NORWAY, SWEDEN AND DENMARK.
* * * * *
MILITARY SYSTEM AND EDUCATION IN SWEDEN.
I. MILITARY SYSTEM.
The Swedish army is composed, according to official data in Martin’s
Year Book, of five distinct classes of troops, viz.:
1. The _Indelta_, or national militia, paid and kept, not by the
Government, but by the landowners, and, to some extent, from the income
of State domains expressly reserved for this purpose. Every soldier of
the _Indelta_ has, besides a small annual pay, his _torp_, or cottage,
with a piece of ground attached, which remains his own during the whole
period of service, often extending over forty years, or even longer. In
time of peace, the troops of the _Indelta_ are not called up for more
than a month’s annual practice, and for the rest of the year are free
from military duty. In time of war, an extraordinary _Indelta_ has to be
raised by landowners, who, on this account, enjoy certain privileges,
including non-contribution to the cost of the peace establishment. When
the soldier dies, his widow turns over the holding to his successor,
whom the owner of the land is bound to provide within three months. In
the location of the officers, regard is had to the situation of the men
who compose the company, regiment, and larger divisions.
2. The _Beväring_, or conscription troops, drawn by annual levy, from
the male population between the age of 20 and 25 years. The law of
conscription, which admits the right of purchasing substitutes, was
introduced into Sweden in 1812. About 19,000 men are drafted annually,
one-tenth of which number, on the average, find substitutes for
themselves, at a cost of from 10_l._ to 25_l._
3. The _Värfvade_, or enlisted troops, to which belong the royal
life-guards, the hussars, the engineers, and the artillery. The men may
engage for either three, or six, or twelve years; but the greater number
are for six years, peculiar inducements being held out for this term.
4. The volunteers, first organized in the year 1861, by the spontaneous
desire of the population of the kingdom. In time of peace the volunteers
are individually free, and bound by no other but their own rules and
regulations: but in time of war they may be compelled to place
themselves under the command of the military authorities.
5. The militia of Gothland, consisting of twenty-one companies of
infantry, organized in a similar manner to the _Indelta_, yet quite
independent of the latter. They are not compelled by law to serve beyond
the confines of the Isle of Gothland, and have a separate command from
the other troops.
The armed forces of Sweden, not counting the Volunteers, consist
altogether of--
_Indelta_, 33,405 rank and file.
_Beväring_, 95,295 “ “
_Värfvade_, 7,692 “ “
Militia of Gothland, 7,921 “ “
-------
Total, 144,313
In the organization of the army, as here enumerated, 85,000 men belong
to the infantry of the line; 6,000 to the cavalry; 5,000 to the
artillery, and the rest to the irregular militia. The number of
volunteers was returned at 40,848 in 1869, but about one-third of these
formed part also of the _Indelta_. In the parliamentary session of 1862,
and again in the sessions of 1865 and 1869, the Government brought bills
before the Diet for a reorganization of the whole of the army, on the
basis of extending the conscription, reforming the _Indelta_, and doing
away, to a great extent, with the _Värfvade_. But neither of these
propositions was adopted by the representatives of the people, whose
habits are not easily set aside.
_Navy._
The Navy of Sweden was reorganized in 1866-67, being divided into two
distinct parts; the first to serve as an ordinary fleet of war for
aggressive as well as defensive purposes, and the second stationary, and
solely devoted to coast defense. It consisted in 1869 of--
6 Iron-clads, of 638 horse-power, and 10 guns.
21 Unarmored steamers, of 2,810 horse-power and 127 “
16 Sailing vessels, with 376 “
158 Gunboats and floating batteries, 551 “
-----
Total, 201 vessels, of 3,458 horse-power 1,064 guns.
The iron-clads are built after the American model; one a turret ship,
called the “John Ericsson,” is partly covered with steel armor. There
were 6,453 sailors and marines in active service, and 28,000 men were on
furlough or attached to the fleet of reserve and coast defense.
The expenditure for the army in 1869 was 9,528,600 _riks dalers_, and
for the navy 3,963,800. The indebtedness of the state is about
$41,000,000, mostly contracted in aid of a system of railways.
MILITARY SYSTEM AND EDUCATION IN NORWAY.
I. MILITARY SYSTEM.
The armed forces of Norway, as organized by law in 1866, consisted in
1869 of the following:
1. The regular army, with reserve, raised partly by conscription and
partly by enlistment, which must never exceed 12,000 men in time of
peace, and can not be increased above 18,000 men without the special
consent of the Storthing. The average number in time of peace for ten
years past, is about 6,000. The term of service is seven years, but the
men are on duty only 42 days in the first year, and this past, they are
sent home on furloughs, with an obligation to meet for annual practice
of 24 days during the following six years.
2. The Militia or _Landvaern_, which consists of all able-bodied male
citizens 18 years of age, who for three years must, at stated periods,
be trained in the use of arms and field exercises, and at the end of
this time, be enrolled in
3. The final Levy, or _Landstorm_, where he is liable to be called out
in time of war, until he is 45 years of age.
The normal strength of the armed forces of Norway in 1869 was returned
at 47,714 on a peace footing, and 112,225 on a war footing, and required
an appropriation of 1,215,500 _specie dalers_, making the cost of the
Norwegian soldier (on the average of 6,000 men under arms), $155 per
annum.
The King has permission to keep a guard of Norwegian volunteers, and to
transfer, for the purposes of common military exercises, 3,000 men
annually to Sweden; otherwise a soldier of Norway can not set foot in
Sweden; or one of Sweden, in Norway.
The naval force consists of 20 vessels, of 2,280 horse-power, and 168
guns, manned by 2,248 sailors, who are volunteers out of 60,000 men in
the maritime conscription, which includes all seafaring men of the
seaports, between the ages of 22 and 35.
Three of the vessels are iron-clad monitors.
In order to utilize the vessels of the navy they are attached to the
postal service, and are employed in carrying the mails and passengers,
under a special minister, charged with the mail service. The navy and
post service cost in 1869, 1,172,815 _speciedalers_.
MILITARY SYSTEM AND EDUCATION IN DENMARK.
I. MILITARY SYSTEM.
The armed forces of Denmark as organized in 1870, consists of--
1. The Regular or active army, and--2. The army of Reserve.
By the law of 1867, every male citizen who has completed the age of 21,
is liable to service for eight years in the former, and to be enrolled
ready for special call for eight years more in the latter.
The Kingdom is divided into five territorial brigades, and each brigade
in four territorial battalions, in such way that no town except the
capital, will belong to more than one battalion. Each territorial
brigade furnishes the contingent of a brigade of infantry and one
regiment of cavalry. The artillery contingent is furnished, one half by
the two first territorial brigades, and the second half by the three
other divisions. The forces therefrom comprise 20 battalions of infantry
of the line, with 10 depot battalions and 10 of reserve; 5 regiments of
cavalry, each with 2 squadrons active, and 2 depots; and 2 regiments of
artillery, in 12 battalions. The total strength of the army, exclusive
of the reserve, is 36,782 rank and file, with 1,068 officers, on the
peace footing, and 47,725 men, and 1,328 officers on the war footing.
About one half of the enrolled regular army are usually on furlough. The
drilling is divided into two periods; the first lasts six months for the
infantry; five months for the field artillery and the engineers; nine
months and two weeks for the cavalry; and four months for the siege
artillery and the technic corps. Each corps must drill each year during
thirty to forty days.
The navy comprises the following vessels, all steamers:
Six _iron-clads_, with an aggregate of 2,455 horse-power, and with 65
guns--two of which are turreted, armed each with two of Armstrong rifled
cannon; 12 _unarmored vessels_ of 1,820 horse-power, and with 192 guns;
7 gun-boats of 480 horse-power and 38 guns; 6 paddle-steamers, of 1,060
horse-power and 38 guns. The navy in 1869 was manned by 901 men, and
officered by 15 commanders, 34 captains, and 67 lieutenants.
The budget for 1869 provided 3,783,978 _rigsdalers_ for the army, and
1,676,681 for the navy.
[Erratum for Part VII:
PART VII. / NORWAY, SWEDEN AND DENMARK.
_heading supplied from Table of Contents_]
* * * * *
PART VIII.
MILITARY SYSTEM AND SCHOOLS IN GREAT BRITAIN.
* * * * *
X. MILITARY SYSTEM AND EDUCATION IN ENGLAND.
I. MILITARY SYSTEM.
The British army originated in the feudal system, by which the great
barons were bound to furnish a contingent to the army of the State; and
their vassals were bound to attend them in person, and to furnish each
the contributions in men, horses, arms, and other materials of war, for
which he was liable by the tenure on which he held his lands. When regal
power absorbed the privileges of the great feudatories, the people were
expected to provide themselves with arms, and, in case of invasion, to
respond to the summons issued through officers commissioned by the
sovereign to array the fittest men for service in each county. In the
time of Henry VIII, lord-lieutenants and deputy-lieutenants of counties
were first appointed as standing officers for assembling and mustering
the military forces. For a time, contracts were made with “captains,”
who undertook to provide, clothe, and feed a certain number of fighting
men for a given money allowance. In the reign of Charles I, the
important question arose, whether the King of England did or did not
possess the right to maintain a military force without the express
consent of Parliament. Charles II, was compelled to abandon all control
of the army, except a body guard of 5,000 men, sanctioned by Parliament.
These regiments still exist, and are proud of their genealogy. They are
the First Foot Guards, Coldstream Guards, Life Guard, Oxford Blues, the
Royal Scots, and the Second Queen’s Royals.[1] The Declaration of
Rights, in the time of William and Mary, settled in positive terms “that
the raising and keeping of a standing army in time of peace, without
consent of Parliament, is contrary to law.” The first Mustering Act was
passed in 1689, to last for six months; but it has been annually renewed
ever since, except in three particular years; and it constitutes the
only warrant on which the whole military system of England is exercised
by the sovereign with the consent of Parliament. For 172 years, with
only three interruptions, the ministers of the crown have annually
applied to Parliament for permission to raise a military force and for
money to defray expenses. The sovereign can make war and bestow military
employment and honors; but the House of Commons can refuse supplies.
[Footnote 1: Two regiments created in the reigns of Richard III,
and of Henry VIII, the first styled _Gentlemen Pensioners_, or
_Gentlemen at Arms_, consisting originally exclusively of
noblemen, and the latter, _Yeomen of the Guard_, still exist. The
latter is the only body that has the privilege of traversing
London with flags flying, drums beating, and fixed bayonets.]
Military service in England is voluntary, except in rare cases, and then
only in the militia. As the chances of promotion from the ranks are
small, the recruits are drawn from the most necessitous classes of the
community, or the least fitted for industrial pursuits. The system of
recruiting, with the bounty and machinery of deception is the most
characteristic feature of the British army as compared with those of
Europe, and makes the distinction between officers and men more broad
than in any other service.
