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are, no doubt, certain objections to this scheme, (some of which were succinctly stated in a recent Number of the Edinburgh Review, October 1852, p. 499,) but it would probably have a greater effect than any other scheme as a permanent bond of union between the different portions of the empire. Every Australian, Canadian, or New Zealander, would then feel that he was indeed a British citizen, and might aspire in common with the rest to the great prizes of Imperial ambition;_ while the representative who had served a certain time in the British Parliament would carry back with him to his native province a standard of requirement as to public manners, morals, and talent, which would act with admirable effect upon colonial society. Everybody allows that there is no education like that of the House of Commons, and certainly it is nowhere more needed than in our colonies. The closer the connexion between them and the mother country can be made in every way, the more will her moderating and refining influence be felt. We confess, however, that we are less anxious than most as to the mere form and mechanical arrangement of the colonial department of government at home. As long as the British public knew nothing and cared nothing about the outlying dependencies of the empire, the constitution of this department was a matter of serious and undeniable importance. But this is now no longer the case: every day our interest and knowledge respecting colonial affairs are on the increase, and henceforth we have no fear that they will not engross their full share of attention. That attained, the colonies are safe: as soon as the vigilant eye of the public and the press is brought to bear on the conduct of the Secretary of State, there can be no more neglect, or jobbing, or abuse, or oppression: no Minister for hist soul dare commit deliberate or reckless wrong. Mistakes there may be, errors of judgment there may be, occasional misunderstandings even, of the essence of important questions, to these any minister, any council, any assembly, will be liable, and we confess we are no believers in the inherent superiority and infallible wisdom of colonial delegates and colonial assemblies;but with public opinion as the watch-dog, and public reprobation as the penalty, the colonies may rest secure that the highest talent, the most sedulous care, and the strictest conscientiousness which the political world of Britain can produce, will be applied to their concerns as certainly and impartially as to those of the empire at large, or of the metropolis where Parliament holds its sittings.*

* We would call the attention of our readers to a paper of singular ability which appeared in the Westminster Review for October 1852, entitled "Our Colonial Empire."

Dr. Henry Marshall and Military Hygiène. 399

ART. III.-1. The Military Miscellany. By HENRY MARSHALL, M.D. 1846.

2. Speech by the Secretary at War, on moving the Estimates for the Army. February 25, 1853.

3. Report of the Sickness, Mortality, and Invaliding of the Troops in Great Britain, the Mediterranean, and British America. By Lieutenant-Colonel TULLOCH and Dr. T. G. BALFOUR. March 31, 1853.

TWENTY years ago, the British soldier (taking ninety-nine out of a hundred) was a man who, when in the eye of the law a minor, had in a fit of passion, or when drunk, or from idleness, want, or to avoid civil punishment, sold his personal liberty, his lifein one word, himself to the State without reservation. In return for this, he got a bounty of £3, 10s., which, however, was taken back as soon as he was sworn, to pay for his outfit—his kit, as it is called, and he enjoyed an annuity of 1s. 1d. a day, out of which, after paying his share of the mess, his shoes, &c., there remained of daily surplus about 3d. The State provided lodging and medical attendance, and the name, but little else, of religious and general education. In return, he put his will in the hands of the State, and was bound, at any time, and upon any ground, to destroy any other man's life or lose his own, at the word of command. He was, as rapidly as possible, drilled into that perfect man-slaying instrument, that consum

