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PALL ■ MALL PMNS: 
 
 BY 
 
 NUGENT TAILLEFER.^..^-^. 
 
 ' Ob oebem Teerakum." 
 
 " 1 wha dare meddle wi' me ? 
 
 And wha dare meddle wi' me ? 
 My name it is little Jock Elliot, 
 
 And wha dare meddle wi' me ? ' 
 
 The right of translation is reserved. 
 
 
 
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 (\ lL>^s- 
 
TO MY SOLDIEE SON, 
 "ON HIS EAETH-BED IN THE PUNJAB," 
 
 IN AFFECTION AND AFFLICTION, 
 
 1 DEDICATE 
 THESE TEIUMPHAL SONGS, 
 
 TELLING TnilP. GLOEY-TALE OF THE 
 
 LOYALTY, FIDELITY, AND DEVOTION TO DUTY, 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BEITISH AEMY. 
 
 Nugent Taillefer. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 JPREFACE "°? 
 
 BRITANNIA 25 
 
 " The War blast blows, Britannia helms." 
 
 WHOM ARE THEY? 27 
 
 " Where blufifs the blast o'er land and flood." 
 
 THE OLD RED RAG 29 
 
 " Who fights the fight for England? " 
 
 THE QUEEN'S OWN 31 
 
 " I laud the name. Woe worth my life." 
 
 THE SOLDIERS FRIEND 35 
 
 " True and loyal, flnn and faithfal." 
 
 BAD TO BEAT -j 
 
 " Well may our enemies rejoice." 
 
 MY COUNTY CORPS 37 
 
 " What men in shining echeUon ? " 
 
 WHAT HAST THOU DONE WITH MY LEGIONS., il 
 
 " ! where are my soldiers ? Can none of ye tell ?" 
 
 A DAY OP AWAKENING ii 
 
 " Tis better forgotten. I -will not forget." 
 
 "JEDDART'S HERE" i'. 
 
 " I am told that Bumbledom fumes and frets." 
 
 THE BRITISH SOLDIER &l 
 
 " WhUst the delicate clerk, convention's hack." 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN ROUSED : r,a 
 
 '"Impatience of taxation,' did you ever find us grudge." 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Since the " Victory " first made the signal " England 
 expects every man to do his duty," it has bean nobly 
 responded to on land as on water. Amid the vices of the 
 age, amid that outward polish of manner and extravagance 
 of living, which but poorly stucco the rottenness of con- 
 vention and the systematised unhappiness of society, it is a 
 pride to feel that the martial spirit of our fathers survives to 
 us, a spirit that made England great i when she was something 
 more than a factory, and had her blood undeteriorated by 
 money-grubbing and Cobdenism.2 
 
 It was' not alone to the ineificiency of the government 
 Bereaucratie, it was not alone to that system which reminds 
 me of the story of the Spanish king, who was roasted to 
 death, because the proper functionary to move his chair a 
 little further from the fire happened to be out of the way, 
 that the early sufferings of our devoted Crimean Legions 
 
 1 Mr. Canniug once said, "You cannot separate tlie greatness or tUo 
 happiness of a country ; and you must maintain yourselves a great 
 nation, or cease to have any political existence whatever." 
 
 ^ The Cobden theory, which sought to hind the nations in peace 
 and fraternity by the allurements of commerce, by the selling and 
 buying, by industrial exhibitions, by a general disarmament, has been 
 but a wild dream after all. Since the peace party tried to Cobdenize 
 the world, the United States has been desolated by civil war. Great 
 Britain and France marched to the conquest of the Crimea; Franco, 
 Italy, and Austria, Prussia and Denmark, have each " fought" out a 
 fight. The Apostle of Peace, who laid it down as a truth, that war 
 was hateful to the peoples, would find his theory discredited by at 
 least two peoples, who are in the van of European civilization. Tbe 
 blessings of our Christian reclamation from barbarism have been 
 strangely exemplified in recent events. 
 
8 VKETXCS. 
 
 could be wholly attributed, but rather to the parsimonious 
 reduction of the military establishment in time of peace.' 
 
 The real criminals were those who sought to dry up the 
 heart of Britain, by doctrines utterly unworthy of manhood, 
 who endeavoured to bafie the energy of the government, 
 and whose usurped pretensions would have induced the 
 belief, that, in the up and down price currents of the 
 Manchester Exchange, depended the existence, the honor, 
 and the crown of a great and heroic people.* 
 
 Whilst our sympathy was excited for the wounded and 
 the dying, whilst our thoughts were wandering to the 
 valley of Aladyn, to the hills overlooking Vavna,^ to the 
 heights of the Alma, to the plains of Balaclava, to the glens of 
 Inkermann, to the crowded hospitals of Scutari, to the reeking 
 plateau before Sevastopol, we ought not to have permitted 
 the real authors of our inefficiences to nestle by our ingles, 
 
 s I believe, Mr. Disraeli in the year 1863, denounced " bloated 
 armaments," and said, " It is a, monstrous mistake for a moment to 
 suppose that this country is not adequately defended, and I say that 
 there is no country in the world, so far as artificial arrangements are 
 concerned, more secure than England." That this feeling sbould 
 have extended to the Liberal Party is not difficult to believe. 
 Reduction iu the estimates has been each year the substantial bait 
 given to tax-paying grumblers ; a reduced army estimate has been 
 found a very taking bit of party bunting, and the most reckless 
 assertions have been made in its support. 
 
 * Sir Charles Trevelyan's evidence before Lord Strathnaim's com- 
 mittee shows the deplorable results of a want of preparation for war 
 in peace. Nothing can be more ruinous to a nation than the 
 preparation for war during war. The amount paid during the 
 Crimean aifeir for the mere hire of transport was enormous. Had 
 we been I'eady with an efficient naval steam transport, our expenses 
 would have been very greatly reduced. 
 
 « James Grant the distinguished author of " The Eomance of War," 
 has truly written, '• By a stupidity or treachery, closely akin to 
 treason, our army, during the hot, Lreathless months of a Bulgaiiau 
 summer, lay rotting and inactive at Varna, as if merely awaiting the 
 approach of winter to open a campaign in Russia." 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 unscorned and uncliarged. Emerging from parliamentary 
 obscurity, with mawworm humility and fabulous experience, 
 they obstructed our energy, and crippled our resources; 
 they endeavoured, by the piinoiples and policy of a dis- 
 reputable league, to make us shrink from sustaining that 
 national legacy of greatness which we have received from 
 our fathers ; and it is still they, were the honour of their 
 country, now left to the discretion of their cabal, who 
 would in the first place degrade her to a retreat like 
 WestphaKa,^ and at the last hour debase her to a degeneracy 
 like Canuoe." 
 
 Never was there higher devotion displayed than by the 
 reeimental officers, non commisioned officers, and privates, 
 before Sevastopol ; but ours was an army previously in- 
 experienced in camps, without any opportunity of acquiring 
 
 ^ The Coi-nwaUis correspondence brings clearly before us the wasted 
 resources and paraJyzed energies of this great nation, when the Duke 
 of York and his notoriously incapable successor, Sii- David Dundas, 
 held the irresponsible rule over the British Army. "What will our 
 childreo's L-hildren write of us, when they read the yet unpublished 
 papers and memoirs of Panmure, bearing on the errors and disasters 
 of the Crimea? 
 
 t It was the third year of the war, at the end of the spring, Hannibal 
 decamped from Gerunium, and marching into Apulia, seized upon 
 the fort of Cannce. At this time the Eoman Army consisted of eight 
 legions, double the usual number of a consular force. The Eomaa 
 infantry numbered 80,000, the horse a little more than 6,000. 
 Bannibal's infanti-y amounted to upwards of 40,000, his cavah'y to 
 10,000. The battle began as usual with the Light Troops. The 
 Gallo-Hispanian cavalry charged the Eoman, and after a short but 
 obstinate struggle, routed them. " The Eoman columns on the right 
 and leit," observes Dr. Arnold, " fiading the Gaulish and Spanish foot 
 advancing in a convex line or wedge, pressed forward to assail what 
 seemed the flanks of the ^nemy s column; so that, being already 
 drawn up with too narrow a front by their original formation, they 
 now became compressed siill more by their own movements, till the 
 whole arm.v became one dense column, which forced its way onwards 
 by the weight of its charge." Like the English column at Fontenoy, 
 the Eoman infantry, assailed en all sides, were cut to pieces. 3,000 
 only escaped. 
 
10 PHEFA.CE. 
 
 camp life, and sent to win battles and repair, by their 
 chivalry, that which the indifference of the country had 
 created. 
 
 No division is rendered ripe for the field in less than half- 
 a-dozen months, and it takes years of war to create a 10th 
 Legion of Caesar or the old guard of the 1st Napoleon. 
 
 What is the use of a brigade which has some of its members 
 too old and others too young for service ? 
 
 Our regiments are inferior to none in martial qualities, 
 but is it not injudicious to send our soldiers in small numbers 
 against desperate odds.s Levity and boasting are not 
 unfrequently made use of by their fellow subjects, in 
 computing their valour against the numerical superiority of 
 other countries.' Three men, it is true, kept back the aimy 
 of Lars Porsonia, from advancing to the bridge that crossed 
 the Tiber, while it was being cut down. Our weak corps 
 
 s We have been told that we have " two corps d'armee available for 
 foreign service, each 35,000 strong, and each furnished, in round 
 number's, with 100 field guns, ready, or all but ready for work.' We 
 are told to believe in a ijhantom. Theo again, " Light carts for the 
 second ammunition reserve, on the system employed by the Prussian 
 light Infantry, should lie used in preference to the heavier cart or 
 waggon adopted for the general body of the Prussian Infantry. The 
 carts are not actually ready, but they wUl be made in a few days." 
 Yet the growlers are not satisiied. Unfortunately I know a few 
 facta that neutralize my eatisfactiou. I should be very glad to have 
 more faith. 
 
 9 "In 1868 there were in this country, including the Guards, 19 
 regiments of cavaliy, there are now 23. In 1868 there were -53 
 bataUions of infantry, there are now 75. In 1868 there were 97 
 batteries of artillery, there are now 105. In 1868, there were 25 
 companies of engineers, there are now 80." Where? Are they all 
 at home ?■ " With the single exception of the year 1856, when the 
 forces for the Crimea were still unbroken and not reduced, we have 
 a larger force available for service at home and abroad, than since the 
 reduction after Waterloo. In 1830 the number was tii.OOO. In 1830 
 it was 50,856. In 18i0 it was 53,379. In 1850 it was 68,538. In 
 1860 it was 100,701. In 1870 it was llOfiHV— Extracted from Mr. 
 CardweU's speech in the House, on Monday, August Ist, 1870. 
 
5BEPACE. 11 
 
 would hold the narrow way also, but why be driven to stress 
 by the retrenchment mongers ? 
 
 The more we see of the British soldier, from the private 
 to the Regimental Lieut.-CoL, the more we admire him. In no 
 two classes of Her Majesty's subjects, taking into consideration 
 the respectful deference to distinctions of rank, rendered 
 necessary by honorable discipline, is more noble feeling, ^o 
 eamaraderie,^i- and, I may say, affection,- evinced, than there 
 is between the grades of the British Army.i^ 
 
 It is not even alone on the battle field that our corps have 
 won a noble name. The records of camp and barrack have 
 also their trophies. When pestilence has swept their lines, 
 and cholera thinned their ranks, the tale that tells of their 
 sufferings is the proudest page of grandeur and power — 
 officer, non-commissioned oflccr, and rank and file, equally 
 faithful to their comrades and true to their country. Her 
 Majesty has often kindly appreciated the services of her 
 army. The gold letters on the silk of the colours speaks of 
 a battle won ; but the victory of devotion in the hospital is 
 a testimony to the heart, if not to the eye, of the greatness 
 of the Biitish soldier. 
 
 1° It was pleasant to find Lord Clyde not unmindful of an old 
 companion in arms. In a codicil to his will, dated the 23rd of May, 
 186;?, he said, "I give and bequeath to Lieut. G eneral Vinoy, com- 
 manding a division in the French Army, and my old and beloved 
 comrade in the Crimea, the sum of ioOO, as a token of my especial 
 esteem and regard." 
 
 i> The late Lieut.-Col. Pemberton, before lea^'ing England wished 
 to present a testimonial clock, designed by himself, to the Guards' 
 mess at St. James's Palace. That design, as completed, is modelled 
 in representation of the frontage of St. James's Palace, and the 
 inscription tells that it is " From Christopher Pemberton, to the dear 
 old re.^iment, in memory of the many ' cheery Guards ' they have had 
 together. 1870." 
 
 12 During General Scarlett's five years of direction in Aldershot, he 
 ever evinced the warmest interest in the physical and moral weU 
 being of those committed to his charge. His noble consideration for 
 the British soldier has won for him the esteem of the nation. 
 
12 PKErACB. 
 
 Europe need never disquiet over the increased combatant 
 power of this country. 
 
 The British Army has too many glorious memories, going 
 back unto the twilight of years, to seek for more in schemes 
 of conquest, That army has done so much for history, that 
 it need not ask for more military glory. But what it does 
 expect, and what it has a right to know, is, that it will 
 never be again sent, in the name of a supreme parsimoni/,'^^ to 
 fight, one to four, with an enemy equally stalwart, and 
 equally able, if not of an equal solidity and stubborn courage. 
 Efficiency and sufficiency in her military preparations, must 
 be the future ultima ratio in the statecraft of Great Britain. i'' 
 Neither to please the speculators of Capel Court, or the money- 
 
 1' H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge has -wisely said, " We can no 
 longer consider ourselves safe if ive content ourselves with a moderate 
 sized army to be raised wben war breaks out to sufficient pi'oportions 
 to meet the emergency. The facility -which modern invention has 
 given to the movement of troops, the alteration in the whole system 
 of warfare itself, must impress upon us all that this country is no 
 longer in a proper state when not able to raise the regular army to a 
 considerable strength. It is in vain to trust the Militia or the 
 Volunteer. They may both be highly valuable in their way. But 
 even the staunchest advocates of either the Mihtia or the Volunteers 
 admit that it would requu-e six months to put them in a state of war 
 efficiency. But six weeks may not he given to us." 
 