The British army, in its completeness, is theoretically commanded by the
sovereign, assisted by the secretary of state for war in some matters,
and by the commander-in-chief in others. The component parts are the
household troops, the infantry of the line, the ordnance corps,
comprising artillery and engineers, and the marines. There are also
certain corps, raised and belonging to the principal colonies; the
troops in India; the yeomanry cavalry; the dockyard battalions; the
volunteer artillery and rifles; the enrolled pensioners, etc. In 1814,
the regular army reached 200,000, and at the close of the war, 10,000
officers were retained on half pay. In 1860-61, in the army estimates,
provision was made for the following force, viz.:
Home and Colonies. India. Total.
Cavalry 11,667 7,243 18,910
Infantry 103,169 66,345 169,514
Artillery 22,675 5,482 28,157
Engineers 4,730 ------ 4,730
Staff & Depot 1,121 13,420 14,541
------- ------ -------
Total 143,362 92,490 235,852
Under the column “India” are included only troops _sent_ to India, and
paid for out of the Indian revenues. Of the total 235,852 forces, 10,459
are officers, 17,670 non-commissioned officers, and 207,723 rank and
file. For the use of this army, 24,342 horses are provided. The total
expenditure sanctioned by Parliament in 1860 was £14,800,000, viz.:
Military Pay and Allowances, £5,500,000;
Civil Salaries and Wages, £1,800,000;
Stores and Works of every kind, £5,400,000;
Pensions, Retired Pay, &c., £2,100,000.
The military force of various kinds within the United Kingdom, excluding
the troops in East India, on the 1st of June, 1860, was 323,259, viz.:
Regulars (service companies,) 68,778;
Regulars (depot companies,) 33,302,
Embodied Militia, 15,911;
Disembodied Militia--Effectives, 52,899;
Yeomanry Cavalry--Effectives, 15,002;
Enrolled Pensioners--Effectives, 15,000;
Volunteer Rifles and Artillery, 122,867.
The total force of the United Kingdom in 1870-71, was as follows:
Total.
Officers on the General and Departmental Staff, 1,239
Regiments. Officers. Non-com., Rank
&c. and file.
Royal Horse Artillery, 78 138 1,834 2,050
Life-Guards and Horse-Guards, 81 192 1,029 1,302
Cavalry of the Line, 465 969 7,733 9,267
Royal Artillery, 661 1,550 12,866 15,087
Riding Establishment, 7 13 205 225
Royal Engineers, 539 564 3,879 4,836
Army Service Corps, 8 386 1,801 2,195
Foot-Guards, 237 453 5,220 5,910
Infantry of the Line, 2,934 6,468 51,990 61,392
Army hospital corps, 1 165 694 860
West India Regiments, 104 150 1,680 1,834
Colonial corps, 58 149 1,632 1,839
----- ------ ------ -------
Total, 6,276 11,197 90,593 108,066
Depots of Indian Regiments.
Cavalry, 27 54 513 594
Infantry, 200 600 5,000 5,800
----- ------ ------ -------
Total, 227 654 5,513 6,394
Recruiting and Teaching Estab’ts.
Cavalry Riding School, 2 2 -- 4
Infantry Depots, 5 9 -- 14
Recruiting Establishments, 6 17 -- 23
Inst. in Gunnery and Engin’ing, 10 57 62 129
--- --- --- ----
Total, 23 85 62 170
Training Schools and Factories.
Cadet Company, Woolwich, 10 20 9 39
Royal Mil. College, Sandhurst, 17 30 1 48
Regi’al Schools and Factories, 32 281 7 320
--- ---- -- ----
Total, 58 331 17 407
The total force of officers and men was 115,037, viz.
General and Department Staff, 1,239
Regiments, 108,066
Depots of Indian Regiments 6,394
Recruiting and Teaching Establishments, 170
Training Schools and Factories, 407
The British forces in India, exclusive of depots at home, comprised the
following troops, in 1870-71:
Officers. Non-Com. Men. Total.
Royal Horse Artillery, 200 253 2,680 3,133
Cavalry of the Line, 225 424 3,672 4,321
Royal Artillery and Engineers, 1,016 795 7,936 9,747
Infantry of the Line, 1,500 3,262 41,000 45,762
------ ------ ------- -------
Total, 2,941 4,734 55,288 63,963
In addition to the troops above mentioned the army estimates include
appropriations for four classes of reserved or auxiliary forces, viz.:
1. Disembodied Militia, 128,971 officers and men.
2. Yeomanry Cavalry, 15,435 “ “
3. Volunteers, 25,688 “ “
4. Enrolled pensioners, 31,102 “ “
-------
Total enrolled number, 201,196 “ “
In England and Wales the Militia Establishment comprises 42 regiments,
with 5,066 officers; in Scotland, 16 regiments and 670 officers; in
Ireland, 48 regiments, with 3,463 officers.
By Act of 1870, in case of invasion, rebellion, or insurrection, or of
imminent danger thereof, the Militia, in pursuance of an order of Her
Majesty in council, can be called out (the whole or any part) and
embodied for actual service; but when so called out, her proclamation
must be communicated to Parliament within ten days. By recent Royal
Warrant, a lieutenant of the Militia is made eligible to appointment of
sub-lieutenant in the Regular Army, and in the localization of the
military force of the United Kingdom, the Militia, Yeomanry and
Volunteers, are to be brought into closer connection with the Regular
Army.
The total cost of the British army, voted by Parliament in 1870-71, was
£13,093,500, besides a supplementary vote of £2,000,000 towards
defraying the expenses of the military and naval services of the
kingdom. Of the regular expenses, it appears from official statements
that £893,200 were for the Militia and Inspection service; £81,900 for
the Yeomanry; £412,400 for volunteers; and £76,000 for enrolled
pensioners and army reserve force.
EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS FOR THE ARMY.
The sum of £140,700 was devoted to military education, in the estimates
for 1871, when the educational establishments provided for the army were
as follows:
Royal Military College at Sandhurst, preparatory for Infantry and
Cavalry Officers.
Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, for service in the Artillery and
Engineers.
Royal School of Military Engineering at Chatham.
Staff College at Woolwich.
Advanced Class of Artillery Officers at Woolwich.
School of Gunnery at Shoeburyness.
Survey Classes at Aldershot.
School of Musketry at Hythe.
Army Medical School at Netley.
Royal Hibernian Military School at Dublin.
Regimental Schools for Children of Soldiers.
Garrison Schools and Libraries for Adults.
Schools and Asylums for Orphan Children of Soldiers at Dublin and
Chelsea.
Training School for Army Schoolmasters in Chelsea Military Asylum.
Military School of Music at Kneller Hall.
II. ROYAL NAVY.
The administration of the Navy of the United Kingdom is vested in the
Board of Admiralty, composed of five members, who are styled “Lord
Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral,” which was
formerly charged with all naval matters. The First Lord Commissioner is
a member of the Cabinet, and dispenser of patronage, and, with his
associates, goes out with the Premier.
The effective strength of the Navy in February 1, 1869, was:
[KEY]
Sg _Sailing._
T _Total._
_Classes of Ships._ _Steam._ _Sg_ _T_
Afloat. Building. Afloat.
Iron. Wood. Iron.
Armor-plated ships, 1st Class, 1 - 1 .... 3
“ “ 2nd “ 3 - 3 .... 6
“ “ 3d “ 5 4 - .... 9
“ “ 4th “ 3 5 - .... 8
“ “ 5th “ 4 - - .... 4
“ “ 6th “ - 2 - .... 2
“ “ Sloops and
gun-boats, 3 2 - .... 5
“ “ Special, with
turrets, 5 1 5 .... 11
“ “ Floating
batteries, 3 1 - 1 5
-- -- -- -- ---
27 15 9
Total iron-clads, 42 9 1 52
Ships of the line (screw), 43 2 2 47
Frigates (screw), 29 - - 29
Frigates (paddle), 3 - 1 4
Block ships (screw), 1 - 2 3
Corvettes (screw), 24 - - 24
Sloops (screw), 33 - 1 34
“ (paddle), 7 - 1 8
Small vessels (paddle), 8 - - 8
Dispatch vessels (paddle), 4 - - 4
Gun vessels (screw and double screw), 50 1 - 51
Gun-boats (screw), 58 1 9 68
Tenders, tugs, &c., (screw), 14 - - 14
“ “ “ (paddle), 38 - - 38
Mortar ships (screw), -- - 2 2
Troop and store ships (screw), 11 - - 11
“ “ (paddle), 1 - - 1
Transports for India reliefs
(screw), 5 - - 5
Yachts (paddle), 4 1 - 5
Total screw, 310 14 - 324
“ paddle, 65 1 - 66
--- -- -- ---
Grand total, 375 15 18 408
Not included in the above list are several ships for the defense of the
colonies. The total naval force, August 30, 1870, was:
_In Commission_--238 ships, of 57,205 horse-power, 1,984 guns and
314,449 tonnage. _In Reserve, &c._, 318 ships, 64,286 horsepower, 3,610
guns, and 318,845 tonnage. The total number of officers, seamen, boys
and marines, in 1870-71, was 55,430, besides 4,300 in the coast-guard
and 1,270 in the Indian service. Among the officers were 143 flag
officers; 29 superintending dockyards, and 3,193 other commissioned
officers on service.
III. MERCANTILE MARINE.
The Mercantile Marine of the United Kingdom in number of vessels, their
registered tonnage, and men employed, together with the value of
property and number of passengers transported in them, exceeds that of
any other country. The total number of vessels in the home and foreign
trade, registered in 1869, was 21,881, with a tonnage of 5,575,303,
employing 202,477 men, and freighted with imports and exports to the
total value of 532,475,266_l._
All matters relating to merchant ships and seamen, and the mercantile
marine generally, are committed to the general superintendence of the
Board of Trade, which, as constituted in 1786, is composed of certain
high officers, (members of the Privy Council), and its President is a
Cabinet officer. To this Board all consular officers, all officers of
customs abroad, and all local marine boards and shipping masters must
make reports in matter and form as required. Inspectors, duly appointed
by this Board, may visit any ship, examine any registry, machinery,
boats, equipments, &c., to ascertain if they are conformable to law. In
every seaport a Shipping Master is appointed by the Local Marine Board,
who must keep register of names and character of seamen, facilitate
their engagement and discharge, as well as the apprenticeship of boys to
sea-service. The Local Board must provide for the examination of persons
who intend to become masters or mates according to rules laid down by
the Board of Trade. And to such as pass a satisfactory examination as to
sobriety, experience, ability, and general good conduct on board ship,
shall be given a certificate of competency; and to those who have served
as masters or mates, under certain conditions, a certificate of service
with specifications must be given. Shipping Masters must assist, when
applied to by parents or guardians, or masters of ships, in apprenticing
boys to the sea-service. No person can be employed as master or mate,
who does not hold a certificate of competency, and under certain
conditions, of service. Opportunities of preparing for these
examinations are now provided in all the large seaports, in Navigation
Schools; and the Government, through the Department of Science and Arts,
encourages the study of astronomy, navigation, steam and steam
machinery, and other branches, which are serviceable to officers in
command of vessels, whether propelled by sails or engines, by making
appropriations of money to schools according to the number of pupils who
pass satisfactory examinations in these studies.
MILITARY EDUCATION.
