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    m. 68$ Jmm4 2»,JBSTJj THE BE A ft Eft. 8...

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    OUR CLOSE COMMISSIONED AllMY. [Foe immed...

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    THE CHELSEA NEW BRIDGE. Some years ago t...

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    Cations For Military Employment. Such Ha...

    Generally picked men , have at least got over their grMage ^ efore they join , and they are fer more respected than the officers of the regular battalions . Where should we have been but for the Irregulars ? Even those who have gone astray have only followed the example of others , have displayed far less ferocity , and have usually respected their officers . The mania for centralization ,

    moreover , has not affected this branch of the Bengal army , the Irregular corps having been for the most part isolated , and therefore less dangerous . The Irregular Sepoy still looks to his own commandant for punishment or reward ; the regiment is the commandant's property , and he is its providence . But the regular army has been centralized ' for purposes of discipline . ' It was actually proposed , some time ago , to amalgamate the three

    armies of India ! Under present circumstances we shall have to re-create the army of Bengal . A suggestion , which has been approved of by officers of high rank and experience , is to reduce the number of regular Bengal native infantry regiments to thirty ; not to be broken into petty detachments , but to be distributed over the

    country in brigades , each brigade consisting of three native corps and one European regiment , to allow the ordinary duties of peace to police battalions under the civil authority , and to hold in reserve at healthy and commanding stations a European reserve of eight regiments . The cavalry might be organized on a somewhat similar plan , which would be more effective and more economical

    than the system which has gone to pieces . It has been proposed to abolish the native artillery altogether ; but on many occasions it has done good service , and the majority of Indian authorities are inclined to retain it , only with an increased allotment of European non-commissioned officers- —twenty Englishmen with sixty natives to form a company . A point of perhaps even greater importance is the necessity that all European officers should be borne on one roll , and complete their education in India , under strict discipline , before being appointed to their commands .

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    m . 68 $ Jmm 4 2 » , JBSTJj THE BE A ft Eft . 831 Vfeof

    Our Close Commissioned Allmy. [Foe Immed...

    OUR CLOSE COMMISSIONED AllMY . [ Foe immediate and practical purposes the interest of the [ Report on Purchase in the Army is destroyed by the treatment which the commission receives at the hands of Government . Its advice is to be set aside , on the ground , says Lord Panmttre , that the [ Report was signed by only half the commissioners , Now this is a very inexact statement . There were ten commissioners ; of that number , six have signed ; three , Mr . Edward Elltoe , Sir Henky Bentinck , and General Wtktaud , intend to append their signatures to a separate [ Report , which , we infer , is to be in sense opposed to that of the Keport already presented . Another

    commissioner , Colonel "VVJGTHBBAiiii , was obliged to leave the country on active service in China before lie could take his share in the [ Report ; and he must be considered to be withdrawn from the commission altogether . It is true that Sir Pio Lacy Evans intends also to present a separate memorandum ; but it is not because he disagrees with the Iieporfc , —it is because he accounts the Heport not to go far enough . Thus tho document is signed by two-thirds of the actual commissioners , one of whom would go beyond his colleagues 5 while one-third of the commissioners , we are left to conjecture , dissent from the proposed change .

    Who are the men that have signed ? Amongst them are the most business-filco of the commissioners—the Duke of Somehsist , a man experienced in official business , who is accounted aristocratic nnd jeven harsh , but

    who call tafiea Hard-headed ^ practical stiojects . liatd Ss & WfcBT , a member of tEe aristocracy , but still a practical man ; Mr . Sirorer HEjtBEBor , perhaps the most , conscientious and well-informed authority on military subjects ; and Sir De [ Lacy Evans , whom we need not characterize . The other signatures are General Sir Habrx Jones and Mr . G-eobgu Gabr Gfrra . Certainly the opinions of the dissentient members will not carry one-third of the weight in comparison with these men . Mr . Edwaed

    EtiiicE is much respected amongst his friends ; he has exercised a considerable influence on the formation of Cabinets , and on the conduct of Cabinets to which he has not belonged ; but his paramount object in life is the maintenance of Whig principles and " Whig connexions , and around ? that object all his ideas centre . Sir Heotiy Bentinck and General Wtntabb are respectable gentlemen , but their opinions cannot for a moment be placed in a balance with that of the Duke of Somerset . Mr . Sidney Herbert , General

    Evans , or Lord Staniey . The report certainly did not go very far . It enters into the whole ' difficulties' of the subject—difficulties which might be cut through like a net that catches fowl , by any statesman possessing the vigour and intelligence of man ; it balances the difficulties against the necessities ; and then it may be said to come to two conclusions . [ First , that the system of purchase should be partially abolished at once ; Lieutenant-Colonels , as well as higher officers , being appointed by

    selection for merit and fitness , and not by seniority or purchase . Thus , however the officers of a regiment might attain to their position by buying it , by manoeuvring the gold of one against the poverty of another , or by simply growing up to promotion without any reference to the peculiar fitness for the particular post , the commanding officer would be a man selected by the responsible military chief for his known fidelity and power . This

    would be a great improvement ; but the commissioners foresee that it would not be enough , and while they flinch from cutting through the difficulties of an immediate abolition , they suggest that experience of this partial reform would lead to a further extension of the same alteration . Thus the practical portion of the report consists of two proposals—tho abolition of purchase for the rank of lieutenantcolonel and all above it , and the extension of the reform at a future day .

