MILITARY INSTRUCTION.—RESOLUTION.

HC Deb 28 July 1857 vol 147 cc569-608

SIR DE LACY EVANS

said that he rose, pursuant to notice, to bring forward his Resolution suggesting a higher standard of professional instruction and a more complete provision for it than has heretofore obtained for Officers in the Army, and especially the Staff. The subject was one to which public attention had been directed within the last few years by a remarkable concurrence of circumstances, among which were the reports of Committees of that House, a very important one especially drawn up by the Commissioners appointed by the Secretary for War, and the very able speech made in that House last Session by the right hon. Gentleman the member for South Wilts (Mr. Sidney Herbert), in the opinions of which he fully concurred. He ventured to think, however, that some other means were necessary for securing the object which that right hon. Gentleman and himself had in view, and it was to that end that he had to submit to the House a Resolution which he trusted would meet with the sanction of the Government. He ventured to hope, indeed, that it would be received by the noble Lord at the head of the Government in the same spirit as the somewhat kindred proposal made recently by the noble Lord the Member for the West Riding (Viscount Goderich) with respect to the Civil Service had been entertained by him, believing, as he did, that its adoption, like that of the Motion of the noble Lord, would strengthen the hands of the Government. The country was now in the same condition, with respect to military education, that it was at the commencement of the long war with France. During the first five or six years of that contest, the nation met with many disasters, and in consequence the Government resolved to form a college for military instruction. Accordingly, in 1799, a staff college was first formed in this country, which rendered important services to the army of that day, and it produced many officers of eminence; but after the termination of the Peninsular War, the institution was reduced from year to year, until it ceased to possess the means of imparting instruction to anything like the extent which it had originally done. In 1832 all Parliamentary aid was withdrawn from the college, and he believed the Under-Secretary for War recently stated in the House that, during the last two or three years, scarcely a single officer had presented himself for admission into it. There might perhaps have been some half-dozen who had received instruction in the institution since that time, but he was not sure about that. At all events, he thought that was a state of things which ought not to exist. There was evidence, in reports which had been laid before both Houses of Parliament, that not only Austria, France, Prussia, and other military nations had long applied their attention and devoted funds to this object, but even the United States, finding in 1814 that their officers were singularly wanting in knowledge, and that they had probably suffered some defeats in consequence, established a military school at West Point on a very extensive scale, and he believed that West Point College was established on the model, as near as possible, of the Ecole Polytechnique of France, though perhaps not so exclusively military in its object. As another instance of the manner in which this subject was viewed by those competent to judge, he would quote the high authority of Frederick the Great, in whose memoirs, after the Seven Years' War, he found this passage:— The army had made numerous campaigns, but the Quartermaster-General was often in want of good officers for his department. The King wished to form a corps of such officers, and selected twelve individuals, who already possessed some slight acquaintance with engineer duties, for the purpose of instructing them himself. With this view they were made to sketch country, mark off camps, fortify villages, intrench heights, construct stockades, regulate columns of march, and, above all, to try the nature of marshes and the depths of streams themselves, that they might not be deceived by the negligence of others, and cause an army to depend upon the defensive support of a fordable river, or of a marsh which infantry could cross without being ankle deep. Sir Howard Douglas, one of the most competent, experienced, and scientific of our officers, gave most important evidence before the Committee of the House appointed to inquire into the subject; and Sir H. Douglas, Colonel Portlock, Colonel Adams, Colonel Addison, and Colonel Prosser, who were particularly engaged in military instruction, gave it as their opinion that the senior and junior departments of the college at Sandhurst were in a most unsatisfactory state, and required revision and reform. The pressure of undue influence, however well-intentioned the authorities might be, required that some preventive, such as had been adopted by continental Governments, should be established, and he ventured to think that none would be so efficient as the introduction of the competitive system of examination. The Committee stated in their Report— The government of the college is vested in the Board of Commissioners. The official members, in addition to the Governor and Deputy-Governor of the college, are the Commander-in-Chief, the Secretary at War, the Master-General of the Ordnance, the Quartermaster-General, and Adjutant-General. It is obvious that the pressing and important duties which fall on these officers can leave them but little time to devote to the military college. There should be an independent Board to conduct the examinations. The Report mentioned that during the Peninsular War, when the general staff was very efficient, a great part of the Quartermaster-General's staff was composed of officers who had been educated at the senior department. The Report expressed an opinion that the present state of things in the senior department was unsatisfactory, and required revision and reform. The Committee were of opinion that the transferring from the junior to the senior department a military staff officer was not sufficient. They saw no means of placing the senior department on an efficient footing unless Parliament was prepared to grant aid to that important object. They did not see the justice by which the cadet was called on to pay for the education of the staff officers. The cadets, or rather the families of the cadets, were called on to pay for the education of the staff-officers of the army, and that system continued for many years, if not to some extent to the present time. Many other remarks were made by these officers before the Committee; but he would not now go into them as he saw many of the members of the Committee present, who, he hoped, would follow him on this occasion. The House should recollect that during the last half century this country had been making great progress in every department, and in no respect greater progress than in education. The grants of public money had gone on increasing year by year, for national schools, factory schools, union workhouse schools, prison schools, &c., and he believed they now amounted to £500,000 sterling. There was a very handsome expenditure, amounting to £18,500 this year, for the education of non-commissioned officers and privates, and the total sums, if the children of soldiers were included, was £46,000. But for officers, and especially officers of the army, the sum was at the outside £1,300. It was an extraordinary contrast, and he believed had been remarked upon by the Secretary of State for War in another place. The righ hon Gentleman the Member for South Wiltshire estimated the expense of putting the education of the officers upon a reliable footing, by the appointment of boards of examination, at £5,000, and a Vote for that amount appeared in the Estimates; but unfortunately the right hon. Gentleman left office, and the Vote dropped out of the Estimates. The right hon. Gentleman, in a statement upon the subject last year, expressed some disappointment that the Government had come to no decision upon the subject, and that there was no item of the sort in the Estimates. Another year had brought only the same result, nor had the statement of the former Under Secretary for War in the first session of the present year been altogether satisfactory. These circumstances, he thought, afforded good reason for wishing, at all events, if not to express distrust of the intentions of the Government, to stimulate the Government to use more promptitude and exertion. The first Resolution which he should submit was,— That in the opinion of this House a higher standard of professional instruction and more complete provision for it than hitherto deemed requisite, ought to be established for the Commissioned Ranks of the Army, but especially for the Staff. He ventured to think that that was a proposition which was already concurred in not only by the House, but by the country. His Resolution then went on to state that the object which he had in view Will be best promoted by recourse to competitive examination of Officers desiring to qualify themselves for the Staff, and by adopting the same principle, with such qualifications as may be necessary, in examination of candidates nominated by the Commander-in-Chief for commissions in the Cavalry and Infantry. No fair objection, he thought, could be taken to a certain degree of competitive examination in the case of candidates for staff appointments. Such an examination prevailed in our Universities, where the first men of the land—those who occupied leading positions in the two Houses of Parliament—had willingly exposed themselves to an ordeal similar to that which he proposed for officers seeking appointments on the Staff. Not only those who sought honours submitted to examinations, but those even who were desirous of obtaining the lowest degree, were obliged to pass an examination, and in many instances they were what University men called "plucked." Why officers in the army should shrink from the same ordeal he could not understand, and he saw no reason why the officers of the army should not run the risk of being "plucked." The officers of the navy were compelled to pass an examination not only for their first, but like wise for their second and third commissions. In 1849, as stated by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for South Wilts in his admirable letter to Lord Hardinge of December, 1854, the Duke of Wellington issued an order declaring that for the future there should be an examination of officers for lieutenancies as well as for first commissions. Notwithstanding the authority of that great man, his proposition with respect to lieutenancies was never carried into effect; but, as there was a similar examination in foreign armies and in our own navy, it was to be hoped that it might be renewed. The officers of the navy were undoubtedly more professional than the officers of the army, and therefore the latter need not be ashamed to imitate some of their proceedings. His Resolution next proceeded to urge the expediency of "preserving the present system of admission of cadets for the Ordnance Corps." He would not presume to pass any censure upon the officers of the army, and would even avoid quoting the statements of the Duke of Wellington, although they were well known to be very strong, both against the character of our private soldiers and the efficiency of our officers. The blame lay, not with the officers, but with the Government, which did not provide the officers with due opportunities for acquiring that information which it was desirable they should possess in order to the satisfactory discharge of their duties. Some of the greatest authorities who had written upon the Peninsular sieges had declared that the principal drawback experienced in carrying on those operations arose from an entire want of even rudimentary knowledge on the part of our officers, particularly referring to the ignorance of the officers and men of the line of the elementary knowledge necessary for assisting as working parties. That was not the fault of the officers, but was owing to the combined neglect and favouritism which had so long prevailed in the army. The present system of admission of cadets for the Ordinance corps was introduced by the Duke of Newcastle, and had been followed by Lord Panmure. It was an open competitive system, and he believed had been found to work well. He was anxious that it should be preserved, and trusted that there was no truth in the report which had reached him that there was some inclination in certain quarters to alter it. He could not understand why such a step should be thought of. The young persons who had come forward from the various colleges and schools throughout the country had been everything that could be desired. The subjects of examination were advertised by the Secretary for War, and it was open to any one, from any public school or college, or any profession in civil life, to compete. The number of candidates was considerable—between 100 and 200—and those who showed most proficiency were selected for the commissions. With respect to their social position, he might state that they came from the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, and Edinburgh; from the Colleges of Aberdeen, London, Brigh- ton, Belfast, Cork, Galway, and Chester; from Rugby, Harrow, and Eton; and from the most considerable proprietary chartered and endowed schools throughout the country. What right, he asked, had any one to assume that these young gentlemen were not equal in every respect to those who, if the former system had been continued, would have been nominated by the Master General of the Ordinance under private and political influence? He did not ask the House to rest only on his own statements on the subject; he would bring authority also to bear on it. Mr. Peel, the late Under Secretary for War—a gentleman with whom he had not always had the happiness of agreeing—stated on the 5th of June last year that the existing plan had been found to answer well; that the successful candidates had proved to be men of superior education; that they were gentlemen and officers in every sense of the term, and worthy to hold the commissions they had won for themselves. He had heard that some of the authorities at Woolwich were rather disposed to discredit and depreciate those officers, and it was, perhaps, natural that they should be so, because the new system interfered with that patronage which they might otherwise have exercised; but as regarded the army there could be no ground of complaint. In support of the statement which he had made in reference to the social position of those who went up for examination in this corps, he would state the social rank of those who had gone up from the University of Dublin. Of these persons, ten were sons of clergymen, four were sons of barristers, three sons of officers in the army, two sons of landowners, three sons of bankers, and five others. There was no ground whatever, therefore, for depreciatory remarks with respect to their social position. A high authority—he believed Colonel Smythe, one of the Commissioners sent to inquire into the state of the colleges abroad—had stated that The young men who have obtained provisional commissions have surprised the authorities by the extraordinary progress which they have made in acquiring a knowledge of the specialties of their profession, while their bearing and conduct have been most exemplary. There were other passages which he could read in support of his views, but he thought he had stated enough to justify him in expressing a hope that the present system of examination for the Ordnance Corps would not be hastily abandoned. A few weeks since thirty examinations for these probationary cadetships were advertised, and no less than 120 candidates from the various schools and colleges of the country presented themselves for examination— double the number that ever appeared before. He hoped, therefore, most earnestly, that for the present, at least, an ample trial would be given to this system. It was very important that men of high talent should be attracted into our scientific corps. One of those corps, the Engineers, at present laboured under a considerable disadvantage, from the circumstance of some of its best men being at present rather frequently withdrawn from it to serve in civil employment. It was no doubt convenient to the Government to obtain the services of those officers, but it led to a similar complaint with that made as to the Indian army, that so many of its officers were withdrawn, from military duties for civil or staff service. He would desire, for many reasons, that officers of Engineers should be employed as exclusively as practicable upon military duties. The next portion of his Resolution asked for "assured encouragement for proficiency and general fitness for advancement." He thought that promotion should be made to attend upon proficiency in study and testimonies of general ability; that for particular proficiency an appointment on the Staff, or, if possible, a step in promotion should be the reward, as was the case in the French army. Those, however, were matters of detail, with which his Resolutions did not deal; but he could not avoid expressing a desire that there should be a certain and reliable encouragement held out for proficiency and intellectual acquirements. He might he told, indeed, that there were other qualities besides those of intellectual knowledge required from officers of the army, and he quite admitted it. He quite believed, and was fully prepared to maintain, that no school could be so efficient as that of war in instructing officers in the duties of their profession, and in time of war those officers who had proved themselves to be fitted for the Staff would be the best of all officers; but in time of peace it was necessary to take the next best test. The last proposition which he had to make was the appointment of "Commissioners, or a Council of Military and Civilian Members," to carry out the objects he had ventured to propose. He had the highest opinion of the officers who composed the present board, but at the same time he did not think that any body of comparatively subordinate officers could be completely unbiased and independent while the Commander in Chief sat at their head. Moreover, the Report of the Committee of that House had stated, as before observed, their opinion that officers holding high positions at the Horse Guards had not sufficient opportunity for paying due attention to military educational subjects. He wished to add two civilians to the Board or Council persons skilled in examination, to assist the Military officers in examining the candidates. He would at present abstain from submitting any further propositions and feared he had already trespassed too long on the attention of the House. He should only then add that our army was a very small one, and yet had to perform duties more arduous than any other army in the world. There were indeed some old ad captandum objections still raised about a standing army, wholly unsuited to the present relative military power of other nations but he believed if we had not some proportionate standing army the country would soon cease to stand at all, and would fall under the power of some foreign State. Again, it had been said that we were a purely naval nation, and not a military nation; but when he glanced at the map of the world and saw how many places we had conquered or occupied, and what vast territories the British army was called upon to defend and guard, he could not reconcile it with common sense to hold that we were not a military nation. If they looked back to the history of our army they would find some of the greatest achievements ever performed had been gained by our army. But, as it was small, it was absolutely necessary to make it as efficient as possible; and if steps were taken to do justice to all officers by guarding as much as possible against favouritism, and by making arrangements to afford the highest amount of instruction to all classes of the army, then he thought that our army, small as it was, would be found adequate to its duties and invincible by any other. The hon. and gallant Member concluded by moving— That in the opinion of this House a higher standard of professional instruction and more complete provision for it than hitherto deemed requisite ought to be established for the Commissioned Ranks of the Army, but especially for the Staff; that this will be the best promoted by recourse to competitive examination of Officers desiring to qualify themselves for the Staff, by adopting the same principle with such qualification as may be necessary in examination of candidates nominated by the Commander in Chief for Commissions in the Cavalry and Infantry, by preserving the present system of admission of Cadets for the Ordinance Corps, by assured encouragements for proficiency and general fitness for advancement, and by appointment of Commissioners, or a Council of Military and Civilian Members, empowered to direct the measures for accomplishing these objects.

