MR. CARDWELL'S PLAN.
1{R. CARD WELL'S exposition of his plan for the 11 reorganization of the Army, made in the House of Commons on Thursday, appears to have been a great success,—a success due to the merits of the scheme rather than to any oratorical felicity in the speech itself. The latter is bald, disjointed, and intended mainly for critics within the House whose idea- of proportion differs widely from that of the outside public, which is not so much interested in the privi- leges of the Guards and the pace of Artillery promotion, as in the total result it is expected to attain. Mr. Cardwell made this result very clear, but in the latter half of his speech. The Government intends first of all to main- tain a defensive Army within the Islands which, even when compared with Continental armies, will be sufficiently strong. The Regulars number 133,000, whom they are gradually concentrating at home, the trained Reserves have in- creased to 35,000 men, and the Militia now number, not on paper but in fact, 112,000 men. Altogether the Government possesses a defensive Army of 300,000 thoroughly-trained, disciplined, and officered soldiers and reserves, supported by 146,000 Volunteers at least so far instructed that they could, in the hour of extremity, be merged in the regiments of the Line. What with these troops, marines, sailors at home, retired officers and soldiers, we could in the event of invasion rely on opposing the enemy with half a million of disciplined men, a force which, if it were supported as it ought to be by a population which had universally under- gone one year's drill, would be magnificent, and which even as it is ought to render invasion impossible and the fear of invasion simply ridiculous. Of the entire force 146,000 is liable to foreign service, the three years' term of service is popular enough to bring in an adequate number of recruits, the officers have not deserted the Army en masse be- cause of the abolition of Purchase, but are qualifying themselves for their duties instead by attending the great training schools, and a plan has been devised by which all descriptions of soldiers are linked together by new and permanent ties. The Nine great military divisions are subdivided into sixty-six military districts, which for recruiting purposes will be units, and inseparably linked with individual regiments. For instance, supposing Kent to be a district, and the 30th to be affiliated to that county, Kent will be the home of both battalions of the 30th—though one or other of them will be always on duty abroad—its recruiting staff will be there, its history will be studied and watched by Kent men, and it will be the tradition of Kent to enlist in the regiment their brothers, and fathers, and friends will know so well. Behind these two battalions will be two Militia regiments, equally local, equally permanent, controlk d by the same General officers, interchanging officers and men, and gradually interpenetrated with the same traditions. Behind these, again, will stand the Voluntee.s, the whole forming, under a single officer in command, a minute army called the —th District Brigade. In order that there may be no mistake upon this point, which is the keynote of the Army of the future, we quote Mr. 'Cardwell's ipsissinta verba :—" At the head of the whole brigade will be placed a lieutenant- colonel of the regular Army acting as Brigadier, and com- manding-in-chief not only the Regulars and Militia, but also the Volunteers of the district. The permanent staff of the two Militia regiments will be associated with the local depot, and eventually, when the present interests cease, the new per- manent staff will be appointed from the battalion which con- stitutes the depot, so that if they are unsatisfactory they can be sent back to their regiments, and they will always be in the highest state of military training and efficiency. They will be an addition to the staff of the local centres. All re- cruits, both for the Line and the Militia, will be trained at the local centres, and the whole of the recruiting will be under the supreme direction of the lieutenant-colonel who commands the depot. The Army Reserve men and Pensioners resident in any brigade district will be attached to the depot centre for the purposes of payment, training, and discip- line. It is proposed to store all the Infantry, Militia, and Army Reserve arms, clothing, &c., at the depot centre, and, as a general rule, to train the infantry Militia battalions una r canvas at their respective depot centres, which will be their natural head-quarters." An organization upon this prin- ciple must be economical, because of course the tendency will be to concentrate all power and work in the same group of highly-trained officers—not to mention that it secures about 5,000 privates at the cost of 2,000—and must develop to the utmost the spirit of all concerned. A man cannot run away with his cousins looking at him and his father sure to know all about it, while an officer is certain to be interested not only in the comparative condition of his regiment, but that