SUBALTERN OFFICERS. 
609 
would be occasionally away on other duties, the average number of 
classes that could be instructed at a time would be two. At this rate, 
taking into consideration the usual interruptions met with, some 
amount of time would be taken to get through the squads, and one 
drill a week each might be thought rather a sanguine estimate to 
calculate on. If the number of classes were reduced, the advanced 
men would have to be kept back, and so lose interest in getting on, or 
backward men would have to be hurried on, and would not thoroughly 
grasp what they are taught. Of course, if all fatigues, &c., were done 
by divisions, so as to have two divisions for drill and one for fatigue, 
the numbers available for each class would be increased; but often 
two divisions would be for fatigue, and great inconvenience would 
always be caused, while in many stations the plan would be utterly 
impossible to carry out. 
It appears, too, a waste of time and power to divide the first and 
second classes at gun drill in a battery of—let us say—12 men each, 
which two sergeants superintended by one officer can most efficiently 
instruct, into six squads, of a varying strength of from three to six, 
requiring six sergeants and three officers. It may be urged that 
exceptions could be made in the case of very small classes, and that 
the divisional officers could make arrangements for the temporary 
amalgamation of their small squads, but I cannot but think that, if 
once such exceptions were allowed, necessity and convenience would 
quickly make them the rule. 
If our climate were regular, if our inspections were always at the 
same time of year, if our parades took place on fixed days of the week, 
if our divisions were half batteries, if our recruits joined in large batches 
at regular intervals, if all our sergeants were good drills, and all our 
subaltern officers experienced, and if we had conscription, then the 
plan proposed might be practical, but even then it might not be the 
best for economizing labour or for obtaining the desired result. 
10. Here again the author's experience seems to have been different 
to mine, for I have always thought that, when an officer was present, 
the sergeant-major never confined men without reference to him, 
except in cases of drunkenness; and also that, when a man has been 
charged with any but trivial crimes, the officer of the division has been 
present at the orderly room, and the Major has made any enquiries of 
him that may have been necessary. 
As a subaltern myself I think we have already enough power in the 
ability to refuse recommendations for leave, &c. If these means are 
made use of consistently no further penal powers are required, and no 
record of small derelictions is kept against the men. 
The relations between the men of a battery are of too intimate a 
