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    Jan. 14, 18(30.] The Leader and Saturday...

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    DISGRACEFUL ECONOMl. NO one accustomed t...

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    Musketry Teaching- And Army Reform. It I...

    public , be got on so far , that the British army shall be the healthiest in the world , and from its superior efficiency equal to a much larger number of any other force . Under-the old " system , to which the official mind adhered with the devoted attachment of the limpet for the rock , no soldier was shot without the enemy on the average blazing away his weight in powder and lead ; and if " every bullet had its billet , " the vast majority were predestined to an innocent lodging in the earth . At'fifty ' yard ' s the volley from " Brown Bess " was a tremendous affair—at a hundred it might do more mischief ; but at three or four hundred the heavy weapon , with its ounce of lead , was scarcely more alarming than the tin tube and the schoolboy ' s pea . Popular

    fancy supposed that a " soldier ' s musket carried a mile , a belief well matched by -a cognate delusion on the power of artillery , and the capacity of the long light gun on the sward of Dover Castle to lodge ' its ball on Calais Green . By degrees these idle notions were dissipated , and the unpleasant fact was recognised , that the common 'fire-arm was only a slight improvement upon the longbow , and the official mind was oppressed , with what , to it , were nightmare dreams , of science contemptuously laughing at its folly , and ruthlessly ordering it to move on . It would , be a sad history to tell of the rebuffs , the indifference , and the chicanery experienced for more than twenty years by the hapless class of inventors who besieged the anti-chambers of the Jacks in office ; but at last the latter were got to admit , what Sir Isaac Newton had told them a hundred and fifty years before , that a long

    projectile was better than a round one—and were driven to consider the kind of weapon that would send it forth . The new ideas have been slowly , and sometimes feebly and foolishly carried out ; but they are working a complete change in the character of the British ' army , and must at last alter its whole constitution . The introduction of a scientific weapon required the provision of a skilled artisan to vise it . An army of ignorant men , ruled by terror , and brutalized so as to become the appropriate victims of intemperance and fever , could not become clever judges of distance , and practically well up to angles of elevation , lines of aim , and trajectories of projectiles . Only a small portion of the old school of officers knew . anything of the kind , but it was now found that an accurate but popular mathematics of musketry had to be taught ; somehowto the rough pupils whom the recruiting

    serbut where they can be kept far away from civil life , and lose their character of citizens to gratify mischievous officials who do not want a national army ; and , finally , to be subject to the torture and disgrace of the lash for faults that may be more their officers ' than their own ? . . It is plain that if science goes in at one end of the military system , folly and barbarism must go out at the other ; and hence there is a moral as well as a material value in the new School of Musketry , and those who desire- arniy reform will watch its teaching with the greatest interest . As might be expected from the peculiar constitution of our official mind , the process does not go on as fast as it ought ; and on looking over the tables

    appended to the Report , we arc struck by the number of cases in which delay has been suffered to take place . On colonial stations " not exercised" is a common notification ; and in India , where the greatest exertions should be made , and where the much be-praised Lord Clyde is supposed to enjoy plenary power , very little has been done , " for want of targets , musketry drill articles , and ranges , which have been applied for over and over again without success . " The Inspector-general adds , — Unless the officers controlling the departments for the supply of stores , & c . in India are instructed to give effect to the regulations on this subject , the efficiency of the service as regards musketry training

    must suffer considerably . " We" further learn that for the comfort of officers , who do not like the bother of improvements , no supervision has been arranged in India , and until that is provided the Inspector-general tells us the rifle training is not likely ; to be conducted with success . This little episode gives us a nice notion of army management in India . The officers conducting the store departments are not " instructed" to attend to their duties , and nobody looks after them because they are far away from England ami its Argus-eyed press ,. and because it is a bore to work in a hot climate ; and great folks can always get the thanks of Parliament without reference to- the value of their work .

