THE SOLDIER.: HIS WIFE.
Su out of every. hundred soldiers are permitted to marry, and their wives receive accommodation and half rations, in barrack, on board ship, or abroad; but a much larger number of soldiers are married without the permission of their commanding-officers. Besides, there enter the army many men already married ; for although a married recruit would not be accepted, a number of them pass the examination (according to Major-General Lawrence) by swearing that they are not encumbered with a wife. " The army," says this same witness, " is full of married men now." There is even some sort of encouragement given to unlicensed marriages ; for if a man has married without leave, yet keeps up his character for two or three years afterwards, and is generally speaking a good soldier, the commanding-officer puts him on the strength of the regiment as a married man in preference to new applicants. However, even if a soldier has been permitted to marry, the ad- vantages accruing from such permission are moderate, enough. In all the old barracks, in fact, in all except the Wellington Barracks and one or two others, the married people have to sleep in the same room as the other soldiers. " They have," says Sergeant Sotheron in his evidence, "sometimes curtains; but in many regiments the commanding-officer will not allow them to keep the curtain up, except during the night, in order to have a circulation of air in the room." And then the "married people in the bar- rack require to cook, and in the summer time the heat is very great, and the slop, and one thing and the other about the fire- place, is sometimes very disagreeable to the other men; and there are children also."
Sometimes, if the barracks are overcrowded, one-half of the married men are allowed to live out of barracks, at an extra al- lowance of twopence per day. And, better still, attached to the Wellington 13arracks and one or two others, are model lodging- houses for married soldiers wherein they may live for a small weekly rent ; and although at first many men did not avail them- selves of this accommodation, these houses have been very well filled lately. " The soldiers, generally speaking," says a witness, Sergeant William Rhys, " di; grumble at a change, even if it is for their good, until they are acquainted with it " ; and that is the case not only with soldiers but with men considerably higher in the social scale. Perhaps the beat accommodation of all is given to married soldiers in the new barracks at Aldershot, where each couple has a separate room, eleven feet by ten, with a small oven beside the fireplace.' It is found that such indulgences, small as they are, and spread over a six percentage of soldiers, tell almost directly in a diminution of both sickness and crime. Colonel Sir A. M. Tulloch, K.C.B., Dr. T. G. Balfur, and other witnesses, give the strongest testimony to the fact, that causes operating against the morality, and even the health, of the Army are posi- tively kept in check by the presence of married men amongst the soldiers.
Major-General Lawrence, C.B., who expresses strong opinions in favour of restricting marriages, acknowledges the absolute ne- cessity of having married soldiers in a regiment. Speaking of the washing of the troops, he says, " It is an advantage that the married women should be employed to do the soldiers' washing, otherwise it is thrown into the hands of the lowest description of people. This has been the ease at Aldershot, where at first we had not a sufficient number of married people," and where washing often. fell into the hands of the worst women, and gave them an entrance into the camp. The same witness says, further on, " I think it is desirable that there should be a certain number of married women in every regiment, not only to wash, but jltr the moral good of the soldiers."
Nevertheless, there is among many officers a great resistance to soldiers' marriages. Major-General Mansel, K.H., speaks strong- est on this point. " You should," he says in his evidence, " dis- courage the marriage of soldiers in every way, as it causes great embarrassment to all movements of troops ; and, therefore, I am against having buildings outside the barracks for married sol- diers, as it would be an encouragement to marriage and would embarrass you beyond anything that it is possible to conceive." Thus we have evidence infavour of marriage and against marriage. We have proofs that it does the soldier good ; but most certainly we may be sure that it does the women harm. We find that in model regiments a certain provision may be made for the residence of the married couples,but in working regiments, in marching regi- ments, the women are exposed to contaminations from the very mode of life. The general balance of evidence leads us to two conclusions : first, that it is desirable to have some women in a regiment; secondly, that the number must be restricted, though it is undesirable to hold out to the soldier a life of permanent celibacy. We take the first point first. Perhaps it is as well that we should. confront the necessity of making better provision for the lodging of the married women in a regiment, considering them as an essential element. And Major-General Lawrence throws out a good suggestion as to the particular mode of enforcing the re- striation.
" I think that no soldier should have granted to him permission to marry until he is in possession of one good-conduct badge, which involves a aer- vice of five years, and further, that this permission be not granted until he has registered his application for either three or six months ; and lastly, that the commanding-officer should not allow any man who had married before he entered the service, or without leave, to be placed on the strength of the regiment as a married man, without the express sanction of the Com- mander-in-chief."
By adopting this plan of selecting the soldiers for the privilege of marrying, and by making better provision for the comfort and decorous provision of the married oouples, a certain working model of morality would be introduced into the Army. Perhaps we should say cultivated; for it is not to be denied that there are
• already many well-behaved couples, who preserve their honest life through the difficulties and accidents rather than temptations of a rough career. The plan would fairly establish the element of the housewife in the regiment.
But, for all the rest of the soldiers, some hundred thousand and more, are we to tell them, young and old, that theirs is to be a life of celibacy, well knowing what celibacy for active English- men means ? At present, undoubtedly and unluckily it is so ; but the distinct recognition of that melancholy fact ought only to
an up to view an ulterior object, at which, in the course of pro- gressive improvements, we should aim. It may be admitted that married and active life are not entirely accordant, and that soldiers may well go through a period of celibacy without com- plaint. That fact again points to the broad distinction which ought to regulate the economy of any national army. Let us admit that all the younger men are fairly enough consigned to celibacy and activity, and in that expression we almost allot the elder men to a life of marriage and repose. It may not be a bad arrangement, if, hereafter, we should classify our arm somewhat on that principle ; consigning the active service to the e younger men, and forming the home service, the reserve, of well-conducted veterans. In the progress of military life, the soldier should be taught that by good conduct he might ultimately earn something like "half-pay," with the opportunities of residence at home ; subject only to the honourable liability of being sent to a distance, or abroad, on cases of national emergency. This would once more reunite the standing Army with the heart of British society.
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