    There is one very remarkable reason why officers of high rank shrink from the abolition of purchase . It springs from the modern dread of personal responsibility , and it finds in none a more candid expositor than in the Duke of Cambridge . He declares that it is difficult to exercise the duty of selecting men for their fitness ; and by some sort of hodgepodge , the practice of purchase is supposed to leave the appointment of officers to a sorb of self-selection . This flinching from the exercise of power and authority is characteristic of the effeminacy which is creeping oyer the statesmanship of our day , and which has

    completely mastered the Army . Another plea put forward , that the abolition of purchase would entail expense , is a mere appeal to the supposed vulgar fear of the English people of increase in money outlay . Officers , it is said , buy their own commissions , and thus bear on their own shoulders the cost of the 8 , 000 , 000 ? ., which , in the event of abolition , will have to be thrown upon the public . But if tho nation is spared the cost in that form , undoubtedly ic bears the charge in tho form of extravagance , if not worse pecuniary abuses ; and there can be no difficulty in finding 8 , 000 , 000 ? . to effect a very great reform in our army ; especially as it would bo attended

    with a more than proportionate saving . In fact , the people wul be in pocket for the change .

    The Chelsea New Bridge. Some Years Ago T...

    THE CHELSEA NEW BRIDGE . Some years ago the Government determined to create a nark in Battersea , connected with the north side of the river b y a bridge at Chelsea . The park and the bridge are both nearly completed . There are plantations , shrubberies , winding walks , garden-seats , and lodges—an ample breathing-space for the crowded population of the south and south-western districts of the metropolis . There'is a bridge , also , to be opened in two or three months , which seems to have been admirably built , and which was essential in order that some hundreds of thousands of persons might have a chance of access to the formerl

    new park , laid out where y there were marshes and vile nuisances . The cost of the park has been 330 , 000 ? . —of which only 130 , 000 ? - has been granted , while the rest has been borrowed and has to be repaidthat of the bridge nearly 100 , 000 ? . ; but the Government possesses land close in the neighbourhood which , were the bridge free , would speedily rise in value so as to cover the entire expense . Such are the initial facts . But , the park having been made for the benefit of the neighbourhood , half the neighbourhood is to be kept out of it by a toll . The way in which this job has been managed is characteristic of that genius for trickery which so eminently distinguishes the British

    system . Four years ago it was hinted publicly that Chelsea Bridge , the avenue" to Battersea Park , was to be barred by a toll ; when the next vote for the expenses was discussed in the House several strong protests were made j but the Government quibbled about vested interests , and the matter stood over . Upon the question being next raised , the Minister said it would be time to consider it after the works were finished , when arrangements would be made . This was construed as a

    promise ; but , as the time drew near , it became evident that Chelsea , Pimlico , and Westminster were to be defrauded of the bridge and shut out of the park . A remarkable agitation was raised . Thousands of signatures were attached to earnest petitions . Between the 10 th of May and the 14 th of July , in the present year , no less than nine public meetings were held—one being in the open air , and attended by upwards of ten thousand persons . Two or three committees were organized , and the subject has been incessantly before the Commissioner of Public Works .

    So unanimous has been the opinion of the great districts concerned that , upon the occasion of every meeting in the building , hundreds have been unable to obtain admission , while , on one occasion , when two dissentient voices were heard , these were the voices of the Secretary of Vauxhall-bridge , and , of an oratorical youth to fame unknown . Several deputations had interviews with members of Government , and to one Lord Pax-mbbston gave a pledge that he would do all in his power to make Chelsea now bridge free of toll for foot-passengers . Hero was a

    concession on each side . Many of tho residents are wi lling to bear a carriage toll , although a folly and an infliction . A bill was introduced into parliament , and all wen t well until the second reading , which was carried , upon an understanding " that tho measure was to bo referred to a Select Committee . WeJl might Mr . Wat / per Jones , Secretary of tho Pimlico . Committee , rush to Sir Benjamin Ham » office with a suspicion that * all was not right . Well ' might the Vauxhall and Batterseabridge shareholders— -nuisances they aro , in

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 29, 1857, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29081857/page/15/