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    August 12, 1854.] THE LEADER. 765

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    THE SPIRIT OF THE ARMY. "Whatever may be...

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    Results Op The Session. "We Have Had A V...

    Queen * 3 Government . Nob content with that , the Coalition aimed at a greater role , and , because it had got a large majority secured on the understanding that nothing was to be done , insisted , to the astonishment of an apathetic people , on a variety of reforms and a host of measures—tindemanded or postponable . The result was , that ,. the Coalition first split up among themselves , and that the House , following the example , and different sections siding with the understood tendencies of different ministers , beat it indiscriminately . Iiord John Russell has no doubt been the

    disturbing element . Lord John felt that he was equivocally placed in the Cabinet ; and to justify his leading the House of Commons he made arrangements to get beaten once a week ;—vindicating- his shave in forming the Coalition by rendering its tenure of power all but-impossible , Iiord . John considered that it was his duty to give to a colourless Coalition—popular for its paleness—Ids hue . And from the day he took office , he—member of a confederation based upon political compromise- —which meant political suspension —• talked incessant Reform . This sustained , he thought , his own . dignity and importance :

    his colleagues , overruling bis importance , consented to endure it in the mistaken , notion that the clap-traps would bring the whole Cabinet popularity . At best a Conservative Premier , acting in the spirit of a cautious , however liberal , Court , could not assent to large Reforms . Lord ' John ' had , therefore , to give way , taking advantage of Radical Minis terialism . to conciliate the Court ; and it turned out in these instances , as in-all instances of " safe medium measures , " compromises begot no affection , and died the deaths of languid hybrids . The democracy was already apathetic—these stimulants could not ai'ouse it . There was no

    " cry , " —except Lord John ' s , whose baffled vanity rendered him conspicuously silly . Lord Aberdeen justified the Coalition on the ground that all parties were concentreing to one set of opinions . A more philosophical definition of the Parliamentary condition would have been that it was a period in which no one had any opinion , and when , therefore , there'was no reason why Whigs and Tories should not share together in the plunder of a people intent upon watching ; a Avar which it was hoped would lead to " the continental adoption of representative institutionswhich , on no account , would wo give up except from August to February .

    Next session tho Ministry may more clearly comprehend its chances and its functions . But next session ib is possible that it will no longer bo permitted a negative policy . Already a positive policy is being demanded in foreign affairs ; and under tho pressure of taxation a people who could not be roused by Lord John ' s speeches may he suggesting that " popular members" do not gel ; into that profession for the purpose of getting placos for their sons and ne phews .

    "What are tho results of tho session on tho O pposition ? A Conservative Opposition which docs not know what to conserve and ban nothing real to oppose is inevitably feeble ; mid the mass of heavy country gentlemen , who are so excellent and so slightly interesting , have not boon active—and , indeed , havo not been amused . Tho bout of thorn would

    long ago havo gono over to Lord Aberdeen—tho Poem among thorn appear to have done so since tho IU ; fonn Bill wmh withdrawn — -if any guarantee worn given that Lord John JtuBBOll could bo kept down and forbidden thoso unoarncBt snatches at popularity which distinguish hits aquin-el-mindod stntesn " ian » hip . JVlr . DIsraeli , who ixioro and more develops Iuh incapacity for everything hut smart criticism , has made clover speeches , rondering Ministers

    uncomfortable , —by correcting their cant ,- — and producing no historical impression whatever . Lord Derby has sulked at home ; his own Peers having deserted the chivalrous champion who got his chance and was not equal to it . Those two men ewe the Opposition ; and that singular fact is connected with the formation of the Coalition . The English aristocracy is so thoroughly worn out ( intel-. lectually ) that no one aristocratic- party can stand by itself ; and combined , they do not strike the nation with aw © or reverence .

    What would tile House of Commons ; be without Mr . Disraeli and Mr . Gladstonetwo importations-from literature-and commerce ? "Why something like what the House of Lords is . The results of the session on tho Radical party are , we believe , satisfactory . This party , greatly enriched by new blood and young men at the last general election , is beginning at last to realise that the "Whigs , who have to lean upon the Tories , cannot , in . turn , support the Radicals . The" " Whig party is

    destroyed by Lord John Russell—in other wor d s , the "Whig party has produced 310 firstrate man ; and , the " Whigs gone , the Badicals necessarily begin to think of self-respect and self-dependence . Mr . Bright considers the war a misfortune : but it is in such a war that the -Radicals can best make effective application of their large principles of human government . It is in such a war that as guardians of the rights of European nationalities they may present themselves as an organised party and their-reward would be—Power .

    \ ve would wish to see the Radical party , which is full of intellect and purpose , and possesses all the elements of popularity , aiming at government for themselves and by themselves—in . the name of the people , and of that nationality of which the Crown , -wearied , probably , of oligarchies , is pai't . Btit a more timid policy will , for some time , prevail ; and if they must have allies iu . the aristocracy , we would venture to refer them to the energetic section of the Peelites—who stand "between

    Whigs and Tories , scarcely recognised by either , and yet more powerful than both , because , by necessity , seeking to " approach " the middle class . Mr . Gladstone , tho expelled of the Carlton , the author of the Budget of —53 , is the natural leader of a popular party .

