Three important incidents have occurred this week in relation to
national defence and the better management of the army. The conditions and regulations under which the scheme for obtaining a Naval Reserve is to be carried out have been published. It is desirable that these should be made known as widely as possible. The plan, as our readers may remember, is to give seamen en- gaged in the coasting trade and short voyages a retaining fee, 61. per annizm. They will be duly registered; they will have to attend twenty-eight days of drill every year, and be liable in a time of emergency to be called out for active service. They will have pensions after a limited period of service, and stand in every respect on the same footing as the regular men-of-war's
men. The scheme promises well ; whether it will attract the men or not we shall know better after the ist et January nett, when the enrolmesit wet begin.
Then we have had eetablisked a /rational Aweeiatioe. for the Encouragement of Rifle Shooting, intended to give unity and sti- mulus to the volunteer movement. It deserves ample support. The most noticeable thing in connexion with it is that Mr. Sidney Her- bert, the Minister of War, has agreed to be the first President. Next, we remark with satisfaction, that the two highest persons in the realm give it their sanction and support.
The third measure is not the least important. It is the Horse Guards circular on flogging in the army. The Commander-in- Chief has adopted the Prussian system, and has divided the soldiers into two classes. In the first class all soldiers will origi- nally be placed, and no soldiers in this class will be liable to flogging. A number of the offences which have hitherto been amenable to the punishment are placed in a list from which it is altogether removed. For the graver crimes enumerated in the second list, soldiers in the first class will be liable to be reduced to the second class ; and for the same grave offences, soldiers in the second class will be liable to flogging. Men in this class, however, may be restored to the first class by a year's good conduct ; a good provision. Thus the class of offences which render a soldier liable to the lash is defined, no small check on the caprices of courts-martial, and encouragement given to men to keep a good character by awarding them a relative distinction.
The two military measures must show how advantageous it is for the public service that a thoroughly informed and far- seeince° statesman should occupy the War Office. With a man like Mr. Sidney Herbert as an ally and counsellor, the Horse Guards may yet redeem its reputation.
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