We have received an excellent letter from a correspondent well
versed in military service, on the subject of national defences ; but it is too long and too late for insertion now. The chief part of the letter relates to the Swiss plan of militia, which the writer recommends ass model, with some modi- fications; and although it might be desirable to lay the letter under the eye of some of our Parliamentary readers before the Committee on the Government Militia Bill, we must perforce postpone it. Two points our correspondent seems to us to make out—that it would be quite possible to establish a Militia on a tried plan, free from the defects which rendered the English Militia unpopular ; and that the Militia might be relieved from the most irksome duties. The Army might be increased—in the Infantry, without increasing the number of officers, by extending the es- tablishment to 100 rank and file for each company ; in the Cavalry, by increasing the number of dismounted men, finding horses afterwards, on needful occasion. In this way might be obtained a maximum of increase to efficiency coincident with a minimum of increase to cost. Further auxiliary forces might be found in an increase to the drilled Police force. and to the Coast Navy, and in well-organized Volunteer corps. The total which our correspondent calculates it necessary to call out as the first contingent of Militia would be 150,000 men between the ages of twenty- five and thirty. However, we will not further anticipate the paper itself; for which we shall probably be able to make room before it is practically too late.
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