MILITARY AND NAVAL ORGANISATION. 





all soldiers who choose to attend his classes. 

 There is also a schoolmistress, who teaches the 

 daughters of soldiers, and the sons under eight 

 years of age ; their elder sons are taught by the 

 regimental schoolmaster. In addition to ordinary 

 elementary education, the schoolmistress conducts 

 an industrial and an infant school during the 

 afternoon. If the pupils are numerous, she is 

 allowed pupil-teachers and monitresses to assist 

 her. The charge is one penny a month for each 

 soldier's child attending the school ; for the child 

 of an officer, half-a-crown must be paid monthly ; 

 and contractors and other civilians employed in 

 connection with military works, may send their 

 children to the school of a neighbouring regiment 

 for a fee of 55. each a month : the school is like- 

 wise open to the children of soldiers on foreign 

 service or orphans of soldiers gratuitously, and to 

 the children of pensioners residing near at 3d. a 

 month. It is strictly forbidden that any distinc- 

 tion be made between these classes of children in 



eir treatment in the school. 



Punishment. Implicit obedience and subor- 

 dination are the only means of maintaining that 

 exact discipline which distinguishes an army from 

 an armed mob ; and for securing this, summary 

 powers are necessarily vested in commanding 

 officers. Formerly flogging was inflicted upon 

 slight occasion ; latterly, it was had resort to only 

 in time of war. But after much discussion and 

 strong opposition, flogging was finally abolished 

 in 1 88 r, a system of other summary punishments 

 being prescribed instead. The laws of discipline 

 constitute martial law, and are detailed in the 



rticles of War. These are necessarily severe, 

 and the penalty of death is annexed to numerous 

 crimes which would be but lightly punished under 

 the civil code ; but it is usually only under cir- 

 cumstances of actual war that the full punishment 

 is inflicted. In military life the idea of trial by 

 the prisoner's peers has no existence ; the court 

 to which all offences are referred is a court-martial 

 composed in nearly every case of his superiors. 

 The powers of a military court-martial depend 

 upon its constitution as a regimental, district, or 

 general court ; but the sentence requires confirma- 

 tion by superior authority. 



The punishments usually inflicted are degrada- 

 tion of rank, dismissal (with or without ignominy), 

 loss of good-conduct pay, imprisonment, or extra 

 drill. The imprisonment takes place in a military 

 prison, of which there are several. Time spent 

 in prison is occupied in carrying cannon-balls 

 from one place to another, and then carrying 

 them back again. Added to this, the prisoner is 

 put on rations which would be called starvation 

 in a civil jail; and yet, strange to say, nine 

 prisoners out of ten come out of prison heavier 

 and healthier than they went in. 



Rewards. In the punishments, the military 

 code is severe and rapid ; in rewards, it is not 

 remiss in acknowledging merit. For officers, the 

 rewards are brevet promotion, the Order of the 

 Bath, and certain sinecure appointments. For 

 men, there is good-shooting pay ; extra pay for 

 being a good swordsman, gunner, or lancer ; but 

 the principal reward for steady and continued 

 merit is good-conduct pay, the theory of which is 

 as follows : After two years' service, if a soldier 

 has committed no offence of sufficient magnitude 

 to cause his name to be entered in the Defaulter 



Book, he is granted an additional penny a day, 

 and a chevron or badge on his arm. After every 

 five years more of immunity from heavy offences, 

 he receives a further penny and badge up to 6d. 

 a day, which he is able to hold with his pension 

 when he retires from the service. By misconduct 

 he forfeits a penny at a time, and can only regain 

 it by a period of renewed merit. For officers and 

 men there are silver medals in commemoration 

 of campaigns, with clasps for the battles in which 

 they have been engaged ; and, most honourable 

 distinction of all, there is the Victoria Cross, open 

 to all ranks for conspicuous valour in the field. 

 For officers, this cross is unaccompanied by pen- 

 sion ; but for men, it carries a pension of 10 a 

 year for life. Besides the foregoing, there are 

 rewards for meritorious service, which consist of 

 annuities of 100 a year to officers who have 

 served long and well ; and annuities of from 5 to 

 20, or gratuities, accompanied by a medal, for 

 deserving soldiers. 



Appointment, Promotion, and Retirement of Officers. 



Candidates for commissions in the Artillery and 

 Engineers, now, as formerly, must pass an open 

 competitive examination, for admission as cadets 

 to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. After 

 a course of professional study there, they pass a 

 professional examination, and get gazetted to regi- 

 ments if found duly qualified. After the candidate 

 joins his regiment, promotion is by seniority. In 

 the other branches of the army, admission and pro- 

 motion up to the rank of lieutenant-colonel was, until 

 lately, partly by purchase. A veiy small number 

 of commissions were given to non-commissioned 

 officers of high merit, and to distinguished students 

 at the Cadets' College, Sandhurst. The rest were 

 bought by persons desirous of becoming officers, 

 who, if they were not graduates of universities, or 

 promoted from the ranks for merit, passed a not 

 very stiff examination ; and if they were not 

 'plucked/ were gazetted to their regiment as 

 commissioned officers. After that, promotion was 

 by purchase the officer buying each step in rank 

 up to the grade of lieutenant-colonel, as vacancies 

 occurred ; and if unable to buy it, giving place to 

 the next man below him in rank who could afford 

 to do so. The prices varied with the rank, from 

 ^500 to s an d even higher, as fancy prices 

 were often exacted. By Royal Warrant, in 1872, 

 this system was abolished, and the Line put, as 

 regards entrance and promotion, on the same 

 footing as the Artillery and Engineers. 



An officer may rise in his regiment to be a 

 lieutenant-colonel (or to be a colonel in the 

 Artillery or Engineers), and this is substantive 

 rank; but after he has attained the rank of 

 captain regimentally, he may be granted, for 

 distinguished service, army or brevet promotion 

 up to the rank of lieutenant-colonel This does 

 not alter his position in the regiment, but gives 

 him higher rank in the army generally. A lieuten- 

 ant-colonel must command a battalion or serve 

 on the staff for five years, to become colonel. 

 There is a fixed establishment of general officers ; 

 and when a vacancy occurs in it, the senior 

 colonel who has actually served for six years 

 as a field-officer (i.e. as major, lieutenant-colonel, 

 or colonel), is promoted to the rank of major- 

 general. He thence reaches the ranks of lieuten- 

 ant-general and general by seniority as vacancies 