 " The Tinwa says: "Four guns to >■■ thousand men -ivould give 
 only a fim- proportion of artillery in a modern army, whereas at 
 present -wo could uerlainly not send 200 guns into the field. But the 
 Reserve forces — the 'magnificent' Militia, Yeomanry, and YoUmteers, 
 would also require their artillery, and the best authorities concur in 
 Ihinking that this artillery sliould be pro\'ided from the regiilar 
 braiich of the service. If we add 000 guns for this requirement we 
 shall be forming no exaggerated estimnlc, and as every field gun needs 
 40 gunners of all ranks, we shall see that the reconstruction of the 
 artillery alone would involve change enough to satisfy the most eager 
 of reformers. It is, possible, moreover, that the artillery of an army 
 may hereafter c:imprehend specimens of mitrailleuse or other engines 
 of war." The eight batteries of a brigade on a war-footing require 
 2,080 horses, viz., 260 each. The purchaser of artillery horses will 
 have no easy task of it on an emergency, for at present I believe 80 
 horses a battery is about our quota." 
 
pbdpaCe. 13 
 
 grubbers of Lombard Street, is she to be left again to a 
 reliance on chance, instead of a dependence on power.^' 
 
 No state, in despite of its love for peace, can say that it 
 "will not be brought into the whirlpool of war. 
 
 A vast national army, with every British man capable of 
 bearing arms for a comrade, is with us an utopia. Great 
 Britain can only be defended by a professional army, by 
 solid battalions, ready to hurl across Europe at the first 
 warning, at the first cry for help.i^ England must he de- 
 fended on the Continent, and she can only be adequately 
 defended there by the professional soldier,!'' by those noble 
 regiments who have a long pedigree of victories to sustain, 
 and who, never sinking their distinction of uniform, and 
 their clanship, have something to boast of. The love of 
 corps is, in the noble regimental system of the British Army, 
 quite equal to that religious enthusiasm which Mahomet 
 availed himself of when he promised Paradise to all who 
 died in its cause. 
 
 15 Do we not remember the serious gloom cast over this country 
 when the news arrived that the Light Cavalry Brigade had been cut 
 to pieces at Balaclava. Only 279 officers and troopers were Isilled and 
 wounded in that charge, but the total strength of five regiments was 
 little over BOO. This was the effect of small establishments. At the 
 commencement of the Crimean War we had 19 cavalry regiments of 
 3 squadrons each, averaging 270 horses, and 323 men, and the result 
 was that after the above charge Great Britain was without a Light 
 Cavalry. Yet, we have been placing our cavalry again in the same 
 precarious condition, although some of the ablest men in the service 
 have protested against it. 
 
 18 A staff officer wisely writes : " The natural phase of an army 
 (so to speak) is war, and we should, therefove, model our army as far 
 as possible on the arrangements iucidental to the service." Again he 
 continues, " we try to make homo service and peace ai-rangements 
 the model for army administration." The French military proverb 
 should receive a little more application, a la guerre comme a la guerre. 
 
 '7 Lord Bacon wrote, "A veteran army indeed, kept constantly 
 ready for marching is expensive, yet it gives a state the disposal of 
 things among its neighbours, or at least ijrocures it a reputation in 
 other respects. It was a just answer of Solon to CroBsus, who showed 
 him all his treasure ; '' Yes, sir, but if another should come with 
 better iron than you, he would be master of aU this gold." 
 
14 PKDTAOE. 
 
 War is a great demoraliser, and it would be obviously 
 iinwise in us to follow any system which, on the proclamation 
 of peace, divests the soldier of his uniform, and rotums him 
 a citizen into society, uncontrolled by the discipline which 
 overcame his evil propensities. Our plan, and that of France, 
 which retains, on the decadence of war, in a standing anny, 
 the soldiers in their regiments, is the cheapest and best for 
 the country. There is peril and debility in any other system. 
 There is order and strength in the old English system. I 
 write old, for is not our army, in a time of danger, condemned 
 to a dangerous innovation and a mocking delusion ? To get 
 rid of the professional soldier, and to substitute "the young 
 man who is reluctant to spend all his life away from his 
 own village;" to give up a professional army for a come- 
 and go-away playing at soldiers one, is about the most serious 
 and fatal will-o'-the-wisp following that ever emanated from 
 a military administrator, at a time when the " black spots" 
 are spreading into cloud over the unknown future. 
 
 The cost of a professional army is but the insurance money 
 we have to pay for our safety, is and it is an assurance that 
 must be paid, if we are to look to our security as a nation, 
 
 13 That which swells the army estimates are the auxiliary forces, 
 the MUitia, the Yeomanry, and then the manufacturing departments, 
 the chemical and photographic departments, the lahoratory, and the 
 medical establishment. Then there is the store department, the new 
 works, huildings and repairs for barracks, and the mOitary education 
 establishments, including the royal military academy of Woolwich, 
 the royal military college of Sandhurst, the staff college, the regimen, 
 tal and garrison schools, and libraries, the royal military asylum, the 
 royal Hibernian military schools, and the military medical school. 
 And finally there are the war office and the horse guards. It is most 
 difacult to draw an elaborate comparison between the cost of the 
 British and other armies. Men hare failed at it often, for their 
 deductions at a careful comparison have been found widely away 
 from the trvith. It is aU very well to obtain figures from the 
 statistical society, showing the cost of the British and foreign armies 
 but nobody can enter into the complete details. 
 
^EEPACE. 16 
 
 It is better for us to fight a battle in Holland, than in 
 Kent; in Belgium, than in Surrey.i^ 
 
 It is not necessary to have an exaggerated expenditure in 
 days of peace, but it is necessary that the country should be 
 powerful enough to defend herself if attacked, and to resent 
 injury if wronged. Great, therefore, is the responsibility on 
 a man who, in his place of power, assumes a confidence which 
 is not real in the nation, and insults the intelligence of his 
 opponents by defending the policy of a department which 
 has no fruitfulness.so 
 
 In common with the great majority of Englishmen, I 
 detest war, and I believe that the minister who would 
 recklessly plunge us into war would deserve the greatest 
 
 10 To say, as Lord Derby said in Liverpool, at the prize distribution 
 to the 1st Lancashire Volunteers, on the 14th December, 1870, that 
 " we have no frontiers," is to ignore our Colonies, and to cease to he 
 an empire. No frontiers ! Have we no frontiers in India, none in 
 Canada or Australia ? Who is prepared to say that 100,000 men is 
 the quota which it is possible to carry across the Channel. I certainly 
 have no " wonderfully low opinion of the fighting powers of English- 
 men," but I will protest against that nefarious monomania of 
 retrenchment which dashes our soldiers in small numbers against 
 a powerful enemy, to retrieve, by the pluck of the rank and file, and 
 the courage of the regimental ofiicers, the blundering parsimony 
 carried out by the peace-at-any- price party in the teeth of a wronged 
 and insulted people. 
 
 20 Our defences are far from perfection. There are few living men 
 who wiU see the scheme an accomplished fact. We have now costly 
 water-castles at Spithead, where Colonel Jervois and the Eoyal 
 Engineers spent nearly two millions of money in sinking Runcorn 
 and Portland stone, and we have also the Eadcliffe Battery, built 
 close to the edge of the cUff, to the eastward of Sandown Bay, in 
 " England's cockpit," that " Channel Island," the Isle of Wight ; but 
 what else we are to be enlightened with, through the sage counsels 
 of untrustworthy " Commissioners," " Committees," " Eeports," and 
 " Minutes of Evidence," the most experienced officer hesitates to 
 declare. 
 
16 PHEFACE. 
 
 reprobation ; but, on the other hand, there is nothing so likely 
 fo lead zis into war as iveahiess.^^ 
 
 It may be that a minister cannot always do -what he ought, 
 but he should certainly do what he can in loyalty and faith. 
 
 Are we to be told that no one could foresee last April what 
 would happen in August ? There were warnings enough for 
 any one capable of profltting by the experience of the past 
 for the forecast of the future. Was not the advent of 
 " universal peace" believed in before the Crimean War of 
 1854, the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the China War of 1838, 
 the Italian War of 1859, the Danish War of 1864, the 
 Austro-Prussian and Italian War of 1866 ? Where now is 
 the success and justification for the economy of 1870 ? Is it 
 to be found in the thundering anthems of the artillery, that 
 even as I write, are pealing to the hearts and ears of the 
 British people, the knoll of their trust in the false prophets 
 of Broad Street and the frail economies of Pall MalL?^^ 
 
 !" There are positions iu Great Britaio which must be occupied by 
 adequate garrisons, and the garrison army may be placed at 80.000 
 men. The field army must be provided independent of the garrison 
 army. The field army must be powerful enough to protect our 
 shores, to supply India and our military settlements. India needs 
 70,000 men, and Malta, Gibraltar, etc., 30,000 more. May we not, 
 thei-efore, clearly say that 100,000 soldiers are wanted for- foreign 
 service, that 80,000 men are wanted for the home garrisons, and that 
 the home field army, and the troops for any foreign expedition, are 
 necessary besides. Kow if 40,000 or 50,000 troops were required 
 to-morrow to strengthen our foreign garrisons, we should not have 
 enough left to hold the strategical points of our own islands, and we 
 should he without a field army, or any army /or a foreign expedition. 
 As regards the Militia and the Volunteers, as it is perfectly certain 
 that our Commi^sariat and Transport would barely sufiice for the 
 Line, they would be left destitute of either. 
 
 1:2 To make good the deficiency of the Field Artillery, by converting 
 our existing garrison into field artillery, and ordering the Line 
 regiments to work tbe heavy guns in our forts, is another outrage on 
 common sense. The education of a garrison artilleryman does not 
 consist only in a knowledge of the working of guns, of loading, laying, 
 and firing them, but there are other and more intricate and important 
 duties that it takes years to learn. A writer in the Pall Mall 
 Gazette concludes a very clever article by asking how the siege of 
 Sebastopol would have been carried on without garrison artillery ? 
 
PREFACB. 17 
 
 Our force is said to be larger (at home) than in any year 
 since the campaign of "Waterloo, except 1856. " The army 
 may in number and efficiency challenge comparison -with any 
 other time." The British Army quartered at home is not the 
 British Army. We cannot measure its strength by the 
 troops that happen to be in Great Britain. 
 
 Are cadres an army ? To collect regiments at home and 
 then to reduce them, is not a concentration of the British 
 Army. If we are to be satisfied with the standard of 
 "Waterloo, what are the other natioas to be satisfied with? 
 Have thoy agreed to the efficiency of that standard ? "Why 
 in 1871, whilst we are measuring our military strength 
 by 1815, the European Powers, our rivals or our enemies, 
 have armies at least three times as powerful as they had at 
 the end of the hundred days. " The wise policy was to 
 heep the cadre always in existence, keeping officers and non- 
 commissioned officers." Why in peace have rank and file at 
 all? "If we are on the eve of a war, England never 
 entered on a campaign with resources in material and men in 
 a better state of preparation. "23 shade of my Lord 
 Palmerston — Oh starving soldiers of the Crimea— hear, hear. 
 
 Of course if a man says " The army was never in a more 
 efficient state," he believes it. But on what ground rests 
 his belief? I, among others, will bo glad to receive the 
 happy conviction. Do have the generosity to enlighten our 
 darkness. We have good feelings, and do not for a moment 
 believe that one entrusted with responsibility is speaking 
 lightly. The blossom of the spring will bear fruit, and the 
 
 23 Supposing the Reserves were called out by warrant from the 
 Privy Coimoil, are our medical, transport, and commissariat depart- 
 ments so organized, as to be able, within a month, to meet the wants 
 of the Regular Army, the Army Reserve Force, the Militia, and 
 the Volunteers ? 
 
18 PBEPA.CE. 
 
 barrenness of winter foliage, in time.si But one who is 
 capable of judging says " The army is grossly inefficient, 
 not in composition, or in numbers even, but as a whole, 
 everything is in the densest confusion, and nobody knows 
 who is responsible for anything." 
 
 Well, under the circumstances, rather than be a believer 
 in our " efficient state," I will be called what the " Times " 
 called Sir Francis Head, some twenty-one years ago, a 
 "grumbling valetudiuarian," or a " fascinating alarmist. ''--s 
 
 "' H.K.H. the Dulte of Cambridge has said " I ask any man who has 
 sturtied the subject, if the Militia would be fit to take the field 
 against the practised troops of the continental countries? The 
 inefficiency of the officers alone is enough to disqualify them, and 
 you cannot have first-class officers, because you do not pay them 
 ad'-quatehj, and do not employ them in a manner to enable them to 
 look on their duties ia a truly professional spirit. They are at best, 
 as compared with regular soldiers, only amateurs, and it is vain to 
 rely on the Militia to carry us safely through the dangers by which 
 we may be surrounded." 
 