The following account of the institutions for military education in
England is abridged from an article in _Blackwood’s Magazine_ for
November, 1858:
There exist in this country three military seminaries--the Royal
Military Academy at Woolwich, where youths are educated for service in
the Artillery and Engineers; the Royal Military College at Sandhurst,
where cadets are prepared for the Infantry and Cavalry; and the
Honorable East India Company’s Military School at Addiscombe, which
educates simultaneously for the Artillery, Engineers, and Infantry
services of the three Presidencies. Supplementary to these are the
School of Practical Instruction at Chatham, where passed cadets from
Woolwich and Addiscombe learn practical engineering; and the senior
department at Sandhurst, supposed to be a Staff school, into which
officers of infantry and cavalry are, under certain restrictions,
admitted.
I. The Military Academy at Woolwich came into existence in the year
1741. It was created by George II., to supply a want under which the
English army then suffered, by giving some instructions in matters
connected with their respective arts to officers and men who served in
the Artillery and in the Engineers. Its beginnings were of the humblest
imaginable order. A single room in a house at Woolwich, where the Board
of Ordnance used occasionally to assemble, was set apart by Government
as a hall of study; and two masters were appointed to give lectures by
rotation, during four consecutive hours, in three days of every week. At
first only the officers of the single battalion composing the English
Artillery and of the corps of Engineers were required to attend. By and
by the room was thrown open to the non-commissioned officers and
privates also, and eventually the cadets, of whom five were supposed to
be on the strength of each company of Artillery, repaired thither in
like manner. But the cadets being the sons of the officers of the corps,
as they neither dressed in uniform, nor were under any military control,
proved very difficult to manage; and the difficulty led to a great
change as well in their condition as in that of the Academy itself.
In the year 1744 the cadets were, for the first time, clothed in
uniform, and collected into a distinct company. Two officers, with a
drum-major, undertook the management of them; and the arrangement
worked, or was supposed to work, so satisfactorily, that by little and
little, as the regiment enlarged itself, the numbers composing the Cadet
Company were increased also. In 1782 they had grown from twenty to
sixty; in 1798 to a hundred; after which steps were taken to lodge and
board, as well as to educate and drill them, apart from the residences
of their fathers. Hence, after trying for a while to accommodate some in
a separate barrack, while others were billeted on private persons at a
payment of 2s. a day per head, the pile which now attracts the attention
of the passer-by on Woolwich Common was erected. And by the addition of
a lieutenant-governor, and a whole host of officers and professors, it
grew into the sort of establishment which is familiar to most of us. In
1806 the staff of officers and teachers appointed to the Cadet Company
consisted of--
1. Lieutenant-Governor; 2. Inspector; 3. Professor of Mathematics;
4. Professor of Fortification; 5. Mathematical Master; 6. Arithmetical
do.; 7. French do.; 8. Fortification do.; 9. Landscape-drawing do.;
10. Figure-drawing do.; 11. Second French do.; 12. Fencing do.;
13. Dancing do.; 14. First Modeller; 15. Second do.: 16. Clerk.
In 1829 the fencing and dancing masters were discontinued, and a
chemical lecturer appointed. In 1836 three new masters were added; and
in 1857 the staff stood thus:
_Military._--A Governor; one Second Captain, commanding; one do. for
Practical Class; four First-Lieutenants; one Quartermaster; one
Staff-Sergeant; seven Drill-Sergeants; one Paymaster’s Clerk; one
Assistant do.; Servants.
_Civil or Educational._--A Chaplain; Inspector--a Lieut.-Colonel
of Artillery; Assistant do.--Major, R.E.; Professor of
Fortification--Lieut.-Col., R.E.; two Assistants--Second Captains;
Professor of Mathematics; seven Mathematical Masters; Master of
Descriptive Geometry; Master for Geometrical Drawing; Drawing-Master for
Landscape; Second do.; Master for Military Plan-Drawing--Brevet-Major,
R.A.; Instructor in Surveying and Field Works--Captain, R.E.; Assistant
do.--Captain, R.A.; Instructor in Practical Artillery--Second Captain,
R.A.; Assistant do.--Second Captain, R.A.; four French Masters; four
German do.; Master for History and Geography; Lecturer in Chemistry;
Assistant to do.; Lecturer in Geology and Mineralogy; Lecturer in
Practical Mechanics, Machinery, and Metallurgy; Lecturer in Astronomy
and Natural Philosophy; Clerk; First Assistant do.--a Sergeant; Second
do.--Bombardier; one Drill-Sergeant--Practical Class; Modeller,
Modelling Smith, Servants, &c.
Admittance to the Academy was, till very lately, obtained only on the
nomination of the Master-General of the Ordnance. There was a
preliminary examination, it is true; but this all except the dullest
might calculate on passing, and the ages of entrance ranged between
fourteen and sixteen. In 1835 the minimum age was raised to fifteen, the
maximum to seventeen; while candidates were called up to compete for
admission in the proportion of four youths for every three vacancies.
The arrangement did not avail to produce any radical change in the
spirit of the institution. The preliminary examination still proved to
be a “pass,” and no more; and so it continued till those political views
obtained the ascendant which abolished altogether the office of
Master-General and Board of Ordnance, and gave us in their place a
Secretary of State for the War Department.
Occasions had arisen, even under the old regime, when young men were
permitted to enter the service of the Artillery under what may be called
exceptional conditions. During the pressure of the great war of the
French Revolution, the demand for officers became at one time so urgent,
that it was found necessary to dispense with a regular academical
education, and to give commissions to candidates who were pronounced by
competent examiners sufficiently conversant with mathematics and
physical science to enter upon the practical duties of their profession.
Lord Panmure, taking advantage of the precedent thus furnished, threw
open Artillery commissions in 1855, and has continued ever since to
treat admission into the Royal Military Academy as a prize for which the
youth of the United Kingdom may freely compete.
The subjects of study to be pursued in the Royal Military Academy at
Woolwich, not less than the mode of dealing with them, and the
text-books to be used, have hitherto been prescribed to the most minute
particular by regulation. They embrace Mathematics, Fortification,
Descriptive Geometry, French, German, Plan-Drawing, Geometrical Drawing,
Landscape Drawing, History and Geography; to which, during his
continuance in what are called the “theoretical classes,” the attention
of the cadet is confined. When he enters the “practical class,” the
student is instructed, over and above, in Practical Artillery, Surveying
and Field-Works, and attends lectures in Astronomy, Chemistry, Geology,
and Mineralogy. As many as five years may be spent by a young man in
going over this course--viz., four years in the “theoretical,” and one
year in the “practical” class--though the average period of actual
residence does not appear to exceed two years and a half or three years.
There are periodical examinations at the end of every half-year, the
second of which, by its results, determines whether the young man shall
be allowed to go on to a commission, or be removed from the Academy.
The moral tone of this military college has never, we regret to say,
been of a very high order. Excellent men have been at the head of it,
and the ability of the professors and teachers appointed to instruct
admits of no question. Yet few right-minded officers look back upon the
years spent in the cadet barracks except with disgust. It is not very
difficult to account for the circumstance. Long after Continental
nations had seen the absurdity of pressing upon boys the sort of
training which belongs to men, we refused to be guided by their
experience, and persisted, both at Woolwich and elsewhere, in our
endeavor to accomplish an impossibility. “Boys of fourteen, fifteen, and
sixteen,” says a very high authority on this subject, “require much
personal supervision in order to form their characters, which young
officers, very often appointed without any sufficient knowledge of their
tempers and habits, cannot be expected to bestow. Such officers may
indeed be able to superintend drill, but not moral training. Rarely do
they draw the cadets towards them, and become their advisers; more
frequently repel them by a harsh dictatorial manner, the cadet being in
their eyes a soldier. There has been also, during all the time I have
known the Academy, great inconsistency in treating the cadets. Honor is
constantly talked of, and yet doubts as to their truthfulness are not
unfrequently expressed. I have heard even the lie given in rough and
emphatic terms. Confidence is professedly placed, and yet offences are
found out in a way that shows that no confidence existed. Hence a
contest arises between the officer and cadet, and the latter becomes
tricky and disingenuous.”
In these emphatic words Colonel Portlock has struck at the root of
most of the evil which has long been felt, and heretofore combated
without success, in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. Whatever is
wanting in the morale of that establishment, it owes to the original sin
of its constitution. We know how to deal with boys so long as we
recognize their boyhood, even while appealing to the point of honor
among them. But we no sooner dress them up in uniform, and affect to
treat them as soldiers, than we lose all moral control over them. They
smoke, drink, swear, and fall into other vices, not because they are
overcome by any irresistible temptation, but because they look upon such
acts as tokens of manhood. And the corporals, who report readily enough
for insubordination, and the officers, who punish for what they call
military offences, take little heed of worse things; partly because, in
a military point of view, they are scarcely criminal; partly because,
not being regarded as such, they are seldom brought under the notice of
the superior authorities. How a seminary so conducted and so managed
should have given to the Artillery and Engineers a body of officers
distinguished, as those of both arms unquestionably are for talent,
intelligence, and gentlemanly bearing, would be inexplicable, were not
the fact well known, that one of the first lessons taught to the young
lieutenant, after quitting the Academy, is to throw off the habits which
he had contracted there, and to adopt the high moral tone and excellent
habits of his regiment.
It was partly with a view to provide a palliative for this admitted
evil, partly to encourage in our young Artillery officers the habit of
sustained study, that they were required, by a recent regulation, “to
place themselves under the orders of a director of studies for half a
year after obtaining their commissions. Meanwhile cadets who are
appointed to the Engineers proceed to the training-school for that arm
at Chatham; where they go through a somewhat careful course of
surveying, and are instructed less elaborately in architecture, civil as
well as military, and in mining, sapping, pontooning, and so forth.
According to the report of the Commissioners, it does not appear that
they reach their new field of instruction over and above well prepared
to make the most of it. Indeed, the whole of the Woolwich system is by
these gentlemen condemned in terms as decided as is consistent with good
breeding.
II. It was not till the year 1804 that the propriety of training young
men in ever so slight a degree for the service of the infantry and
cavalry, seems to have occurred to any statesman or soldier in this
country. Appointments to both arms took place for a time by purchase
only, and by and by, when the numbers of the rank and file increased,
through the weight of influence, personal, political, or social.
Moreover, when the pressure of the great war was at its height, a third
door of entrance to military rank was opened, and ensigncies and
captaincies, and even lieutenant-colonelcies, became the prize of
private gentlemen who were able to bring certain fixed contingents of
able-bodied men under the royal standard. So far as the candidates for
commissions themselves were concerned, however, the same even-handed
justice was meted out to all. Nobody took the trouble to inquire whether
the candidates were qualified morally, intellectually, or physically. He
might be a pimp and blockhead, or lame, or deaf, or blind; but so long
as his patron had the ear of the Government, or the men whom he brought
with him were able to pass muster, his commission, whatever it might be,
was secure.
The Military College at Sandhurst consisted at first, as it still
consists, of two departments--one, called the Junior Department, for
cadets--the other, the Senior Department, for officers desirous of
qualifying for the Staff. But it had, in its original constitution, this
marked advantage over the arrangement which has since been effected,
that whereas now cadets and officers occupy portions of the same range
of buildings, and come under the instruction of the same professors,
they were, in 1804 placed, the one at Marlow, the other at
Highwickam--each class of students having its own teachers, though both
were subject to the control and management of the same military
administration.
