ADDRESS FOR A PAPER. (Hansard, 7 June 1878)

§ LORD HAMPTON,
in moving an Address for the Report of the Joint Committee of the War Office and the Civil Service Commissioners appointed to consider the question whether the present literary examinations for the Army should be supplemented by physical competition, said, he had no desire to obtain any premature expression of the views of the Government, or to obtain from his noble Friend the Under Secretary of State for War any promise that the Report would be adopted. But various reports had been circulated with regard to this Report, and it was very desirable that the public should be made acquainted with its real character. There was a strong impression in the public mind that the examinations for commissions in the Army had been of too exclusively a literary character, and that it was very desirable, in the interests of the young men themselves and of the public, that some supplementary test should be adopted; and it had been stated that the object of the Committee was to entirely change the present system; and it was to correct this erroneous impression that he hoped the Report would be produced. The Committee did not desire to put an end to competitive examination; they merely proposed that young men desiring to enter the Army should be permitted voluntarily to take up physical exercises, and were to be permitted to select three out of six branches of physical and manly exercise, and to obtain in these a maximum of 1,200 marks. He could not help thinking that this was a recommendation which would meet with general approval. He might add that letters of inquiry had been addressed to the different Head Masters of the Public Schools and similar institutions, asking for their views on the subject. Their answers were contained in the Appendix to the Report; and, with one or two exceptions, they expressed the strongest opinion in favour of the change which the Committee had ventured to recommend.

§ VISCOUNT BURY
said, that there would be no objection on the part of Her Majesty's Government to the production of the Report. In saying this, however, it must be understood that his right hon. and gallant Friend the Secretary of State for War reserved full discretion as to his future course of action. He could not pledge himself to the adoption of the Report, or any portion of it; he reserved to himself power, after deliberation and consultation with the illustrious Duke at the head of the Army and others acquainted with the subject, either to modify the recommendations of the Report, or even to pass it by altogether. It seemed to him, in looking at the Report, that it would be necessary to modify it in several important particulars. For instance, it was true that the Committee had not made competitive examination essential in walking, running, or swimming; but they had established a very high standard in regard to those qualifications—so high, that when, the other day, he spoke upon the subject to a young gentleman who was now in Her Majesty's Service, and his reply was—"If that is to be the standard, I would ather take up Greek." No doubt, some alterations in the examinations would be necessary. If physical competitions were made part of the examination through which young gentlemen had to pass in order to enter the Army, it would, no doubt, be an additional safeguard for securing the finest and best men to Her Majesty's Service.

§ EARL FORTESCUE
said, he had for some years publicly recommended the change, not in the interests of any class, but in that of the Service; not for the sake of any young men, for the sake of the nation. He wished the Queen to have, so far as examinations could act as a guide in their selection, the men likely to make the best and most efficient officers. After what had been said the other day, he retracted his statement that the present system had been hastily, but not that it had been crudely, adopted by the late Government. A concurrence of professional opinion, from field marshals downwards, as well as common sense, was in favour of proficiency in 1330 martial and athletic exercises counting for something in the competitive examinations for commissions as well as mere book learning. In the majority of instances, superior intellectual attainments were far from being incompatible with athletic excellence. The cricket and football Elevens of the Engineers, the corps which comprised those who had most distinguished themselves in the Woolwich examinations, had long been notoriously very strong. He had no wish to see the lot of candidates who came out at the top of the list superseded by others, and he did not believe that the adoption of this change would have at all that effect; but he did believe that, in a certain number of instances, the lowest lot of the non-successful competitors might be replaced by others very little behind them in book learning, and very much superior to them in bodily strength and athletic proficiency, much better riders, better runners, better walkers, better swimmers, with great advantage to the Service; and if it were urged that learning to ride involved some expense, so much the better for the Queen if she got officers already proficient in equitation, without having to incur the expense of instructing them in the first rudiments of the art. The object was simply this, that Her Majesty should get the best article she could for her money.