 25 There is still much in the new drill book that is not adapted to 
 the inacticnl service of war. The half yearly inspections by the 
 general officers of districts, are supposed to test the efficiency of 
 regiments, but wjiat do they really test? Only a few parade move- 
 ments, and none of the real principles of the art of the march, 
 the bivouac, and the manoeuvres in the presence of an enemy. The 
 general simplification of brigade and divisional movements, the 
 increased distance between battalions, the shortening of words and 
 cautions are great improvements, hut there is still little to he admired 
 or less to be praised in the constrained hold of the rifle, in the parade 
 line like a wall, and in the heavy changes of the bayonet exercise. 
 All those pretty looking brigade and divisional movements, which we 
 see gone through on field-days, are of little service in wai'. We want 
 more ijhysical training and less parade pretty moviugs. In the 
 war of 18G0, Goeben's Prnssian division covered ninety miles in 
 three days, and what did two of our regiments effect in the spring of 
 last year (1870) in their unfortunate march on Aldershot? Military 
 training, that frees and strengthens the muscles, is better than 
 systems that tliink more of the turn-out on a field-day than the art 
 of the bivouac. JIuch has been done already to simplify our advance 
 and rear guards, although we still retain our old quarter distance 
 column wheel, a movement met with in our drillbook alone. The 
 great fault of our system is stiU as it has ever been, that we 
 keep the parade more than the battle-field in view. 
 
PEEPACE. 19 
 
 Did not Lord Palmerston, soon after the Camp at Ctobham, 
 congratulate the House and the country on the efficient state 
 of the army, and what did that noblo scholar and honest 
 gentleman the special correspondent of the " Times '' before 
 Sevastopol startle us with ? Did he not enlighten us on the 
 shameful condition of our military resources ?'^ 
 
 "Well may Emerson say "human nature is a great humbug." 
 
 However, I am watching and waiting. There may be a 
 subtle scheme in somebody's brain, that I have not the talent 
 to discover, or the mind to appreciate. I am fasting where 
 I might be feasting. I am sad, when I ought to be as 
 lighthearted over the state of our defences, asM. OUivier was 
 over the war of 1870. 
 
 To say that our army is stronger because they are at 
 home, instead of in the colonies, is to ignore the value of 
 numbers. Had the troops been simply withdrawn from the 
 colonies, then I would go so far as to say that we had entered 
 upon a wise measure of concentration. But, to bring battalions 
 home, merely to reduce the rank and file of those battalions, 
 
 86 " Assuming that we place 40,000 bayonets in line of battle " it baa 
 been truly and thougbtfully asked " we sbaU require 1BO,000,000 
 cartridges. Place the regimental reserres as far to the rear as is 
 compatible with the requii'ements to place it, and take advantage of 
 natural cover as much as you like, still, in these days of long range, 
 and the curved path of projectiles, both men and animals will be 
 much exposed to fire during the day. Steady, cool, practised, and 
 trustworthy men and trained animals must therefore be employed on 
 this service. But not only are neither men or animals practised, 
 but we have neither carts or horses assigned for the purpose at our 
 camps of instruction. Assuming that the 40,000 bayonets are 
 divi'led into 50 battalions of 800 bayonets, and that the regimental 
 reserve carried CO rounds per man instead of 30 as at present, 400 
 draught horses, 700 pack harses, and 200 JVJaltese carts are required. 
 Have we got these carts in store ? Have we got this number of 
 horses trained to the work ? Have we got 50 non-commissioned 
 oificers and 500 men accustomed to their management and to the 
 new duties assigned to them ? " .\ scheme is laid down in the Queen's 
 Eegulations, but have we practically any system of supplying reserve 
 fimmunition to troops under fire. 
 
go PEEPACE. 
 
 is clearly to Tjveaken the army, and to increase the demands 
 on its service in war. Yes, increase it, for in war you will 
 have to re-occupy those colonies, to re-strengthen your 
 garrisons, to provide an offensive force for landing on the 
 Continent, and a defensive force for the ward of home.^' 
 
 In order to protect Great Britain and her colonies and 
 dependencies, in order to sustain the regiments in Gibraltar 
 and Malta, and a powerful force in India, in order to send 
 cut the reliefs, there ought not to be less than 100,000 
 infantry always at home, divided into corps d'armee, with 
 their proper quota of artillery, engineers, and cavalry, staff, 
 commissi arat, stores, and ambulance. We ought also to 
 have 200,000 Militia. The Regulars to be raised on the 
 Volunteer system, and the Militia by ballot, without the 
 admission of substitutes. 
 
 This is no time for a mercenary, incapable, and vacillating 
 policy. 28 This is no time for smoking cigars and talking 
 
 27 In our military system, the time of a lieut-Col. of a regiment, 
 and indeed the time of so many of the regimental officers ig taken up 
 with accounts, returns, and committees, that the real military duties 
 are neglected. Our regiments, for want of proper barrack accommo- 
 dation, are chiefly broken up into detachments, and the adminstrative 
 work in positions of responsibility is fearfully increased. Much might be 
 curtailed and simplified. The military work is hindered by the civil 
 toil, and practically, the office labours of a commanding officer are 
 now so much increased, that he is compelled to either dis-satisfy the 
 demands of the Adjutant General's office and the War-office, by doing 
 which he may bring abnut a reprimand, or he must ignore the 
 mililai-y discipline and the military zeal. 
 
 28 Since its establishment in 1854-, the Hythe school of musketry 
 haf5 done credit to the able men who have made great improvement 
 in the shooting of the army. But is it necessary that the rank and 
 file and regimental officers should aU study musketry as a science ? 
 A soldier should be able to take all the parts of his rifle to pieces 
 and put them together again, but to be ceaselessly worried by 
 calevilations as to the velocity of projectiles, and how to apply 
 mathematics to the practice of gunnery, is certainly imposing on the 
 much more necessary perfection of drill. A very ignorant soldier is 
 sometimes a good shot, and it is quite certain that many an eligible 
 recruit is lost to the Queen by dread of the instruction as now carried 
 on to a forced extent, 
 
politics.99 Serious days are upon us. Let no man politely 
 shove his friend, with a bow and a smile through a door- 
 way before him, but let us scribblers, battered and grave as 
 we are, even from a sick bed give our help in saving the 
 country. 
 
 Our forefathers had a bad time of it, yet they sustained 
 the honor of the country. Shall we go down to posterity as 
 the generation that could not take care of itself.^o 
 
 When the Dutch hoisted the broom at the mast-head, 
 threatening to sweep the seas, Camperdown hoisted a whip, 
 and applied it. si That was the great old British^'' way of 
 answering an enemy. ^s 
 
 2" Lord Elcho has very wisely said that, " the unofficial mind may 
 be forgiven if it fails to appreciate the dift'erence between the cooking 
 of budgets and the cooking of the balance sheets ®f bubble companies, 
 unless it be that in the one case only a few shareholders suffer, and 
 in the other the ruin of a nation may foEow." 
 
 30 " Even were I not an Englishman," observes Lord Bussell, " I 
 should feel admiration and reverence for a nation which, since Ifiil, 
 has given her best blood in the cause of liberty, and since 1688 has 
 furnished a model, often improved and purified, of a state in the 
 enjoyment of civU and reKgious freedom." Again he writes: "Being 
 a member of that state I feel responsible, as one of the public to 
 Europe and to the world for its preservation. I compare it with the 
 great overwhelming autocracy, or rather stratocracy of Russia. I 
 compare our condition with the eiforts which, since 1789, France has 
 made in vain to combine liberty with order. 1 compare it with the 
 state of Germany, while I have some fear .that her liberty will be 
 stifled by a surplus of kings, princes, lords, and S(iuires." 
 
 SI What said that Whig statesman Fox, during the discussion on 
 the Mutiny BiU in 1800, " It was only by maintaining our rank 
 amongst nations, and not by any selfish isolated policy, we could 
 ultimately hope to sustain our own independent existence." 
 
 3". " Who ever heard," asked the Duke of Wellington, " of the 
 aUies of a nation unable to protect herself." 
 
 ^ "Let nations," remarks Lord Bacon, "that pretend to greatness, 
 have this, " that they be sensible of wrongs, and that they sit not 
 too long upon a provocation." 
 
22 PKEFA-OE. 
 
 And uow it remains for me, as a duty, to resist wrong.'* 
 It may be that at times, I have expressed disagreement and 
 dissent from things which I feared would not progress 
 favourably for the army— to appreciate the services of a 
 man, it is not necessary to profess admiration of every detail 
 of his public career — but the attacks which have been and 
 are still made from time to time on H.R.H., the Field 
 Marshal Commanding-in-ohief, attacks that are sometimes 
 carried on over the hedges and ditches of Conservatism, 
 and sometimes from the earth-works and muddy ways of 
 Liberalism, are a weakness and a disgrace. H.E.H. does 
 not require, as our satirical friend "Punch'' would imply, 
 to be kept up to his work by anybody. If the Commander- 
 in-chief had not played a subordinate part under an inefficient 
 statesman, our military affairs would not have been as 
 neglected as they are. The high respect and confidence of 
 the country in the great experience, sound judgment, and 
 energy of the Duke of Cambridge is not in any way compro- 
 mised by all this, but in the great trials before us, amid 
 divided views and conflicting interests, the guidance of one, 
 so eminently capable of giving wise council is not to be 
 lightly valued.35 
 
 81 During -the present Prussian King's reign, Von Eoon has been 
 minister of war, and Moltke chief of the staff. Is it not an absurdity 
 of the grossest description to make the director of an army out of a 
 man who is subject to be dismissed at any time, and perhaps in a 
 moment of imminent peril to the country, by a " no confidence " vote 
 of the House of Commons on some petty government scheme, on 
 some disestablishment bill, or university test bUl, or liquor bill, or 
 clerical disability bill? To introduce for the army, the formation of 
 a board lilie the Admiralty, would be to introduce drowsiness indeed. 
 Such men as are sometimes politically drifted into the dictatorship 
 of PaU Mall, must be better with a "military adviser" than with 
 none at all. 
 
 85 The present Prussian military system is everywhere lauded, and 
 certainly the campaigns of 1808 and 1870 are undeniable results. But 
 let it be borne in mind by those who servilely praise a popular 
 mobilisation system, that the military profession ranks very high in 
 
PBErACD. 23 
 
 Through spite and obloquy, the official kno-wledge of 
 
 Prussia, and that the appeal to arms, and the profound respect for 
 legality, act as sti'ong tonics to the existing situation. In this country 
 we do not want a mass of half-di'illed men, but a definite number of 
 seasoned soldiers. The hopeless inferiority of citizen armaments, to 
 an armament of discipUned professional warriors, is beyond question 
 or doubt. Let us have a fixed establishment of troops, and cease 
 retrenching one year in a wrong direction, to spend a costly sum the 
 next under the influence of panic. The Militia and the Volunteers, 
 no matter how organized, or what opportunities of driU you gi^e 
 them, will never make soldiers equal to the Line, and could only be 
 depended on in invasion as auxiliary forces to the ranks of the 
 regular army. Those who talk about them as capable for effective 
 and active warfare know little of the miUtai7 system, or the true 
 elements of militai-y power. You may concentrate and mass 500,000 
 men together, but 100,000 regulars inured to campaign work, would 
 make little of routing them. To submit to compulsory service in the 
 Militia is no more than to bear with compulsory taxation. We have 
 most of us many duties to do that are not at all times agreeable, but 
 every man with honourable feelings does not shirk a responsibility. 
 T have had many dear delusions dispelled in my time, and those 
 canting money getting traders, with plenty of ease and comfort, must 
 have at last some of their privileges suppressed for the good of their 
 country. The uprising of Great Britain to arms is not to be a 
 gathering of her gentlemen and her clowns — the former obejing the 
 summons of their country with alacrity, true to their breed and 
 their blood, the latter through necessity — but we must have also 
 the fleshy, well-fed, sleek youths of the middle classes, who sen'e the 
 ladies behind the counters, and the commercial classes on office 
 btools, not a bit ashamed to skulk wiih old women and children 
 under the lintels of doorways and by the ingle-sides of home. The 
 Militia at present interfere with the recruiting of the' Line, and the 
 Volunteers with the recruiting of the Militia. The shopkeepers ai'e 
 everywhere retiring from the A''olunteer ranks and throwing the 
 burthen of service on the artizans. The Militia ballot alone can 
 right all this, and place the three serrices on a sound and equitable 
 footing. Let the Guards and the Line continue to be raised as they 
 are now raised, on the voluntary system, l»ut let the Militia be raised 
 en the ancient principle of obligation, without admission of sub- 
 stitutes, without respect to rank or position. Is the son of a merchant 
 to bo exempt«d from his duty to his country because his piu'se is 
 fuller than the professional man's son ? Abolish the new fallacy of 
 enlisting for general service — let the regiments with county names, 
 retaining their old associations, recruit in those counties. Our 
 regimental system is a noble system. It sustains camaraderie and 
 it gives elan. I believe that the depot of a regiment on foreign 
 service, would find its proper quarters, at the stores of its brother 
 Militia corps in its county town. 
 
24 PREFACE. 
 
 TI.R.H. will nobly assert its power in our military system, 
 even though inability at the War Office, the want of skill to 
 deal with army questions, may give it an occasional blow. 
 It is pretty well known that our Ciimean victories in the 
 field were chiefly due to his energy and strategical skill. 
 louring the absolute devotion which he has always paid to 
 his office he has not made or unmade military reputations. 
 He has faithfully done liis duty, in what he has conceived to 
 be the most direct and honest way. The friend of the 
 private soldier, he has proved himself on aU occasions a most 
 impartial judge, with admirable qualities of disorimination, 
 into the difficulties of the officer. He has made no political 
 capital. He has not listened either to the patter of a party, 
 or to the outcry of a popular delusion. He has shown no 
 suspicion and evinced no defiant follies. 
 
 To uphold the elan of an aimy it must have a faith. The 
 chief of an army must have a reputation. And it is on the 
 Duke of Camliridge, in the day of danger to Great Britain, 
 that the British iSo'dier can alone rely with increasing 
 confidence, and with unvarying attachment.^^ 
 
 Pall Mall, 
 
 January 'ilst, 1R71. 
 
