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Fbbruahv 16, 1856.1 THE LEADER. 157 %
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ARMY REFORM : NO FLHSTCHINGL That Englan...
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HOW TO WIN SABBATH OBSERVANCE. Those who...
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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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Mr. Lowe's Partnership Reform. We Believ...
were regular . Its dealings must , at the veryleast , be perfectly harmless . Is there a necessity for removing the restriction upon the association of men for the purposes of trade ? The necessity is selfevident . We need scarcely repeat the instance we have so often cited , that by the construction of the previous law the Leeds Flour Mill , which has had such excellent effects for the working classes , could not have "been established , nor could it have been established , under the Limited Liability Act of last year , since the shares are £ 1 shares , and not £ 10 . It is even the rule in the Leeds mill that no man shall hold more than one sharea rule designed to secure a more democratic kind of government , and operating in many respects well . The rule was adopted , after consideration , by prudent and clever men ; but the act of last year would have forbidden them to adopt such a rule . Now why should there be this restriction upon the enterprise and judgment of the humbler classes ? There is in reality no reason whatever except routine and arbitrary will ; but the prevention does Dperate as a cause of continued , though sometimes ; smothered discontent , amongst classes who "believe their interests to be very little in the care of those above them . From this common aspersion Mr . Lowe at all events must stand exonerated . He has done his best to free the humbler classes from the restriction , and he ought to have their energetic support . Has free trade in this particular been unnecessary for other classes ? We believe it is most desirable . Certainly some enterprises have hitherto been denied , existence by the law of unlimited liability . Let us take a case in point , . not amongst the humbler and noncommercial class . Amongst the conveniences whicli are rendered desirable by an extensive and active state of commerce is that which will facilitate the transfer of capital from hand to hand , so that those who require it upon proper security shall be able to get it ; that those who have it , and have it lying idle , can put it to profitable account ; and that the exchange should be effected for short times as well as long . Amongst the innumerable transactions going on in the City , there are many instances where men require £ 10 , 000 or £ 20 , 000 more than they counted upon , and where if they have it they can either save themselves a loss or make a considerable gain . On the other hand , it frequently happens that £ 10 , 000 or . £ 20 , 000 may drift into a man ' s coffers for a limited period ; he cannot get much for it in the bank ; he knows that he shall have it three or four months hence , and yet he grieves to think that it should remain idle . But he covild make his five per cent ., and somebody else get even larger profit . There wants , then , an agency to facilitate this distribution and transfer of capital for temporary purposes . It exists ; there has long been a house in the City noted for performing this very necessary function ; V *\ llf 1 ^ rf *\^ l ¦ P fill ^ WV f % S \ 4 * M ^ tt V * I I M f *« «« W « VAA W « A «*>• . Mh . I Kiii uui
of the existing house would furnish the data for that purpose . There is plenty of room for another firm ; and here , as soon as we have limited liability , the second firm comes into existence . It is only surprising that we should have been without more than one machinery of the kind so long , especially -when we remember that since 1832 the foreign trade of the country has trebled in amount , and that the home trade has received a proportionate extension , with a still greater impulse , in the rapidity with which exchanges are effected at home as well as a ~ broad . And this instance which we give is , we are convinced , only one out of many proving that amongst the commercial body , as well as amongst the working class , Mr . Lowe ought to receive an active and combined support .
**^ ^* *^ . ^^ ^^ ^ u . » uw au . Ajyj . AQ ^ u . wuu liuu-uumuiurvuEU reader be to learn that there is only one such house . Why ? Probably there are various reasons ; but amongst them most certainly is the restriction enforced by unlimited liability . It is only the law of limited liability which has called into existence * ' The National Discount Company , " registered within the last , few days . We have no interest whatever in the enterprise , direct or indirect ; but the names of the directors are before the public , and can be estimated . There is , perhaps , an infusioix of enthusiastio enterprise ; thero is also an infusion of experience and prudence . The raising of one or two millions capital for such a purpose as that whioh we have pointed out is likely to be easy ; the returns arc to be ascertained as a matter of fact j the kuown practices
Fbbruahv 16, 1856.1 The Leader. 157 %
Fbbruahv 16 , 1856 . 1 THE LEADER . 157 %
Army Reform : No Flhstchingl That Englan...