    August 12, 1854.] The Leader. 765

    August 12 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 765

    The Spirit Of The Army. "Whatever May Be...

    THE SPIRIT OF THE ARMY . "Whatever may be the issue of the courts martial now sitting at " Windsor , enough and more than enough has been elicited , in spite of a conspiracy of short memories and prevaricating tongues , to deter any father from aspiring to place- his son in her Majesty ' s Porty-sixth Regiment of Foot . If tliat undistinguished and unfortunate corps vero tho only culprit i 11 tho case we should bo disposed to abandon the equitable and truly -paternal

    cln ' i Colonel Garrett , with his congenial and complaisant stair " , and his polished and ingenuous subalterns , to whatever sense of tho honourable , tho becoming , and tho brave , still lurks in tho bosom of an unmilitiury public . No words , wo aro persuaded , can ' inflict ; n dooper stigma ori the performers in that disgraceful parody of justice than their own leagued hesitations and blundering" confessions . Tho' Court , ' as that strange tribunal

    is called by courtesy , may affect to treat , with tho disdain of the barracks , tho voico of public opinion and tho indignation of oivilians . . Hut wo tako lenvo to express our belief that public opinion Avill yet ; prove too strong for swaggering corruption iu or out ; of l ) arrneks . Wo havo nover joined iu tho vulgar abuse of the rinny . . Kunisting tho principle of a standing army , deproouting tho » y » tem ot purchase , which destroys till soldierly emulation , aud reduces tho organised strength ol

    the nation to an appanage of rank or wealth , we have ever dared to feeL , and never h « si . tated to express , a frank and cordial syti ** pathy for the service . We have not waited for the war to feel and to ^ fepress this sympathy . In a time of war w £ hold it t & be more than ever , a sacred duty of puWio > writers to deal tenderly and respectfully with the reputations of gallant men exposed to hardships and to perils from which civil life ift free . It is because we believe arid know- that

    the very life of the array is vitiated and enfeebled , its prestige compromised , and it » fair fame sacrificed by proceedings such a * those which have signalised the IForty-sixtli at Dublin and "Windsor , and scarcely less by the attitude and constitution of the Court which pretends to be trying a prisoner while it is hounding on the persecution of a victim , that we denounce the system and its evil fruits . That system was described with , minute precision in a letter to the Times , by one signing himself " Civilian , " as a system in which

    " Until lately , the half-educated members of our aristocracy and ploutocracy , who * on . leaving our public schools , Iiave felt themselve 3 unequal to meet the educational tests requisite to qualify them for entering at our universities , hare "been in the habit of taking refuge in certain fashionable corps , in which they could dress gorgeously and play at soldiering with very slight chance of erer being called upon to perform any real service , and where they could , agreeably divide their time between horse-racing , betting , fornicating , and prize-fighting .

    " It has long "been the habit of the officers of these corps to consider them merely as pleasant clubs ,, kept up as asylums for the private accommodation of young men * in society / and to resent the appointment of any young man not included , in their opinion , within that pale as an unwarrantable intrusion , to be resented by all means within their power s whether fair or foul . " - To this letter another writer , " an . officer of fourteen years' service , " signing himself "W . B ., " attempts to reply . Civilian ' s sneer , he says , " at the sons of the aristocracy embracing the army because they are unable to stand the test required in one of the learned professions , may in some respects " be true . " . . . " Should Civilian ' s lad of sixteen or

    seventeen years of age slioiu any signs of mental or bodily weakness , lie ought not to be in the army , where such deficiencies will but lead to ruin . One of the learned , professions ivould he his sphere " Observe that while this officer is willing to allow that sons unfit for learned professions : are sent into the army , he suggests with characteristic effrontery , that youths affected with mental or bodily deficiency should be consigned to a " learned profession" aa unfit for that service of which the sallant

    witnesses of the Forty-sixth are conspicuous ornaments , lie does not dispute , much less disprove , the charge that the army is in effect an aristocratic club . On the contrary , lie assures fond fathers that regiments are " pleasant clubs when joined by boys who will not ondeavour to dictate to their seniors , or disturb the regime which has existed for ) r ears . " "Wo nro ' nol ; disposed to cavil at the

    reservation . " We all know that discipline and duo subordination are indispensable- to any well-organised society ; that prigs and pedants arc insufleraljlo . Thoso arc mere common-places , vaguo and stale onougli ; but what wo did not know wsis , that tlio habits and practices of the Forfcy-sufcb ., and wo linro good reason to ( oar of many other regiments iu lier Majesty ' s service , aro tho habits and practices of any

    ordinary society of gentli'iiion . H' tliey are , we can only way commend us to tho society ot coaterinongors ! Tho Forlv-aixth may bo 0110 ot many exceptions , aiul no doubt is , at least—in being found out . Hut tlio morale o ff tho tforby * » i . \ ih io , wo HiiBpcot ! , —we speak of the youngan otHoer * —tho morale of two-thirds of tha

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 12, 1854, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12081854/page/11/