My career at what may be termed the Academy (proper) terminated with the
examinations named in the last chapter. I returned home to rest as it
were on my laurels, for I had to pass no farther examinations in order
to obtain my commission, and had merely to go through a practical course
connected with the various branches in the Arsenal, and also a course of
surveying, after which there was the public examination, which was a
mere farce, and we were then commissioned in the order in which we
stood.
Before finally leaving the Academy I once more paid a visit to Mr Rouse
and dined with him, where I met a Cambridge man who had just left
Cambridge and had taken a Master of Arts degree. When I left Woolwich
my coarse in mathematics consisted of plane and spherical trigonometry,
conic sections, statics and dynamics, properties of roofs and arches,
hydrostatics, projectiles, and the deferential and integral calculus.
In this course I had obtained a very good decimal, and therefore might
be said to have a fair knowledge of the subjects. I was, therefore,
anxious to compare my mathematical knowledge with that of a Master of
Arts of Cambridge, and discover, if possible, how much longer it would
take me to work up to the extent requisite to become M.A. To my
surprise I found that the gentleman from Cambridge knew only as much
mathematics as I did when I was in the second class, and, in fact, if I
had been at Cambridge instead of at Woolwich, I should have been
distinguished all my life as M.A., and should, of course, have been
looked on as an authority on such matters as mathematics by people who
had no other means of testing one's qualifications than by the literary
annex after one's name.
I suggested to Mr Rouse that this system of conferring distinguishing
honours on men from one or two Universities, which honours carried
weight with the public, seemed unfair to those men who were trained at
other well-known places, such as Woolwich, where no honours were given,
but where they had gone beyond the course required to gain the honours
at the Universities.
I had a long discussion with Mr Rouse relative to the course of
training at Woolwich in my time, and from what I told him we both agreed
that the course was not practical enough for a soldier, and that too
much time was occupied in theoretical matters which were never likely to
be of use to us in afterlife.
"It is," said Mr Rouse, "one of the most certain of all things, that
men who teach any subject for any length of time gradually grow to
refine, as I may term it, on that subject, and go on from theory to
theory, and lose sight of the fact that to all practical men, such as
soldiers must be to be useful, theory may be even a dangerous study.
Mathematicians," he continued, "are especially liable to drift into
these habits, and often forget that the object of mathematics is to
supply a means of obtaining results, so that they are means to an end,
not the end itself. Too, as a practical man, require to know some
theory, such as the general rules of mechanics, the way in which
trigonometrical formulas are obtained, and so on; but I don't think it
is necessary, especially in the short time you have for each subject at
Woolwich, that you should devote too long a time to mere theoretical
problems."
The defects that I experienced after leaving Woolwich were that I found
considerable difficulty in writing a clear account of any event in a
concise and grammatical manner, so that had I been called on to write a
despatch, and describe officially some action or battle, my production
would have been discreditable. I could solve an abstruse question in
dynamics, but I could not write three sentences in English correctly.
Again, as regards the method of conducting discipline with soldiers,
what their pay was, how they were paid, how men were treated for various
offences, etc, I was as ignorant as a civilian, and there was then no
preparatory training for an officer after joining the Artillery by means
of which he could learn these matters. The Engineers had then, as now,
a course of study at Chatham, after obtaining their commissions, by
which such subjects were learnt.
Defects such as the above-named have since been almost entirely removed,
whilst various other matters have been improved at the Academy,
especially as regards the feeding of the cadets, which thirty years ago
was simply disgraceful.
Bullying and even fagging have ceased to exist; and although there may
be, as there always will be, in large establishments, some young men who
are disposed to be bullies, and some others whose manners or appearance
cause them to be unpopular, yet no recognised system of senior and
junior, or of fagging, exists at Woolwich.
Thirty years ago the defect at the Academy was the hard life that cadets
lived; their food was bad, and their punishment for small offences
severe. If there is a defect at the present time at Woolwich, it is
that the cadet's comfort is too much cared for, and when he has, as he
surely must have, in even peace time, to rough it, he will not, as we
did, say, "Well, it's better than being a cadet," but he will probably
compare the damp walls of a room in some Fort with his snug room at the
Academy, and the absence of many luxuries will be felt the more, because
as a mere cadet they were considered essential for him. Taking it all
in all, however, we may fairly claim that at the present time the Royal
Military Academy at Woolwich is perfect of its kind, and the training
given there will compare favourably with that of any military college on
the Continent; that it was not always as well regulated this tale will
probably induce many to think.
Any curious or interested person may learn all about the Academy as it
is, but the strange life led by a cadet thirty years ago--the singular
inconsistency of highly honourable conduct in some matters, and
proceedings which can only be termed "brutal" in others--exhibits
peculiarities in the character of English youths which we do not believe
is entirely worn out in large educational establishments at the present
day.
In this tale it has not been our object to moralise, or even to suggest,
but merely to give a history of the life of a Woolwich Cadet thirty
years ago, and as the cadet's career may fairly be said to terminate
when he joined the practical class, we draw the curtain over the future
life of Gentleman Cadet Bob Shepard.
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The End.