Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

War, Sanitation,

Institutions mentioned:

Army

    Responds to John F Burgoyne's article in the Cornhill Magazine (Burgoyne 1860) which compares unfavourably a member of the proposed Rifle Volunteers with 'the regular, well set-up, well-stocked, well-packed Linesman or Guardsman'. Challenges Burgoyne's assumption that the 'Regular Soldier' is better suited to 'wear and tear' than are volunteers, drawing attention to the dissolute activities pursued by regular soldiers in barracks (which hardly 'fit a man to fact heavy work, long marches, a wet back, and an empty belly') and to the high mortality rates of linesmen and guardsmen reported by the commission on the sanitary condition in the Army. Points out that volunteers, by contrast, 'are the very thews and sinews of the population', who would probably have a mortality rate lower than that of regular soldiers.

See also:

CM1/1/1/4