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" We may command auxiliaries , almost as many as we wish : we could upon easy terms secure the services of Hungarians , of Prussians , of Poles , perhaps of Fins . We believe that even some of the Russian provinces , and the Russian classes that appear most faithful , could be purchased ; the empire itself would cut up into nice states ; the Dukes of Lithuania might be revived ; " principalities" might be carved out of Southern Russia as well as out of Turkey ; a handsome kingdom might own St . Petersburg- for its capital , and the war upon Russia might be made self-supporting .
But none of these operations could be effected unless Eng-land herself had such a power that she could of her own will turn the scale and dictate terras to minor potentates . In any case , therefore , we need a considerable increase to our military machinery . The arithmetical problem for our Government and statesmen should be to find that assistance which would be largest in amount and * most efficacious , in order
to economise our own exertions , and to provide the increase of our own force in such a way as least to disturb our domestic arrangements or to derange the political balance which is boasted for our constitution . And here again is an interesting and important consideration for those who are prepared to take a leading part in influencing Government . We cast aside , as altogether out of date and out of use , anykind of Peace doctrines . The- members of the
Peace party have run , like mice at dawn , into their holes and corners ; and it is none but the boldest mouse , such as John Bright , that will venture to slap its tail on the ground in the face of the war Grimalkin . But , depend upon it , the cost to the country in men and moneywill be less or greater in proportion as the statesmen entrusted with power grapple with the idea of war in its full dimensions , or endeavour to evade their duty . If they suppose
qliat they can " arrange this little matter , " that they can hush it up and settle it . without any material disturbance of existing interests in Europe , then we should have an attempt at an evasive war , and this country will be called upon to expend a larger amount in men and money because we must forego much of the assistance that we could otherwise obtain on tlie self-supporting principle .
War , like colonisation , should be thoroughly self-supporting ; and particularly in this instance , since there is the amplest opportunity . If states are not with us , they are against us ; if they are against us , their blood must be on their own head . It is no time to stand trifling with " neutrals . " Every state that does not join us as an ally , ought to be declared fair game for those who are willing to enter with us into the hunt against Russia , and ought to be the premium that we pay for our auxiliaries . If , for example , King Frederick William
canup army Western alliance , then , wo say , King- Frederick William ' s crown and kingdom should be offered as the reward by England to any party in Prussia that will procure for us that army and assistance . Austria professes to he with us ; let her be so in fact ¦ , or if not , there arc certain kingdoms of Bohemia , Loinbardy , and Hungary , which would furnish pretty pickings fox an auxiliary that would volunteer to our side . Saxony vacillates , and it is a kingdom worth bestowing upon a faithful gononvl . The Schleswig-Holstoinors and the Danes have ducal and regal questions to settle , and they would help those that help them . There be Swedes that would go with England , and why should not England return to a Swedish prince the crown held by the French dynasty , if that dynasty proved untrue to England and France ? Naples clearly is tho appanage for a victorious captain . If England be true to Lor opportunity , there are abundant resources for paying
the auxiliaryarmy without taxing the English people . It is by endeavouring to evade that opportunity that our Government would forego the assistance which it might have for the seeking , and will be compelled to turn round and increase our taxes . By the same policy which would make our Government spare our taxes , and pay for the continental war with continental means , we might be extending the outposts of Liberalism and strengthening the interest as well as sparing the means of the Englishman .
Still , to do all this , at the best we must have a larger army . Now we are jealous of large armies . They are the means for oppressing a people . They enable the Executive to be Independent of the representative power . The check upon that abuse is to let the army represent the nation . We must not be misunderstood as endeavouring to uphold the dogma that there is nothing in " blood , " that the aristocracy is an artificial creation , or that inheritance is no additional guarantee for high
qualities in particular families . We know better . The history of the humblest classes would refute us ; the good name of a father is an additional stronghold upon the probity of an honest son . Distinction iu cabinet or field through many generations is an incentive to every new generation that succeeds . But the worth of an aristocracy consists in its living actions . If it maintains its position by
artificial privileges it . will soon decay . It-is healthiest when it is constantly recruited from other classes ; when it becomes , not the monopolist , but the model for the country to which it belongs . Our peerage , as -well as our army , affords frequent examples of men whose families have rjsen from humble position to the highest in the State . But our present military system restricts the bulk of commissions to a class
which is not aristocratic but moneyed ; and by doing so fixes a derogatory taboo upon the non-commissioned and private ranks . Hence , as we have already said , a twofold effect : poor gentlemen are excluded from the only path by which they might reach commission—through the ranks ; and a lower tone of morals is given to the army than prevails in the nation at large . But the restriction affects the recruiting oven numerically . The Times asserts that the recruiting just now is good—rapid and copious : —we doubt it . We should like to see a detailed statement of the districts that make up the boasted " thousand a week . " Who but a
man that has nothing to lose , and has no prospects , would venture into the ranks ? With few exceptions none but rif-raff could do so . We are forced to educate our army like pauper children , because educated men will not enter it . Cast away the exclusive privilege , ai ) d numbers of the youth from all classes of the country would rush to the ranks as the
legitimate path by which they could attain , at all events , a chance of distinction . By its reaction the military element would be diffused in the body of tho population ; and wo should have a direct connexion of the army with the farm , the factory , and the shop . It is not by raising the bounty , but by removing this disgraceful class restriction , that tho restraint upon recruiting is to bo removed .
