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would, as every one is well aware, discredit and shatter our system beyond hope of reconstruction.

But there are other and even graver reasons why the present system of voluntary enlistment cannot, in the nature of things, be made to last much longer. Socialism and socialistic principles have certainly made some progress in England during recent years, and there is some reason to fear that the army may have to a certain degree become infected by such principles. Indeed, when one considers the classes from which our recruits are mainly drawn, one sees that it is quite possible that this may be the case. Recent outbreaks of insubordination and grave breaches of discipline have, rightly or wrongly, been asserted to have been in some degree due to such causes as these. But without attributing any great importance to such statements or opinions, it may be remarked that it has not escaped observation or comment, either in our own or in foreign armies,1 that these of fences have been leniently dealt with, and that far less severe punishment has been meted out to the offenders than would have been awarded in any foreign army. The real fact is, that with a voluntary system of enlistment like ours, the military authorities cannot afford to be severe, because in that case the army would cease to attract even the few recruits who can now be induced to enlist.

For similar reasons, in peace time there is a certain amount of work which can be demanded from our soldiers with safety; but as soon as the military authorities, as represented either by a general or commanding officer of a regi

ment, begins to go much beyond this point, there is always a risk of rendering the service unpopular, or, in the case of a regiment, provoking an outbreak of insubordination. Hence, any commanding officer who is wise and prudent, in his own interest and in that of his regiment, takes care to pay due heed to these considerations, and keeps himself well posted in the amount of work which his men are daily doing, in order to avoid giving cause for discontent, and possibly acts of insubordination. It is needless to say that the men as well as the officers see and know all this, and are perfectly well aware that the military authorities dare not punish mutinous offenders in such a way as would really deter others from following their example. This is the real secret of the frequent relaxations of discipline which have been witnessed during recent years of offences formerly punished by courts-martial being now dealt with by commanding officers, &c., &c. . It must be evident to every one that, under such a condition of things, the discipline of an army cannot be efficiently maintained, but must inevitably, as we are forced to fill our ranks with worse and worse material, go from bad to worse.

After a due consideration of all these figures and facts, can any one who honestly wishes to judge the question have any doubts as to the increasing unpopularity of army service throughout the United Kingdom, or fail to see that, if our army is to be maintained at all, some very material changes and reforms will have to be made in order to secure a sufficient number of recruits every year?

1 The comments of the foreign military press, especially of the German military organs, upon these matters last summer were very strong and outspoken.

It may surely be asked why it is that, in a country like ours, where Government service under the Crown, even in the lowest ranks, is so eagerly coveted and competed for, whether it be in the police, the navy, the customs, or the postoffice, the army should be the sole exception? Why is it that service in the ranks is boycotted, banned, and barred by the mass of the people, and is deemed by thousands still to be a mark and a badge of social degradation and downfall? Why is it that, in a country where the population is redundant, where the struggle for a bare livelihood is so intense, remorseless, and fierce, and where thousands of youths have no chance or avenue of employment in the skilled or unskilled labour market-nay, more, where many of them are actually in want of sufficient food from day to day-these destitute youths will, it would appear, do almost anything sooner than don the Queen's uniform, whereby, in addition to other advantages, they would secure for themselves comfortable and regular shelter, clothing, and food?

Surely these things are to the general public a paradox and a puzzle, and betoken plainly that there is something radically wrong in the system at present in vogue. The consideration of the causes and reasons which have brought the

present lamentable state of things to pass, and of the measures which will have to be adopted in the near future to make the service more attractive, are, I need hardly say, wide questions, which would lead me far beyond the limits of this article. This side of the question I must therefore leave for the present, in the hope that I may have a future opportunity of discussing it. F. CHENEVIX TRENCH.

