of good report; or whether the Christian's loose talk, rude manners, dissipated habits, do not confirm the pagan in his adherence to a faith which every baptised man must condemn. They do not reflect that of all colonists the well-educated and moral soldier forms incomparably the best, not merely because his constitution is robust and his habits patient of fatigue, but because planted upon a frontier, as in Canada or at the Cape, he becomes to the province at once a guardian and a respectable member of society. Now men who do not wear the queen's uniform, or possibly, having once worn it, have long ago cast it aside, do consider these things; and if it should hereafter come to light that by some individual so circumstanced, the idea of educating the soldier was started, and has been worked out, then will things have befallen in the order which is natural. Old officers resist, because they look only to one side of the argument. But, by degrees, their resistance will grow less, and they themselves may, perhaps, live to wonder that the spirit in whom it originated ever should have arisen.

If the rumours which are afloat have any foundation in truth, the battle of education for the private soldier has been fought and virtually won. It is whispered in military circles that great changes for the better are about to be introduced in the system of regimental schools, and that some of the suggestions thrown out by our contemporaries, the Quarterly and The Times, will be acted upon. In this case the Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea will probably be remodelled, and schoolmasters trained as they ought to be there that they may be sent to the different regiments of infantry and cavalry for the instruction of the recruits and young soldiers. So far all is well; but they who take an interest in the subject may rely upon it that unless they go a little farther than this with reform, the work will not be complete. It will never do to educate the private soldiers of the army, and to leave the officers such as we now find them; for it is useless to think of disguising the truth. Here and there you meet with an intelligent and well-informed officer; if you happen to find near you one or

other of certain regiments which we could name, you will find more than one or two members of the mess from whose conversation you will derive both edification and rational amusement. But, taking them in the aggregate, it would be as impolitic as unjust to deny that the officers of the British army constitute the most ignorant as well as the idlest set of gentlemen that owe allegiance to the British crown. Do we blame individuals for this? By no means. The result arises, as a matter of course, out of the system on which our gallant army is managed. The queen, on the recommendation of the commander-in-chief, appoints to cornetcies and ensigncies young men of whom nothing more is known than that they are the sons, or nephews, or protégés of persons possessed of a certain degree of influence; but what the parties themselves may be, in regard to intelligence, manners, or any thing else, no inquiry is ever, as far as we know, made in any quarter. We doubt whether, in the queen's service, there be required the medical certificate which the East India Company usually expects the candidate for a cadetship to produce; and beyond this we are confident that no questions are asked. The boy may be an idiot, or next to an idiot, as we have known more than one of her majesty's gallant subalterns to be; and as to his acquirements, they are never, unless he happen to go to Sandhurst, inquired into. Hence it comes to pass, that if the poor youth be suddenly required to keep a company's accounts, he finds himself forced to rely absolutely upon his pay-sergeant. The sergeant may or may not be competent, honest, sober, and so forth; but, in either case, Lieutenant the Honourable George Ginglespurs is entirely at his mercy.

The time has come, or is fast approaching, when this state of things must cease. It will never do to educate the privates of the British army, and to leave their superiors free to indulge their present tastes for idleness; and hence the great question to be raised resolves itself into this,how far will it be judicious to go, in the first instance, in an endeavour to excite among officers a desire to improve themselves?