SIR FREDERICK SMITH

said, it was no doubt desirable that a considerable amount of special instruction and general information should be given to officers, but he was not one of those who considered theoretical instruction equally valuable as practical instruction. He thought that most persons who entered the army brought with them a considerable amount of general instruction. He admitted that the knowledge of two foreign languages was necessary for an officer, but he did not think a high degree of mathematical attainments was essential either for officers of the staff or of the army at large; neither did he consider the amount of mathematical knowledge now required from officers in the special corps to be insufficiently high. Very few officers had occasion to bring into any practical use the attainments in mathematics they acquired at the Academy. He believed that for officers of the line and the staff a knowledge of field fortifications was necessary; they should be able to trace a front of fortification, and when they saw an attack laid down they ought to be able to comprehend the objects of it. Practically he thought they ought to be instructed in the art of making trenches, fascines, and gabions, of making bridges with casks and boats, and other operations which might become necessary at any time. But that would not require the high standard of attainments which the hon. and gallant General appeared to desire. It had been a matter of discussion whether the officers of the army generally and officers of the special corps should not be instructed at one establishment, and he believed that to be a most desirable arrangement. The plan had been tried at the East India Company's college at Addiscombe, and had been found to answer exceedingly well. Formerly it vas not easy to carry out a scheme of this kind, but now that the whole patronage of the army rested with the Secretary for War, he saw no reason why it should not be resorted to. Every officer of the line should have a knowledge of the power of the musket and of artillery. It was easily attained, and officers of the line, should be allowed to go to Woolwich for that purpose. Then, as regarded officers of the staff, he thought it was quite essential that they should be good topographical draughtsmen; able to draw with ease, accuracy, and rapidity. The more staff officers were educated the better; but in selecting men for the staff they must go beyond mere education, and have regard to physical considerations. They must be men of robust constitutions, able to endure fatigue and to "rough it" when not in quarters, for they were often not so comfortably placed as the officers of the line. The staff officer should also be a man of quick sight, a good horseman, and a good swordsman. He required to be a good swordsman, for he might not unfrequently have to defend himself with his single arm. A son of Lord Raglan, when in action in India, had to defend himself against five or six of the enemy, who surrounded him, and cut his way through them with his sword in safety, and his case was by no means singular. He thought it was of the greatest importance that the officers of the army should receive instructions of a practical kind, and that their military education should not be merely theoretical. A knowledge of modern languages, such as French and German, was of great consequence, and ought also to form part of the education of every officer; but he did not see that much benefit would accrue to the service from high classical or mathematical attainments in the officers.