As first constituted, the junior department afforded both an asylum
and a place of education for the sons of officers exclusively. Youths
once admitted ceased to be a burden to their friends, except for the
necessary expenses of travelling; they were housed, clothed, and
educated at the public expense. But no sooner was the great war ended
than Parliament began to slacken in its gratitude to the army, and by
little and little the grants for military education fell off, till in
the end they ceased altogether. As a necessary consequence, the numbers
of persons seeking education at the Military College fell off in like
manner. And now the junior department exhibits a muster-roll of 180
cadets only, while the strength of the senior department has dwindled to
nine individuals. To be sure, other causes than the withdrawal of public
support from the institution have operated to produce this latter
result. Whatever it might have been forty years ago, the senior
department at Sandhurst is certainly no Staff school now. Indeed, the
only science effectively taught there seems to be mathematics; and it is
a curious fact, that though the army abounds with officers who have
passed through that school, and taken high honors, the instances are
rare in which Staff appointments have fallen to the lot of any of them.
Lads are admitted into the junior department at Sandhurst between the
ages of thirteen and fifteen. The preliminary examination is of the most
trivial kind, and the instruction communicated is, for half the course,
that of a common school not of the highest order. No doubt each youth
may, if he be disposed, master more than the elements of a good deal of
science; for over and above physical geography and history, instruction
is given in practical astronomy, dynamics, and statics, practical
mechanics, co-ordinate geometry, the differential and integral calculus,
trigonometry and mensuration, Euclid’s Geometry, attack and defence of
fortresses, practical field-fortification, course of military surveying,
the Latin, French, and German languages. Unfortunately, however, there
is no compulsion to study, nor any inducement, unless the youth aspire
to win for himself a commission without purchase.
III. The Hon. East India Company’s College at Addiscombe approaches
nearer in its constitution and objects to what a military school ought
to be, than any other of which we can boast in this country. It came
into existence in 1818, previously to which date the Directors were in
the habit of sending to Woolwich, for instruction, youths to whom they
had given cadetships in the Company’s Artillery and Engineers. When
first founded, it was intended as a place of training exclusively for
these young gentlemen; but the benefits derived from it became so
obvious and so great that the Court of Directors gradually enlarged its
views, and now young men are educated at Addiscombe not only for the
Company’s Artillery and Engineers, but for their infantry also. And
herein it is that the Directors have mixed up evil with good. They
consider an Engineer cadetship as their great prize, and next to that a
cadetship of Artillery; and they select for these appointments, not the
youths who may have exhibited special talents for either arm, but the
best men, or the men reported as generally best, of their batch. The
consequence is, that to the infantry--for good service in which talent
is as much required as for either the Artillery or Engineers--the idlers
of the College are appointed, while many a clever lad, who would have
shone as an infantry officer, becomes an indifferent engineer or gunner,
simply because he has been posted to an arm for the practical operation
of which he has no genius.
In all other respects the Military School at Addiscombe may be fairly
said to surpass both Woolwich and Sandhurst. In the first place, youths
enter there almost invariably at a more mature age. Though eligible for
admission after completing their fifteenth year, they seldom, if ever,
come up for examination till after they have turned seventeen. In the
next place, the entrance examination is more severe than either at
Woolwich or Sandhurst; and in the third and last place--and this is the
most important condition of the whole--cadets must complete their course
at Addiscombe in two years, unless for special reasons, such as
sickness, they be allowed to prolong their stay one half-year more. Now,
lads may linger on at Woolwich four, and even five years, gaining this
remarkable advantage from their stupidity, that when forced to compete
at last for choice between Artillery and Engineers, they compete with
youths who may have had but two years’ training. And at Sandhurst, the
course which nominally covers four years, may, if the youth have
interest at headquarters, be completed, as far as his appointment to a
commission completes it, in four months.
The general education given at Addiscombe is certainly not inferior to
that which the cadets receive either at Woolwich or at Sandhurst. It
embraces, indeed, almost entirely the same subjects which are set down
in the curriculum of the others--including lectures in geology,
chemistry, and artillery. But it undeniably falls short in specialties.
Hence, after completing his course at Addiscombe, the Company’s cadet
intended for the Engineers proceeds to Chatham, where, side by side with
young men from Woolwich, he receives practical instruction in his art.
For the Artillery cadet, on the other hand, there is no practical
school. Like his comrade intended for the service of the Infantry, he
proceeds at once from Addiscombe to India, and learns there how to turn
to account the theoretical lessons which have been communicated to him
at home.
Another distinction deserves to be noted between the constitution of
the school of Addiscombe, and that as well of the Royal Military College
as of the Royal Military Academy: Though all alike put from them the
eleemosynary element, at Addiscombe alone is strict impartiality in the
matter of payments observed. The youth who enters there, whether he be
the son of an earl or of a subaltern’s widow, must be provided with his
£100 a year, besides about £25 more to cover the cost of books,
instruments, and uniforms. Both at Woolwich and Sandhurst there is a
graduated scale, which exacts more from a general officer than from a
subaltern, and more from a civilian than from either. The orphan of an
officer dying in poor circumstances is admitted into Woolwich on payment
of £20 a year. He pays for similar privileges at Sandhurst £40. The son
of a gentleman in civil life pays in both cases £125, a sum more than
necessary to cover the expenses of his own board and education, but
which is exacted in order that there may be a surplus out of which the
deficiencies occasioned by the payments of the sons of officers shall be
made good.
Most important changes in the system of Military Education in England
have been introduced since 1855, by Lord Panmure and the Council of
Military Education, inaugurated under his auspices.
1. Admission to the various Military Schools is now gained by open
competitive examination.
2. The order and method of studies, and all examinations for promotion,
are governed by an independent Board of competent officers, and men of
service, called the Council of Military Education.
3. The amount and order of studies in each school are minutely arranged,
and each Professor is kept to the prescribed course by the supervision
of a Master of Studies.
4. The development of the Staff School has given completeness to the
system.
III. FRENCH VIEW OF ENGLISH MILITARY SCHOOLS.
M. Alphonse Esquiros, in the _Révue des Deux Mondes_ of September 1860,
contributes two articles on the military schools and institutions of
England, from which we make a few extracts:
THE MILITARY SPIRIT AND PREPARATION OF ENGLAND.
On what foundation is the assertion based that England is only a
first-class naval power? Although never numerous, have not the English
soldiers sufficed for all the great eventualities of history? Has not
the weight of their arms been felt for centuries past in the balance in
which are weighed the destinies of the Continent? Each time that it was
necessary to conquer, have they not conquered? I will not awaken
irritating recollections. I will not mention the name of a great battle
so painful to our national self-love; it will suffice to recall the
fact, that recently, England, with a handful of men, has reconquered
India. Instead of denying history, it were better to ask by what links
the British character is connected with the group of martial nations.
The Englishman is not warlike from inclination; he does not love war for
war’s sake, or maintain an army for the ruinous pleasure of seeing
bayonets glitter and banners flaunt. He has an army to defend his
territory, his commerce, the immense net-work of his external relations
and possessions. Experience has more than once shown him the necessity
of placing the pride of riches under the protection of courage. The
Englishman has less enthusiasm than coolness. Immovable when attacked,
he feels that the responsibility of the labor which has made England an
opulent nation rests upon his arms. The military element, therefore,
presents in Great Britain peculiar and interesting features. And then,
quite recently, besides the regular army, a new independent army has
arisen. Yesterday, it existed but as a project; to-day, it fills the
towns with the blast of its clarions, passes review in Hyde Park and
Holyrood, and covers the plains with the smoke of its skirmishers.
I speak of the volunteers, or riflemen. We must investigate the origin
of this movement, and the influence it has already exercised on English
habits; but before busying ourselves with the army and volunteers, it
will be well to study the military schools and arsenals.
REFORMS IN MILITARY EDUCATION AND PROMOTION IN 1856.
The delay and disasters of the operations before Sebastopol aroused
the attention of the press and the people to the manner in which
officers for the army were trained, appointed, and promoted. The
Government was aroused by the emotions of the country, and in 1856, a
commission was appointed by Lord Panmure, Secretary of War, to
reorganize the education of the officers. That commission visited the
different military schools of Great Britain, visited similar
institutions in France, Prussia, Austria, and Sardinia, and collected
all documents of a nature to enlighten it researches. Its report is a
monument of science, and art, and impartiality. The authors of that
investigation, Col. Yolland, Col. Mythe, and Mr. Lake, of the Oxford
University, pointed out what reform ought to be made in the English
system to raise the establishment of military education to the level of
the inevitable progress claimed by the present age. They recommended a
Council of Military Education, which, placed beyond and above the
educating body, should direct the studies of the young men destined for
the army. From these various influences--the pressure of public opinion,
the commission appointed in 1856 by the Government, and especially the
Council of Military Education, arose those happy changes, which we shall
endeavor to point out in the military institutions of Great Britain.
ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY AT WOOLWICH.
Before 1855, the candidates were named by the master-general of
ordnance; and although there was an entrance examination, the
requisitions were very elementary, and no youth, influentially connected
or recommended, was rejected. The results, although the institution
furnished some good engineers and artillery officers to the English
army, were not satisfactory. Since 1855 the system of appointment and
instruction has been re-organized. Appointment on nomination has given
place to open competition. A ministerial circular made an appeal to all
candidates desirous of entering the academy without distinction of
class, or party. Public examinations thrown open to the youth of
England, with independent examinations, succeeded the private
examinations within the college walls. The axe was laid at the tree of
privilege, and personal merit was substituted in its place.
The entrance examinations take place twice, a year, at Chelsea
Hospital--the home of disabled soldiers, and the school of orphan
soldiers’ children--in a large hall hung with the captured trophies and
battle flags of different nations. The programme embraces mathematics,
simple and practical; history, geography, and English literature; the
Greek and Latin classics; the French language and literature; German,
chemistry, and physics; mineralogy and geology; geometrical and
landscape drawing. To each subject a certain numerical value is
assigned. Each candidate is limited to five subjects, including
mathematics, which he may select out of the programme, and on his
obtaining an aggregate as well as relative number of marks depends his
success. The results are made public, and the unsuccessful candidates
are allowed another trial to fill succeeding vacancies. Then
examinations exercise an indirect but elevating influence upon the
schools of the country which send forth the candidates. Competition has
put a check upon ignorance and mediocrity, no matter how well backed by
social and political influence.
Another reform, not less important than that of competition, or the
system of nominations, was that order of the minister of war,
lengthening the age for the admission of candidates. That age was fixed
between 16 and 20. The inconvenience of submitting young men too soon to
military discipline has been recognized with great wisdom by Gen.
Portlock.[2] “The character of adolescents exacts,” he says, “a more
delicate cultivation than that which must be expected from officers
imbued with the command of a military school. In their eyes, no matter
how young he is, the pupil is a soldier, and they treat him almost as
one. Doubtless they excel in drilling him well; but do they possess the
necessary qualities and experience for forming the morals of youth?”
