is little more than a reflection of 'long service.'” And the question arises Why the original mistake? Why did you jump at once from 21 years to 3 years, when every practical soldier told you that you were wrong? Why did you prefer to listen to these German-speaking, unpractical men at the War Office,-soldiers only in name and in the gold-lace on their trousers,-while you had hundreds of men whose lives had been passed in facing the practical side of a soldier's profession, and whose duty and pleasure it would have been to have told you the truth?

The only answer to our query is, that reform amongst our statesmen nowadays must be red-hot. The mention of "short service" of late, except to eulogise its merits, has raised such a clamour, that officers, whose sole aim is to increase the efficiency of the army, have learned to hold their tongues altogether. To hint that the new system was unfitted to our English soldiers was to be "old-fashioned," "a good old fossil," "a voice from the Clubs." Thus Colonel Butler, in a recent pean of victory over Egypt, speaking of the opposition of the "professional mind" to "short service," says: "The 'short service' soldier became by far the best weight-carrying scapegoat that had yet appeared in the world. If a general bungled on the Helmund or failed on the Tugela, if a chicken was missed from a South African hencoop or a man tumbled down under the mid-day sun of the Jellalabad valley, the short service fully accounted for the entire chronicle of defeat, disaster, defalcation, or disease." It is quite true, the 'short service' soldiers of Mr Cardwell did commit these alliterative crimes, and in consequence have ceased to exist, now that the

system that introduced them has exploded.

Then came the clause limiting the age of officers in the several ranks, its natural outcome being to fill our large towns with many starving gentlemen; a reform so red-hot that it had to be remedied by another, worse, if possible, than the disease. A new rank, popularly called that of "running major," had to be invented a novelty which destroyed a well-recognised and honourable rank, while replacing it by a set of men who find themselves in that hopeless category amongst human beings,—neither flesh, fowl, nor good red-herring.

Before the rank was reformed the duties of a major were perfectly well understood, as were those of a captain. The first was a "mounted officer" who had charge of half his regiment, under the colonel; he wore high boots and spurs, and more lace on his coat than did the captain, who had to be content with marching in rear of the company he commanded, and doing "orderly duty." Now the two ranks are so mixed up that the product of major-cum-captain has to do the duties of both the previous officials. He must march in rear of his company in blucher boots, he must do orderly duty; or on a horse, booted and spurred, must appear on parade, or do "fieldofficer of the day." In either case, he must pay for the major's extra lace, whether he adopts bluchers or boots.

He may be doing captain behind his company when an order comes from the brigade-office that a major is required to inspect, let us say, the general's pig-sties, and to report that each pig's tail has the regulation curl: he must leave the company to take care of itself, and get to his quarters,

where he changes the bluchers for boots, the trousers for breeches; he must send for his horse, which he has paid for out of his own pocket, and in all the glory of bearskin and wallets, steel chain and sabretache, take over "fieldofficer's" duty.

Is it any wonder that "running majors" don't quite know where they are, or who they are; and that their commanding officers, when appealed to for an answer, give it up?

In this case, as before, the painter held up his duster and showed us that part of the picture which represents the advantages of young officers over old ones; while under the cloth we could trace the ugly bit of drawing, showing the stagnation in promotion consequent on the abolition of purchase, and the consequent compulsory retirements. Had these been permitted to take the course allotted them by the reformers, every captain must have been turned adrift, their places being taken by young subalterns, only just emancipated from the nursery and the bottle. So half the captains were made majors, and thus got a new lease of life.

With the "running majors " came another absurdity, when cumbrous and meaningless "territorial titles" were substituted for numbers, each one representing some salient chapter of English history. The intention was praiseworthy, and exactly such an one as would strike a civilian mind, quite unversed in military matters. The War Office thought that recruits of the better classes would at once enlist in regiments called after the county they lived in-that Yorkshire lads and Manchester men would flock to the Yorkshire or the Manchester regiment with enthusiasm; and perhaps they would, had the execution of the

picture been equal to the design. It is the regiment itself which attracts ; and every drummer - boy

knows that it is both inconvenient and impossible for an English regiment to be quartered in its own county. It has to be represented by the "depot," an institution as distinct from the regiment as chalk is from cheese. So the principal figure in the "territorial picture" was at once out of drawing.

