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 THE 
 
 LULL BEFORE DORKING. 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR BALDWYN LEIGHTON, BART. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, 
 
 ipubli«|)er0 in 2DtDinaig to I^er iBajCiStp, 
 
 NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 1871.
 
 "For example, you Bobus Higgins, sausage-maker on the great scale, who 
 are raising such a clamour for this Aristocracy of Talent, what is it that you do 
 in that big heart of yours, chiefly in very fact pay reverence to ? Is it to talent, 
 intrinsic manly worth of any kind, you unfortunate Bobus ? The manliest man 
 that you saw going in a ragged coat, did you ever reverence him ? did you so 
 much as know that he was a manly man at all, till his coat grew better? Talent ! 
 I understand you to be able to worship the fame of talent — the power, cash, 
 celebrity or other success of talent ; but the talent itself is a thing you never saw 
 with eyes." — Carlyle's Past and Present.
 
 THE LULL BEFORE DORKING, 
 
 T has been said, truly or untruly, that 
 a certain responsible minister of the 
 Crown, upon reading the now famous 
 " Battle of Dorking," declared that 
 '' Either he or the author deserved to be shot!" 
 While these two are settling which it ought to be, 
 and while Parliament is wasting precious hours in 
 puerile and undignified palaver, it may be observed, 
 that the only question that would occur to a practical 
 mind like that of Moltke, on reading the aforesaid 
 description, would be whether our volunteer battalions 
 in their present unorganised and unprepared condi- 
 tion would have made any such stand at all against 
 '' Pickelhaube" veterans. Whether, in fact, under pre- 
 sent circumstances, there would have been any other 
 possible alternative to that described in the Black- 
 wood article except to buy out the invader without a 
 contest. And yet this may be unquestionably pre- 
 dicated of England at this moment, that in every 
 natural and warlike resource, including money, the 
 
 H
 
 2 THE LULL BEFORE DORKLNG. 
 
 sinews of war, she Is superior to every other nation at 
 present in existence. Here is a list of some : — 
 
 Artillery (inchiding- the power of producing It, 
 factories, smiths, &c.) acknowledged by Continental 
 officers to be man for man and gun for gun un- 
 rivalled. 
 
 Cavalry. — The first horse-producing and horse- 
 man-producing country in the world ; (every hunting- 
 field represents a troop of natural cavalry). 
 
 Infantry. — From Cressy to Inkerman never yet 
 beaten by foreigners In any decisive engagement ; 
 and both officers and men have, over and over again, 
 fought at any odds and at every disadvantage. 
 
 Ships. — Avowedly the first naval power, and pos- 
 sessing the best sailors ; also by far the largest steam 
 mercantile marine. 
 
 Arms and munitions of war, such as breechloaders, 
 torpedoes, and coal, — the factory of the world. 
 
 Money and pectmiary credit. — Unquestionably the 
 wealthiest nation, with the greatest power of taxation 
 and credit. 
 
 Poptdation, including India, the largest civilised 
 empire in the world ; and it has yet to be shown that 
 Indian levies, led by British officers, could not stand 
 in line with British troops. 
 
 Natural School of Military Practice. — A vast ter- 
 ritory, thousands of miles away, held by the sword, 
 and by British troops. 
 
 Earthworks, Telegraphs, and Railroads. — English 
 contractors and English navvies, that Is, both heads 
 and ha7ids, have been sought to do this work over all 
 the world, becaus\^ they do it cheapest and best. 
 
 ^^\ 

 
 THE LULL BEFORE DORKLNG. 3 
 
 And what is the sum of all this ? Simple chaos as 
 regards the state of practical defence in England, and 
 some twenty-five millions a year spent in producing 
 chaos ; with one gleam of better things in India, where 
 we are not playing at soldiers, but holding with the 
 sword one hundred and fifty millions of hostile 
 foreigners at our peril. Some apparent efficiency in 
 our fleet, but great uncertainty as to future modes of 
 marine warfare^ whether the broadside or the ram, 
 the sea-goer or the floating battery, the big gun, or 
 the torpedo is to decide these matters for us hereafter. 
 
 But some will ask, how comes all this about ? 
 Never was cause more palpable, or effect more con- 
 sequent. For some years past we have been go- 
 verned by the Plutocratic Philistine, whom a great 
 writer has christened " Bobus." From Parliarnent to 
 Vestry Bobus is king ! Cash-nexus is his only rule 
 and government ! and Anarchy is his minister ! A 
 crass, selfish, and timorous Plutocracy, destitute of 
 convictions or politics, incapable of greatness or of 
 government, and careless of national honour that 
 costs money, has so usurped the position and the 
 power of the old Aristocracy, — has so fooled with 
 '' liberal sentiments" and Cant the new Democracy, 
 that we have now come to this ; — nothing but this — 
 Anarchy plus Bobus! — or in case of actual invasion, 
 it may be— Anarchy minus Bobus ! 
 
