"REDUCTION OF THE MILITARY FORCE."
ANTICIPATION suggested by the last Indian mail has been con- firmed, and the reduction of the Army is suspended ; the dis- charge of soldiers is countermanded. More regiments are to go out to India; and the Army, instead of being reduced, will pro- bably be enlarged. The Irish sympathy with Sikh successes shows, too, thatit will not be politic to withdraw the garrison from Ireland, and leave that country at the mercy of Shere Singh's Celtic allies. It is but a week or two since "concession" to Mr. Cobden dictated the reduction ; now a panic created by Lord Gough's peculiar kind of victory dictates augmentation. By the
by., is not Lablikatiiir M•i'slimaii?iahd kertitt.S(doi his pecu- liar kind of inctcirY all in Very curiously with e Irish sympathy
for the:Sikhs? . •
But surely the Army is not arkituttiip4 tmlie,teitled. with in this way—cut down one Month ttlesPeit,P,Apettches from Manchester, and augmented next month.p.n„thmteceipt of mails from Bamhay. It ought to be maintained in a state of efficiency; and if its efficiency be impaired by the disebergs, of trained sol- diers, the defalcation is not to be made good by the levy of raw recruits. You cannot improvise an army pro rc /161,44, alld get it made up like a, prescription by return of messenger. If you suffer, it to fall below the points of efficiency, you hazard a, loss much greater than the first saving can compensate; and .thelmety en- deavour to make good the *ant occasions additional expense. Recruits are dearer than veterans—haste is dearer than prepared. nese. And the experience of the Sikh war shows that the arm of the service which needs the greatest amount of preparation and is most costly, the Ordnance, ought to be very materially strength- ened: thebarbarian Sikliii are all but up to a level with us in their artillery.
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