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possession of the requisite attainments for performing the duty ol aide-de-camp , quartermaster , and adjutant-gener-al . Another , brought down the expenses of mess to the actual cost of an ordinary table . Now , if these two orders were sincerely followed out , the effect must be that young men 6 f moderate means could join any regiment in the service , undeterred by the absence of a heavy purse to meet ' the usual style of laving ;' the general order establishing a sort of chivalric rule which places the wealthy and the poor on a level , so that both be- good officers . The other general order secures that the officers who are the immediate
instruments o-ff the command of a brigade , a division ; or aix army , shall have the requisite knowledge to assist him in the handling of troops , in distributing them , and in lodging them j shall be able to report to his chief the state of the country ; shall , in fact , understand the ideas that the chief intends to communicate" and the information which he desires . If the order be sincerely carried out , no man will be admitted to the Staff who is incompetent in those respects . Of course those who have attained to the Staff hy the force of wealth and high connexion are astounded at this "innovation . '
The third general order may equally shock them for its democratic tendency . It obliges every private soldier to attend school for at least four hours in th 6 week , and to acquire some knowledge of reading and writing . Until a" soldier shall have been discharged from the class , he will not be competent for promotion , even to be corporal . This will put the Screw upon regimental schools , which have actually h&cn discontinued in some regiments . It will also assist all intelligent and improvable young soldiers , who are now rather kept down hy the public opinion of ignorance , sneered at if they try to be
* scholars , ' and in every way induced to follow the conservative rule of letting alone . But officers of regiments are also charged to appoint the sergeant by his intelligence and his attainments in the -way of information as well as soldierly qualities . Now , ittliis order be sincerely carried out , we must have a class of well - informed , intelligent non - commissioned officers : how dangerous it would then be to retain over their heads any number of ignorant and incompetent fools , such as sometimes fill out the regimental coat—with the assistance of padding—and support the regimental hat .
But all turns upon the sincerity with which these general orders shall be carried out ; and it is well known that the Commander-in-Chief does not meet with that support from below , or from his side , that his measures merit . The public has been calling out for some account of the late Military Cora mission on Education in the Army , and printed accounts of it wo have . There is the blue-book , which Ministers so long tried to keep unpublished , on . the score of ' economy . '
creased by 2 , 000 , 000 / . since 1852 ! It is curious to observe the special objects with which English Ministers usually begin their economies . Then we have No . 1 of the ' blue-books for the people , ' giving a very complete abstract of the official book on Army Education ; * and finally the pamphlet published ; by Clowes and Son , which embodies the pith of tho Commissioners' roportt—ft brief pamphlet of
twentyone pages . " The leading object of Military Education , ' * says this pamphlet , " is to secure a knowledge of military science and tactics among those who are to be the leaders of others , and a subordinate , but scarcely less important object , is-the encouragement of an intelligent spirit of professional study among officers in general . " This seems so reasonable , that one would have supposed that it had been a ' principle' even before making any army at all ; yet it is now an' innovation ;' and commissioners propose that the Staff at all events sfoall be educated . Although war is the one grand school for the soldiers , it is a school in which the students will be able
to improve the opportunity in proportion as they have been trained beforehand . It is proposed , therefore , that there shall be an early course of education in a military college between the age of sixteen or seventeen and eighteen or nineteen ; young men being admitted to the army at the latter age through a competitive examination . It is proposed that no officers shall be admitted to the Staff without undergoing a further examination , in order to which they shall be admitted to a Staff College . There is a notion that officers would then be nothing better than literary scholars , with no means of testing their soldierly capacity ; but this is a delusion .
A common arid a plausible objection to competition in a Staff School is , that it would stake an officer ' s character for ability on the uncertain result of an examination . But this difficulty , however apparently reasonable , only springs in reality from our own want of experience in such matters . It is easily overcome in the best foreign schools . Let us meet it as they do in the excellent Austrian Staff School , which the commissioners regard as a model from the good sense of its arrangements , or as it is met in the great French School of Application at Metz . The system of the Austrian Staff School is indeed so remarkable , that we shall extract the following from the Report , p . 181 : —
" The most striking features in the system of this school , both at the entrance and throughout the course , are , that it is distinctly competitive ; that it admits very young officers ; and that while the work is considerable the subjects for study are not numerous . In these three points it differs considerably from the Prussian Staff School , in which the pupils are generally older , and the principle of competition is not so fully carried out . In the Austrian school the pupils are placed on entering in the order which their entrance examination has just fixed . They aria examined once a month during their stay . On leaving the school , their respective places are again , determined j and they have a claim for appointments in tlte Staff Corps in the ' exact order in which they were placed on leaving the school .
" Their relative places on leaving the . school are assigned to them , as we were assured , very carefully and after much consultation in every case among the professors ; but this is not done by marks , nor by any minute system of testing intellectual qualifications , but an estimate is formed upon the whole work of the two years , both on the studies in the school and the practice in the field , —of the pupil ' s comparative fitness , as an officer , for . the work of the Staff . ' We try to estimate the whole man , ' was the expression used to us , ' whether he will make a good ColonncnfVhrer , a good man to direct a regiment . This general estimate wn , s preferred to that of marks , on tho ground that tho latter might give too much weight to simply intellectual qualities . "
But with a good Staff , we must have a good standard for every rank of officers in the army . Not only would all be preparing for the Staff , but the Staff itself would greatly influence the character of the whole body , and the admission of young men . This is the proposal which has been laid before Ministers ; they have been assuring us that they have a plan based upon it ; hut it is always to bo produced , not produced . Ax'o they in earnest , or are they not ?—have they a plan , or only a promise ? Are they going to make it a law , or only a delusion , a mockery , and a snare ? This is tho question actually put to them by 'Qonoral Evans , on whose side we may reckon , for they liavo indelibly recorded their opinions , Sir Howard Doucixas , General Wxwbham , Sir
Comet OAMiBEIiii , and though last not least , especially in a parliamentary sense , Mr . Sidney Heebebt , whose name is constantly repeated in the able pamphlet to which we liave referred .