 Such being the case, amid much doubt and uncer- 
 tainty, caused by a revolution in the art of war, a 
 strong and otherwise intelligent Government, having 
 the bugbear of Bobus greatly before their eyes, con-
 
 4 THE LULL BEFORE DORKLNG, 
 
 ceives the idea that, if it could but abolish a system 
 which has never yet failed us in war, and which 
 somehow (rudely enough maybe) provides a sort of 
 aristocracy for the officering of our army, every thing 
 will settle itself without further trouble or organiza- 
 tion. Now Frederick the Great, the father of the 
 Prussian system (which it seems the object of Mr. 
 Cardwell in some ways to imitate), expressly pro- 
 vided that this aristocracy, this higher social status, 
 should be maintained as an additional inducement to 
 his officers to carry out fearlessly their duty under 
 trying circumstances. He said, " There are or may 
 be occasions in the life of every officer, when the 
 slightest wavering may cost me the destruction of an 
 army : — I will so make it that in addition to the loss 
 of official rank and advancement, every officer that 
 so fails me shall lose honour and social caste. I 
 cannot do that with middle-class men, who will lose 
 nothing among their equals whether they fail or not. 
 My officers shall give me a material guarantee in 
 pledge, their honour, — that to them shall be more 
 than their life." Thus spoke Frederick the Great; and 
 in effect this is so provided by the Prussian system, 
 which maintains such aristocracy by a process of 
 selection to a regiment not very dissimilar to our 
 election to a club, and also by other means. But it 
 would appear that the present Government has never 
 heard of or never understood this necessity, else in 
 abolishing purchase, they would surely think of pro- 
 viding a substitute. 
 
 But let all that pass now : it is not the main point.
 
 THE LULL BEFORE DORKING. 5 
 
 Amidst all this chaos and doubt, army re-organization, 
 abolition of purchase, &c., to a practical and percep- 
 tive mind like the aforesaid Moltke, there would be no 
 uncertainty or doubt whatsoever about the matter. If 
 it were necessary for him to come with his triple 
 column upon Great Britain (and it is said that a 
 huge canal is being cut through from Kiel which will 
 make that port only forty-eight hours steam from 
 Yarmouth, while Hamburg is already Prussianized.) : 
 if he could succeed in landing two, or even one, of 
 his columns (and the fleet cannot be everywhere), he 
 sees clearly enough that there is nothing, not even a 
 torpedo or a fort, to prevent his marching upon 
 London within a week. What will Bobus and Co. 
 say then ? He must be logical under such circum- 
 stances, and he is bound to get the country out of 
 the difficulty he has brought it into. As a sen- 
 sible and practical man, therefore, he might speak 
 thus : *' Sirs, we were not quite ready for you. We 
 are not sure whether we ever intended to be pre- 
 pared for such a magnificent arrival ; but we needn't 
 fight. What will you take to go ?" 
 
 This is the only logical consequence and result 
 of the paltry policy, and puerile proposals of the 
 Government ; and it were better said out now than 
 written in blood hereafter. To this condition are 
 we clearly come. What are Englishmen prepared 
 to say ? What does the old Tory and the new 
 Radical think ? (Bobus has devoured the ancient 
 Whig), but what is any practical man prepared 
 to do ?
 
 6 THE LULL BEFORE DOI^KLNG. 
 
 Leaving Parliament discussing terms of compen- 
 sation while they ought to be considering the best 
 substitute for Purchase, and other greater matters, 
 this is what might occur to such a one incensed with 
 actualities, and unbiased by cant. 
 
 It is true we have no yet approved great general 
 such as Marlborough or Wellington ; there may be 
 some in posse, but not yet in esse. We have, how- 
 ever, some three or four men at least, who have some 
 practical ability in war — some indeed actually sitting 
 (as yet almost dumb) in the great council of the 
 nation. There is a man who once made Ireland 
 safe by a system of military organization, and per- 
 suaded thereby sundry Fenian scarecrows, and Ame- 
 rican officers v/ho had seen strategy, that invasion or 
 rising would be madness. There is another, who 
 marched up to Magdala in Africa, and in spite of all 
 we could do to hamper him, succeeded with very 
 small loss In doing all we wanted in about as com- 
 plete a manner as we generally do anything. There 
 is a general whom we have lately delighted to 
 honour, who is said to have studied the Prussian 
 system on the spot, and to regard with some con- 
 tempt our amateur organizations. There is yet 
 another commander, a man of singular modesty, for 
 whom lately scarce any press epithet was too severe, 
 because at a certain mixed review of Volunteers and 
 Regulars he dared to say that Volunteers so organized 
 would be of hardly any appreciable use in actual war- 
 fare. There are others : but if these, or some of these, 
 were closeted together, they might, perhaps within a 
 week or less, set Iforth the general outlines of a plan
 
