JUSTICE TO THE ARMY.
THE Court-martial on Captain R. A. REYNOLDS has found him " guilty of the charge against him," and has sentenced him "to be cashiered." The Queen " has been pleased to approve and confirm the finding and sentence of the Court." Consequently, Mr. It. A. REYNOLDS is not now an officer, but a gentleman. Our military readers will not suspect us of any wish to speak disrespect- fully of the officers of the British Army : it is not in levity but in sad earliest that we speak. The proceedings of the Court-martial upon Mr. REYNOLDS will render it impossible for any gentleman to remain in the British Army, unless a thorough reform in the ad- ministration of justice within it take place. The Court-martial refused to allow Mr. Rey:imps to adduce evidence in extenuation. They have followed up that revolting denial of justice by brow- beating his witnesses to character. In the General Orders an- nouncing the decision of the Court, we read- " The Court having performed its doty, cannot separate without recording its opinion on the dlowing points of evidence. In the course of the evidence to character, witne-ses have stated, that they considered the accused was incapable of insubordination without some extraordintow cases of provocation, which no sum of honourablc feelings could endure : thusapparently sanctioning the idea, that there might be circumstances of private irritation which would justify a soldier breaking from the established order of military discipline ; a doctrine so totally subversive of the principles by which all armies are go- verned, that the Court feels called upon to stamp it with marked reprobation."
In other words, the high-grade officers of the Army have de- clared, and the horse Guards and the Sovereign have sanctioned the declaration, that whoever accepts a connnission in the British Army, binds him self tamely to put up under all circumstances with the most revolting outrages that can be offered to man. In the indignant language of the ,e'tandard- " It is always dangerous for men, particularly for unlearned men, to go out of their way to propound abstract propositions. The danger of doing so was saver more manifest than in the case before Us. For 'soldier' read 'gentle- man,' and how does the proposition stand ?—, No circumstances of private irritation can justify a gentleman breaking from the established order of military discipline.' What, though called liar or scoundrel—though he be cuffed, kicked, or spit upon—though his wife, sister, or daughter be insulted—a gentle- man, if he wear a military dress, must submit, with patience and humility— must gracefully and respectfully salute the aggressor ; for all this belongs to ' the established order of military discipline.' The Brighton Court-martial says this, or says that the officers of the British Army are not gendemen."
Such doctrine may be listened to in countries where soldiers are machines, maintained fully more for the purpose of keep- ing down the people than for defending them (rein foreign ag- gression. But they cannot be allowed to pass without prac- tical contrad iction in a wise and industrious country where the soldier is a citizen, who undertakes the task of being in readiness to repel all forcible attacks upon his fellow-citizens while engaged in their various pursuits—in a country where the soldier, like every other citizen, although pursuing a separate prothssion, remains in all respects a member of the great national family. Creatures from whom all generous human emotion are rooted out to the extent contemplated by the Court-martial on Mr. Reatemps, are only fit to be the turnkeys and hangmen of a despotic government.
To the honour of the English press be it spoken, there is no alloy of party politics in its treatment of this subject. The Standard and time Globe speak of the sentence of the Court-martial in the same language. Of the manly sentiments expressed by the first-mentioned journal, we have already quoted a specimen : here is the opinion of the other- ""rhat chastity of honour, which fads a stain like a wound,' has been hitherto understood to be the characteristic of British officers. The Court- martial would hardly carry their views of subordination so far as to say that the hand of a subordinate must not be raised against a commanding-officer who should seek to inflict actual wounds upon him. Evidence as to the fact of such an assault could scarce be 'stamped with reprobation,' as totally sub- versive of the fundamental principles by which all armies are governed.' No army can be governed by madmen, or by men who cannot govern themselves ; and therefore the very 'fundamental principles by which all armies are governed,' appear to dictate the reception, and not the rejection of evidence to prove provocations, which, if alleged truly, strike at the root of all military subordination, because they strike at the root of all military honour. It is not, we suppose, imagined that gentlemen can be caned or chidden into sub- mission. They can neither be brought under the code of Russia nor Turkey. There must be subordination of the heart,' or there will be no subordination amongst freemen."
This is well so far as it goes; but more is necessary. Denun- ciations of the Court-martial, sympethy with the subordinate officers of the Army, will not check the tyranny of the CARDIGANS, or alleviate the disproportioned punishment of the REYN0LDSES-40 say nothing of the attempted intimidation of all officers who in bearing testimony to time character of a friend venture to give utterance to the sentiments of indignation which a persevering course of insult and oppression have kindled in them. It is true—what we suppose the Court-martial were thinking of when they penned the foolish sentence upon which we are comment- ing—that it is a dangerous thing for the subordinate grades in an army to be habitually ,balancing their rights and duties, and still more dangerous for them to he in the custom of looking to popular sympathy forsupport against their superiors. And it is for this very reason that we deprecate the conduct which forces them to deal in such dangerous thoughts. The remedy lies in giving the Army such an organization as is most likely to prevent this kind of conduct on the part of superior officers. Give the Army a code—new anti in- telligible Articles of War. Give subordinates a clear and easy mode of presenting complaints against the injustice of superiors ; and give them a fair and unsuspected tribunal to decide upon their allegations. Give the subordinate att well as the superior when accused that full latitude of defence which justice requires. And having thus made provision for dispensing equal justice to high and low, enforce dis- cipline with the utmost strictness; for that is the condition to which every man who enters an army must make up his mind. But what the Court-martial wishes to enforce is not discipline, but the self- will of a coterie having influence at the Horse Guards.
The reform of our Army-administration ought to be based upon a Parliamentary inquiry—a real inquiry, in which the lead shall be taken by a'Member independent of Government, whether it be Whig or Tory, and with sufficient moral courage to take and keep
his own way. Sir WILLIAM Mmeswonen, by his former motion regarding Lord Biumeeema has in part taken possession of the
question : he on that occasion showed himself possessed of the taste and temper and extensive views which led him instinctively to treat the inquiry regarding personal conduct as merely subordi- nate to the vindication of principle ; and at a later period, as Chairman of the Transportation Committee, he has established his reputation as a persevering and practical man of business.
Previous page
