[To TEE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1
Snt,—Your correspondent " F. E. B.," whose initials have been familiar to me for the best part of thirty years, is no doubt right in advocating an increase in the pay of officers ; but there is something which, in my opinion, should go before that,—viz., a reduction in the mess expenses of the Army. The Army as at present constituted is a rich man's club, and
servant behind his chair to help him to wine is not calculated to bring out the Spartan virtues which we expect in a soldier. The German Emperor has put down extravagance in his Army with a strong hand, and unless this is done in England with an equally strong hand, an increase of pay would only tend to aggravate an already very serious evil. The ray and expenses should be so adjusted that a subaltern might be able to live without any excessive allowance from home, so that the plebeian might have some chance along with the parvenu and the patrician. As to education, if it be true, as Lord Rosebery says or suggests, that the chief product of our public schools and Universities is only "learned mummies," had we not better look to the ranks, and to the Militia and Volunteers, for our officers in future? After all, soldiering is not a matter of the classics, or the binomial theorem, but for practical knowledge of the art of war, and surely this can be better acquired in the field than in the form or the forcing house.—I am, Sir, &c., R. W. J.
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