We imagine that a vote considerably increasing the pay of
the private soldier will be found in the next Estimates. At all events the cue appears to have been given to alarm the public into sanc- tioning an increase, Tory speakers everywhere renew their attacks on the recruits, and the Duke of Cambridge, on Friday week, told a company dining at Xerchant Taylors' that the alternatives were " conscription " or mom expenditure. We believe an increase to be indispensable, the present pay being too small to attract sufficiently good men. It is la. 2d. a day, out of which 6d. is stopped for rations, id. for washing, and lid. for clothes, &c. The soldier therefore obtains only 8s. 2c1. a week and lodging, —that is, less than an ordinary farm labourer. Abolish the stop- pages, and we can have all the men we want. Our only dread is that the increase will not take the shape of a direct grant to the private, but of some sort of a prize, which will not tempt men who are not certain of obtaining it. Six months' apprenticeship is fair, and would be understood, but it should be remembered that the first six months is the soldier's trying time.
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