SOLDIER-BREEDING.
(TO TSB EDIT011 OP TDB " ISPSOTATOIE,1
SIR,—It is well known that our best sailors are now those who are trained to the sea from boys, and are bound to serve so many years in return for their education. Could wo not do something of the same kind with the Army? The difficulty that meets us at the outset is that while boys are useful in the Navy, they are not in the Army. But I have just received a number of papers which seem to me to meet this difficulty. The Post Office and other departments of the Government seem to require a large number of youths and boys. Could we not then establish at each depot a largo school, fill it with boys (from the streets if you like), educate them till fourteen or fifteen, scud them for three years to the Post Office as telegraph-boys, letter-carriers, &c., or to other Government offices as writers ; then recall them to the depot for two years, send them off to India or the colonies for ten years, with a few years' home service at the end, and then a pension obligation to serve in the reserve ? If to this we added the prospect
of rising from the ranks while on service and Government writer- ships at the end of it, I think we might do something towards organizing an Army and Roservo.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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