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efficiency in the department over which he presides. No criticism can be too searching, no attempt objectionable, to bring into the light the full details of an administration which creaks with rust in all its wheels, but the thing to be dreaded by every official, from the highest to the lowest, is, incompleteness in the work. An overcharge or excessive estimate ought here, if anywhere, to be venial; but the other delinquency is one grave enough to warrant the House of Commons in taking down and sharpening afresh that old weapon of impeachment which it has hardly used in earnest since the days of Strafford.

Men wanted who can use the Tools.

The previous remarks have had reference chiefly to the tools to be used in warfare. In this department England ought to be pre-eminent. From the manufacture of a matchlock to the construction of a man-of-war, she is able to do whatever human skill can accomplish. With nothing less than this has she any reason to be content. Having the hand of the cunning workman, and all the materials upon which he is to operate, failure can only be due to mismanagement. But far more important than the instruments of warfare is the temper, and training, and numbers of the men who are to wield them. "Walled towns," says Bacon, "stored arsenals and armories, goodly races of horse, chariots of war, elephants, ordinance; all this is but a sheep in a lion's skin, except the breed and disposition of the people be stout and warlike." Happily the breed and disposition of the English people are stout and warlike; but even this is not enough, for the bravest men on earth may be no more than food for gunpowder without discipline.

Discipline is a word of immense import. In this connection it means a training which enables men to act together. They can do so only by habits of exact obedience to command. Upon this nearly the whole power of civilized man depends.

Whether in war or in peace, it is all the same. Discipline is as necessary in industry as it is in fighting. But habits of any sort cannot be created in a moment. They must always be a work of time. You may have a number of intelligent men, familiar with figures and book-keeping, all ready, and yet find it hard to organize them into a bank. To create a new body like the Bank of England, without taking the materials wholesale from other banks, would be totally impossible. The machinery of that establishment has gone on revolving incessantly for more than a hundred and fifty years. Every new clerk who becomes a part of it is kept in his place and carried along, until he is used to the routine, by those who have been there before him. This is the quickest and surest mode of discipline, and yet this takes time. Imagine the business of the Bank of England handed over for a week to a body of volunteers! In every branch of industry, we find organization and discipline the conditions of success. How elaborate this organization is, may be seen in Mr. Babbage's analysis of it in his "Economy of Machinery and Manufactures." How important it is, and how difficult it is to create it, may appear from what has often happened in the cotton districts. In times of slack demand, when the immense productive power of the factories, still going on, has glutted the warehouses with goods for which there are no purchasers, it would often be a great gain to the capitalist to stop the works, and at the same time to stop the profuse outflow of his capital in wages. Yet that expedient is not resorted to, except in the last extremity, and mainly for this reason—that when once the "hands" of a mill are fairly dispersed, it is exceedingly hard to re-establish the organization. In other words, the millowners think it bad economy to disband one of their regiments, because, though they may fairly expect to have veterans to enlist from, when they want them, they know that, even with veterans, there will be delay, and blundering, and waste before the living mechanism can again get into order.

Military Discipline.

The judgment of those gentlemen in matters of business is so shrewd, or rather infallible, that nothing better can be done than to use the lights of their experience in arranging the military and naval defences of England. It requires about four months to prepare a recruit for taking his place in the ranks of a regiment of foot-that is, amongst men already well trained, and whose habits of discipline form a sort of groove in which he has no choice but to move along. All this is necessary for common infantry, who require less preparation than any other kind of fighting men; and surely it is not surprising, when one thinks of what they have to do. Many worthy people take a long time to learn the movements of a single set of quadrilles, and are apt to vote any novelty in that line totally impracticable. The foot soldier has to perform evolutions more difficult than those of a quadrille, exactly, and at a word-not, however, on a chalked floor, nor even on a paradeground, but on the field of battle, amidst the roar of artillery, when the smoky air whistles with bullets, possibly in the face of a charge of dragoons, and when the foot may catch every moment in the body of a dying comrade. Men who cannot do this are not properly soldiers, and when such are sent to contend with veterans in an open field, they are little better off than sheep in the hands of a butcher.