Now the classes from which we pick up recruits have many peculiarities, and none more marked than their fondness for abbreviations. Every word possible is clipped; friends are always known by nicknames; their children and pet animals by diminutives; they look for some short and handy term applicable to everything they associate with; and so any short and pointed syllable appeals at once to their senses. They could chatter glibly enough about the 52d or the 33d, the numbers suited the employment of many adjectives, with which their conversation is always garnished; but when it came to telling tales about the "Oxfordshire Light Infantry," or the "Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regiment," their tongues got tired, and. they talked about something else. So we discover a second figure in the picture which does not suit the surroundings.

hardly a homestead but what has a member across the seas. Centralisation has swallowed up nearly all the old feudal facts and ideas, nowhere more so than in our English counties. Mr Gladstone accused the officers of being sentimental when they asked for their own; we might accuse Mr Childers of much sentiment when he imagined that men who are living in Gloucestershire or Derbyshire would elect to become soldiers because regiments of those names happen to exist in India and Nova Scotia.

But the substitution of territorial titles has proved, by facts which have lately been brought out, to be anything but an assistance to recruiting the lads who choose the army for a profession very often preferring to enlist in a regiment in another county to that in which their home lies. False shame at resorting to a calling which has hitherto been looked upon as the refuge for the destitute is probably at the bottom of the feeling; yet it exists, and will be an argument for many years to come against the pet theory of the territorialists.

We had something tangible to go upon when we called our regiments by their numbers. Not one but bore the stamp of age; not an English home but had sent its son, some day or other, to one of them; and the number of that regiment was a household word - its traditions treasured, almost sacred. Traditions, like port wine, improve by old age. Why throw away what we had already, and had proved to be practical, for something which we hoped might be as good, but which has already shown itself to be very much worse? As before-simply because reform, nowadays, to be anything at all, must be red-hot.

So much for the sentimental side of the question, now for the practical. There is nothing like personal experience, and here is a bit taken from life.

The scene, an Indian station : an officer is in command of a brigade consisting of four regiments.

"Tell me the names of the regiments I am commanding," he said to his galloper.

"1st Battalion Royal East Norfolk Regiment; 2d Battalion Duke of Albany's own Ross-shire Highlanders; 2d Battalion Connemara Crushers; 1st Battalion Royal East York and Northumberland Fusiliers," answered the youngster.

"Just say that again," said the brigadier, and he listened to it without a wink. Then, proud of his knowledge, he clapped spurs into his charger, and faced the line.

"The brigade will change front on the 2d Battalion Duke of Albany's own Connemara Crushers; the 1st Battalion Royal East York and Norfolk Regiment will move by fours; the Ross-shire Crushers— no, the Royal West, East, South battalion, no, no-as you were! number off from the right! Now then the brigade will change front on No. 2 battalion; No. 3 and 4 battalions will move by fours; No. 1 will wheel to its right," and the thing was done. If this happened in peace time, what would it have been when bullets were flying about? It is only in those pleasant offices in Pall Mall that reform is red-hot; out in the open it is apt to get chilled.

Amongst the rest came the abolition of flogging-a piece of legislation so much in accord with the feelings of every gentleman that we feel a difficulty in classing it with the other reforms. But that it was red-hot there is no question.

The reformers said that the existence of so degrading a punishment closed the door against that better class which they hoped to entice to the colours-a maxim excellent in theory, but practically mere talkee-talkee. Young men don't choose a trade because its advantages or its disadvantages have been mapped out for them. Many drift into one through force of circumstances; they are hard up, and it is the readiest method of providing themselves with bread and cheese. They have read a story in which the youthful hero gained untold wealth and the lovely daughter of the haughty earl, by following such and such a line of life; or they have a chum in the trade who paints its advantages and clouds over its pains, in the hopes of getting his friend to share them. True, the residue may count the cost before embarking, -and of these, how few will give themselves the credit of ultimate failure? They say, "We know that the bad soldiers are flogged, and serves them right; but as we cannot be anything but good soldiers, the contingency does not affect us."

