FOUNDATION OF THE ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY.
FROM what was mentioned in the last chapter, it will be seen that there
were cadets long before there was an Academy. Although, however, this
institution is of a date so long posterior to the formation of the
Regiment, and although by many of the practical officers serving when it
was founded, who had acquired their knowledge in the school of
experience, it was looked upon very coldly, as a useless and undesirable
innovation,—yet no History of the Royal Artillery would be complete
without some reference to its early days. For, although often
mismanaged, and even now almost paralysed as an Artillery school by the
marvellous arrangement under which the best Artillery scholars are
invited to join the Royal Engineers, it has yet acquired such a hold
upon the affections of those who have been there, as to ensure it a
prominent place among our Regimental Records.
The warrant founding the Academy was issued in 1741. The cadets then in
the Regiment were to be instructed there, but not these only; it was to
be available for the professional education of all "the raw and
inexperienced people belonging to the military branch of the Ordnance."
At first, the sum proposed to be voted annually for its support was
merely 500_l._, but this was almost immediately doubled, and before 1771
it had reached 1364_l._ 14_s._ From the very first the practical and
theoretical schools were distinct. The former was attended not merely by
the cadets, but also by all officers and men off duty; the latter by all
above the rank of bombardier, as well as any below that rank who had
evinced any special talent, or capacity for study. In the Theoretical
School, pure and mixed mathematics were taught; in the Practical School,
the various gun drills, fortification, laboratory duties, &c. Once a
year there was performed before the Master-General, or his lieutenant,
"a great and solemn exercise of Artillery, in which exercise those who
were best advanced in the several classes shot with different pieces of
Ordnance at several marks according to their different proficiencies, or
produced some other specimen of their diligence and application in their
study of fortification, drawing, &c., when he who best distinguished
himself in each class was presented with some prize of honour—if an
engineer, officer, or cadet—or some pecuniary premium, if a private man,
as an encouragement."
It will thus be seen that from the earliest days there was no finality
in the education acquired by a cadet at the Academy. His training was
not supposed to cease when he was commissioned. It is well to remember
this at a time when there are not wanting men to decry the continuous
education of Artillery officers, and to express perfect contentment with
the amount of Artillery education obtained at the Academy.
Probably these very men who deem Artillery an exact and finite science
to be mastered by a boy in his teens, would be the first to protest
against the idea that a man could master the intricacies of the stable,
without many years of progressive and practical experience. Chemistry as
applied to the service of Ordnance, dynamics, metallurgy, might be
sufficiently conquered at the Academy, or might be conscientiously
dispensed with, but the perambulation of a horse infirmary might go on
for a lifetime, and yet a man's education be incomplete.
The best friend to his corps is the man who denies and scorns such a
theory. National predilections have made and will continue to make the
horsing of the English Artillery the best in the world, but the gun must
not be lost sight of in devotion to the horse. And this once recognized,
from that moment an Artilleryman, to be conscientious and progressive,
must be studious. At the altar of science he should be the most regular
votary; for gunnery, to be perfect, draws incessantly and largely upon
science.
In the early days of the Regiment, an officer might master in a short
time the requisite details for working his guns. In the present day, an
Artilleryman is unworthy who fails to watch every scientific advance
which may increase the power of his weapons, and raise the tone of his
corps. And to enable the officers of the Regiment to do their duty in
this respect, no effort for continued exertion and study should be
spared; mutual interchange of ideas should be fostered; and the main use
of Artillery as an arm should not be concealed behind a veil of pipeclay
and harness-polish. The merits which these last-named agents are
calculated to foster will come almost spontaneously: it is the study of
the higher uses, and of the scientific progress of Artillery over the
world, which requires persuasion and encouragement.
