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    command November 18, 1854.] THE LEADER. ...

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    CAPTAIN NOLAN. Why is it Captain Nolan s...

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    Development Of The Army. Unless The War ...

    We may command auxiliaries , almost as many as we wish : vre could upon easy terms secure the services of Hungarians , of Prussians , of Poles , perhaps of Fins . We believe that even some of the Russian provinces , and the Russian classes that appear most faithful , could be purchased ; the empire itself would cut up into nice states ; the Dukes of Lithuania might be revived ; " principalities" might be carved out of Southern Russia as well as out of Turkey ; a handsome kingdom might own St . Petersburg for its capital , and the war upon Russia might be made self-supporting .

    But none of these operations could be effected unless England herself had such a power that she could of her own will turn the scale and dictate terms to minor potentates . In any case , therefore , we need a considerable increase to our military machinery . The arithmetical problem for our Government and statesmen should be to find that assistance ¦ which would be largest in amount and most efficacious , in order

    to economise our own exertions , and to provide the increase of our own force in such a way as least to disturb our domestic arrangements or to derange the political balance winch is boasted for our constitution . And here again is an interesting and important consideration for those who are prepared to take a leading part in influencing Government . We east aside , as altogether out of date and out of use , any kind of Peace doctrines . The members of the

    Peace party have run , like mice at dawn , into their holes and corners ; and it is none but the boldest mouse , such as John Bright , that will venture to slap its tail on the ground in the face of the war Grimalkin . But , depend upon it , the cost to the country in men and money will be less or greater in proportion as the statesmen entrusted with power grapple with the idea of war in its full dimensions , or

    endeavour to evade their duty . If they suppose ahat they can " arrange this little matter , " that they can hush it up and settle it without any material disturbance of existing interests in Europe , then we should have an attempt at an evasive war , and this country -will be called upon to expend a larger amount in men and money because we must forego much of the assistance that we could otherwise obtain on the

    self-supporting principle . War , like colonisation , should be thoroughly self-supporting ; and particularly in this instance , since there is the amplest opportunity . If states are not with us , they are against us ; if they are against us , their blood must be on their own head . It is no time to stand trifling with " neutrals , " Every state that does not join us as an ally , ought to be declared fair game for those who are willing to enter with us into the hunt against Russia , and ought to

    be the premium , that we pay for our auxiliaries . If , for example , King Frederick William cannot make up his mind to lend his army to the Western alliance , then , we say , King Frederick William ' s crown and kingdom should be offered as the reward by England to any party in Prussia that will procure for us that army and assistance . Austria professes to be with us j let her be so in fact , or if not , there are certain kingdoms of Bohemia , Lombardy , and Hungary , which would furnish pretty pickings for an auxiliary that would volunteer to our

    side . Saxony vacillates , and it is a kingdom worth bestowing 1 upon » faithful general . The Schleswig-Holsteiners and the Danes liave ducal and regal questions to settle , and they would help those that help them . There be Swedes that would go with England , and why should not England return to a Swedish prince the crown hold by the French dynasty , if that dynasty proved untrue to England and France ? Naples clearly is the appanage for a victorious qaptain . If England bo true to her opportunity , there are abundant resources for paying

    Still , to do all this , at the best we must have a larger army . Now we are jealous of large armies . They are the means for oppressing a people . They enable the Executive to be independent of the representative power . The check upon that abuse is to let the army represent the nation , " We must not be misunderstood as endeavouring to uphold the dogma that there is nothing in " blood , " that the aristocracy is an artificial creation , or that inheritance is no additional guarantee for high qualities in particular families . We know better . The history of the humblest classes would refute us ; the good name of a father

    the auxiliary army without taxing the English people . It is by endeavouring to evade that opportunity that our Government would forego the assistance which , it might have for the seeking , and will be compelled to turn round and increase our taxes . By the same policy which would make our Government spare our taxes , and pay for the continental war with continental means , we might be extending- the outposts of Liberalism and strengthening the interest as well as sparing the means of the Englishman .

