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low tclianacfcer . USTow it is impossible that tlie moralist in question can be ignorant that to associate with women of such character is a habit not unknown to officers in the army . ! Let a thousand such officers be assembled on the parade in the Horse Guards—let every man who is witlyput sin step out from the ranks , and see how many vrould remain at their posts . We ask the stern moralist . But that is not the point ; it is impossible that he cannot know as much , of this matter as we do , or as any man of the world must know ; and we ask him further , What can be the moral state of that man ' s mind who can
announce a rule of conduct as if it were an admitted truth , a matter of course , knowing that it is totally the reverse of fact ? The officer in question pretends that the peculiar association is sufficient to disqualify a man for the company of gentlemen , and he must know , as a matter of plainya
like an obtrusive evangelical missionary or a blackguard . Yet this treatment of morals on the part of Captain Campbell does but represent the general method of handling moral subjects . Men pretend that facts are exactly the reverse of what they are , and they pretend that their own rules of conduct conform to the fiction . The imaginative moralist escapes a slurnt of derision or contempt only because society is itself in the habit of acting in the same manner- - —affecting to obey pretended rules based upon imaginary facts .
The great daily journal has hit upon the other anomaly , but has missed the point of the moral . Richard Carden attempts to run away with Miss Eleanor Arbuthnot ; John Atkinson runs away with Miss Annie Ward . Both are convicted , arid both are sentenced to imprisonment—Garden to twenty-four , Ward to nine months ; but the circumstances of the cases wholly differ . It is true that Annie Ward was very young—only twelve
years of age says her mother ' s almanac ; but much older , at least in mind and constitution , says the internal evidence of her letters . For they prove not only a precocity of that " utterancy" which a philosopher lms declared love to be , but a clearness of understanding , a strength of purpose , and a presence of mind which typify maturity , if it be tho maturity of youtli . Annie evidently knew her own mind when she had " at last
got John's heart a little her way . " She evidently knew " what it was o'clock , " for she had set her watch to tho right time . And in abort she arranged the evasion as much as John did . Very dillerent was the other case . So little did Curdou conn I ; upon tho willingness of tho young huly , that he had prepared a carriage and four horses , two horse-pistols , a revolver , Kkull-cnickeTa , cord , suul drugs . I To would have committed murder j ho wrestled with women ; ho attempted
to tear Lho young huly away from her protectors , and ho narrowly escaped conviction upon a capital chargo of tho grossest cruelly that man can commit ; upon woman . Tho two cases , tho Times observe , arc totally disproportiouod in atrocity ; and yet the jiulgvs in r llkit punish in oil I ; » o greatly Huuilar . ' J 3 ul ; tho critic himself appears to lnisn tho truo point of tho moral . I ' ulcii / i not fit
in-/ uria . Tho mil dirtl . iiu . liim in tho two oiuu-a ¦ luy , not in tho pi « tolrt , isk ull-cHickcrx , ropes , and drugs , on tlio one side , and tho absence ot thorn on tho other , but , in I he wimple eiroumatanco that in the one entso iho lmly wnn "' consenting party , and in tho oilier " not 1 ho cord , ropoa , weapons , and < lru « H , arc bul tho gross uud material expression of the Inn wrong winch is iu tho compulsion . Thai compulsion is oftener exerted without any
such grossly evident instruments , yefc it is as foul , as wicked , aad as criminal . If the Law be avoided rather than outraged in the case of a quiet compulsion , if justice be nob openly defied , the wrong is as great , perhaps worse to the sufferer ; because there is not , as there was in the case of Eleanor Ajbuthnot , a rescue . But the first step towards improvement is a knowledge of the evil . Socied ^ , we believe , lias cooisented to tyrannise over itself to long , beeause it has consented to hush up these crimes . The exposures that scandalise quiet
people , that render the papers " unfit for perusal , " are a rescue for the sufferers . It shocks people to read how Mr . Perry is accused of keeping improper company ; how Mr . Greer openly indulges in it ; how officers are more than suspected ; how eertain houses exist at Grove End Hoad , Denbigh Street , or Xewman Street . All this was very tolerable , so long as no Jessie Ross made a noise about her Wages , no Eeginbal attempted to introduce an element of justice into the treatment of outcasts , no Alice I ^ eroy made her escape . So long as such cases could Iteep quiet—^ so loner as officers could le what the are and not
talk about it before a court martial— -so long was society content , and England passed herself off as a moral . country , strict in her conjugal relations , precise in her treatment ; of the innocent and defenceless . There is , however , not one of those establishments that cannot boast , at least , -. of its single " nobleman , " not one which " carriage company " does not frequent . Officers in their quarrels accuse each -other of the company they keep ; and at last Society stands confessed .
liVeu yet , however , so far gone is England , that the public does not understand where is tlic moral : not knowing how much-has been confessed , Captain Campbell affects tq think that gentlemen cannot keep disreputable fowale society ; and the great daily censor imagines that Carden's offence lay in the instruments , and not in the purpose of compulsion .
