CAMP AND BARRACK-ROOM.

The British Army as it is. The words suggest a vast and almost nor. explored field for public inquiry. We are proud of the renown of our soldiers; praise of their great deeds, their patience, fortitude, and mag- nanimous forbearance, comes free and warm from our hearts; and we measure with no niggard hands the cost requisite for maintaining them in that high state of efficiency for which the world can show no parallel, But here ends our knowledge and our interest in the matter. We take note of our Army in the mass and by its effects, but are indifferent as to its details. Let but the mighty machine do the work we requite of its and we are content to remain profoundly ignorant of its internal mow nomy. At most we are startled now and then into a more active mood by some event that shocks our feelings, such as the fatal result of a military punishment ; but even then we scarcely look beyond the imme- diate occasion of our displeasure : we deal with symptoms, but seek not to overcome their causes : instead of extirpating the evil at its root, we wreak our wrath on an instrument, just like children or savages. Yet even such desultory and imperfect interpositions have not been without utility ; for many odious abuses in the service have yielded to the wholesome influence of public opinion : so let us hope that the others which still remain—the noxious growth of a darkened and confined atmo- sphere—will perish when laid open to the light and air of day. The book before us is likely to be of excellent effect: it will open the eyes of the public to many monstrous facts undreamed of in the specu- lations of civilians. Its novelty and plainspeaking will surprise and amuse the reader ; and its good sense, moderation, candour, and manli- ness, will command his confidence, and inspire him with an enlightened interest in the soldier's cause. It is seldom that a remonstrating voice from the ranks can make its way to the public ear ; hence the soldier is of all British subjects the least protected against the wrongs to which his _condition is most liable, and which he must passively exdnre. Some of his peculiar grievances are such as his officers have no power to remedy ; and others too often baffle the scrutiny of the best-intentioned and most vigilant amongst them. He is, as our author justly observes, "a neglected man, looked on as a being of inferior species,—as the pariah of the body politic, and thought to be almost incapable of moral or social improvement. His own officers despise him, and the public at large de- spise him. Surely, then, when he finds himself treated with universal contempt, it cannot be a matter of surprise that he loses all self-respect, and becomes the reckless and degraded being that he is." It was a rare and happy chance that threw for a while into this mute and suffering class, a man of educated thought, feeling, and expression, capable of ut- tering its complaints in language fitted to secure general attention. His motives for enlisting he explains thus. "In consequence of a mercantile friend, whose affairs were inextricably inter- woven with mine, sustaining several heavy and unforeseen losses in trade, it be- came necessary that I should seek for other means of support besides those aris- ing from my poaition as his junior partner.

" This necessity, however, it was confidently expected by us, would only con- tinue to exist for two or three years at furthest; when, by prudent and economical management, the liabilities of the firm must be discharged; and it was arranged, that I should then resume my original position in partnership.

"Although I could have made choice of a situation as clerk in the counting- houses of several of my acquaintance, I would not accept it. I had always been desirous of travelling, and now resolved to gratify the propensity. With this ob- ject in view, I determined on entering some regiment on foreign service, which should be likely to return in two or three years; when I intended to purchase my discharge, if my partner's affairs had again become prosperous. Should the con- trary, however, be the case, I thought my better plan would be, to remain still in the army, and get promoted if possible: the service of her Majesty being then, in my estimation, fatly as honourable as that of a mercantile company, or of an individual.

"Many may think this a very strange course of procedure, and such indeed it was; still, as I was destitute of means to gratify my inclination to travel, and disliked a sailor's life, I had no other resource."

Ascertaining that the "illustrious " Thirteenth, then quartered in India, -was not likely to remain abroad more than two years, he entered for that re- giment. We doubt that the annals of the service could supply many parallels for this story. Ardent young men, glowing with military en- thusiasm, have now and then descended from a respectable station in society to serve in the ranks, and profligacy has reduced others to that desperate extremity; but here was a case altogether different. It dis- plays a singular mixture of youthful buoyancy and romantic enterprise with the deliberate habits of the countinghouse, and at once assures us that we have to do with no commonplace character. The (1461 at Chat- ham soon revealed to our recruit much of the secret turpitude of his new vocation.