Another consequence of the early admissions was the introduction of a
sort of confusion and uncertainty in the system of teaching. Now, a
distinct line is drawn between the course of studies which precede and
which follow admission to the academy. The conclusion was come to that a
military academy formed a sort of line of demarcation in life between a
good general education which ends, and a professional service which
commences. The character, mind, manners of the candidate are supposed to
be formed according to the usages of the world; he has reached that age
when a man knows himself, and looks out for a career.
[Footnote 2: The Inspector of Studies at the Academy, now member
of the Military Board of Education.]
It is needless to dwell on the course of instruction, which is now
nearly the same in all the great military schools of Europe. There are
thirty-five professors, many of them eminent in their respective
departments. One leading object, both of instruction and discipline, is
to cultivate the habit of self-improvement and self-government. Physical
sports are practiced and encouraged, and the cadets frequently challenge
the officers of the garrison to a match of cricket.
An examination takes place every six months, in which the progress of
each cadet is ascertained and reported. Those who pass through the
series in good standing are promoted to a commission; the most
distinguished to the engineer corps, and the others to the artillery.
The appointment of these young officers gives rise to an interesting
ceremony. The Duke of Cambridge, with a numerous staff, visits Woolwich
Academy twice a year. All the cadets are present in review in front of
the monument. It is pleasing to see how admirably they go through the
manœuvres. The duke then enters a hall where a _viva voce_ examination
takes place on the art of fortification. This over, the cadets form in
square, and the duke then advances to the table where the prizes are
laid out. These prizes consist of a sword of honor, telescopes,
mathematical instruments, and books. The President of the Council of
Education reads out the names of the cadets of the first class who are
to receive commissions in the engineers and artillery. In conclusion,
the Duke of Cambridge addresses some parental words to the young men who
are about to leave the academy to enter the army. Such is a brief
account of this academical festival, to which the brilliancy of the
uniforms, the rank and names of the assistants, the happy emotions on
the faces of the young men, impress a character of charm and solemnity.
MILITARY COLLEGE AT ADDISCOMBE.
Addiscombe was formerly the residence of the Earl of Liverpool, but
was converted into a school at an expense of $40,000, by the East India
Company. Within a few years it has passed into the hands of the
Government. One of the first acts of the Secretary of War and Council of
Military Education was to inaugurate a system of admission (which was
open by patronage of members of the company) by competitive examination,
and which has been attended with the happiest results. After passing a
year at Addiscombe, the cadets enter according to merit (ascertained by
examination) and either enter the engineers, artillery, or line service.
The India service will always remain distinct and sought after; that
life of adventures, encampments in the jungles, tiger hunts, the
attraction of struggles against man and nature, the dazzling figures of
a world shining in the east through the fogs of Great Britain, all this
responds to one feature of the English character, the love of adventure.
ROYAL COLLEGE OF SANDHURST.
Here are two distinct institutions--the college, which is a
preparatory school for infantry and cavalry officers, and the _senior
department_, or staff school. The scholars of the last department, who
have already gone through the competitive examination, are commissioned
officers; they have even served a certain number of years in the army;
some of them have gone through the Crimean war and the Indian campaign.
In 1859, one of these officers had received eighteen or nineteen wounds,
which had deprived him of one of his eyes. I was surprised at finding
among them candidates for staff appointments who could write and speak
French in a manner that would have done honor to a French officer.
The English find it an advantage to admit young officers of talent and
energy into the higher branches of the service. To the experience of
their profession, their picked soldiers add knowledge already acquired,
which a second course of education develops and consolidates. It must,
however, be admitted that it requires a certain moral strength to
return, after having held a command, to the benches of a school, to
follow various studies, and to submit to strict examinations, which
exclude all ideas of promotion and favor, fortune or birth.
In an economical point of view, these two institutions, Woolwich and
Sandhurst, cover their own expenses without any cost to the State. This
fact, which was by no means foreseen, is owing to two measures
relatively of recent date--the gradual withdrawal of subsidies formerly
granted by Parliament, and the accession of the sons of rich men not
belonging to the army; these latter pay a high premium, and thus
contribute towards the education of the other cadets, who, being sons of
officers, enjoy certain immunities. In England, it is thought equitable
that the services of the father should be counted in favor of the son;
according to this principle, the debt contracted by the country towards
military men is paid to their sons by civilians.
Young men who have not passed through Sandhurst may, nevertheless, be
admitted as officers into the line or cavalry, but on the condition of
undergoing an examination and _purchasing_ their commissions. This
purchasing of direct commissions is doubtless detrimental to Sandhurst
College. The abolition of the system has often been mooted. The Duke of
Cambridge approves of the abolition, as does the Minister of War, and
wishes that no officer shall be admitted into the English army except
from a military college.
COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION.
So far we only behold the members of a great system. There is unity in
the Council of Military Education, which to a certain extent is the head
of instruction. The influence of their council, which consists of
eminent men, is felt in the different schools, introduces changes and
useful reforms, directs the public examinations--in a word, gives the
impulse to the military studies of the United Kingdom. The civil and
religious element is represented therein by one of the most learned men
of England (the Rev. Henry Mosley, canon.) The other members are
generals and colonels belonging to different corps of the army.
Thus it will be seen that England enjoys a system of military
education which will bear comparison with that of any other nation in
Europe. The chief purposes of this system are a good general instruction
up to the age of sixteen or nineteen years, then a short military
instruction, then, after some years of service, a final course of
studies in the senior department or staff college. It must not, however,
be supposed that the present state of things, though happily modified by
the recent principle of competition, is the extreme limit of progress.
In the name of liberty, I am too anxious that Great Britain should
maintain her position in the world, to pay a full compliment to her
self-esteem and enslumber her aspirations for reform. She has done much
in these latter times; but there is still much to be done, and she is
aware of it, to raise the moral power of her officers to the level of
modern times, where enlightenment pervades every class of society.
MODIFICATIONS IN 1871.
In 1867 a Royal Commission was appointed “to inquire into the Present
state of Military Education and into the Training of Candidates for
Commissions in the Army.” The Report, with the minutes of evidence and
illustrated documents, was quite voluminous, and has been followed with
important changes in both the system of military instruction, and in the
mode of making appointments and promotions in the army, that will be
noted in detail in the following chapters, which are compiled from
historical notices by the Secretary of the Commission, and recent
Regulations for the government of the several schools and the
examinations for appointment and promotions.
The most important measure affecting the British army; after repeated
discussions of the principle, in the last and former Parliaments, and
particularly in the last, on a bill of the Gladstone ministry, in which
the votes of the Commons in favor was overruled by the Lords, was the
abolition of the whole system of purchase and sale of commissions by
Royal Warrant issued July 20, 1871. This radical change was followed
(October 30) by a revision of the Queen’s Regulations, in which original
appointments and promotions in the military service are put on a new
basis. Henceforth, commissions of the first grade are to be issued to
sub-lieutenants, for any vacancy occurring:
1. To successful candidates, in the order of merit as ascertained by
competitive examination in general subjects.
2. To graduates of the universities who shall pass a qualifying
examination.
3. To Queen’s Cadets, Indian Cadets, and Pages of Honor, who have passed
successfully the final examination of the Military Academy, or its
equivalent.
4. To non-commissioned officers who are recommended for promotion by
their commanding officers. If more candidates apply than there are
vacancies to be filled, appointment is decided by competition.
5. To a lieutenant of the militia, who shall pass the professional
examination required.
Sub-lieutenants are eligible to promotion only after passing a
professional examination, and only after twelve months’ service with a
regiment, under strict discipline, with liability to be removed for
physical or moral unfitness. Within three years from the date of their
commissions as lieutenants, officers may submit to an examination in
respect to fitness for promotion to captaincies, and any officer failing
to pass within three years, must retire from the army. Lieutenants are
eligible to the rank of captain at any time after two years’ service in
the army, having passed the examination. A captain may be made a major
after two years’ service in the army; and a major is at any time
eligible to a lieutenant-coloneley, which means the command of a
regiment.
Every promotion must now be made on the recommendation of the
Commander-in-Chief, with the approval of the Secretary of State for War;
and from the principles laid down in the Royal Warrant, as will be seen
further on, every precaution is taken to insure a gradual advance by
seniority, and a more rapid rise by meritorious service founded on
intelligent and disinterested tests. By the new Warrant the Militia is
brought into closer connection with the Regular Army. To the abolition
of purchase, and promotion by professional preparation and service, may
be added the autumn field manœuvres, inaugurated in 1871, with 30,000
men, and the localization of the Army, by assigning a corps with staff,
train, men, &c., to territorial divisions of the country.
COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION.
HISTORICAL NOTICE.
In the debates which took place in Parliament during the Crimean war, in
the year 1855, attention was frequently drawn to the necessity of
improving the professional education of officers, and more particularly
of providing means of instruction for, and requiring special
qualifications from, those who were candidates for the staff. In the
course of the same year a great alteration was made in the principles
which had hitherto regulated preparatory instruction for the army, by
abandoning, so far as the scientific corps were concerned, the system of
juvenile military education, and throwing admission to the Artillery and
Engineers open to public competition among candidates whose age would
afford the presumption that their general education was already
completed. At the beginning of 1856 three Commissioners, Lieut.-Colonel
Yolland, R.E., Lieut.-Colonel Smythe, R.A., and the Rev. W. C. Lake,
were appointed by Lord Panmure, then Secretary of State for War, “to
consider the best mode of reorganizing the system for training officers
for the scientific corps”; and for this purpose were directed to visit
the military schools of France, Prussia, Austria, and Sardinia. The
instructions issued to the Commissioners informed them that it was
already decided that admission to the scientific corps should be
obtained by open competition, and that the age of candidates admitted to
the examination should be from 17 to 20.
While the Commissioners were still engaged in their inquiries, the
question of military education was frequently brought before the notice
of Parliament in the course of the session of 1856, more particularly by
Mr. Sidney Herbert, who, in an elaborate speech on the 5th of June,
explained to the House of Commons the details of a general scheme of
education for officers of all branches of the service, the outline of
which he had previously sketched out while Secretary at War in 1854, in
a letter to the Commander-in-Chief.
The subject of military education was one which at this time engaged the
serious attention both of the Government and the public. Toward the
close of the year, Major-General Lefroy (then Colonel Lefroy, and
employed at the War Office as artillery adviser to the Secretary of
State) was directed by Lord Panmure to draw up a general scheme for the
education of officers; and numerous plans, with a similar object, were
about the same period proposed for the consideration of the Secretary of
State.
The military educational establishments which existed in 1856 were as
follows:
The Royal Military College at Sandhurst, } Under the control of the
comprising a senior and junior department. } Commander-in-Chief.
The Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. }
The Ordnance School at Carshalton, a }
preparatory establishment to the Academy. } Under the control of the
The Department of Artillery Studies at } Clerk of the Ordnance.
Woolwich. }
The Royal Engineer Establishment at }
Chatham. }
The East India Military College at { Under the Court of
Addiscombe. { Directors of the
{ East India Company.
The School of Musketry at Hythe. { Under the control of the
{ Commander-in-Chief.
The Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea, }
comprising a training school for army } Under the control of the
schoolmasters, and a model school for } Deputy Secretary of War.
children. }
The Royal Hibernian School at Dublin. }
Garrison and regimental schools for } Under the control of the
soldiers and children. } Chaplain-General.