Note.-The vastly increased immigration into England of thousands of almost destitute foreign labourers, which has been taking place during late years, is, or rather ought to be, a factor in favour of recruiting. These immigrants, by their poorer standard of living, cheaper habits of life, and their willingness to accept starvation wages for all kinds of the cheaper forms of unskilled labour, are constantly ousting and displacing large numbers of unskilled English workmen, and thereby rendering it increasingly difficult for them to obtain work in civil life. These unskilled workmen are, of course, the very class from which our recruits are largely drawn. In 1880, the number of these foreign immigrants was 68,316; in 1889, the number rose to 147,398. Vide Emigration and Immigration Returns.

ALEXANDER WILLIAM KINGLAKE.

MR KINGLAKE could scarcely be called a contributor to 'Blackwood,' for he never wrote in it but once, when a sentence which he had intended to be introductory to the narrative of an incident in the French Revolution grew into a paper highly characteristic of its writer. But for more than thirty years he had been the close friend of the late and then of the present Editor of this Magazine, in which his writings were frequently the subject of discussion; and they have been the publishers of the successive volumes of his well-known history of the War in the Crimea, the first of which appeared in 1863 and the last in 1887; throughout which period their relations of business and of friendship were close and constant. It is fitting, therefore, that these pages should contain some tribute to one who leaves a name so eminent in literature, and who lived on terms so intimate not only with the conductors of this Magazine, but with many of their friends and contributors.

It is affirmed on excellent authority that Kinglake was born, not as commonly stated in 1811, but in 1809. He went to Cambridge in 1828, and was the contemporary there of Tennyson, Thackeray, Monckton Milnes, and others who rose to eminence. Without making himself remarkable there as a student of subjects which lead to honours, or of general literature, he was socially noted as a sayer of that kind of epigram, the force and neatness of which infuses such a special flavour into his writings. And doubtless there was already apparent that

meditative habit of mind which was afterwards SO distinctive of him, and which led him in discussing common matters to take views so original and unexpected.

His repute might never have extended beyond the circle of his immediate acquaintance for he never showed himself competitive or ambitious-but for his famous journey to the East. The interior of Turkey, the Troad, Cyprus, the Desert, Damascus, were comparatively untrodden ground half a century ago, and the notes he took had all the freshness and picturesqueness which come from the endeavour of so original an observer to depict what is at once deeply interesting and little known. But the first casting of these notes into shape was by no means what was finally given to the world. For many years the most fastidious taste was constantly at work upon it, altering, blotting, expanding, and polishing. Nobody who has observed the fatal effects which have often attended this process, or, indeed, who has considered the matter from the common-sense point of view only, would recommend such a concentration of solicitude on a subject demanding, as did Kinglake's, no especial research or exactitude. It might well have been expected that in the long endeavour after perfection the sharpness, the distinctness, and the force of the original impressions would be hopelessly frittered away and lost. But it was the special character of Kinglake's intellect to be able to indulge all this paternal fondness, not only without injury to the subject of it, but with a

constant infusion of interest and spirit. After an interval which would in most minds have dimmed into vagueness the reminiscences of the trip to the East, the record of it came forth so rich in colour, so incisive in form, so finished in literary grace, that it at once made its author famous. Probably no book of travel which does not depend for its interest on exciting adventure or absolute novelty of subject, ever gained more celebrity for its writer. Other notable works relating to travel in the East ap'peared about the same period such as Miss Martineau's Eastern Life,' and Curzon's admirable 'Monasteries of the Levant'. without attracting a tithe of the attention given to 'Eothen.' The book sparkles with fine points like a brooch set with brilliants. The "Methley" described as his companion was Lord Pollington, afterwards Lord Mexborough; the interpreter Mysseri, kept, at the time of the Crimean war, an hotel at Constantinople, where, perhaps in virtue of the fame derived from the book, in which he is favourably mentioned, he exercised an independence of demeanour not distinguishable from incivility.

For many years Kinglake's reputation as a writer continued to rest, undiminished, on the excellences of this small volume. Notwithstanding that he was always among the most quiet and unobtrusive of men, he was by no means one of those who disappoint expectation. In his deliberative way he would always utter something worthy to catch attention. A lady whose acquaintance with persons of note was extensive, and who has been honoured by pleasant verses from Thackeray, her frequent visitor, once observed to the present writer, in discussing her brilliant

circle, "Kinglake always says the best thing."