"It is, indeed, a curious circumstance, that under the very eye of the home authorities, the young soldier is perhaps worse treated than in any other part of the British dominions, both as regards his clothing and his food: even his scanty surplus pay is frequently the object of the most scandalous peculation. He being altogether ignorant of what he is entitled to, and therefore obnoxious to every ex- tortion, is plundered by those military blacklegs—those Majors Monsoon of the present period—with the greatest ease, and the least possible compunction. Aware of what must be the answer, they listen with indifference to the commandant, as he asks the recruit, when about to embark for India, whether he has any com- plaints to make. The reply to this question has been almost invariably in the negative. Indeed, few recruits, were they even aware of their being cheated, pos- sess the ability and information requisite to make a report of a superior with any prospect of success; and otherwise, they become subject to trial by court-martial for making frivolous complaints. "One mode of depriving the recruit of his pay, is to give him an old shattered musket, easily injured; thus there are ten chances to one, that some part of it gets broken while it is in his possession; and he has in consequence a round sum to pay on delivering it into the store, when leaving the garrison. I have known this to be the case with many persons; some of whom had to pay ten shillings for stocking an old musket in use for the past forty years, and the intrinsic value of Which might be ascertained by weighing the barrel, and calculating its worth at two-pence per pound. Whether such were ever stocked, is a question the ar- mouser alone can decide; but in any ease, he and the pay-sergeants quietly arranged it all their own way.

"Another method of deriving revenue from the occupants of Chatham barracks, is by barrack-damages; and the sum realized from time to time in this way must be enormous.

"I was twice quartered in this garrison; the first time for six weeks, when the detachment with which I proceeded to India were charged tenpence per man; and the second time for four days, for which we were mulcted fourpence each. How' njury to this amount could be done by us to our quarters, in so short a God and the quartermaster only know. There are usually about twenty depots at Chatham, Iron each of which, at an average, one hundred men are an- nually sent to India; and estimating the barrack-damages, charged to each man during the term of his stay, at one shilling and sixpence, which I am certain is under the mark, we have a sum of 3001.—a large sum indeed to be deducted :yearly from the shilling—the hard-earned shilling—of a few hundred soldiers. ' " Although my-stay at Chatham was even unusually short, I was heartily glad when I received permission to accompany a draft ordered to India; a favour ac- corded me only on a special application to the officer commanding the depot. This gentleman was cunously desirous of knowing why I was so anxious to join 'my regiment; but as it would not have been quite prudent to make him an fait of my motives, I held my peace. " lie was, indeed, the last man in the garrison I should have made my confident, had even our relative positions admitted of such familiarity; for he was an officer never beloved by those under his charge; and many of the recruits would actually tremble before him on parade, so much did they dread him. He used frequently to visit the barracks; and wo then to the unlucky wight who had a fold wrong in his bedding, a knapsack-strap out of its place, or his chin-strap fastened above the number on his forage-cap; three days' taps being his ordinary punishment for offences of this character. Yet I have seen this officer, who was so strict a disci- plinarian as regarded trivial matters, at a subsequent period, when he had be- come first major of his corps, unable to put the regiment through the manual and

platoon exercise; while onanother occasion, when an inspecting general-was on the ground, he could not find where the points were, when directed to dress than by his colonel

" There are many such in the service, men who strain at a gnat and swallows camel; and consequently our armies will never be destitute of a Braddock or an Elphinstone, in spite of our having a Marlborough in one age, and a Wellington in another, to remodel and mould them anew. England wants a ' polytechtuque' school She requires that merit, not money, should elevate men in her military service; and were this desideratum achieved, her troops would be indeed invinci- ble. In the existing state of things, many creep in time of peace to the command of corps, by purchase or seniority, who are about as fit to lead a regiment as a peasant from the plough-tail is to turn courtier; their inability being never ascer- tained until some capital faux pas is committed in front of an enemy which sul- lies one national honour."

The ex-sergeant is very severe in his strictures on noncommissioned officers.

