mand into all manner of formations. But the art of intrenching a position which is to be defended, or of making approaches to the attack of a place.which is too strong to be carried at a rush, - that forms no part of our regimental system, nor of consequence is it made known in any way to our soldiers. Now, troops unaccustomed to march and to run with loads upon their backs; which can neither bivouac skilfully, nor cook under the disadvantages incident to an out-of-doors life; which have never been taught to throw up field-works, nor even to wash their own linen, and mend their own clothes and shoes,-troops so circumstanced may possess courage, endurance, and the greatest degree of steadiness; but when you bring them to the real business of a campaign they will inevitably fail. They will fight and conquer as our noble fellows did at the Alma and at Inkermann; but, as soon as difficulties arise, they will waste away through sickness and suffering, just as the same noble fellows did in the camp before Sebastopol.

And here let us pause for a moment to contrast this state of things with the instruction which is communicated to the recruits of the French army. No doubt our neighbours have in this respect an advantage over us, that the Conscription gives to them the right, which we cannot claim, of pressing into the ranks the members of all conceivable trades and callings. We have heard of an officer of our own Guards who had his watch mended at Balaklava by a Zouave; and French cooks are borrowed every day when it is proposed in the English camp to get up a dinner. But our neighbours are too prudent to trust wholly to the training which the conscripts bring with them. The youth, on joining, is as carefully taught how to make soup and bake bread as to handle his arms; indeed, several weeks are devoted to the most useful preparation for life in the field. We quote from a highly competent authority the following graphic account of the aspect of the Allied Camps before Sebastopol :

'Du coté des Français, une route empierrée relie leurs camps à la baie de Kamiesch; d'autres routes relient les divers camps entre eux, et des communications faciles ont été établies de bonne heure avec les points de débarquement. Balaclava et Kamiesch voient s'élever sur leurs plages deux villes de baraques et de tentes où sont installés des magasins, des ambulances, des ateliers de toute espèce, une foule de cantiniers, toute une population militaire ou nomade où règne une incessante activité. L'administration française, avec ses compagnies spéciales de soldats de toutes les professions, a construit des fours où se cuit le pain de l'armée; les boulangers pétrissent et enfournent sans relâche; les romaniers (bouchers mili

taires) dépècent la viande pour les distributions; les employés aux vivres emmagasinent dans de grandes baraques les salaisons, le biscuit, le sucre, la café, le riz, tout ce qu'on nomme à l'armée vivres secs; d'autres, chargés du campement et de l'habillement, empilent avec ordre une masse d'effets de toute nature. Les régimens, au moyen de leurs hommes de corvée, reçoivent de l'administration ces vivres et ces effets sur des bons délivrés par l'intendance militaire. Les cantiniers improvisent des cafés, des restaurans mème, des boutiques où ils vendent à un prix excessif des objets de toute espèce et des denrées alimentaires qu'achètent ceux qui veulent ajouter quelque friandise d'Europe à la ration militaire.

Outre les ambulances, les fours, les magasins, les cantines, on voit sur la même plage les ateliers de l'artillerie, du génie et de la marine, où travaillent par centaines les forgerons, les charrons, les charpentiers, les armuriers, qui sont tous des militaires. Rien de plus précieux en temps de guerre dans des contrées lointaines et sans ressources que ces compagnies d'ouvriers de toutes les industries que possèdent chez nous l'administration militaire et les deux armes savantes du génie et de l'artillerie. Notre fantassin lui-mème, toujours bon terrassier, devient aisément un ouvrier actif, ingénieux, fertile en inventions pour assurer son bien-être, installer le mieux possible son bivouac et sa cuisine; et s'il restait longtemps sur le même lieu, il y aurait bientôt créé un jardin potager, comme nos soldats l'ont fait sur plusieurs campemens de l'Algérie, qui sont devenus depuis des villages. Une armée française, on le voit, porte en elle tous les arts et métiers; partout elle peut se suffire à ellemème, elle est toute une civilisation. Ce système administratif, militaire et industriel, ces compagnies d'ouvriers, toute cette organisation, en un mot, manque à l'armée anglaise, et ses soldats, si intrépides au combat, n'ont pas la même aptitude que les nôtres pour les différens travaux de la guerre, surtout pour ceux d'un siège. Mais l'Angleterre le sait; elle a eu la révélation de ce qui lui manque en fait d'organisation militaire; éclairée désormais à ses dépens, elle va y remédier avec l'énergie d'une grande nation qui ne veut en rien rester en arrière des autres, surtout quand sa puissance et son honneur se trouvent engagés, de concert avec la France, dans une guerre des plus sérieuses."

All these matters deserve consideration; and if Lord Hardinge, instead of vainly striving to convert raw country lads into trained soldiers in forty days, would give such orders as should ensure their being attended to, he would confer a greater benefit upon the service at large than has accrued from the establishment of his school of musketry at Hythe. For, after all, a regiment is very incomplete indeed which has not a sufficient school of musketry within itself, and one of the reforms most urgently required, is a large addition to the means afforded for ball practice. Still more, however, remains to be done. Heretofore we have sought for our recruits only in the hum

blest ranks of society. And, so long as the pressure was moderate, we found as many as the occasion required; but how stands the case now? From Ireland, our great nursery in former wars, we obtain but few recruits. England supplies some, but not one-fourth of the numbers we require. Scotland much fewer than of old from the hardy northern counties and the western isles. Nor is this surprising. The tide of emigration has swept away to Australia and America all of the working classes which used to give us our redundant population; and the price of labour is too high for a bounty of 81, and pay at the rate of one shilling a day, to lure the residue from their homes. It appears, therefore, to us that the time has come for introducing a radical change into the condition of the soldier, and of thereby tempting into the ranks that large and intelligent body of young men, who, unaccustomed to manual labour, can find no employment at home, yet shrink from the thought of emigration, because they feel that they lack the sort of talent which is necessary to secure success in a new country. We speak now of the thousands, sons of poor gentlemen, of professional men, of yeomen, and of tradesmen, who, having received as good an education as half the officers of the army, find no opening for their exertions in countinghouses, in the public offices, or in shops. Make the army in its humblest grade such a profession as these might embrace in hope, and we undertake to say that before six months are over, the standard of every regiment in the service will be complete. But how is this to be done? Let us endeavour to answer the

question.

