THE PRIVATE SOLDIER.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."' SIB,—I came back an hour ago from the Military Exhibition at Chelsea Hospital. What a sight it is ! Doubtless nine- tenths of the things would have been better away. But for those that have a right to be there, that are not trade advertise- ments, or mere curiosities, or—legitimate enough in their way —specimens of art or handicraft, no words are strong enough to express the profound, the tragic interest which they excite. One ceases to wonder at relic-worship as one wanders along the Battle Gallery, and sees these ragged colours, these battered swords, these bullet-pierced coats, which speak with all the persuasive power of actual identity of dreadful and glorious days of battle. Of course one lingers longest over the relics of the great heroes,—the white cloak which Welling- ton wore at Waterloo, and, in pathetic contrast, the tremulous hand-writing in which he fills up his last census-paper ;* and the leather coat which Napier carried through the day of Meanee. But I was, in one way, more impressed by the humble little mementoes that now and then occur of the dim multitude of nameless men who died to win the victories of these great captains, a multitude that might surely cry with more pathetic truth than even the soldiery of Rome; Qum caret era encore nostro
The hour since my return from this wonderful sight, I have spent in reading ex-Serjeant A. V. Palmer's "Wrongs of the Private Soldier" in this month's Nineteenth Century. I had read it, indeed, before ; but what I have seen this morning gives it, to my mind, a new eloquence. It is not in the least rhetori- cal; it is a quite simple story of mean and petty grievances which, wilfully or carelessly, our military authorities make the private soldier suffer ; but when one is fresh from the speaking record of what this private soldier has done, it is strangely effective. Let me put briefly, for readers who may not have seen the article, some of Mr. Palmer's complaints.
The soldier is promised a shilling a day and free rations, medical comforts, lodgings, clothing. What does he get ? For rations,—one pound of bread, three-quarters of a pound of meat, but nothing more ; no milk, tea, vegetables, not even water, if, as at some places, water is an article of value. Even the meat and bread are carelessly, if not fraudulently, weighed. Then for medical comforts. The soldier has sevenpence per day deducted while he is in hospital. Only, one would suppose, if he is suffering from ailments due to his own fault ? Not so, says Mr. Palmer ; inflammation of the lungs, dysentery, ague, fever, are all attributed to his carelessness, and the stoppage is made all the same.
The lodgings, one would think, are free. Not so. There are "engineer damages." As Mr. Palmer puts it, the soldier is treated as if he had taken the barracks on a repairing lease ;
• It is cmionsly touching to find him entering, under the column headed "deaf. and-dumb or blind," the word" deaf."
doors, roofs, floors are made good at his expense. Then the free clothing is something like a fraud. The soldier has, it is true, his uniform issued to him ; but if it does not fit, he has to. pay for the alterations. He has two shirts and three pairs of socks supplied to him ; but these are supposed to last for seven years. Three pairs of socks for seven years ! It sounds incredible. Why, if the soldier were to lie in bed for the whole time, they would be worn out thrice over ; and he has to march over half the world ! Then there is a strange charge for the library. The library is one of the benefits promised to- a recruit, and one has often thought of it with pleasure as a. proof of a more careful and enlightened treatment of the soldier. But it is not a free benefit. The soldier has to pay for it, as much as he would pay if he were a householder rated at 272 a year, in a parish possessing a free library !
I have more than once read in the Spectator that if Govern- ment gives the soldier a shilling a day clear, it will get as many men as it wants. As a matter of fact, it gives him. something considerably less than half.—I am, Sir, &c., A. C.
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