 THE LULL BEFORE DORICLNG. 7 
 
 which, at a comparatively small cost, as In Prussia, 
 should practically make this country secure, and render 
 us no longer a laughing stock and a prey to foreigners. 
 If you wanted to build a house, you would not go to 
 a sausage-maker for plans ; if you required to con- 
 struct a railway, you would not apply to a merchant- 
 tailor ; and if you want a system of national defence, 
 you shouldn't ask Bobus. 
 
 It is possible that such a conference might suggest 
 some such plan as this (details and Finance after- 
 wards) which in the presence of a practical revolu- 
 tion in the art of war produced by improved loco- 
 motion, breechloaders, and other inventions, must be 
 specially characterized by rapidity, efficiency, energy, 
 and completeness, qualifications already old in war, 
 but apparently new to us now. Thus, then : — 
 
 I. We require, at the least, 300,000 trained soldiers 
 (exclusive of all volunteers and yeomanry, of whom 
 hereafter) capable of being embodied and completely 
 organized in a week, and moved to any point or 
 points In three days— this to include the necessary 
 cavalry and artillery. 
 
 The mode of raising and organising these troops 
 must be local, by counties, each county representing a 
 brigade or division ; and by Commands, some fifteen 
 or twenty such Command-districts contributing their 
 proportion (say 20,000 men each), all complete in 
 every arm and In every other equipment, commis- 
 sariat stores, ambulance, tents, &c., &c. 
 
 For this purpose every Command-district must be 
 embodied at least once a year for a week or a fort- 
 night, and every Iking so practised as though the enemy
 
 8 THE LULL BEFORE DORKLNG. 
 
 were in the cotmtry. Every third year at least the 
 Command-districts should be combined into armies 
 of 80,000 or 100,000 men, and manoeuvred and prac- 
 tised accordingly against each other. 
 
 2. In addition to this there must be a reserve of 
 older trained men, say from twenty-five to thirty-five 
 years old, capable of filling up casualties, or, in the 
 event of some huge disaster, of presenting the same 
 numerical front to an enemy. This reserve would 
 very largely increase in a few^ years, if the men em- 
 bodied every year passed into it, till it might amount 
 to half a million or more. 
 
 3. In the face of eventualities it would be well to 
 consider whether Indian troops could be employed in 
 this country against a foreigner ; whether 50,000 Sikhs, 
 under British officers, could be practically used in 
 line with British troops. For this purpose it might 
 be well to try the experiment with two or three regi- 
 ments at once ; or until our reserves were organized, 
 with a much larger number. 
 
 4. In view of the possible destruction of our fleet 
 and disaster to our army, a complete plan of earth- 
 work defence must be surveyed and prepared, behind 
 which an army might stand for six weeks, or as long 
 as it would be required to prepare a second fleet and 
 another army. The possible defence of every large 
 harbour by torpedo or otherwise must be organized, 
 and some three or four great earthwork strongholds 
 made, or prepared to be made, at such points as 
 shall be decided on, such as round the capital and 
 round our chief arsenals.
 
 THE LULL BEFORE D0RI<:LNG. g 
 
 5. The organization of the marine defence must be 
 entrusted to our best practical naval man, and the 
 new modes of warfare considered ; but it must be so 
 arranged that a second or even a third fleet can be 
 manned, either by recalling our vessels from foreign 
 stations, or otherwise. The subject of light unar- 
 moured active cruisers of great speed should be dis- 
 cussed, and the power of arming and utilizing our 
 Steam Mercantile Marine should form part of this 
 subject : possibly also the state of the harbour of 
 Heligoland. 
 
 6. T/ie Volunteers and Yeomanry should 7zever be 
 used in line or without Regulars. If that rule be 
 rigidly adhered to, the infantry might be valuable as 
 skirmishers when mixed with regulars and commanded 
 by professionals ; and also behind earthworks or forts, 
 -which latter might be largely manned at first by vo- 
 lunteer artillery. The yeomanry may be drilled so 
 as to do first-rate outpost service (mixed with regu- 
 lars and commanded by professionals), but they should 
 be taught to work by troops not by regiments, except 
 for purposes of organization or marching. Their dress 
 should be made more practical, and their equipment 
 more complete ; this also applies to the regular 
 cavalry. They should all be able to move at the rate 
 of forty miles a day, without baggage, on occasion, if 
 required. 
 