Up to this period no systematic organization for the direction of
military education had prevailed in this country; the various
educational establishments were under the control of separate
departments, and no single authority exercised any general supervision
over them. The appointment of a Director-General of Military Education
had been already advocated in Parliament by Mr. Sidney Herbert, and the
institution of a special department to superintend the whole system of
education for the army was one of the main features both of Colonel
Lefroy’s and of all the other schemes brought under the consideration of
Lord Panmure at this period.
The Commissioners appointed in 1856, after having visited the military
schools of the Continent, presented their Report in January, 1857. In
this Report, although their instructions had more particularly directed
their attention to the training of officers for the scientific corps,
they touched upon several points connected with the education of
officers of the army generally. One of the changes most strongly
recommended by them was the formation of a special Board of Military
Education. “We consider it of the first importance,” their Report says,
“that military education in this country should be regarded as a whole,
and that perfect unity of system and harmony in its working should be
made to prevail. This, we conceive, can only be done by bringing
military education generally under the control of one head, the
Secretary of State for War; and to effect this, a Board or Section of
Military Education should be formed, as part of the establishment of the
War Office.” The Report adds: “The creation of such a Section appears to
us far more important than any other single object we can recommend.”
The Commissioners also stated that after careful consideration, they
recommended the combined action of a Board in preference to the
undivided authority of a single individual, on the ground of the variety
of knowledge and experience required for the proper treatment of
educational questions.
The appointment of the Council of Military Education was the first
result of the recommendations of the Commissioners. Its institution was
proposed in a letter from the Commander-in-Chief to the Secretary of
State for War on the 6th of April, 1857, and as originally constituted,
it consisted of the Commander-in-Chief as _ex officio_ president, a
Major-General as vice-president, and two field officers as members. The
appointment of the Council, although the members commenced their duties
at once, was not officially gazetted until June.
The functions of the Council, however, did not in the first instance
extend to a general superintendence over the whole system of military
education. Almost simultaneously with their institution an
Inspector-General of Army Schools was appointed under the Secretary of
State for War, to whom the management of all institutions connected with
the education of soldiers and children, which had previously been in the
hands of the Chaplain-General, was entrusted. Nor was the supervision of
the Council even over the education of officers at first general, as the
Royal Military Academy at Woolwich remained under the management of the
War Office (under which department it had been placed on the abolition
of the office of Master-General of the Ordnance), and the examinations
for admission to it were conducted by a separate Board of Examiners,
under the superintendence of Canon Moseley.
The instructions issued to the Council on their first appointment
directed their attention more especially to the organization of a Staff
College, the revision of the system of examinations for direct
appointments to the army, the amalgamation of Woolwich and Sandhurst,
and the professional instruction and examination of officers after
entering the service. On all these questions they submitted reports in
the course of the year, and at the beginning of 1858 they commenced to
conduct the examinations in connection with the Staff College and the
Cadet College at Sandhurst, although these establishments were not
formally put under their authority until, by a Royal Warrant of the 1st
of October, 1858, the Council were appointed Visitors of the Royal
Military College. The examinations of officers for direct appointments
to the staff, which had been instituted in 1857, were also placed under
the superintendence of the Council in 1858; but at a later period, the
portion of these examinations which has more especial reference to
matters of drill and regimental duty was, on the recommendation of the
Council themselves, removed from their control, with the view of its
being conducted by a Board of Officers appointed by the
Adjutant-General.
At the beginning of the year 1858, the office of Secretary to the
Council of Military Education was created, and in June of the same year
an augmentation of their number took place by the addition of two new
members,--one a field officer, the other a civilian, the Rev. Canon
Moseley. The constitution of the Council as then fixed continues to the
present day, and consists of the Commander-in-Chief as _ex officio_
president, a vice-president, and four members, one being a civilian.
The appointment of a civilian as a member of the central Board of
Military Education had been recommended by the Commissioners of 1856, on
the ground of the close connection between military and civil
educational questions. The decision to carry out this recommendation,
simultaneously with an augmentation in the strength of the Council,
appears to have been connected with the determination arrived at, to
place the superintendence of the Academy at Woolwich--the competitive
examinations for admission to which had hitherto been conducted by Canon
Moseley--in the hands of the Council. They were formally appointed
Visitors of the Academy in August, 1858, their control over the
education of the officers of the army being now made almost entirely
general. The powers of the Council, however, in regard to Woolwich
appear, probably from the fact of their not being defined by Royal
Warrant, to be theoretically somewhat less extensive than those
possessed by them over Sandhurst, as the recommendation of the
appointment of professors, which in the case of the latter college is
formally vested in the Council, is at the Academy left to the
Lieutenant-Governor.
In October, 1859, the Indian Military College at Addiscombe was placed
under the supervision of the Council, and the examinations for admission
to it were conducted by them until the close of the establishment in
1861.
In 1860, the superintendence of army schools, garrison libraries,
recreation rooms, the Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea, and the Royal
Hibernian School at Dublin, were transferred from the Secretary of State
for War to the Council.
In 1864, the Advanced Class of Artillery Officers, on its institution,
was placed under the control of the Council. Since this date the whole
system of army education has been superintended by that body, with the
exception of the examinations of officers for promotion, the School of
Musketry at Hythe, and the more peculiarly regimental institutions which
exist in the Department of Artillery Studies, the School of Gunnery at
Shoeburyness, and the School of Military Engineering at Chatham, for the
special instruction of officers of the scientific corps. The Survey
Class at Aldershot, though not formally is indirectly subject to their
supervision.
1. ORGANIZATION AND DUTIES IN 1869.
The Council of Military Education consists of the Duke of Cambridge,
Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief, _President_; Major-General W. C. E.
Napier, _Vice-President_; Major-General Sir Fred. Abbott, of the Royal
Engineers; Col. Pocklington and Col. Hamley, of the Royal Artillery;
Rev. Canon Moseley, civilian; and Capt. Greentree, _Secretary_.
_Military Schools and Examinations._
1. To recommend to the Commander-in-Chief, and the Secretary of War,
gentlemen for the appointment of examiners in the army examinations.
2. To recommend professors and instructors for the Advanced Class of
Artillery Officers, the Staff College, the Royal Military Academy, and
the Royal Military College.
3. To examine, by means of their staff of examiners, officers for
direct appointment to the staff, chiefly the personal staff, and
aids-de-camp and assistant military secretaries.
4. To examine officers of artillery for admission to the Advanced
Class, and for certificates on quitting it.
5. To examine officers for admission to the Staff College,
probationarily after a year’s residence, and for qualification for the
general staff on quitting the College.
6. To examine candidates for admission to the Royal Military Academy
at Woolwich, and for qualification for commissions in the Royal
Artillery and in the Royal Engineers on quitting that establishment.
7. To examine candidates for admission to the Royal Military College
at Sandhurst, and for qualification for commissions in the army on their
quitting the College.
8. To examine candidates for direct commissions in the cavalry,
guards, and line.
9. To visit the several military colleges whenever they consider it
desirable.
10. To report to the Commander-in-Chief on all questions connected
with the education of candidates for the army, or with the educational
departments of the several military schools.
_Army Schools, Regimental and Garrison Libraries and Reading Rooms._
1. To receive and consider all applications for training schoolmasters
or schoolmistresses; the usual course of procedure in these cases is
annexed.
2. The appointment of trained schoolmasters and schoolmistresses,
according to the regulations.
3. The appointment of acting schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, when
trained masters and mistresses cannot be provided.
4. The appointment of civilian schoolmasters in embodied regiments of
militia under special regulations as annexed.
5. The transfers of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses from one
regiment or garrison school to another, as circumstances may require.
6. Promotion of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses from one class to
another according to the regulations.
7. To receive and consider all communications from commanding officers
on matters relating to the appointment of schoolmasters and
schoolmistresses their discipline, application for leave to marry,
furlough, etc.
8. To receive the monthly report of schools, prescribed by Article 16
of the Schools Regulations, and to consider the same, and take such
proceedings thereon as may appear necessary.
9. The periodical inspection of all military schools, and of the Royal
Military Asylum, Chelsea, and the Royal Hibernian School, Dublin.
10. To provide for and superintend the half yearly examination at the
Royal Military Asylum, Chelsea.
11. The supply of suitable apparatus for the illustration of lectures
for the instruction and entertainment of soldiers, according to the
rules laid down by the Secretary of State.
12. The general supervision of regimental and garrison libraries and
reading rooms.
13. To consider applications for, and appoint librarians at rates of
pay previously authorized by the Secretary of State.
14. To supply games, and other authorized articles for reading rooms,
according to the rules annexed.
15. To receive the quarterly reports of the state of barrack libraries
in duplicate, and to consider any recommendation which maybe made
therein; one copy to be forwarded to the Secretary of State for War,
with the recommendations of the Council recorded thereon, should any be
necessary.
16. To make out requisitions upon the War Office for additions to
libraries, when necessary, within the annual amount granted by
Parliament.
17. To receive and consider the half yearly reports of artillery and
engineer libraries in duplicate, in aid of which a grant of money will
be made annually to each brigade of artillery and company of engineers
by the Secretary of State, on the recommendation of the Council of
Military Education; one copy to be forwarded to the Secretary of State,
with any remarks thereon which may appear called for, the other to be
retained by the Council.
18. Hospital libraries and the schools and libraries of disembodied
regiments of militia will remain under the Secretary of State for War.
19. Upon all matters connected with either schools or libraries, not
specified above, and which may involve expense, reference should be made
to the Secretary of State for War, previously to any decision being
arrived at.
EXAMINATIONS FOR COMMISSIONS AND PROMOTIONS.
I. EXAMINATIONS FOR DIRECT COMMISSIONS.
HISTORICAL NOTICE.
Previously to the year 1849, no educational qualifications were required
as a condition of obtaining a commission, except from officers appointed
to the scientific corps--admission to which could only be obtained by
passing through the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich--and from the
small proportion of officers, scarcely amounting, at that time, to one
sixth of the whole number annually obtaining commissions, who entered
the other branches of the service from the Royal Military College at
Sandhurst. Examinations for admission to the army generally were first
instituted by the Duke of Wellington, when Commander-in-Chief, in 1849.
The examination, in addition to general subjects of elementary
education, included the professional subject of fortification, in which
the candidate was required to have read some easy work on the subject,
and to have received some instruction in drawing. This requirement was
subsequently somewhat modified; and the knowledge of fortification
afterward exacted from a candidate was, “to be able to trace upon paper,
in presence of the examiners, a front of fortification according to
Vauban’s first system, and also the profile of a rampart and parapet.”
In other subjects, modifications were also introduced; but the general
character of the examinations remained much the same as originally
established, and the regulations introduced by the Duke of Wellington,
in 1849, continued substantially in force, until the general revision of
the system of military education, which took place in 1857. It appears,
however, from the evidence given by Lord Panmure, before the Royal
Commission on the Purchase System, that, during the Crimean war, the
stringency of the examinations was very much relaxed.
