No separate

evil remained for many years unremedied. quarters were provided for married soldiers; they were obliged to live with their wives and children in the general barrack-rooms. The only partitions which gave these families even a partial privacy were extemporised out of rugs and blankets hung round their beds. On board the transports decency was even more outraged than on shore, for at sea the women and children slept in hammocks, slung among those of the men, without even a screen to separate them. In barracks the washing appliances seem to have been even more scanty than the sleeping accommodation. An army surgeon in 1846 says that for "want of all conveniences of this kind, soldiers frequently washed their hands and face by filling a small tin with water at the pump, from which a man takes a mouthful which is squirted out into his hands and subsequently applied to his face."

Rations.

The rations, though sound in quality, were monotonous to a degree. Every day in the year (except Christmas, when the officers provided their men with a good dinner) exactly the same viands, cooked in exactly the same way, were served out respectively for breakfast and for the mid-day meal. No supper was provided, so that the men were almost driven into the public-houses, to drown in beer the hunger which assailed them every evening.

Libraries.

Food for the mind, where any was provided for soldiers in the shape of libraries, was nearly as insipid as the eternal boiled meat on which their bodies were fed. A sergeant describes the books provided for the troops at a large station in India as << very ill-chosen a great number treated of abstruse, ethical, and doctrinal topics, much better calculated for the perusal of metaphysicians and divines." The same man incidentally mentions that that at this station, where 1,200 Englishmen were cantoned, there was no Church of England chaplain, as the climate was considered too unhealthy for a clergyman to live in! In this connection it may here be stated that liberty of conscience in the army made a great stride in 1839, when it was ordered that no soldier who was a Roman Catholic or a Dissenter should be compelled to attend the Church of

England, but that he should be at liberty to attend his own place of worship.

Although enlightened military opinion early in the century had declared against the abuse Punishments. of the lash, flogging, though under ever increasing limitations, long continued to be in force in the British army. It was finally abolished in 1881, but as a matter of fact the cat, except on active service and then only for acts punishable by death, had not been called into requisition for many years before its use became illegal. But during the first half of the century, when men misconducted themselves, they were either flogged, or imprisoned for terms varying with their delinquencies. Under the modern régime these sentences are now served in military gaols, where the soldier is kept absolutely free from the taint of civil prisons and civilian convicts; but before 1844 the men were confined in the common Houses of Correction, and thus for purely military offences were condemned to associate with the lowest of the low. It is said that during the year 1833, not less than one out of every five men then serving in England passed through a civil prison. It The Unpopularity is not surprising that to enlist for life into a service where men were so treated was regarded by the working classes as social suicide, and that parents preferred to see their sons in their coffins rather than in the uniform of her Majesty's army. In 1847 the system of life engagement finally broke down, and was replaced by enlistment for ten or twelve years. During the pressure of the Crimea and the Mutiny men were allowed to join for much shorter terms; and in 1870 the present principle of short service with the colours, and a further liability to serve while in the reserve, was definitely adopted. Although the accurate shooting of the British infantry had largely contributed to our victories in the Peninsula, musketry was entirely neglected during the dead period after Waterloo. "Soldiering in those days," writes a sergeant," was all pipe-clay, drill, and discipline, and very little theory. Fire low, and hit 'em in the legs, boys,' was the extent of the instruction given to recruits." In vain did Sir John Burgoyne urge the Government to

of the Army.

Musketry.

construct ranges where the infantry could be systematically taught the use of their firearms. Nothing was done, and as late as 1852 it was considered sufficient for the Guards to fire thirty rounds of ball once in every three years, which in some of the battalions was expended in a very primitive fashion. Behind the bull's-eye painted on a canvas target was concealed a bottle, and every man who was lucky enough to hit the unseen bottle at 100 yards' range received a money prize! On the eve of the Crimean war the Horse Guards tardily realised the extreme importance of musketry, and ordered that in future every man should annually fire ninety rounds with the "Minié" rifle, which had just been adopted for the army. Owing, however, to official indolence in overcoming the "great difficulties about ranges in this free country" which the War Office had already begun to experience in 1854, many young soldiers were sent to the Crimea who had never fired a shot in their lives before they found themselves in presence of the enemy. In 1855 the Minié rifle was superseded by the Enfield, which, about ten years later, was converted into the Snider, the first breech-loader with which the army was provided.