 The report might go further to describe how the 
 expenses and the levying of the men might be made 
 practicable and easy : tolerable to the taxpayer, attrac-
 
 10 THE LULL BEFORE DORKLNG. 
 
 tive to the men, and advantageous to the whole 
 community. For, according to Mr. Cardwell's return, 
 there are at present in Great Britain over 100,000 
 regular troops. If each of these infantry regiments 
 were appropriated to a county, or division of a county, 
 as most of them nominally are ; and if to each of 
 these were added the militia of such county, with a 
 second battalion to be raised, we should have the 
 number 300,000 or thereabouts, really raisable and 
 recruited. If, taking as many men as would volun- 
 teer from the militia (and raising the rest, if required) 
 50,000 or 100,000 men were permanently embodied 
 for ojie year at a time, we should in two or four years 
 respectively have passed 200,000 through the military 
 mill. The 100,000 a year would be preferable if it 
 did not too much disturb the labour market. By 
 enlisting these men to serve with the colours one year 
 and to be liable for five or ten years as first and 
 second reserve, to be called out in case of war ; also 
 by systematically embodying and really practising 
 them every year for a fortnight, we should presently 
 have an army of 300,000 trained men capable of 
 being put into line in ten days, exclusive of volun- 
 teers and yeomanry who might muster half as many 
 more efficients for contingent service. 
 
 Then as to cost, if each man be put down at ^50 
 per annum (^42 is the estimate, exclusive of officers 
 and transport), this 200,000 would cost us in two or 
 four years (at two and a-half or five millions a year) 
 just ten millions, the interest of which, if raised by 
 loan or terminable annuities, would not be more than
 
 THE LULL BEFORE DORL^ING. ii 
 
 ^700,000 per annum — a very tolerable burden for the 
 security afforded. After these two or four years the 
 numbers to be embodied might be reduced to 30,000 
 or 40,000 men, and the standing army proportion- 
 ately reduced ; so that there would hereafter only be 
 the expense of the annual embodiment, including 
 pension or retainer charges, such as are in force in 
 the naval reserve ; and also the interest of the debt. 
 Then as to Purchase, we recommend you (the 
 report might further say) to mind what you are doing, 
 and to obtain some szidstitute before you lop down this 
 enormous branch of a system. Meanwhile, get to 
 know what you can about Frederick the Great and 
 one Scharnhorst, Marlborough, Wellington, and other 
 practical generals. Remember what is the condition 
 as regards purchase of some of the so-called non- 
 purchase Indian regiments (the loist and 102nd, and 
 others), and consider whether, in a country like this, 
 you can altogether dispense with the influence, use 
 or misuse, of wealth, such as you see in sundry adju- 
 tancies of militia, yeomanry, and volunteers. Just 
 consider also some of the scandals and practical 
 difficulties that have occurred (not altogether un- 
 known at the War Office) in certain militia and vo- 
 lunteer non-purchase corps, where it is said that half 
 a company have sometimes resigned rather than be 
 commanded by some non-purchase officer ; or in the 
 militia, where it is said half the officers have talked 
 of resigning sooner than be associated with some non- 
 purchase officer. When you have pondered these 
 things, and found a full, sufficient, and satisfactory
 
 12 THE LULL BEFORE DORKING. 
 
 substitute, the P^crchase system should be extinguished 
 by a loan. It Is hardly fair to charge the taxpayers 
 of a few years for a costly experiment that is to upset 
 a system of two hundred years' standing. The in- 
 terest on this six or eight millions (computed as 
 necessary) would not, as terminable annuities, amount 
 to more than ^500,000 a year. Then guns are 
 required to the amount of ^500,000, according to the 
 Government, calculated to extend over three years I 
 (Think of that, Marlborough, Wellington, and Moltke, 
 we are to be ready for the *' Pickelhaube" in three 
 years ! Besides which, Mr. Card well has promised us 
 a reserve of actually 60,000 men in twelve years I f) 
 Then there will be torpedoes to procure, and muni- 
 tions of war, and the stores to replace that you have, 
 it is whispered, squandered to make a fictitious balance- 
 sheet. How much do you reckon that, Bobus ? Here 
 is a sort of rough calculation, at least : — 
 
 Interest on ten millions (terminable an- 
 nuities) required for embodiment and 
 formation of a reserve . . . ^700,000 
 