GENERAL WINDHAM

said, he understood the hon. and gallant Member for Westminster was in favour of competitive examinations, not only for officers of the Staff and the special corps, but for commissions in the general service. But he thought that in giving commissions much more ought to be considered than mere education. He would suppose that two youths were brought to be examined—one brave, generous, good-humoured, full of good sense and zeal—in short, a fine fellow, and just the man they wanted for an officer, but, to complete the picture, somewhat idle, and therefore no great scholar; the other a young man of high attainments as a scholar, but possessing none of the qualities of the first. The instant these two men came before the Board of Examiners they would take the one that had been educated, and leave the other entirely out of the question. Now, surely the examination should extend a little beyond ascertaining the fact whether a man could speak French or not. He was convinced that these examinations were excellent in so far as discovering the intellectual qualifications of candidates, which would be of no avail unless the candidates were good men in other respects; and therefore he did not think examinations were the best means of getting the best men for the first admission into the service. With regard to the staff it would be very different. Officers wishing to qualify themselves for the staff would be known. Having been long in the service—perhaps seven years—there would exist the means of knowing what sort of men they were, and they could be put through a good stringent examination with advantage. He must honestly say that a stringent examination in the first instance, and subsequent encouragement to the officer to improve himself, would be the best plan. But he thought that there was a great deal more fuss about education in the army than was necessary. He had observed in the field that some of those who were possessed of great attainments turned out to be the worst officers. He firmly believed that the officers of the English army were quite as well educated as those of the French army, and that in the part of the service in which we were said to be most deficient—the staff—the deficiency was more owing to want of practice than to the want of education. Our staff was not well organized, and he thought the Government would act wisely if they copied the French system, which was established by one of their most eminent Generals, Gouvion St. Cyr, during the Empire. The proper plan would be to have a chief of the staff with efficient subordinates, but with undivided authority. In the Crimean campaign a great error was committed in having the Chief of the Staff and the Quartermaster General independent of each other. An independent Quartermaster General and an independent Chief of the Staff could not co-exist without injury to the service. He hoped the Government would give the Chief of the Staff proper officers attached to that staff, and not make arrangements of a mixed kind which were neither one thing nor another. But with regard to military education, one great advantage which he hoped would arise from it was, that it would lead the people of this country to a general system of military organization. This was not the time to discuss such a question, but he could not help saying that what we wanted was not such a general military organization as fitted the Continent, but such a rational system as became a free country. What we wanted was a regular militia, and reserves volunteering from that militia, which would form a constant source of supply of men for the army. Connected with this was the question of national defence and other considerations of great importance. If we were to go on as we had hitherto done, we must be always too late—for this reason, that the Government on an emergency had to come down to the House to ask for money to get men, when the men ought to be ready to their hands. They never asked for money until they were in pressing need of the men. No doubt there were many more difficulties in this subject, and many more things to be considered than appeared at first sight. For instance, there was the number of the militia to be taken into consideration, the manner in which it was to be raised, and its connection with the army—whether it should be in immediate connection, or, as at present, in semi-antagonism. Then, too, there was the question of the staff, of military education generally, and, above all, of the relation which ought to exist between the duties of the Minister of War and the Commander in Chief. The noble Lord at the head of the Government, of all men in the empire, was by his experience, his abilities, and his popularity, best fitted to carry out some rational system of military organization, and if he would undertake and complete that task, he would deserve the gratitude of the country.

SIR WILLIAM WILLIAMS

could assure the gallant General the Member for Westminster that he was under a misapprehension in supposing that there was any favouritism shown in the examinations for commissions by which unfit persons were admitted into the service. The proportion of those who came forward and were rejected was between one-fourth and one-third of the whole number of candidates. He had sent a cousin of his own down to Sandhurst, not very long ago, to be examined for a commission, and, without wishing any favouritism to be shown to him, he wrote to Sir Harry Jones, asking him to give him that encouragement which a youth would stand in need of at such a time. In the evening, however, he had the mortification of getting a letter to tell him that his cousin had been rejected. He prepared himself again, and went up for re-examination; but, more through fear probably than want of attainments, he again failed. He had had under his command officers who had passed through Woolwich, and those who, owing to the exigencies of the service, had been admitted by competitive examination, without going through that institution, and, though the zeal and good conduct of these latter had been all above praise, yet, owing to the want of a military training, they were not equal to those who had passed through Woolwich;—they might have been fit for senior wranglers, but they had yet to learn to be soldiers. Those who had the charge of Woolwich laboured under the mistake of bringing the pupils in at too advanced an age, which had the effect of making most of the officers in the scientific corps old men before they could attain to high command. He was as strong an advocate of competitive examination in the line and in the two scientific corps as any one; but he hoped that the military authorities would continue to retain the right of nomination. It would be a very dangerous experiment for them to relinquish that right. He wished, too, to see a real bonâ fide staff corps established. When addressing the House on a former occasion on this subject, he had expressed his regret at the abolition of the old corps of draughtsmen and surveyors, by which step the army had been deprived of that which was necessary for its efficiency, and he hoped to see the day when those corps would be revived. The French had a beautiful staff corps, and their system ought to be adopted by us. The questions of promotion by purchase and military education were very intimately connected. Without purchase there would be favouritism and affection. He had seen more regiments of the line than most officers, and he had always remarked in what an extraordinary manner the system of purchase kept up the youthfulness of these regiments by constantly supplying young officers full of energy and fit to lead their men. In the scientific corps, where there was no purchase, the case was different. At forty years of age he himself was only a second captain in the Artillery. No doubt, under the purchase system, there was a certain amount of vexation experienced when one man purchased over another; but that was nothing to the heart burning which was occasioned when an officer was put over another on account of some pretended superiority of talent or intellectual attainments. Although, therefore, there might be some cases of hardship, he did not wish to see the system of purchase abolished. During the debate of the previous evening, the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Control had spoken of the wants of that proper communication between the officer and the sepoy, which perhaps had occasioned a great deal of the misery we now deplored, and had asked how that evil could be remedied. The remedy which he (Sir W. Williams) would recommend would be, not to give a single commission in a Native regiment without a previous examination in the Indian languages—not to give a lieutenancy to an ensign until he had made considerable progress in the Native languages, and to give no man his company until he was a perfect master of the Hindostance.

