I hear but one opinion among military men as to
the position in which the officers in command of this force will find themselves on their arrival.
It will be their duty to keep men true to their colours who will have it in their power to realize something like a thousand a year by deserting them.
A private soldier, when quartered in our cheapest garrisons, clears, after the regular deductions for his messing, kit, 8cc., about fourpenee per diem— frequently less—certainly much less if he has miseonducted himself.
Is it not expecting a great deal more than human nature is capable of to Suppose that because a man wears a red coat he is to be content with less than seven pounds a year when he can obtain thousands ? It is answered, "Your British soldier is averse to hard work "—gold digging is hard work—therefore he will not leave the ease of a barrack life for it
0, No man who has served much with soldiers would thus argue : he would know that they will do any amount of work, no matter how laborious, to escape drill and parade duties. They will feign every imaginable ailment, and even mutilate themselves frightfully, to avoid the hateful routine of the barrack-yard. Look at the fortifications of Gibraltar. No harder work can be found. A burning rock reflecting for many months of the year as fierce a sun as shines in the East or West Indies : yet the men turn out there by thousands with the greatest alacrity for the extra shilling a day and exemp- tion from the hateful drill-ground. Others think "the force of discipline is so great the men will not think of deserting." Facts will disprove this also. It is matter of perfect notoriety in military circles that the percentage of desertions from regiments in Ca- nada has always been enormous. They go from the before-mentioned four- pence to the dollar they can get in the States. It becomes therefore a simple rule-of-three sum. If four shillings will take off a given number of fourpenny men' what will more than forty shillings secure ? Any Member of the House of Commons can verify my statement respecting desertions in North America, by calling for a return of the number reported during the last ten years. This is a subject which military men are naturally anxious to keep "snug " • but if it be any argument against placing a number of men in an unnatural and false position, I shall not regret having dragged it into the light.
The inevitable result of any attempt to coerce the gold-diggers will be the discomfiture of those who may have the misfortune to be sent on such a fool's errand ; for if the men are to be paid at the present fourpenny rate, they will assuredly follow the example of the United States regulars in California as soon as impunity. from the paralyzed state of the executive that they
elm do so with If they are to receive such pay as will make it worth their while to do their duty, the funds for this purpose must come from the diggers themselves. They can come from no other source. The mother-country neither could nor would find them ; and the former leaders, the ci-devant plutocracy, the flock-owners and merchants, are paupers, or likely soon to be so. The gold-diggers must be vastly less 'cute than they are reported to be, if they do not very quickly find out that they are "voting the supplies to coerce themselves." The records of California show how soon they discovered the secret there. Perlia.ps if we learnt our whole lesson from the same book, it would, under Ow circumstances, be the best thing we could do. I am, Sir, your very obedient servant, EDMUND BELLAIRS.
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