When the debate was running in the House of Commons, an honourable member detailed the delight with which officers looked on at "the tortures of the cat". the gouts of blood and bits of flesh scattering round; while the colonel stood by, with a grin on his face, and was sorry when it was over. And as the question, as most army questions have been, was a purely party one, the vivid picture was allowed to pass as quite fairly drawn from a party point of view. That officers did stand up for flogging is undisputed, and their action reflects the greatest credit on them. What Englishman in his heart believes that an Englishman delights in seeing a naked

wretch tied up by force of numbers, while his back is scored blue and red with whipcord? What Englishman but knows in his heart that the brave men who stuck up for the lash placed all personal feeling in the background, and were content, on the highest principles, to defend a custom which they abhorred? They knew by practical experience that reform, in the matter of the total abolition of flogging, was red-hot. Abolish it, by all means-no one wishes it more heartily than we do who have to witness the disgusting spectacle; but first give us something which will be as effective in maintaining discipline! Strike it out, most certainly, in peace time; then we live in barracks, where are cells, and bread and water, and many fatigues, and plank beds, and penal servitude to follow in extreme cases; but let it remain when our armies take the field, where are no cells or warders to guard them, where good and bad live on scanty rations alike, and sleep upon the ground. Here is an anecdote to illustrate the point in question.

Some years ago, it happened that a small party from the army in the field became isolated from the rest. There were not many men to hold the post, but there were a great many enemies ready to take it from them. There were, too, an unusual number of prisoners in charge of our men, whom they had been escorting to a seaport.

It became known that these prisoners, rendered desperate by confinement, had made a plot to escape to the enemy. To prevent this, strong measures were necessary, and those at once. Imprisonment could not be given to men already at large, from the want of a prison to put them into. In the very modified form of confinement

to which they were subjected there was a serious difficulty about finding guards; it was hard to see some score of able-bodied men doing nothing when every bayonet was of value. One of them was selected, for committing a trifling offence, taken out, tried, sentenced, and flogged in front of his fellowprisoners. He turned out to be a wretched cur-a not unusual occurrence and howled and yelled for mercy. But the punishment was effectual. That night every prisoner shouldered his rifle and did "sentry - go" with the rest, and never a murmur was heard again. Indeed, so exemplary was their conduct, that most of them were released before their terms of imprisonment had expired.

Before army reform became a fashionable plaything with civilians, our old soldiers had fenced round flogging with so excellent a restriction that, practically, none but the thoroughly bad characters were liable to the "cat." It was managed in this wise:

All soldiers were divided into two classes, and those only in the second class could be flogged. Every recruit on joining found himself in the first class. Crimes were also divided into two classes: the first including the lighter, the second one the graver cases; and for a soldier to be liable to flogging, he must be in the second class, and commit an offence in the second class also. A man reduced to the second class could regain his previous position by good conduct.

Here was well-explored ground to travel over, if a change was thought necessary. The possibility of reduction might have been made more distant; the calibre of crimes under the second head might have been restricted to those which are disgraceful, and not to be expected from young men of the class which

it was wished to attract. But no; reform again, to be anything, must be red-hot. And so we got total abolition of flogging, and the scenes at Alexandria and elsewhere in Egypt, on which it is not our purpose to enlarge.

We have stated that the reason given for the abolition of flogging was, that the existence of so degrading a punishment acted as a deterrent of enlistment among the better classes; and we said that the sentiment was all talkee-talkee. It is not flogging that stops recruiting; we have abolished it, and with it the requisite number of recruits; but it is uncertainty, distrust, the inability to comprehend the various scales laid down now as the measure of a recruit's service. As Lord Bury said in the debate already alluded to,-"It is most desirable that a recruit should know with certainty what he has to expect on entering the army. It is proposed that a recruit shall enter the Guards for three years; that then he shall have the option of enlisting for seven years; then for twelve; and finally, shall be able to complete his twenty-one years. Thus there are four terms of enlistment proposed on complicated conditions which will never be understood by recruits."