PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
TELEC.O. 885
1 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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lieved only by resorting to the public-house or canteen, and ending either in premature death in some unhealthy or distant colony, or in his being discharged in what ought, from his time of life, to be still vigorous manhood, with a broken constitution, and un- fitted for almost any description of profitable labour, with a pension barely adequate to his support.
That the value of the change would be appreci- ated by the population of this country, and that in consequence a military career would soon come to be a popular one, and admission into the army to be considered a decided advantage, I see no reason for doubting; and it is obvious that the moment this feeling can be created, the necessity for corporal punishment will be dane away with.
When dismissal from the army shall in itself become a punishment, as it then would be, there would be no more need of cor- poral punishment to maintain its discipline, than there is found to be in the police force. To forward the important object of creating such a feeling, a discharge from the army should cease to be granted as a reward for
our
good conduct, and the opposite principle should be adopted, by refusing to allow any soldier not having a good-conduct mark, to continue in the army on the expiration of his ten years' service. It is further most important to remark that the adoption of the measures now recom- mended would involve no increase in military expenditure: on the contrary, taken
would altogether, I believe that this system
upon the whole, lead to a diminution of the existing charge of our army. Some heads of expense would doubtless be considerably increased, but these would be more than met by reductions in others, more especially in those for main- taining and relieving our colonial garrisons, and above all in the heavy charge of pensions. The present charge for military pensions, as voted in the Army Estimates for 1846, amounts to no less a sum than £1,191,350, and is more likely for some time to come to increase than to diminish. But if we were to adopt the system of limited
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service, discharging soldiers without pensions after ten years' service, it is obvious that even with the proposed grant for pensions to men cnrolled for service in reserve companies, on their attaining the age of sixty, the amount of this charge must soon be very greatly dimi- nished.
IV. I must however observe, that for the success of the policy now recommended, it would be indispensable that means should be taken to improve the education and the habits of the officers, as well as of the men of our army. It
is, I fear, a fact beyond all doubt, that, taken as a body, the officers of our army stand at this moment much lower than they ought, in point
of education and of general intelligence, and that their usual mode of life is one of all others least calculated to improve them. From our system it is impossible to expect that this should be otherwise. Young men enter very early in life (long before their education ought to be considered to be complete) into the army, and from that moment they have no motive or encouragement held out to them for study or exertion. Their promotion depends exclusively either upon seniority or upon interest and their having money to purchase their successive There is not even a pretence of making
steps.
it depend upon their showing themselves to be fit for it. In the navy before an officer can obtain his commission as lieutenant, he is obliged to pass through a strict examination, and to show that he has acquired all the know- ledge necessary for the effective performance of his duty. But in the army there is nothing of the kind; a young officer may get his company, and subsequently rise to the highest rank in the army upon the mere statement of his command- ing officer, that he is acquainted with what may be termed the mechanical parts of his profes- sional duty; and even the assurance that he knows this, is too often given as a mere matter of form and without being at all deserved. Under such a system, can we be surprised that
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