ARMY REFORM : NO FLHSTCHINGL That England may never again be found so unprovided as she was in 1854- —that it may never again be said by her troops , in the face of an enemy , " We are a band of brave men , but we are not an army , " is the Fervent prayer of every one who has not misread the lesson of this war . They , at least , will not forget that every soldier who died from preventible causes , whether in the trenches , the battle-field , or the hospital , was a sacrifice to the selfish policy , fostered by a long peace , devoted to material progress , and the extinction of all belief that went much above the heaven of pecuniary success , nor much below the hell of bankruptcy . They will remember that armies cannot be grown in a year , or it may be ten years , now ^ - a-days , although a well-grown army can easily be made to expand to twice its ordinary size ; that officers cannot he properly educated except by a long and painful process ; that fit men cannot be obtained haphazard ; still less that a good organisation can be improvised at the sound of the trumpet . And it will be for them , remembering these things , to do their utmost , every man in his place , to effect such changes in our military system as will , humanly speaking , secure efficiency for the future . We are told there is to be a peace ; but if peace be near , how much more incumbent is it upon all who desire that England ' s army should be second to none to bestir themselves ? iozv , in Parliament and out of Parliament , to see that the thing is done . Should the war continue , there can be little doubt that every year will add something tothe numbers , equipment , skill , and discipline of the British army—their courage cannot be increased . As a nation we do not rapidly rise and rapidly fall in our undertakings . The incessant play of criticism on our public men sharpens their perceptions and goads on their energies ; the mettle of the nation , too , rises with the demand upon it ; and , up to a certain point , in military as well as civil affairs , our tendency is to improve with practice . So that , while the war lasts , England will always have i / »* »•
without having recourse to the Prussian sys > | tern , which Scharnhobst invented for an emer- , ^| gency , which routine has made permanent , and which makes every man a soldier ; we have j the best and cheapest of all plans for raising an u army—by voluntary enlistment , based on oxir national principle of leaving every one free to choose his own occupation , and only requiring due development to give us , in proportion to its numbers , the finest army in the world . Mr . ' Leslie ' s proposals embrace one which we have heretofore put forward—the necessity of obtaining recruits from a higher class of society than that by which they axe now furnished . That might be done , not by bounty—bounty is a barbaric incentive , —but by higher pay ; more consideration for the private soldier ; every fair chance of promotion from the ranks , as in France , on just principles ; and then the middle classes woixld send a contingent of young men into the army . In point of fact , Mr . Leslie ' s plan goes upon the sound principle of maintaining our national habits and customs in the raising of an army , as alone suitable to the genius of a free people ; but these he would improve . In that course we concur . We believe that , costly as it would be , taking the figures absolutely , it would not be so costly to the nation as either of the continental systems . For the regular army—voluntary enlistment , good pay ; chance of promotion for all ; admission to the rank of officer , and promotion in that rank of none but fitly educated men ; promotion from the ranks for good conduct , high character , and practical military skill in the handling , management , and disciplining of troops . Here would "be what Mr . Senior would call a u well-constructed lottery , " so attractive to all men , and especially attractive to the kind , of men who are Wanted in an army . Such a change in our military system is imperative . But there is something else not less so—an improvement in the habits of the whole body of the people . You will not get the best soldiers , whether you take them from the lower or the middle classes , unless you encourage or enforce military habits among all classes . Voluntary enlistment for the regular army ; compulsory training of some kind for everybody ; elementary for the youth of all classes ; more definite and strict for those who form the militia . We do not agree with Mr . Leslie that nobody should , be taught soldiering but soldiers . It is not good for the national health that the present system should continue ; nay , be perfected into a system more rigidly separate than it is now . The political economists may find it cheaper to employ a separate military class for military purposes ; but the politician , the statesman , will understand that it is only cheaper in a commercial estimate , and not cheap er in that higher estimate which regards national defence as a duty that every man should hold himself in readiness to fulfil , and public freedom a right which every man should be prepared to assert . To us , therefore , it seems nocessarv that , if only as a nursery for
HI ) , ill ; my LUVUl . AiPt 3 l . AVfj wmuuo J ^ *> - "" i * . » - ' . ** m »; we have to fear is , that when peace comes the Manchester trilogy — " peace , retrenchment , and reform "—will mean the pulling to pieces of the military machine "built at so much cost during the war . We are , therefore , glad to see that able mon , not connected with military matters , are giving attention to the subject . As a striking instance we seloct a pamplxlet now before us on the " Military Systems of Europe , " economically considered , by Mr . Cliffx Leslie , one of the Professors of Queen ' s College , Belfast . The main object of Mr . Leslie is to show that , without adopting Mr . Cobden ' s treacherous advice , and raising an army by conscription ; without relying , as the Americans do , upon volunteers from their militia and volunteer companies ;
the regular army , we should adopt some modification either of the compulsory drill of the Prussian , or the free company drill ot the American . We do not wa nt a large regular army in time of poace ; but we want a perfect one . In order , however , to have an adequate army in time of war , and to have it at the moment wo require it , thero should be a vast reserve both in the ranks of the militia and in all ranks of society . Wo shall never grow an army of the best kind until we pay more attention to what may bo callod the antecedents of the recruit , and give more r ights and chances to men in the ranks .
How To Win Sabbath Observance. Those Who...
HOW TO WIN SABBATH OBSERVANCE . Those who seek to extend religious feeling among thq -working classes will do well for
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 16, 1856, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16021856/page/13/
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