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Leader (1850-1860), 19th April 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 367, Untitled Article

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      is a perpetual meddling with the dress of the sold ier , while his most substantial grievances remain untouched . The military milliner is at it again , quoth the Times : — " Great alterations will shortly take place in the dress of the army . It is in contemplation to supersede the scarlet shell jacketof the infantry by a frock coat of the same colour , and the ' bobtailed' coats of the heavy cavalry by a full skirted one . The improvement will be too . apparent to the greatest novice to require further comment . An order nas been received to supersede the red stripes of the undress of the dragoon guards and heavy dragoons by yellow ones ; except in the case of the Carabiniers , who are to wear white . "

      So far as we can understand this announcement , the new meddling will not tend to improve the appearance of the soldiery . The long skirts discarded generations ago are to be restored , again , we suppose , to be pinned back , again to be imitated in mere turnings-up , then to die out altogether , and once more be followed by shell jackets . These perpetual alterations are worse than mere trifling—they cause needless expense to the public on behalf of the

      private soldier , and to the officer , who must follow the capricious " regulations . " There is , indeed , one change that we should welcome—that which should strip military uniform of its gewgawa and superfluous finery , We admit the instinct which , in all countries , makes the dress of the soldier picturesque ; but sound taste , as well as sound finance , is outraged by the abundance of stripes , fringes , flying lace , and other effeminate finery , which converts the soldier into a mountebank or running footman .

      We do not forget the improvements which have taken place in the condition of the soldier ; but in the main they are only niggling abatements of discomfort or injustice , scarcely touching the main body of his grievances : the private soldier is still liable to the lash j he is still imprisoned in barracks , shut away from society , and forbidden to declare his wants ; he is still enslaved for a weary length of years ; he is still denied just promotion—forbidden to win a name and commission in the field , excepting in trie few picked instances which admit the injustice without curing it ; nay , as we saw recently in the ease of the Sergeants , promotion may be to him an injury and a loss .

      It is not only the soldier that suffers by these grievances : they entail injury also on the Army and on the country ; occasion much of the expense which attends a Standing Army , and at the same time weaken the efficiency of that force . To take the case of promotion . Our system is defended mainly to keep up , on as large a scale as possible , the practice of patronage , which is hedged in by the plan of purchase , " the

      Commanderin-Chief ' s list , " favouritism , and other abuses that obstruct the career even of the working officer . Yet a more liberal promotion from the ranks is proved to raise the character of the soldiery and the efficiency of the forces , not only in foreign armies , but even in our own . Take on this point the unexceptionable testimony of a military writer in active service . We extract the following passage from the Narrative of the Second Seikh War , by E . T . Thackwell , Aide-de-camp to General

      Thackwell : — " What a pleasing contrast the discipline , dresa , and bearing of the sepoys of the Bombay Regiments presented to those of the Bengal army . The former bore a much stronger resemblance to the English troops . They were well set . up , moved with rapidity , and their clothes seemed to fit them . The native officers had the recommendation of youth and activity , whilst those attached to the Bengal regiments were incapacitated by age . It has been customary at Bombay to select the moHt energetic and intelligent men of a regiment for promotion . Ah a necessary consequence , the troops have been better drilled . The young native officers take a pride in their position , and employ all their energy to recommend themselves for further advancement . The young sepoy bcutows attention to his duties , in the hope of 80011 gaining increased rate of pay and the rank of officer . . . " In Bengal promotion goes by seniority . Non-commissioned officer *! , just as they become fitting subjects fur a pension , receive a commission . Just an their energiva u » e evaporated , and their pride extinguished , they are expected to iufuHC life and activity into others . It wldtim happens that the troops of the two Fn-sidencuH arc thun conjoined in action . I was an eye-witiwus of the oolueNu ' wiih . which the Bombay sepoys inanomvred under fire . "

