The Army Estimates. (From the Times. April 2.)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume VI, Issue 433, 22 August 1851, Page 3

The Army Estimates. (From the Times. April 2.)

Sir James Mackintosh once denned the best species of Parliamentary debate as " animated after dinner conversation." Adopting this standard of merit, we may say that considerable eloquence was displayed in discussing the Army Estimates on Monday night. Nothing could be more lively, comprehensive, or versatile than the character of the discourse, and if a little more method had but been observed in arranging interrogatories and replies it would have been difficult to take exception to the performance. Unfortutately, the questions of hon. members crossed each other, and complaints about the New South Wales, establishments were answered by apologies for the privileges of the Guards. So far as these. two leading topics were concerned,' there' was nothing very new to be said. A few hundred troops, have been withdrawn from the Australian colonies, and 414 have been struck off the eptimates, so that if the account is not quite squared, the balance is at ,ahy rate not jrery s_eri,ous. ; r Touching the Guard's, we have expressed our opinion against the convertibility of real and titular rank, f 'but beyond this point, of unfair promotion We do not thralf any^material grievance can be substantiated. The household troops require to be largely, officered in consequence of the duties which they are often called upon to discharge^ and which render it desirable that a commissioned officer should accompany every detachment of the corps, however; small. Considering, too, that, a regiment.of. guards is maintained at a yearly expense per man of £48 lls. 3d., and that the cqrresponding,.charges of a line regiment stationed^ in I^ndon are. 4^-19s. 6d.,^we do snot.,se!a that'mucK can.he proved on the score of "extravagance. The" very natural

up'snoVof the 'discussion was that the motions made by Messrs. Hume and Williams were lost, and after Colonel Sibthorp had seized the not very obvious opportunity of denouncing the Crystal Palace, Mr. F6x Maule and Colonel Anson got their little bills very pleasantly cashed. That Mr. Cobden should have stood aloof from such small talk is not very wonderful. He probably looks upon the difference^ between a guardsman and a linesman ' as M. Mazzini looks upon the difference between a Pope Pius and a Pope Gregory. His ideas are more of the root and ' branch -kind — £10,000,000 off the account, and' no 'questions asked. Exclusive of the troops in the East Indies, which cost- us no more than the Swiss Guards of Louis XVI. cost the Canton of Berne, we are maintaining 98,714 men, of whom 59,598 are serving within these islands, and 39,116 in the colonies ; and inasmuch as we have the incontestible authority of Mr. Hume for concluding that | the pay of these men "is not only not too large" but " not large enough," the whole dispute resolves itself into an estimate of what our national and colonial defences respectively require. As regards the latter of these points, we do not believe any person^ would for a moment maintain that our colo-" nies, settlements, or fortresses were too highly garrisoned if it be once admitted that we ought to garrison them at all. There is hardly a single quarter, of our Imperial dominions in which we keep a really effective force. The Cape of Good Hope, one of the most envied of our possessions — a colony which even the economical Republic of Holland thought cheaply maintained with some 8,000 or 10,000 men— : we hold with a couple of regiments, arid Sir Harry Smith expresses unusual satisfaction at taking the field with " upwards of 1,000 regular infantry." At the Mauritius — that island thought so precious in the last war — we have two regiments likewise, and the same in Ceylon. Neither at Sincapore nor Aden is there now, we believe, a single British soldier — the duties taken by Sepoys. The artillery force at Gibraltar and Malta is described as about half what would be required in time of actual war. Three years ago there had never been a fieldpiece seen in the Australian colonies, and we are on the point, it seems, of withdrawing the nominal garrisons stationed in these parts. No doubt it is easy enough to argue that these forces are just so much the more superfluous from being so inefficient, and that whatever the cost may be, large or small, it should be borne by the colonies themselves < But this is for Sir William Molesworth to carry, not Mr. Cobden. A motion for re-" versing our whole colonial system is intelligible enough, and can be discussed on its own merits ; but a proposal to cut down the strength of the army before it has been decided to grant self-government to the colonies will never meet support from a prudent ' Legislature. " What is the necescity/' l asks Mr. ' Hume, "" of 8,000 or 9,000 men in' Canada?" The answer is plain, that without these 8,000 men we cannot maintain Canada on its present, footing, and that this footing it has not yet' been decided to change. • » - • j Asio our home defences, this question >bas been very' liberally discussed of late, and certainly lwithout being answered — according to the views of Sir Francis Head. * Those who denounce the idea of war altogether, and who think the employment 'of the military in aid of the civil power a conclusive testimony to the rottenness of the Government, will of course consider 50,000 troops too many by nine-tenths. But we may say of Great Britain, as we have said of London, that if it is to be garrisoned at all, it certainly cannot be over-garrisoned by such a force as we- now maintain. With the militai'y forces of other great Powers we of course pretend to no rivalry whatever. The mere metropolitan garrisons of Paris, Berlin, ov Vienna could each of them singly detach a force exceedingly the whole muster of these islands. The troops quartered in Paris alone outnumber the gross total of the whole British army at home and abroad, and two years ago there were more soldiers encamped in front of the Invalides than couM-be found in Great Britain and Ireland' together. Even Switzerland maintains 60,000 men, Belgium 90,000; and though the United States report a regular army of only 18,000, a militia of 1,700,000, commanded by upwarda of 72,000 commissioned officers, must compensate, we should think, in most ways, for a good many battalions of the'line. It will doubtless be said that our position resembles none of these ; and the remark is true. But what are we to take for 'our guidance ? Nobody proposes that we should do without troops at all ; and we are at a loss* to remember any incidents from which it could be argued that the troops at command are too many. Ireland absorbs a large proportion undoubtedly; but when Mr. M'Gregor "did not see why Ireland should not be maintained by as small a force as Scotland;'' his blindness must surely have been wilful. f <" ' There is this peculiarity about the army estimatesj that the charges are all intelligible on the, face of the account, are no " establishments", to -deal with — -none, "at least, of any magnitude. ' Of the £3,873,666 demanded for this branch of the service, £3,681,002 are expended upon offioersand men, less than £120,000 being taken for institutions arid " departments.'.' yf^eriai therefore, the .vote. for. the numbf/T o f, -^neTi does really comprise the bulk of L^q year's