" As to the characters of the generality of noncommissioned officers at present, wisdom cannot be considered as forming their most prominent trait; but they pos- sess a great deal of what is designated cunning, which seems to be the peenliar forte of the class. Unlike the private, they are not independent of their superiors even while they do their duty; and consequently they are obliged to propitiate them by servility and meanness, and to mould themselves to their wills. Thus, from studying the passions and weaknesses of others, and being obliged at the same time to conceal their own, they become adepts in duplicity, and doubly dan- gerous to those beneath them who may happen to incur their dislike, and whom they will endeavour jesuitically to crush by indirect means. The exercise of petty power sharpens the wit, and stimulates hitherto latent propensities; and deep strokes of policy are sometimes made in a corps by the noncommissioned grade, which would do credit to a disciple of Machiavelli. In many instances, sergeant- majors, by sinister methods, exercise more real power as regards the pnvate, than the commanding-officer; who permits himself to be influenced by his artful repre- sentations, personally, or second-hand through the adjutant, whom he wheedles by ear-tickling. So admirably skilled are they in this art, thatthey sometimes even procure commissions by means of it. In one instance, especially, which came in a measure under my own observation, a man who had been tried and convicted by a general court-martial for sleeping on his post, and was afterwards arraigned for perjury, receiving three months' imprisonment for the latter offence, was yet able to manage matters so, that he was returned in certain official documents as of the most exemplary character; and finally, by flattering the foibles of an adjutant and others, succeeded in getting a commission. " When we recollect the great influence which noncommissioned officers exer- cise on the conduct of the soldier, from immediate intercourse with him and per- sonal knowledge of his character, the mischief which can be done by them, if ill- disposed, will be at once apparent. Nothing irritates men more than the petty tyranny of those whom they know to be no better than themselves; and how fre- quently has it been the case that sergeant-majors have almost driven their corps to the verge of mutiny. I have myself known pay-sergeants to do the same with their companies; the men of which, prior to their having any connexion them, were as orderly and well-disposed as any could be. The noncommissioned officer,. in short, forms the grand connecting link in the chain of discipline; ]rajathe point upon which others turn the machine; and he cannot be too well-informed, too honourable, or too estimable an individual. "At present, a recruit after enlistment rubs off a certain quantum of his roar ticity, and Requires a degree of polish which belongs to the army; and here his im- provement terminates, as he is now equal to his companions, and has no one to copy superior to himself. This, however, would not be the case were some insti- tution to be formed, in which young men of good character could be fitted for the duties of noncommissioned officers; the candidates being drafted from the line on or after enlistment, and their qualifications tested by a close investigation or a probationary term. An institution of this kind would be an invaluable boon to the service. From it a few noncommissioned officers could be supplied annually to the several regiments; the deserving still being promoted as heretofore; and com- manding-officers would soon cease to be, as at present they frequently are, puzzled who to advance.

"By raising the character of the noncommissioned officer, the service will be benefited; and the soldier will be benefitted, and will more readily and willingly obey; because he succumbs to one, who, under any circumstances, ought to be hidt. superior. Even supposing that a:sufficient number of a superior stamp cannot be found, and although they shall constitute, as it were, a small and select ui;

ce

still their example and intelligence would have a powerful d

d influence in forming this characters of others, and iuducing them to seek improvement.

" The formation of a corps for disciplining and otherwise instructing non- commissioned officers, would be productive of but little additional expense, a sit could do the duty of a regular regiment in some garrison-town; and every con- sideration of a pecuniary character would be counterbalanced in a tenfold degree by the momentous benefits which must result. In the first place, intelligent and well-disposed persons on entering the army, would not be disgusted by finding themselves placed under the control of the ignorant and. the narrow-minded, and associated with the bad and unprincipled; and they might rest confident of soon gaining the position their character and information entitled them to. In the second, numbers of respectable young men would be glad to join the service; in which an improvement suited to the times, and the universal increase of know- ledge, will thus be effected; and the army as a body, raised in the scale of society. And when sergeants might be considered eligible for the superior grade of a com- missioned officer, they would not be the the objects of contempt, as so many am now who rise from the ranks, owing to their ignorance and awkward behaviour in society; and, even with regard to noncommissioned officers themselves, officers would scarcely feel inclined to treat men, their equals in many respects, in the manner they do now, although such are their assistants, frequently their in- structors, both in quarters and in the field. "A corps of this kind would likewise afford great facilities to poor officers to provide for their sons, who might receive commissions at a certain stage of pro- ficiency, to be ascertained by a board. Thus, in the coarse of time, we should have a number of experienced officers; and not mere boys as at present, who issue from some public school, their heads' antipodes still smarting from the birch. to lord it over grey-headed sergeants, who, for half the period of their service (often for the whole) must be their prompters and instructors. Our army would likewise gradually become more assimilated to the navy; and money would cease, in a great measure, to command preferment for dolts, who, in many instances, after a long service, embracing sometimes half their lives, cannot put a regiment through half-a-dozen manoeuvres correctly."

The author's term of service was passed in Scinde, on the climate and resources of which country some useful hints will be found in his book. He is of opinion that it would be for the advantage of England to with- draw altogether from Upper Scinde, and retain only the lower portion of the country.