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war has torn open the framework of states , and exhibits their anatomy to us , and tells the function of the muscular part of polities . " We may want the head to direct , we may need the heart to knit us together , but the right hand , after all , does the work either of industry or of combat . And yet , the people of this country has suffered that real hold of political power to depart from it ; the English people is divorced from its army , and , in this
respect , we are weaker than some of the states at which we sneer . " We have sustained the loss through forgetfulness , through misapprehension . The period tells us to value that which we had learned to neglect . " We ought to supply it . The opportunity will not be wanting . Should the present struggle be prolonged , draughts will be made upon the English people for money and for men , and then the English people will have a right to claim a share in . the command of its own
army . Nothing has been more striking in . the present war than the letters which have been sent home written by the private soldiers : in force of feeling , in political insight ^ in moral appreciation , in humanity , in . firmness , in military ardour , they are not excelled by the letters of the officers . We know of no distinction . Turns of expression as- good as any in the writings of the professed reporters , or of officers bearing the highest rank and
educated , in the universities , are to be found in the letters of men who have enlisted in the ranks . The stuff of the men is the same . The victory won at fclie Alma was obtained through the good order ; the military sagacity of the , individual men , whom the circumstances of the time cast loose from the ranks , and who were for the hour their own officers . "What distinction then is there between men
and gentlemen bearing her Majesty ' s commission which should forbid the men ' s rising to the rank of officers ; which would forbid any man in the ranks , with the qualities such as we have indicated , from stepping , —by degrees if you like , by hard labour , and by daring ardour , —to the highest post on the field ? "When men and money are wanted , the English people ought to ask that question of their governors .
Contrasts are observed between our own army and the French . Our men are , for the most part , taller , firmer in action , stricter in discipline ; theirs are more inured to active fatigue , more impatient for victory , keener at individual combat ; , but take them altogether , and each will admit that it would care for no enemy but that other . Yet the Trench soldier can tell the English private that of every three officers of the French army one had risen from the ranks . Are we , as
Englishmen , to confess that chivalry belongs only to the French people ? That only a small class of the English share the feeling—a class horn officers ? £ > ay that gentlemanly spirit is absolutely required in the officer , and that you do not always find it in the " common , people" of England ; admit tho assumption , and yet we any that when a man of tho common people shows such qualities- as ave indicated in the letters to which , wo have referred , he proves that there tire "
gentlemon" even in the humblest ranks , and that the > qualities of tho officer live undor tho coarse cloth of tho private soldier . If it is gentlemanly and chivalrous feeling that you require , you would still and a full proportion to givo the English peoplo one-third of tho officers m tho British army . " JBut there is something moro than right ; luckily , since right is < liaclaimod by our Legislators as a sufficient ; ground for public acta . There ia policy . Throw open aoinr missions . to privates , on condition that thoy are men of gentlemanly demeanour , and you
at once raise the standard of behaviour for the whole ranks . 3 Tet further ; "because men rise from the ranks in the [ French army , it is not to be supposed that all such men are other than , gentlemen . " What is " gentle " in the Herald ' s acceptation ? It is that a man shall be nobilis , " that is Tcnowable by his arms ; his family having been distinct with an inherited cognizance . Now there are many gentlemen in England who have a better ' right to bear arms than numbers who
have the money to purchase commissions in the army . To open , commissions for privates would have the double effect of enabling such men to work their way to command ; while , in passing through the ranks , they would leaven the mass , and strengthen the moral operation of the measure upon the body of the soldiers . Our army would then really represent the nation and all its classes . Men and money , we say , will be demanded of the English commonwealth before the
battle is over . Already recruits are going out , and are continually drafted from the body of the people . We supply the bone and sinews , we shall have to pay them . We should obtain only our right if we w ere to insist that exclusive rules , alien from a eommonwealbh like ours , should be broken down . If we give our blood and treasure , give us at least a share in the disposal of it . If we go
to war for the honour of the Queen ' s flag , let the Queen ' s flag honour the English people . If we bear the brunt of the loss , let a portion of the political power , which a share in the military profession confers , be returned to the English people . If we could obtain that out of the war , —if we could throw open the army ,- —if we could secure some degree of sympathy between , the great organised physical force of our state and the
commonwealth , then , tc say , the blood spilled upon the Continent would not be in vain , and England will arise from the contest greater than she was before—more worthy for sovereign and statesmen to govern .