 Interest on seven or eight millions for 
 extinction of Purchase (terminable an- 
 nuities), say ..... 500,000 
 
 Guns required (to purchase at once) . 500,000 
 
 Torpedoes, and replacement of stores, 
 &c., say, one million (?) — interest on 
 same as above ..... 70,000 
 
 Yearly cost of reserve, by way of pen- 
 sions, retainers, and a fortnight's em-
 
 THE LULL BEFORE DORKING, 13 
 
 bodiment of 250,000 men (from which 
 may be subtracted present cost of 
 militia), say ..... 500,000 
 
 ;^2,2 70,000 
 
 But this is just about the sum at present going in 
 discharge of the terminable annuities, which Mr. 
 Gladstone once pointed out might at any time be 
 diverted, if necessary, for some great occasion. 
 Therefore some such scheme might be carried out 
 without the addition of any further taxation, if the 
 country and the House of Commons are of opinion tJmt 
 the great occasion has already arisen. 
 
 This is but a meagre outline of what such a report 
 might be; but to it might be added another con- 
 sideration which might go far to compensate any dis- 
 turbance in the labour market, or any expense 
 incurred under it. It is this : — ■ 
 
 English statesmen are at this moment considering 
 a mighty question called Pauperism ; some few have 
 even got to a further point, namely Pauperization, 
 which is a mightier question still. By education, by 
 organization, by voluntary and individual efforts, too 
 complicated to enter into here, an endeavour is being 
 made to '' cut off the main," that is to stop the supply 
 of paupers from that class not quite identified with 
 the " Proletariat," but living In half idleness, in 
 vagrancy, in casual wards and elsewise. Any one 
 conversant with human nature and the lower orders, 
 any one who has studied practically the annals of
 
 14 THE LULL BEFORE DORKLNG. 
 
 vagrancy and crime, must be aware that to a vast 
 number of young men between the ages of seventeen 
 and twenty, a spirit of independence, unsettlement, 
 roving, vagrancy, call it what you will, comes almost 
 irresistibly. Some return to industrial life, more go 
 to swell that great proletariat and dangerous class, 
 the problem of statesmen and the despair of philan- 
 thropists. 
 
 Now if these, or some of these, could be regi- 
 mented and industrialized by discipline and work, on 
 some such huge system as has been here put forth, 
 the hands of those engaged in the struggle with 
 Pauperization and Vagrancy would be visibly 
 strengthened, and a vast blessing would be conferred 
 upon a dangerous and pitiful, but to some extent 
 irresponsible host, for whose present condition 
 society is in part blameable. 
 
 The earthworks that might have to be immediately 
 constructed would furnish work for the recruits, as 
 well as for those not enlisted, and If payment were 
 made for work and employment encouraged through- 
 out the army, as has been urged repeatedly in the 
 House of Commons by Mr. Tracy, and again and 
 again approved by Committees and Commissions, 
 the army might in time become a vast national 
 university or training school, where every man would 
 be compelled to learn not only reading and writing, 
 but Industrial work, which is of even more necessity. 
 It is not probable that there would be any unwilling- 
 ness to engage upon these conditions ; for the recruit 
 would not be severed from his associates, nor even
 
 THE LULL BEFORE DORKLNG. 15 
 
 of necessity removed from his county. But under 
 strict surveillance, he would, In some cases, for the 
 first time learn to feel and understand the dignity of 
 labour and the need of discipline. What a revolution 
 in the status of officers and men it would come to be, 
 if, instead of a huge sink of idleness, dissipation and 
 uselessness, the army were to become one great indus- 
 trial school, a national university, an atmosphere of 
 efficiency and work, and the country were delivered 
 once and for ever, from the disgrace of panic, and 
 the no longer imaginary danger of national ex- 
 tinction ! 
 
 But if, on the other hand, the money-bags of Bobus 
 are to outweigh the intelligence of the nation, and 
 the opinions of the best military men are to be 
 shelved, disregarded, and disbelieved, the only re- 
 joinder left for them as men of common sense and 
 dignity would be this : "If you are determined to 
 be a mere workshop, dominated by shopkeepers, 
 all we can further advise is, that you send over the 
 water there to some German contractor, who has 
 made this thing. War, a study and a business — some 
 Von Roon or Von Moltke, and contract with him to 
 do the defence of this country at so much per yard, 
 or per man, or per pound, as you may think will be 
 your best mode of bargain ; — we, as Englishmen and 
 Officers, wash our hands of you altogether!" 
 
 lhiswick press imprinted by whittingham and wilkins, 
 tooks col'rt, chancery lane.
 
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