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THE BLACK-GUARDS . ' ' I sisvjSK . heard of such practices in other regiments , " was the reply of an officer of official rank and experience , iji allusion to the disclosures of tho Forty-sixth . Now we leave heard of such practices in other regiments . The fact is , that the civil world is not more varied than its opposite—the military . There are , » o doubt , regiments in whieh practices like those of the I'orty-sixth , arc totally unknown ; where such conduct would bo at once nut down ; and -where a
report to tiny senior ollieer would , in nearly every instance , meet with tlic attention it deserves . In many regiments , no doubt :, '' drawing" is practised on young men who newly join ; but not in tho manner which has boon encouraged in tho Forty-sixth . It ' tho youngster bears being ; roused out of his bed with good temper , ami is nob a disagreeable man , tho joke is seldom repeated . Such irregularities may be harmless ; but of course their humilessncris depends entirely upon the man nor of their execution ; and it is evident
that they ought at once to bo put down by u commanding ollieer to whoso knowledge they may conn ? . It is no business of tho colonel ' s lo encourage or discourage- tell-tales : there are proper checks for- every speck's of inean-I'e . sH in Moriely of every kind , military ns well us civil ; ullicerts must oi' course have am unlimited ri ^ 'ht of inllicfing nea rly tho wor ^ t mniyhnionl ; that can bo inflieled upon a man ) ouud to remain in a , certain i-uiciely — that of wending him to Coventry . U is tor the companions of a , man to put a . checli upon l » i « disposition of telling tules ; but I ' ov a coinmaiulin 1 '' oHioer , lho knowledge ot' an
irregularity ought to suffice . Those who indulge such licences at the same time make them ? selves responsible for keeping that licence from the knowledge of the colonel . It Is not only tile extension of the practice throughout a given number ixf regiments upon which we insist , "bui also w $ insist that coarse and objectionable practices are pushed to an extremity of which the ruling authorities of th& army have no conception . "We will take the particular instance of a regiment , speaking from
actual knowledge , but not holding ourselves bound to specify the regiment . We give this instance , not as a proof of the extension of the practices , but of the extremity to whieh they are driven . In the regiment it so happened that some of the m&n came from the same parts of the country j others , who were higher „ in rank , had that pipeclay spirit which giv-es a sho ^ v of discipline on parade , while it leaves ¦ responsible * officers able to wink at irregularities in barracks . In this regiment instances have occurred not
only of drawing young officers , but of knocking about the room to such an extent as to render the employment of men necessary to re-arrange it . 3 STow there is no great calamity in having tables and chairs , and heavier furniture displaced ; but when , the furniture is displaced in a riotous and blackguardly intrusion , the fact indicates the extent of the violence .
In this regiment it was systematically the custom , to bully the younger officers ; but something worse than bullying or drawing was resorted to . Officers would conspire with -women , in order to get money out of other officers upon false pretences . On one occasion the officers contrived to dress two women , whose characters may be presumed , in the regimentals of a subaltern , and in that guise the women were taken into the mess-room ! Another officer was forced into
a shower-bath . One object of these rough jokes appears to have "been to compel the younger officers , who were rich , to furnish the means of enjoyment for the lest . To stick to a man for champagne was a common dodge . We have already seen that the joking partook of the character of swindling ; we now find it verging upon extortion . There was , however , a sense of honour in
tins regiment . The corps appears to havehad sonic ambition to be thought hospitable ; at all events tho Colonel was a jolly old fellow , who , although bo could compel a [ strict parade with all tho vigour of popular I imprecations , could givo a capital dinner , i could keep the bottle going , and on guest nights could sing a song more suited to ' military than female oars . Roporti to that | veteran , that a young officer bad beou " drawn , " bullied , or illtreated , and ho would bo indignant at tho " telling tales . " Nay , ' an ollioer who ventured to describe "tho
treatment whieh ho had received as " blackguard treatment , " was nut under arrest , The men of that regiment may bo blackguards ; but to call them so in a military ollenco . Wo now begin to understand how in tho recent uU'iirs . of tho . Forty-sixth 3 lr . Ferry was brought to a court-martial for '"' conduct unbecoming an ollieer and a gentleman , " whilo the conduct ; ol' his persecutors was not thought ; to require judicial investigation on
; those ground * . ' Ni » doubt thin condition of things must , be ti \ ieeJ iu a ijrent d ^ iw t . i > tho rvyatem ot . pmvha . se , which openiirM in many ways to lU ^ mile an ollieer . It induces men to come into the serviee a a a |> : i * tiino , not a prolession , Indolent , heedless of their duty , they look out for new y . e . ils , suiting their ullo win u . They are , by tin ) manner in which I he xytdrin ' p iek « i its oflloOTd ninongttt tho purchasing c . laatf , for tho most part rich , thoy
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August 19 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 779
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 19, 1854, page 779, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2052/page/11/
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