LIFE IN THE ARMY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4900, 5 December 1876, Page 3

LIFE IN THE ARMY.

■A soldier has recently written a. pamphlet entitled The Profession of a Soldier ”, (Manchester; Tubbs and Brook), In which he re-marks:—-“I believe there are many men in the army, of good moral character,, but very few are religious, according ■to the true sense of the word. I am aware of the true Christian: excellence of Gardener, Vicars, and Havelock. Those npble men probably had a few followers. Would to God their name had been legion ! We often hear of the bravery and indomitable courage of British soldiers, but ! assure the reader that less- courage will suffice to face the enemy in deadly combat than to profess religion and be religious in the army. I never knew but two soldiers who were, according to human judgment, really pious, God-fearing men, and they were both employed in the hospital, and removed, out of the. way of barrack-room influ--ence. If there were more righteous officers, no doubt there would be more good Ghristian soldiers.. Officers are supposed to be ‘gentlemen,’ and no doubt they are in education ; but 1 very few : of them fight under Christ’s banner. It is much to be regretted that the Government has decided to build so many new barracks, and consequently to increase the number of garrison towns; because no sooner do the military take possession of those places than there is an influx of persons of ill-fame, and vice abounds. Soldiers are not wholly to blame for this state of things, because it is to a certain extent forced upon them ; they have nothing to do and nothing to think about when not at drill. So much sameness and repetition make ‘ a soldier’s life monotonous aud uninteresting to him, because after learning his drill his mental work is done. There are schools and reading-rooms provided certainly) and a few soldiers avail themselves of those privileges, but the many stand "aloof. The majority of men, both in civil and military life, care nothing for reading books ; then, I ask, what are such men to do in the army, where there is no rational employment for the mind ? The answer is riot far to seek; they turn to recreation, and that of the cheapest and, consequently, the grossest kind—such places as the low singing-saloon, free-and-easy, &c. At those places they indulge in drunkenness and immorality to their heart’s content. This is the very essence of a soldier’s life, and the result of a great number of men being banded together, having ho intellectual pursuits', no social position to lose, and no responsible duties of citizenship to attend , to.. Of course there are exceptions ; but it is with the rule, aud not the exceptions, that I am dealing. The same men. scattered about in civil society, might be steady respectable members.of society. A very large proportion of recruits are agricultural and other kinds of laborers, who have never been in a .place of ill-fame. Immediately they get their uniform, a pair of white gloves on, and a cane in.their hand, they are taken out pleasure-seeking by old' soldiers. The consequence is that they soon become steeped in a vice of which they had hitherto been entirely ignorant, and when once the habit is contracted it is rarely ever abandoned while a man remains in .the army. Every year this great training-school of vice and immorality receives thousands of fresh pupils, and annually discharges a number of confirmed drunkards.” —Peace Society’s Payers,