expenditure, the "establishment charges being thrown bodily upon the estimates for the Ordnance. We believe some reforms are still practicable in the commissariat and other branches, but Mr. Hume candidly declared, upon the whole, that "a larger number of men was maintained at a smaller* cost" now than in the model year 1835. He might have added, too, that they are better maintained — that they enjoy more comforts and experience more kindly treatment. Five years have elapsed since the absolute power of the lash was wrested from courts-martial, and yet the discipline of the army has been found, under most critical circumstances, higher than it ever was before. The period of foreign service has been shortened, barrack accommodation greatly improved, educational courses introduced, and a more liberal system of rewards established. All this, by the confession of our chief economists, has been done, and money saved into the bargain, so that, unless 50,000 troops are too many to defend our own islands, discharge our home duties, ' and find relief for colonial garrisons, we do not see how the estimates are to be quar-" relied with even before the Chancellor of the Exchequer has opened his mind on the window duty and income tax.

Bepeal op Advertisement Duty. — A deputation of gentlemen representing some of the daily and weekly metropolitan newspapers had an interview, by appoint-1 ment, with Lord John Russell, at his official residence, in Downing-street, on Wednesday the 14th March, on the subject of the repeal of the advertisement duty. —The deputation was composed of Mr. Ewart, MJ?.; Mr. Grant, of the ' Morning Advertiser j' Mr. Murdo Young, of the ' Sun j' Mr. Francis, of the ' Athenaeum;' Mr. W. B. Spicer, of the ' Patriot;' Mr. D. Pratt, of the ' British Banner;' and Mr. Thornton Hunt, of the < Leader.'—Mr. Ewart, M.P, showed at length the objectionable character of the tax. He said, in conclusion, he believed there was no duty existing. If his lordship had any opportunity of looking at the American newspapers, he would see the enormous number of advertisements which they contained. —Lc rd John Bussell said he had often had occasion to observe the immense number of advertisements which appeared in the American newspapers.—Several other members of the deputation then spoke. —Mr. Francis, in calling attention to the modes of advertising resorted to, to evade the duty, said he had recently seen an advertising dog walking along the strand —(laughter) —with a bill suspended from his neck, inviting the public to deal with his master, and with a bill i attached to his tail giving the address of his j master (renewed laughter, in which Lord J. Bussell heartily joined). —Lord J. Bussell said, the deputation had made out a strong case; but he must remind them that j there were other classes of tax-payers who had an equally strong claim upon him. — The deputation then withdrew, much pleased with the courteous attention which his lordship evinced throughout the interview. — Adelaide Times, July 15.