    is an additional stronghold upon the probity of ao . honest son . Distinction in cabinet or field through many generations is an incentive to every new generation that succeeds . But the worth of an aristocracy consists in its living actions . If it maintains its position by artificial privileges it will soon decay . It is healthiest when it is constantly recruited from other classes ; when it becomes , not the monopolist , but the model foT the country to which it belongs . Our peerage , as well as our army , affords frequent examples of men whose families have risen from humble position to the highest in the State . But our present military system , restricts the bulk of commissions to a class

    which is not aristocratic but moneyed ; and by doing so fixes a . derogatory taboo upon the non-commissioned and private ranks . Hence , as we have already said , a twofold effect : poor gentlemen are excluded from the only path by which they might reach commission—through the ranks ; and a lower tone of morals is given to the army than prevails in the nation at larg-e . But the restriction affects the recruiting even numerically . The Times asserts that the recruiting just now is good—rapid and copious : —we doubt it . We should like to see a detailed statement of the districts that make up the boasted ' thousand a week . " Who but a

    man that has nothing to lose , and has no prospects , would venture into the ranks ? With few exceptions none but rif-raff could do so . We are forced to educate our army like pauper children , because educated men will not enter it . Cast away the exclusive privilege , and numbers of the youth from all classes of the country would rush to the ranks as the

    legitimate path by -which they could attain , at all events , a chance of distinction . By its reaction the military element would be diffused in the body of the population ; and we should have a direct connexion of the army with the farm , the factory , and the shop . It is riot by raising the bounty , but by removing this disgraceful class restriction , that the restraint upon recruiting is to be removed .

    One species of fusion between the bulk of the population and the military class seems likely to be cornpulsorily pressed upon Government . Our trained force has boon kept upon so small a footing that ib will be necessary almost to exhaust the garrisons of the United Kingdom and to reduce those of other parts of the empire , as in India , whero they can be loss aafoly spared than in Canada . The militia is already called upon to a considerable extent for " embodiment , " and has been recommended for foreign service—very injudiciously . We know of no service beyond the four seaa to

    which , on military grounds , militiamen could be safely put , except service in India ; and there , perhaps , with proper precautions and bounties to compensate trying climate , some of them might be used profitably . But there is another kind of corps for home service more effectual than any militia , which has not yet been really commenced at all —Volunteer

    Corps . It appears to us that Government is exhausting the garrisons of the United Kingdom , and is not providing to restore the defensive force of the country : a militia is never equal either to a trained force or to a volunteer force ; it lacks the experience of the one , the patriotism of the other : w « must have a volunteer corps .

    Command November 18, 1854.] The Leader. ...

    November 18 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 1093

    Captain Nolan. Why Is It Captain Nolan S...

    CAPTAIN NOLAN . Why is it Captain Nolan should be suspected of having caused the destruction of the British cavalry , when he himself was one of the first victims , and when everybody must have known , from , the circumstance , that the charge at the moment could only result in loss ? The story about the order is confused and Inconclusive ; yet the conclusion against Captain Nolan is received as if it were self-evident . Why is this ?

    Because he has been a reformer ) and a successful reformer . He published , about a year back , a small octavo book upon English cavalry , its system of drill , mounting , & c . ; also a smaller book on the selection and training of cavalry remounts . The work is dashingly written , is full of earnestness , and at the same time practical ; and it has been successful . The old " balanceseat "—which was necessary while a man-at ^ arms wore a heavy case of metal that made it difficult for him to rise from the saddle after he

    had once sunk in it , but which Avas continued long subsequently to the date ¦ when the metal case was given up , —has at last been abandoned . The stiffness of the old manege has also been relaxed , and the aim is less to drill the cavalry soldier into pedantic feats of the riding-school than to make him as good a rider as possible in as brief a time as possible . Some of the attacks that Captain N ^ olan made on the cumbersome parts of dress have also been successful . In the course of this book he

    argues much for the efficacy of cavalry as an arm , and contends that its use has been too much neglected in modern warfare ; and amongst other things he was one of those to combat most stoutly that practice of drill which accustoms men as well as horses to turn aside in threes as the natural finish for a charge . It is now said that this enthusiastic reformer , this Quixotic believer in cavalry omnipotence , was mortified that more had not been douo

    with his favourite arm in the Crimea , and that he was prepared to snatch the opportunity offered by an imperfect order for the purpose of making hay while the suu shone . And dreadful hay was made indeed ! The men wore mowed down like grass . It was said in some of the late Italian disturbances that a body of cavalry had charged a fortress , whether successfully or not wo do not Temember j and the attempt could hardly have > been madder tlian that to charge the Russians as they stood when the light cavalry advanced . But the

    very reason which makes us think it probable that Captain Nolan may havo thus stretched his orders , should induce us to aak , before we pronounce tho verdict of a coroner ' s inquest sitting at a distance , whether the probability itself does nor , suggest the story ? Whether tho interpretation of Captain Nolan ' s meaning may not hnvo suggested itself even to Lord Lucan at tho moment of commanding tho advance ? There was a mad advance—Nolan ¦ s ms tho messenger ; of course , presume tho vulgar , Nolan was the instigator and cause—

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 18, 1854, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18111854/page/13/