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      THE WHIGS SAVED . Cold water is thrown upon the explosives of Captain Warner ; Babbage is pensioned , but the arithmetic of the United Kingdom is not worked by the calculating machine ; Lord Ashley has shown a candle to the House of Commons , but tallow still keeps the place of peat ; sunflowers do not yet supply us with everything , from bread and oil to the rope wherewith we hang the unredeemed savages of our native land ; discoverers mostly have to contend with indifference and neglect ; but one , we imagine , is sure of success as soon as his discovery is made known : the daily papers have described a novel application of machinery : — ' ? Mr . Alfred Smee has contrived a piece of mechanism , by which he can show the relation of any number of facts , or principles , inductively and deductively , and thus perform mechanically what has hitherto been thought to be the province of the mind alone . For the action of the machine , he so arranges the words that every word forma a half of the meaning of the word above it , and comprises the meaning of two words below it . By these means he obtains an arrangement of words , having the properties of a geometrical series . When the words are expressed in their proper relations upon the machine which is constructed upon the same geometrical plan with the logical readings of all , some , none , the bearings of any number of actions is indicated , and the conclusion can be read off by inspection . Tho discovery will not be patented . "

      Much demand will be excited at this oiler of a supply of wisdom by machinery . The very poet might seek to purchase the inspiration of such a deus ex machinft ,- only few poets can afford factory apparatus . Besides , poetry , like stockings , has suffered considerably in the adaptation of mechanical " improvements , " an they are culled . Both the hose and the mane of our ancestors were of closer and more lasting tissue than those which are turned out of the machine in our day . It is

      evident that Mr . Sniec ' s invention would l > e invaluable to persons who are now burdened with the composition oi" tjennons ; to writers on evidence , legal and theological ; to novel-writers , multitudinous race ! There must be considerable chance , however , that the patent will be officially bought up . To the Commons it would bo of the utmost us © in the composition of blue books t honourable committee-men might go and take their ease at their inn , and leave a hoy to feed the Smee machine with witnesses . Frobably the inventor will not louts tho example

      of Captain Warner : the Captain lias not given his long-range to mankind , but he offers a preemption to some one of the contending parties . Mr . Smee should offer his engine to the Protectionists or Freetraders , for the forthcoming election . It would be especially applicable to either of those parties , should the free-trade struggle have to-be renewed since the arguments on either side are so perfectly well known , that victory now will almost depend on the breadth , speed , and good aim of the ejaeulator : the big loaf , the triangular trade , the smugler ' s premiumand such arguments , —or tne

      g , competition of the over-taxed British farmer , the special burdens , the independence of foreign corn , and so forth , —will all fail of effect , on a new campaign , unless some plan were devised for shooting them out broadcast , like grapeshot , so as to hit an opponent with a score of arguments at once—twenty to his one , as soldiers shoot into crowds . The Smee , ' comprehensiverange would secure the victory to the purchasing side as surely as the Warner long-range . Decidedly the Free-traders should secure a monopoly

      of the machine . The party , however , at once most in need of the machine , and most able to command funds to outbid every competitor , since it holds the public pursestrings , is the party in power . By a bold purchase of the Smee , the Russell Cabinet might retrieve itself on the very edge of its favourite precipice . Yes , we commend to them the Srnee-at-any-price policy ; and the first use of the instrument might be the justification of its own purchase . This would be a beautiful application of machinery . The Protectionists are very bold now ; but how different their aspect would be if they were

      effectually Smee'd ! Think also of the totally new force given to all the terrible , if true , denunciations and prophecies on the " Papal aggression ! " Imagine the totally novel force imparted to Lord John ' s series of Durham-letter speeches by " logical readings of all , some , none ! " It would be convincing , overwhelming . Just fancy Lord John using to the Pope a machine b y which " the bearing of any number of actions is indicated , and the conclusion can be read off by inspection ! " Which falls in admirably with the Whig plan of appointing inspectors for every purpose . We shall have a staff of Conclusion Inspectors .