One species of fusion between tho bulk , of the population and the military class soorns likely to be compulsorily pressed upon Government . Our trained force has been kept upon so small a footing that it will bo necessary almost to exhaust tho garrisons of the United Kingdom and to roduco thoao of other parts of the empire , as in India , where thoy can bo less safely spared than in Canada . Tho militia k already called upon to a considerable extent for " embodiment , " and 1 ms boon rocommonded for foreign service—very injudiciously . Wo know of no service- beyond the four , seas to
which , on military grounds , militiamen could be safely put , except service in India ; and there , perhaps , with proper precautions and bounties to compensate trying climate , some of them might be used profitably . But there is another kind of corps for home service more effectual than any militia , which has not yet been really commenced at all — Volunteer
Corps . It appears to us that Government is exhausting the garrisons of the United Kingdom , and is not providing to restore the defensive force of the country : a militia is never equal either to a trained force or to a volunteer force ; it lacks the experience of the one , the patriotism of the other : we must have a volunteer corns .
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CAPTAIN NOLAN . Why is it Captain Nolan should be suspected of having- caused the destruction of the British cavalry , when be himself was one of the first victims , and when everybody must have lcriown , from the circumstance , that the charge at the moment could only result in loss ? The story about the order is confused and inconclusive ; yet the conclusion against Captain N " olan is received as if it were self-evident . Why is this ?
Because he has been a reformer , and a successful reformer . He published , about a year back , a small octavo book upon English cavalry , its system of drill , mounting , &c . ; also a smaller book ou the selection and training- of cavalry remounts . The work is dashingly written , is full of earnestness , and at the same time practical ; and it has been successful . The old " balanceseat "—which was necessary while a man-atarms wore a heavy case of metal that made it difficult for ' Mm to rise from the saddle after he
had once sunk in it , but which was continued long subsequently to the date -when the metal case was given up , —has at last been abandoned . The stiffness of the old manege has also been relaxed , and the aim is less to drill the cavalry soldier into pedantic feats of the riding-school than to make him as good a rider as possible in as brief a time as possible . Some of the attacks that Captain Nolan made on the cumbersome , parts of dress have also been successful . In the course of this book he
argues much for the efficacy of cavalry as an ai'm , and contends that its use has been too much neglected in modern warfare ; and amongst other things he was one of those to combat most stoutly that practice of drill which accustoms men as well as horses to tura aside in threes as the natural finish for a charge . It is now said that this enthusiastic reformer , this Quixotic believor in cavalry omnipotence , was mortified that more had not been done
with his favourite arm in the Crimea , and that ho was prepared to snatch the opportunity offered by an imperfect order for tho purpose of making- hay while the sun shone . And dreadful hay was made indeed ! The men were mowed down like grass . It was suid in some of the Jat < J Italian disturbances that a body of cavalry had charged a fortress , whether successfully or not wo do not remember j and the attempt , could hardly have been madder than that to charge tho Russians as they stood when tho light cavalry advanced . -But the
very reason which makes us think it jprobablo that Captain Nolan may have thus stretched Ins orders , should induce us to aalc , before wo prouounco tho verdict of a coroner ' s inquest sitting at a distance , whether the probability itself does nor , suggest tho story ? Whether tho interpretation of Captain Nolan ' s meaning may not Imvo suggested itself even to Lord Lucan nt tho moment of commanding the advance ? Thoro was u mad advance—Nolan , was tho messenger ; of course , presume tho vulgar , Nolan was tho instigator and causo—
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November 18 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 1093
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 18, 1854, page 1093, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2065/page/13/
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