Efficacy of Militia.

It is a matter of controversy whether militia-men, trained only for about a month in the year, can perform service of this sort. A militia is not the most effective kind of force, but its efficiency ought not to be undervalued. That the Duke of Wellington should ask for the militia, is a sufficient proof of its utility, and, if his opinion had been unqualified, there would be no more to be said upon the subject; but his proposition for reorganizing the militia was accompanied by this melancholy

remark, "that if he asked for regular troops he knew he should not have them." What a reproach to the statesmanship and intelligence of England, that he, wiser surely than others upon this point, taking in-as only such a mind can take in—all the pos-> sibilities, should be compelled to contemplate dangers to which others are blind, and be denied the effectual means by which those dangers might be averted! The authority of the Duke of Wellington, therefore, does not stand in the way of considering whether, if the necessity arose, a militia would really be able to bear the brunt of the attack of an invading army; and upon this point reasoning and experience tend to show that they could only serve as a useful auxiliary force'. It conflicts with all probability that peasants trained for a month in the year should be a match for veterans. The Spanish guerillas, though full of enthusiasm and natural courage, even with the aid of a mountainous country, could never stop the march of regular troops. The armies of Switzerland are a kind of militia, but the men have rifles in their hands all the year round. This life-long discipline in the use of arms it was, which enabled the fresh levies of Washington to face the English in the war of the Revolution; yet the authority of Washington was lately quoted by Mr. Osborne, in the House of Commons, to show distinctly how little reliable many of those soldiers were; and any one who follows the whole movements of that war will find no difficulty in believing, that if Great Britain, instead of having to operate across the Atlantic, had had only to contend with the same resistance at the other side of the Straits of Dover, Washington, pure and noble patriot as he was, might have ended his career in an English prison.

The above was written before the debate of the 15th of June in the House of Lords. The speech of the Duke of Wellington on that occasion completely sanctions the view here taken, that is to say, that the militia is better than nothing, but regular troops much better than the militia. But the words of the Marquis of Lansdowne were most weighty, and should be well considered. He said, "One of the most lamentable things that could befall this country would be, the fancying that we had an army when we had it not," and that "the best, the safest, and the most efficient of all remedies would be found in the increase of the standing army.”

Prevalence of the Spirit of Retrenchment.

But this question might be safely left to military men to decide. It is rather a shallow prejudice which presumes that they must be biassed in favour of increasing the regular force. Men cannot live in any society without being affected by the reigning opinions. During the last twenty years, the principle of retrenchment has so completely got the ascendancy in England, that men of all classes habitually defer to it to a greater extent than their independent judgment warrants. The importance of small savings is so absurdly exaggerated, that it would not be at all surprising if our economical tendencies should place in jeopardy the efficiency of that which is the most essential and perhaps the least defective part of the social machinery, namely, the judicial bench. Whatever it costs to get the best learning and the highest character for that bench, is money well laid out. A great judge is more than a decider of property disputes. When his learning and intellect give weight to his words, and his moral perceptions are clear, and prompt, and elevated, he raises the moral standard, not only of the legal profession, but of the whole community. Yet there are reformers who speak as if the main thing to be considered was, how to cut a few thousands off the estimates, by putting up the judicial seats to a Dutch auction, and ascertaining the minimum for which second or third-rate lawyers could be got to take them. To this predominant passion for retrenchment, statesmen of all parties bow as soon as they get into office. There is no official achievement made so much of as the saving of a little money, though the concern of a great country like England in the amounts so saved is often much as if the owner of Chatsworth should look after drippings in his kitchen. Military men fall into the prevailing tone, not only from holding office themselves, but from intercourse with officials. It comes to be recognised on all hands as a settled thing, that what is needful must be done at a certain expense which the House of Commons will sanction, but that the out

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