RECRUITING. 
173 
robbing every Garrison in England, and without leaving even the 
Queen’s Guard without a relief ! So that you see the Army has been in 
a much worse state than it is in now. He suggested that the cure was 
to embody 150,000 Militia as had been done in the Peninsular War, 
when in the year 1812 no less than 211,000 Militia were called out and 
embodied. This remonstrance of his led to a certain increase of the 
Army, and in the time of the Crimea, in 1851, we had an Army of 
110,000, of whom 71,000 were at home. We all know what magnificient 
battalions went out to the Crimea—how they fought at Inkerman, at 
Alma, and at Balaclava, and how they utterly wasted away during the 
Winter of 1851-55, through the miserable administration of that period 
when the commissariat and supply of medical comforts completely 
broke down. There was no Reserve whatever to replace them, and the 
only means which could be adopted was to strip the battalions at 
home of their soldiers and send them out, also to despatch a number of 
boy recruits who died like flies, and to raise a foreign legion. Then 
came the Indian Mutiny, and after that the amalgamation, and in 1860 
the strength of the Army was 235,852 men. Then came in 1870 the 
astounding overthrow of France by Germany, and the triumph of the 
new system. It is a very old system in Prussia, and was begun after 
the disaster of Jena, in 1806. In 1870, Germany completely crushed 
France. The first time the troops really met, was in the battle of Worth, 
and here stood the flower of the French Army, old war-tried soldiers of 
considerable service, most of whom had come from Algiers, and a large 
number of whom had fought in the Crimea. The circumstances of the 
fight were curious ; whenever the French came close at hand the old 
soldiers overthrew the young ones, and as you will recollect one charge 
of 1,500 Turcos threw back the whole of the front of the 11th Corps 
through Elsasshausen into the Niederwald, but the French had at last to 
yield in face of the steady discipline and superior numbers of these 
young soldiers, and in the end their Army fled in several directions, a 
thoroughly disorganised mass. 
It was felt, after the war and its results, by every Nation in Europe 
that they could not go on on the old system, but that large armies, 
which could only be maintained by passing vast numbers through 
the ranks, were essential to National safety and existence. Lord 
Cardwell determined that we should follow the lead. He did not 
introduce compulsion, as every other Nation did, but he brought in a 
sort of hybrid service, neither short nor long. The result of it upon 
recruiting was as follows :—The figures are rather curious. In the ten 
years from 1861 to 1870, an average of 15,084 recruits were raised ; of 
these an average of 1,894 came from the Militia ; in 1881 to 1889 the 
average recruits were 31,537, of which the Militia furnished an average 
of 11,722, while the Reserve has gradually increased, and now consists of 
80,000 men, of which 52,000 are Infantry, 6,000 Cavalry, 10,000 Artillery, 
2,300 Engineers. Therefore the new system, compared with the old as far 
as statistics go, certainly has not produced a falling off. Now as to the 
Reserve ; opinions differ you know to an enormous extent ; some 
people say it is as fine a body of soldiers as any Nation could desire, 
ready at any moment to come to the front ; other people tell you it is 
a very problematical body indeed, and that it is composed to a great 
