A British army, as it was,--is,--and ought to be

by James Campbell

To commence this system of the ballot for the regular army (which, by allowing the finding of substitutes, or the paying a sum of money for exemption from serving, completely removes the idea of arbitrary conscription,) I beg further to suggest, that commanding officers, under the superintendence of generals selected for the purpose, should have the power of rejecting, and recommending to be discharged from their corps, all men whom, from character, health, or other causes, they may consider objectionable; and the remainder should be allowed to come under the new regulations, as to the period of ten years service, dating from the time of their enlistment; and this being carefully and judiciously arranged, upon the responsibility of commanding officers and regimental surgeons, the numbers required for corps of cavalry, infantry, artillery, or marines, to complete them to their respective establishments, should be called out at once by ballot, and thus the immense expense of bounties might be saved, and a sum for a complete equipment for each soldier of the regular army would only hereafter be required from the country.

This new and more constitutional mode of recruiting the army, would bring into its ranks, and in a manner so little objectionable, such a different description of men, and would so vastly increase the respectability of the service, and give such a high tone of national, and also local interest and feeling to our regiments (for they ought ever after to be kept up by men from the same districts), that the idea of subjecting such soldiers, who could no longer be considered as mere mercenaries, to the corporal punishment of flogging, should, I trust, be abandoned. It may, however, be said, that corporal punishment was found to be necessary to keep up discipline formerly in our militia; and it might be asked, were not the men then called out, and as I now propose, of much the same description as those who composed the militia regiments? I answer—that men who could conduct themselves so as to deserve flogging—which was too much the fashion in those days, ought to have been turned out of the regiments, or got rid of as I have already pointed out.

It may be supposed, that some of the soldiers after having conducted themselves well for ten years, might not think fit to take advantage of the opportunity which would be offered them, of remaining in the service, so as to obtain pensions at future periods; but having accepted of their discharges, had returned to their homes, where, finding out that military habits had become more powerful with them than they supposed, they might again wish to return to the service. Now, although these men would have got beyond the age at which substitutes might be taken, yet they should be allowed to become such, provided they offered themselves within one year from the date of their discharges, and having served reputably for ten years more, I would propose so far to give them credit for their former ten years service, as to allow them, on being discharged, pensions of nine-pence a day, but no more, for not having availed themselves of the opportunity of remaining in the army, when they might have done so, other men had to be called out and equipped at the expense of the country, to replace them in their regiments; and it would also be presumed, that they had been paid for becoming substitutes. It might be expected that such men, after ten years service only, would make excellent policemen, or non-commissioned officers for the Reserve when called out.

If it were necessary to advocate in the strongest possible manner, the advantages of corps possessing national, or rather local feelings, I would have nothing to do but to instance some of the Scotch regiments, which were raised and kept up from particular parts of that country, whose conduct in all situations, and under all circumstances, was so praise-worthy. These corps, whilst they were proverbial for their gallantry in the field, were known to have been for long periods without a single instance of corporal punishment.

An army composed, as that I have in view, ought not to be officered by men who can get forward, as at present, by purchasing over the heads, too often, of much better soldiers than themselves, in point of gallantry, military science, and experience. And how strangely also, and inconsistently, are honours conferred upon officers in our army—not for alone distinguishing themselves in action, but because they happened to hold a rank sufficiently high to entitle them to a certain command, or to be the head of a department, and to which the greater part of them had attained, perhaps, by money, well backed by interest; for an officer may have been in every action of importance, from the beginning of the present century up to Waterloo; may have frequently distinguished himself, and may have been even promoted to the rank of Major, and Lieutenant-Colonel, for services in the field, and yet not be entitled to either a clasp or medal, because he did not happen to hold that which would bring him within a fixed regulation on this head. I do not, however, pretend to say, that many of those who commanded corps or detached bodies, and who had arrived at that honour by means of money, were not excellent and gallant officers, but others, over whose heads they, perhaps, had got, could have been pointed out, whom, from not possessing that mainspring, money, or from want of opportunity of applying it, had been obliged to submit to the, perhaps, annoying questions of a genteel, though not rich, and consequently uninfluential family—such as—pray, Colonel, how comes it, that you have neither a clasp nor a medal, nor any thing else to show, although we know that you were present in so many battles, and at so many sieges; when there was at the Mayor's feast the other day (and yet we never heard much of him) General Sir Richard Sam, the son of old Dickey Sam, who, years ago, did his best to bring in —— for ——, who was quite covered with clasps, medals, and ribbons, and he is also a Knight Commander of the Bath into the bargain. Well might it have puzzled the Emperor Napoleon to conceive how a British army could have been kept efficient, and in the state it was, in which high minded gentlemen were subjected to so galling and absurd a system of obtaining rank and honours; especially when it was also seen, that through the effects of our strange brevet system, a Captain of a Company, from being, perhaps, a senior Lieut.-Colonel in the Army, could in garrison, or when acting with a mixed body of troops in the field, take the command of the whole, and likewise of the Lieut.-Colonel of his own regiment,—and I have known instances of this kind—but probably the very next day, when the corps came to act separately, or when a senior officer took the command of the troops, the Lieut.-Colonel of the corps, or its major, or any of its captains, who happened to have seniority in the regiment to the Brevet Lieut.-Colonel, could drill him in the ranks to their heart's content, and thus teach the teacher of the previous day respect for his—very likely—superior in wealth. All this is, however, very ridiculous, and shews our brevet system to be bad, and that it should, as well as the present mode of purchasing promotion, be abandoned.

