The British army in the East is settling down into
its winter positions and its national vice—drunkenness is habitual and pre- valent. Is not the simple fact a disgrace both to army and nation? Why is it suffered to continue ? We do not demand the immedi- ate application of this or that " remedy ": it is too common to ap- ply nostrums on a preconceived notion of their efficacy. Before you can prescribe, you must know the cause of the disease, and we wish to know why it is that the British soldier gives himself up to drunkenness. Why are the means left, nay placed, within his reach? We know it has been possible to prevent drunkenness among the same class. One of the exploits which have rendered the names of Cook, Parry, Franklin, and other great voyagers immortal, is, that they brought back their men without the ordinary loss by deaths ; an exploit which they could not have achieved if they had permitted drunkenness. How did they prevent it ? By looking after their crews, individually, as a father looks after his children. It would seem that the vice can be arrested, nay extirpated, if the officers do their duty. The state of things in the East constitutes an ac- cusation against the officers.