* Our readers cannot fail to remember Herr Diogenes Teufelsdrock's account of this in that fantastic and delightful book, “Sartor Resartus" :-" What, speaking in quite unofficial language, is the net purport and upshot of soldiers and of war? To my own knowledge, for example, there dwell and toil in the British village of Drumdrudge, usually some five hundred souls. From these, by certain 'natural enemies of the French,' there are necessarily selected, during the French war, say thirty able-bodied men. Drumdrudge, at her own expense, has suckled and nursed them; she has, not without difficulty and sorrow, fed them up to manhood, and even trained them to crafts, so that one can weave, and another build, another hammer or stitch, and the weakest can stand under thirty pounds avoirdupois. Nevertheless, amid much weeping and swearing, they are selected, all dressed in red, and shipped away at the public charges, some two thousand miles, or say only to the south of Spain, and fed and scourged there till wanted. And now to that same spot in the south of Spain are thirty French handicraftsmen from a French Drumdrudge, in like manner wending; till at length, after infinite effort and expense, the two parties actually meet, and thirty stand confronting thirty, each with a gun in his hand. Straightway the word 'fire' is given, and they blow the souls out of one another; and in place of sixty brisk, useful workmen, the world has sixty dead carcasses which it must bury, and anew shed tears for. Had these men any quarrel? Busy as the devil is, not the smallest; they lived far enough apart, nay, in so wide a world, there was even unconsciously, by commerce, some mutual helpfulness between them. How then? Simpleton! Their governors had fallen out, and instead of shooting one another, had the cunning to make their poor blockheads shoot. In that fiction of the English Smollet, it is true,

mate destroyer, that we and our enemies know him to be. And having no hope, no self-respect, no spiritual progression, nothing to look forward to, he sank into the sullen, stupid, indomitable human bull-dog. He lived in hopeless celibacy, shut out from any but the worst influences of the other sex. He became proverbially drunken, licentious, and profane. He knew his officer only to obey him, and often to hate and despise him. Memory and hope died within him; for what had he to remember but his own early follies and fatal enlistment, or to anticipate but the chances of his being killed, or dying wretchedly of disease, or turned off a stupid, helpless, and friendless old man? No wonder that he was, as is proved by the greater frequency of suicide in military than in civil life, more miserable and less careful of himself than other men. His daily routine was somewhat as follows:-He was drummed out of bed at five o'clock, his room being a large common dormitory, where the words of three or four blackguards might make all the rest comfortless and silent. He rushed out of doors to the pump, and washed himself out of his hands as he best could, and went to drill; breakfasted substantially, then out to parade, where he must be in proper trim, pipe-clay immaculate; then to go through the everlasting round of "Attention! Eyes right! Stand at ease," &c. Dinner at one o'clock, of excellent broth and meat, and after that nothing to do till nine at night, or to eat till breakfast next morning.

Can there be any wonder that the subjects of this system became so often drunkards, and ran into all sorts of low dissipation, ruining themselves, soul and body? Much of this evil is of course inherent and necessary; it is founded in the constitution of man that such should be, in the main, the result of such an unnatural state of things. But within twenty years there have been numerous improvements. The soldier is now a freer, happier, healthier man, more intelligent and moral, and certainly not less efficient than he ever was since the institution of a standing army.

In his admirable speech in February last, when moving the estimates for the army, Mr. Sidney Herbert made the following remark :-" He did not believe that at any period had the soldier been more comfortable than at the present moment;" he might safely have said as comfortable as at the present moment. After shewing that, by strict and continuous vigilance in this department, in eighteen years, since 1835, "the pattern year of economy," there had been a reduction of £132,766, as compared with the estimate of that year, while, for the smaller sum, we

the final cessation of war is perhaps prophetically shadowed forth when the two 'natural enemies' (France and Britain) in person take each a tobacco pipe filled with brimstone, light the same, and smoke in each other's faces till one or both give in."

Improved Condition of the Common Soldier.

401

maintained 21,000 men more, the cost of each man being £42, 15s. 11d. in 1835, and in the present year £40, 3s. 6d., £10 of this being for the cost of the officers, making the expense of each private £30, 3s. 6d. ; after making this exposition of the greater economy in the production and maintenance of our soldiers, Mr. Herbert went on to shew that this had been effected not only without in any way curtailing their comforts, but with an immense increase in their material and moral wellbeing. We shall mention some of the more marked causes and proofs of this gratifying and remarkable improvement, in the condition of the army, as regards the intelligence, morality, health, and general condition of the common soldier.