The Academy, as we have said, was founded in 1741. Not until four years
later was the cadet company formed. During the interval, as before the
institution of the Academy, the cadets were under no discipline worthy
of the name; they wore no uniform, and were so outrageous in study, that
one of the occupations of the officer on duty in the Warren was
occasionally to visit the Academy, and prevent the masters from being
ill-used, and even pelted. When, in June 1744, the Regiment was
inspected by the Duke of Cumberland, a disorderly mob, without officers,
or even uniform, drawn up on the right of the line, represented the
cadets of the Royal Artillery. Let no man say that ceremonial
inspections are useless. Defects, which are not apparent in every-day
life, stare one in the face, as one stands behind the individual whose
office it is to criticise. The readiest critic is he who is most
interested on such an occasion. He is not the most demonstrative; he is
glad beyond measure if the blot escapes the inspecting eye; but he
remembers. And to such a man remembrance means remedy. Next January, the
cadets were no longer a mob; they were no longer unofficered: they were
clothed, but they were not yet in their right mind.
It may be said of the Cadets of the olden time, that they were veritable
sons of Ishmael; their hands were against every man, and every man's
hand against them. They were the parents of their own legislation; _à
priori_ law-making was unknown; and not a statute was passed that had
not been anticipated by the offence it was intended to curb. The cadets'
ingenuity in evading detection was equalled by their talent in inventing
new methods of annoyance. This talent was too often aided by the
connivance of the newly-commissioned officers, whose sympathies were
more with the law-breakers they had left than the law-insisters they had
joined. Hence came threats fulminated against an intimacy between cadets
and young officers, which made such intercourse all the sweeter; nor was
it effectually put an end to until the Academy was removed from the
Barracks in the Warren to a secluded spot at the foot of Shooter's Hill.
The extreme youth of the cadets in the earlier days of the Academy,
coupled with the very different views then in vogue as to educational
discipline, produced a system of government which was harsh and penal.
The Royal Military Academy has gone through two stages—the era of stern
restriction, and that of comparative liberty. The swing of the pendulum
is as certain in military as in civil life. From the days of black holes
and bullying, the reaction to liberty, confidence in a cadet's honour,
thoughtfulness for his comfort, and a system of punishment not degrading
nor unsuited to his age, were inevitable, and have come. So far, indeed,
has the pendulum swung, that the young officer must occasionally look
back with regret on the greater comfort and the absence of
responsibility which were characteristic of the older life. The absence
of degrading punishments has been brought about, in great part, by the
system of competition for cadet-ships, which, commencing with the
practical class in 1855, has now for many years been universal. Young
men from public schools, or from private tutors under whom they had to
study _proprio motu_, and without the spur of discipline, could not be
submitted to the same restraints as the mere boys who were cadets in the
earlier days of the Academy. Nor does their absence lessen the sense of
discipline which is necessary in a military body. The sympathy of
numbers is the strongest wall against which a recalcitrant member can
dash his head, and the result to the head is proverbial. And among
educated youth, past the stage of mere boyhood, reasonable restraint and
discipline can always be enforced with full confidence in the support of
the governed.
The extreme youth of the cadets, in the early Academy days, is the key
to the many ludicrous laws and anecdotes which have come down. For many
years the average age of the cadets was between twelve and fourteen
years, and old heads cannot be expected on young shoulders. As a matter
of fact, old heads were not to be found; and the history of the Academy,
over a hundred years ago, is one of the most comic narratives which can
be perused. The incessant war going on between the Gulliver of authority
and the Lilliputians of defiance, who so frequently got poor Gulliver on
his back,—the laughable use of unaccustomed power by cadet corporals,
bewildered by their position,—and the grandiloquent appeals of Governor
after Governor to the feelings of rebellious youth, all combine to make
up a rare picture. We meet threats against cadets who shall pass an
officer without pulling off their hats, or who shall stay away from
church, or shall play during the hours of study. So fond were the boys
of bathing, more especially after it had been forbidden, that no
punishment could deter them, until ingenious authority decided that any
cadet found swimming in the Thames should be taken out and carried naked
to the guard-room. Special punishments were devised for those who should
wear officers' uniforms for the purpose of getting past the guard at the
Warren gate, and for those who should break out over the wall after
tattoo, or spoil the furniture, or write upon the walls. Nor is it
merely the extreme youth of the cadets which is revealed by these
orders; it is their incessant repetition, month after month, day after
day, that makes the student detect the utter want of discipline that
existed. A record remains of a cadet who was expelled for striking and
maltreating another on parade, in presence of an officer, and "refusing
to make any concession, although urged to do so by the Lieutenant-
Governor." Two others are described in an official report as "scabby
sheep, whom neither lenity will improve, nor confinement to a dark room
and being fed on bread and water." These two, having openly displayed
contempt of orders and defiance of authority, were dismissed ultimately
from the Academy. Another, on whom the same penalty of expulsion fell,
rather checkmated the authorities by taking with him his cadet's uniform
and warrant, which enabled him to create such disturbances in the town
of Woolwich, that he had to be threatened with the civil power if he did
not give up the one and discontinue wearing the other.
