Blackwood´s Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 108
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Excerpt from Blackwood´s Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 108: July December, 1870 Postponing, therefore, to some future opportunity the task of criticising a device which we must confess seems to us to be little better than a makeshift, we proceed at once to ask the questions, Is the Army Enlistment Act a measure sound in principle? is it wise in execution? is it consonant with the usages of the British army? and if, in any of these respects, it be defective, how best may the deficiencies be made good? Our readers will, of course, take for what they are worth the answers which we give to these questions; and if here and there what we put on record now seems to be at variance with certain opinions that were expressed in these pages by another writer not very long ago, they will farther bear in mind that the subject is a large one, and that only the individual who undertakes to discuss it can be held responsible for the soundness or unsoundness of his views. Reversing the order in which our questions are put, we shall begin by trying to determine whether enlistment for short service, which is the keystone of the arch in our present policy, be at variance or in unison with the usages of the British army. And as that point can be settled only after ascertaining what the practice has heretofore been, the best mode of clearing the way to a solution of the problem seems to be to sketch rapidly, but as lucidly as we can, the customs which have from time to time prevailed in raising soldiers for the service of the Crown, and in dealing with them after they were raised, in this country. And here, in limine, we may observe that there is probably no point connected with our national history and customs on which popular opinion goes so far wide of the truth as this. Ask nine out of any ten men whom you meet in the street what their view of the subject is, and they will tell you that the regular army of England is and always has been an army of volunteers. They are quite aware that, not very many years ago, Englishmen were liable, in case of war, to compulsory service in the militia. Even that restraint on personal liberty has, however, been removed, for the ballot has gone out of date. But as to the regular soldier, he never embraced his profession, since England had a standing army, except with his own free-will; and having embraced it, he became, till three-and-twenty years ago, a soldier for life. Unless, therefore, we confine our retrospect within the present date and the year 1847, two facts may be predicated of the enlisted man - that he always came to his colours of his own accord, and that he never afterwards went from them till age or broken health or wounds compelled the Government to discharge him. There never were two greater mistakes than are involved in these assumptions. It is not the fact that the regular army of England has always been composed of volunteers. It is not the fact that up to 1847 the enlisted man became a soldier for life. No doubt after the Revolution of 1688, from which period the standing army may be said to date its existence, an Act of Parliament was passed for the purpose of rendering illegal the power which the Crown had previously exercised of impressing men as it needed them into the service. But Acts of Parliament are liable both to be repealed and evaded, and this, when the pressure came, fell into disuse. The Irish rebellion, and the French war that followed on the Revolution of 1688, made enormous demands upon the resources of the country. It was necessary to raise regiments in haste, and in haste they were raised. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
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