The examinations were held at Sandhurst by the professors of the
College, in the presence of the Lieutenant-Governor, and were conducted
to a great extent _vivâ voce_. The Select Committee of the House of
Commons on Sandhurst (1855) did not make any recommendation in regard to
these examinations, but stated in their report that in the only branch
of the examination which was of a military character, namely,
fortification, the knowledge required would easily be mastered in a
week. The character of the examination, however, appears to have been
very generally regarded with dissatisfaction. Mr. Sidney Herbert, when
Secretary at War, in 1854, criticised it severely, as being “too
technical, too limited, and within its limits too severe,” and as
leading necessarily to a candidate cramming up a few books which
happened to be in use at Sandhurst, without affording any test of
general education. He contemplated at that time a revision of the
examinations, and the institution of a special board of examiners, in
place of the Sandhurst professors, for the purpose of conducting them;
and the Treasury, in connection with this subject, suggested that the
machinery proposed for the object in view should be combined, as far as
practicable, with that about to be established for examining candidates
for the Civil Service.
The outbreak of the Crimean war prevented Mr. Sidney Herbert’s
proposals, which were connected with a general plan for the instruction
of officers, from being carried into effect; and in 1856, Lord Panmure,
before the Purchase System Commission, spoke of the defects of the
existing examinations in nearly the same terms as those used by Mr.
Herbert in 1854. After stating that they led to a system of cramming up
particular books, he laid down the principle that the examination
“should be such as young men may be supposed capable of passing without
having any particular professional education. It ought to be upon
general subjects, such as a young man ought to become acquainted with
during his passage through any high educational establishment in this
country.”
The various schemes for the reorganization of military education brought
under the notice of Lord Panmure, at the end of 1856, proposed
improvements in the system of examinations for admission to the army;
and nearly all the authorities consulted on the subject at that time
appear to have concurred in the opinion that the examinations should be
strictly non-professional, and should be confined to requiring proof on
the part of the candidates of a knowledge of the ordinary subjects of
liberal education. The commissioners appointed in the same year to
consider the training of officers for the scientific corps also
recommended that the examination of candidates for commissions, who did
not pass through a military college, should be of a general, and not of
a special, character.
The Council of Military Education, on their appointment, in April, 1857,
were instructed “to revise the whole system of examination for direct
appointments to the army,” which is at present very defective; and this
subject was, in fact, the first of those referred to in their
instructions which they were directed to take into consideration. After
consultation with the head masters of some of the chief public schools
of the country, with the view of ascertaining the amount of knowledge
which might fairly be expected from young men of 17, the Council
proposed a scheme of examination based on the fundamental principle that
the examination should be entirely non-professional, and confined to
subjects which form the course of ordinary liberal education at civil
schools. Regulations founded upon the proposal of the Council were
issued on the 1st of August, 1857, and it was announced that they would
come into operation at the beginning of 1858. These regulations were
subsequently modified in some of their details, even before the first
examination was held under the new system; further modifications have
been from time to time introduced in them, without, however, affecting
their general character; and the scheme proposed by the Council of 1857
has, in its main principles, formed the basis of all the regulations
under which examinations for direct commissions have been held to the
present time.
It appears, however, from the evidence given before the Commission of
1869, that it has been found necessary, from time to time, to diminish
the difficulty of the examinations, owing to the number of failures
among the candidates, and that the present standard is considerably
lower than that originally established. An acquaintance with French,
English history and geography, and drawing, was at first an
indispensable condition of qualification, but is now no longer required;
the obligatory subjects of examination have thus been reduced from five
to two--mathematics and English--while, at the same time, the amount of
mathematical knowledge formerly exacted has been reduced.
The first examination under the new system took place in February, 1858.
Even before this, at the end of 1857, the place of examination had been
transferred from Sandhurst to London, and the method of conducting the
examinations by printed papers, instead of by _vivâ voce_, had been
adopted. The examinations have, ever since that period, been conducted
by examiners appointed by the Council of Military Education, and have,
as a rule, been held half yearly. By a regulation which has been for
some years in force, candidates for direct commissions are also
permitted to be examined at foreign stations. The examination is, in
this case, conducted in the presence of a board appointed by the officer
commanding the station; but the method of examination is, in all other
respects, identical with that adopted at home. The examination papers
are forwarded by, and the candidates’ replies are returned to, the
Council of Military Education.
The plan proposed by the Council was intended to regulate admission to
the army in ordinary times of peace; but almost immediately after it had
been formally approved, and before it had actually come into operation,
the pressure occasioned by the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny led to an
abnormal condition of circumstances. In September, 1857, a circular was
issued, announcing that commissions would be given without examination
on the condition of the applicant raising a certain number of recruits.
In March, however, of the following year, this temporary measure was
abolished, the pressure for troops being no longer such as to render its
continuance necessary. Since that period no candidates, with the
exception of graduates of the universities, have obtained commissions
without passing the regular examination.
Before 1862, candidates were eligible for commissions without purchase,
on passing the examination for direct appointments. Since that year,
however, all free commissions have been reserved for cadets at
Sandhurst, and those who pass the direct examination have only obtained
commissions by purchase.
REGULATIONS IN FORCE IN 1869.
I. The examinations of candidates for direct commissions will be held
in London at such periods as the exigencies of the service may require,
and be conducted under the direction of the Council of Military
Education by examiners appointed for the purpose. The number of
candidates summoned to attend each examination will be limited to the
requirements of the service.
II. The age of candidates examined for direct appointments will be,
until further notice, from 17 to 20 years for the infantry, from 17 to
22 years for the cavalry, and from 17 to 26 years for colonial corps.
III. The candidate will be examined by a medical board, to ascertain
that he is in every point of view, as regards his physical constitution,
fit for military service.
He will be required to produce the following certificates, which must
be forwarded to the Council of Military Education, 13 Great George
street, S.W., as soon as possible after the receipt of the Military
Secretary’s order to attend for examination:
(_a._) A certificate of baptism, or other satisfactory proof of his
age.
(_b._) A certificate from a minister of the church or of the
denomination to which he belongs, that he has been duly instructed in
the principles of religion.
(_c._) A certificate of good moral character, signed by a clergyman of
the parish to which he belongs, or by the tutor or head of the school or
college at which he has received his education, for at least the two
preceding years; or such other proof of good moral character as will be
satisfactory to the Commander-in-Chief.
(_d._) A statement of the subjects in which he wishes to be examined.
IV. The following will be the subjects of examination, but no
candidate will be allowed to be examined in more than _five_ of these
subjects.
Marks.
The classics { Latin, 2,000
{ Greek, 1,600
Mathematics, pure and mixed, 3,600
English language, 1,200
Modern languages (not including provincial dialects) each, 1,200
History, ancient and modern, with geography, 1,200
Natural sciences, _i.e._, mineralogy and geology, 1,200
Experimental sciences, _i.e._, chemistry, heat,
electricity, including magnetism, 1,200
Drawing, 600
V. Of the foregoing subjects, the elementary branches of mathematics
and the English language, to the extent stated in the following
paragraphs, will be considered obligatory:
1. In mathematics, 1,200 marks will be given to the following
obligatory portions, viz., arithmetic, including vulgar and decimal
fractions, proportion, extraction of the square root, and simple
interest.
Algebra, including fractions, simple equations, and questions
producing them: Euclid, the first three books.
Of the 1,200 marks allotted to the foregoing portions of mathematics,
400 will be required for qualification, and of these at least 200 must
be obtained in arithmetic.
2. In the English language, the candidate will be required to write
correctly and in a good legible hand from dictation, and to compose
grammatically. He will be required to obtain at least 200 marks in this
subject.
3. Out of the remaining subjects the candidate may select any three.
4. No candidate will be allowed to count the marks gained in any one
of the three voluntary subjects, unless amounting to one-sixth of the
whole number of marks allotted to that subject; and for qualification,
he will be required to obtain on his five subjects a total of 1,500
marks.
5. In the examination in classics, passages will be given for
translation from the books usually read at schools; grammatical
questions will be set, and English passages also given for translation
into the Latin and Greek languages.
VI. The result of each examination will be reported to the
Commander-in-Chief, and the names of any candidates who distinguish
themselves will be specially brought to his notice.
VII. An unsuccessful candidate will not be debarred from applying to
the Commander-in-Chief for permission to attend a future examination. No
candidate, however, will be allowed more than three trials.
Should a candidate obtain only between 700 and 1,200 marks, he will
not be allowed to present himself for reëxamination for at least six
months. If he obtains less than 700 marks, a period of at least twelve
months must elapse before he can be allowed to present himself again.
In all cases permission to be reëxamined must depend upon the number
of applicants on the list.
In subsequent examinations no credit will be given for the marks
gained by a candidate on former occasions.
In the event of a candidate not appearing for examination at the time
appointed, such candidate will not be permitted to attend on the next
occasion, and he will render himself liable to have his name either
erased entirely or placed at the bottom of the list of those noted for
examination.
VIII. A student at either of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge,
Dublin, London, St. Andrew’s, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, or Queen’s
University, Ireland, who shall have passed the examination necessary for
taking a degree in arts, is qualified for a commission by purchase
without being required to pass the foregoing examination, provided he is
within the limits of 17 and 23 years of age if for the infantry, 17 and
25 years if for the cavalry, and of 17 and 28 years for colonial corps,
and can produce the certificates marked (_a_), (_b_), and (_c_).
Such candidate must furnish a certificate of having graduated, or of
having passed the examinations, signed by the Registrar of the
University, and showing the date on which the examination took place.
On his application being approved, the candidate will receive an order
to be medically examined as to his physical fitness for the service.
The candidate will address his application, accompanied by the
necessary certificates, to the Military Secretary, Horse Guards.
III. PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION AS PREPARATORY TO MILITARY EXAMINATIONS.
A.--GENERAL NOTICE.
In connection with the Modern Departments, at some public schools,
technical instruction in military subjects is actually at present given.
This, for instance, is the case at Cheltenham College, the Modern
Department at which appears, in fact, to have been originally instituted
with the express object of affording means of special military
education, and at the present day is officially called the “Military and
Civil Department.” At one time, also, even at some schools in which
Modern Departments did not exist, classes were formed in which
instruction in military subjects was given to boys intended for the
army. Both at Eton and at Harrow such classes existed, and fortification
and military drawing were taught in them. The object of the formation of
these classes appears in both cases to have been to enable boys to go up
straight from school to the examinations for admission to the army,
without the necessity of having recourse to private tuition. At the time
of their institution a knowledge of fortification was required in the
examination for direct commissions, and a candidate was therefore unable
to present himself for this examination without some special
preparation. At the commencement of 1858, however, the direct commission
examinations were entirely remodelled; the small amount of fortification
previously required was at that time excluded from the subjects of
examination, which have ever since been of a non-professional character,
and more or less such as enter into the course of ordinary liberal
education. With the exclusion of technical subjects from the military
examinations, the necessity for any special instruction in such subjects
in candidates for admission to the army ceased. The military class at
Harrow seems to have died out within a few years of its establishment;
it has not been in existence during the last ten years and more. At
Eton, though the corresponding class is still maintained, the teaching
of technical military subjects in it has been abandoned. Even in the
Modern Department at Cheltenham the instruction appears of late years to
have become of a less decidedly military character than it originally
was; and fortification, which was at one time taught at Wellington
College, no longer enters into the course of instruction there. In the
Modern Side, which has within the present year been established at
Harrow, though partially intended, among other purposes, to assist the
education of boys intended for the army, no attempt is made to give
special military instruction.