But in the orders which it was found necessary to issue can be read most
succinctly the account of life among the earlier cadets.
"The Gentlemen Cadets are now strictly forbid to cut or carve their
names, or initial letters of names, on any part of their desks, or any
way to spoil them.... They are not to spoil their own locks, or those of
any other Gentlemen Cadets, by attempting to open them with wrong
keys.... The Lieutenant-Governor expects that henceforward no Gentleman
Cadet will be guilty of ever attempting to open or spoil any of the
desks or drawers of the Inspectors, Professors, or Masters, or of any
other Cadet, or even attempt to take anything out of them under the name
of _smouching_, as they may be fully assured such base and vile crimes
will be pardoned no more. The Gentlemen Cadets are, likewise, forbid
from leaping upon or running over the desks with their feet; and the
Corporals are expected, not only to keep a watchful eye to prevent any
disorder in the Academy, but, by their own good behaviour, to set an
example to others."
Shortly after this order a remonstrance is published, arguing that "the
cadets have been guilty of a habit of making a continued noise, and
going about greatly disturbing the Masters in their teaching; also, when
the Academy ends, by shutting their desks with violence, and running out
of the Academy hallooing, shouting, and making such a scene of riot and
dissipation, greatly unbecoming a Seminary of learning, and far beneath
the name of a Gentleman Cadet; and, lastly, during the hours of dancing,
several of the Under Academy, whose names are well known, behave at
present in so unpardonable a manner when dancing, by pulling, and
hauling, and stamping, that the Master is thereby prevented from
teaching. Hence the Lieutenant-Governor assures the gentlemen that
those, who are anyways found guilty of such conduct for the future will
be immediately sent to the Barracks, and receive such _corporal_
punishment as their crimes deserve."
Yet again in stately language, it is reported that "it had come to the
ears of the Lieutenant-Governor that of late the Corporals have
inflicted a mode of punishment entirely inconsistent with the Rules and
Regulations of the Academy—namely, that of making the Gentlemen kneel
down on both knees, with uplifted hands, in the attitude of prayer; at
other times placing them in painful and ridiculous postures, rather
tending to excite laughter than to inflict punishment. The Lieutenant-
Governor henceforward forbids all such modes of proceeding, as also that
of striking the Cadets. On the contrary, when any Cadet is thought
deserving of punishment, the Corporals may order them to stand sentinel,
or report them to the Master on duty, or, with his leave, march them to
the Barracks, and report them to the Commanding Officer in writing, who
may punish them according to their crimes. On the other hand, the
Lieutenant-Governor expects the Gentlemen Cadets to obey the Corporal's
commands equally the same as any other superior officer, subordination
being the most essential part of military duty. Lastly, the Lieutenant-
Governor expresses the highest satisfaction in the genteel behaviour of
the Company during the hours of dancing, in a great measure owing to the
care of the present Corporals."
