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SUNDAY SINNERS AND MONDAY DINNERS. Some ...
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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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What Will Become Of The Militia? The Mil...
JBnt he made m matt important omission . It was eaaoled that the 'Segments should only foe embodied in ease of actual invasion or danger thereof .-soaking no provision for the embodiment < cff the men mease of war ! This is the root of 4 he < eml—nBtfr . Waxpoh ^ e showed too xmach TOt -when ke proposed a militia franchise clause , and he showed too little when he forgot that England might go 'to war . It so fell out that in'tke very next year we found ourselves ** drifting" into war —with no power to embody the militia . What could be done ? Lord Pai >
merston made am appeal to some of the regiments , and to "their honour , no fewer than sixteen voixnrteered for embodiment , and were embodied . But now the Aberdeen Government fell sfeort . They , too , forgot the militia . Throughout 1 & 53 no efforts were made to cor-Tect the mistake made by Lord Derby , although the man responsible for its prompt correction was Lord Paxmerston . It was not
until war had oeen declared , it was not until May , 1 * 854 , thart'tihe recent act empowering the QiTEEir to eraftjody the militia in time of war was passed . For this neglect , as for so many others , preceding Governments are greatly to blame ; because the militia had been so long unused , everything relating to it had to be rearranged , the great experiment of voluntary enlistment , forming not the least element in the difficulty ; While the want of barracks placed really serious obstacles in the way .
But we cannot entirely absolve the Aberdeen Government , nor the present Prime Minister . Had they clung less to peace , or , clinging to peace , made the utmost preparation for war , how differently would England stand before Europe . Energy anH contempt for routine would have found means of facilitating the raising and quartering of the militia in 1853 , so that in 1854 , not only would every available soldier have stood ready to embark for the Black Sea or the Baltic , but we should have had a reserve of trained soldiers at home whence
recruits would surely have come forward to exchange passive for active soldiering . It is now clear , either that the Aberdeen Government in this matter did not look before , or , that looking before , they were overawed by the clamours of the peace party , who feared for the effect of a , large militia upon the ... wages market . The result is now before us . By the act of 1854 , militiamen who had enlisted for continuous service only , ** in case of invasion or the danger thereof , " found themselves called upon
to serve permanently " in time of war . Charges of breach of faith were raised in the House of Lords , not without foundation . The new Minister of War , looking into the matter , found that , strictly interpreted , the case of the recalcitrant militiaman had' right on its side ; and determined , at all hazards , to be just , Lord Panmure issued a circular , offering the men , enlisted before the 12 th May , 1854 , who had served more than the time prescribed by law , full discharge ,. or 11 . bounty on re-enlistment under the new Act . The effect is
magical . One regiment loses 600 out of 800 ; another , 200 out of 392 ; a third , 300 out of 400 ; a fourth almost disappears , and so on in every variety , with the same result—a Iftrge diminution of the available force . It is difficult to estimate what will be the actual effects of this state of things . At the present moment the militia is a name , and
little more . The whole- service , by official blundering , is disorganised . Orx the other hand , seeing that the bounty on enlistment into the infantry is 71 ., and into the cavalry 10 / ., and further , considering- that moat of the men will find their old places filled up during absence , it is not improbable that the recruiting sergeant will pick up what the militia hns thrown away . But this is very unsatisfactory .
It is aBmgty isign that militiaiaen feel so little the instincts of patriotism as to fly away from their colours at the first opportunity . Popular as ( the war is , here are Englishmen eager to evade the light share of it they had undertaken . But we most not be too hard upon these young men . They are poor , unlettered , uncultivated , mdnstructed . in the duties which a citizen owes to the commonwealth- They had an example before them , set by their " betters . " How many officers have " bolted" from the Crimea ? who in the heat of
How many lisping dandies , battle fear nothing , but who are not sufficiently in earnest to go patiently through the rough hard work of campaigning , are now loitering about the clubs and the pleasant places of the country ? If we censure Hodge or John for deserting his flag , because be was entitled to do so by Act of Parliament , what shall we say % > Fitz-Fttlke , or Montague Snooks , who not only deserts his flag , but deserts it in the hour of peril , when honour bids every man
stand by until he can literally stand no longer ? The fact is botn army promotion and militia organisation are based on false principles . Purchase and favour give us a strong sprinkling of officers for the array who care nothing for the service except its gay clothes and free-andeasy fiffe-T-men who " bolt" when discomforts come upon them . A p lan of levying a partial , instead of a national militia , leaves the country at a critical moment without support from its
home army . "What is the object of a militia ? The first object is the formation of an army of citizen soldiers for the defence of the country ; the second object is to provide a machinery by means of which a warlike people may be trained to arms , and a certain proportion , accustomed to the handling of weapons and combined movements , furnished to the regular army .
