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BACKWARDNESS OF GOVERNMENT-
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has lef t the recruiting sergeant to unfold the splendid promises of Sec . XXXIX ., in which a grateful country contracts that , " af ter the defeat and expulsion of the enemy from Great Britain , " or th e suppression of " rebellion or insurrection , " every volunteer ( who wishes it ) shall receive a guinea , * ' in order the better to enable him to return to his parish . " ¦ . It is quite clear that only urgent danger would induce any considerable number of persons in full possession of their faculties to volunteer upon such terms ; and we are not surprised that in town af ter town in which movements have been made to establish rifle corps , dissatisfaction has been expressed with the Government plan .
tion to reduce its crack shots to an unserviceable level by forcing upon them the clumsy Government arm , and if another club should possess ( pplt ' ssixshot repeating carbines , whose ammunition is so light that a man Can carry three or four times as much as the Enfield sort , it would surely be folly to favour the enemy by taking away the really dangerous weapon and substituting a comparatively innocent one in its place . Without a much more scientific weapon than the Enfield , and a much better projectile , nothing , like the accuracy of the Swiss riflemen can be obtained ; , and we shall be surprised if English amateurs condemn themselves to bad shooting to keep the Government in countenance .
Nothing can be more simple than the arrangements that would respond to the popular wish , and prove effective in their results ; and they seem to have been contemplated when the first of Castlereagh ' s Six Acts was passed . The object of this statute , which became law during the British reign of Terror , was to prevent the " clandestine and unlawful" training to arms ; and it enacted that all meetings for military exercise should be prohibited and punishable , unless authorised by the Crown , the lieutenant , or " two justices ^ of the peace of any county or riding , by commission or otherwise . " If the Government would give justices of the peace or other local authorities the power to license the training of any respectable body of men who might apply for it , the whole
thing would be accomplished , and we should see voluntary associations springing up in all directions . It would be easy to make such regulations as would remove all reasonable ground for alarm , and the licenses might be revoked if any misconduct occurred , tinder such an arrangement young men would meet on summer evenings after their work was done , and large employers of labour would be able to train their hands without interruption to the course of trade . It is toplans like this , and not to expensive complicated systems that the country should look , if the work is to be done at all . They would give the Government no patronage , enable it to penetrate no jobs , but they would train up a large number of men who would be willing , when required , to render efficient service to the State . It is not to
be expected that any administration will adopt such a rational course if it can help it . Looked at from the point at which most cabinets would contemplate it—that of party interest—it must appear as a surrender of power without any adequate gain in return . The country would indeed be safer ; but it would be more seh ^ reliant and less dependent upon the central authority . Neither Whigs nor Tories wish this—they like the people best in long clothes , and by no means desire-to see them outgrow the condition of " infants in arms . "
Let the people above all things remember that personal skill is of far more consequence to volunteers , who would be employed as skirmishers , than it is to troops destined to act in masses , and that good rifle shooting is far more difficult to acquire than tolerable proficienoy in drill .- Every day brings inquiries about the choice of weapons ,, and a popular writer strongly advises that , whatever may be its peculiarities , the rifles used by different societies shall adopt the Government bore . The advantage of uniformity is obvious ., but there are other matters to be considered . In the first place the Government , in adopting the Enfield rifle ,
determined upon a weapon with a very low rate of twist , and consequently unfit to carry a ball approximating to the shape of a solid of least resistance . The experiments in Switzerland , America , France , and Prussia , coincide with those of General Jaoob and Mr . Whitwortb , and show that at least double the official twist is necessary for shooting with the best kind of projectiles ; and after all the puffing which the Enfield rifle has received , its inferiority to Mr . Whitworth ' s stands confessed . Even
M , r , Busk , who benevolently recommends the Government tool , says the efficiency of the Whitworth rifle , as oompared with the Enfield , is nearly as 20 to 11 He further tells us i "At 1 , 880 yards it drove its bullets into the target when the Enfield made no hits at 1 , 440 . As regards accuracy , the Whitworth , at 1 , 100 yards , was nearly on a par with the Enfiold at < 500 ; . and when both . had a . range of 500 , the superiority of the Whitworth vtm in the proportion of 3 to 1 . " . * , 9 *! t > 9 ' a great absurdity if a olub provided itself with Whitworth rifles and plenty of amnauni-
Backwardness Of Government-
geons than _ the navy ^ required . Over and over again was this fact , and similar facts , thrus t under the nose of the Government , and it was told that it had only to treat seamen as it treated doctor ' s apprentices and college pupils , and it would at all times get as many as it could possibly require and pay .: It was both blind and deaf , and continued to act towards the seamen on a principle utterlv inapplicable to all other men . As the medical profession was enlarged , improved , and , we may say , ennobled by the additional price paid for its services at sea , so it was affirmed , with every probability of truth , that more seamen , and of an improved character , benefiting alike the mercantile marine and the navy , would be called into existence by acting on the same principle towards
seamen . In fact , in a small wayj the principle has been continually acknowledged . Petty additions have been made to the seamen ' s wages , and more care taken to provide them with good slops and additional food . On Wednesday week Captain Phn who seems to have been sent to the North to talk to the seamen , af ter carefully enumerating these petty improvements , accordingly stated that the Queen ' s service is now better than the merchant service . Something has been done to carry out the principle , but ^ not enough ; for one of the seamen , speaking af ter Captain Pim , replied—the Government " had hot treated the British sailor in a proper manner . " The continued use of the lash was objected to .