    , geant ' s ribbons and trickery had collected together with fife and drum . From the moment that the soldier had to learn something that exercised his intelligence the relation between him : and his officers was improved . It was no longer enough that the latter should be of an aristocratic family and a good swearer ; he had to teach , or at least take his share in the responsibility as . to whether his men were taught or not , and from that hour those worthy companions , the cat and the purchase system , were doomed abominations , although likely to linger with nine-life

    pertinacity as long as they could . The commanding officer of an exercise camp told us , no great while ago , that the effect of the musketry teaching was very remarkable in stimulating the men to desire further knowledge ; their wits were awakened , and they wanted to think--a result eminently dreadful to the red-tape mind . As an illustration of the necessity for intellect in soldier craft , we may cite a passage from the Musketry - Report just issued . After telling us that " accurate shooting at any given distance , from 100 to GOO yards , can be acouired by aim drill by all men whose vision is not impaired , "

    the document , goes on to say :. " A good shot , howevor , at a given distance on the practice-ground , will be almost useless , unless he possesses sufficient intelligence to apply this purely mechanical shooting under nil circumstances in the field . This he cannot do if ho does not clearly understand all the rules which regulate the flight of his bullet , together with the curve of the trajectory at the several distances he may fire at , and is a fair judge of . distances . It may b « urged that we cannot command so high an order of intelligence in the ranks of the army ; I am of opinion , however , that if the conditions contained in the prize regulations are fully acted on , nnd the spirit of those regulations clearly Understood by-commanding ofiicors , a far higher standard of intelligence than at present exists will ere long be created . " So says Charles Hay , Inspector-gencrnl of Musketry , and we fully agree with him ; but will the intelligent men he requires for his musketry teaching wit ur > with the , army system P Will it lo » g answer for the

    Horse Guards and War-office to invite skilled artisans to servo in the army for a pay which , after niggling deductions , amounts to about sixpence a day ; to wear clothes mode of devil ' s dust or other rubbish , and of nn inconvenient pattern 5 to wear boots that leave their soles in the mud , and bo dependent on a commissariat which sends the food to the wrong place ; , to bo under officers appointed ! for anything but merit , or who have bought their positions without likewise purchasing the skill they demand ; to be immured at Aldershott , or some such place , whero they onn loam no campaigning , as that sort of work is all clone to their hand ;

    Jan. 14, 18(30.] The Leader And Saturday...

    Jan . 14 , 18 ( 30 . ] The Leader and Saturday Anal y st . 35

    Disgraceful Economl. No One Accustomed T...

    DISGRACEFUL ECONOMl . NO one accustomed to watch the state expenditure of this country , can imagine what a penurious , money-loving , economical nation we really are . We never vote away , through bur representatives , even so siiiall a sum ! as a thousand pounds , without a long and deadly parliamentary struggle ; and we are always on the elart to see that this money is made to go as far as possible , that proper records are kept of its consumption arid application , and that these records are carefully audited to the smallest shilling and the minutest penny , by a well-appointed finance committee of the House . We never listen to the voice of any particular

    " interests" in Parliament ( the military , naval , and aristocratical interests , for example , which number nearly two-thirds of the House ) , and allow them to direct an expenditure which enriches them out of the national purse . We never risk an experiment , especially in our dock-yard department , that is likely to result in a national loss ; and our pension list , from , its cheese-paring closeness , is pointed at with scorn and pity by neig hbouring states . Our national debt of eight hundred millions is an unreal phantom ; our annual budget of seventy millions is a distorted dream . The national coat is out at elbows ; the national boots have been three times soled and heeled ; and our Cabinet Ministers , except for their private property , would often be in want of bread .. ., The liveries at the Treasury , and the salaries

    whioli go with them , would disgrace a third-rate mansion in a faded square ; and nothing can show so strongly our lamentable state of poverty as the < c volunteer movement , " wherein the country is trying to do its own military work , because it . cannot afford to pay fighting-men at the rate of fifteenpence a day . We are' poor , but we nip honest ; and we have enough- —at least , we think so—to pay everybody , if we can only get a little time . Wo have run up several bills that may be brought against us , but our books will show everything , as they have beon remarkably well kept . We may . have decorated the royal yaoht , have whitewashed Carisbrooke Castle , and we mny have adorned a

    musty , linuscd palace with stained windows and gothie pigstyes . We may have proposed and corriedout an inquiry to investigate the ' cause of tooth-decay in the natives of Monte Video ; have begun a Grecian portico to the chief Consulate building at New Grrinndu , which wo have nnvor beon able to complete ; -and we may have sunk a good deal of money in paying duties upon slavos . We may have exhibited an undue prolbronco in the case of the . Receiver-General of the duchy ot Cornwall , in granting him compensation for the loss of duties on the coinage of tin . All these things , we admit , ore unwise , but if we can obtain a common , certificate ( with protection ) they siiau not occur again . Repenting , as wo do , of those follies , there is ono creditor that wo

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 14, 1860, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14011860/page/7/