 38 The men who clamour to abolish the post of Commauder-in-chief, 
 and to place the entire management of the army in the civilian hands 
 in Pall Mall, know little of the soldier if they think to treat Mm as 
 the " business man" handles his factory people. The soldier has too 
 often suffered through the supervision of civilian ministers of war, 
 who have made of him a tool in the hands of their clerks to save the 
 nation a lew halfpence. Under H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge, 
 who is known to be a true soldier and a " soldier's friend," the 
 British soldier wUI endure hardships and submit to self-sacrifice, but 
 let it be felt that civilian subordinates of the War-oflice, from their 
 pleasant offices, without experience of his wants, and without sharing 
 his toils, are issuing orders to his detriment, and there will be apathy 
 and discontent. The soldier has no confidence in civilian admini- 
 stration of the army. He knows that every dirty trick will be played 
 him to effect some petty saving, such as making him pay for the 
 straw in his wife's bed, on the part of those unknown subordinates 
 ansdously looking out for reward. 
 
lall Sail ^oiTS. 
 
 BRITANNIA. 
 
 The war-blast blows. Britannia helms. 
 
 Hfir trident, star-like, sheens the sea. 
 Amid the wrack of riven realms, 
 
 The lone lorn land of liberty. 
 No queen in all her queenly grace. 
 
 No rose of womanhood fuU blown, 
 Did ever wear such charm of face, 
 
 Such faultless form did ever own. 
 
 Out o'er the brine, with back and breast 
 
 Vaunt-brace of proof, by time increased, 
 She looks — the Empress of the West, 
 
 The Maharanee of the East ! 
 Her soldiers scarlet braveries spread, i 
 
 Eound and about, a glow of greet, 
 The British colours o'er her head. 
 
 The British lieu at her feet. 
 
36 
 
 As through the spray the fog banks yield, 
 
 And looming land ia sunshine lies, 
 The matron of the blazoned shield, 
 
 Is seen by soft'ning loving eyes. 
 Her sons — to knightly manhood clomb, 
 
 "Will have to show the world some day, 
 Row they will save their island home - 
 
 From hungry kings in search of prey.3 
 
 1 AVe have been told of " the knell of standing armies," in direct 
 contravention of reason. We are told that large armies, of which in 
 peace, the men can return to their avocations, to join the ranks again 
 in war, will no doubt be the future rule in Europe. Whatever the 
 rule may be on the continent, I am afraid of this, that for Great 
 Britain to depend upon a citizen force in the field, would be to depend 
 upon a will-o' the-wisp. To say that the intelligence and education 
 of soldiers tells immensely in their favour, is very well, but there is in 
 all I have read, and in aU I have seen, of the fighting force of 
 different counti'ies, no power to convince me, that for this country, 
 there is other safety, than in the regular soldier, trained to his work 
 in a serviceable and competent way. 
 
 = The militia is the old national force of this country, and the 
 original law of the militia was the ballot. In the Act of 1757, which 
 first gave form to a force which had lived since the ISth century, it 
 was so ordained, and it was not until the year 1829, that the operation 
 of the ballot was suspended. That suspension is maintained by an 
 annual act passed at the end of every session. The ballot is not 
 therefore a new system, but the ancient principle of national defence. 
 The militia ought to be the nation in arras. What is it? Avery 
 indifferent substitute for the Line. By returning to the ballot we 
 make the militia what it ought to be, we relieve the anny from the 
 competition of its recruiting, and we help the volunteer force, by 
 sending into its ranks the traders and middle classes. To have a 
 militia force of 200,000 men, less than one ninth of the male population 
 of the United Kingdom, between the ages of 17 and 25 would be 
 required. Is this much of a biu'den to bear, to secure the defence 
 and safety of the nation ? 
 
 8 During the debate in the first American Congress on the establish- 
 ment of the Federal army, a member offered a resolution providing 
 that it should never exceed 3000 men ; whereupon Washington 
 moved an amendment that no enemy should ever invade the country 
 with a force exceeding 2000 men. His joke was a success, and the 
 laughter smothered the resolution. 
 
2r 
 
 WHOM ARE THEY? 
 
 "Where bluffs the blast o'er land and flood, 
 
 whom are they in scarlet sheen ? 
 A stalwart race of western blood." 
 
 The soldiers of the British Queen. 
 whom are they? the noblest troops, i 
 
 That ever duty's guerdon hails, 
 Their dashing daring never droops, 
 Their ceaseless courage never quails.- 
 whom are they ? from sire to son, 
 
 'Mid smoke of flame and hail of balls, 
 Ask Miani, and Sobraon, 
 
 Ask Alma's heights, and Lucknow's walls. 
 
 They arc of those, their devoir done, 
 
 Who firm and few, with iron will. 
 Stood victors, as the setting sun 
 
 Went down on Albuhera's hill.s 
 They are of those, at dawn of day, 
 
 Who over Delhi's ramparts trod, 
 Wounded and worn, to win their way. 
 
 Or dying, give their souls to God. 
 
 whom are they, &c. 
 
 Through Indian heat, and Crimean cold, 
 
 By every form of peril sought,'' 
 The story of their lives is told. 
 
 The blazons on their colours -wrought. 
 In other lands, the battle breeze, 
 
 Has breathed o'er corps of veteran -worth,* 
 But stay-at-homes compared to these. 
 
 Who've not their parallel on earth. e 
 whom are they ? &c. 
 
38 
 
 I In the words of Lord Napier, in reply to a toast given at a dinner 
 of the 4th Kings own Regiment at the Shaft barracks, Dover, in 
 March 1870 ; " On a recent occasion, when speaking of the regiment, 
 I said that I considered it to he a regiment composed of gentlemen of 
 all ranks, officers, nou commissioned officers, and privates. I 
 reiterate that opinion, for it is my opinion stOl." 
 
 ' So many of Mr. G. 0. Trevelyan's notions are crude and unpro- 
 ductive that it is not worth one's time to correct them, hut there is 
 one which has lately found a voice, " We should be justified in 
 diminishing our home army in a certain proportion to the number of 
 our volunteer battalions." We should be justified in doing nothing 
 of the sort. Neither the ^^olunteers or the Militia can be relied on 
 to take the place of an army regiment, and no effective organization 
 of these services, no matter how carried out, can substitute a corps of 
 veterans. I hope the realisation of prophecies, chuckled over in 
 lengthy communications to the Press, wiU not yield rich fruits, and 
 that no abandonment of the professional soldier will be permitted by 
 the nation. The Militia and Volunteers may be an economical 
 defence, but it is only in the ranks of the Guards and the Line that 
 you will find the soldier capable of resisting a disciplined and trained 
 foe. 
 
 3 The 57th, from its noble conduct at Albuhera, earned the name 
 of the " die-hards." " Those 1,500 unwounded men out of 6,000 un- 
 conquerable British soldiers who stood triumphant on that fatal hill." 
 "* Field Marshal Sir John Burgoyne observes " The army is a 
 profession. Attention, practice, and devotion to it must be applied 
 for years, and the advancement and prizes attending good service 
 looked forward to as an inducement. High spirit and patriotism to 
 the greatest extent, will not of themselves enable a body of men to 
 contend in the field against disciplined troops. Not less than three 
 years constantly engaged in the practice are required to make a good 
 soldier, and even after that, he becomes better lor two or three yeai'S 
 more." 
 
 ^ The first proposition for an Army of Eeserve was made by the 
 Government of which General Peel was a member. In 1869, 16,000 
 men were obtained, and there is reason to hope that the eflbrts of 
 the present Government will not be less successful ; if it be so, 
 we shall have an Army Eeserve of 20.000. But, supposing we have, 
 does any one who knows anything about the matter say, that if this 
 country was dragged suddenly into war, such a Reserve would prove 
 sufficient. Why, it would be equivalent to nothing, as far as sus- 
 taining an army for the field. Would it augment the strength of our 
 regiments to their war quota ? Could you send your regiments 
 abroad in an efficient strength ? 
 
 15 General Trochu, speaking of the French Army of 1867: " No force 
 can compete with the English Infantry ; fortunately for us there are 
 very few of them." 
 
29 
 
 THE OLD RED RAO. 
 
 Mtrsio BY 
 
 CHARLES MOORE. 
 
 Band-Master H.JI. 57th Eegiment. 
 
 Who fights the fight for England, 
 
 So nobly and so well ? 
 Whose bugles sound her night tattoo, 
 
 Whose drums her morn reveille ? 
 It is the sturdy infantry, 
 
 Who ward on sward and crag, 
 Mailed in the stress-and-struggle cloth, 
 The Eag— the Old Red Rag. 
 
 The Rag— the Old Red Rag, hurrah ! 
 
 The Rag— the Old Red Rag,i 
 The fiery star of British war, 
 The Rag— tho Old Red Rag. 
 
 What sheened the fields of Wellington ? 
 
 Gibralter's mighty rock ? 
 The echellon up Alma's height ? 
 
 The march of Havelock ? 
 What gleamed at Lucknow in the flames. 
 
 Around the red-cross flag ? 
 What sared the Queen her Indian realm,^ 
 
 The Eag— the Old Red Rag. 
 
 The Eag, &c. 
 
 Is it the grand artillery. 
 
 That, with unlimbered guns, 
 Eoar out the flash of death and doom, 
 
 A gallant foeman shuns ? 
 Is it the dashing cavalry. 
 
 That makes his courage flag ? 
 No ; it's the rattling bayonet charge, 
 
 The Eag— the Old Eed Eag. 
 
 The Rag, &c. 
 
so 
 
 The statistics of European wars show us that the French, who 
 are clad in blue, have suflfered a greater loss than the British, who are 
 clothed in red, when under iire. An old Peninsula officer mentions, 
 "When our light company, and the company of the 60th Rifles 
 attached to our brigade, were skirmishing on the same ground (against 
 the enemy) the latter lost more men than we did, although chiefly 
 composed of Germans, who are proverbially cautious skirmishers. I 
 saw, at the battle of Vittoria, the wonderful effect of the imposing 
 appearance of the British Line on the enemy. After they had been 
 driven from tlieir position and completely scattered, many glorious 
 attempts were made by their officers to rally them on some heights 
 behind the ridge on which our line was advancing. It became an 
 object with the ofiicers commanding the light companies, which were 
 scattered in pursuit, to get them arrayed for the attack of a column 
 which formed on one of these heights at some distance in our front, 
 and thus became a rallying point to the thousands who were flying 
 from the ridge in helpless confusion. Before we had a suflicient 
 number of the pursuers collected to attack this formidable column, it 
 broke and bolted, its soldiers disappearing among the racing mobs, 
 who threw away their arms and lied towards the Pyrenees. W hUe 
 wondering what had caused so sudden a panic among men who but a 
 moment before seemed ready to adhere until death to their oflticers 
 we — the skinnishers — looked back to the ridge, and saw a sight which 
 I shall never foi-get. The whole British Line crowned the mountains, 
 from wing to wing, looking like a waU of fire, their bayonets gUttering 
 in the sun, as they moved steadily, silently, and presenting a glorious 
 picture of power and order. This sight it was which struck the 
 enemy to the heart, and made him fly from his new position in sudden 
 panic. No army, although double the number, if clad in sombre 
 uniform, could ever make such an appearance or produce such an 
 effect as this." 
 
 ^ During recent events on the Continent, correspondents of the 
 British press with the Prussian Army have frequently, to their 
 discredit, made allusions, in reference to the atrocities of Prussian 
 troops in France, to the conduct of our soldiers in India. Where is 
 the army that would not have been thrilled with vengeance at the 
 sight of spots made memorable through the murder of women and 
 children by the pampered mutineers of the Bengal Presidency. It 
 is both foul and false, for their countrymen to deliberately slander 
 these noble British Regiments who had it imposed on them as a duty 
 to avenge the slaughter of Cawnpore and the shootings of Delhi. 
 Our soldiers did not wantonly attack and pillage villages or bombard 
 hospitals, or use explosive bullets, as sober and intellectual professors 
 and scholars have done in latter warfare. There is small analogy 
 between suppressing a mutiny, and the treatment of patriots en- 
 deavouring to expel an invader. 
 
SI 
 THE QUEEN'S OWN. 
 
 I laud the name. Woe worth my life 
 That I should live to see the day 
 Wheu Parliamentary party sway i 
 Shall make the army rule its strife. ^ 
 'When no more gentlemen shall pour, — 
 Replaced by coarse psalm singing churls — 
 The sparkling wine out as it purls, 
 In loyal bumpers to their corps. ^ 
 
 In peace or war — in shade or sheen — 
 The Eoyal Army to its cloth, 
 The lioya] Army to its oath, 
 The Koyal Army to its Queea. * 
 
 In scorn of every Broad Street wight, 
 Whilst muttering memories fill the heart. 
 And through time's rifted oriels dart 
 
 The flames of many a day of fight ; 
 
 Whilst like a sparkling rushing rill, 
 On through the quick'ning pulses run 
 The rich red blood from sire to son, 
 
 Old England will be England still. 
 In peace, &c. 
 
 What king did ever grandly own, 
 
 Through all the climes and realms of earth. 
 
 Such troops of tried and trusty worth. 
 As ward and watch Victoria's throne. 
 In barren mounds on rock and plain, 
 
 O'er round the world, their manhood's laid, 
 
 And never bo it coarsely said 
 Those crowded graves were filled in vain. 
 In peace, &c. 
 
39 
 
 1 I hope that I shall never see the day when the patronage of the 
 army is taken out of the hands of the Commander in-chief. A 
 supreme control in patronage, placed in the power of a Secretary of 
 State for War, might he often used, for political ends, to the neglect 
 of military talent. As it is, the officers of the army are on many 
 occasions treated by the War-Office, as if they had no rights. Why 
 is their money to be continually employed in carrying out retrench, 
 ment ? If it is to be used at all it should he used to their advantage. 
 