BACKWARDNESS OF GOVERNMENTCOSN IAW 8 ABBOAD ^ -SBAMBN AT HOME . As it is no part of the functions of Government to originate or increase knowledge , it is always behind some of the people ; and as its chief function is to be conservative of the past , it is always in opposition to present progress . It resists that which is not subservient to ^ its purposes and does not chime in with its ancient prejudices . It always moves slower than the elite of the nation , and even when it tries , under some external ; pressure , or from some whim of its own , to hasten progress , it only misdirects , and ultimately thwarts ; it . Nobody can say ; looking at
our steam-engines , railways , telegraphs , at our manixfactures and agriculture , that the present age is slow in improvement ; but everybody who takes note of the march of society and Government continually reproaches the latter , and all that depen ds on it , with slowness and backwardness . At the close of last week the information came from France that the Government , not now having time fully to consider the matter , had allowed the old corn law to [ be revived , and had continued the use of the sliding-scale . Scarcely a journal of the metropolis but reproached the French Government for retaining this law , seeing that ten years
have now elapsed since we got rid of such , a nuisance , and every year , the advantages of doing so have become more apparent and greater . At the same time , a corn law , thoug h , it have a slidingscaie , may be in France—where a watchful Government can suspend it , without consulting the landed interest assembled in parliament , andwhere the population in a much greater proportion than our own is engaged in agriculture—less strikingly scandalous and destructive than in England . The Government there may be really less backward , considering these circumstances , than the Government here , which enacted the latest corn law in spite of a serious opposition , and continued it in spite of infinite scientific representations for more than a quarter of a century . Admitting the backwardness of the French Government on this point , we cannot , with propriety , claim for our own Government—though our people have much more knowledge on commercial matters than the Frenchany great forwardness in recognising and acting on the knowledge gained by individuals , But if our officials should plume themselves on their readiness to move because they were forcibly shoved forward , and made to repeal the corn laws , who , acquainted with their conduct to our gallant seamen , can urge one word in their defence ? There may reasonably be doubts as to the operation of expediency laws affecting commerce , till they have Tbeen put to the test of experience , but there can bo none as to the duty of obeying the laws of justice and morality . All men , and particularly the rulers of society , who exist only to do justioo , are bound to obey these , but our Government for ages brutally violated them in spite of remonstrances and resistance in the case of our seamen , and have
not yet done them justice , v ery nearly a century has now elapsed since it became familiarly known to every reflecting 1 man , that fbr any and every kind of employment the . re is always an abundance of candidates , if the payment be in proportion to difficulties and danger . Therefore , it was only necessary for the State to reward the seamen sufficiently , to secure thejr services to jjnv extent . More than half a century ago this principle was practically and theoretically applied to the navy . There was then a great want of efficient medical men for our ships . The Admiralty was advised to increase their emoluments and raise their rank . It did so , and in a short time there were more well-educated medical men candidates for the situation of
sur" Seamen ought to have the same privileges as the officers , "—i . e . be treated like the surgeons , have half-pay pensions , be respected like men , &c . &c . The Government has actually not yet got so far as to think and act on the thought that seamen must be treated justly and fairly , and a proper market pripe , whatever it may be , given for their services . No ; they are yet to be flogged to make them work . It is still hinted at that impressment may be renewed even yet , af ter fifty years' exj > erience of the advantage of paying and treating men properly . Af ter tlie experience of all ages has demonstrated the validity of the principle adopted as to the surgeons ; after the Admiralty has had numerous examples of hearts estranged and hands turned against it—the old principle and . practice of brutal coercion are still retained and avowed .
By that officers and men were alike injured and degraded . The former were made petty tyrants , the latter slaves . The standard for treating the seamen adopted by the Government influenced and regulated tlie conduct of the private sliipown er ; and the officers and seamen of the merchant service suffered a like degradation to a considerable extent . Both services were deeply injured by our old system , and neither has yet recovered from its effects . At present , however , af ter all our progress in sound political knowledge , it is thought sufficient to place the seamen of the navy on the same footin g as to service without
wa" -es as those of the merchant , remembering that it , too , has been degraded by o ur unjust system . Admitting that the Irencli Government , by its commercial regulations , is Dehind the knowledge of the age , . our G overnment p in the same predicament , by still retaining , the use of the cat in the navy , and still supposing that seamen can be had and governed by following rules condensed in every part of civil society . They are both essentially in the rear , and must ue pr icked or dragged forward by advancing society , not to stop its march . .. Even the means and instruments , such ( is i "" - wavs , telegraphs ,, steam , percussion g « ns » * H im oui
which Governments use only to destroy , ore «» by individuals outside of them , and are g onfi'JJ invented to forward the progress they theinaehe retard . Their gratification m using the beautuui inventions of art is groat in proportion to um mischief they do . In merely organising hw ftinucj and setting ' them in motion , the French fc )|> PJ » ° J must have had intense delight , for ho I »?« -flu "'JJ all Europe . Even were jhe now to die a / noun death , ho has bad the gigantic pleasure of ton Hying all the political notabilities who scorned nna despised Jiim , and he would leave ft namo « u » history would for over glorify . Like the wm Napoleon he U the , representative of tho pnn « P * J of destruction , and Frenohxnen & « d ° thors , ] W than the worst of ancient idolators who Y 01 ' 8 UIE only images , continually fling themselves unow the wheels of this most stupendous of an UUB gernauts .
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646 THE LEAPED TPubt ^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 21, 1859, page 646, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2295/page/14/
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