We are humbly of opinion, in spite

of what the Quarterly Review has said to the contrary, that under existing circumstances it is not possible to create in each regiment of the line a school or college whereat, under the management and superintendence of one of their own body, the young officers may study the science of their profession. In the course of time some encouragement of the sort may, perhaps, be afforded to them; but looking at the army as it now is, we see so many and such insuperable obstacles to the scheme, that we do not advise any efforts being made to bring it into play. Not one second major out of twenty possesses or has ever had the opportunity of acquiring the degree of knowledge that is necessary for the office; and it would hardly be just to compel gentlemen who have spent their best days in the service, and are still able and willing to abide by it, to sacrifice all their prospects in life for the lack of acquirements which they have never been put in the way of compassing. Besides, we are convinced that the service itself would lose as much as it would be likely to gain, by the unceremonious dismissal of so large a proportion of its field-officers. Though we are very far from believing that education in any rank, from the highest to the lowest, will ever militate against the soldierly habits of those who profit by it, we are equally certain that other qualities than those which usually appertain to the scholar and the wit are necessary to make the good soldier. Decision of character, quickness of apprehension, a good eye, and strong lungs, are indispensable in him who may be placed in a position of command, even for a day; and if the comfort and control of eight hundred or a thousand men be permanently committed to his care, he will not rightly discharge the trust unless his natural judgment be good, and his temper, over and above, always under his own control. Now all these gifts may appertain to the majors, whom, because of their ignorance of French and German, and military tactics and the theory of the science and art of war, it is proposed to transfer to the half-pay list; while among the lettered gentlemen who may be brought forward to fill their places, all or most may be de

void of them. We hold, therefore, that for the present the army is not ripe for the developement of a plan so comprehensive, and in theory so excellent, as that which the Quarterly has propounded; but to the suggestions of the writer, who has made our contemporary the vehicle of communicating his ideas to the world, as far as they refer to an examination of candidates for commissions, we entirely assent; and our reasons for so doing are these:

Under the present order of things the army is treated by the families of titled and untitled aristocracy as a becoming resource for their sons in one or other of two cases. If the young man be heir to a large fortune, and indisposed to study at Oxford or Cambridge, or, having studied there for a while, if he exhibit no desire to enter into political life, his father or guardian usually sends him into the army. He joins his regiment accordingly, entertaining neither the desire nor the intention to abide by it one moment longer than may suit his own convenience, and conducts himself as a young gentleman might be expected to do who looks upon his sword as a plaything, and his uniform as a convenient dress for masquerading. With the ordinary routine of barrack and parade duty he is obliged, of course, to make himself acquainted. It is a sort of lore which there needs but a small portion of talent to learn; and if he be, as the sons of our aristocracy generally are, an active and wellmade fellow, he makes as good a figure at review or inspection as the most practised veteran of them all. He looks into the men's rooms, likewise, at the usual hours, and asks the accustomed question, "Whether there be any complaints?" should his evil stars call him into a garrison where officers' guards are mounted, he takes his turn in the guard-house like the rest, and, like the rest, makes himself as comfortable there as circumstances will permit; but his heart is not doing the work, and he does not so much as pretend that it is. He has come into the army for the purpose of getting over a few years of his life, and treats it as a highly respectable medium for the indulgence of every taste which is not discreditable and ungentle

And

manlike. He hunts, drives, plays, larks, smokes cigars, talks slang, and is pronounced by his brother-officers to be "a capital fellow." To be sure he does, without intending it, serious hurt in many instances to the gentlemen with whom his sovereign has commanded him to associate. Hav

ing plenty of money to throw away, he introduces a taste for expense into the corps, which young men that have no money are by no means bound to acquire, but which, being very enticing in itself, is apt to put prudence to sleep, and to draw into its vortex multitudes to whom indulgence, even in moderation, is ruin. Finally, after the military life begins to pall upon him, he sells out, and either betakes himself to Lincolnshire, that he may hunt more at his ease, or plunges into the vortex of fashion in London. He generally winds up by becoming a respectable county magistrate, and it may be even a highly respectable Protectionist member of parliament.

The second case in which gentlemen dedicate their sons to the noble profession of arms is, when they find that the young gentlemen will not take to any other and more settled callings. Hence the dullest or the idlest member of a family is invariably marked out to be the soldier. "What am I to do with Charles? I have tried Eton, and he would not learn any thing there. I sent him to a private tutor, who reported that his moral conduct was unexceptionable, but that it was impossible to get him to study. What shall I do with him ?" "Send him into the army," is the answer invariably returned, and into the army the idler is sent. And he turns out such as we have described the great body of British officers to be, a spirited but most ignorant youth, though, as his colonel reports to the Horse Guards, a very good officer.