 B Blackstone, whilst showing that the protection of a single man, 
 by the joint effort of the community is the chief end of society and 
 gi'eatest use of government, declares, " Monarchial government is 
 allowed to be the fittest of any for this purpose, it follows, therefore, 
 from the very end of its institution that in a monarchy the military 
 power must he enti-usted in the hands of the Prince." 
 
 ' The Army and Navy Gazette has Iruthfully and wisely said, 
 " When the fiae phrase of 'military adviser' is used, let some one ask 
 the user what it comes to. Promotions, first commissions and dis- 
 cipline, as well as certain classes of appointments are excluded from 
 the operation of the Secretary of State's powers — at present at all 
 events. When we get a pure and simple Parliameutary Army we 
 shall have an impure and complex interference with those functions 
 very surely. Is it in the organization of regiments, of departments, 
 of the staff, of the reserve forces, of the Horse Guards, that we find 
 the ' military adviser ' of the Secretary of state at all influential ? 
 No one not in the office can teU whose advice the Secretary of State 
 in the abstract takes, but every one knows that it is not that of the 
 Duke of Cambridge." 
 
 < Every monarch holds firmly to the prerogative of authority 
 exercised through his agent. George III. excited against some 
 recommendations made by the Duke of Newcastle, said to him, " You 
 shall never job my army." The correspondence which passed between 
 Prince Albert and the Duke of Wellington is highly illustrative. But 
 the Duke never contemplated any severance of authority between the 
 sovereign and the army, although proposing to leave the duties of 
 commander-in chief to a deputy. General Peel was a man who might 
 afford to be free of advice, but where is the civilian Secretary of State 
 for War to whose sole authority the Queen would be justified in 
 entrusting her soldiers? To substitute for the commander-in-chief 
 an Adjutant- General or Chief of the Staff is to make out the same 
 powers by another name. The military element would not be under 
 more control by the civilian element than it is. If we are mad enough 
 to destroy the Horse Guards, and make the " wise adminish-ator " 
 omnipotent over the army — there would stiU be a dual government — 
 for there would be the Secretary of State for the time being, and his 
 chef de bureau, the permanent frequenter of Buckingham House. 
 
3S 
 THE SOLDIER'S FRIEND. 
 
 MUSIC BY 
 
 WILLIAM IRESON, 
 Band Mastei-, Cavalry Dep6t. 
 
 True and loyal, firm and faithful, 
 
 Each to all, and man to man, 
 Erom the colonel to the private 
 British regiments are a clan. 
 On the land and o'er the water, 
 Out or home, where'er I go, 
 There's my gauntlet for my comrade, 
 And his foe shall be my foe. 
 
 Yv ho is with ns ? who against us ? 
 Where is he shall coarsely rend ? 
 Heart with heart, a thrilling hurrah, 
 Eor the Duke, the Soldier's Friend.' 
 
 That September day at Alma, 
 
 When the hoarse cheer rose in roar, 
 As a glorious victory guerdon, 
 
 Greet the " old red rag " once more ; 
 Eound the Duke of Cambridge, proudly. 
 
 Gallant coi-ps with glad refrain, 
 Grand in glittering greatness gathered, 
 
 And they'll round liim surge again.'* 
 Who is with us, &c. 
 
 'Mid the artillery's throbbing thunder, 
 
 'Mid the joy-bells merry chime. 
 Shoulder to shoulder, who shall part us,3 
 
 Till the life-halt sounds to time ? 
 At the festal by the ingle. 
 
 In canteen, or barrack mess. 
 O'er the watch-fire, on the bivouac, 
 
 Wish him health, strength, and success. 
 Who is with us, &c. 
 
84 
 
 1 H.E.H. the Duke of Cambridge has always given his mind to the 
 duties of his position. He has on many occasions directly interfered 
 in favour of the private soldier, and with admirahle judgment and 
 instinct arranged tbe military difficulty of the officer. The old battle 
 of Ike War-office and the Horse Guards is the result of statements 
 made by dissatisfied people, who are anxious to display new ideas, 
 and will with tenacity hold to notions that are neither true or 
 perfect. I have never hesitated to advocate judicious reform, but to 
 obtain security for this country on the advent of war, the position of 
 a Commander-in chief, held by one who merits well of the nation, 
 would be a security against the extremely doubtful qualifications of 
 a oivihan Secretary of State. It is well at times to be firm against 
 new ideas, and tn be tenacious of the charming wisdom of " wise 
 administration of the army." 
 
 ^ A soldier must have adequate encoui'agement to do that which he 
 would not otherwise be able to do, and he looks with pride on one, 
 who has given him n recognition of his sei-viees, ameliorated his 
 condition, and gained his gratitude The soldiers' complaints against 
 the petty and paltry economies of the War-office can not be made 
 publicly heard, and he is inadequate to deal with a wrong. He there- 
 fore, all the more, values the watchfulness of one, who helps to gain 
 for him any little extra comfort in barracks, in hospital, or on the 
 battlefield. H.E.H. the Duke of Cambridge is the only man the 
 British soldier can rely on — and it is well for fussy dreamers and 
 squabbling reformers to know this — for if the attention of the country 
 is not brought to bear on their system of exhaustion, ruin will be 
 brought to us in our greatest need. If the noble soldiers of France 
 had a general whom they could love to lead them, instead of a 
 civilian war minister to direct them, the soil of France weold be free 
 of the foe in u short compaign. Whereas the Eepublio with its 
 " discontinuing movements " and " adjourning operations " throws 
 dirt at the men to-day whom it exalted yesterday. 
 
 s " To be the military advissr of the Secretary of State for War, 
 that is the function" observes the Army and Navy Gazette " assigned 
 to the Commander in-chief by military reformers. Is there a magic 
 in the phrase ? Is the iUustrinus Duke ever, or is he to be, the 
 the adviser of the Secretary of State in what he does at the War- 
 office ? Surely not. If the form of words means anything, it is that 
 the Secretary of State is bound to take the advice, on military 
 anatters, of the Commander-in-chief. If he be not so bound, the 
 function is, simply a nuUity. What is the use of an adviser where 
 advice is not taken? Is the Duke of Cambridge consulted? Yes. 
 Is his opinion followed? We fancy not. If it be, then, his Eoyal 
 Highness must give in private councils what is very much opposed 
 to his public speech. And no one who knows him, will believe that 
 he is capable of double-dealing. It is notorious that the Secretary 
 of State does not take the advice of the Commander-in-chief in 
 military matters." 
 
36 
 
 BAD TO BEAT. 
 
 AVell may our enemies rejoice. 
 
 We rid of those who calmly ctose 
 The proud profession of their choice, 
 
 To toil it to their manhood's close ; 
 Of those, who true to duty bore, 
 
 No matter whence or whither hurled, 
 The clanship of their County Corps, 
 
 The name of England round the world.i 
 
 These were the men who feared no foe, 
 
 The brave, the bold, the tough, the true. 
 The veteran victors at Bordeaux, 
 
 The conquerors of Waterloo ! 
 These were the men who climbed the height 
 
 Of Alma that September day. 
 And held their own with lonely might. 
 
 When Lucknow's walls were stormed for prey." 
 
 They were no two-year-old recruits, 
 
 They had no frail and faulty forms ; 
 As oaks hold by the old knarled roots, 
 
 They held on through their battle storms.^ 
 And shall their sons in service now, 
 
 Be cast away, without a stain, 
 To fill a false retrenchment's trough. 
 
 To fat some lean and less'ning brain ? 
 
36 
 
 1 When Holkar, in 18S7, called up his astrologers, and took the 
 opinion of the planets about the expediency of joining the mutineerB, 
 these sages, with the solar system generally, were dead against us 
 and in favour of such a, policy. Dinkar Eao, the astute Hindoo 
 minister of the court, prevented it, but not by declaring us invincible. 
 He only said, "If every female dog's son bat one of the Feringhees 
 be killed or expelled, the last mil whine back a whole fresh pack to 
 him." 
 
 ~ The 32nd held out for six months at Lucknow, and at Delhi a 
 mere handful of men bivouacked before the city, surrounded by 
 enemies. As Captain Hodson has said, " I venture to aver, that no 
 other nation in the world would have remained here, or avoided 
 defeat if they had attempted to do so." A Mahratta chief once wrote 
 to his friend " These English are a strange people. They came in 
 here this morning, looked at the Fettah wall, walked over it, killed 
 all the garrison, and returned to breakfast. Who can withstand 
 them ? " 
 
 8 Towards the close of the battle of Vimiera, on the Slst of August, 
 1808, the 29th Eegiment, being in line, was pressing on a French 
 column retreating, and halting at times. Whilst thus engaged, an 
 alarm was given that the French cavalry were coming up. The order 
 was immediately given " Form four deep ; ijrepare for cavalry." The 
 two first ranks knelt down, the two rear ranks stood ready to fire. 
 The cavah'y on seeing their formation, came to a halt, and retired to 
 cover their retreating infantry. This movement was given in the 
 first edition of a work on light drill, published in 1831 by a Colonel 
 of the 60th. A writer has observed that if the order had been given- 
 at the battle of Albuhera, and a battalion had formed four deep, 
 allowing tlia two rear ranks to face about, the battalion then standing 
 in two lines back to back, the French Lancers would not have turned 
 the right flank of the 1st Brigade then in line, have got into the rear, 
 and dashed through it. At Fuentes D'Onoro, the Light Division 
 charged front and retreated in squares, in the presence of powerful 
 masses of cavalry, h very critical evolution. With the Bidassoa in 
 front the 52nd not only forced the lines which Marshal Soult had 
 raised to defend the frontier of France, and carried a redoubt which 
 snept the approaches, but positively crossed the summit of the ridge, 
 and swarming down the reverse of the hill, took three guns and 400 
 prisoners." The 92nd at V\aterloo, when reduced to scarcely 200 men, 
 charged u, column of the enemy amounting to about 2,000. They 
 broke into the centre with the bayonet, and being gallantly supported 
 by the Scots Greys captured or destroyed every man. 
 
3T 
 MY COUNTY CORPS. 
 
 What men in shining echellon, 
 
 Full to the sun with hungering zeal, 
 Are those we see advancing on 
 
 In lines of fire and waves of steel ? 
 A corps no placeman's mental strait, 
 
 Has yet deprived of heart and soul ;i 
 A corps whose memories make it great, ^ 
 
 And glorious on the glory roU.^ 
 
 At mess or meet, in tent or hall. 
 
 No matter where time's breakers roar ; 
 Sound, strong and long, our rally-call, 
 "The clanship of my County Corps."^ 
 Ifo general service man for me, 6 
 
 No bouncing braggart foul to lead,^ 
 Who cares not whom his comrades be,'' 
 
 What regiment takes him in its need.s 
 I laud and love the faithful one, 
 
 Who gathers on, until he greys, 
 The memory leaves of duties done, 
 
 Through all his stout-souled soldier days. 
 At mess or meet, &c. 
 The regimental system's saved. 
 
 When deadliest tasked or deepest tried. 
 And many a dark disaster staved. 
 
 That trod to bruise the battle-dyed. 
 Beware, the hungering vulture's soar. 
 
 Beware, for watchful hate is rife. 
 Through time and chance, espr it-de-corps, 
 
 Has been the army's spirit-life. 
 At mess or meet, &c. 
 
 1 The men of the professional army ought to be enlisted for the 
 term of 31 years. They ought to serve ten years with the active 
 regiments, and eleven years with the Militia reserve. The old 
 soldiers would hring their individual sympathies as an infusion of 
 
38 
 
 martial spirit into their juniors of the Militia, and their county ties, 
 strong and compact, would henceforth recognise that the weal of the 
 state is entrusted to their keeping. By this system, the Militia would 
 heeome a reserve of veterans, and prove themselves by their organi- 
 sation, capable of crushing any foe, and of resisting every emergency. 
 Were the Militia also made second and third battalions to the Line, 
 each county regiment would be stnctly recruited in its own county. 
 
 2 Mottos and names attached to regiments have a powerful effect 
 in estaldishing and npliniding esprit de-corps. '1 hose mottos, which 
 characterised the French regiments in olden times, were both in- 
 centives to valour and ties to attach the soldier to the corps in which 
 he served. The regiment of Navai-re, for instance, had for device 
 " Sans tache," that of Auvergne " Une contre qnatre," (the regiment 
 having once repulsed fnur regiments which were opposed to it) that 
 of Picardy "Toujours jiret." The motto " I'ristiniE virtutis memores" 
 was won hy the British 3nd regiment of the Line in 17i):J, at the 
 siege of 'Tongres; their liadge of the Paschal Lamb, the ensign of 
 Portugal, was granted to it in honour of the queen, Katheidne of 
 Braganza, ia l(j61, and they are still known as the Queen's Royals, 
 but their badge was perveited into a shameful slander, when the 
 regiment was commanded by Col. Kirke in 108.5, when their popular 
 designation of " Kirke's Lambs " was attributed to their presence 
 at the assizes of Judge Jeffreys. The Serjeants nf the 13th, a regiment 
 raised in liiHS, are permitted to wear their sashes over the left 
 shouhler. 
 
 " At the battle of New Orleans, the men of a regiment which 
 considered itself badly supported, exclaimed to one another "This 
 would not have happened if the ' Springers ' had been with us." 
 
