THE MILITARY WANT.
TICE value of Mr. Sidney Herbert's recent proceeding in the mat- ter of Army Reform is mainly this—it has fixed the position of a great question, and compelled the Government to face it. Henceforth, we may safely assume, there can no longer be a doubt as to which is the better—instructed or uninstructed, professional or unprofessional officers. Any statesman who Fthall in future defend the existing military rites and ceremonies must make up his mind to bear the loss of all confidence in his judgment. Sidney Herbert's speech is the date of a new tern: we cannot believe that retrogression is possible, although absolute progression may be difficult. But it is something to be sure that the present lodgment made by sound sense in the outworks of our military sys- tem is solidly secured. In due time, by sap or storm, we shall carry the citadel—even that key of the whole, which Mr. Herbert himself still defends, the purchase system. We confess we do not see how that can be held when instruction has won her right of admission, and when promotion even will depend upon an exam- ination-test. Open the lists to talent, that is an intelligible princi- ple; so it is if you open the lists to gold and influence. But to open the lists to gold and talent combined, and to still make gold, not talent, the sine qua non, is to provoke an unequal con- test, for talent must win in the long run. We, therefore, can have no objection to see Mr. Herbert's plan tried, because we are iaire it will be found that a scientifically-educated staff, and regimental officers imbued with a professional spirit, the fruit of judicious culture, cannot coexist with the purchase system. One must give way. In the present temper of the public, and after Mr. Herbert's speech, it will not be military education. Some plan must be carried out ; and it will be the better for the Minis- try if they take Mr. Herbert's warning and set about the elabo- ration of a thorough measure at once. But although there is so fair a prospect of immediate action— although Lord Panmure has shown that he is not insensible either to reason or to the influence of opinion external to the War Office—although we cannot go back, yet it will not sur- prise us if the step to be taken in advance fall short of what the times demand. It is impossible to look at the history of this question in the most superficial way without being struck by the stolid resistance which the Army authorities for the time being opposed to improvement. Formerly, if an officer wanted to study his profession, he was obliged to go abroad to study it. When Colonel Le Merchant worked hard to establish the first military school for Staff and Line officers, it was with the utmost difficulty that, even with the aid of the Duke of York, a zealous promoter of instruction, he could obtain the re- luctant countenance of the authorities. So slow were we in believing that instruction was necessary to an officer, that, when all other nations had their military schools, we had none, ex- cept the school for the Artillery and Engineers at Woolwich. At the beginning of the century, the first school was established at High Wycombe. Subsequently it was removed to Farnham, and afterwards to Sandhurst ; where, to save expense, the school was deprived of its distinctive military character as a school for officers, and rendered every way unworthy of this nation. Thus, in twenty years we had brought our military education into an inadequate and inefficient state. At the great peace, nothing was done to provide for the future ; much undone. The Duke of Wellington, it seems, was of opinion that "the only way to main- tain an army in this country was to keep it out of sight." It could not be expected, therefore, that he would bring the question of military schools into prominence ; but it is matter of deep re- gret that the Duke did not employ that Feat influence which his victories gave him, to insist on the maintenance of an adequate army in an efficient state, and officered by men who knew something of their profession. That would have been better than undertaking the impossible task of keeping up an army stowed away in holes and corners, -without any organized basis except its glorious tra- ditions. How different the conduct of Napoleon !--he -remodelled all the military schools of France. True the Duke of Welling- ton was but one man with limited instead. of unlimited influence, in a nation averse to military institutions : but that aversion was due in a great degree to the bad management of the Army. As it was the Duke did not bethink him that examinations would be useful until 1850—something late in the day. In some quarters, we observe, Mr. Herbert's hazardous enter- prise of broaelling a plan of Army-education has created unneces- sary jealousy and alarm. Mr. Herbert is denounced as a labour- er who has entered the vineyard of military reform at the eleventh hour, and who is anxious to carry off the lion's share of the public approval now showered on Army-reformers. We find it very difficult to believe that any respectable journal can be so ig- norant of the facts as not to know that Mr. Herbert is not a nevus homo in matters of military education ; more especially as his speech showed that he proposed camps of exercise to the Duke of Wellington more than ten years ago,—a sufficient proof that he is an old reformer. To say, as we have seen it said, that Mr. Herbert proposed his plan as something absolutely new which he had invented, and that Mr. Herbert pre- tended ignorance of what has been and is going on, shows, not that Mr. Herbert, but his critic, cannot pretend to much informa- tion on the subject of Army-reform. In point of fact, Mr. Her- bert is an old military reformer—of a date, indeed, far beyond the days of the recent attention bestowed by the newspapers on the Army. If he should be able to force on reforms now, it will be because public opinion is with him, and not because he 'happens to express views with which the public concur. As regards the merits of Mr. Herbert's plan, we look upon that question as secondary to the acknowledgment of the principle— Cease to make service in your army an amusement for some young men, a mere berth for others ; make it a profession. Have a highly-instructed body of officers; highly instructed, that is, in the history and requirements of their profession understanding the military art and science as well as the barrister and the phy- sician understand theirs. If the instruction which is chiefly de- manded be professional instruction, there will be no need to fear that officers should become mere bookworms, or even bookinen. Military accomplishments are of a practical, physical, as well as of a theoreti- cal and literary kind ; and these should be brought out in the exa- minations. The great thing to be done at this moment, however, is to establish a school and course for the education of Staff-officers ; and to effect this Mr. Herbert's plan seems as good as any other. The world marches on around us : it is better to act and blunder, than sit still and be left behind, waiting our turn to be trampled on. Hitherto, how the British soldier has fought without the aid of military schools, under the " cold shade' and what not, history may tell. What could he not do were he fairly used ? The days have come when it is more imperative than ever to have, in order to save expense, a small but perfect army ; and a small but perfect army cannot be organized upon the old plan. We must make efficiency do the work of numbers ; and that can only be accomplished by infusing more mind into the machine. The only really invincible army that could be formed would be an army of enlightened and educated men imbued with the military spirit. That is the army we must have,
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