Corporals H. Clinch and R. Rogers, of the Royal Marines,
have been reduced to the ranks and sentenced to eighty-four days' imprisonment with hard labour for having preached in the streets of Gosport in opposition to their Colonel's command. The case has excited an extraordinary amount of comment in the Army, has been mentioned in Parliament, and involves a very curious question between officers and men. There can be no doubt that an officer might preach and could not be punished—that question has been repeatedly tried in India—but then he would preach in plain clothes, and the corporals were in uniform. The reply to that is, that as corporals are compelled to wear uniform, they must either preach in it or not preach at all, which may, as in this case, be contrary to their consciences. Still, preaching corporals must obey orders like other Marines, and on the whole, we should say that the Colonel ought to be supported
— we dread all that lawyer-like argument about lawful command — and put en retraite as soon as may be, for want of discretion in bringing discipline into contempt. Watchfulness from above is the proper check on misuse of a Colonel's power, not a code of rules about lawful and unlawful commands which would entitle a sailor or soldier to think before he obeyed an order.
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