TOPICS OF TH v. DAY.
DEMORALIZED STATE OF THE ARMY.
Mn. ELLICE has informed the House of Commons, that " in the last two years one fifth of the whole Army on English stations has passed through the public gaols." One fifth in two years is the same as the tenth annually. With this fact in view, Mr. ELLICE might well say, that " we had arrived at a pass in military dis- cipline which required the most sober and serious consideration." But, in order to see the full force of the statement, we must compare the condition of the Army, as regards crime, with that of the non-military population.
The total number of commitments for crime in England and
Wales may be taken, in round numbers, at twenty thousand an- nually. If this is thought to be a little under the mark for the last year, the returns for which we have not at hand, it should be borne in mind, that the commitments of soldiers are therein in- cluded, and that the floggings and other modes of punishing the military are not taken into Mr. ELLICE'S calculation; for he, expressly says, that one fifth had passed through the gaols in two years. The population of England and Wales is about fourteen millions ; and if we deduct from that amount four millions for infants and persons in the eye of the law incapable of crime,--a very liberal deduction certainly,—we shall find that one out of every five hundred of the civil population, and one out of every ten of the military, are annually committed for crimes. This exhibits the demoralization of the Army in its frightful enormity. It is quite manifest that the system on which it is governed cannot be changed too soon. All the fine talk we hear occasionally about the admirable management at the Horse Guards, is worth nothing in opposition to the appalling facts mentioned by Mr. ELLICE.
Military men are excessively touchy when " civilians" meddle with their department. But the absolute necessity of the case will compel interference from without, seeing that the internal administration of the Army is so extremely defective. It is mere nonsense to impute the increase of crime in the soldiery to the diminution of flogging; for it is notorious that a flogging Colonel has always the most disorderly regiment, and that a man once flogged becomes callous to shame and a worthless vagabond. Neither is it to be attributed to the restriction of the number of lashes inflicted; for three hundred may be made quite as savage a punishment as a thousand, if the commanding oflicer so wills it. We have several times lately been struck with the fact that the surgeon has put a stop to the flogging when only a hundred and fifty or two hundred lashes have been laid on, whereas formerly he scarcely ever found it necessary to interfere to save the lives of the poor victims until double the number hail been given. The fact is, that the drummers are now more frequently changed, and more skilfully trained to the performance of their horrid duty. It is therefore necessary to prove that floggings are really less severe, before the increase of crime can be attributed to the regulations lately forced upon the Horse Guards by public opinion. There is no occasion to beat about for the causes which have ren- dered oer Army such a receptacle and nursery for the depraved.
According to the aristocratic system on which promotions are regulated, no active, ambitious young man of the lower ranks, can hope to rise above the post of' sergeant. The higher stations in the Army are monopolized by lords and gentlemen, who would not for the world associate with a plebeian. This is sufficient of itself to deter the men most valuable for the service from inlisting. BONAPARTE understood the method of turning to good account the ambition of men in humble life, better than our aristocratic rulers. We have been told on good authority, though we do not recollect to have seen it stated in print, that for some nights pre- vious to his last departure from Paris to join his army at Water- loo, he employed himself in making out lists of the common soldiers and lower class of officers, whom he intended to advance from the ranks immediately after his expected victory—as the surest me- thod of recruiting his army with the best men in France. The liability to flogging, on the complaint of a perhaps drunken officer, is also an excellent reason for keeping RICH of good cha- racter and proper feeling from the Army.
Then, idleness is the root of all evil : and in time of peace soldiers are emphatically lazy, their most laborious duties being little better than monotonous trifling. How can we expect such men, as our absurd and vicious system compels us to fill the ranks with, to resist those temptations to which so many of their half-pay of- ficers yield—as the Police records of the Metropolis testify? Until some means are invented of providing useful and agreeable em- ployment to the military in time of peace, they will continue to be drunken, dissolute, quarrelsome, and thievish—ay, even although better men in the first instance were induced to inlist, than are en- trapped into the service at present. Human nature cannot resist the temptations to which want of rational and profitable employ- ment subjects soldiers.
We cannot avoid the conclusion, from the admitted facts re- specting the state of the Army—that either the whole military system must be altered, and a less aristocratic and more sensible one adopted ; or the Army itself must be disbanded. Such ruffians as the Secretary at War describes so large a proportion of the soldiery to be, ought not to be trusted with arms in their hands. They are formidable only to their unarmed fellow-subjects and paymas- ters. The House of Commons has the power in its own hands to effect reforms, in spite of the Duke and Lord HILL. This should be remembered when the next Estimates are brought forward : it reflects disgrace on the House, and on Mr. ELLIce's administration, that it has escaped correction in the present session. What I shall we nurse and maintain some thousands of gaol-birds in the uniform of soldiers, when, by proper management, respectable and well-behaved men can be had for the same money? Once open the upper ranks of' the Army to all the deserving—establish the rule that promotion shall go by merit only—abolish cruel and dis- gusting punishments—and the finest young men in the country will be eager for the service which they now hold in fear and hatred. Surely 40,000 such as these would be a more effective force than twice the number of men so depraved and unruly as Mr. ELLICE describes the British soldiery of the present day.
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