The latest change in the administrative branches is the conversion of the formerly noncombatant “Commissariat and Transport Department” into the combatant “Army Service Corps,” and the officering of that force by selected officers after a searching course of training and examination.
Much more serious attention is paid, too, to the food of the soldier and military hygiene generally. A quarter of a century ago the ration of bread and meat was eked out by a grocery ration limited both in dimensions and variety. Now, without extra cost to the soldier, and solely by better management and better cooking, he fares not as well as, but better than, many a family in civil life of presumably a better position. Thus the weekly dietary, in a company of a line regiment at Aldershot not long since, comprised for breakfast a selection (every day having a fresh combination) from tea, cocoa, porridge and milk, bloaters, rissoles, bacon, brawn, corned beef, and cold boiled bacon; for dinner, pea soup, roast meat stuffed, potatoes, Irish stew, plain suet pudding, barley soup, meat pies, brown curry and rice, currant rolls, lentil soup, baked meat, haricot beans, sea pies, rice pudding and Yorkshire pudding; and for tea, marmalade, dripping, soused herrings, cheese, kippers, and jam. Not only is the dietary therefore more varied and appetising, but the men trained at the cookery school are fully qualified to cook it properly.
In other respects the army has altered little. The profession is naturally conservative, and does not care to try new armour unless it has proved it. But the story of the army tells this—that in two hundred years it has increased from 3000 men to nearly 667,000 putting aside local colonial troops and our admirable Indian army. This number is composed of
| Regular Army | 216,688 | |
| Army Reserve 80,000 | } | 110,000 |
| Militia Reserve 30,000 | ||
| Militia | 75,000 | |
| Volunteers | 255,000 | |
| Yeomanry | 9,500 | |
Of this force, about 110,000 of the regular troops are serving abroad and the remainder at home; while, though no new regiments have been added since 1870, the army has increased in number by 29,000 men, and this without the faintest opposition. All the former dread of it, whether real or affected, has passed away. In place of it has grown up the feeling that it has won the nation’s affection, and has earned and holds its confidence.
Meanwhile, in many a small matter of daily life there is a survival of long-forgotten military ideas. The acts of courtesy of removing one’s hat or shaking hands with an ungloved hand are, after all, but baring the unarmoured head and using the unmailed, and therefore friendly, hand. With the soldier’s salute, the dropping of the sword-point is exposing the unguarded breast, the “present arms” but offering the power of firing the weapon to the person saluted. Passing right hand to right hand is but being on one’s guard, and having the power of easily standing on the defensive. Even the two useless buttons on the back of the man’s coat may be but the survival of the means whereby the sword-belt was kept up.
In the names of bachelor, esquire, and soldier live those of bas chevalier (inferior knight), escuyer, and solde, or pay. In the expression “pulling the long bow” survives the spirit of some of the tales told by stout yeomen over strong ale. In the fantastic flourishes that surround the helmet and shield in the painted coat-of-arms is seen still the mantling that covered the tilting heaulme.
The army is as much part of the social and national life of England as its commercial marine, or its police force. It does the same duty on a large scale for the former as do the latter on a smaller scale in civil life. It protects the commercial enterprise of our merchant princes, finds new outlets for our manufacturers. It guards our seaports at home and abroad; it assists the civil police against the proletariat, and that without creating real hostility.
It represents the fighting spirit that has made the nation what it is and has enlarged its boundaries. It has given us what without its aid would have been impossible—external and internal safety.
And, most of all, it has preserved unsullied our national honour. Where the flag flies over British fighting men, there our lads behave as becomes true Englishmen, and face death fearlessly. The spirit that braced the nerves of the men of Lincelles, Albuhera, and Inkerman lives still in their descendants, and those who fought and fell before the Arab rush at Abu Klea may well stand in the nation’s esteem side by side with our heroes of the past.