Now we really do not think that these are the proper sources whence the great supply of officers for the British army ought to be drawn. For it is a great mistake to suppose, that even in peace occasions do not arise from time to time that require both knowledge and a habit of judging correctly in an officer; and, in war, we all know that both are indispensable to the right performance

of his duty. Who can have forgotten the memorable instance of Colonel Brotherton in 1831, who, for the lack of a little firmness, combined with some acquaintance with the constitutional law of the country, suffered the half of Bristol to be burned down, and sacrificed lives as valuable to society as his own? And have we not before us, in the case of the officer who, but the other day, ran his own head and the heads of his party against a stockade, filled with savages, in New Zealand, a memorable instance of the unfitness of a mere parade colonel to undertake the care of the national honour, and of the lives of her majesty's troops? Indeed, what was it that occasioned the loss of our army, and the tarnish upon our military name at Cabul? That which, till a better system arise, must for ever expose us to like results elsewhere, namely, the ignorance and incapacity of our commanders,--an incapacity arising from this, that they were never taught in their youth to study the principles of the art which they in manhood had practised; and therefore, though abundantly able to obey, and to achieve what mere bravery might attempt, were quite unequal to combat the first difficulty that arose, with weapons drawn from the armory of their own judgment. Nor are these instances isolated in the military annals of this country. It is a remarkable fact, that throughout the whole of the Peninsular war, the British army asserted a decided superiority over that of the French only where the Duke of Wellington commanded in person. True, Lord Hill managed one affair admirably; and the battle of Albuerra was undoubtedly won, Lord Beresford commanding. But, in the first case, Lord Hill succeeded by obeying, with his accustomed fidelity, the directions given by his chief; and, in the second, victory declared for England in spite of blunders which would have destroyed any army except that which Lord Beresford commanded. And what shall we say when we look elsewhere? Were the campaigns of 1812, 1813, and 1814, in Canada, such as there is much to boast of when we describe them? May we refer to New Orleans as affording evidence that our military system is perfect?

We object to the officering of the British army with the idlest and dullest men of the aristocracy; and, as the best, and indeed the only means of preventing this, we urge upon the commander-in-chief not to exercise his patronage until he shall be satisfied, by some process or another, that the young man recommended to him for a commission be at least able to read and to spell. We express ourselves thus, because, in the list of our personal acquaintances, there happens to be, at this moment, more than one gentleman honoured with her majesty's commission who cannot spell the commonest word if it exceed two syllables. Indeed, we venture to go a little farther, and to suggest, that as there are at least twenty applicants for every commission that falls, the twenty young gentlemen be, in some way or another, put upon their trials, and the least ignorant selected. But if we might propose a plan, it would be this that a board of education be established at the Horse Guards, before which every aspirant for military glory shall appear, in order that it may be known, not only that he is physically capable of sustaining the wear and tear of a campaign, but that the days of his childhood have been devoted to the acquirement of true knowledge, and to the sharpening of the faculties which Nature may have given him. The Quarterly Review says, that the aspirant ought to have some notion of modern languages, and be able to pass a moderate examination in history, geography, and mathematics. If it were possible to go on, as the Quarterly suggests, with the young man's education after he has joined his regiment, we should be content to countersign the petition. But not seeing our way quite so far as yet, we are constrained to ask for something more. The board of education ought to be satisfied that the candidate is animated by a spirit of inquiry, so that there shall be some chance, at least, of his pursuing his studies of his own accord; and the better to aid them in arriving at this conclusion, we would suggest, that they fix no maximum standard to

begin with. Thus, if ten or twenty young men appear before them, and there be five vacant commissions, it will be their duty to recommend the five candidates whose intelligence seems to be the sharpest, and their knowledge the most extensive, due regard being paid to the sort of acquirements which tell the most towards the formation of the soldier's character, such as drawing, fortification, land-surveying, and mechanics. By these means we shall, at least, ensure a good supply of recruits for the time to come; and the recruits of this year will be as anxious, ten years hence, to raise the standard of intellectual excellence in their own profession as we can be.