of his county brigade. We cannot conceive a more effective scheme, or one more likely to make it the habit of young men to pass three years of their lives, from 19 to 22, in acquiring dis- cipline, drill, and the physical health which results to our underfed yokels from the Queen's diet. We anticipate every good result from this localization, and trust that everything except efficiency will be made to give way to a plan which we can perceive will for some time tax all the administrative genius in the Army. If it can be thoroughly carried out, and provision supplied for the com- missariat and transport of the brigades, we shall in ten years come to this,—that there will be sixty-six Brigades in the United Kingdom, each composed of 5,000 efficient men, com- manded by a sufficiency of strictly professional officers, each with its own staff, history, military centre, and connection with a special reservoir of recruits. It is true the Brigade will be trained, as a whole, within a peaceful country ; but. so was the Prussian Army ; while at the centre of every British Brigade will stand a nucleus of men who have gone through a term of service beyond seas. If the details are thoroughly worked out, there could be no better system; and Mr. Cardwell, Lord Northbrook, and the Commander-in-Chief all deserve high credit for devising a system so effective and yet so thoroughly consonant with the ways and traditions of our people. If anything could make our soldiers fight better, it would be the sense now realized at last that they will be observed not only as Englishmen, but as "men of the West," Eastern Counties' men, L. Midlanders, Yorkshiremen, or Welshmen. The Duke of Cam-
' midge, let as note, enpassant, has evidently kept his promise not to obstruct, for he has not only helped forward this localization, but has consented to a much more disliked reform, the aboli- tion of the privileges of the Guards, with the exception of the right of the Colonels to select, subject to examinations and so on, the applicants for commissions,—a privilege which tends to keep those regiments aristocratic. We should have preferred another scheme, that of making wealth one of the qualifica- tions for the cavalry—the wealthy class in England being also the hunting class—but there is no harm in leaving one door open through which the jeunesse doree may advance to serve the State. It is well that they should wish to work and get killed, instead of loafing about boulevards and hunting silly women.
The statement, which was of course accompanied by a mass of details, such as evidence, quoted elsewhere, that Government had over-estimated instead of under-estimating the cost of Pur- chase, a project for relieving the block in the Royal Artillery by making every Captain in command of a battery a Major, and a statement about the delight everybody felt at the results pro- duced by the fusion of the Horse Guards with the War Depart- ment which is perhaps a trifle rose-coloured—some folks saying that the Duke of Cambridge feels like a Siamese Twin—was ex- ceedingly well received by the House and every party within it except the economists, who at heart think the whole ex- penditure, or at least half of it, mere surplusage. They are threatening a campaign, and we are a little afraid the Govern- ment will over-estimate its importance, not in the House, where on this subject they are sure of 400 votes, but outside, where it is still believed that the British officer is a person extravagantly paid for the privilege of wearing a bright dress. We believe a retrenchment cry would be most danger- ous, if Mr. Gladstone is hesitating ; but if he is convinced, so convinced that if he will take the trouble to make one speech of the kind he alone can make, one speech, for example, like that in which he showed that the Charitable Societies were plundering the State, he will find that the bulk of the electors are heartily on his side. The majority of Englishmen dislike a prospect of being kicked with impunity, and if they can but be convinced that they are getting their pennyworth of strength for their penny, will cordially support an expenditure which almost for the first time in their history will place them beyond panic, and give them a force sufficient for any work, whether in India, America, or the Continent, they may be called upon to do. The Government does not sufficiently rely on the Imperial in- stinct of the people it governs, a people which is said to be the "least military" in the world, and is the only one nevertheless which can keep up armies without conscription ; which is said to hate war, and never yet refused a challenge ; which " detests the Army," and rushes to recruit because, as Mr. Cardwell says, in his unrhetorical way, there being disturb- ances on the Continent, there was " excitement " among the rural classes here. Give him only a fair chance of a bullet, and Hodge wants to enlist,—that is the testimony of all re- cruiting officers, and might, if well studied, impart a little more wisdom even to economists.
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