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

by James Campbell

Many objections might be started as to our present plan of unattached promotion; and if what I propose is adopted, these would be greatly increased. Staff officers alone should be allowed to hold unattached rank, and their promotion should progress in the same manner as I have suggested for the engineers and artillery. But if unattached promotion is to continue, it should be very rarely resorted to, and never but as a reward for very distinguished services; and if such officers must be brought into regiments, their being so would be infinitely less objectionable and annoying, than if they had got over the heads of their brother officers by money alone. My alarm on this head is on account of the interest or patronage which might be exerted. But I do not see how unattached officers can, with any degree of justice, be brought into regiments, unless it were done when vacancies occurred by deaths, or when officers were dismissed the service by the sentences of courts martial; and in the former case not allowing such steps to go in the corps, in which they took place, would be considered very unfair dealing. It might probably be said, let the unattached officers who have to be brought in, pay to retiring officers the whole sums usually given on such occasions—as will be pointed out when the plan for the military fund comes to be considered—but I must object to this, as it would be restoring the system of purchase, even in a worse and more objectionable form than it assumes at present.

A very essential duty should be performed by major-generals, for whose travelling and other expenses on such occasions a suitable allowance ought to be made; viz. that of superintending the ballot of the men for the regiments in the several districts. Assisted by at least two magistrates or civil authorities of the district, who could be supposed most able to afford information respecting the people, these major-generals ought to see the process of balloting carried on in their presence, and thus all bribery, or any kind of unfairness could be guarded against. They should also be required to see and approve of such men as were produced as substitutes. One major-general could superintend the ballot in a number of districts, but he should not be sent for two years following to the same places; so that the people might be satisfied that any kind of collusion was impossible; especially as our medical staff (also never going for two successive years to the same district) stand too high in rank and public estimation, to admit of its being for a moment supposed, that they could be induced by any means to pronounce a man fit or unfit for service, unless he really were so; and as for a man's height or appearance, the general could not be easily deceived in these respects.

The present expensive recruiting establishments throughout the United Kingdom might be greatly reduced, as in future they could only be required for certain colonial corps, which I shall have to speak of hereafter.

The cruelty of this system of ballot, although rendered almost as mild as that at present in force for the militia, would no doubt be much talked of by pretenders to philanthropy; and the people might be made to suppose, that it was intended to introduce as many horrors into it, as attend a Russian conscription; but the cases would be widely different. In Russia public opinion is of no weight, and is openly set at defiance. In Great Britain it is all powerful, and must be respected. I will not even talk of a French conscription, in which the youth of France gloried in the days of Napoleon. It may probably be asked, would you take away a father, and leave a large and perhaps helpless family to starve or become a burden upon the parish; or would you take away the only son of a widow, or her only one fit for agricultural purposes? I answer—that I intend to do no such thing—but let these philanthropists, and the parish or district, and especially the wealthy part of it, make timely arrangements to find substitutes for such fathers or sons, if they have not the means to do so themselves; and thus such contingencies could be easily met, by what would only be a charitable duty, which one man owes to another, if he presumes to say that his heart is influenced by correct christian feeling.

CHAP. II

Young gentlemen not under the age of sixteen, and not above nineteen, who may have prepared themselves for the army, by studying at any military college, academy, or other institution, should be selected for appointments to engineers, &c., but they ought always to be subjected to a previous examination, in order that it may be ascertained that they have been properly educated. Non-commissioned officers, who may bear high characters in their regiments, ought also to be occasionally appointed to ensigncies, provided they have been so well educated as to pass an examination, but not otherwise, however meritorious their conduct may have been. But I am decidedly of opinion, and many will agree with me, that no captain should ever be promoted to the rank of Field Officer, who could not pass a much stricter examination before a board which should be established for this purpose, and also for examining candidates for first appointments to cavalry, infantry, engineers, and artillery; and this would obviate the necessity of having expensive institutions for public military education.

