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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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generally tfetesd men , bare at least got over their gttffirrag * before they joni , a * d they are far mare respected than the officers of the regular battalions . Where should we have been but for the Irregulars ? Even those who have gone astray have only followed the example of others , have displayed far less ferocity , and have usually respected their officers . The mania for centralization , moreover , has not affected this branch of the Bengal army , the Irregular corps Having been for the most part isolated , and therefore less dangerous . The Irregular Sepoy still loots to his oavh commandant for punishment or reward ; the regiment is the commandant's property , and he is its providence . But the regular army has been centralized ' for purposes of discipline . ' It was actually proposed , some time ago , to amalgamate the three armies of India ! Under present circumstances we shall have to re-create the army of Bengal . A suggestion , which has been approved of by officers of high rank and experience , is to reduce the number of regular Bengal native infantry regiments to thirty ; not to be broken into petty detachments , but to be distributed over the country in brigades , each brigade consisting of three native corps and one European regiment , to allow the ordinary duties of peace to police battalions under the civil authority , and to hold in reserve at healthy and commanding stations a European reserve of eight regiments . The cavalry might be organized on a somewhat similar plan , which would be more effective and more economical
than the system which has gone to pieces . It has been proposed to abolish the native artillery altogether ; but on many occasions it lias done good service , and the majority of Indian authorities are inclined to retain it , only with au increased allotment of European non-commissioned officers— -twenty Englishmen with sixty natives to form a company . A point of perhaps even greater importance is the necessity that all European officers should be borne on one roll , and complete their education in India , under strict discipline , before being apj ) ointed to their commands .
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OUR CLOSE COMMISSIONED ARMY . ! Fob immediate and practical purposes the interest of the Report on Purchase in the Army is destined by the treatment which the commission receives at the hands of Government , Its advice is to be set aside , on the ground , says JJord Panmubb , that the Report was signed by only half the commissioners . Now this is a very inexact statement . There were ten commissioners ; of that number , six have signed ; three , Mr . JEdwaikd Eli / toe , Sir Hbkkt Bentinck , and General Wtntabd , intend to append their signatures to a separate Keport , which , we infer , is to be in sense opposed to that of
the Report already presented . Another commissioner , Colonel WExnERAiiTj , was obliged to 'leave the country on active service in China before he could , take his share in the Report ; and he must be considered to be withdrawn from the commission altogether . It is true that Sir Db Ijaoy Evans intends also to present a separate memorandum ; but it is not because he disagrees with the Beport , —it is because he accounts the Ueport not to go far enough . Thus the document is signed by two-thirds of the actual commissioners , one of whom would g o beyond his colleagues ; while ono-third of the commissioners , we are lefb to conjecture , dissent from the proposed change .
"Who are the men that have signed ? Amongst them are the mpst business-like of the commissionera- —the Duke of Somerset , a man experienced in official business , who is accounted aristocratic nnd even harsh , but
wh <* dak tafed a tetf-&ea eil iferir of practical subjects . Tjdt $ StAXntiitr , st taemb&r of the aristocracy , &ufr still a practical man ; Mr Stosttrr Hebb-ejme 1 ; perhaps the most conscienMouff and ' well-informed authority on military subjects '; and Sir De IiACY Evans , whom we need not characterize . The other signatures are General Sir ECabby Jones and Mr . GhsoiiGE Cabb GnLTir . Certainly the opinions of the dissentient members will not carry one-third 6 f the weight in comparison with these men . Mr . Edwabd
EtLicE is much respected amongst his friends ;¦ he has exercised a considerable influence on the formation of Cabinets , and on the conduct of Cabinets to which he has not belonged ; but his paramount object in life is ¦ the maintenance of Whig principles and Whig connexions , and around that object all his ideas centre . Sir Hekbt Bentinck and G-eneral Wynyaxto are respectable gentlemen , but their opinions cannot for a moment be placed in a balance with that of the Duke of Somerset , Mr . Sidney Heebeet , General Evansor Lord Stanley .