 * I believe it was my Lord HarlingtOn who originally proposed 
 " enlistment for general service," but it remained lor another '■ wise 
 administi'atiir" to ciir)y thr scheme out in detail. The substitution of 
 general for special enlistment, the leading fi^aure of the new army 
 en'istment Act is the cause of its failure. "Men are not now enlisted 
 for any particular re;.iment, but tor general service, and at the 
 caprice of the Secretojr.i of State for War, they can be transferred to 
 any other regiment during the first fifteen months of iheii' service. 
 Most men have a preference for a, certain corps. Militia men for 
 instance, mostly choose a regiment in which they hope to find some 
 old townsman. To force a man into a regiment for which he may 
 have taken perhaps an unreasonable dislike, is to strike ot the root of 
 the recruiting. Some of the most fatal evils of the Prench system 
 arise from this, that none of the coi'ps of the French anny are 
 localised corps. Now the corps of the Prussian army are recruited in 
 districts For instance, the 1st corps is irom Prussia proper, the 
 3nd coi-ps from Poinerania. the :!rd corps from Brandenburg, the 4th 
 corps is Saxon, the 5th from Posen, the 0th is We^tphaUan, and the 
 Tth Ehineland. This gives clanship and esprit-de- coi-ps. Most of 
 
99 
 
 our regimenta have county names, but the usual way not to do it of 
 the War-office has permitted recruiting to be carried on for tUcm 
 anywhere. Mr. Carnegie in the House of Commons, on the debate 
 on recruiting (February, I8u5). said that he knew of a case where a 
 soldier ia the Crimea wished to desert, but before he did so, he 
 volunteered into another regiment, in order that the fact of his 
 desertion might not reach the ears of his relations and friends. The 
 93rd and the 78tU have always borne good characters, because those 
 regiments stJU retain an esprit-de-corps, which has been handed down 
 in their ranks. 
 
 ' A French regiment does not bear the appellation of a province or 
 town, but merely the number. The French soldiers are not drawn 
 from any one district, but from every part of France. Under the 
 Imperial regime the annual complements were drawn ooe year from 
 one province, and the next from another proviace, in order that the 
 regiment might always remain thoroughly French. This has always 
 been, to my mind, the dangerous aspect of the French army. "When 
 after the loss of a campaign, the French regiments become demora- 
 lized, they become thoroughly dissolved : there is no confidence in 
 their leaders, and no clanship to hold them together. The moment 
 the " sauve qui pent " comes on the French soldier, there is no 
 rekindling the enthusiasm of resistance by appealing to his county 
 pride. 
 
 ^ We have recently seen the folly of trusting to raw levies and 
 unprofessional soldiers. I have been a good deal lately through the 
 manufacturing districts, and what have tlie people there said to me — 
 " let us have safety, never mind the estimates." Why the knowledge 
 alone that we were not prepared for war, has produced a state of 
 things in all pai'ts of the country that millions of money could not 
 balance. Nothing is so detrimental to our manufacturing, cummercial, 
 and industrial interests as periodical panics. To be suddenly called 
 upon to fulfil our treaty obligations, and to find ourselves powerless 
 to do so, would be to confess to a folly amounting to a crime on our 
 posterity, and a disregard of the dower of greatness left to us by our 
 fathers. With the din of war in our ears, cheeseparing economy has 
 given us recruits instead of old soldiers When the fight for our 
 existence comes, may the v/arniug of poor unhajipy France have had 
 its intiuence, and the voice of reason brought about a reaction against 
 the coalitiou of Broad Street with the Cabinet of liiTO and 1B71. 
 When at a public meeting at the Slansion House a " business man " 
 outraged truth by saying that the " Horse Guarils had bhewn the 
 cold shoulder to the Volunteers," it seemed "■ pcjor appreciation of 
 the quality of those from the same land of innocence he addressed. 
 The Horse Guards from first to last has had uoihing to do with the 
 Volunteer movement, or its " mind and muscle." 
 
 ' The warning of H.R.H. the Field JVIarshal Commanding-in chief 
 should be remembered. Speaking of the Army Enlistment Bill of 
 
40 
 
 1870, he said " Even ii the bill is successful, it must be a considerable 
 time before a reserve force will he created, for I fear that in the 
 present bill the system is not sufficiently simple to win the confidence 
 of the soldier, so as to create such a reserve as we require. Until we 
 have such a reserve, not on paper but in rea ity, it is most inexpe- 
 dient that the ranks of the regular army should be larftely reduced, 
 for by reducing the ranks of the regular urmy, you, are reducing the 
 means of increasing the leaerve. While you are talking of the fiO,OnO 
 men whom you ar^ to have in the army of reserve, hut of which 
 number we are not likely to have one-tenth, you have reduced the 
 rank and file of your army by about 30,000 men, the effect of which, 
 according to the information I have received, is to leave our army in 
 a state of perilous weakness, while the army of reserve, upon the 
 credit of which you have ventured to do this, exists only in expectation." 
 
 8 The new system of posting depSts to regiments will fail in war. 
 The dep6t battalion system with all its faults was belter. As soon as 
 a regiment goes on active service, it must cast away the attached 
 dep6t. The new system sows the seeds of iU-feeling between corps: 
 the dep6t of a regiment on foreign service not only gives trouble to 
 another regiment, but the mess arrangements are very unpleasant to 
 officers who partake of a mess not thpir own, and to those who feel 
 that men of a strange coi'ps are intruders on their arrangements. 
 There is no economy in the system, and looking at it in every possible 
 light, it is u mere substitute for something better and wiser. Our 
 depflt system was established during the Crimean wnr. If at any 
 time the service companies should need to be rapidly replenished by 
 their depots, how could it be done ? Supposing say ten depdts were 
 suddenly thrown adrift through the embarkation of their regiments 
 for foreign service, the ten depflts, and the ten dep6ts attached 
 to the embarking regiments would be — where? in the midst of a 
 dire confusion. 
 
 " Every corps of the British army should be made a bonafide 
 county one, with neighbours serving together under the colours their 
 fathers served under. Localise the regimental recruiting. Attach 
 the localised corps to a special brigade, and the brigades to a special 
 division. Counties, sub-districts, and districts should correspond to 
 dirisions, brigades, and regiments. If all our infantiy regiments 
 were composed of two battalions, one battalion for foreign service and 
 the other for home service, the reliefs for India and the Mediterranean 
 stations could be carried out every five years. The force required for 
 foreign service amounts to about 100,000 men, and we ought certainly 
 to have 100,000 men at home. We place the Line then at 200,000 
 men. To enlist for " general service," is to strike at the root of the 
 regimental system of the British army, and to cause a gross violation, 
 abandonment, and spoliation of its best and noblest attributes. If 
 this is progress, it is a murderous progress, it is piercing the heart of 
 the service. 
 
WHAT HAST THOU DONE WITH MY 
 
 LEGIONS P 
 
 (Britannia asks with Ca;sAB.) 
 
 where are my soldiers ? caa npne of ye tell ? 
 
 Will no one give ear to the greed of my voice ? 
 where are the heroes who served me so well,i 
 
 With honor and faith in the corps of their choice ? 
 The wild winds of memory roar their refrain. 
 
 The bearded and bronzed scarred by steel and by ball, 
 The toUers of body, the toilers of brain, ^ 
 
 what hast thou done with my legions ? 
 {Echo) Pail Mall. 
 
 Stout and stalwart as grow the gnarled oaks of my woods, 
 They marched at my bid in the sheen of my star. 
 
 When strength and I trod to the red flame of feuds, 
 But where are they now at the reveille of war ?3 
 
 They brought to my banners the ardour of youth. 
 The firmness of manhood, each faithful to all ; 
 
 Bright break on the watch of eyes clear lights of truth. 
 
 what hast thou done with my legions ? 
 
 {Echo) Pal) Mall. 
 
 A warning long uttered by bard and by sage, 
 
 And spoken by lips tliat did never betray 
 The love of their youth, or the faith of their age, 
 
 Now toils to the sentient shame of the day. 
 Aye, now with a fever of feeling I ken, 
 
 Who answer my summons, who come to my call, 
 A cadre of weak boys, not a regiment of men ;* 
 
 what hast thou done with my legions ? 
 {Echo) Pall Mall. 
 
 1 It is fallacy to believe that in these 20,000 recruits, of whom the 
 Inspector-General gives a " good character," are found better material 
 for soldiers than in the discarded rank and file. To those who like 
 
4S 
 
 myself, took an occasional day or two's inspection, during the last 
 four months of 1870, through the small streets ahout Charles street, 
 Westminster, there would appear a thin, pale, unhealthy looking 
 squad of lads loitering about passages and aside doorways, of very 
 inferior physique. To send away 24,000 formed men, to replace them 
 by 20,000 rowdy boys, is to look England fully in the face, and at the 
 same time to despise her intelligence. " He was put into office to 
 retrench, and he has reti'enched." 
 
 2 It has often been very thoughtlessly said that the ranks of the 
 army are composed of two constituents, being taken from the highest 
 or lowest portions of society. This feeling is gradually subsiding, 
 but it is felt by a portion of the public, and it is an idea both coajse 
 and clumsy. I utterly deny that the ranks of the British Army are 
 composed of the scum of the population. What has that worthy 
 officer, Sir W. Mansfield, lately said, " I know from my own experience 
 that there are in the army some of the most respectable men in the 
 community." Those who assert to the contraiy, know little of our 
 soldiers, and look to casual conditions of misconduct, which are neither 
 permanent or professional. A very large amount of steadiness and 
 trustworthiness, of culture and application, is to be met with in the 
 rank and file, and among the non-commissioned officers. 
 
 3 One fact has been remarked among returned soldiers, somewhat 
 at variance with the usual theories. It is, that the Ught-haired men, 
 of the nervous, sanguine type, stand campaigning better than the 
 dark haired men, of bilious temperament. Look through a raw 
 regiment on its way to the field, and you will find fully one-half its 
 members to be the blaok-haii'ed, dark-skinned, large boned, bilious 
 type. See that same regiment on its return for muster out, and you 
 will find that the black-haired element has melted away, leaving at 
 least two thirds, perhaps three-fourths of the regiment to be repre- 
 sented by red, brown, and flaxen hair. It is also noticed that men 
 from the cities, slighter in physique, and apparently at the outset 
 unable to endure fatigue and privation, stand a severe campaign 
 much better than men from the agricultural districts. A thin, pale- 
 looking, dry-goods clerk wOl do more marching and starving than 
 many a brawny plough-boy, who looks muscular enough to take a 
 buU by the tail and throw him over a staked and ridered fence. 
 
 ^ In this note I do not wish to dispute over the time that is 
 required to manufacture an efficient soliliery, but I will say this, that 
 however naturally brave recruits may be, they will not stand against 
 veteran troops. Individual courage can never supply the want of 
 training and discipline. Men may be good material for soldiers, but 
 the want of precision and regularity in their movements is a peril. 
 A levy of civilians may know how to die, but the country can only he 
 properly defended by the professional soldier, who knows how to 
 carry on war. 
 
4S 
 A DAY OF AWAKENING. 
 
 'Tis better forgotten ; I will not forget ; 
 
 Who yields to an injury, sanctions a wrong ; 
 No tyrant has smote at my brain freedom yet, 
 
 No power shall make me a serf in my song. 
 'Tis graren, that gratefulness is as a blank 
 
 In the heart of the rich, and the soul of the mass ; 
 How often a fool, when the wine draught is drank, 
 
 With ribald ingratitude's broken the glass ! 
 
 Bid the bugle -blast blow, let the war-smitten dead 
 
 Take up their old file in the ranks of their corps, 
 The life and the death in each face can be read. 
 
 The how, when, and where, they were gleamy with gore. 
 Oh, are they not traitors who send men to fight 
 
 Three to ten against others as stalwart and brave ? 
 And are they not rogues who with selfish delight. 
 
 Gloat over the money they save by a grave ?i 
 
 When Wellesley found landing at Mondego Bay,^ 
 
 And trod his iirst march to those grand years of war, 
 That blazoned your flag with the name of a day. 
 
 His legions made great, to make you what you are ; 
 Tou gave him to slander, to struggle and starve. 
 
 To conquer or perish, to fell or to fall ;8 
 Tou made every failure, a feud on his way,^ 
 
 And hampered the chief whom you feared to recall. 
 
 The Crimean hunger, the Indian need. 
 
 When regiments were wracked, not by war but by wear,8 
 Where want had no food, and the wounded small heed, 
 
 Commissariat and ambulance equally — where f 
 Are spots on the blue of your glory, that speak 
 
 To God of your guilt, and to time of your fate ; 
 In thought I can see on each bayonet reek 
 
 The foe-blood that saved you — and you are ingrate.^ 
 
44 
 
 Yes, what's tis reward,'' who gives up to your care, 
 
 The twenty-one years of his prime as a man, 8 
 Who goes to all climes with a dash and a dare, 
 
 As true to his cloth as a Scot to his clan ? 
 Ah, what does the officer get in the main ? 
 
 His recompense is that he goes on half -pay ; 
 And what at the close does the rank and file gain ' 
 
 0, he is got rid of on eight-pcnoe a day. 
 
 1 One great source of irritation to the solclier is the number of 
 stoppages to which he ia subjected. It is impossible to overstate the 
 bad feeling it creates. When the soldier is sick, he has good medical 
 advice, but the invalid will be under " stoppages," that is, will have 
 to pay for Ms misfortune. " Barrack damages " is another increasing 
 e\ll. Some time back a letter appeared in the Times relative to a 
 regiment which landed in England about the 15th of December, 1863. 
 Some ten months after its landing it was moved to Aldershnt, and had 
 to pay harrac^ damages on leaving its first quarters. Early in the 
 summer the regiment was moved from its huts [barrack damages again), 
 and encamj)ed in tents on Cove Common for three months ; then 
 moved into huts in the North Camp (charged of course, with dam,ages 
 to tents.) Early in March of the following year the Regiment was 
 moved to Portsmouth (barrack damages again), and four months and 
 a half afterwards was sent (more bairack damages) over to Ireland. 
 The 2nd BatalUon of the 23nd stationed for some time at Neweastle-on- 
 Tyne had to pay fearfully after the same fashion, and the 9th Lancers 
 soon after their arrival at Hounslow from Dublin in 1869, had a 
 trifle vinder ten shiUiugs a man to make good. 
 
