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LOT THIS DEPARTMENT , AS AM . OPINIONS , HOWE ^ E EXTREME ABB ALLOWED AIT EX-PBESSION , THE EDITOli ITECESSAMX . Y HOLDS HI 1 ISELE UESBOXSIBJjE VOR NONE . ]
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Sir , —I have no wish , to detract in the slightest de " gree from the merits of Mr . Leslie , of Belfast , in lii .-s plans for the future of our standing army ; but I beg distinctly to state that the very same proposals ? ¦ were published by me about a year ago in the Morning Herald . I have long studied the questiou of the improvement of our soldiers , during a very lengthened sei-vice in tho army , and I consider of all the meaus of obtaining soldiers that of giving large bounties is the most ; vicious . It makes a drunken rabble oJ soldiers , and wastes the public money in brutal dissipation . , Sir , your obedient Servant An Ojld Soldier . 17 th February , 1856 .
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FUNEBAL OJ ? THE LaTB DUKE OF NOHFOLK . —The remains of this juoblemau wore on Tuesday buried in state m tho private ohupel attached to the parish church of Aruudol . The Great Northern Railway . —The chairman of this line announced at the half-yearly moetinp ; I * xh (; Saturday that the disagreement between tlio Great Northern Company and the various computing companies had been settled . It had boon agreed between the disputants that the questions at Jbsuo hIiuII again bo referred to Mr . Gladstone , who ia to bo requested to undertake the ro-distribution of the truffle oumurisod in hiB former award , and of the towns addod thereto , and suoh other places aa can be roachod by tho partioa concexuiod ; tho award to date from tho 1 st of January in tho preaonb year . The competition na regards fares is to ooase .
Phojii ; cted Rumovai ., ov Newuatk Pjiison to Hollowa-Y . —Alderman Gubitt , in the Court of Aidermqn on Tuesday , brought up tho report of ( ho 00111-mitteo appointed to inquire into the oondU ' oii <> f Newgate , ana also into tho oxpedionoy of abolishing the prison altogether , and making provision for tlio prisoners at Holloway and oluewhoro . It appoura thnfc the prison is extremely inoonvoniont , and uilbrn frtoilitios for osonpo . Finally , is w «» agreed * ' that Iho report bo roooivod , and thnfc it bo referred Unok to the committee to wb tshorohx <* a they shall think fit . "
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sorne connexion with u society , " or some influence ; with a Minister—it may be sometimes a claim for real services rendered to the Statethat was all that Government demanded of the candidate for a responsible post ia her Majesty ' s Army . Gould anything be more preposterous ? Nothing . All experience , all authority , all actual existing practice , in free , in despotic , in constitutional States , all the axioms of genius , all the examples derived from renowned commanders , all this was
clean against felxe British system— -against making the army a tool for low purposes , a plaything for pedants and martinets . Since the Duke ' s army was sent to the four winds irt 1814 , we have not had an army , or any military institutions ; and we need not be surprised that we have had no great military
men . But are matters changed now ? Have the possessors of power since 1853 done anything to- supply the defective foundations of our military system ? Where are the schools and colleges on which the military hierarchy should repose , like a column on its pedestal ? In no other civilised , country is there anything analogous to our modes of getting officers . We axe quite original . ^ Republican America aiid despotic Eussia both require an elaborate tiauiing for the profession of airas from tfee candidates Sor that career . France has a
dozen schools open to ¦ all competitors—r-the lists of honour , as they might be called , wiere the best man is sure to win the prize . These sations require from the persons who-. ptop 6 . to command their troops not only ordinary information , but some . knowledge of matters relating to war . We are wiser than tliey ; and knowledge pi : matters relating io or titat may lie tiseM ? in ; War . ; t hfiseare the last things we
meqpixe ikom . the youths mho have put down iiieir . names at the Horse : Guards , "They may 3 ) e . actual- gowks , or they may be possible ^ eneralsi but these are not what -we require tbnknow . ' We only require that they shall be ¦ fea 6 TKpi ,.. - to somebod y wiio is known io the authorities , and possessed of . money to a certain amount . What ladmiiable provision for vicC ^ tofey l- ¦ . ' : . ¦¦ , " ¦ ¦ ., ' . "'
^ Certainly , foremost among the reforms to be effected in the army , is this—the establishment of Military Colleges , in which all officers , without any kind of exception , gentle and simple , noble and commoner , must graduate , always excepting those -who are , for soldierl y qualities and good conduct , raised from the ranks . Above all we want a regularly-organised school for an efficient staff . This ia a
want of the greatest urgency . War , no doubt , educates a staff , but what a clumsy and costly anode of learning the simplest elements of the military profession ! A good staff supplies , in some degree , the want of all-commanding genius ; and what a bad staff can do—the operations in the Crimea attest . There is no lack of infoionation on this important branch of military organisation ; no lack of tried and approved systems upon which to model our own . What is wanted is a Premier or a
Commander-Mischief , -with insight enough to see its necessity , capacity enough to devise , and will sufficient to execute tho founding- of a solid sy « tfem of military education . We do not think the question can much longer be shirked by any ' . Government ; and looking to the general aspect of our foreign relations , looking beyond ' - 'Uxa-Russo-Turkish quarrel , we do not see any branch of the public service that so impera' twely , calls for Administrative Reform . '
