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has been thrown upon the futility of wasting public money on the Martello Towers , that may command particular points , but that cannot exclude considerable forces from making way through the interstices . Even a very strong army is liable to the inconvenience , that the enemy may make its appearance where it is not ; and we could scarcely nave an army so powerful as to cover even our limited coast line . The true principle for rendering a country invulnerable against any species of surprise , is to make its own People its army ; and the greatest want of diligence appears to us to have been
committed in this particular branch of the preparations . The allowance was 50 , 000 militia for last year , and 30 , 000 more for the present year ; and it is calculated by the Times , which has been playing the part of a Government organ in explaining these matters to the public , that the militia , during the course of the present year , will amount to 60 , 000 men in a state of complete efficiency . Great doubt is thrown even on this limited assurance . The fact speaks for itself , that the twenty-one days drill allowed to the men is not sufficient for the purpose of
rendering a soldier perfect in his duty . It is now becoming a constant complaint on the part of the officers , that they are not themselves sufficiently instructed in their business ; and a correspondent of the Naval and Jifilitaiy Gazette declares that the officers who have been appointed from the army , are for the most part unqualified , either by sufficient service or experience , to bring the body of militia into a full state of discipline . In feudal times , military service was a tax upon the
Iiord of the Manor , and upon his able-bodied tenants . Down to a comparatively recent period , our Line was recruited by impressment , which was recognised in the army as distinguished from the navy , where the practice is supported by usage , and by some vague idea of common law . At the present day , however , impressment for either service would probably turn out to be impracticable ; nor is it probable that there would be any necessity to resort to it for the formation of truly defensive corps .
There is no doubt that an authenticated summons to the formation of volunteer corps would be responded to ; and such corps are valuable , not only as a means of directly supplying the strength that is needed , but also aa a means of training the public mind to the full sense of military necessities and opportunities . The improvements in the condition of the soldier , which Mr . " Windhnm may be said to have begun in 1806 , have but recently been carried to
such an extent , as to favour a hope that men , with their own interests in view , might enter the Army . Indeed , improvement must be carried still further , before the recruit enlisting as a private soldier can bo actuated by anything better than a somewhat blind and ignorant impulse . It was observed , however , during the recruitment of 1805 , that men who had been acting in the militia enlisted freely in the army ; and that such mon were of a better class than those enlisted by direct recruitment .
And , for obvious reasons . In the militia , they had acquired some degreo of familiarity with military life , and they were then reconciled to a career which would have been repulsive to them , if it had been first presented in the shape of enlistment in the ordinary lino . That great practical hint ia worth recollecting at the present day . The militia force is a great nursery for the ordinary force ; not only by collecting largor
numbers , but by positively raising the character of tho men enrolled . In regard to the objection against threatful demonstrations , it may do observed , that an augmentation of our militia could not create the same jealousy that an augmentation , of tho lino would create In regard to expense , there is no country that spoiuln so littlo upon its military business aH tho United States ; which can bring into tho field an army of more than 2 , 000 , 000 of men ,- —of such mon na
con-( luered the provinces recently annoxed to the Union . Hut n militia , especially in a country where general intelligence prevails , an iu America or Knglnnd , cannot bo turned to those purposes of tyranny , which aro becoming almost tho daily business of standing armies throughout Europe . ' On every ground of speedy preparation , convenient distribution at home , money economy , and constitutional safety , tho militia is thn branch of our national defonoes that most demands prompt and wide extension . Wo do not suppose
that it will remain long without some improved activity . Within the last twelve months—indeed , even within the last six months , so great progress has been made , not only in drawing attention to this subject , but in reconciling official men , and the public at large , to the actual necessity of , the case , that we may anticipate a still further advance in this direction within the same period to come .
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ENGLAND AND AUSTRALIA IN COMPETITION TOR THE WORKING-MAN . With the facilities for transit between England and Australia or America , it is quite clear that the outflow of people will continue , until the condition of tho great mass in this country shall be brought more upon a level with that of the Australian or American . Those classes whose prosperity depends upon maintaining the value of property , and , therefore , the industrial efficiency of the country , must bestir themselves to secure that level as soon as possible . The papers ,
indeed , quote a letter from William Howitt , who tells us that gold-digging is hard work , and that feeble persons , used to sedentary employments , can't face it ; while delays in Melbourne , with its excessive prices , are ruinous . But it did not need a voyage to Australia to discover that truth , which was as well known in London as in Melbourne . Gold-digging is hard work ; and those who go out with only English supplies of cash , can as little support the prices of a gold-digging district , as a bricklayer could pay his way in tho London Tavern . The peculiarity of golden
Australia is , that the hard-working population commands the purse ; and , so long as that is the case , the hard-working population of these islands will emigrate to Australia . This raises an important—nay , vital question , for the solution of our industrial captains : the problem is , how to keep a sufficiency of our working-classes at home ? If they cannot answer that , our industrial system , our trade , our commerce , are done for . Fortunately , one mode lies ready to their hands ; a mode by which they will not only keep a maximum , of labour , but improve the physical and moral condition of the labourers . That mode is , to increase the comforts , provide means of recreation and exercise , and permit the