While the men were not taught to use their rifles, their officers were equally untrained to use their brains. As a rule, neither officers nor men

Professional

Education.

knew anything beyond barrack-square drill: but this the soldiers knew to perfection, and the thorough discipline produced by its constant repetition stood them in good stead during the dark days of the Crimea and the Indian Mutiny. No steps were taken to teach young officers tactics or fortification, reconnoitring or military sketching, and ambitious men like Lord Wolseley, who voluntarily studied the theory and practice of his profession with equal zest, were few and far between. As there were no autumn manœuvres and no camps of instruction (except Chobham, in 1853), officers in England had no opportunity to learn the practical and all-important details which can only be acquired under canvas; and most of the troops who landed in the Crimea were so ignorant of everything connected with camplife that they did not even know how to cook their food in the open air.

before the

Crimea.

[1832

Regiments serving abroad had a far greater chance of learning the trade of war than their comrades Chief Campaigns in the United Kingdom, for the army in India had been fully occupied, and in many other parts of the world work had been found for British bayonets. Want of space renders it impossible to do more than mention the more important of these distant expeditions. Two campaigns on the Irawaddy (1824-26, 1851-52) transferred much territory from Burmah to Great Britain. The result of the third war against the Mahratta robber tribes (1818) was to give permanent peace to Central India. The hard-won conquests of Scinde (1843) and the Punjaub (1849) rendered our frontier more secure against aggression from Central Asia, and added to our population splendid and warlike races, who are now among the most loyal of our fellow-subjects in the East. Russian intrigues involved England in a disastrous war with the Amir of Afghanistan (1839-42), memorable for the annihilation of our expedition in its retreat from Cabul (p. 117); when out of 4,500 men who attempted to fight their way back to India, but few survived to tell how a whole army had been cut to pieces by the wild tribesmen of the Khyber Pass. In South Africa the Kaffirs kept the garrison of Cape Colony frequently employed upon the frontier in weary and inglorious warfare (1819, 1829, 1834, 1850, 1853).

DURING the long wars of the French Republic and of Napoleon, when Sir John Henslow, Sir W. LAIRD CLOWES. William Rule, and Mr. Henry Peake were The Navy. successive Surveyors of the Navy, our chief improvements in naval architecture were copied from the best of the very numerous prizes which we took from our enemies. Indeed, we followed this plan for many years after the peace. Thus, as late as 1845 we laid down at Devonport a Sans Pareil designed upon the lines of the ship of the same name which we took from the French in 1794; although, it is true, we never launched the new vesssel as a sailing line-of-battleship, but lengthened her a little while she was still upon the stocks, and converted her to a screw ship of 80 guns, launching her as such in 1851. But long

1846]

The Last of the

Wooden Walls.

ere that day there had come into office a Surveyor who, although he still occasionally reproduced the beautiful and fast French models, was not content to be a mere imitator, and was, in fact, a really great naval architect. This was Captain Sir William Symonds, Kt., R.N., who held the office from 1832 to 1847. Born in 1782, he had reached the rank of Commander when in 1825 he was permitted by the Admiralty to construct a corvette upon lines which he had ventured to recommend to the attention of the Government. This ship, the Columbine, was so great a success, that as a reward for the improvements which he had introduced, her designer was posted in 1827, upon the conclusion of an experimental cruise which he made in her. But the Admiralty was in a sluggish condition, and was not prepared to advance further; and but for the Duke of Portland, who gave Symonds an order to build him a yacht, and to embody in her all such features as would conduce to speed and seaworthiness, the great designer might never have been in a position to rebuild much of the old wooden navy for the last time. The yacht Pantaloon, presently purchased by the Admiralty and adapted as a 10-gun brig, was such a striking triumph that Symonds was at once employed to build the Vernon, 50, Vestal, 26, Snake, 16, and other menof-war, and was within a few months made Surveyor. In that capacity he built in the ensuing fifteen years no fewer than 180 vessels, all on the principle, more or less varied, of the Pantaloon. His ships owed their superior speed and stability chiefly to the improved form of their bottom, which he made much less heavy and full than had previously been usual. They were, moreover, broader, roomier, and loftier between decks than their forerunners; and in them the sailing navy of England undoubtedly found its very highest development. It is noteworthy that during his period of office not one of his vessels foundered, although not a few craft of other types did. Among his special glories were the Queen, 110, and the Vernon, which has been already mentioned. Another of his improvements was the introduction of the elliptical, instead of the circular or still older square stern. He also introduced a system under which the masts, yards, cross-trees, etc., of men-of-war were classified