MR. PALK

said, he had hoped that the gallant General (Sir De Lacy Evans) would have taken a broader view of the subject, that he would have given the House the benefit of his great experience and practical knowledge, that he would have shown the evil of the present system of promotion both in the staff and in the line, and that he would have offered some suggestions for improving the organization of the army. He had expected the gallant General to have instanced the case of other professions, and to have shown that in them every one had to undergo a competitive examination at college or elsewhere. He had expected him to have drawn from those premises the fact that men of vast knowledge and great acquirements, who had attained the highest and proudest positions in the State, had risen from the humbler classes—affording in their own persons a proof that education would elicit the best attributes of man, and that it was not to birth alone that we could trust for a due performance of the duties that were required of us. The gallant General might have instanced the case of our own army, essentially aristocratic—much more so than any army on the Continent—in which few men had risen from the ranks to high positions. He had thought that the gallant officer would have referred to the gallantry of our officers—the steadiness and forbearance in times of difficulty of our men; and that he would have shown that that was owing to the aristocratic element which so strongly impregnated our armies, and which sent out young men proud of their name, of their family, and of their country, to gain fresh honours and add new laurels to our fame. He had thought that the gallant General might have gone on and have proposed, without bringing the two classes into collision, a test of education which should insure to all who passed an examination a commission in the army; and that he might have said that, great and glorious as the deeds of our army had been, the time had come when more liberal ideas were prevalent, and when it was essential for the benefit of the country that the organization of the army should be improved by more comprehensive and extended views. The first step towards such improvement would be to show to young men that energy and talent would insure advancement, and that, if they did their duty well and gallantly, and at the same time acquired those scientific attainments which were essential to their position, whether they had the good luck to be the friends of the Government or not, their talent and energy would be recognized, and their promotion would be as certain as if they were nephews of the Secretary of State for War. At present such unfortunately was not the case, as too many instances would prove. He held in his hand, for example, a letter signed by a gallant officer who had entered the army many years ago, and whose services, perhaps, had long been forgotten. That officer served seven years in the Artillery, and passed through all the courses of drill and practical instruction at Woolwich several times. In the spring of 1825 he accepted the offer of the Duke of York to volunteer into the line, on the promise that everything that could properly be done for the advancement of those who so volunteered should be done. He went through a long period of service. In 1831 he was appointed by Lord Clare assistant and secretary to the mission proceeding to Scinde. Having been upwards of sixteen years a subaltern he purchased his rank as captain, and at length, having embarked all his fortune in the service, and when it was too late to think of devoting himself to any other profession, he was compelled, for the sake of his family, to sell his commission. He then addressed a letter to Lord Panmure, from whom he received die following reply:— War-office, June 24. SIR,—I am directed by Lord Panmure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, containing a statement of your past services, which he has perused with great interest; and in reply I am directed to state that, while Lord Panmure most sincerely sympathizes with you in your misfortunes, his Lordship deeply regrets it is not in his power to remedy complaints of such long standing, or to reverse acts which you have characterized in such strong language. I have the honour to be, &c., J. CROOMES, Assistant-Secretary. In that instance, therefore, because the complaints were of long standing, there was no remedy for that gallant officer. But the system which existed then existed still, and he would submit to the House another instance which happened very recently. It was the case of an officer who during the last war, possessing high military attainments, and being a first-rate linguist, distinguished himself in the field, but having no military interest, at last, with the greatest difficulty, succeeded in obtaining a staff appointment, and, proving himself highly efficient in organization and detail, was intrusted with a high responsibility, and to the command of a brigade, which he performed with the greatest credit, winning the universal approbation of those who bore witness to the extreme judgment and ability he displayed, and for which he received the highest testimonials. That officer was at this moment a subaltern in the army. He was brought up for the service, for which he was specially educated. He was a young man of great ability, and was rather an extraordinary linguist, for he spoke French, Spanish, German, Italian, Turkish and Russian, with a certain knowledge of Arabic, modern Greek, and Persian. After the fire at Varna, he was sent to Bulgaria to collect stores for the commissariat; and in consequence of his knowledge of the language and of his zeal, he, at a time when the army was in the greatest difficulties, sent down every day thirty waggon-loads of forage. He (Mr. Palk) was not permitted to go very much into the case, for the officer of whom he was speaking would be very much shocked if his name or services were made public; but he was satisfied that no officer ever distinguished himself more for personal gallantry than this young man. General Pennefather, in a testimonial to which he was permitted to refer, spoke highly of his services in connection with the Italian Legion; and yet, in spite of the services he had rendered in the Crimea, in spite of the approbation expressed with regard to his conduct, this young officer was at the present moment doing duty as a subaltern. He had been educated for the army, was skilled in all the various languages which a soldier might require to know, had distinguished himself as much as any man in the service, but he had neither political nor family interest; and it was to be feared that, like the gentleman whose case had previously been referred to, after faithfully serving his Queen and country, he might receive from the War Office, at the end of his days, such a letter as that of Lord Panmure's. It was for this reason that he (Mr. Palk), as one who had had the honour of holding a commission in Her Majesty's service, and as an independent Member of this House, wished to ask whether the army was in such a satisfactory state as would induce young men of talent and energy to seek for that advancement in it which, without interest, seemed denied to them? And yet this country required in the army men of the highest talent. It would no longer do to select officers from the small circle of those highly connected. It was necessary that our men and officers should be picked from the whole of the British nation. What he would suggest was, that in place of Resolutions which, after all, meant but little and carried but little weight with them, the hon. and gallant General (Sir De L. Evans), and others who like him had passed a long life in the service of their country, should bring forward some plan by which men who adopted the profession of arms might be assured that talent, industry, and perseverance would reap for them that reward which seemed at present only to be obtained by patronage. He had been favoured with a pamphlet which denied the statement often made that the army of this country had been ruined by the parsimony of the House of Commons. In this pamphlet the cost of the Austrian and the English armies were contrasted, by which it appeared that "for the outlay of £9,713,974 we kept on foot an effective force of 120,000 men, whereas this sum would have sufficed in Austria to pay and maintain 540,000 men on the peace establishment." He could not, therefore, quite give his adherence to the statement that the parsimony of the House of Commons had destroyed or injured the army. It had been the long mismanagement which had injured the army; and he thought that, if the matter could be investigated, it would be found that our system, as compared with that of foreign countries, was more expensive and by no means so efficient. What he contended was, that if they were going to change their system of promotion in the army, they ought not to proceed by Resolution, but to lay down some practical plan, and come to Parliament for the means to carry it out; for he did not think that small palliatives for evils, if they were evils, were worthy of this House or of the country.

