There was a great recruiting debate in the Commons on
Thursday, Mr. Hanbury maintaining the thesis that the slackness of recruiting and the weediness of the recruits are both due to inadequate pay. Mr. Stanhope, in reply, con- tended that the men received in rations, clothes, lodging, and money, the equivalent of 15s. a week ; but he did not-deny that other unskilled labourers have succeeded in getting 2s. more, or that the silver which the soldier receives is only 4s. 6d. a week. He went into the usual details about recent, improvements in food, fuel, and barrack accommodation ; but he did not meet the point that the outsider gets more—except. perhaps as regards lodging—and adjusts his food, in particular, to his own tastes. Still less did he meet the great point of all, that if we offered enough, able-bodied men would come for-. ward, and that as we do not, we have to put up with boys who become the right article just when they leave. The truth is, that this Government, like every Government before it, admits a failure in recruiting, but is too afraid of the Radicals to remedy it. If it understood the democracy better, it would understand that sufficient pay to the soldier—i.e., 78. a week for himself—would be supported by the entire mass vote. The new electors will pay privates,. and only want to dock Colonels.
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