These extracts are sufficient proof of the youth and unruly habits of
the earlier cadets. Courts-martial among them were far from uncommon;
and cases of disturbance worthy of the name of mutiny are also recorded.
Yet, in the very earliest days of the Academy, officers joined the
Regiment who entered with such spirit and zeal into their duties, that
they called forth special commendation from their commanding officers.
In Flanders, in 1747 and 1748, Colonel Belford and Major Michelson
warmly acknowledged the assistance they received from the young officers
in their arduous attempts to impart to the Artillery Train a more
military appearance than had hitherto distinguished it. And when, some
years later, we find this very Colonel Belford protesting against the
officers who joined from the Academy, and wishing that Institution were
"detached as a Repository for Captain Congreve's curiosities, and that a
number of fine young fellows were appointed as Cadets to every
Battalion, and such as were fit for every duty to go upon all commands,"
we must bear in mind that, so great had the demand for officers been in
the years immediately preceding his complaint, that the cadets had
hardly any time to spend at the Academy—three or four months only being
far from unusual, and, therefore, that the fault lay not so much in the
system as in its neglect. A lad of eighteen years of age will be able to
acquire even discipline in a very short time, because he is able to
understand its necessity, and he soon becomes a creature of habit in
this as in other matters. But a boy is always, either from restlessness
or mischief, chafing against restraint, and takes longer time to subdue.
The extreme youth of the earlier cadets prevents surprise at the
ludicrous state of discipline which prevailed, and creates wonder that
the officers who joined so young, after such a training, were so good as
they proved. If the truth were known, we should, doubtless, find that,
while their intellectual training commenced at the Academy, their real
discipline did not commence until they joined the Regiment.
Not merely did the exigencies of the service curtail the stay of the
earlier cadets at the Academy, but the abuses and jobbery which were
rife in the last century rendered it possible for cadets to be at the
Academy without any previous education at all. With a proclamation
hanging on the wall that the Institution was created for teaching the
"Mathematicks," we find piteous Masters protesting against the presence
of cadets who could neither read nor write. There were cadets,—not in
the Academy, but away in their homes,—drawing pay as such almost from
their cradle; and not until the Academy had been a considerable time in
existence was this abuse put an end to. Before the formation of the
Company of Cadets, the pay of a Cadet Gunner was 1_s._ 4_d._ per diem;
that of a Cadet Matross was 1_s._ When the company was formed, all
cadets received the higher rate; and ultimately, although not until
twenty years had passed, the pay was raised to 2_s._ 6_d._ When enrolled
in a company, military duties were expected of them which were never
dreamt of before: they carried arms, and mounted guard, the post where
the cadet-sentry was placed being generally over the commanding
officer's quarters. The officers of the company—in addition to the
Master-General, who was its captain—were a Captain-Lieutenant, whose
daily pay was 1_l._ 3_s._ 6_d._; a First Lieutenant, with 5_s._; a
Second Lieutenant, with 4_s._; and a Fireworker, with 3_s._ But it was
not for some time after its formation that the officers of the company
were borne as supernumeraries in the Regiment. A Drum-major was also on
the strength of the company.
The number of cadets in the company, which had been almost immediately
increased from forty to forty-eight, varied with the demands on the
Academy during different wars. At the end of last century, and the
beginning of the present, so heavy were the wants of the Regiment, and
of the East India Company's service, that accommodation for cadets had
to be sought for in the various private schools in Woolwich and its
vicinity, and even in the Military College at Marlow. With the opening
of the new Academy in 1806 this necessity gradually disappeared, the
Government accommodation being sufficient.
Besides the cadets of the company, the Academy was attended by
supernumeraries in the earlier days, who were permitted to study there
pending vacancies. Certain students, also known as gentlemen attendants,
who did not meditate joining the Army, but attended for general
education, were permitted to avail themselves of the services of the
Academy Masters by paying the annual sum of thirty guineas. Classics
were taught as well as mathematics, at the schools in the Warren; and,
in fact, Woolwich was used by these gentlemen attendants, much as West
Point is used in America by students who recognize the value of the
education imparted there, but do not contemplate entering the military
profession.