If you wish to entice into the ranks a fair proportion of the class of which we are speaking, you must ensure to them, on joining, more liberal treatment than you now award to the private soldier; and hold out to them the sure prospect of advancement in the event of their proving themselves worthy. In plain language, your non-commissioned officers and soldiers, instead of being grudged-as has heretofore been the caseevery boon which has a tendency to elevate them in their own esteem and in the esteem of others, must be shown that their Sovereign and their country hold them in the highest respect; that not their physical comforts alone, but their moral and intellectual improvement, are objects of concern to those set over them; and that a way is open to them of attaining to rank and high command, provided they give proof that they are possessed of the qualifications, intellectual as well as moral, which entitle men to aspire after both. We believe that, in the French service, one-third of all the commissions that fall vacant are bestowed VOL. CI. NO. CCVI.

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upon meritorious men from the ranks; and that you consequently find in the ranks large numbers of gentlemen, as well born and as highly educated as those who win their brevets from the various military schools. Why should we hesitate to follow thus far the example of our gallant allies?

Because the Duke of Wellington has left it upon record that such an arrangement would be alike at variance with our social system, and unsatisfactory to the classes which would seem to be benefited by it! We hold every dictum of the great Duke on military subjects in the utmost respect; but let not the fact be overlooked, that the Duke spoke of a condition of things which has no longer any existence. The Duke was opposed to promoting from the ranks of an army which consisted, according to another of his aphorisms, of the very scum of the 'earth;' which was kept to its duty by a discipline harsh even to cruelty; wherein comrades slept two in a bed; which could with difficulty supply a sufficient number of accountants to furnish pay-sergeants of companies; where more than one half of the non-commissioned officers could not put two letters together; which lived like pigs in and out of barracks, and considered drunkenness as the most exquisite of human enjoyments. The army, even as we have it, has passed far beyond this degraded state; and no man will, we presume, assert that, on becoming comparatively refined, it has ceased to be obedient and brave. It is true that as yet very little has really been done to make the soldier, in time of peace, happy in his quarters. The libraries which owe their existence to Earl Grey, though excellent, are so disposed that only men who overlook the risk of taking books to their barrack-rooms can turn them to account. There are either no reading-rooms at all in our barracks, or they are of such scanty dimensions that they are practically useless; while the men's sleeping-rooms are kept in such a state of cold and gloom, that few care to abide in them, especially during winter, except when in bed.

And here we cannot resist placing on record a case which may serve to illustrate two points in a system happily passing away. While the Board of Ordnance flourished in the supremacy of its power, controlling the issue of fuel and lights to men and officers, it happened that the barracks near Newport in the Isle of Wight, were visited by one who has long taken a deep interest in the well-being of the soldier. He found that extensive pile, the quarters of a depôt battalion of 1,800 or 2,000 youths just enlisted, and preparing to join their regiments in the Crimea,-dimly obscured indoors and out with oil-lamps and tallow rushlights. It was impossible for more

than two or three men, at the most, out of every eighteen, to see their way into bed and out of it; while the flicker of the oillamps, scattered at long intervals through the square, cast all the exterior into gloom. And the coals issued to the poor fellows seemed to be the merest rubbish. Our inquirer, mourning over all this, passed out of the barrack gate, and turning to his left, was carried by forty paces into a juvenile prison, which abuts upon the barrack, being separated from it only by a fence. Here everything contrasted in a most remarkable manner with the accommodation supplied to the soldiers. Rooms were heated by warm air; the coals were excellent; gas blazed and glittered everywhere, and the cookery was admirable. It appeared that the gas which shed such a happy lustre throughout was manufactured on the spot, and that there needed but the laying on of a pipe from the prison gasometer to the barracks, in order to insure to the latter, one, at least, of the many comforts enjoyed by the former. Finally, a conversation with the prison authorities settled the fact that they were not only willing, but anxious, to lay this pipe, the cost of which would be very trifling, and the inconvenience absolutely nothing. The case was represented to the Secretary-at-War, and Mr. Sidney Herbert, with his usual benevolence, took the project up. The Ordnance was requested to forward the arrangement, and the chief engineer on the spot received instructions to make. a report. It is not worth while to inquire too minutely into the grounds of difficulty which were conjured up; but the result proved fatal to the project of lighting the barracks with gas. It was pronounced impossible to conduct from a Government gasometer into a Government barrack a main, such as would suffice to light up the latter in its exterior, and enable the men to read with comfort in their rooms during the winter nights. The consequence is, that the men continue to seek in the neighbouring public-houses the light and warmth which is denied to them in their own quarters.

We are willing to believe that in time to come no such act of suicidal folly will be possible. The powers of the Board of Ordnance to obstruct and annoy are, we trust, in process of abolition; and when they cease entirely the soldier will have some chance of finding himself the inmate of a comfortable home, with light and heat at all seasons within his reach. Probably, too, canteens will be got rid of, and in their stead commodious reading and other day-rooms be afforded, where, over his coffee in the winter's evening, the thoughtful soldier may read his book or his newspaper. And then we may expect that, encouraged by the hope of rising in the service, young men, well-connected and