development of muscle as well as of nervous tissue . To do this effectually , the captains of industry must place more time and more money at the disposal of the working-classes . Let the earlyclosing movement be carried out still further , and more universally ; let there be cheap books and cheap papers ; let thore be rifle clubs , and Crystal Palaces , and galleries of art , and grounds for manly sports of all kinds ; let everything be done , not only to raise the lowest labourers in social status , as well informed , well mannered , wellconducted members of society , but to develop their physical capabilities , give them a frank and cordial bearing , and a sound body , as a pre-roquisito for a sound mind . To come at once to a practical instance . Thero is tho proposal to open the Crystal Palaco on Sundays . Tho Reverend John Jackson suggested , at tho meeting of tho . Early-Closing Association , at Exeter ITall , on Wednesday , that tho Crystal Palace question would bo solved by increasing tho week-day holidays . A very sound remark . ' But it would bo as preposterous to shut tho Crystal Palaco on Sunday against those who choose to employ that day for recreation , as it is to prevent , by long hours , the attendance of those Avhose scrup les would keep them away on Sunday . Tho fact is , wo must have both—more holidays and shorter hours . We put the question purely on tho commercial ground . It is a case of competition . Can tho wage-payora of England compete successfully , at present rates , and at tho present hours , with tho great wage-payer—tho golden soil—of Australia P It is aa plain as n , pikestaff . We must either out-bid Australia in the eyes of tho hard-work ing population , or wo must succumb . Supply and demand won't settle this question entirely . The British demand may bo great ,,, imperativo , but the Australian temptation , may be greater and
more imperative ; . It is for tho thrones , dominations , and powortl of industry and trade , to ponder the issue At present they hold destiny in their hands ; for they still have T * iine , tho lord of destiny , by the forelock . But how long will ( hey bo able to maintain their hold P
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REPORT OF THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY COMMISSION . Ir The Hebdomadal Boaud — Laud ' s instrument for the extinction of university independence—has surreptitiously and illegally extinguished the university itself . It has converted the common pasturage into a system of college paddocks . Its oligarchical organization has subjugated the public interests to the private , the university to tho common room ; and , reversing the mythological story , Saturn is devoured by his children . It has placed Oxford immeasurably behind the nge by silencing the professoriate , and adapting the
examinations to the miscellaneous and desultory , or cramped and narrow reading of tho Fellows ; and such is its evil influence , and the results which have attended its legislation , that tho admirers of things as they are , with Mr . Sewell and the school which would permit dissenters to study for a degree away from Oxford , are not ashamed to justify its neglect of useful learning , and to declare that Oxford is a school to the " upper classes" of preparation for life . The Hebdomadal Board has lowered the university to the condition to which it was tending six centuries ago , under the influence of mendicant friars and monastic routine ; and no wonder that those who have the best interests of Oxford at heart consider its action as dangerous as it is unconstitutional . Here and there , indeed , we find in the evidence some faint commendations , rather of the individual members of the Board , than of the Board itself . Thus Dr . Twiss , ( Ev . 155 , 156 ) , while affirming that it " consists for the most part of picked members of the Colleges , well experienced as tutors and examiners before they became heads of houses , " admits that the Professors do not possess their just share of influence in the studies of the University . Dr . Cardwell , indeed , ( JEv . 264 . ) " is satisfied with the present constitution , " but the vast body of evidence
countenances the statement of the Report , p . 11 , that " the complaints are loud and general , and the evidence on the subject is copious , explicit , and in its general principles unanimous . " Thus Professor Vaughan says , ( I £ v 82 ) , " the heads of houses cio not necessarily or even generally follow literary and scientific pursuits . Nor are they directly and closely connected with the instructions of the place . They simply appoint the tutors , and preside , with more or less activity , at the terminal examinations in college . They live generally with their families , and do not immediately imbibe the spirit or learn the wishes of those wlio more directly
carry forward tho instruction . " " The general backwardness , " says Mr . JAtton ( JEv . 1 * 75 ) , " which Oxford has for a . length of time exhibited , to introduce the most needful reforms , has arisen very much from the excessive closeness and uniformity in tho constitution of its government . I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to any members of that learned body , tho Heads of Houses , if I observe , that the mode of their election ( by the Fellows of each college ) is not such as affords any guarantee that the . clioico will fall upon men of enlarged and comprehensive minds ; but even if such were always the case , I cannot think it a judicious arrangement that the government of a great
university should be iu tho hands of a body of men belonging to one rank , and representing one interest in tho University , viz ., that of tho colleges . " " Tho entire discipline and system of instruction , " says Jlfr . Cox , ( Ev . 93 ) , "is placed under the control of a body of men mainly selected with exclusive reference to tho interests and objects of the societies to which they belong . Hence it is obvious that it is but accidentally that any peculiar fitness for academical government can exist on the part of tho elected . I have known , for example , more than cms instance of : \ Head of a College , selected by way of a convenient compromise between rival tutors ; another , in which a candidate who bad retired from academical life to tho duties of
a country parish , was invited to terminate n contest between resident aspirants to llm Headship ; another deriving his appointment from tho exercise of aristocratic influence ! with tho party in whom the choice resided . In no one case do I believe that the question of fitness for // mwr . svV // governmenthits ever oven occurred to the mind of a single elector . " The evidence is full of tmeh unflattering op inion ;) . " Tho position mid the mode of election of Mio J lends do not i ' urni .- , h Mi / lieient guarantee * for their thoroughly Nyinpathising with tho
wants of the University , or undeiHlmuling tho K ( ineral feeling of itH member * . " Mr . 11 Trier ( h ' v . 11 ) 2 ) , " With the exception of those Heads of Halls who aro appointed by the Chancellor ( : mi (> n whom wo have had men tho most , social even with the youngest inemherfl and tho greatest promoters of improvements ) , tho Heads of Houkok are elected nuch for the benefit of their respective Collet / 1 ' .. t , and wilh no view to tho good of the University . " I ' roftissor Wall ( Ev . 151 ) , " It may lie very much doubted whether tho want of power to
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March 5 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 229
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 5, 1853, page 229, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1976/page/13/
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