CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



Regulation Act, like the Mutiny Act which it 

 superseded in 1879, declares this formally in one 

 of its first paragraphs. Parliament, in sanctioning 

 the maintenance of such a force, never does so for 

 more than one year and it can extinguish it by a 

 couple of votes when necessary. Practically, the 

 strength of the army for each year is decided by 

 the government of the day, at a cabinet meeting, 

 held shortly before each annual session of parlia- 

 ment. The cabinet act on data forwarded by the 

 commander-in-chief, and the decision of the min- 

 istry is carried out by the War Secretary, who 

 frames ' the army estimates,' or detailed statement 

 of the proposed strength and cost of our military 

 force, for acceptance and sanction by the House 

 of Commons. These estimates are submitted to the 

 House in certain chapters or ' votes,' and discussed 

 and criticised. Then parliament is real ruler of 

 the army in another way. Without its consent, 

 military discipline could not be kept up, or a mili- 

 tary code enforced in time of peace. In theory, 

 the army is in direct subservience to the sovereign ; 

 but in time of peace, without the special sanction 

 of parliament, the sovereign cannot subject a 

 soldier to the operations of any other law save 

 those applicable to civilians. Therefore parliament 

 furnishes the sovereign with the means of enforc- 

 ing military discipline independently of the com- 

 mon law, by passing annually the ' Army 

 Discipline and Regulation Act.' This Act super- 

 seded in 1879 the time-honoured, annually renewed 

 ' Mutiny Act,' which enabled the crown to enforce 

 the ' Articles of War,' or military code by which 

 the British army is ruled. 



The strength of the army varies, of course, each 

 year. The estimates for the year ending March 

 1880, provide for a force of 7384 commissioned 

 officers ; 17,241 non-commissioned. officers, trum- 

 peters, and drummers ; and 111,000 rank and file 

 being a total of 135,625, including the depots 

 of regiments in India, and the general and de- 

 partmental staff The following statement shews 

 the strength of the different branches of our 

 regular army in 1883-84, the cost of which is 

 defrayed from army grants: 



The total force of the British army in India is 

 about 61,000 men of all ranks. So far, we have only 

 considered the strength of the regular army ; this, 

 however, does not represent the total armed force 

 of Great Britain. From the earliest times, we 

 have had in Britain an army of reserve. In early 

 times we had the ' Fyrd ; ' then the ' Trained (or 

 Train) Bands ;' then the militia, which is the 

 modern form of the two former forces, and which 

 is the ancient constitutional defensive force of the 

 empire. The militia is not bound to serve any- 

 where out of the three kingdoms. This formed 

 the first line of reserve ; and we include in it 

 a mounted militia known as yeomanry, consisting 

 of farmers and country gentlemen, mounted on 

 their own horses, but otherwise armed, and when 

 on duty, paid by the crown. Behind this, we have 

 the second line of reserve the volunteers, who in 

 1804 numbered 405,000 strong ; and lastly, the 

 levte en masse, or general call to arms, which would 

 muster over 3 or 4 millions of able-bodied, but 

 untrained and undisciplined men. The Estimates 

 recognise four classes of reserves or auxiliary forces 

 militia, yeomanry, volunteers, and enrolled pen- 

 sioners and army reserve forces. The total num- 

 ber of militia in the Army Estimates for 1883-84, 

 is put down at 142,874, comprising a permanent 

 staff, and including the militia reserves. The 

 militia are turned out for 21 days' training per 

 annum. The yeomanry amount to 14,404, in- 

 cluding their permanent staff. The volunteer 

 force numbers, including staff, 247,921. The 

 army reserve (a body of much greater importance 

 since the short service system was introduced) 

 is divided into two classes : in the first class 

 there are 33,500 men ; and in the second, 9000 

 men. 



A general idea of our military organisation may 

 be gathered from the following statement : Since 

 1873, the United Kingdom has been divided into 

 13 military districts, each under command of a 

 general officer. Under these are sub-districts 

 in the case of the infantry, 102 ; in that of the 

 artillery, 12 ; in that of the cavalry, 2 in number, 

 commanded by colonels the whole, districts and 

 sub-districts, and their respective commanders, 





