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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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practicable, so that eventually we might, if possible, have available 100,000 men of this description at home, in addition to a very considerable number in some of the more healthy colonies. In many of our colonies such a force would be of the greatest possible use, and in some cases almost the only one required. In New Zealand 2,000 or 3,000 of such men would be sufficient to main- tain the authority of the Government, while, at the same time, they would be very valuable as settlers, and save the heavy expense of the present large garrison. Annexed to this memorandum will be found an extract from a very able paper by Colonel Tulloch, on military colonization.

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III. For the purpose of supplying the requisite number of men for the kind of force just described, and at the same time to forward the great object of rendering our military service more popular than it now is, so as to raise the general character of the men who enter the army, should further propose that the principle of enlistment for a limited time should be introduced, and that measures should also be adopted to render service in the army more advantageous and agreeable than it now is. The term for which I should suggest that soldiers should be enlisted would be for ten years; so that the youth of eighteen, on entering the army, would have to look forward to being once more his own master at twenty-eight. It should, however, be provided, to obviate the inconvenience that

might arise, that if a soldier should be actually serving against an enemy in the field, or in a distant colony, when the period at which he was entitled to his discharge should arise, there should be a power of retaining him in the ranks for an additional time, not exceeding two years in the first case, or one year in the other. But it would be in vain to abridge the period of military service without also endea- vouring to make it both more advantageous and more agreeable to the soldier. For this purpose I propose that

on the expiration of his ten years' service, every soldier should have the right of being enrolled for service, when called upon, in reserve companies, organized precisely upon the same principle with the local companies of pen- sioners above adverted to, and upon the same terms with these men as to payment, except that, not having pen- sions, the men discharged after ten years' service should have an annual gratuity of two pounds instead of one. To these men who should enrol themselves and regularly fulfil the obligation of serving when called upon, I would give the right of receiving a pension of 6d. a-day on their attaining the age of sixty. This annual gratuity and the eventual clain to a pension in old age, would, I have no doubt, be regarded as a great boon. But I would further propose (and to this I attach the very greatest import-

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ance), that during his ten years' service, every soldier in the army should receive precisely the same instruction which is now given to Sappers and Miners. The consequence of this would be, that in a very short time a discharged soldier, instead of being considered unfit for any other employment, would be regarded as the most useful man to be found for all the ordinary employments in which skilled and intelligent labour is required. If this system were brought into full operation the army would become

a geat industrial school, having served an apprenticeship in which would give a man a preference over others in the great competition for employment which is always going on; and thus, at absolutely no expense, an advantage would be given to the soldiers of our army which would not fail very soon to be highly appreciated, and to render admission to its ranks an object of very general desire amongst the working classes.

This conversion of the army into a great industrial school would also have a very beneficial effect in diffusing amongst the whole working population of the kingdom a knowledge of all improvements in industry, and in the effective application of labour. This would be more pecu- liarly important as regards Ireland, so great a part of the misery of which unhappy country is attributable to the ignorance of the people in every description of skilled labour. In order effectively to work out this system of industrial instruction in the army, it would be necessary

to turn the labour of the troops to account by employing them during the time that can be spared from their mili- tary duties, either on public works, or in the execution of large works for railway companies, or even for individuals. The men would of course be paid, as the Sappers and Miners now are, for their labour; the addition they would

thus obtain to their pay, would tend greatly to render the service more popular; whilst by thus filling up the many hours now passed in idleness, what I believe to be one great cause of drunkenness, and therefore of the offences against discipline which are committed in our army would be removed. The State at the same time would be sub- jected to no expense whatever by the introduction of this system; on the contrary, if well applied, the labour of the troops might, I am convinced, be rendered most valuable. There is reason to believe, judging from what has been accomplished by the Sappers and Miners, and in some cases by regiments of the line, that the great public works of defence which are in contemplation, and which I believe to be very necessary, the additional prisons which are required, and the improved barracks which are in many places, and especially in our colonies, urgently wanted, could be far more cheaply executed by military than by any other labourers; while in the present state of the

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