EARL GREY
said, he had heard with satisfaction that though the Government were not prepared to promise that they would adopt it, they were, on the other hand, by no means disposed to reject the principle that skill in physical exercises should form part of the competitive examinations for commissions in the Army. It was, in his opinion, of great importance that this principle should be acted upon. He believed that even those who were most sanguine as to the advantages likely to result from competitive examinations did not deny that the system was attended with some serious dangers, and required to be acted upon with caution. There was no doubt that over-exertion in youth sometimes did irreparable mischief to the delicate and curious organization of the human brain. He remembered to have heard the late Sir Benjamin Brodie—whose opinion on such a subject he need not say was of the highest authority—speak in the strongest manner of the many cases 1331 he had seen in which permanent mischief had been done to young men of the highest promise by over-stimulating the intellectual powers in early life. It was notorious that there were too many melancholy instances of young men of high natural endowments and qualified to have become distinguished and useful members of society, but whose careers had been ruined, and their prospects in life blighted by excessive work in the pursuit of University honours. But the competition for commissions was still more keen than that for University honours, and that there had arisen a growing desire on the part of parents and teachers to insure success by carrying to the very utmost the training given to candidates for commissions in the Army. The strain thus brought on their minds was very injurious to them in after life, yet it was impossible to check this evil by any regulations for limiting the amount of training to be given, or the amount of knowledge required from those who presented themselves for examination. This would be inconsistent with the very idea of competition. But what could not be done directly, might perhaps be done indirectly, and it appeared to him that if they were not merely to allow a considerable number of marks in these examinations for skill in physical exercises, but to make a certain minimum of marks in these exercises necessary in order to pass, a good deal would be done to check the over-driving of young men in intellectual study. It would then become necessary, in order to obtain success, that candidates for commissions should keep up their health and strength by devoting a fair proportion of their time to those bodily exercises in which more skill would be required from them in order that they might pass. The adoption of the principle contended for would thus afford some security against the greatest danger arising from the system of competition, and would tend to secure better officers for the Army.

LORD ELLENBOROUGH
said, he concurred generally with the views of the noble Earl who spoke last but one (Earl Fortescue) which would be given effect to in reference to officers of the Army, by a certificate of qualification in military equitation being required of candidates, and, under any circumstances, a certain number of marks to be given 1332 when certificates of a thoroughly competent knowledge were produced; and, in the case of candidates for the Cavalry, Artillery, and Engineers, made compulsory the enforcement rigidly of proper rules for this purpose would insure a practical elucidation of the views of both the noble Earls who last addressed the House. The evil of paramount importance, to prevent, and render impossible, of field officers of Infantry riding on parade for the first time at 45 years of age, was inconvenient in the highest degree, their time being taken up in a nervous endeavour to control their horses, in place of giving proper attention to their duties on parade, remaining outside because unable to enter a square. He left their Lordships to judge the injury that would necessarily accrue to Her Majesty's Service, when field officers thus unqualified were employed on active service in the field; and would conclude, on the present occasion, with merely assuring their Lordships that this was a subject of paramount importance, if only in respect to the efficiency of Her Majesty's Service, and one, in his humble judgment, admitting of an easy solution.

§ THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE
said, it was desirable that every man who entered the Army should be a good rider; but great care should be taken that no plan was adopted which would put candidates who could not have had the facilities for practice in riding and athletic exercises enjoyed by young men in high society at a disadvantage with the latter in competing for commissions in the Army. He thought that if such a qualification were required from every candidate, it would exclude from the Army the sons of less opulent parents, otherwise in every way fit for the Service. He had not a word to say against the idea of proficiency in these exercises; but any plan such as that suggested by the noble Lord (Lord Hampton) must be considered with a deliberation which the authorities had not been as yet able to afford to it—and he did not know that, even with such deliberation, an unobjectionable plan could be arranged.

§ VISCOUNT CARDWELL
thought there could be no objection to the production of the Report; but he hoped their Lordships would refrain from expressing any opinion until they knew what the Report really was, and on what grounds the advice 1333 it contained was given. The subject was a difficult one; and it appeared that the Secretary of State for War, than whom no one was more competent to form an opinion, had been unable, so far, to decide as to the best plan to be adopted. He must say, however, that there appeared to him to be no real reason to believe that there was any great need to stimulate the public schools, or other educational establishments to encourage athletic exercises. He thought there was much force in what had been said by the illustrious Duke, and that they had great reason to be careful lest the sanction of Parliament should be given to anything calculated to discourage intellectual proficiency in candidates for commissions in the Army.