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    THE ARMY AND THE ARISTOCRACY.

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    N EVER was there such a time as the last few years have been for pulling dbwri , piecertneal , the veil of the shrine of stolid official mystery , for showing 1 that the inner light , for which , in pur humility , we gave it so much credit , was of the nature of moonshine ; we use the term moonshine advisedly , because tilings , especially wooden things , are said to have a tendency to get rotten under its influence , and men are said to be affected with blindness who sleep long under its rays . Many a man , perdie , can we unmask , . Whose desk and table make a solemn show With tape-tied trash , and suits of fools that ask ¦ " ' For place and pension laid in decent row .

    The author of " The Seasons" was , perhaps , the first' protester against " tape . " We have long been rather tired of the term , and we direct the homage of all who have usefully scribbled against tape to the first remonstrant . Oar only consolation for the losses of the Crimean war was , that in needlessly destroying hosts of brave men , it let out the life of many official absurdities , amongst others , that of many of our military appointments . . We are not going to commence a shabby , ungenerous tirade against the aristocracy as connected with the army we give all possible honour , as far as personal bravery is concerned , to those " ladies' faces with fierce dragons' * spleens , " as , Shakespeaee calls them * who have dared to the death , "for the sake of their race and their country . "We look with admiring wonder at the man

    who , at home , if . his Blaintenon cutlet is not done to a nicety , turns , up his nose as if he always smelt " some nauseous scent , " ye t * when campaigning , eats cheerfully With his brothers I in arms , whatever , bad or good , the chance . of forage or the carelessness of a commissariat provides . We can admire a NAKBOiirNE who has heart enough to have his hair powdered evei-y day , in the midst of the snows and the despairs of the Russian campaign , and in some sense even a Richelieu , who , in an earlier day , " se haitaib poitdre a la bergqmotte tin jour de bataille , a Viri-s unjour d ' assaut / ' -perhaps we might look in . vain in any other rank for this gay but high chivalric spirit , which we do not wish to linderrate : in fact , cceteris pdribus , a man who has his " honour of a family" to maintain , as-well as the honour of his country , would have pur must d

    preference , but it must be cceteris paribus ; he , now-a-ays especially when warfare is so much a rnattor of science , study his profession , which he will not do in earnest unless he makes it his destiny , and he is not likely to make it his destiny except from a natural taste for the career of arm ? , which will lead him to try to make himself in every way fit for it ; and if there is the pressure of honourable poverty , as in the case , formerly as wow , of the younger sons , the cadets of noble families , so much the more surely are his permanent services secured . In earlier days , when the ¦ man of noble or gentle blood was the only man who had ; within him the generous , inspiring influences of liberty , he had a still greater comparative advantage than he possesses now , though this applies less to England and her yeomanry than to the nations of the ¦

    Continent . . The first event which dispelled the overweening idea of the paramount superiority of " good blond" in martial matters , ^ y ! ls the English revolution . There had been many " jocqueries , " wars of the lower against the higher orders in England , Franco and Germany , but these hapless struggles ) idlded in variably submission to the reality of the sword and the remembrance of the lash . The first successful , struggles wore made by the middle orders to maintain civic liberties and city righto and charters ; for the poople had got two senses , that of liberty and that of property , and they proved in the end too strong for the high and confident spirit of class sunerioritY . * This was tried to the utmost in the wars of

    Chaeliss I . and Cromwell , Cuomweli , himself , it is true , was a man of good family ; so , of course , were Hampjden , FAruFAX , Essbx , and many more of their loaders , but still it was a people's battle against an aristoeracy . " Most of the colonels and officers , " says Dknzil Holms , ' ? wore mean tradesmen , brewers , tailors , goldsmiths Blioernakora , and the like ; and Pispys , in his diary , Nov . 9 th , KK 33 , speaks of the excellence of these soldiers , and of thoir steady return to their several trades . " " Most of the soldiers at Nnseby , " says Flrtchkb of Sultoun , " wore prentices drawn out of London but two months before ; nine only of the officers had served abroad , but of the king ' s party , there wero one thousand

    officers who had aorvod abroad . " . . These unknightly-looking , monoy-maknig classes , in spite ot tliQ oftoji'truo proverb , ' " tiimdus Plata * , " broke tho shield oi the aristocratic Mars , and the new-born spirit of liberty was tho strongest where it was tho newest born . m We hud our lesson , strong enough , as it has proved , to have modified anything 1 like an exclusive class pretension to milrtnry superiority on tho ground of high gentlemanlike spirit $ and the continental nations wanted theirs , and got it in duo time in tho wars ot