This suggests allusion to the Academy Masters in the olden time. It must
be admitted that, in point of discipline and obedience to authority, the
example set by the Masters to the pupils was far from beneficial. They
resented military interference. They brooded over real and fancied
slights. They absented themselves without permission; and their letters
to the Lieutenant-Governor were not unfrequently impertinent. The case
was at one time serious. But "Custodes quis custodiet ipsos?" At last a
man was found to bell the cat; a man of whom we shall hear again—who was
Lieutenant-Governor in 1776, before going to command the Artillery in
America—James Pattison. A letter which he addressed to the Mathematical
Masters on the 1st April, 1777, shows the line he adopted; and tells the
whole story without any explanation being necessary.
"GENTLEMEN,—I have received your letter of 27th March, and the reply
I have at present to make to it is principally to correct two
essential mistakes contained in the four lines which compose the
letter. You say, that at my _request_, you have subjoined your
opinion on the mode of education in the Academy, and desire me to
present it to the Master-General in _your names_.
"The case in my manner of stating it is _this_. I signified to you
the Master-General's being not well pleased at the slow progress
made by the Gentlemen Cadets in the Mathematics, and asked if you
thought there was room for any beneficial alteration in the method
of teaching in your department. Upon which you expressed great
discontent at the printed rules you are prescribed to teach by,
condemning them as being very defective and absurd, and mentioned
several amendments you wished might be allowed to take place. I
thereupon _required_, not _requested_, you to represent them to me
in writing, that I might be able to lay them, if expedient, before
the Master-General; _not_ meaning, as you seem to _conceive_, to be
merely the porter of them in your names.
"As to the temporary suspension of teaching Latin in the Lower
Academy, it being by the Master-General's orders, his lordship will
judge how far the manner in which you think proper to reprobate the
measure is becoming. I have only to say that, as that branch of
learning is not in either of your departments, it was no part of my
directions to you to give an opinion on it.
"I have, &c.,
"JAMES PATTISON."
But not merely on matters of public and official importance did the
masters test the patience of the authorities. Another letter, also, like
the one given above, deposited in the Royal Artillery Record Office,
gives a glimpse at the private worries over which the Academy Masters
brooded—and which they inflicted on the Lieutenant-Governors. Two
Professors had adjoining quarters in the Warren, adjacent to the wall
bounding the road to Plumstead, and a long way from the Warren gate.
From one of these quarters there was a communication through the wall to
the town—from the other there was not. The occupant of the latter
dwelling was, in consequence, a miserable and ill-used man; it was
another case of Ahab and Naboth's vineyard—and he waxed sick as he
thought of his hardship.
So, appending to his letter an elaborate map of the Warren, he addressed
the Lieutenant-Governor on the subject, begging either for a right of
way through his neighbour's house, or for a new communication for his
own. So quaintly does he argue his cause, that his words are reproduced
for the amusement of the reader.
"For want of such a ready communication with the town of Woolwich, with
regard to my Family, I am subject to much inconvenience. For, the way by
the gate of the Warren makes the distance to and from my house so great,
that I can't have the necessary provisions brought to me as other people
have, by Bakers, Butchers, Milkmen, &c., without great additional
expense, and many not even for that at any rate. So that I am obliged to
send my servants round about by all that way, on all occasions, to bring
in all things necessary to the Family. This is not the worst of it; for
all kinds of Family necessaries not being constantly to be bought in the
shops in such a place as Woolwich, many things are brought only
occasionally and cried about the streets, when it is matter of no small
grief that such things as may then be much wanted in the family can be
heard to be cried immediately behind the house, without a possibility of
coming at them, but by going half a mile round about, when perhaps the
servants can be least spared to go, and when they do go, it is ten to
one they are disappointed by the crier then being gone quite out of
sight and hearing. And besides all this, it is not always that I can
prevail on my good and sober female servants to be willing so frequently
to go through by the Warren gate, as it is next to an impossibility that
such persons can pass so many soldiers as are generally there assembled,
without sometimes being subject to rencounters disagreeable to them."