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words of a private letter from Labuan . Lord Palmerston has appointed a new Lieutenant-Governor of that island , " and its dependencies ; " but what is required is not a pompous official staff , but a waa-steamer , to patrol the adjacent coasts , and blockade the pirate rivers . At intervals of two or three months , the little colony at Labuan is fluttered by intelligence that a great buccaneering squadron is at sea , " picking up " the Chinese and Malay traders , and reconnoitring , the naval
station from which , a few years ago , they were terrified by the apparition of the British flag . It is only the idea , sedulously promoted by the English residents and the friendly chiefs on the Bornean coast , that a war-steamer hides in a creek of Labuan , which has prevented an attack . Should this wholesome fiction be dissipated , what would be the chances of the little town of Victoria , with its unbuilt streets and deserted jetty ? It commands , indeed , the services of a six-pounder or two , and it has a
Courts of Sarawak , is known , and obeyed iii the forest-villages far up the river , where nothing else of European origin has penetrated . We must rely , we suppose , on the course of the law , to relieve Labuan from the incubus of the Eastern Archipelago Company—a stagnant monopoly , without the usual energy - avarice . We invite our commercial readers to study the last annual report of this company
which has forfeited its charter , under two decisions of the highest courts of law , but still pretends to supply with coal the steam traffic of the Indian Ocean . No Railway Board ever forced a dividend with more desperate adroitness than this company forced a profit . It was an incantation in figures , capital and receipts , being so juggled and jumbled that failure under one head became success under another .
It is scarcely to be believed that Lord P ^ lmekston , who founded the settlement of Labuan , will sanction the grant of a new Charter to the Eastern Archipelago Company . The Settlement languishes under its influence . Meanwhile , the latest Dutch acquisitions flourish ; Sarawak is an example of suaden and sustained prosperity ; the Americans ptish into the
Oriental Seaj everything thrives , except that which was auspiciously established , with pomp and glitter , by the Imperial Government of Great Britain . 3 * abuan is , no doubt , a " small interest ; " but millions of islanders might be supplied with British exports from that depot , if its trade were efficiently protected , and it its mines were worked with vigour , by private or associated enterprise .
standing army sufficiently large to fire a salute or set the flag flying on the staff ; but , in the event of a regularly-organised descent upon Labuan , what would the heads of the inhabitants be worth ? There are some in England who have a deep and direct interest in the question . There are naany -who have been disappointed by the slow progress of the settlement , which was established to cany out the bold and liberal views , of Sir Ja ^ ies Bjjooke , the successor , in influence and genius , of Sir
SxAMrpBD Raffles . But when Raffles founded the British settlement of Singapore , the English fleet was not idle in the Indian seas ; the island , lying in one of the crowded routes of Eastern commerce , was effectually protected against the roving squadrjpns continually in ambush among the neighbouring groups . Wherever there was tr 3 . de there was piracy , and several enterprises against Singapore were fpiled . The town prospered ; the population . multiplied . In a few years the wretched resort
of a scanty tribe of fishers was changed into a wealthy emporium . ; and why should Labuan , seven hundred miles nearer Hong Kong , in the route of the steam navigation , close to the populous city of Brune , and to the thriving community of Sarawak , remain , with its lands surveyed , but not sold—its streets staked out , but not built—its wharves prepared , but laden with little merchandise ? Those persons in England and in the East , who , from a desire to stimulate the growth of the new
settlement , purchased the Victoria allotments , have , in many instances , abandoned them . They will not clear and drain the ground , and erect even the light and cheap edifices suitable as Chinese shops , when there is no possibility of attracting settlers . Labuan owes its equivocal safety to its poverty . Were it to be accidentally enriched , the Malays might venture , in spite of the mythical war-steamer , to do with Victoria as they have done with a hundred . settlements on the Bprnean coast . When his Excellency Edwaros arrives at Labuan , we trust he will listen to the
complaints of the British residents , and make strong representations to the Colonial Office . On the neighbouring coast of Sarawak he will observe , proofs of the prosperity that ariaes in the Indian islands , wherever the interests of the people are secured . Sir James Brooke has not seen his capital swelled by a population of eighty thouaand souls , where there had
prekt 4 ' &ABJW ANP sqkwko . l M * W fmmei ) . % W * U ' ggvtir prosper un | til jt is •; . 3 MfWe 4 ^ gam ^ iftraoy , and until the wal -JBWW . WiSWBwIy W * M" S | uch are the
vioueiy boon only fourteen hundred , without proportionate exertions , entailing enormous private sacrifices . He is , at this moment , cngagod in organising a system of marine defence ; he has trained a large , faithful , » nd effioient militia ; in the interior , as well us on the coast , the regulations of the State are respected j tho pAviaeed and Christian ] ttw , ttetabliahed in tho
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306 T H E h £ ] A D'E & [ No . 310 , Saturday ,
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Tiiere ia np learned man "but -will confess he hath much , profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , -why should it not , a ; least , be tolerable for bis adveraary to -write ? —AJii / ro » .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 1, 1856, page 206, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2130/page/14/
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