j Sir Charles Napier and the Indian Army.—The annexed is an extract of a letter from Dinapore, bearing date Ist of December, 1850, (addressed to the Editor of the * Weekly Times,') from a non-com-missioned officer, who has served nearly twelve years in the Hon. East India Company's service :—" By the time this letter leaves here Sir Charles Napier —our present Commander-in-Chief—will be on his way j home. It is a cause of great regret to the j non-commissioned grade and to the private soldier that Sir Charles does not remain! longer with us. In him the humblest soldier feels he has an able leader, and one who would in war be as careful of theirs as his own life, and one who would placfe more dependence upon his well-digested tactics for a victory rather than follow the murderous example of some of his predecessors, who have in many instances ordered the columns of infantry to charge the enemy's powerful heavy batteries, forgetting altogether the artillery arm attached to their own army, and which could have rendered so signal a service in preparing the way for the infantry. Sir Charles's justice and leniency to his soldiers, and his care of them, is proverbial. This good chief has the ill will of a large portion of the commissioned ranks, simply because he kept them to their duty, and made them conduct themselves as men should do who hold a commission from her Majesty Sjjid the Hon. Company, which same commission constitutes them officers and gentlemen. Our service here is overrun with gen-tlemen-officers without the least spark of soldier in them, who vote the drill book too dry for study, and all parades and duties a perfect bore. To rectify these and other abuses, Sir Charles set himself to work, made examples of some few, and severely lectured others. It is to be hoped that the hero Commander-in-Chief will walk in the footsteps of his predecessor, and enforce that discipline which Sir Charles so much wished to uphold in the Indian army."

Our National Defences.—The " Morning Advertiser," contains a translation from a long article in the " Journal dcs Debats," which shows that many of our Gallic neighbours do not share in the opinion of some of our own countrymen, that the introduction of steam power has affected superiority of England, or that France \* 1U a P ositio& to effect a sudden

atid unexpected descent upon our shores. The article in question is an able and interesting comparison of the state of steam navigation in England and France. Amongst other things, it says: —" If steam navigation has produced any one certain result, it is the consolidation of the military preponderance of England on the seas, and to contribute in a large measure to determine, and render irresistible the "commercial movement which now makes England the great warehouse of the world, the ruling market which fixes the price of every article necessary to the existence of the populations of Europe and America, the magazine the situation of which governs the operations, the sales and purchases which every one may have to make in his double quality of producer and consumer. Down to the present day, in fine, there is no power which, in point of military or commercial greatness, has gained so largely by the invention of steam navigation as Great Britain. A very few words, doubtless, will suffice to show that with regard to military strength England is far from having lost anything by the application of Fulton's,idea, but that, on the contrary, she has even taken advantage of it to widen the distance which already separated her from rival nations.- "With her fleet of sailing vessels it is admitted that she can, of herself alone, arm as many ships of war as all the rest of the world united against her. In her steam fleet she possesses, armed or afloat, twice as many vessels and horsespower as the other powers of the earth could bring against her in a first year's war. j !

The Government Plan for the Registration' op Real Property. —lt is known that the Attorney-General is about to propound a scheme for a general register of real property. The measure is founded upon the late report of the Commissioners. The recommendation of the latter is, that there should be a general ground plan of the kingdom in the shape of maps, with numbers or marks of reference for the purpose of registration. " The basis of an index founded on it would be in the nature of a book of reference to this map. Where the document itself referred to the map, the reference would form instructions for registration. Where the document contained no such reference, the instructions as to reference would Tbe supplied by the person requiring it to be registered. The index would lead any persdn serching the registry, directly to the subject matter of his inquiry, namely, the land itself, and would thence refer him directly to every instrument upon the register affecting the land." It is remarked by the " Times," that of the whole area of England, consisting of 36,500,000 acres, maps sufficient for the " Register" will be forthcoming for 23,500,000 acres, made for the purposes of the Tithe Commutation Act —not to speak of the Ordnance Surveys already in progress in the six northern counties.