It was when he was well on for fifty that the two chief events of his later life occurred. In 1857 he entered Parliament as Liberal member for Bridgewater, not far from which, at Taunton, his family dwelt. That this event had any important effect on his reputation or his success in life cannot be maintained. He never evinced the qualities which command the attention of the House. Matter however excellent could scarcely make effective way through his unemotional manner and subdued utterance. It is probable, too, that his literary repute was of disadvantage to him, as it not uncommonly is in the eyes of those who conduct the affairs of the nation, and frequently conduct them so badly. But the incidents of political life were often intensely interesting to him, and brought him in a wholesome way out of his shell, and into contact with the movements of the world around him. It was not merely the questions of the day that thus occupied him; the system of parliamentary business had also its charm; and up to the close of his life, he would fondly dwell, in all the detail which his singularly accurate memory supplied, not only on a political crisis of his own day, but on the forms of proceeding which attended it. But it cannot be said that, on public grounds, his parliamentary life, which lasted twelve years, need now be dwelt on.

When the armies landed in the Crimea in 1854, Kinglake's quiet but genuine love of adventure had already brought him to the scene. Landed with his pony, he was present at the battle of the Alma. Before the opening of it, when near the headquarter staff, he met with

a slight mishap from the slipping of his saddle, which was not without important results. One of the staff thus records the incident: "Lord Raglan was most kind, riding up with inquiries and offers of help. Mr Kinglake was all thanks. That night, after the battle, Lord Raglan met him wandering about, not knowing where to go, so he asked him to dinner. Of course he came, and delighted every one present with his charming manner and conversation."

Mr Higgins, the well-known "Jacob Omnium" of that time, took occasion afterwards to relate this accident in print, and went on facetiously to remark that Kinglake was "the first man who fell on the British side." It so happened that the whirligig of time before long brought Jacob up for ballot at the Athenæum, of which club Kinglake was an influential member; and the unlucky narrator of the incident, seeing too late the impolicy of his offence, begged Kinglake not to blackball him. "I will not blackball you," was the answer, but I will not vote for you." It was mainly for other reasons, however, that Jacob, who had for long been sowing similar dragon's teeth broadcast, was all too plentifully blackballed.

Lord Raglan, most amiable and courteous of commanders, followed up this introduction with a considerate kindness which was all that Kinglake could have desired, and far more than he could have expected, and which continued throughout his stay of about four weeks in the Crimea affording him, of course, many invaluable opportunities for observation. It cannot be doubted that this degre of favour won the sensitive heart of the future historian, who, as he would have been easily chilled

by neglect, was in a proportionate degree gladdened by treatment so cordial; and it is quite conceivable that he may thus have been inspired by gratitude with that view of Lord Raglan's military qualities which became a chief motive of his history. That work has been so largely discussed, and the conclusions come to about it have been so generally in agreement, that its merits and defects need not be entered upon here. It may, however, be observed of what will yet find a multitude of readers, that its matter is of different kinds, and widely various degrees, of historical merit. Of one kind are all those parts which express the prepossessions of the writer, such as the terrible caricature-so clever, yet so grotesque of the French Emperor; and of St Arnaud, "formerly Le Roy"; and the history of the origin and constitution of the 'Times' newspaper

very piquant, but apparently founded on grounds entirely fanciful. Prepossessions of this unfavourable kind found, however, an ample balance on the side of eulogy. In his 'Crimead,' the part of Achilles is assigned to Lord Raglan, and of Hector quite justly to Todleben; while on the other hand Louis Napoleon continues to figure throughout as one of those ill-disposed and somewhat futile deities who used, from their distant Olympus, to muddle the affairs of the Greeks. These representations are often supported on ingenious and refined surmises -too ingenious and too refined to afford a secure foundation. Of quite a different character are the parts of the history in which he deals with facts. These were collected with astonishing patience, and fitted in his mosaic with an interest always fresh, so that no

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