SIR JOHN RAMSDEN

said, that it was impossible not to agree with the spirit of the observations addressed to the House by the hon. and gallant Member for Westminster. The opinion that sufficient attention had not been paid to the education of the officers of the army was universally entertained; and to use the words of the hon. and gallant Member's Resolution, he (Sir J. Ramsden) quite concurred with him in thinking "that a higher standard of professional instruction, and more complete provision for it than hitherto had been deemed requisite, ought to be established for the commissioned ranks of the army, but especially for the staff." On that point, indeed, there was, he conceived, no difference of opinion. To effect that object was a duty which they owed to the country, whose interests depended so largely upon the efficiency of its army—to the soldiers, whose gallantry and selfdevotion entitled them to have for their commanders the ablest and best men that could be found; and to the officers themselves, who, in every heroic and glorious attribute which could adorn the character of a soldier, had equalled, if they had not surpassed, those of every other nation. [Hear, hear!] Government were aware of the arduous nature of the task that devolved upon them, and accepted the responsibility of making the necessary provision. To this end they had been for some time engaged in the preparation of a scheme of military education, which they trusted, when it was submitted to Parliament, would receive the approbation of the House, and meet the exigencies of the case. On a previous occasion he had stated, in reply to a question, that it was intended to establish a Council of Military Education. The first duty that Council would have to perform would be to arrange a scheme of examination to be gone through by the gentlemen nominated by the Commander in Chief, as candidates for first Commissions; secondly, it would have to arrange the course of examination to be undergone by officers after receiving their appointment, as the test of qualification for promotion; and, thirdly, to determine the qualifications which should be required as the test of eligibility for appointments on the Staff. Their Report on the first subject had been prepared, and he was sorry it had not been in his power to lay it on the table of the House before this discussion took place; but it would be in the hands of Members in the course of the following day. He would, however, proceed to state its general recommendations. In the first place, it was proposed that all candidates nominated by the Commander in Chief should undergo an examination before they were appointed. That was in fact the present system; but it was proposed to make that examination much more severe than it now was. It was proposed that the examinations should be held quarterly, in London, under the direction of the Council of Military Education, and conducted by military and civil examiners, who were to be recommended annually by the Council to the Commander in Chief, who would make the appointments subject to the concurrence of the Secretary of State. To this annual appointment of the examiners he attached great value, as affording the best guarantee against any lowering of the standard of requirements which might be apprehended if the examinations were conducted by a permanent body of examiners. The new system it was intended should come into operation in January, 1858. There would be also an examination by a medical board as to the physical qualifications of the candidates for the service, and a certificate would have to be produced, signed by a minister of religion of the denomination to which the candidate might belong, stating that he had been properly instructed in the principles of religion; and also a certificate as to his general moral conduct during the two preceding years. The subjects of the examination would be divided into two classes—compulsory and optional. The compulsory class would include arithmetic, algebra, up to simple equations, the first four books of Euclid, a considerable knowledge of French, English composition, English history, and geography. The examination on these subjects would be compulsory, but they did not include the whole of the subjects of the examination. The candidate would be required to take up, in addition, a certain number of the optional subjects, which would, however, within the limits specified in the Report, be left to his own discretion. The optional subjects would include the classical languages and the higher branches of mathematics, some modern language in addition to French, a more extended knowledge of geography, physical and experimental science, and a knowledge of drawing: a certain number of these branches the candidate would be required to take up in addition to the compulsory subjects: It would be observed that, in this scheme, no provision was made for requiring knowledge of a purely professional character. The Government were of opinio—and in this opinion they were supported by the highest authorities both in this country and on the Continent—that a good general liberal education was the best foundation for instruction in the professional duties of an officer. Another reason against insisting upon professional knowledge among candidates for first commissions, was, the importance which the Government attached to attracting to the army the largest number of young men educated at the great public schools. They were of opinion that the education given at the public schools of this country was—not only in an intellectual point of view, but also in the habits of discipline and subordination, in the healthy and manly tone of feeling which it encouraged—the best preparation for a military career. There was also a further consideration which weighed with them in abstaining from requiring any professional knowledge at the entrance examination, and that was a regard for the interests of the candidates themselves. Among the number who would undergo this examination, it was impossible that all should succeed; and, if professional knowledge were to be required, those who failed in the examination would suffer hardship, inasmuch as the time they had devoted to the acquirement of purely military science would have been thrown away if they were compelled afterwards to resort to any other profession. On these grounds it was not considered desirable, either for the interests of the candidate or for the efficiency of the service, that anything more than a Bound general education should be required as the test of fitness for appointment to a first commission. There was one point in the gallant General's resolution with which the Government could not concur, namely, that the principle of competition should be introduced into the examination for direct commissions. They considered that these appointments should be subject to a standard rather than a competitive examination; but, at the same time, that effectual precautions should be taken to ensure the maintenance of the standard now to be established. As regards the examinations for the staff, they entirely agreed with the gallant General. He (Sir J. Ramsden) was not, as yet, in a position to state in detail the intentions of the Government on this subject; but this much had been decided—that a staff college was to be established, to which admission was to be gained by competitive examination, and that, at the termination of the course of study there, another competitive examination would be held, when the certificates which were to constitute the qualification for employment on the staff would be obtained. The gallant General wished to preserve the present system of admission to the Ordnance corps, which had been introduced by his noble Friend at the head of the War Department. On this point no conclusion had, as yet, been arrived at; but a plan was under the consideration of the Government for the amalgamation of Sandhurst and Woolwich into one military college, where all the preliminary military education of the country would be given. It was proposed that, after a certain time passed in this college, the pupils should be subjected to a competitive examination, and that admission to the Ordnance corps should be given in the order in which that examination was passed. It was also proposed that a certain number of free commissions in the line should be set apart for the students at this college, and that those who passed the final examination with the greatest success should be allowed the privilege of choosing a commission in whichever branch of the service they might prefer. It was therefore hoped that a certain proportion of the most promising cadets would be induced to choose commissions in the line, as well as in the Ordnance corps, and that by this means the best men would be distributed through all arms of the service alike. This part of the scheme was, however, not as yet matured, and he was, therefore, unable to state with any certainty what would be its provisions. The Government most fully concurred with the hon. and gallant Member for Westminster in his recommendations that "assured encouragements" should be given "for proficiency and general fitness for advancement," and they looked to the system of competitive examinations which it was proposed to apply to the certificates of qualification for the staff, as the means of giving effect to this recommendation. The hon. and gallant Officer's fifth recommendation, that a Council of Military Education should be established, had already been adopted. After mature consideration, however, it had been determined that it should be composed exclusively of military members, and not of "military and civilian members," as recommended by the hon. and gallant Officer. It was thought better to look for the counterpoise to the exclusively military character of the Council in the appointment of civilians and military men together, to conduct the examinations. Though the Commander in Chief was ex officio President of the Council, he believed it was not his intention to take part in its deliberations; but the military education of officers of the army would be under his control, and the Council would report to him, so that everything relating to the Council would pass through his hands in the first instance, and would be submitted by him to the Minister for War. He could not say that the plan of the Government entirely agreed with that of the gallant Officer; but, although there might be a difference upon minor points, yet the gallant General would see that the Government were acting in the same spirit with himself, and he therefore hoped that he would not press upon the House the adoption of a Resolution, the effect of which would be to tie the hands of the Government, and to interfere with that freedom of action which it was indispensable they should possess, in order to enable them to carry out a comprehensive scheme on a subject of such great importance. Next Session the House would be in a position to consider the whole plan in all its details.

COLONEL, NORTH

said, he was extremely glad to find from the statement of his hon. Friend that the examination of candidates for commissions in the army was to be removed to London. He had himself endeavoured to raise that question before the Committee of investigation into the state of the army, and the answer which he had received was of the most futile character. The fact was, that at those Sandhurst examinations many of the candidates were "plucked" from sheer fright. The examination comprised a vast variety of subjects, but the whole were crowded into one day's examination between the hours of ten and four. Now, instead of only one day, two days ought to be allotted to the examination. As regarded the new scheme of examination on entry into the army, he must express his conviction that it was calculated to deprive the service of a great number of very fine young men. Many a gallant fellow might not be able to master the four books of Euclid who was the fittest to lead men into action. He had no objection to officers being examined, but he was afraid they were about to make the examinations too high. With regard to the staff, he thought sufficient notice was not taken of the different duties of staff officers, according as they were attached to the Quartermaster General's or the Adjutant General's staff. Perhaps he might be here permitted to direct the attention of the noble Lord at the head of the Government to the condition of the militia. Undoubtedly the militia had been allowed to all but disappear. It was now five years since they had been embodied, and who did not remember the difficulties that had to be encountered in doing so? At present the militia could only be said to exist on paper; for as to their period of annual training, after deducting the time necessary for distributing their accoutrements and collecting them again, distributing them in billets, wet days and Sundays, and other deductions, their drill was in fact reduced to five or six days. A man could not be made a good and efficient soldier under a year or a year and a half's drill, and now that the country was being drained of its soldiers, it was most important to pay attention to the militia, and to make them as efficient a body as possible. It was really scattering money to the winds to persevere in the present system.