, The report certainly did not go very far . It enters into the whole ' difficulties' of the subject—difficulties which might be cut through like a net that catches fowl , by any statesman possessing the vigour and intelligence of man ; it balances the difficulties against the necessities ; and then it may be said to come to two conclusions . First , that the system of purchase should be partially abolished at once ; Lieutenant-Colonels , as well as higher officers , being appointed by selection for merit and fitness , and not by seniority or purchase . Thus , however the
officers of a regiment might attain to their position by buying it , by manoeuvring the gold of one against the poverty of another , or by simply growing up to promotion without any reference to the peculiar fitness for the particular post , the commanding officer would be a man selected by the responsible military chief for his known fidelity and power . This would be a great improvement ; but the commissioners foresee that it would not be enough , and while they flinch from cutting through the difficulties of an immediate abolition , they suggest that experience of this partial reform would lead to a further extension of the same
alteration . Thus the practical portion of the report consists of two proposals—the abolition of purchase for the rank of lieutenantcolonel and all above it , and the extension of the reform at a future day . There is one very remarkable reason why officers of high rank shrink from the abolition of pui-chase . It springs from the modern dread of personal responsibility , and it finds in none a more candid expositor than in the Duke of OAMBitrjDaE . He declares that it is
difficult to exercise the duty of selecting men for their fitness ; and by some sort of hodgepodge , the practice of purchase is supposed to leave the appointment of officers to a sort of self-selection . This flinching from the exercise of p ower and authority is characteristic of the effeminacy which is creeping over the statesmanship of our day , and which has completely mastered the Army . Another plea put forward , that the abolition of purchase would entail expense , is a mere appeal to the
supposed vulgar fear of the English people ot increase in money outlay . Officers , it is said , buy their own commissions , and thus bear on their own shoulders the cost of the 8 , 000 , 000 ? ., which , in the event of abolition , will have to be thrown upon the public . But if the nation is spared the cost in that form , undoubtedly it bears the charge in tho form of extravagance , if not worse pecuniary abuses ; and there can be no difficulty in finding 8 , 000 , 000 / . to effect a very grcab roform in our army ; especially as it would bo attended
with a * more than proportionate saving . To . fact , the people -will be in . pocket for the change .
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THE CHELSEA . NEW ERIDGE . Some years ago the Government determined to create a park in Battersea , connected with the north side of the river b y a bridge at Chelsea . The park and the bridge are both nearly completed . There are plantations , shrubberies , winding walks , garden-seats , and lodges—an ample breathing-space for the crowded population of the south and south-western districts of the metropolis . There is a bridge , also , to be opened in two or three months , which seems to have been admirably built , and which was essential in
order that some hundreds of thousands of persons mig ht have a'chance of access to the new park , laid out where formerly there were marshes and vile nuisances . The cost of the park has been 330 , OOOZ . — -of which only 130 , 0002 . has been granted , while the rest has been borrowed and has to be repaidthat of the bridge nearly 100 , 0002 . ; but the Government possesses land close in the neighbourhood which , were the bridge free , would speedily rise in value so as to cover the entire expense . Such are the initial facts . But , the park having been made for the benefit of the neighbourhood , half the
neighbourhood is to be kept but of it by a toll The way in which this job has been managed is characteristic of that genius for trickery which so eminently distinguishes the British system . Four years ago it was hinted publicly that Chelsea Bridge , the avenue to Battersea Park , was to be barred by a toll ; when the next vote for the expenses was discussed in the House several strong protests were made ; but the Government quibbled about vested interests , and the matter stood over . Upon the question being- next raised , the Minister said it'would be time to consider it after the
works were finished , when arrangements would be made . This was construed as a promise ; but , as the time drew near , it became evident that Chelsea , Pimlico , and Westminster were to be defrauded of the bridge and shut out of the park . A remarkable agitation was raised . Thousands of signatures wore attached to earnest petitions . Between the 10 th of May and the 14 th of July , in the present year , no less than nine public meetings were held—one being in the open air , and attended by upwards of ten thousand persons . Two or three committees were organized , and the subject has been incessantly before the Commissioner of Public
Works . So unanimous has been the opinion of the great districts concerned that , upon tho occasion of every meeting in the building , hundreds have been unable to obtain admission , while , on one occasion , when two dissentient voices were heard , these were tho voices of the Secretary of VauxhalUbridge , and of an oratorical y outh to famo unknown . Several deputations had interviews with members of Government , and to one Lord Palmebston gave a pledge that he would do all in his power to make Chelsea new bridge free of
toll for foot-passengers . Hero was a concession on each side . Many of the residents are willing to bear a carriage toll , although a folly and an infliction . A bill was introduced into parliament , and all went well until tho second reading , Avlrich was carried , upon an understanding that tho measure was to be referred to a Select Committee . "Well might Mr . Wai , teb Jones , Secretary of the Pimlico Committeq , rush to Sir Benjamin -Halls office with n suspicion that ' all was not right . Well might tho Vauxhall and Batteraeabridgo shareh olders—nuisances they are , in
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n ^ k ^ A ^^ ST ^ m TtSST ^ ^ Ht 3 ^ EJA I ) EB . 8 S 1
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 29, 1857, page 831, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2207/page/15/
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