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    Court for Relief of Insolvent Debtors , whose jurisdiction extends to London , Middlesex , and Surrey , the " scheduled" debts were ^ 366 , 9 S 2 J . Only 183 of these petitioners had estates to realize , which amounted to 33 , 864 ? . in value , leaving an average dividend of two shillings for creditors . We are surely entitled to expect some result from the enormous expenditure involved in investigating and distribuhiig debtors estates by these two Courts . If any expectation is likely to be realized , as to the discovery and punishment of fraud or commercial niisconduct , we might surely look for it in legal agencies , which cost halfa million per annum in tbieir necessary maintenance . Yet in bankruptcy , out of 1 , 343 bankrupts , we find that only 36 had their certificates refused—five with and thirty-one without protection—a result most insignificant , and most conclusively showingthe iniitilityof the penalties in bankruptcy . Nor are the penalties in insolvency at all of a character likely to check the proceedings of the fraudulent dealer . Out of the 3 , 337 petitioners , 2 , 483 were immediately discharged ; 287 were dismissed , and the rest were remanded back to prison for various terms . Imprisonment for debt is of all punishments the most illusory . Generally speaking , it is welcomed by the debtor as a boon . He prepares for it , and , on arrest , " files his schedule . " His greatest disappointment , after arrest , would be for his creditor to discharge him before the day arrived for his hearing before the Commissioner . A remand back to prison is the worst penalty which can overtake him , and in such cases the absurdity of the law is proved by the fact , that if the remanded debtor settles with his detaining creditor ( who is generally only too glad to do so on payment of costs and a small composition on his debt ) , he leaves prison discharged as to all the other debts he owes . Leaving " Bankruptcy" and " Insolvency , " we arrive at various other forms of adjustment between debtors and creditors : —Assigntbents , compositions , deeds of inspection , and letters of license , which all partake of the nature of private settlements ; petitions for arrangement in the Courts of Bankruptcy , and petitions for protection to the Insolvent Court in town , and the County . Courts in the country , which are heard in public . It is impossible to ascertain , with any degree of accuracy , the number of all these modes of settlement , or the amount of the debts which they seek to compromise . The private arrangements effeeted by deed have the advantage of economy , although of late years some scandals have . arisen as to the expenses under deeds of inspection . But . it is in ¦ the power of the creditors of debtors who otfer such instruments , cheaply to realize the estate if they like . Compositions are fre--quently resorted to when the debtor can pay a considerable , dividend . The disadvantage under such private arrangements is to the debtor , who is not discharged until every creditor has executed the deed . Hence a , fraudulent creditor ( and there are such ) frequently extorts payment in full , or drives his debtor into the G-azette or into gaol . The mode of adjustment fairest in its operation to the honest debtor and creditor is most undoubtedly the petition for a private arrangement under the Bankrupt Law Consolidation Act , 1849 . For , whilst it requires the debtor to disclose the state of his affairs , it permits him to make a proposal for a settlement , which , if accepted by three-fifths , binds the rest of his creditors . On the other hand , if f raud can be shown , the Commissioner bas power to adjourn the case into Court , and adjudicate the petitioner a bankrupt . The defect of the present practipe is , that ,, whilst a debtor is obliged to disclose the state of his insolvent affairs , he . is not obliged to show by what process of loss or misconduct he came into that position . These several modes of settlement between debtors and creditors represent only the bad debts which have resiclied the point of public disclosure . But there lies underneath another growing evil , which in its turn furnishes material , in another year or two , to bankruptcy and insolvency . An annual waste is going" On in commerce , which produces the public disclosures of insolvency . In 1858 no less than lO 3 > 478 writs of summons were issued out of- the Courts at Westminster , and 738 , 977 plaints in the County Courts : Large as are these numbers the return is incomplete , for it dpes not include the writs issued by Courts of concurrent jurisdiction , such as the Court of Common Pleas ,, of Lancaster and Durham ; or of local Courts of Record , such as the Lord Mayors . ' Courts of London and York , the Passage Court of Liverpool , the Venire Court of Hull , the Burgess Court of Newcastle , and , perhaps , a hundred others scattered over . England . Of course some of the actions brought are for the racovcry of damages ; but the fact is clear , that the very large majority are for the recovery of simple debts . The fees of the superior Courts were £ 64 , 539 ; what the costs between party and party were we are not . told , for out of the 103 > 478 cases only 1 , 191 went to trial ( pretty . conclusive proof that the actions wero only defended to gain time by the debtors ) . In the County Courts the fees were £ 219 , 931 , with costs not stated between the pavties in addition . Those who pub Jaith in penalties invented by law to punish fraud will bo startled to Jearn that no less than 10 , 748 debtors were nctually lodged in prison , under wai'rants from tho County Courts . It may possibly bo urged that those \ f&cofraudulent debtors , whom it was the duty of'society to . punish . Granting that to be ao , it islmrd upon creditors to perform a duty to society at an expense of four shillings and novcn-penoo in the pound upon their debts . If fraud existed on tho part ? of a debtor , tho obligation to punish him ought not to rest upon the particular creditor who is chentud , bub npon society at largo , And if fraud did exist , it is not & ololl but a criminal punishment winch ought U bii «; ' ; :: ; . « , To award to a rogue , cunning onough to avail hjuriBuh ,., the ' terms of credit , the same doom , we apportion to an unfortunate man , is only to punish , perhaps dempraliao , the lwttor by association with rogues ; whilst it is also doing great injustice to

    the inmates of the other side of the prison , who hav * e simply beer consigned to a criminal punishment , because they were not artful enough to employ the thin line of credit , and thereby prevent their fraud being indicted as felony .

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    March 24 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 277

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    • Note , ^ YC hnro hero re ferred to Tho 8 tr < mr , lh qf F « " »»« > »>/ ^\ fJ ^ J BIS 8 KT , 1851 ); a work qontaiuing many dutulla on the vpluntoor flutyoot , well wortU reading .

    The Army And The Aristocracy.

    THE AEMY AND THE ARISTOCRACY .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 24, 1860, page 277, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2339/page/9/