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Leader (1850-1860), 26th September 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13

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      The Non-Ltecruiting Sergeant. " The War ...

      lawyer ' s Clerk , ' and from those who maybe taken as representing the various classes of society , asking for such arrangements as will enable them to take service . The Horse Guards has received so large a heap of letters from young gentlemen proposing to raise a company of a hundred men as the price of a commission in the army , that a limit has necessarily been put to the number who have been authorized to proceed , because it was felt that the young gentlemen might be interfering wifcl ) the regular recruiting sergeant .

      Tet even before this experiment lias been worked out- —and in no instance has it yet been worked out successfully—another is to be tried . Gentlemen who " have already attained to the rank o £ Field Officers in . the army , that is Major at the least , are told that if they can raise a thousand men they shall receive a Lieutenant-Colonel ' s commission , with power to appoint the ten Ensigns in the corps—a valuable piece of patronage . Tet , notwithstanding all these suggestions , there is reason to doubt whether any of the official efforts to obtain recruits are

      successful . The Globe ,, indeed , declares emphatically that the progress of recruiting has hitherto been , ' satisfactory ; ' but it makes the statement with some remarkable drawbacks . The Artillery is obtaining men at the rate of seven hundred a month . The numbers who are offering as recruits for the JJine , whether in Cavalry or Infantry , are also said to be considerable , but by no means adequate to the demaud ; and new schemes are announced , as originating with the Horse Guards , or at all events dictated by that department , for expediting the process of recruitment .

      ILet us pause for a moment to compare these two pictures sketched for us by the Times and the Globe . The Times points to the atrocious enemy who is threatening our empire in India , who has inflicted the most hideous wrong upon our own , blood , who is a gigantic type of that ' blackguard ' whom every manly Englishman is perfectly ready to chastise on the spot . The same popular journal also brings before us the representatives of very numerous classes who are anxious

      to enter the army , either under an impulse of patriotism , or under the love of adventure , or under an intelligent desire for self-advancement . The persons who are anxious to raise volunteer corps for India , to work their way into , commission , or to get up some kind of irregular , force in which they may join , are alL of them above that grade which would consent to serve in the ranks ; they represent , in ( fact , not ' . the dregs of soeiet } T , ' but society at large ; and they are eager for military

      employment . ! i It would appear that if any popular chieftain could raise his flag at Oli aring-cross , in the Grass-market , in Merrion-sqa ' are , on Penenden Heath , or on the once , disastrous field of Petorloo , around him would throng multitudes of Englishmen only too anxious to risk life and limb in the service of their country for the honour and glory oftho thing . On tho other hand , the Globe piita before us the authorities at the Horse Guards employing , at considerable expense , a large number of practised agents in

      the business of recruiting , and only collecting iaen : ata rate : far too * slow for the demand . Wecan add something also to tho confessions Q frfchei & loh & . Besides itaking' men in . numbers insufficient ibr thowan / t . of / tho . day , we have o ^ ly . too jinuoh reason to suppose that the sergeants . nre accepting : mon decidedly bolow J ^ msudl-. Btandardybtofe . only in height , 'but-in Wiildj » nd-constitution ., i . Here is a cut-ious Bfcatd of ifchimga— . thOi military , authorities , on tboiione-hfthd , anxious , . bo ; . obtain recruits , on tHci « rtUeir-ha »< l riionatiMioua itoiobtoiri military ojtoplOymont , d ^ dt ' ye | j ( n ; o , p ' o \ # cr in the supreme

      Government to put the supply and the demand together ! The Glove announces various measures which are to be carried out henceforward , for the purpose of expediting the recruitment . Amongst others two troops of 10 O each are to be added to twelve regiments of cavalry , making 24 new troops—in place of the 42 recently sent out to India . But we have not a word as to the manner in which these troops are to be recruited . Then newregiments are to be formed ; , amongst them , the 5 th Ro \ al Irish Dragoons ; and here

      perhaps the raw material is ready in the shape of the Irish constabulary . But the Globe remarks that the condition of Belfast is in itself enough to show that defence corps at home should not be too greatly thinned , and if the Irish constabulary is to be sent out to India as the 5 th Royal Irish Dragoons , some other corps will be wanted to moderate ' Ireland ' s opportunity . ' Evidently the Horse Guards has not yet hit upon the best mode of expediting the entrance into the army of those very recruits who are so anxious to enter it . We turn back to the Times for a

      little enlightenment : " The plan of Volunteer Corps has been suggested , and we see no strong reasons , for our part , against such an experiment . " So speaks the Times ; but the Globe speaks coldly of ' a volunteer corps for the middle-class—a kind of high-caste regiment ; ' and describes other suggestions as being in that awful state called ' under consideration . ' The Times , whose function