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PEEL'S AUXILIARY MEDICAL CORPS . A sepabate subject from the throwing open of the army , though closely allied to it , is the appointment of medical officers . A movement iq made to increase the assistance and comfort for the soldiers in the East , and some official jealousy is shown of this movement ; why we do not know . Private persons anr ticipated the official commission , and organised a system to provide for the widows and
dependants of suffering soldiers ; and this plan , to a certain extent , remains belter than the official plan . The Royal Commission seems to contemplate no hel p for any but widows or . orphans ; whereas the private Association justly takes account of another class of the helpless , and gives , help to the wife who is deprived of aid by her husband ' s absence , finds a home and safety for children whom the claims of war have bereft of thoir
natural protector , and so cheers the soldier fighting in tho field , whose anxiety would be a more enduring pang than that of tho soldier expiring on the field . Are the dependants of the dead ytoov only to bo thought of ? Does tho official commission intend to put a premium upon the suicide of non-commissioned officers or privates P Until , therefore , wo have some distinct ; understanding that tho Royal Commission intend , in these respoota , to ' as -well as tho private Association , we must hold that the independent help haa not boon needless nor superfluous .
Sir Robert Peel and tho Times buvo suggested tho formation of a . fund to Bond more help tor the sick and wounded ; whereupon " Andrew Smith , M . D ., Director ? General
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HARTMANN . The greatost anxiety is felt on tho Continent for tho fate of tho poet Hartmann , of whom it has recently been stated that ho was sowed at Bucharest by officers of tho Austrian Government , and conveyed to Vienna for perpetual imprisonment or for oxocution , oa tho pretext that he had boon coH-dcmnod to death for political causes . A coaitrmliofcion , has appeared in a Ministerial paper . 'N 10 Morning Qhroniclo says : " Tho report that has lately circulated in GennnnT j
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Army and Ordnance Medical Department , " publishes a memorandum to prove that the sick and wounded are already provided for that there are 276 medical officers in the East ; 30 on their way , and 15 . ready to embark ; that there are boundless supplies of drugs , instruments , hospital stores , and comforts ; and that , in short , so far as it may be done in hospitals , the English soldier who is past fighting may live like a fighting cock . To a certain extent Andrew Smith answers
the complaints that have been made . There is a larger number of medical officers for the number of men than were allowed in the Peninsula—one to 97 instead of one to 154 .. The drugs and instruments are more ample , and comprise the latest improvements of medical chemistry and mechanics ; but the very statement shows that enough had not been done at first , and the best feature in
Andrew Smith ' s explanation is that he promises continued improvement as experience shall instruct theory . "Very good . Then why repel the means of supplying additional help , though it be offered even faster than Parliament will perhaps vote the supplies ? Sir Robert Peel and his coadjutors open their hands—why repel the proffered assistance ? Andrew Smith tells us that the
allowance of medical officers is sufficient for average-purposes ; and ministerial writers represent that the Alma was more than an average purpose— -an extraordinary event . Very true , and the State may not be bpTind to provide for more than the ordinary run of contingencies . But why prevent volunteers from su pplying extra aid which would be available on " extraordinary" occasions ? There is no sense in the refusal . When an accident happens— -say a fire on a Gateshead scale—it would be foolish to blame the
parish or the local authorities for not sending more than the constituted engine of the district ; but if private engines were to arrive , how mad or criminal must be the man who would refuse their help . None but a Spanish grandee or a Chinese would insist upoa keeping flames waiting unquenehed , still less men with wounds unstrapped or legs imam putated , until they could be arrived at by the official person in his regulation uniform .
Any help of this kind it is silly and criminal to refuse . Nor would the benefit be only temporary . " We believe that there is no study so striking and so beneficial as that afforded by tho field of battle . ' It is there that the medical wan learns the spur of necessity tinder its sharpest pressure ; there that he > discovers bis own resources of invention , his own deoision , las own powers of endurance , in nerve and muscle ; learns to know what
humanity can suffer , and science can accomplish . If some few young surgeons wont ovor now , by help of a . fund like Sir Bobort Peel's , they would not only afford an admirable help to their suffering countrymen , but they would havo a fino training for themselves , and would bring back into tho body of the profession a larger share of that stirring experience which haa given to us already a Guthrio and a Gulliver .
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998 THE LEADER . [ Sattopatt ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 21, 1854, page 998, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2061/page/14/
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