So much has already been written on this subject in various quarters, that we are unwilling to trespass more than is absolutely necessary on the attention of our military readers. We could not, however, seem to be indifferent to a matter, in itself so important, and now happily so much discussed, and we have, therefore, ventured to add these, our own views, to the stock which the reading public has accumulated, or may hereafter accumulate, in regard to it. One point, moreover, we think it right to urge. If any thing be done at all, and we have reason to believe that much is in progress, we do hope that it will be done heartily and with a right spirit. No man nor set of men ought to be blamed for errors in a system which it is judged expedient to alter. The present generation did not commence the system, and the past only took it up. It is sufficient for our contemporaries to have discovered, among them, where the defects lie, and it is wise in them to apply the remedy. For ourselves we rejoice in the assurance, that the impulse having once been given, no power on earth can stop the progress of real improvement. And we hope that many who read these pages will live to acknowledge that the army, deserving of all respect and gratitude as it is, has been, both in a moral and social point of view, largely improved by the better education of its members.

VOL. XXXIII. NO. CXCVIII.

3 в

EVERY public speaker who can arrest the attention and act upon the feelings of an audience, is, in the most loose or enlarged acceptation of the term, an orator; even in its strict and literal sense, the same definition would almost apply. But it is needless to remind our readers that there are almost as many gradations of excellence included in that general term as there are in similar ones used in reference to painting or sculpture, or poetry or acting. As the circle of public intelligence becomes expanded, by the greater spread of general knowledge among the people, and the more universal excitement of all classes in questions of a political or social nature in reference to legislation, the number of public speakers who excite attention and maintain a hold upon the feelings of the people becomes almost indefinitely multiplied; the intellectual quality of their speeches is deteriorated in proportion as their practical utility is increased; and it becomes more and more difficult to settle the old and often-disputed question, "What is an orator?" Several speakers have already been included in this series, and more will probably follow, whom it would have been absurd to place upon the list of those, so few in names, but so brilliant in performances, who, by the common consent of mankind, by the testimony of history and the evidence of their works, happily undestroyed, are recognised as being the great masters in the art of oratory. Yet, on the other hand, the individuals so excluded exercise a direct and powerful influence over their fellowcountrymen scarcely paralleled, and certainly not exceeded, by the higher order of public speakers. Their utilitarian value fully compensates to the general mind for their want of artificial enhancement. The public, perhaps, would care little to know what were the brilliant excellencies of Mr. Sheil or Mr. Macaulay, or what a critical analysis would dis

cover of their defects, if the plan of the writer gave them that information on the condition that in the exercise of a somewhat hypercritical judgment, he left them in ignorance of the oratorical qualifications of Lord John Russell, or Sir Robert Peel, or Mr. Cobden, or even Lord George Bentinck, men with whose names the whole country is ringing. Yet a speech from Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Brougham, Mr. Sheil, Mr. Macaulay, or Mr. Disraeli, or from Mr. Fox and some of the most distinguished platform speakers, wholly differs not merely in the degree but also in the nature of its excellence from those of the more practical orators, they who really lead the public mind. The one is a study for the intellect and a pleasure to the imagination, for its intrinsic excellence or beauty, while the other derives its interest from extraneous causes, ceasing with the excitement of the hour; such as the position of the speaker, the nature and position of the subject he is handling, and, generally, from the exciting political causes which every year of struggling perpetuates. But the men of the higher order have their ultimate reward. The others have the applause of the present hour alone. Their lumbering speeches are duly reported in the newspapers, in their inglorious rivalry which shall produce the greater number of columns of print; but after the lapse of a week they are forgotten, or only remembered that they may be quoted at a future time against themselves, when, in the mutations of modern politics, they shall find it necessary to contradict all their former assertions and argue against all their former opinions. But the real orator of the highest class-he who has had a nobler end in view than forensic sophistry or mere clap-trap and cajolery-not only is admired at the time he utters his speech, but is remembered long after his temporary rivals are forgotten. His effusions