, this ceases on his becoming ill, and he would have to pay for medical treatment, which to the sol- dier is afforded free, 7d per diem being, however, stopped from his pay while he remains in hospital.

I endeavored to describe the painful discomforts of the married soldiers’ life 60 years ago. Their accommodation now, though not in old barracks what is de- sirable, is, at all events in the new quar- ters built under the Barrack Lon Act, almost equal to that of artisans in civil life. Quarters for non-commissioned officers and private soldiers are now built in three classes: (a) Two rooms enda scullery; (b) three rooms and a scullery; (c) four rooms and a scullery; aud these are allotted to sergeants and rank and file, irrespective of rank, according to the number in the family. All the non-com- missioned officers of the higher crades are permitted to marry, sergeants 5) per centum, and of the rank and fil 4 per centum. This may seem a small number for the privates, but as the majovity of the recruits enlist at the age of 1s, and complete their seven years’ serviee with the colors at 25, there is no excuse for their marrying, unless they have become non-commissioned officers and int: nd to remain in the army.

Although some corps have a better regimental system than others, yet in the majority of the mounted corps the men have coffee or cocoa at 6 «a. m., served outside the stables. AU branches of the serivce have, as a rule, bread and butter, with, in some _ cases, ‘icon, brawn or some such relish for breakfast. For dinner they have boiled, baked or roast meat, and generally a pudding of some kind, the rations being increased by grants from the regimental institutes to the company’s messing book.

If, at the end of the seven years’ ser- vice, the soldier does not wish to join the Army Reserve, but serves on to com- plete 21 years’ service, he receives on final discharge a lump sum of £35 (de- ferred pay), and a pension of 1s a day for life. A sergeant under similar cir- cumstances, receives £63, and a pension varying from 2s to 3s 94 a day, while the pensions of warrant officers run to 4s 6d per diem.

If we turn now tothe state of the active army in 1897, we find that at home, in India, and the Colonies, there are 195,000 effectives, and 78,000 in the Army Reserves. Numbers alone, however, give no adequate idea of the efficiency cf an army for Field service, and, without alleging that our arrangements are yet perfect, for, indeed, yet it may be confi- dently asserted that as regards the de- partments, or auxiliary branches, which clothe, cure, subsist, and transport the Army, and are therefore essential for its well-being in the Field, we have never previously been in so efficient a state. The growth of the volunteer forces and our innumerable minor wars have, through the agency of an enterprising press, made the army known to che tax- payers, and the War Office has thus been enabled to organise a modern system which has replaced the hand-to-mouth fashion prevailing 60 years ago.

While our Army has improved during the Queen’s reign. those of all our con- tinental neighbors have been increased to a much greater degree. Our population has gone up by 15 millions during the Queen’s reign, and the National debt is only one-third per head of what it was about 60 years ago. We have doubled our Army, but our colonial possessions have increased out of all measure with the means we maintain of defending them. We have dotted over the surface of the whole globe, settlements which, though in the great majority of cases un- defended by Imperiai troops, are closely,

Sovereign and brotherhood amongst British people.

BRulljeats

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