In other words, the Act of 1867 has produced in round numbers 5000 men, of whom 2,000 only are liable for foreign service.

With such figures staring him in the face, it was no wonder that Mr. Cardwell should attempt to remedy the evil. Accordingly on the 9th August last, an Act was passed, "to shorten the term of active service in the Army and to establish a Reserve Force which may be called into active service in a time of emergency." Under this Act engagements are limited to 12 years, but the term may be alternated, with the consent of the soldier, by service in the 1st Class Reserve of 1867. It is further provided that re-engagement to complete a total of 21 years may be entered on (1) during the last or 12th year of first enlistment, or (2) within the last three years of it, if, at the time of his expressing his desire to re-engage, the soldier has been ordered on foreign service, and at the expiration of such extended service he may continue as a soldier à discrétion, giving, however, three months' notice when be may wish to claim his discharge. Finally, it is established that soldiers under 34 years of age who have exceeded the first term of their engagement may be enrolled at any time in the 1st Class Reserve.

Armed with this and the foregoing acts, our Minister for War framed his memorable Reserve Force Circular of the 7th September, the basis of which is the inducement of a small but permanent daily pay as against pension on discharge. In accordance with this circular, the 1st Class is to consist of (1) discharged soldiers under 34 years of age as alluded to above, who may join for five years with liability to be recalled for permanent service, on full pay of their former rank, with that branch of the Army in which they previously served, when they will become eligible for pension. (2) Of men who enlist for short service, i. e. six years with the Colours and six in the Reserve. (3) Of soldiers, the residue of whose term of army service has been converted into service in the Reserve under the 4th and 18th sections of the foregoing Act. These men are also liable to be recalled on any emergency, when their Reserve service will reckon towards good conduct pay; and, if at the end of their limited engagement they may happen to reengage, their reserve service will count towards pension, but on this condition only. It will therefore be at once apparent that the 4d a day is considered a more powerful incentive both to procure recruits for the Army and old soldiers for the Reserve, than the tangible ultimate reward held out by the Acts of 1859-67. There are other minor points in which the new act differs from its predecessors, viz.: the substitution of special for general enlistment, the pernicious bounty-system is conspicuous by its absence, and whereas, by the old formula, service in the Reserve was entered on at the expiration of Army enlistment, it now forms part and parcel of the original engagement.

The grand principle of short enlistment involved in these

changes will no doubt produce good results if accompanied by other measures and modifications tending to ameliorate and elevate the condition of the soldier. Indeed, we have reason to believe that recruiting goes on apace, we have Mr. Cardwell's word for it, at the rate of 1,000 a week, and it is noteworthy that many men of the 1st Class Reserve of 1867 have accepted terms under last year's Act and have been re-attested for five years, who would otherwise be lost to the service. Still it is a deplorable fact that the 20,000 men authorized to be raised to complete the cadres of regiments have as yet failed to come forward, and the standard has lately been lowered to five feet four and a half inches, so as to embrace a more youthful and less robust class; but of what physical capabilities will recruits of this perfunctory enlistment naturally consist? Again, it is surely not our policy to fill the ranks of our Army from the dregs of the community, and yet it has been mooted that recourse will eventually be had to "habitual criminals" to supply deficiencies, instead of purging our regiments by relegating such characters, if already they have found their way into the ranks, to the gaols whence they came. Would it not be wise to go a step further and introduce a system of localization whereby the regiment and its militia battalion could be recruited from the same district, the County Militia bearing the name and wearing the uniform of its active partisan ?

Our retrospect of the Militia and Volunteers must be confined within the narrowest limits, and yet, in the case of the Militia it is imperative to recapitulate the varying phases of its existence at different epochs from the period of its establishment as a system distinct from the Regular Army.

In the year 1757, during an apprehended French invasion, the ballot was first applied to the Militia in the proposed embodiment of 32,100 men, against which measure violent opposition was employed, and it was only after a second appeal from Parliament that 17,436 men were ultimately raised. In 1786 the Militia laws were embraced in one act, containing as its preamble these emphatic words, "a respectable military force under command of officers possessing landed property within Great Britain is essential to the constitution of this realm;" and at this day few will be found to deny that it is both economically and politically expedient to retain the purchase system, for a standing army officered by men without status, education or property, in fact, (as the late Lord Palmerston termed them) by "unprincipled military adventurers," might indeed be regarded as menacing to constitutional liberty.

In 1793 the quota of Militia for England and Wales was fixed at 30,000. A few years later, that is to say about the period of the Irish Rebellion, we find upwards of 80,000 embodied militiamen, 15,000 of whom, induced by the comparatively high bounty of ten guineas, were allowed to volunteer into the Army of Sir R. Abercrombie for service in Holland. The Militia Acts at

present in force, date, as regards England and Scotland from 1802, and as regards Ireland, from 1809. Service was entered on for five years with option of re-engage. ment within four months of the expiration of that term. There was also a Local Militia, numbering 214,000 men raised in 1808 for a service of four years, which corps continued to exist at intervals until 1836, when it died out. We find it recorded that, "in 1813 the standing army numbered 250,000. The Regular Militia, equal in every respect to the former in point of efficiency, was over 90,000; the Local Militia 300,000; the Yeomanry Cavalry 60,000; making a total of 750,000 Land Forces, irrespective of the Volunteers, who at one time alone numbered 450,000 men, and this, out of a population of 18,000,000!" Our census is nearly doubled now, and yet many fix the available levy at 400,000 men.