      it is most especially to reflect public feeling , writes entirely in the sense of rendering the nation itself more military , and of popularizing our military establishments . This evidently is the spirit of the day . We need hardly remind our own readers that it is the spirit in which we have -written since the Leader was first established . Let the nation be its owiii soldier , and the Government of the nation will never want for soldiers . "We

      are quite aware-that narrow-minded , timid politicians have construed our arguments on this subject to indicate the encouragement of turbulence ; but grievously do such persons mistake the actual feeling and spirit of the English people . Is the Englishman an animal of so much ferocity , so little prudence , so little common sense , that the mere fact of having a pistol and a sword in . his hand converts him into an incendiary and a rebel ? Of all people on the face of the earth ' he appears to us the least inclined to use such

      instruments with rashness , the least liable to handle them clumsily or for ivrong purposes . On the contrary , the greater the amount of strength reposed in the whole body of the nation , the greater is the pressure put upon any violent and extreme sections of it , the greater the power which will rally round our Government and its councillors on eveiy emergency . It is no small satisfaction to us when we see in this September such writing in the Times as might have appeared in our columns any time since we first existed .

      But what is it which hinders the available bodies of ' young manhood from becoming military and supplying the soldiers the country wants ? It is that peculiar abuse in our military system which the AVar Department , it seems , is the last to give up—it is the Purchase system . It is that system which any a that only rich men shall be officers . ' "What man would ehterthe Church if he lriiew at the very beginning that none could -be Deans and Bishops Scarcely oven Rectors , unless they wcro the sons of rich men or iioblcmen ?

      WlvowouM enter the lu \ v if nil bur Lord Chfinceliora , Judges , Qutioii ' s Oourifeel , Jiecordera , wnd' -AiiaiHtant Bitrriaterri Were to be nonosbut sons ofrfch'inGn ; oWf influential peraons ^ wtlu * rirote > es of knell ? We ahoiild

      indeed then have none but rich-born lawyers ; and Heaven defend their clients ! None but clergy appointed for their wealth , and then Jieayen take care of our souls ! luckily , all Englishmen , whether born to the first floor the garret , or the cellar , have a turn for fighting and soldiering , and even the feather-bed cannot entirely smother that national spirit .

      Thus the system of Purchase does not , we must confess , so completely unmake ' British soldier in the army as it would unmake the English lawyer , but its effect is thiswe use broad , strong language , and beg the indulgence of men who form brilliant exceptions , and whom really our language does not touch , when we say that its effect is to admit

      into the army none but ' swells' in commission and ' blackguards' iu the ranks ; and that respectable men , hopeless of reaching the commission , utterly repugnant to entering the ranks , are sweepingly excluded from the service of their country by that system which forbids promotion to any but rich men aud

      rich men's proteges . It is , however , a question between the country and the Government . At present the Government is determined not to yield ; and if the country is content to let Lord Panmtjre and his partners in Whitehall and Pall-mall quietly maintain that intention , we must put up with the mortification , of seeing

      our enemies combated alone by Belgravia and St . Giles ' s , England herself being compelled to stand aside .

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      Public Moneys. Political Effects Of The ...

      PUBLIC MONEYS . POLITICAL EFFECTS OF THE REFOHM . If the report of the select committee on public moneys were carried into operation , we should have results which the English people ought to appreciate in the most solid manner . The amount of money expended for public objects would then in most cases

      secure those objects ; the amount wasted by the way would be minimized , the opportunities for corruption would be very materially reduced , the taxes would be diminished , and the control of the Elected body over the Executive would be incalculably strengthened . These are the economical and political advantages .

      Until a very recent period many branches of the public revenue presented no account : it all , the gross receipts of the several departments never coming under a review . Many complications in the system permit the grossest irregularities in the distribution and appropriation of the money . None of these improprieties could exist if the plan of the committee were executed . Every farthing authorized by Parliament would appear in accounts , showing the receipt , transfer , and

      expenditure . The accounts of all the departments would be kept in a uniform manner , and the entire finance of the public could be surveyed as easily as one level field . But the economical advantages would by no means be limited to checks upon misappropriation of cash ; on the contrary , that Id rid of saving would form a vei * y small portion of the economy that would by degrees be introduced . At present , money is expended for various objects without

      securing the desired results , and many valuable objects are precluded from execution , simply by tho force of routine . Lot us take a very small and simple example . Some years since , a Mr . PiirnEAUX suggested n plan by which fuel used in steam-vessels could bo rendered much moro efficacious , with a saving of eight or ten per cent , on thd quantity coriaunied , at a ver ' y small outlay for the ' original' apparatus . Thd invention has been actually tried with' success oh board mbro' 4 > han brio steamer in ' ' the Queen ' s 'fot-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 26, 1857, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26091857/page/13/