One of the best educated officers I ever met with, had never been at any military school. He had been taught enough of his own language, in which so many are deficient, and Latin; but the study of the latter had not been allowed to occupy too much of that period of life, when boys can be best instructed in what is much more useful. At a respectable school, he had made considerable progress in the higher branches of arithmetic, also in Algebra, Geometry, History, Drawing, &c., and had acquired a perfect knowledge of what is so essential to an officer, viz. Geography, in all its various bearings; such as the dimensions, boundaries, aspect, climate, soil, mineral, and other productions, resources, commerce, &c. of countries; together with the genius, or bent of mind of their inhabitants; their education, habits, government, the reputations of their armies and navies, productive industry, internal communications, such as canals and roads, &c.; information upon all which points being what ought to be looked upon as constituting a considerable part of a military education. Under the able head of the school alluded to, who was aware of his wish to become an accomplished soldier, he went through fortification, chiefly according to Vauban's system; and he even acquired a slight knowledge, but sufficient for an infantry officer, of the theory of gunnery. Whilst thus occupied, and which was not uncommon in those days, he became an Ensign, and then a Lieutenant in a regiment of the line by purchase. He was also at this time able to avail himself of the advantages to be derived from the assistance of a scientific and practical French officer, who, on account of his loyalty, had been obliged to emigrate, after having served in the army of the Prince of Condé. By him he was advanced in the knowledge of the French language, and likewise made to understand, and how to apply usefully, what he had been previously taught. The military features of a country were pointed out to him; and wherein the strength or weakness of positions consisted; and other matters such as the effects of concentration and extension of force, &c.; and which should be understood by officers who have any pretensions to being considered scientific.

I hope the reader will excuse me for having been so minute in giving the history, trifling as it may appear, of this officer's instruction; but it has been done solely with the view of showing, in some measure, what I mean by a military education, and also what those should have undergone, who aspire to become field officers in the British army. In young gentlemen desirous of entering the army, I would in their previous examination expect to find, at least, the germs of such accomplishments; but the officer I allude to had mastered, without ever entering a military school, nearly the whole I have mentioned before the age of seventeen; and he had thus acquired habits of study, which were not only agreeable, but useful to him afterwards through life.

I beg here to remark, that it has always greatly surprised me, why it should be deemed indispensable, that a young gentleman must have a first rate education, in order to his being admitted into the artillery; whilst any one is allowed into our cavalry and infantry, without it being ascertained whether he can either read or write. Surely the latter may be supposed to want even a better education than the former, if it is expected that he should be able to manœuvre, or direct the movements of troops correctly, either upon a confined or large scale; or to act properly, or as a scientific officer in the field, as he may often have to construct field works, and perform other military operations, when well educated engineers are not at hand.

The examinations of captains might be allowed to take place at any period after they have attained that rank, but should they fail to pass after two attempts, they ought not to be allowed to present themselves again before the board, for this purpose. This last examination I consider as most important, for from amongst these officers must be taken our future commanders of regiments, who may reasonably look forward to become our generals, to be afterwards intrusted with important commands, and even with the civil government of portions of our foreign possessions; for which their high tone of honourable military feeling, and strict habits of discipline, as well as respect for civil authority, must render them so superiorly calculated, as to leave no comparison between them and civilians in general for such appointments; but if most of the allowances, and emoluments formerly attached to these governments, are not restored, and which were in general not more than sufficient to enable those who held them, to support with becoming dignity their stations as representatives of majesty, it would be perhaps as wise to yield to the fancies of a few turbulent and disloyal men, whose understandings seem to be obscured by wild speculations upon colonial affairs; and to allow them to rule in their own way, or as advised or instigated by that indefatigable organ of economy, our distant but valuable possessions—doubly valuable to Great Britain, for in the ships employed in our colonial trade, many of our seamen receive those early lessons which afterwards fit them, according to the present system, for our navy.