The reaction after the Peninsular War affected the Militia equally with other establishments, aud it was allowed gradually to decrease until 1852, when it was subjected to re-organization. Eighty thousand men were authorized to be raised with power to supply any deficiency by ballot, from men between the ages of 18 and 30. The bounty granted not to exceed £6, at which it remains. Field-officers from the half-pay of the Regular Army were allowed to retain their half-pay, and no property qualifications were required of captains and subalterns of five years' standing. In 1854 the Militia was transferred from the Home to the War Department, and thenceforward it was more especially regarded as the natural nursery of the Line, a policy that has ever been a fruitful source of controversy and discontent. In the Peninsular War the Militia, as Militia, were encouraged to join the Army in Portugal. During the Crimean War fifty regiments, representing upwards of 40,000 men, volunteered for foreign service, and at a bounty of £8 for the Infantry and £9 for the Marines between 25,000 and 30,000 recruits actually passed into, the ranks of the Army in the years 1855-56.

The Militia has been five times embodied within this century, and, as all are aware, it is called out for an annual training of twenty-eight days, except in our Fenian-pestered sister isle, where, for the present, all drill is suspended.* There are in existence 45 regiments of Yeomanry Cavalry, 35 of Artillery, and 139 of Infantry-the present peace-footing establishment being as follows:

:

We believe that the Irish Militia will be called out for training this year, and, in view of a foreign war this is only as it should be.

U. S. MAG. No. 506, JAN., 1871.

C

On a war footing the Militia can be raised to a total of 180,000, of which number, be it remembered, that 20,000 men are, by General Peel's Act of 1867 liable to be summoned to the colours, and form, in time of peace, the so-called Militia Reserve, viz.: men who have accepted £1 a year in addition to ordinary Militia bounty and gratuity, binding themselves during that period to join the ranks of the Regular Army when called upon. It is said that the full quota of 20,000 men has never been attained, and that owing to the laxity observed in their medical examination many of them are physically unfit for actual service; besides, as in the case of the old Reserve, "it creates a certain expense with an uncertain, because unknown, result."

Last year an enactment was passed with a view to place the Militia, when out for training, under the supervision of District General officers, and this may be considered, with one exception, the most important measure in the future of our "second line of defence; need we add that the exception is the probable reversion to the Crown of the power and patronage hitherto enjoyed by the Lords-Lieutenant of counties. Before we close our remarks on this branch of the Service, we cannot omit the mention of the Great Duke's opinions on so national a question. In a letter addressed to Earl Bathurst dated 24th September, 1813, he says, "I never had under my command more than one regiment of English Militia, I found that, however, to be so entirely divested of interior economy and real discipline and surbordination, that however well the soldier may be disciplined, as far as regards their exercise and movements, I should very much doubt that a large Militia army would be very useful in the field for more than a momentary exertion; my notion of them is, that the officers have all the faults of those of the Line to an aggravated degree and some peculiarly their own."

"The numbers of every force are strictly limited by the Act under which the force is raised, but Parliament has reposed such confidence in the patriotism of those citizens who serve as volunteers, as to impose no limitation on their numbers."

Indeed a Volunteer force has, under one name or another, existed for centuries in our free and enlightened country. The Honourable Artillery Company date from 1465, although their present formation as a complete Army Corps in miniature is referable to the year 1610. This is the only Volunteer Corps to whom colours are entrusted, and the officers enjoy the muchvalued distinction of Queen's Commissions. The Victoria Rifles, or Duke of Cumberland's corps of Volunteer sharpshooters have existed since 1803, but it was owing to the spasmodic action of a "recurring panic" that the Volunteer movement became so popular ten or twelve years ago, and produced 200,000 men inspired with a martial ardour still existent and ever renewable.

* Clode's History of the Crown Forces

The following is the present distribution of the Volunteers in Great Britain :

but there is no public document to show the actual numbers serving in eithe he Militia or Volunteers, and it is to be hoped that before Par ament meets, some more reliable data may be available for those who will take part in the coming debate than the foregoing statistical information, for which we are indebted to a recent publication by a Militia officer. According to Mr. Clode, the strength of the Volunteers in 1867 was as follows:—

Having thus brought up the history of our Reserve forces to the present day, it may not be considered irrelevant to review briefly the regulations framed to govern the 1st Class Army Reserve in case of embodiment.

The pay of the members of the force as before mentioned, is 4d. a day paid quarterly in advance, and during training they will receive in addition the rates of their several ranks as shewn for those of the pensioners, earlier in this article.

A medical examination has, of course, to be undergone previous to admission, "the fee payable to a civil practitioner being 48. if the man be found fit for enrolment, and 2s. 6d. if unfit.”

Does not this read like a premium on corruption? Credat Judæus, but we cannot forget the sly speech of Shakespeare's apothecary, "My poverty and not my will consents!" It is, however, to the system of fines we desire to draw especial attention, for, although we are aware that fines for simple acts of drunkenness have lately been advantageously introduced into the Army, it seems at least strange that the provisions of the Mutiny Act are so entirely ignored in the case of the Reserve. 'Absence from parade,' drunkenness,' 'talking in the ranks,' disrespect,' 'inattention,' &c., are punishable only by fines of from 6d. to 2s. for each offence, and nothing short of violent insubordination when called out for duty in aid of the Civil Power, subjects a man to the more terrible alternative of being "reported to the Secretary of State for War!" How can discipline be maintained under such regulations? and yet Lord Northbrook does not seem to shirk the responsibility and trouble of the arrangement, when