The question of the possibility of affording an adequate military
education at civil schools was fully discussed by the Commissioners
appointed in 1856 to consider the training of officers for the
scientific corps.
Having arrived at the conclusion that professional military education
as hitherto given in this country has been begun at too early an age, we
are met by what may be called the extreme opposite view, which would
suggest the desirableness of giving up altogether education in military
colleges previously to entering the army, or to entering a purely
practical class or college for the special corps of Artillery and
Engineers. An opinion appears to exist that the ordinary schools of the
country are the best means of giving nearly the whole teaching of
general and even military science which is desirable for all classes of
officers before entering the army. It seems to be thought that not only
modern languages and mathematics, but military history and topography
are likely to be taught in such schools sufficiently for the highest
military purposes, and that even young men intended for the special arms
of the service may, on joining a military academy, be absolved, or
almost entirely absolved, from any other studies than those included
under the expression “_a purely practical course_.”
The Commissioners expressed their unhesitating dissent from this view.
After pointing out the difficulties of giving at ordinary schools a
complete preparation even in studies of a general preparatory character,
such as modern languages and mathematics, and the still greater
difficulties of teaching special subjects, like military history and
topography, the Report proceeds:
Agreeing, therefore, as to the fact of a “sound general education
being given by public schools,” we are unable to draw from it the
conclusion that they will “give a specific military education.” They may
indeed assist our military education, in a manner which the true sense
of the term “sound general education” expresses, by encouraging
preliminary tastes and studies, such as general history, mathematics,
and modern languages, English included, to a greater extent than they do
at present. But if there is such a thing as a science of war at all, it
stands to reason that it can only be taught fully in cases where young
officers have the passion and the capacity to begin it early, by its own
teachers, and in its own place. The teachers should be practical men, as
well as men of military science; the place a military college. And the
great schools of the country will perform the same service to such an
academy for young scientific officers as they do for places which give a
specific education for other professions; they will _prepare for it_,
but disclaim any attempt to _complete it_.
The Report of the Public Schools Commission does not appear to have made
any direct reference to the question of the possibility of giving
technical military instruction at civil schools; but the disinclination
shown by the Commissioners to recommend even the general institution of
“Modern Departments” would lead to the conclusion that they were not
disposed to view with favor the introduction of any system of special
instruction into the ordinary school course.
The question has been dealt with at considerable length in the evidence
taken before the present Commission. In addition to the evidence given
by Dr. Barry, Mr. Southwood, Dr. Benson, and Dr. Temple, to which
particular reference is made in the Report, opinions on the subject were
expressed by several military witnesses. Major-General Sir P. Herbert
considers that all which is learnt at Sandhurst--all the knowledge
requisite for a line officer--might equally well be acquired at a public
school, if proper arrangements were made for teaching it. In his opinion
fortification (including the practical construction of field-works),
military drawing and surveying, military history and drill, could all be
taught by military instructors at public schools without difficulty, and
without interference with the subjects of general education.
Major-General White considers that military history, modern languages,
and drawing might be taught with advantage at public schools to boys
intended for the army, although it would be difficult to teach the
practical work of field fortification, artillery, and surveying. Colonel
Baker appears to be of opinion that at the Universities, certainly, a
special preliminary education might be given to candidates for the army,
on a system similar to that which it was at one time proposed to
introduce at Cambridge, but which does not appear to have ever been
actually adopted. At the same time, though this instruction would be of
a special character, Colonel Baker does not seem to contemplate its
embracing strictly technical military subjects. On the other hand, His
Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge is of opinion that special military
classes at public schools would fail; Major-General Sir F. Abbott thinks
it unnecessary to establish such classes; Colonel Hort is decidedly
opposed to an attempt to give military instruction at any but a military
college, on the ground that it could not be so effectively given at a
civil establishment, and would, moreover, interfere with the acquisition
of a general education; and Lieut.-General Sir D. Cameron considers that
it would be impossible for public schools to give a thorough or perfect
knowledge of the practical subjects taught at Sandhurst, such as
fortification, artillery, military drawing, and surveying.
In connection with the same subject suggestions have been made by some
witnesses that the Government should assign a certain number of free
commissions annually, as prizes to be competed for, either at particular
public schools, or more generally amongst candidates educated at such
schools. The institution of military exhibitions or scholarships at
civil schools, and of military degrees at the Universities, has been
also suggested. By some witnesses these proposals are advocated with the
special view of inducing public schools to adopt a system of military
instruction; by others with the more general object of holding out
increased encouragement to enter the service to candidates who have had
the advantage of a public school education.
Although the question of giving military instruction at public schools
was not specially discussed by the Public School Commissioners, their
attention was directed to the results of public school education in
preparing candidates for the military examinations. Their Report speaks
as follows in reference to this subject:
The number of public-school boys who enter the army is not large. Of
1,976 candidates for direct commissions within three years, 122 only had
been at any of these schools. Of these 102 succeeded and 20 failed. It
will be observed, on reference to the returns, that this proportion of
failures is considerably below the average; the public school men,
therefore, were better prepared than the general run of candidates. Of
96 who passed at their first examination, 38 came immediately from
school, 58 had had intermediate tuition. Of the 20 who failed, 14 had
had such tuition.
The public-school candidates for Sandhurst during the same period were
23 out of 375; the proportion who succeeded being here also above the
average. Of 18 who succeeded, 11 came straight from school; of five who
failed, only one.
The scheme of examinations for direct commissions, framed to meet the
suggestions of the Head Masters of public schools, is simple and easy,
and requires nothing that is beyond the reach of any boy of moderate
industry and ordinary capacity; and it is clear that no boy, who will
give himself a little trouble, needs to forego the wholesome influences
of a great school for the sake of being “crammed” in the house of a
tutor. The Sandhurst examination is also evidently within the reach of
the schools.
The qualifying examination for Woolwich appears, before 1862, to have
required an amount of mathematical knowledge difficult of attainment for
a boy educated at a public school; but it underwent in that year some
changes which have made it easier for candidates who have not received a
special training. The obligatory mathematics do not now go beyond plane
trigonometry; and a candidate need not obtain in them, to qualify, more
than 700 marks out of 3,500; with this minimum, and with a fair
proficiency in Latin, Greek, French, and geometrical drawing, he is
entitled to enter into the competition. This standard is certainly not
so high as to be inaccessible to a boy educated at a good public school,
and from a table showing the working of the scheme at the examination of
January, 1863, it appears that of the 20 successful competitors, 11
distinguished themselves in classics; the other marks were chiefly
gained in mathematics and French. In three years, previous to this
change, 35 public-school candidates passed and 49 failed to pass the
qualifying examination, the totals being 545 and 689. Of the whole 84,
two only went direct from the schools, and these failed.
In another passage the Commissioners say: “The main studies of the
public schools being classical, it is obvious that, unless a due amount
of weight is given to the classics in the Woolwich examinations, boys
from those schools will not stand a fair chance in the competition. On
the other hand, as it is of importance that the examinations should
comprise other subjects besides classics, it is also obvious that unless
the public schools provide a due amount of instruction in those other
subjects, the candidates whom they send up must compete at a
disadvantage. It is certain that there has hitherto been a want of
adjustment between the Woolwich standard and the teaching of the public
schools. The fault, we think, lies chiefly, though not wholly, in the
deficiencies in the course of education pursued at the latter; and we
are convinced that when these deficiencies have been supplied the
difficulty which is now complained of will speedily disappear. But it is
also to be observed, with respect to the Woolwich examinations
themselves, that the scale of marks has lately (as we have already
stated) undergone an alteration, which diminishes the amount of
mathematical attainment required, and allows greater weight to classical
scholarship. It appears probable that the Modern Departments at
Cheltenham and Marlborough would not have been what they are had the old
Woolwich standard, which is stated to have influenced them so strongly,
been the same as the present; and probable, also, that they will
hereafter feel the effects of the change which has been made in it.”
III. EXAMINATIONS FOR PROMOTIONS.
HISTORICAL NOTICE.
Examinations for promotion were for the first time instituted shortly
after the introduction of examinations for admission to the army, by the
Duke of Wellington when Commander-in-Chief, in the year 1850. A circular
memorandum, published on the 14th of May of that year, announced that
all officers would in future be subjected to an examination previously
to promotion to the respective ranks of lieutenant and captain. The
first examination was to be confined to subjects connected with the
rudiments of drill, regimental duties, interior economy, and the Mutiny
Act and Articles of War. The second examination for the rank of captain
was in addition to extend to more general subjects, and to include
geography, ancient and modern history, mathematics, and field and
permanent fortification; but the examination in these subjects was not
intended to affect lieutenants who had entered the service previously to
1849.
The examination for promotion to the rank of lieutenant was to be
conducted regimentally by the commanding officer and the two next senior
officers of the candidate’s regiment. The purely professional portion of
the second examination, for the rank of captain, was to be conducted in
the same manner; with regard to the mode of testing the candidates’
qualifications in the more general subjects required in this
examination, it was stated that such orders would be given in each
individual case as the Commander-in-Chief might think proper and
necessary.
These regulations continued in force up to the time of the institution
of the Council of Military Education in 1857, although it appears, both
from official statements made by the Secretary at War, and from numerous
expressions of opinion in Parliament between the years 1854 and 1857,
that, at least so far as regarded the second examination for the rank of
captain, little attempt was made, even nominally, to enforce the
regulations. Mr. Sidney Herbert proposed, in 1854, in connection with
his general scheme of military education, to remodel the examinations
and to institute a special machinery for conducting them; and though no
actual steps were taken to carry out his proposal, the necessity of
making the examinations real and genuine tests of professional
knowledge, and of enforcing strict qualifications for promotion, was
frequently recognized in the numerous discussions which took place in
Parliament on the subject of military education during the course of the
Crimean War.
The Council of Military Education, on their appointment in 1857, were
directed to consider the question of the professional examination of
officers for promotion up to the rank of captain, and in the course of
the year submitted a proposal on this subject, in connection with a
scheme for providing instruction for officers after entering the
service.
New regulations on the subject were issued on the 19th of July, 1858,
which, while introducing little change in regard to the examination of
cornets and ensigns, rendered a knowledge of mathematics, history, and
fortification no longer requisite in the second examination for the rank
of captain. Geography, on the other hand, was still retained among the
subjects, and, as a condition of promotion to a captaincy, a lieutenant
was required “to be able to state the general divisions of the world,
the name of the capital of each nation in Europe, and the principal
rivers, seaports, and military posts in Great Britain, Ireland, and Her
Majesty’s Dominions in every part of the world.” The examinations of
cornets and ensigns still continued to be conducted regimentally; that
of lieutenants, so far as related to matters of regimental economy,
detail, or discipline, was to be made by boards of officers appointed by
the commanding officer at the station, consisting, when possible, of
three senior officers not of the same corps as the candidate.