at the time, nevertheless I had to go back and
‘get myself up;' while a sick man's meal was
getting cold." With all respect to the ineffable
sublimities of Routine, this is nonsense. And
in the midst of all debate over the effect of
measures upon men, it would be well if we heard
more of the immense power of this sort of
nonsense in excluding good men from the ranks
of the army and navy. A young recruit, whose
previous education had not taught him better,
was seen by his colonel or lieutenant-colonel
drinking a glass of ale after parade with his chin-
strap up, on one of the few hot days of last
summer. Because his chin-strap was above his
nose, he was ordered to the guard-room; but as
this was the first offence of the neophyte, he
was only disgraced by having his hair cropped.
In the face of this, or anything approaching to
this, is it to be expected that the efficiency of
the ranks in an English army and navy is to be
maintained?

It is a preposterous opinion, that discipline
and reason are two different things, yet that
seems to be the opinion of some disciplinarians.
It is an equally preposterous opinion that
discipline and genial human fellowship are two
different things, yet that is an opinion held
by thousands. We humbly venture to assert
that the officer who cannot show personal
interest in the well-being of his men, regard for
their natural feelings, sympathy even to some
extent for their individual humours and cares,
without loss of authority, has yet a great deal
to learn before he is entitled to consider
himself fit to hold her Majesty's commission. It
is not only in the army and navy that men are
to be found who have a blind notion that they
lower themselves by winning their subordinates
into relations of direct personal kindness; who
have so mean an opinion of themselves as to
believe that the less intimately they are known,
the more they are likely to be respected. But
of the true officer and true gentleman we hold
that the more he is known the more he will be
honoured; the more ready he is to find out
worth in his subordinates, the more ready will
all the men who serve under him be to recognise
worth in him, and to be led by him in the
performance of their duty.

Our common soldier reckons among his griefs,
that he and five other men had eighteenpence
among them for dragging a great roller up and
down a cricket-ground for half a day at the
command of their officers. It is obvious that,
in a well-ordered service, the men would on
request have dragged the roller for a day with or
without gratuity, and would have had no other
thought about the matter than one of satisfaction
at having been able to return kindness for kindness.
As matters stand, it is known that the
Horse Guards does not control the levelling of
cricket-grounds. The soldier, except where
there are wise officers in power, hears only a
"you must," direct or indirect, and every grain
of injustice grates on the sore heel with which
he treads his path of life.

With the worst filthiness incident to
barrack life, we shall not offend nice ears, but
here is a small matter that may speak for all.
"While," says the common soldier, "it is a
grievous offence to appear upon parade with a
spot of rust upon the sword-blade, or the
slightest stain upon a belt, nothing in the
shape of a dish-clout is provided for the
barrack-rooms, whereby the men might be
enabled to clean their plates and basins, or their
soup cans. A filthy rag (hidden away before
the inspection rounds—generally in the coal-
box—for the gorge of the officer on duty would
rise at it) suffices not only for utensils, but also
for dusting table and forms—which latter must
be scrubbed daily, by order, with brushes for
the purpose. So scarce, and, consequently, so
precious do these rags become, that when a
migration takes place among the men, from one
barrack-room to another, they are invariably
taken with them—precious heirlooms that they
are—unless when the advent of a recruit
indicates the probability of gaining possession of
some clean unregimental shirt, which could be
appropriated without danger or fear of punishment.
. . . I can speak almost lightly of these
things now; they were not trifling matters to
me once. Often, when the inner man was busy
with me, have I secretly picked out a plate and
polished it, before dinner, with the tail of my
tunic, placing it at a particular spot, and
anxiously keeping my eye upon it, while the
non-commissioned officer portioned out the mess.
And many a time has it been borne off by some
other soldier who little knew how dear it was to
me."  It is in the multitude of little faults like
this want of a dish-clout, that bad management
especially consists; they go further, perhaps,
than conspicuous errors of main policy, towards
securing the unpopularity of her Majesty's
service in the army and the fleet. Blindness to
everything but routine, is a calamity in all who
command men. Living and thinking men, again
and again we repeat, are not to be managed by
routine alone: though they will gladly maintain
with its full strictness the system of which they
are part, under considerate and kindly guidance.
The orderly or cook's mate of the day had given
himself up to laborious scrubbing and cleaning,
that his barrack-room might, on inspection,
"take," as he said, " the shine out of his next
door neighbour." The officer on duty paid his
visit, and all that he said to the crestfallen
zealot was, " Why don't you have the ends of
those forms on a line with the end of that
table?"

Discipline asks a sick soldier to be ill only at
nine in the morning, when he can parade to
be marched to hospital. He may go in at
another hour if his case be urgent enough; be
there on sufferance in soiled hospital clothing—
he may not take in his regimentals, or receive
clean hospital linen without an order—and with
a small chance of medicine till the stated time
comes in the morning for the doctor's round.
The common soldier to whose experience we
have referred, went into hospital with a burnt
foot, at three in the afternoon. A medical