The different plans which have from time to time been suggested may be classified under two main divisions:
(1.) Those which propose a special military education for all candidates for commissions before entering the service.
(2.) Those which advocate, in preference, the postponement of professional instruction, at least for the majority of the officers of the army, until a later period, after the service has been entered, and the rank of officer been attained.
Under the former head comes the scheme suggested by the Council of Military Education in 1858, the adoption of which was at one time determined upon by the military authorities, for requiring all candidates for commissions in the cavalry and infantry to pass through Sandhurst. A similar proposal was suggested by witnesses to the Royal Commission on the Purchase System in 1856; it was supported by the authority of the Duke of Cambridge and Mr. Sidney Herbert (who had originally been opposed to it) before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Military Organization, in 1860; and the Committee, in their Report, though declining to pronounce any decided opinion on the subject, stated that they considered the measure “well worthy of the most careful consideration.” Of late years the same principle has been publicly advocated by Sir C. Trevelyan, who considers that there should be but two modes of admission to the rank of officer,—one through a military college, and the other by serving in the ranks; and the advantages which would result from passing all candidates for commissions through a military college have been urged by several witnesses, including His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, before the present Royal Commission. On the other hand, opponents of this view have pointed out the objections entertained by them to any such measure.
Allied to the plan for making a military college the sole channel of admission to the commissioned ranks of the army is one for requiring all candidates for commissions to serve as cadets, in order to acquire a practical acquaintance with their duties, before obtaining the rank of officer. This proposal, originally suggested by Lord Clyde, before the Royal Commission on the Purchase System, has more recently been supported by the authority of Sir W. Mansfield and Lord De la Warr; the latter officer, however, appears of late to have somewhat modified his views, and to advocate at present, for all young men who obtain direct commissions by purchase, a probationary course of six or twelve months’ instruction in military subjects and drill, at their parents’ expense, prior to joining their regiments, in accordance with a plan submitted to the Commission. The cadet system has also been advocated by Lord Walden before the Commission.
To the class of plans which advocate the postponement of professional instruction for the majority of the officers of the army until after the service has been entered, belong Mr. Sidney Herbert’s original proposal, in 1854, for the introduction of a system of garrison instruction—the recommendation of the Commissioners of 1856 “that young officers after entering the army should go through some course of professional study,”—the suggestion made by the Royal Commission on the Purchase System for “an improved system of training after the first commission is granted,”—and the proposal of the Council of Military Education, in 1857, for the establishment of depot battalion schools for young officers. Opinions founded on the same principle have been expressed by several witnesses before the present Commission. The system of garrison instructors at large stations, that of regimental instructors in each corps, and, lastly, a combination of both systems, have been respectively advocated by various authorities as the machinery by which the later instruction of officers should be carried out. Even those who advocate a special education at a military college as the universal condition of obtaining a commission do not, in the majority of cases, contemplate the cessation of all instruction on the commission being obtained; at the same time in many instances they do not consider that this later instruction should be made compulsory on officers, and, while recommending that facilities should be afforded for it, they maintain the superior efficacy of a system of preliminary military education at an earlier age.
[I. SURVEY CLASS AT ALDERSHOT.]
The survey class at Aldershot originated in an order of the Quartermaster-General in 1857, appointing two extra deputy-assistants to afford professional instruction to officers of the division stationed there in military sketching and surveying, field and permanent fortification, and photography.
These courses and conditions of attendance are as follows:
1. An elementary course comprises practical geometry, so far as is necessary for the understanding of the principles of surveying and fortification, plan drawing, the construction and use of scales, and military sketching.