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"SOMETHING LIKE A MAJOEITT . ' Mb . Hayteb , who draws his influence from the pure Wells of English ( voters ) undefiled , rufcs his hands at the extreme end of the Treasury Bench and ejaculates , ' Ah ! this is something like a majority ! ' Lord Pl&iiMEUstoit is perfectly , satisfied with the House of Commons . It supports- him through , thick and thin . The liberate-, whose tongues were fi . eree upon the hustings , sit abashed in the presence 1 of the big , bold ; , loud-voiced Minister . ISfeveir was there a more servile or worthless House . With a few exceptions , the Liberals-, with strong opinions , are men of the weakest nerve , liable to all sorts of jockeying and cajolery . Whether the
question before them be political , financial , or administrative , they follow the Premier ' s lead , and are laughed at by the Tories . As for the bulk of the Whigs , . who went in upon the PAiiMEBSTON ery , they are the exclusive property of Mr . Hiatteb . What has become of all that was said at the general election ? Where is Lord John KtrssELL ? Where Sir James Gbaham ? Silent one and silent all , like the dead men at Thermopylae . ' ] STexfc Session' is the promise in every month . Perhaps it will thent be ' next Parliament . ' This year , at any rate , Mr . Haxteb has his gangs in order , and the whip cracks musically over a team of four hundred British representatives .
The Cape op Good Hope . —The Cape Parliament was opened on the 7 th of April by Sir George Grey . In the course of his speech he expressed satisfaction with the conduct and appearance of the German Legion . The revenue * which was estimated last year at something less than 305 , 000 ? ., is estimated for the current year at n early 387 , 000 / . The great increase in the commercial prosperity , which began to devolop itself in the year 1855 , still continues . Since 1854 , the value of exports has nearly doubled itself , having risen to 1 * , 625 / ., as against 666 , 000 / . in the former year . With respect to the Kafirs , the Governor condemned the policy pursued at th © close of the last war , which left the
Kafirs at the mercy of their tyrannical chiefs , and shut out all hope of the introduction among them of civilisation and Christianity . Alluding to recent measures , his Excellency said : — " His first step was to locate a European magistrate in each , district in British Cafiraria , adopting a simple mod © of administering justice , which gave a security to life aud property such as had never previously been enjoyed in that country . The fines , which were formerly taken by the chiefs-, became a part of the public revenues of the Crown , the cliiefs being paid for tho duties they performed by a fixed stipend provided by the Government . The result of this was that the influence and authority of the chiefs soon began to decline , and tho well-dispoeed among the Kafirs began to and
regard the Government with confidence hope . " Letters from tho frontier present a melancholy picture of tho distressed state of tlio Kafirs entering the colony for employment . Tho Colonial Government on the 27 th April sustained o severe defeat in the House of Assembly . A bill had been introduced for a system of public education . It proposed to overthrow the first-class schools which are at present maintained solely by tho Government , and to grant aid to sohools only on condition of local contribution ; it also proposed to abolish the ofiico of Superintendent-General of Education , and to placo tho Colonial Secretary , ex-ojfflaio , at tho head of thut department . The Colonial Secretary and the Attorney-General warmly defended tho bill-, but it was thrown out on the socond reading by a majority of 25
to 9 . This Royal Sooikty for Tmq Protection op Life chom Fnuo . —The anniversary meeting of this nocioty was hold on Monduy in , tho Council-chamber , Guildhall , for tho purpose of presenting tho various awards to those who had diatinguiahod themselves in rescuing human life during tho past year . Tho meeting was hold under tho proaiuence of tho Lord Mayor , who was represented in tho ourly part of tho day by Mr . Deputy Lolt , ana afterwards by Mr . Shorlff Mochi , until his lordship returned from nttonding a doputntlon to Lord Palinoraton . Tho Council-chamber waH quite ullod ,, and fllty-oneoi the Fire-eaoape Urigado walked round tho room . Tmb Akojidukb Fbkmnand paid ft vlfilt of Inspection to tho dookH , Bhlpu , Naval Hospital , and Government works at Portsmouth , on Monduy .
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* Blue Books for ( he People . Editod by Krtwnrd Watford , M . A ., Balliol College , Oxford . Army Educations Boing an . Abstract of the Report of tho Commissioners appointed to consider tho bent Modo of liaorganiising tho System of Trailing Officers for tho Sciontiilo Oorps . Presented February , 1807 . f 8 u 99 . ° * tion 8 ™ itJt ftvffM'd to thti iMuoutioH of OJJ lcera in tho jfritiafi Army .
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June ; 27 » 1857 . ] . __ THE LEADER , 615
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Leader (1850-1860), June 27, 1857, page 615, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2199/page/15/
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