The matter could be easily settled, and the mischief obviated for the future, by the country refunding to those who purchased promotion, if they think fit to retire from the army, the regulated sums they are supposed to have paid; and, under other heads, I hope to be able to show, should any avail themselves of this offer, how savings can be effected to meet this or any other outlay I may venture to propose; for it is too well known to be denied, that many an officer, who bought promotion in former times in this undeniably injurious manner to the service, pledged his word of honour, that he would not give more than the regulated price, whereas he had, perhaps, at the moment agreed privately to pay double for the step; and what must be thought of a system, when even those in power had not probably the necessary information to enable them to check such evasion, and almost open defiance of orders.

The Sovereign alone, at the recommendation of the Commander-in-Chief, should have the power of rewarding and honouring conspicuous gallantry, and high merit, by marks of distinction, or by promotion out of the regular routine of seniority; but this prerogative, I think it will be allowed, ought, especially as regards promotion, to be very rarely exercised; and putting an end to such a disheartening and disgusting a practice, as that of officers being able to get forward by money or interest alone, would wonderfully improve our regiments of the line, and infinitely more those of our cavalry.

I have just had my attention called to some of the points which appear to have been brought under the consideration of the Naval and Military Commission, from whom so much was looked for. I confess that I am greatly disappointed; for they seem to me to have only tried how they could best repair an old defective system, in place of proposing, as might have been expected from so many experienced officers, something new, and more suitable to the times, and the wants of the country; but this, I conclude, has been occasioned by the manner in which the several points were submitted for their consideration; and I am not, therefore, deterred from proceeding in the task I have assigned myself, and must remark, in continuing my subject, that if what I propose is adopted, we might probably hear of promotion being expected to be too slow; but what I have still to beg attention to, may greatly obviate any such objections; yet, when officers saw that justice was done impartially, it would make them patient and contented, even if promotion were slow; but let me ask, where were such officers to be met with in any army, as our highly educated and enlightened officers of Engineers and Artillery, though for many years situated with respect to promotion, as I wish all our officers nearly to be in future.

Granting the brevet rank of field officer to regimental captains is of little advantage to them individually, and has often been found injurious to the service; and would be still more so under the proposed system; and it ought in consequence, to be (as I have before suggested) abandoned, or at all events as seldom conferred as possible. In order that regimental field rank may be sooner attained, I would venture to recommend, that no lieut.-colonel should be obliged to remain in the almost always unpleasant and most responsible command of a regiment, longer than a fixed number of years; when having so served, he should, as a matter of course, become a major-general on the effective list—that is, he ought to receive a fixed pay, though not employed. Or perhaps it might be preferable, when a lieut.-colonel had commanded for the required number of years, if he thought proper to retire altogether from active service, with the rank however of major-general, to allow him a superior retirement from the country to what may be the pay of major-generals on the effective list; and this being added to what he would receive from a military fund, which I intend yet to propose, would induce many to avail themselves of the opportunity, especially if they had little hope of being actively employed, or no chance of getting a regiment. This would remove any apprehension from being entertained of our generals on the effective list becoming too numerous.

I am aware it may be said, that this plan is defective; for there is no arrangement made, so as to remove one of the great objections to our present mode of promotion, with regard to officers of engineers, artillery, and marines; but I take a very simple view of this matter; for I would merely look to a list of officers of the regular army of all ranks, and to the dates of their commissions; and when a cornet or ensign of any regiment became by the regular routine of promotion a lieutenant, I would, as a matter of course, make any officer of engineers, artillery, or marines of the same standing, a lieutenant also, yet without giving him the additional pay till a vacancy occurred in his own corps; and I would do the same through the different gradations of ranks, until the officers of engineers or artillery had become lieut.-colonels. I would then style them, and cause them to act as chiefs of engineers or artillery, and which rank they should hold for the same number of years as lieut.-colonels commanding regiments, when, like them, they should become major-generals; and enabling them also to take advantage of the retirement from the country, and of the system to be proposed for the military fund, these accomplished officers, if they thought fit to remain upon the effective list, could become available for staff or any other appointments the same as other generals, and at the same period of life. Out of the effective list of major-generals, lieut.-generals, or generals, the Commander-in-chief, as at present, could select those whom it might be deemed advisable to employ upon the staff of the army, or for any particular object, and as it is to be presumed that their services might be constantly required, especially in our foreign possessions, few of them would be found an unnecessary burden upon the country.