LORD STANLEY

said, he thought that the Under Secretary for war (Sir John Ramsden) had drawn a very wise and proper distinction between the qualifications which it was desirable that a person should possess for admission into the army and those which should entitle him to be placed upon the staff. He quite concurred in the opinion that there were many men who possessed but very little book-learning or very little capacity for acquiring it, who, although they might not in consequence be fitted to hold high commands, yet would be found in a subordicate position admirably adapted to lead a forlorn hope or to head a charge in the field. But although he, upon that account, deemed it inexpedient that competition should be made the only means of obtaining admission into the army, he was prepared to maintain that it was highly desirable that a certain proportion of those commissions which happened to be at the disposal of the Government should be open to competition on the part of the community at large. He was also of opinion that, as at the Universities, scholarships and exhibitions were granted partly as marks of merit, partly as substantial incentives to industry, so it would be possible at a very small cost to the country to devise a system of military prizes which should be dispensed to the youths at our military colleges. There was another point to which, although it did not come within the terms of the Resolution of the hon. and gallant Member for Westminster, he might be allowed briefly to advert. The House was aware that in the navy it was the practice to establish a comparatively slight test of capacity in the case of an officer upon entrance, but to compel him to undergo a most severe examination some four or five years later, when he was about to be raised to the rank of lieutenant. Now, that he must confess he regarded as a plan most superior to the system which would make the efficiency of an officer depend entirely upon the acquirements which he happened to possess when he first obtained his commission. The knowledge to which a young man of the age of sixteen or seventeen might have attained was influenced quite as much by the circumstances of his position as by his personal character or capacity; but the knowledge of the same person at the age of twenty or twenty-one would depend in a great measure upon the use which he had made of his time, and upon his disposition to be industrious. He was, under these circumstances, strongly of opinion that it would be most advisable not to lead young men to believe that their education was finished the moment they entered the army, but, on the contrary, the necessity of acquiring further information as a means of contributing to their promotion at a subsequent period should be impressed upon their minds; and he thought that means might be devised whereby, in the absence of actual service, they might display their proficiency, even though it were only theoretical. Those various questions—namely, the establishment of a sufficient excluding test for unfit persons in the case of the first commission, the throwing open a certain number of commissions to competition, the granting of pecuniary rewards to those who might be found deserving of the distinction, and the institution of a separate examination for those officers who were about to be raised to the rank of captains or lieutenants—embraced, he believed, all the educational means which, without resorting to pedantic strictness, could well be applied to the promotion of professional knowledge in the army at large. With respect to the staff the case was, in his opinion, of a character somewhat different, and he could not help expressing his satisfaction at the statement which had been made by the hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary for War, to the effect that the new training colleges for the members of the staff were intended to be based upon the competitive principle, both with respect to the first admission to them and in regard to the honours and distinctions which might be subsequently attained. The objections which he had heard urged against the adoption of such a competitive system were, in the first place, that in consequence of the way in which our troops were scattered all over the world, it could not be carried into execution; and, in the second place, that, even if it could be carried into execution, it was a scheme to which it was undesirable to have recourse. It was not necessary to enter into the first question at present: at any rate there could be no difficulty with respect to those officers who were at home. And even in reference to those quartered at a distance, it must be borne in mind that the method of conducting examinations by printed papers of questions rendered local proximity or distance a matter of little importance. But when it was said that the system was not desirable, inasmuch as that whatever test of the intellectual advantages of a candidate it might afford, it presented no proof of his moral or physical qualifications, he must say that his opinion was that the competitive test, if fairly applied, afforded a much better proof of the moral than even of the intellectual qualifications of the candidate. Judging, for instance, from the analogy presented by the acquisition of academic honours, he did not believe that ability was the main requisite for success. A far more essential possession was industry, which was generally found to be the accompaniment in youth of a good moral character. He believed that a far greater number got on who possessed industry without talent, than those who had talent without industry. He might add, that the danger that men possessing great intellectual powers, but who were physically unfit for military service, might in great numbers obtain commissions under the operation of such a competitive system was not one which it was probable would prevail to any great extent, inasmuch as, practically speaking, it would be found that men who were physically feeble would not enter the army, for the simple reason that they would have a much greater chance of success in some other profession. Taking men and things as they were, it appeared to him that competition furnished, at all events, a better test of a man's efficiency for the military service than either wealth, or political connection, or mere seniority, or promotion obtained through the influence of favour. To those who might object that there was something dangerous and democratic in the system, he would answer that there was no man who was not desirous of excluding from the higher ranks of the profession those who were inefficient and unequal to their duty, and there was no means of excluding them, so efficient and so little invidious, as saying that there was an educational test provided, which if a man could not pass he was not entitled to promotion. He would only add that the subject was one which they were that evening discussing upon imperfect information. When the Report of the Commission which was now sitting upon the question of education and purchase in the army was laid before them, they would be in a better position to come to a conclusion with reference to the important topic of military promotion. Meantime he should content himself with the expression of his approval of the measures which the Government proposed to adopt, being, so far as he was able to judge, to use a common expression, a step in the right direction.

MR. SIDNEY HERBERT

I am indebted to the House to so great an extent for the indulgence which, when I addressed it upon this subject upon previous occasions, I received at the hands of its Members, that I will endeavour to prove my gratitude for their past kindness by now trespassing on their attention for as short a time as possible. It is, I think, of importance that we should this evening begin by taking stock of our agreements and disagreements with respect to the question under our notice. My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Norfolk (General Windham) seems to object to a scheme of competitive examination for commissions in the line, and I concur with him so far as to deem it desirable that we should wait to see the result of the system of competition in the case of the Ordnance corps before we give a decided opinion with respect to the expediency of adopting it in reference to first commissions in the line. There appears to me, I confess, this difficulty with regard to the establishment of competitive examinations for those commissions—namely, that the qualifications necessary to constitute a good officer cannot always be made the subject of educational test. So far as intellectual qualities are concerned, you can ascertain them by that test; but if you admit a competitive examination, and no other test, men may enter the army who have no qualification beyond what that examination proves them to possess. I confess I rather agree with the view of those who are against a competitive examination only, unless you extend it not only to intellectual, but to moral and physical qualities—unless you ascertain what a man's strength is with the gloves on or at single-stick; or you put him into a field surrounded by four stiff Leicestershire fences and see how he gets out of it. These points are not immaterial in the selection of good officers, though they are not tests usually applied by examiners. I think, however, that too restricted an application of the rule in the case of first commissions, might deprive the service of many valuable officers. My hon. and gallant Friend (General Windham) has put the case of two candidates for a commission in the line—the one a generous, liberal, fine fellow, who has been rather idle with regard to his studies, and the other a learned bookworm, whose eyes are worn out with reading, who is a bad horseman, and who is altogether unfit for the active duties of a soldier's life. I do not want, however, to substitute the bookworm for the fine fellow, but to get hold of the fine fellow, and to take care that he knows his duties thoroughly. Under the present system you may have the bookworm—the man physically inefficient, and you constantly have him. As to the fine fellow, I agree in the opinion of Sir Charles Napier, who says there is no officer in the world like the English gentleman—I do not mean in the sense in which that term is sometimes used, applying only to the landed gentry, but a man of liberal education, who possesses the advantages which result from such an education. In this sense, looking to the constitution of the English army, I think gentlemen will always make the best officers. An hon. and gallant Officer (Colonel North) has expressed a fear lest you should establish too high a standard of examination; but why have too high a standard of examination? I think the danger is the other way. Standards of examination are not apt to rise; on the contrary, they have a great tendency to fall: and if you insist upon men otherwise competent to be officers passing through an examination for their first commissions, I do not think there is any danger of the standard being placed too high. I do not give any opinion on the subject of competition for entrance into the Ordnance corps. You have, I believe, the same class of men as you had before—neither better nor worse. I know it is not a popular doctrine that it is of any importance that the army should be officered by gentlemen, but I hold that it is so. I will tell you why I entertain that opinion. Our object ought to be to get that class of men who will make the best officers. Prove to me that peasants, who form the rank and file of the army, will make the best officers, and I say "Let all your officers be peasants." I think, however, that in dealing with a question of this kind you ought not to consider the interests of any class, but your object ought to be to obtain men who can most efficiently discharge the duties they are required to perform. England is a nation essentially not military with regard to its interior habits and organization. The habit of military organization is foreign to its people. As the most complete discipline and thorough obedience are necessary to the efficiency of an army, you cannot afford to throw away any element which will secure those objects; and one of the main elements in the spirit of obedience in our army is, that the peasantry, from whom the private soldier is drawn, has a natural tendency to follow the lead of the gentlemen from whose class the officer is drawn. That is my only reason for entertaining the opinion I have expressed. You cannot persuade men that in other professions it is a disadvantage to be a gentleman, and, indeed, the common sense of mankind leads to a contrary conclusion. The hon. Gentleman opposite (Mr. Palk) says he does not see how a system of army education can be carried to any height compatably with the system of purchase. I do not see any such difficulty. Whether a man rises by seniority aided by purchase, whether by seniority without purchase, or whether by selection, I do not understand why you cannot have a standard of examination which will secure that a man, however he has obtained his promotion, is fit to discharge the duties of his position. There are one or two other points upon which I may be allowed to say a few words. I have heard it said that a sore feeling has been produced in the army by the statements that have been made by civilians with respect to the conduct of general officers commanding in the field, and that the movement for increased education in the army is regarded by them as a slur. I think the latter idea is unfounded, but I also think that the civilians of this country have judged officers in high command with great unfairness. The traditions of our youth are formed upon the successes of one of the most remarkable men England ever produced, and we are disposed to complain that every officer sent in command of an expedition does not possess the genius of the Duke of Wellington. Now, how many great generals has England produced? Why, you may count them on your fingers. Take Cromwell, Marlborough, Peterborough, if you will, and Wellington; but when you go further you will find yourselves in another class, and it cannot be expected that every man in command of an army should not only exhibit the capacity, but should possess the experience, of a Wellington, or a Marlborough. So far then we have judged very unfairly. But I maintain that the army may retort upon civilians, and may say, "Here we have had a war conducted during three or four years and you cannot point out one civilian who has shown any great aptitude or genius for directing the operations of the war." I have always felt that the most important question in connection with this subject is the mode of admission to the staff. A gallant officer who sits near me (General Windham) has recommended that we should copy the French system. I confess that I am very much afraid of adopting any plan which is merely a copy of the system of other countries, irrespective of the peculiar qualities and habits of the British army; and, looking to the constitution of our army as contrasted with the French, I do not believe that the French system of a separate staff corps rising by promotion within that corps, and never going back to regimental duty, would be suitable to the British army. It would create a separate caste, which would be regarded with the greatest jealousy, and I believe the best feature of our system is, that the staff officer when not employed on the staff goes back to his ordinary duties and mixes with the regimental officers. I am not prepared to give an opinion as to the principle of a competitive examination for first commissions, but I can see no objection to the competition for staff appointments, or for admission into the staff school. The idea is not a new one, for it was successfully carried out during the Peninsular war, and I should like to see such a school re-established. I proposed last year that those officers who most distinguished themselves in examinations for promotion should compete for admission into the staff schools; and I think I understood that it is now the intention of Her Majesty's Government to establish an examination for the staff. I understand the arrangement proposed by the General Order, that any officer nominated to the staff should be required to submit to examination by three officers appointed by the Horse Guards, is to be abandoned. I fear such an examination would come down to the candidate, and would not attempt to establish a standard to which he should rise. I consider that you ought to have a permanent body of examiners, who would subject all candidates to an equal test, and would be competent to ascertain whether the attainments of candidates were the result of cramming; or of careful study, and a well-regulated system of application. I think, also, that the education of the staff should include aides-de-camp. They are required to discharge most important duties, and very high responsibility frequently attaches to them. It is said that they are only "the two-penny postmen of the army;" but if this description is accurate, on what principle is it that they take superior position, and receive increased pay? Although it is not their duty to direct operations, but to convey orders, circumstances may change before they arrive at the point to which they are despatched, and they may be called upon to exercise considerable discretion. If they are only to be bearers of messages that duty might be as well performed by an orderly of dragoons. They are usually in personal attendance on the officers in command, and they are sure to be mentioned in despatches and to obtain promotion, for the generals to whom they are attached naturally speak of duties which are performed under their own eyes. I do not say that a general officer may not be allowed to choose his own personal staff, but he should be limited in his choice to those persons who are on the list as having qualified themselves for those duties which they will be called upon to perform. I beg pardon of the House for detaining them upon these points, but what I want to see is, that the examination for the staff should be made as practical as it is possible to make it. I see from the Report of the Commission appointed to inquire into the military education in foreign countries, that in Austria the examination is not only one of intellect, but that personal and physical qualities are taken into consideration. I know that we shall find it very difficult, but we must attempt it if we wish to arrive at any practical result. I cannot sit down without mentioning the name of one gentleman who more than any one else has been instrumental in bringing this question forward—I mean Mr. Gleig, the chaplain general. That gentleman has been one of the principal motive powers in stirring up this question at the War Office; and when I had the honour of being connected with that department I derived the greatest possible benefit from his advice and assistance, and I have the greatest pleasure now in giving him the credit which he deserves. I regret, I must say, the delay which has taken place in dealing with this question. During the last year that I had the honour of being Secretary at War, I laid upon the table a plan very much like the one which has now been laid before us, and which I hope will be carried out. The late House of Commons received the plan which I proposed with great indulgence, and, what was more to the purpose, they voted the money for carrying it out; but neither last year nor this year have I seen anything about the matter in the Estimates. I am willing, however, to exercise patience, and I hope that next year the hon. Baronet (Sir J. Ramsden) will be prepared to ask for a Vote to carry out a plan which will be satisfactory to the country and advantageous to the efficiency of the service.