      As to the statement that "the discovery will not be patented , " who can tell the effect of a Peerage and pension ? Mr . Smee will perceive at once how dangerous it would be to place such a machine in the hands of the common people . National education would not be half so alarming as this kind of universal suffrage of the tree of knowledge . Think of the millions wielding , with the "destructive " hand and " blind passions" of the mob , " logical readings of all , some , none . " What institutions could stand in such a state of things ? Is it

      possible that the Essex paupers , who have at piesent only the logical readings of " none , " would submit to Helotry if they also commanded logical readings of " some , " to say nothing of " all" ? And who would place the machine in the hands of Socialists and Chartists ? We should have the Charter established , and Socialism proved to-morrow , and the conclusions positively read of by inspection . It is clear that if a stamp tax must be retained on papers , to prevent a popular currency of news and politics , a prohibition tax must be put upon tho Smee . But Lord John and Sir Charles Wood are not men to overlook no obvious a necessity .

      A greater danger for them lies in the probability that Mr . Hume or Mr . Cobden inight u : oonoinically propose to discontinue the use of live Cabinet Ministers , and to establish a proportionate number of steam Smees on the Treasury bench . The human machine cun . not compete with the Iron Man ot the Factory ; and even Cabinet Ministers may learn to sympathize : with the weaver who is Kent home " to play , " while a woman can tent four power loomn . We shall see Lord John altendintf Chartist meetings with NirCharleH and tho Greys , and cornjilainiuifwith demagogue loudne « H , that Lady John is

      , employed to tent four steam Sum's . IJe will agitato for an act to forbid the employment ot women in mines , factories , and Houses of Parliament . Yea , even Cabinet Ministers may taste tho common woo ; for " pain can reach the sons of Heaven . " I" > fc not written— " Haider ' s head to death is Riven , " » nd a balder logician than Lord John is there not in tho world of logic . Let hi * rival be oi » e that can pour forth logical readings of all some , none , ami ho is destroyed . He must hasten to secure the Nmee .

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      JOHN STUAKT MILL AND THE WATER QUESTION " . The anomaly of our commercial and trading sysrtew , being in some thing * monopolist , occasionally cooperative , and generally competitive , i » admirably illustrated by the present « tat « of the question aa to the hcut and cheapest mode of supplying London with good water . Certain Free Traders , object to the abolition of tho existing competition of trading

      companies , affrighted by the vision of a vast central Government control . The members of the Metropolitan Sanitary Association earnestly ask for a commission appointed and paid by Government . And there are not wanting those who advocate the local system , and assert that the only legitimate way of providing good water is by local management . To quash the free-trade people , Mr . John Stuart Mill has been appealed to , and his authority has been brought to bear upon the Economist . But in so doing , the Sanitary Association , who consulted the oracle of free trade , have received an

      unlooked-for check . Upon the speculative question , Mr , Mill declares in favour of local management and Government supervision . " Were there , " he writes , " a General Council , or Board of Administration for all London , invested with power over every branch of it 3 local affairs , a place in the council or board would , like a place in the Municipal Commission of Paris , be sought and diligently filled by persons of high character and standing , as men not only of business capacity , but of general instruction and cultivation . " To such a body he would unhesitatingly entrust , and not to Parliament , or the general government , the charge

      of the operations for the water supply of the capital . We presume that such a body would be , to all intents and purposes , a cooperative and not a competitive association . Mr . Mill limits , not only the province of Government , but the province of competition . In the water supply he says , there is virtually no competition ; if there were , he would , doubtless , prefer that mode of supply . We think he is wrong in saying that the water supply is a question , not of political economy , but of public policy . It is both . Only to this special case the fundamental dogma of orthodox political economy will not apply .

      We are glad to see a rising agitation in favour of arepresentative Government for all London . In their memorial to Lord John Russell , the Sanitary Association rather gratuitously think the London public does not want local government ; but the questions of water supply , drainage , roads , and rates , seem likely to result in some important movements for the less imperfect management of metropolitan affairs .

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      April -19 , 1851 . 1 STt ) * U ?« & *! % ^__

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 19, 1851, page 367, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1879/page/13/