A FRENCH VIEW OF THE ENGLISH ARMY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume V, Issue 211, 9 January 1865, Page 3

A FRENCH VIEW OF THE ENGLISH ARMY.

It is no bad thing occasionally to have the opportunity to ‘ see ourselves as others see us,’ and some little interest therefore attaches itself to the following remarks of the HZoiiiteur de V the accredited organ of the French arm, about English soldiers. °

England, a maritime rather than a Continental Power, has two land armies quite distinct —that which remains m the British Islands of which the number is restricted, and the Indian Armies, destined for her colonies, organized on a vaster scale, and from which she draws reinforcements for European wars only in the last extremity. England, having created for herself by her institutions-a situation different from that of continental nations, her army since the restoration of Charles 11. hasbeen placed in a different position from that of the other European standing armies. From Cromwell s time down to the first- French Empire the British land army was regarded in the kingdom by the nation itself as a necessary evil. The struggles it sustained in Spain, from ifiCS to 1813, and the battle of Waterloo, were necessary to give it a certain consideration, which is far, now as then, from equalling that of the navy. This reason enables us to comprehend why England, an eminently serious and positive nation, devotes to her land army only slight materials. Till 1837 the men, enlisted partly of their will, partly by force, could not, whatever services they may have rendered to their country, obtain the rank of officer. This promotion being forbidden to privates and sergeants, with them emulation was replaced only by the hope of material comfort. So it came to be said during a long time that the English army could not fight on an empty stomach. In the East we have seen the English soldiers by our side, and we were enabled to appreciate their solid qualities. But it, is not the less true that they do not posses, like our soldiers, the martial spirit which mates our armies do such great things. At the present moment, and since the Crimean war, England has on foot an army of 140,000 men from the British Islands, which does not prevent herhaving in India and the Colonies more than 200,000, who are, it is true, in great numbers natives who have enlisted for money, and 80,000 Europeans. The English army in Europe is well paid—leas, however, than that of India; it is strongly organized, carefully clothed, equipped, and armed. But we must remark that the English, being eminently loyal to the laws of the country, every military force for the maintenance of internal tranquillity is useless, so th at the troops of which the Government disposes can always, at any moment, be put in movement and sent out of tlie kingdom. As for war material, England and the United States of America have monopolized, so to speak, monster camions, forgetting that in everything there are limits which it is impossible to pass. Their portable firearms have not that disadvantage which we have just signalized respecting the artillery. Their infantry is armed with muskets, their light infantry with carbines of a simple and ingenious mechanism.