 ° When England tendered her services to the Spanish patriots, the 
 Portland ministry decided that Portugal would be the best point on 
 which to throw the British troops. Sir Arthur Wellesley consequently 
 decided on disembarking his soldiers in Mondego Bay about midway 
 between Oporto and Lisbon. This was carried out in the beginning 
 of August, 1808. It was with 13,000 men, and a provisional com- 
 mand, that the general commenced on the 9th of August his iirst 
 luarch in the Peninsula. On tho 17th Sir Arthur came up -with 
 the enemy on the heights of Bolica and there gained the first action 
 of the war. 
 
 " Even after the nobly fought field of Talavera had decided the 
 superiority of the British infantry, yet the people at home denounced 
 the successful general, and despaired of the enterprise. The City of 
 London even, recorded on a petition its discontent with the " rashness, 
 ostentation, and useless valour" of Sir Arthur Wellesley. The 
 government was afraid to maintain his forces at the moderate effective 
 for which he had stipulated, and gave him to understand that on him 
 
45 
 
 rested the responsibility of the war. Again, after Graham on the 
 heights of 'Rarossa had gained unexampled success, and Wellington 
 with unrivalled strategy had met and defeated IMassena at Fuentes 
 d'Onor, the British Army could not count for common support from 
 ■the government it was serving. " No successes were rated at their 
 true import, every incomplete operation was magnified into a disaster 
 and described as a wai-ning." The Buke of WeUiugton could never 
 teach the British Government from the day he originally sailed with 
 an "expedition" to Portugal, tUl he returned vnth his glorious 
 legions to Bordeaux, and the army of tlie Peninsula had become the 
 glory of England, what were its duties. It never sent him adequate 
 succours, it denounced calamities which its discouragement occasioned, 
 and it expressed no confidence in the soldiers whom it did its best to 
 thwart and to calumniate. 
 
 1 Those famous seiges of the Peninsula, which wiU always reflect 
 honour on the British Army can be pointed at as illustrations of the 
 neglect of the nation, and inexperience of the government. As we 
 read, " The British troops had only the most imperfect resources on 
 which to rely. The engineer corps was so deficient in numbers that 
 commissions were placed at the full disposal of Cambridge mathema- 
 ticians. The siege trains were weak and worthless, the intrenching 
 tools were so iU made that they snapped in the hands of the workmen, 
 and the sapping and mining branch of the siege duties was earned on 
 hy drafts from the regiments of the Line, imperfectly and hastily 
 instructed for the purpose." Wellington bad to supply the deficiencies 
 by the best blood of his troops. 
 
 5 A ten year's man is worth a dozen recruits. The greatest power 
 of endurance belongs to men over thirty years of age. Men from 
 eighteen to twenty nine, are ten times on the sick list, where those 
 older are only one. A sound man of middle age of temperate habits, 
 will endure more fatigue than one equally sound at the age of twenty. 
 Why do so many of these ten-years' men leave the service, and throw 
 away the certainty of a pension after completing another period? 
 They have reached the highest state of efficiency, and are the bone 
 and sinew of a regiment. The fault is not in the Queen's regulations 
 and orders for the army. Those old soldiers leave, because there are 
 uot sufficient inducements offered them to remain. They leave 
 because they are over drilled with musketry instruction. Because 
 their comrades were suffered to die by hundreds for want of proper 
 barrack accommodation at Hong Kong, and for want of common 
 sense at Moir. Because in India you swelter them in the miasma of 
 the plains, and at home you winter them in the rotten huts of 
 Aldershot. Because you quarter three married couples in one room, 
 with no partition between their beds, and assume that a soldier's wife 
 has not the morals of decency. Because you hold hack the prize- 
 money for years, and begin to distribute it to the claimant when he 
 has lost all patience and all hope. Because you are incessantly 
 
46 
 
 moving hitn, making him pay "barrack damages" for every move, 
 and putting him to the expense of the most absurd march routes. 
 Because you place him under uncertain stoppages, and give him no 
 certainty of a pension beyond eightpence when he has put in bis time. 
 Because you do not properly carry out the reliefs and finally, because 
 you make his Ufe fretful and miserable, instead of making it pleasant 
 and happy. 
 
 " What is the cause of the delay in paying out the prize-money? 
 It is a most simple matter. After an engagement the adjutant of a 
 regiment sends in to the Adjutant-General a list of the men engaged. 
 I have known many soldiers who have been in sixteen engagements, 
 unable to procure necessaries required by broken health, who might 
 have been able to have earned enough to k<=ep them from starving, 
 had they received the prize-money due to them. Look at the case of 
 the 75th Regiment to whom the War-Office intimated that the year's 
 service granted for Lncknow was repoinded, having been originally 
 granted through "misconception." When Major Popham took the 
 fort nf Bidjiygurh, with a spoil of coined sOvev, he divided the spoil 
 on the spot. As the military usage goe'i, soldiers have a right to the 
 prize they take, and they are wronged by the delay in receiving their 
 right. We all know about the squabbles over the Scinde prize money- 
 The only real justification of the present system is that it prevents 
 soldiers destroying property. 
 
 '' One man, whose Captain will give hitn a good character will serve 
 21 years and only receive eightpence a dav pension, because Ms name 
 appears in the defaulter's book, where .inother man U'.-t over bnrihened 
 with mrrality, will receive a shilling a day pension, through being 
 sharp enough to keep out of the defaulter's baok The ofiences of the 
 first man were all of the same kind, " getling a little merry." The 
 character of the second man was very inditferent, but as he had been 
 perhaps officer's servant or mess waiter, or hanger on of some sort, 
 he had contrived to get his sprees over after hours. 
 
 8 There ought to be a fairer scnie of retiring pension. Formerly 
 one shilling a day was the ordinary pension for a soldier who had 
 served twenty-one years. There are men now who only receive 
 eightpence a day for the same service. How has this been brought 
 about? By infringement on a, code known as the good conduct 
 regulations. The pension of a shilling a day was originally intended 
 as a recompense for a certain number of year's service, and I cannot 
 be made to see, that it is just, that the absence of good conduct, should 
 in any way compromise the original right. Moral conduct ought to 
 obtain a separate reward, in some instances it does so. Bad conduct 
 ought not to affect a pension which no one can say is cheaply bought 
 at the cost of the health and vigour of manhood. Let there he o 
 fixed pension for twenty-one years service, no liable to the deductions 
 of the defaulter's book. Let there be an increased pension for good 
 conduct. 
 
47 
 
 'JEDDART'S HERE."i 
 
 I am told that BumMedom fumes and frets,^ 
 
 But Bumbledom is so funny," 
 Because a poor noble gentleman gets 
 
 The interest of his money.* 
 "Whilst Bumbledom jollily feeds and carves, 
 
 Whilst the town clerk crows in clover f 
 If we pair and compare, the "half pay" starves,^ 
 
 From Scotch Banff to English Dover.'' 
 
 Why your clerks would scorn to accept the pay,^ 
 
 And that not of John Bull's giving, 
 Which an officer, worn by clime and fray, 
 
 Has to eke out as a living.' 
 He dies — for a life has not long to live, 
 
 That has toiled through stress and slaughter,!" 
 And what does a great grateful country give ^ 
 
 His widow and orphan daughter V^ 
 
 That he's done his duty, your blazons tell,is 
 
 Have battle and he been strangers ? 
 Is there idle ease 'mid shot and shell ? 
 
 Is there rest 'mid death and dangers ?!* 
 Whose mounds are those upon Cathcart's Hill ? 
 
 Whose graves are thick in Hindostan ? 
 If you won't answer, there is that which will, 
 
 If you can't speak, human dust can.i^ 
 
48 
 
 1 " Jeddart's here," the proud war-cry of the burghers of Jedburgh 
 in Roxburghshire. 
 
 2 It has been somewhere remarked that if the system of giving 
 pensions '"or services to officers were done away with, the country 
 would effect a large saving, bnt nothing compared to what it would do 
 by adopting the same rule in the civil service, and I cannot see the 
 justice of commencing the experiment with that class who not only 
 give their time, but also their lives for their country. 
 
 " Slany of our ignorant demagogues and cynical " business men" 
 are apt to apply uncomplimentai'y epithets to the Half-pay List — a 
 list composed of very worthy gallant men who have devoted the best 
 days of their lives to the service of the country, and who positively 
 pay to the advantage of the exchequer. The Colonels and the 
 Generals on the fixed establishment, do not cost the country a sou . 
 On the contrary, the War-Office nets from them each year a very 
 considerable sum. The Colonels instead of drawing a penson pay the 
 Government. By the purchase system, the only sufferers are the 
 officers, certainly not the tax payer. 
 
 i If a Lieut.-Colonel remains in the army he loses his money, if he 
 sells out he destroys the prospects of his life, if he goes on half pay 
 he receives but the interest for the sum he has given to the reserve 
 fund. 
 
 5 The ^106,000 u. year, wh'ch is really only ^101,000 for the 
 Colonelcies of regiments, and the i£37,000 which is in rea'ity only 
 i£l&,406 for distinguished services may be said to be the only pensions 
 paid by the country to the purchase officers. 
 
 '> The gradual absorption of the Eeserve Fund, having made it 
 impossible to provide thereout for the sale of Ensign's Commissions, 
 it has been the practice for some time past, on every appUcation, for 
 officers to retire from the service, to require a certificate from each 
 applicant, showing his willingness to wait, without interest, for the 
 value of his first commission until a rangements can be made for 
 crediting him with the amount. To those who are forced to retire 
 for pecuniary reasons, this has been a very serious matter. The whole 
 capital of an ensign may be thus suspended. 
 
 7 We are pompously told by some of the fra^c-tireur deelaimers 
 on army administration, that the British regiments are heavily over 
 officered, because in the British companies there is one officer to 
 25 men, when there is but one officer to 33 men in the French, one 
 to 40 in the Austrian, and one to iO in the Prussian. Let me ask if 
 this is not the result of the present parsimony in matters relating to 
 national safety? If our companies were, as they ought to be, 
 adequately fiUed up to their proper quota the disparity would disappear. 
 Is it reasonable to compare a full company to the cadre of a company ? 
 Taking our weak companies with the Continental strong companies, 
 where is the excess of officers in the British seryioe. 
 
49 
 
 8 We pay yearly something lilie ^3H5,000 in half-pay. We pay 
 £73,000 to 334 generals. We pay ieii:3,.'i00 in honorary colonelcies. 
 We pay to widows ^£155,000, and for distinguished services, it27,000. 
 
 9 The rule of the army is, that no colonel can go on half pay until 
 he has completed 35 years' service ; they genemlly, however, retire 
 after 38 This is effected h,y the sale of their Lieut.-Colonelcy, but 
 instead of their receiving the produce-money, i£4,500, it is paid to 
 the Secretary of State for War. The Colonel receives in lieu his 
 half pay, some 4!in3 a year. In case of death the i£4,500 is lost to 
 his family. In 13 years if the Colonel is fortunate to become a 
 Major-General, he then receives i'450 a year. 
 
 1° The question of retii-ement is another most plerplexing question, 
 and one of very great difficulty. Under the present rules of promotion 
 officers in the Koyal Artillery and Eoyal Engineers will in a few years 
 time have no chance of obtaining the rank of 2nd captain till they are 
 40 years of age. An enquiry into the financial bearings of these 
 matters will it is to be hoped lead to some satisfactory arrangement. 
 
 11 During the last eight years the receipts of the Reserved Fund 
 have exceeded it700,000, and have been applied to the purposes stated 
 in the accounts annually laid before Parliament, and reviewed by the 
 Committee which sat in 18fi7; but those purposes have not always 
 been exclusively for the benefit of the purchase officers. In 1869 
 the fund was, for the first time, submitted to the control of 
 Parliament ; and in 1961 a regulation was made by which, when the 
 state of the fund would permit, half-pay commissions were to be 
 purchased. When the fund is, by cii-cumstanees, diminished, of 
 course the power of purchasing half-pay commissions ceases. The 
 regulations of 1861 clearly state, that as the fund at the disposal of 
 the Secretary of State for war is limited, when the funds cease no 
 further sales are allowed. 
 
 IS When an officer is killed in action, who has purchased his com- 
 mission, his famEy are repaid the money, but his widow does not 
 receive a pension. 
 
 IS The late Lieut.-Colonel Moore of the EnniskUleu Dragoons, on 
 his corps I eing ordered to the East, gallantly discarded his intention 
 of retiring from service. His fate is known, but what is not so 
 generally known is the generous act of his successor, Major White, 
 who lodged £3,000 for the benefit of Col. Moore's family, whose 
 widow was afterwards presented by tho kindness and consideration 
 of Her Majesty the Queen, with a residence at Hampton Court. 
 
 M Lord Paumure, then Mr. Fox-Maule, in moving the .Army 
 Estimates for 1850-51, said, '■ His experience had always been that 
 the officers of the British Army were the worst paid and the hardest 
 working class of public sei-vants that he knew of. He asked them to 
 
50 
 
 look to the pay of the oflScers of a regimeat, and in the first place to 
 look to the pay of a Lieut.-Colonel. He would treat it in a mercantile 
 manner, so that it might be perfectly plain to the understandings of 
 mercantile men. The Lieut. Colonel to ariive at that rank in the 
 army, paid i£4,500 for his commission, and his pay for commanding 
 a regiment was i365. If they deducted from the price of his com- 
 mission the interest at .£5 per cent. — which was but a fair deduction 
 — amounting to £350, and ^£20 for regimental expenses, which he 
 had no alternative but to incur, and deduct the income-tax, i'll on 
 his pay, it would in all amount to d£258, leaving a sum of i'107 as the 
 pay of a Lieut. Colonel for the duty he undertakes. A Major, taking 
 all similar deductions received £03 15s.; a Captain rather more 
 i£108 ; a Lieutenant £85 ; and an Ensign £73 6s. lOd. per annum. 
 Yet these were the men whose organization was said to be so ex- 
 travagant." 
 