With our present militia system these objects are not adequately attained . The remedy will be found in making the militia truly national and truly effective ; in training the whole population to the use of arms and military movements ; and in giving every facility for the raising of volunteer regiments . The latter step alone would compensate for much that is defective in existing arrangements . But there is
and we should like to know very much Low it is that our self-styled liberal Governments have not repealed this act , which is a violation of the Bill of Rights , and a standing disgrace to the rulers and the people of this country . It needed not a Russian war to teach us that every nation to be truly independent must be trained to use arms with effect ; but Turkey furnishes a new illustration ; for had she possessed an army , she would not have needed help from the West ; and had the British military force been really effective , the Allies would not now be encampetl before Sebastopol .
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Sunday Sinners And Monday Dinners. Some ...
SUNDAY SINNERS AND MONDAY DINNERS . Some months ago , we visited one of the great manufacturing capitals of the north of England , and wishing to inspect certain curious processes for which the place was famous , we made application at a mill for permission to inspect the works . The owner received us courteously , but told us that he had one inflexible rule from whioh he never departed , and that was , to permit no one to enter that was not either a lady or a clergyman ; " because , " said he ( by
way of explanation ) , " noither clergymen nor ladies understand anything about business , and they can't , carry any new ideas away with them . " This curious truth receives constant confirmation . Without disparagement to their intelligence , gentlemen of the cloth are proverbially green in all matters relating to sublunary
affairs . They are the ripest victims to bUl discounfcers , the most innocent prey to designing horse deaiera , and if Goldsmith irad made the Vicar of Wakefteid himself the hero of the ** gross of green spectacles" adventure , instead ^ f his son Moses , he would not have outstepped the . modesty of nature . We have been led into these reflections by a very curious controversy between the Bishopop London and Mr . Ceqakles Pearson , the
Solicitor to the City of London . The subject is the future market-day for the new Islington Cattle Market ; Mr . Pearson says that it should be Monday , as at the old market , and the Bishop as stoutly maintains that Tuesday is the better day . The Bishop says that the change of day will prevent the desecration of the Sabbath , and Mr . Pearson declares that if it be changed , the business of the market will be destroyed , and that the Bishop ' s plan is calculated to increase rather than diminish
the actual desecration of the Sabbath . Both the disputants appear to be in earnest , both may be assumed to be without any arriere pensee in urging the dispute , and the question resolves itself simply into a balance of evidence . These then are the facts . WTien the doom of Smithfield was decreed by Act of Parliament , power was conferred upon the Corporation to build a new cattle market in Islington , provided that the by-laws for the regulation of the place should be approved of by the Home Secretary . The Corporation has expended
400 , 000 / . in building the market , which is admitted to be the most perfect cattle market in the world j and private—individuals have invested large sums of money in building around its precincts . The by-laws nave been prepared by the City solicitor , and are now before the Secretary of State ^ for his approval . At this juncture of affairs comes the Bishop op London , with a memorial signed by sixteen thousand inhabitants of the Islington district , and demands that the market-day shall be Tuesday instead of Monday , in order to prevent the desecration of the Sabbath . As we
have already stated , Mr . Pearson objects to this upon two grounds , either of which ought to be as sufficient as the excuse given by the Hanoverian Mayor for not firing a salute , imprimis , thathe had no cannon . By way of getting in medias res , we may state it as a fact that most meat-buying people in London eat a hot joint for dinner on Sundays , and content themselves with the cold edition of the same on Monday . Ergo Monday is a very idle day with the retail butchers , so far as selling is concerned ; ergo Tuesday is a very busy day with them ; ergo Monday is
the best day in the week for buying beasts , slaughtering them , and cutting them up for consumption . It is apparent , therefore , that both the customs of society , and of the retail meat trade , are so arranged , that butchers must have their live stock on Monday , either from Islington or elsewhere ; and that if they are forbidden to obtain them from thence , the consequence will be that Croydon and other neighbouring markets will be held on Monday , and thus the trade will bo driven away from this splendid new market at Islington , which the Corporation has erected at such vast
expense . It should be remembered that the whole mechanism of the trado in live stock throughout the kingdom—formers , drovers , markets , lairs , banks , and a hundred other wheels which go to make up the system—are arranged with express reference to this great Monday market ? any derangement , theretbro , cannot but prove highly detrimental , if not fatal , to a vast number of those abstractions for which Cnurcaiiion generally entertain a profound respect —existing interests .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 7, 1855, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07041855/page/14/
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