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

well-educated, the sons of yeomen and poor gentry, of tradesmen and the less successful members of professions, will flock to our standard. Their influence, moreover, will soon make itself felt in raising the general tone of morals and manners in the service; and even if it be found necessary, for their sakes, to increase the pay of all ranks, what wise politician will object to the arrangement? One more concession to public opinion must likewise be made. Corporal punishment must cease in our service; even if for military offences the power to put to death be conceded to courts-martial at home as well as abroad. But in truth we contemplate from such changes as these so marked a moral revolution in the army, that few crimes which now call for corporal punishment will be committed. For it will no longer be out of character for officers to hold with their men just so much of social intercourse as shall bring the force of example to bear. And as soon as you succeed in establishing the point of honour in a corps, the necessity for harsh measures in the maintenance of discipline will cease.

Again, as the boon of sharing, to the extent of one-third or one-fourth, in the commissions which the casualties of service render available, will practically reach but a small fraction of the soldiers who may be expected to qualify themselves for promotion, it will be necessary to devise some other means of rewarding men who serve faithfully the term for which they enlisted, and are yet indisposed to serve on with a view to earn pensions. And here the Government can be at no loss. If there be one possession more than another which a poor gentleman and yeoman covets, it is land—and with waste, but excellent land our colonies abound. Assure all good men of a hundred acres, in Australia or Canada, at the end of ten years,or if ten years in this season of war appear too protracted, give the promise of a similar gift at the end of five years, and you will have a larger number of candidates for the honour of carry ing a musket than you can entertain. Nor, in the event of an improved system of drill, will such a boon be worthless to the recipient. The soldier who has learned to dig ditches and throw up parapets, who can shape stakes into palisades, make fascines and construct huts, will find little difficulty in grubbing and clearing fresh land, and building himself a log-house out of the trees which he fells; while he and his comrades, located together in villages, will present you with a ready means of defence in case you should be involved in hostilities with a troublesome or ambitious neighbour.

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II. Having thus reformed the regimental' system so far as it affects the men, we come next to consider the working of the

same system as it affects the officers, and to make such suggestions as seem to be practical, with a view to its improvement. By far the most important of these we must, however, withhold for the present. It will be more appropriately dealt with when we come to consider what is and what ought to be the course of education, properly so called, through which every officer should pass. Meanwhile we may observe, that the same process of instruction in the use of intrenching tools, in marching, bivouacking, and even in cooking, which is communicated to the men, ought to be communicated to the officer likewise. Each subaltern, moreover, should be held responsible for the discipline and order of his subdivision, exactly as each captain is held accountable for the general state of his company. And in order to prepare him for the highest office in the corps, the ensign should not be considered as complete in his drill, till he shall have learned all that can be taught him both in the soldiers' barracks and in the orderly-room. We would employ him also as an instructor of his own squad, causing him to superintend the drilling of recruits, and expecting him to make them acquainted in their rooms with the principles of the arts which they practise out of doors. Such we know to be the habit in the Prussian and French armies; and we must confess that we could never see any good reason why duties which are discharged in these services by subalterns, should in ours be either wholly neglected, or left to the discretion of non-commissioned officers.

When duties such as these devolve upon our subalterns, the profession of arms will soon cease to be embraced except by young gentlemen who look to it as a means of raising themselves to distinction, and doing good to their country. The purchase system, with its many defects and few excellences, will accordingly fall into disuse; and it is not improbable that for a while, at least, the State will find itself compelled to become the great buyer up of commissions. But what then? Amid the enormous drain of such a war as the present, the addition of a few hundred thousand pounds per annum to the public expenditure will scarcely be perceived; and its immediate effect will be to push forward rapidly some of the best, because the most painstaking, officers in the army. The future must be left to provide for itself. We shall at all events strike at the root of one great abuse,- that which gives an officer's services to his country all the time that he is comparatively useless, and tempts him to withdraw from the profession just as the experience of twenty or five-and-twenty years must have taught him something. The real working

men will remain; the residue, never wanting in gallantry, but too often impatient of hardships which bring no glory in their train, will retire. And even if ball-rooms suffer, for which, however, we see no just cause, the army, and the country through the army, will gain by the proceeding.

III. Assuming, however, that all these defects were remedied, it is certain that the British army can never become what it ought to be till Government and its chiefs look beyond the regimental system, which, as we have just shown, is not quite so perfect as Lord Panmure would wish the world to believe. For an army is only a machine; and according as the machine is constructed, so it will work. As Mr. Sidney Herbert stated in the House of Commons, we have of late years had nothing that can properly be called an army. The force of this country consists, in times of peace, of an aggregate of infantry battalions, of skeleton regiments of cavalry, of a regiment of artillery, and a battalion of sappers. We have no generals trained and accustomed to command; indeed the rules of our service seem framed to prevent this. As soon as a colonel becomes a majorgeneral, he is put upon the half-pay list, and so continues to the end of his days, unless he be called upon to become the inspector for a season of a district, or the commandant of a garrison. We have no general staff or staff corps, to the organisation of which all continental powers have paid special attention; no field medical department; no ambulance corps; no baggage train; no corps of drivers; no corps of artisans; no pontoon and bridge train; no practice, nor any means of acquiring it, in the combined use of the three arms; no general officer qualified to handle more than one of these arms; while our regiments of artillery and of sappers are kept as distinct from the rest of the army, as if they belonged to a different profession. Hence, though often engaged in wars, at the Cape of Good Hope, for example, and in India, we enter upon them at a sort of hap-hazard, with battalions thrown suddenly together, and placed under the guidance of some old general, who being himself past work, usually surrounds himself with young relatives and protégés, wholly incapable, because wholly uninstructed, to be of use to him as a staff. That we conquer in these wars is indeed true. But our victories are owing simply to the indomitable valour of the troops. They are the results of no wise combinations skilfully carried into effect by chiefs who have studied war as a great art, and are able to apply in practice the rules with which the experience of others had furnished them. Indeed, we may go farther. Not only are we without an army at home and in the colonies, but our