 15 The last royal warrant for increase of pay was promulgated to the 
 army from the War-OfiSce, on July 2nd, 1867. After the Battle of 
 Blenheim, the Duke of Marlborough observing a soldier leaning upon 
 his musket and very thoughtful, said to him, " Why so sad, my man, 
 after so glorious a victory ?" " It may be glorious," replied the 
 soldier, " but I was thinking that all the blood I have shed this day, 
 has only earned me fourpence," (a soldier's pay in the time of Queen 
 Anne ) That noble gentleman, General Peel, said in the course of a 
 speech at the Huntingdonshire Agricultural Society, " There is one 
 point connected with the army which is not political, and I put it 
 before you as a special jury ; and I ask you whether you consider 
 something under 9s. a week too high wages to offer to an able-bodied 
 man in the prime of life, whom you want to engage to serve you, 
 who is subject to discipline unknown to any other class in life, who 
 is liable to go at any moment to a foreign country and climate, and 
 also to be shot at into the bargain. If any gentleman present thinks 
 that too large a sum, I beg him to get up anl let me see him as a 
 matter of curiosity. If you require a man to serve you, the next 
 thing is to pay him for his services." Why should the military 
 service be classed, as labour, under the naval and the police. With 
 painful accuracy the deduction made by the Government from the 
 infantry soldier's pay of Is. and 3d. a day is 8d. £•'30 a year per man 
 including the colonel's pay is the charge to the country An equal 
 force of sailors costs £70 per man, and the London police about 
 £78 13s. per man. The ordinary seaman receives Hd. a day more 
 than the soldier and he is not charged for his food. When 
 General Peel obtained the extra twopence, there were some fussy 
 economists, railway people, and others, who opposed it. Afloat, 
 the marine is placed on equal terms with the sailor, but is deprived 
 of those advantages on shore. The soldier, it is true, has now his 
 outfit, which the sailor must purchase, but the balance of advantages 
 are against the soldier. The pay of the active army of the Line ought 
 to be the present Is. Qd. a day with/»-ee provisions. 
 
61 
 THE BRITISH SOLDIER. 
 
 While the delicate clerk, convention's hack, 
 
 Eeads the morning news with glee, 
 Of the march, the halt, and the hivouac, 
 
 The battle, the victory, 
 Who stands in the van of $. line of flame, 
 
 With his breast for a foeman's targe ? 
 Who smites through the smoke, or sound or maim. 
 
 With a yell and a spring to the charge ? 
 
 The Soldier — the British Soldier. 
 
 Who fills up a scroll of the roll of death. 
 
 That the English rose may bloom ?i 
 Who lies in the reek of a battery's breath. 
 
 Stark and stiff in his shroud of doom ? 
 Where the grass buds out in a patch of green. 
 
 That tells its true tale around ; 
 The sole " in memoriam " that is seen. 
 
 Who sleeps in that unknown mound? 
 
 The Soldier— the British Soldier. 
 
 While the smell of powder is in the air. 
 
 And a fright on the Stock Exchange, 
 And the statesman's craft is brown and bare 
 
 As the moor round a Yorkshire grange ; 
 Who is patted by rich, and petted by fair. 
 
 And lauded by Commons and Lords ? 
 Who is feasted here, and is liquored there. 
 
 With a spray of honeyed words ? 
 
 The Soldier— the British Soldier. 
 
 But lo, when there cometh the pasture time, 
 
 And the war- woe dies in mirth ; 
 And the flags flout out, and the church bells chime 
 
 The sweet tidings of peace on earth ; 
 Who is welcomed home with thanks and cheers, 
 
 And courted, and cozened, and coaxed ? 
 Who is cast away when the ardour seers,^ 
 
 And the ratepayers have to bo hoaxed ? » 
 
 The Soldier— the British Soldier. 
 
8S 
 
 1 At a time in the middle of last year (1870), some gentlemen, -who 
 advocated the " mating the road to the suhordinate fivil appoint- 
 ments through the ranks of the Naval and Military Service," sought 
 an interview, but with"Ut success, with the Prime Minister. Those 
 who care for the soldier ought to give their full support in favour of 
 such a scheme. The secretary of the Army and Navy Pensioners' 
 Society, as well as the adjutant nf the Corps of Commissionaires, are 
 happy to afford personal information regarding it. I trust that kindly 
 efforts will give hope of success ; for much good can be done with 
 great propriety. Sir Charles Russell has more tlian once introduced 
 the subject, with excel'ent juc'gment, to the House of Commons. The 
 success of the Coi'ps of Commissionaires, under the able direction of 
 Captain Walter, is an excellent example of the system. 
 
 " What are the feelings of men who after serving their country 16 
 years and 78 days are discharged, in the name of economy, on a 
 gratuity of !Jd. a day for five years ? Of a man, approaching within 
 a year or so of the time when he would be entitled to a pension, to 
 find himself, in the name of economy, discharged on the plea of 
 infirmity in order that his pension may be saved. 
 
 3 Before the abolition of the Barrack Department, the duties of 
 appropriating barracks to the troops, and of assessing barrack 
 damages, were performed by the barrack masters. On the introduction 
 of the Control system, these duties were (Miy, 1809) transfeiTed to 
 the commanding Royal Engineer; and in June, 1S70, the War Office 
 ordered that the charge of barracks be handed over to the Control 
 Pepartment, leaving the assessment and the repair of damages to the 
 Royal Kngineer department. In giving up bariacks to troops, in 
 preparing "marching out" lists of damages, and in the assessment 
 and repair, the Engineer department at present has a good deal of 
 encroachment on its time. We have something like ^4:! barracks 
 and 167 soldiers' hospitals in the United Kingdom, and one half of 
 them are utterly worthless. The reluctance of Government to spend 
 money on barracks, is unsound in a commercial point of view. It 
 is clieaper to the country to kepp the soldier in health, than to let 
 him die with terrible rapidity after the cost of his training. So long 
 ago as 1847 Sir De Lacy Evans, called attention to the frightful 
 conditiim of barrack accommodation. What said Lord Panmure: 
 " Formerly it was sufficient if you simp y lodged the soldier, and 
 gave him a covering from the weather. I recollect the system of 
 titrs of berths in the barrack-room, three on a tier, and when a room 
 which is now held to be crowded if viS men are placed in it, would, 
 without any compunction. Lave been set apart for 50 or 00." 
 
&8 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN ROUSED. 
 
 " Impatience of taxation?" did you ever f5nd us grudge 
 The soldier, the defender, of the coiu for which we drudge."^ 
 Your "business man's'' a fraction of the people, there's a part 
 Far wiser and far nohler, both in breed, in brain, and heart.^ 
 And he who speaks ic otherwise, for party greed or gain, 
 Will find his hold of office short, his quirks aud quibbles vain. 
 The honor of the country first, the seed before the crop, 
 The realm before the money bag, the throne before the shop. 
 
 " What's honor ? of what service can this honor really be, 
 If T reduce the income-tax for you one half-penny ? 
 The bumbledom of London for the change of half-a-crown. 
 Could buy you inky scribblers up, who write retrenchment 
 
 down." 
 Kttle road-side donkey do beware the where you browse, 
 What if the tonic of the Press, Great Britain's spirit rouse ? 
 What if her heart grows nobler, through these days of stress 
 
 and strife ? 
 What if the faith's more felt that holds man's honor more than 
 
 Ufe ?3 
 
 The army, worn and wasted, with its cadres instead of corps, 
 May have to fling a gauntlet down, at foemen one to four ; 
 But whilst it treads through tongues of flame to bear the 
 
 battle brunt, 
 It is for us from thorns and briers to pluck the weed affront. 
 The guilty ones shall suffer who have led us blindly on, 
 And laid their country naked, in her weakness, to the strong. 
 The anger of the kingdoms, in the evil days to come, 
 Shall roar its thunder louder for the longer it is dumb. 
 
84 
 
 1 When a regiment is under] orders of embarkation from India to 
 England, an officer is sent to superintend the volunteering, and that 
 officer's duty is to see that none but men of good constitution and 
 good character are admitted. As soon as the officer arrives, the 
 volunteering begins, and, as a jjreparatory step, all military discipline 
 being declared at an end, the guard-room is closed, and the sentry 
 usually placed over the canteen is removed, and the canteen thrown 
 open, and officers are directed not to enter the barrack-rnoms. It is 
 not necessai-y to describe what follows in the three days — the fighting 
 and quarrelling, the pulling along the senseless bodies of intoxicated 
 comrades, some without trousers, others without shirts, cursing, 
 swearing, blaspheming; some sobbing with drunkenness, others 
 staggering in unconsciousness, and for what ? Why is the Colonel 
 compelled to part with some of his best men, whose price of expatri- 
 ation is slipping through their half closed fingers ? Because the 
 passage-money should be saved to the exchequer. Is it not time to 
 stay this disgraceful system ? Is it not time for it to be emphatically 
 deprecated ? 
 
 - The subject of the Crimean Army Fund was first hinted in a letter 
 to the Times, and on the first of December, 1854, the organization of 
 the Committee was completed. The ultimate amount of subscriptions 
 was i£22,100 is. Id. The contributions and offerings in kind were 
 also most abundant, and estimated at the value of at least £30,000. 
 Since then many bequests have been added to the funds. By their 
 patriotic work, honourable alike to the spirit of the Commission, and 
 the patience and inteUigenoe of its members, much misery has been 
 stayed and many hearts lightened. The money is expended on the 
 widows of officers, non-commissioned-officers, and soldiers, on their 
 orphan children, of whom many ai-e in the Victoria Asylum, and on 
 apprentice premiums, outfits, and management. 
 
 3 The British Army is indebted to the press, not only for the daring 
 truthfulness of that noble gentleman, Mr. W. H. EusseB, who repre- 
 sented the Times, as its special correspondent in the Crimea, but also 
 for its bold and energetic attacks on the errors and shortcomingB of 
 departments, on many recent occasions. It is indebted to the press 
 for the Patriotic Fund, created by the Times, and iox \he London 
 Journal supplements, twelve in number, issued for the benefit of the 
 wives, families, widows, and orphans of soldiers on active service, 
 which produced X'l,4:21. It is indebted to the press for those noble 
 con-espondents who, with bright intellect, enlighten the British public 
 on the real scenes of war, and keep the military portion of the nation 
 clearly informed on all those points of modern warfare, the study of 
 which goes so far to make skilled soldiers, to brace military education, 
 and to Btrengthen the development of strategists. " Sword or pen, 
 it is heroism to live for the calling which one has chosen, and for 
 that cause to die." 
 
lOITDON : 63 & 03, NEW BOND STREET. 
 
 Messrs. LAMBORN COCK & CO. have the pleasure to announce 
 the following New Editions of Mr. TAiLLiiFEii's Wprks. 
 
 Inscribed by permission to 
 H.R.H. THE FIELD-MARSHAL-COMMANDING-IN-CHIEF. 
 
 THE BKITISH CAYALKY SONGS. 
 
 2nd Edition. 8»;o. 3s. 6t/. 
 
 CORPS-LAYS OF THE BEITISH INFANTRY. 
 
 %vo. 3s. 6d. 
 
 LYRICS OF BARRACK, BATTLE, AND BIYOUAO. 
 
 8vo, 3s. 6d. 
 
 PALL MALL P^ANS. 
 
 8vo. Is. 6d. 
 
 RONDEAUS OF THE BRITISH YOLUNTEERS, 
 
 8vo. 3s 6d. 
 
 IN THE PRESS. 
 
 THE MAMMETS OF MARS. 
 
jScb) lEStttoits of 
 NUGENT TAILLEFER'S ARMY SONGS, 
 
 Wth EDITION. 
 
 THE SOLDIEK'S FEIEND. 
 
 Music by William Ieeson, Bandmaster, Cavalry Dep6t. 
 
 THE SOLDIEK'S CHILD, 
 
 Music by HuFUS Tdtton, Bandmaster, Royal Horse Guards. 
 
 THE OLD BED BAG. 
 
 Music by Chakles Mooee, Bandmaster, H.M. S7th Regiment. 
 
 i>eb) iESittons of 
 
 NUGENT TAILLEFER'S VOLUNTEER SONGS, 
 
 Uth EDITION. 
 
 THE SONG OF THE BEITISH VOLUNTE'^ 
 
 Music by Henky Caetei!, Bandmaster, Depflt Brigade, 
 floi al Artillery. 
 
 I'M FOB THE QUEEN. 
 
 Mnsio by James Ttjkpin, Bundmoster, 1st Nottingham Pi.V. 
 (Robin Hood '. 
 
 To the Volunteers of Scotland : 
 
 THE BBAW BED LION. 
 
 Music by CoNnAD Laubaoh, Bandmaster, the Queen's City of 
 Edinburgh Rifle Volunteer Biigade. 
 
 The British Volunteers and the Belgian Garde Civique : 
 
 VLANDEBEN-DEN-LEEUX, 
 
 (Flanders-the Lion.) 
 
 Music by J. Cah.cott, Bandmaster, 1st Rnyal Surrey Militia ; 
 1st Surrey R.V. ; and Officers' Band, 1st Surrey Artillery. 
 
 THE VOLUNTEEB FETE. 
 
 Music by Conead Laueach, Bandmaster, the Queen's City of 
 Edinburgh Rifle Volunteer Brigade. 
 
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 LAMBORN COCK & CO., 62 and 63, New Bond Street.