Note 386 — Chapter XIV · ARMY REFORM, 1871-1885.

The army authorities have ever been alive to the necessity of professional instruction. Examples are to be found in the handbooks issued by Lieut.-General Lord Frederick FitzClarence (late Coldstream Guards, who helped to arrest the Cato Street conspirators in 1820) and by “A Field Officer” (Colonel Torrens, afterwards Major-General Sir Arthur Torrens, late Grenadier Guards), issued in 1850 and 1851, and if the reader can procure these publications, he will perceive they are as up to date, of their time, as our best text-books of the present day. It is a mistake to accuse the military authorities of slackness, in respect to the training of soldiers. The blame rests on the country which alone could supply funds, and which took no interest in these affairs. During the continuance of the present phase in the world’s history, when every Continental nation is armed to the teeth, it is not likely that Parliament will withdraw its annual expenditure upon the army any more than on the navy. But it is right to add that, while the country can provide the money, public opinion will of itself never be able to foster military efficiency, nor instil into the army those qualities which make a man a soldier.