1st. The good-conduct pay has been increased to £65,000 a year. Formerly, every man got an increase of pay for long service; now he gets 1d. a day added to his pay at the end of every five years-it was at first seven-provided he has been clear of the defaulters' book for two years, and he carries onehalf of it to his pension, in addition to the amount he is entitled to for length of service. This scheme is working well.

2d. Barrack libraries have been instituted, and with signal benefit. There are now 150 libraries, with 117,000 volumes, and 16,000 subscribers, the men giving a penny a month.

3d. Regimental schools, proposed by Mr. Herbert, and carried excellently out by Lord Panmure. After encountering much prejudice and objection, this plan is going on prosperously. There are now employed with different corps, 60 masters and 16 assistants, all of whom are taken from commissioned and non-commissioned officers. In the 77th Regiment, the schoolroll amounts to 538 adults; the 35th, to 371; the 82d, to 270. This attendance is voluntary, and it is paid for; the only compulsory attendance being in the case of recruits, so long as drilling lasts.

4th. Savings banks, established in 1844. In 1852, the number of depositors was 9,447; the amount deposited, £111,920.

5th. Diminution of punishments.-In 1838, the number of corporal punishments was 879; in 1851, 206; and in 1852-the return being for the troops at home, and half the force on foreign stations they were as low as 96, and all this without the slightest relaxation of discipline. In 1838, the number of persons tried by courts-martial was in proportion to the entire effective force as 1 in 114. Now, it is only 1 in 16.

6th. Increased Longevity.-There never were so few deaths per annum as at present. At the Mauritius and Ceylon the mortality has fallen from 431% to 22 per 1000-nearly one-half; and at Hong-Kong, too famous for its deadly climate, more than one-half-150 to 69; while, in the East and West Indies

and the Cape, in spite of pestilence and war, the diminution of deaths is most strongly marked. Add to all this, that unlimited service the legal sanction of a man selling himself for life— no longer exists, having been abolished in 1847-thanks to Lord Panmure's courage and wisdom; and we have an amount of misery, degradation, and crime prevented, and of comfort, health, and workmanlike efficiency gained, which it would be no easy matter to estimate at its full value and degree. In the case of such an immense public benefit, it is well to do our best to indicate in what quarter, and in what measure, as a nation, whom all this concerns so deeply, our gratitude and praise are due. To what, and to whom, do we owe all this?

The what is not far to seek. Under God, we owe this change for the better, like so many others which we are enjoying and forgetting, to that mighty agent which is in our day doing such wonders, and which will yet do more and greater-the spirit of the age-public opinion-of which, when so manifestly working out the highest interests of man, we may conditionally, and with reverence, say, in the words of "the Book of Wisdom," that it is "the very breath of the power of God—an understanding spirit-kind to man, ready to do good, one only, yet manifold, not subject to hurt, which cannot be letted." This great social element, viewless, impalpable, inevitable, untameable as the wind; vital, elastic, all-penetrating, all-encompassing as the air we breathe, the very soul of the body politic, is-like the great laws of nature, of which, indeed, it is itself one, for ever at its work; and like its Divine Author and Guide goes about continually doing good. Without it, what could any man, any government do for the real good of mankind? It cannot be letted. If you are against it, get out of its way as you best can, and stand aside and wonder at its victorious march; if you will not rather go with it and by it. This is that tide in the affairs of men-a Deo, ad Deum-that onward movement of the race in knowledge, in power, in worth, in happiness, which, with its eternal music, and power, and motion, has gladdened and cheered all who believe, and who, through long ages of gloom, and misery, and havoc, have still believed that truth is strong, next to the Almighty-that goodness is the law of His universe, and happiness its end, and who have faith in

"That God which ever lives and loves,

One God, one law, one element,

And one far off divine event,

To which the whole creation moves."

It is a tide that has never turned; unlike the poet's, it does the behest of no waning and waxing orb, it follows the eye of Him

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