The Lieutenant-Governor, who had not merely official troubles with the
Masters to vex him, but had also to listen to such harrowing domestic
details as those just given, was not a man to be envied. Even a hundred
years later, as the student comes on this plaintive picture, his
imagination begins to work, and he sees, tearing his hair in his study,
the ill-fated teacher listening to the well-known cry, just over the
Warren walls, which told him that some much-loved delicacy was there—so
near and yet so far.
These pages, concerning the early days of the Academy, suggest the
difference between those days and the present. And in thoroughly
analysing that difference, the feeling grows stronger that two changes
are inevitable. Inevitable, because the principle of justice is
involved; but difficult to bring about speedily, on account of the
strength of Academy traditions. So long ago as 1792, these traditions
were strong enough to defeat a scheme for liberalizing the scientific
officering of the Regiment. Again, in 1855, the same traditions urged
many to oppose a similar change. And yet, as sure as anything can be,
the moment that the Universities realize that their sons are debarred
from entering the Artillery and the Engineers, by conditions as to age,
and by the long technical Academy curriculum, from that moment an
agitation will commence, which will sweep all obstructions away. In the
early days of the Academy, the cadets acquired all the education they
ever had, under its roof; not merely technical, but general. But in
these later days, the cadet enters the Academy at a more advanced age,
and with a sound and liberal education. Is it absolutely necessary that
he should spend so long a time as he does there, on the technical part
of his schooling? Would not the officers of the corps be of a much
higher scientific tone, if they spent a longer time at the University,
and a shorter at the Academy? While admitting the fact that from the
Academy there have come officers who have so pressed forward with the
great army of Science, that they have become Captains and Generals in
its ranks, it would be flattery to say that the Academy could ever be a
rival to the Universities, although it might certainly be an honoured
and useful helpmate. When it is remembered that an officer remains for
months in a state of professional pupilage after he obtains his
commission, in addition to the time spent at the Academy, the question
instinctively rises: "Is there not a danger of the technical part of
education receiving more than its fair share?" For although it is easy
to add the technical to the general, it is not easy to reverse the
operation; and in the division of a young man's training life, which is
now made in preparing the officers of the Scientific Corps, there is a
danger lest we may produce, to a certain extent, scientific soldiers;
but not what is also wanted in the Artillery of these days—scientific
and highly educated _men_.
The other change which must come is in the officering from one source,
of two corps, which are at once sister and rival. At the time the
Academy was founded, it was never imagined that the small Engineer
element then in our service was to develope itself into the large
regiment which now exists. Nor was it ever believed probable, that one
of the two Scientific Corps would have such pecuniary advantages over
the other, as to tempt many into its ranks who might otherwise have been
indifferent. But both these events having taken place, the Artilleryman,
who sees the best cadets tempted away every year to the sister corps,
may with justice ask whether he is not paying somewhat dearly for the
relationship. Without any violent divorce, there must come some friendly
separation before many years are over; and it is more likely to be
friendly, if the difficulty is looked in the face at once, instead of
having it urged in language of harsh misfortune hereafter. The only way
of maintaining the present system with justice would be by equalizing
the pecuniary prospects of officers in both corps; but this would be
more difficult than the obvious remedy suggested above. At present, the
case stands thus:—in order that Engineer officers may acquire the amount
of Artillery education which will be necessary for them hereafter, they
are educated under the same roof with the future officers of the
Artillery; and the highest and most accomplished cadets in each class
are invited to join the Royal Engineers. This invitation, being backed
by parents who have a natural eye to their children's future income, is
very generally accepted.
In this plain statement of facts, he who runs may read a grievance to
the Royal Artillery, which may develope itself into a Regimental, if not
a national misfortune.