MAJOR WARBURTON

wished, as a member of one of the instructed corps of the service, which had hitherto received little encouragement, to express the gratification which he had felt at the announcement made that evening by the hon. Baronet the Under Secretary for War. That announcement would give new life and energy to many an unfriended man in the army, who would now see a fair field open for the development of his abilities, inasmuch as those valuable appointments which had hitherto been open only to persons who possessed interest and connection would now be open to all. It was of the greatest importance that the staff college should be open to members of the instructed corps of the service. In the case of the Ordnance corps the system of competition had hitherto proved most successful, and that system would, he hoped, be fully carried out to its utmost extent.

GENERAL CODRINGTON

said, he did not think that competitive examination for a first commission was advisable, as to establish that principle might shut out from the army that particular class of men who made the best soldiers, and run the chance of getting men into the army who were not suited for the service. As regarded the particular education for the staff, he did not quite understand the extent to which it was proposed to be carried, and he did not think that it would be worth while at present to enter into any details upon the subject. The general principle appeared to be admitted that there should be a competition among officers of the line for admission into the staff college. Now, this difficulty would arise with regard to the staff. Was the staff to be a distinct staff corps for England, or were officers to be taken from their regiments out of the country? If officers of a regiment on service in India or the colonies were allowed to come home to be examined for staff appointments the effect would be detrimental to the efficiency of the service; and if they were not allowed to come home, then how could the best men throughout the service be chosen by competitive examination? There were one or two points in the Resolution of the gallant General to which he was not disposed to give his concurrence, and one was that part of the Resolution which referred to the appointment of a Council of military education. As he understood the gallant General, his proposal was that the Council should be especially under the Secretary for War acting independently of the Commander in Chief, and that its duties should be to examine persons for the staff, taking away from their regiment for that purpose officers on full pay. He did not think that it was advisable even in matters of a civil nature that the Secretary for War should be able to interfere with the responsibility of the Commander in Chief for the education and efficiency of the officers of the army by taking them from their regiments. The result would be a divided authority, and experience had already shown the danger of such a division. The establishment of a staff college would cost a very large sum of money, and he hoped that hon. Members who were so anxious for the establishment of that system would not hesitate when they were asked to pay the bill. In Austria, he believed, where such a system existed, the annual cost was about £148,000, and the amount required would be a serious question to discuss in considering the Estimate which might be presented to Parliament. No one doubted the advantage of giving an officer as good an education as was possible—education never did any one any harm—but it was very difficult to fix the standard, and the House would remember that many men might reach that standard without any of those other qualities which in the army were particularly required. Mention had been made of the appointment of a chief of the staff, and he would therefore briefly refer to the subject. The appointment of a chief of the staff was an imitation of the French system, and in the French army the principle was carried to an extreme degree. Not only was there a chief of the staff of the army generally, but every general of division had his chief of the staff. Now, he did not see why a general of division should not be his own chief of the staff and communicate directly with his own quartermaster general and adjutant general. He would only add that he was glad to find that the general subject had excited the attention of the Government. The education of the officers was the great point to attain; but he hoped that it would not be carried to such an exclusive degree as to lead to the idea that the practical part of the profession of an officer, which, after all, was the main thing to keep in view, was to be subordinated to general education.

COLONEL SYKES

begged to state, as an old soldier, that the object to be attained in the education of an officer was, that he should be competent for the work to which he was to be put. This object required qualifications of a professional character and did not depend upon the usual school or college instruction; and, therefore, the aim and object of his education, should be professional acquirement and fitness for his work, and not that he should become a literary coxcomb. The prescribed examination, above all things, should be bonâ fide, for otherwise it would be a mockery and a delusion. Having passed that examination—not for literary acquirements, but for professional knowledge—a man entered the army, and the hon. and gallant Member (Sir De L. Evans) proposed that there should afterwards be a competitive examination previous to entering upon the staff. He (Colonel Sykes) thought that a desirable arrangement, because hitherto promotion to the staff, as was well known, had depended chiefly on family or personal interest, or both, and not upon the qualifications of the individual concerned. At the same time he thought such an examination should be general as to place, and not exclusively confined to aspirants in any particular locality. It was only fair that officers serving with regiments in the Colonies and other parts of the world should have equal opportunities afforded them with those at home, of submitting themselves to such examinations. In India they had a system of examination somewhat analogous to the one proposed. No officer could hold a staff appointment until he had passed an examination, not merely as a colloquial linguist, but as an interpreter, and there were standing committees appointed in different parts of the country before which candidates must appear to undergo such an examination before they could do staff duty or serve in any detached employment; and for this purpose the officer obtained leave of absence for a few months. Similar Committees might be appointed in the Royal Army. It was not absolutely necessary that an individual should go into a college to learn the duties of a staff officer. Strategy, castrametation, and various other branches of practical knowledge could be obtained without going into a college for the express purpose of acquiring them. He entirely concurred in the suggestion that it was impolitic that there should be an indiscriminate competitive examination before entering the army at all; but, at the same time, he thought it desirable that a certain number of commissions should from time to time be given as prizes to persons who wished to enter the army, and who were willing to compete for them. The plan had been found to work well in the Royal artillery and in the East India Company's service, and several of the Directors had placed commissions in the Indian army at the disposal of schools and colleges, and these had been gained by young men, who bad proved an honour to the service.

LORD ALFRED CHURCHILL

said, he perfectly concurred in all that had been said with respect to the high standard to be required of officers in the army. An officer should be above all things a gentleman, if the men serving under him were to be expected to look up to him, and cheerfully and implicitly to carry out his orders on all occasions. He would do all in his power to forward the interests of able and deserving men among the non-commissioned officers desirous of rising in their profession, but he thought, as a class, they were not generally fitted for commissions, and that, if they were taken out of their natural sphere the men in the ranks would not look up to them in the same way they did to officers of a superior grade by birth and education. He thought, also, it would be desirable to offer a certain number of commissions from time to time for competition in our great public schools, which would give an impetus to a well-educated class of young men to enter the army who might otherwise experience some difficulty in obtaining a commission. It would not then be simply the aristocratic class who would get commissions, but also men who had earned them by their own ability and exertions. It was not, however, only the able mathematician or the skilful constructor of fortifications that made a man a good officer. To be thoroughly efficient in his profession he must also have a liberal education, and, as the late Sir Charles Napier had observed, the best officer, after all, was the English country gentleman.

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON

Sir. I am sure my hon. and gallant Friend (Sir De Lacy Evans) must be well satisfied with the interesting discussion which his Resolution has elicited. The matter is one of the highest interest to the country, and those Gentlemen who have expressed their opinions in the course of the discussion are all men who appear by their professional pursuits, or by the attention they have devoted to this interesting topic, to be highly competent to arrive at a sound conclusion in reference to it. Upon the general necessity—I will not lower it so far as to call it the expediency—of securing a good education to the officers in the army, I think everybody who has thought for a moment on the subject must be only of one opinion. There is this, however, to be considered, that any examination into merely intellectual attainments can afford you but an imperfect Standard as to the qualifications of an individual for military employment. There are three requisites for making a good officer. There is, first of all, general intelligence, and that ordinary education which a gentleman is supposed to have obtained; next, there is proficiency in his military and professional knowledge—in those matters which are thoroughly military, and which do not belong to a general literary education; and above all, in the third place, there are those constitutional qualities which are eminently and beyond all others important in the composition of an officer. Undoubtedly my right hon. Friend the Member for South Wiltshire (Mr. S. Herbert) has observed how few great generals the history of this country has recorded. He might have generalized that observation and extended it to the whole civilized world; for that combination of constitutional qualities, of military attainments, and of general knowledge, which united make a great military leader, is perhaps one of the rarest things you can find in the whole range of human nature; and accordingly there are fewer men recorded in history who have been great generals than those who have excelled in any other department of human pursuits. The first examination; of a young man who is to enter the army ought to be a standard test to show that he has received the liberal education of a gentleman, and that he is possessed of mental and natural qualities which indicate that he is a young man of capacity and industry, and likely to excel in advancing himself in the knowledge of his profession. I think it most essential and wise to propose that the first examination shall not apply to purely military attainments. A young man at the age; at which candidates are examined for entrance into the army will have employed his time to sufficient purpose if he have attained a requisite knowledge of those general branches of education with which young men ought to be acquainted. When he has received his commission, and after he has been a certain time in his regiment, his commanding officer has an opportunity of seeing whether he possesses those other constitutional qualities which fit him to rise and to distinguish himself in his profession. The competitive examination for the staff seems to meet the general approbation of the House. With regard to the strictness of the examination, I quite agree with the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Wiltshire, there is always in a standard examination some danger that it will fail too low. I think, however, the arrangements intended to be made, by which it is proposed that the examinations shall be conducted by examiners periodically changed, not belonging to any official establishment, and partly civilians and partly military men, will sufficiently secure that the examination shall not fall below the point to which it ought to be reduced. There is in a system of competitive examination, on the other hand, the danger of going too high; and I must submit that in many examinations not excluding the Universities and other systems, the examiners, from the natural feeling that what every man does should be done as well as possible, place a little too high the standard to which they subject the competition of candidates. More especially, I should say, with regard to mathematics, there are limits beyond which no practical advantage is gained in straining the mind in attaining abstract knowledge, for which in after life there is no immediate or practical use. Therefore, a great deal of discretion is required in persons who examine, to see that the examination turns upon matters which will be useful in the line which the young man who is examined is intended to follow, and that he is not taxed beyond the useful amount which he may be expected to attain. The result, if examinations are carried too far, no doubt is, that you are apt to get a young man who is endowed with a very retentive memory, and sometimes to lose a young man whose intellectual resources and whose promptitude and readiness in action would make him the more useful in the military service; you get a man whose mind is an accomplished dictionary, instead of a man whose mind is created for energy and action; but it is practical men who are required for the army. In the devising a system applicable to military education, the first part is completed, and, as my hon. Friend the Under Secretary of State for the War Department has said, will be immediately laid on the table of the House. The remaining portions are under consideration, and will, no doubt, be prepared with the same views with which, the portion already prepared has been completed. The Resolution of my hon. and gallant Friend seems to me to be a little too much in the affirmation of points still under consideration. I am quite prepared to agree to the main principles upon which the Resolution is founded. But at the same time, when he sees that the Council to whom the matter has been referred by Her Majesty's Government are still considering many of the points on which his Resolution touches, I would submit to my hon. and gallant Friend whether he may not either be satisfied with the discussion which his Motion has brought about, leave the matter to be considered by the Government in connection with the Council, waiting to see what they may propose next Session as the result of their deliberations; or, if my hon. and gallant Friend feels that this is a matter of such importance that it would be desirable the House should, with him, record an opinion on the general subject of his Resolution, he might, by some modification of that Resolution, secure our assent to its general principles without tying the Government to details. By adopting this latter course he would, while strengthening the hands of the Government, not tie them up. I leave it to him to consider which of those alternatives it may be the more advisable for him to adopt; but I can assure him that the Government have at heart the same object to which he has so ably, and with such honour to himself, directed the attention of the House; and this being so, there can be, I should say, no difficulty in our arriving at the adoption of a system that will secure the end which we all desire to see accomplished.

SIR DE LACY EVANS

said, he was very much gratified with the way in which the noble Lord at the head of the Government had met his proposition; and, so far as he could judge from the statements of the noble Lord and the Under Secretary of War, some of the points adopted by the Government were identical with those which he (Sir De Lacy Evans) had ventured to put forward. He was content to leave the details of a system of education to be dealt with by the Council and the Government in the first instance. He had no intention of proposing an unqualified competitive system for the whole body of officers, infantry and cavalry. He merely wished for an infusion of the competitive system, and he believed the Government were disposed to adopt it with regard to some portion of the officers of the line. In order to meet the views of the noble Lord, he would amend his Resolution by omitting the last passage, which proposed a particular plan, and in this shape he thought it would meet the wishes of the noble Lord and of the House.

Motion agreed to.

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this House, a higher standard of professional instruction, and more complete provision for it than hitherto deemed requisite, ought to be established for the Commissioned Ranks of the Army, but especially for the Staff; that this will be best promoted by recourse to competitive examination of Officers desiring to quality themselves for the Staff, and by assured encouragements for proficiency and general fitness for advancement.