ABSTRACT
Lord ST. LEONARDS, in moving [in the House of Commons] for returns of the numbers of wives and children of soldiers in active service in the East, or ordered there, referred to the fact that, according to the regulations of the army, the soldier was not permitted to marry without leave, or if he did so, was deprived of the advantages which he would receive in the event of his marrying with leave. He did not wish to interfere with the principle of this regulation, which he thought was a very good one; and in reference to the women and children who were the subjects of the motion which he was about to submit to the house, he was quite ready to admit that their case was not one in which Government assistance should be sought, unless an actual and absolute necessity arose for it (hear, hear). It did, however, seem to him that—considering the altered circumstances of the times— the regulations with respect to marriage might be very properly revised. They had very much ameliorated the condition of the soldier; schools had been provided for his children where, in many instances, there had been none before; and in addition to these considerations, the period of service for which he was now enlisted, made it also absolutely necessary that some new regulation with respect to marriage should be made (hear, hear). The enlistment took place for a limited and comparatively short period, at the expiration of which the soldier was at liberty to quit the service, or to renew his engagement, as he might think fit; and considering the early age at which, in most instances, the entry into the army took place, he could hardly imagine that many soldiers ought to marry during their first period of service (hear). He thought prudence would forbid this with respect to the greater number, although nobody could doubt, that, for reasons upon which it was unnecessary now to dwell, it was desirable, if not absolutely necessary, that a portion of them should be married men (hear, hear). He should be very glad, therefore, if, after the removal of the present pressure, occasioned by the position and necessities of the wives and children of the soldiers now serving, or about to serve, with the army in the East, the Government would consider the matter, with the view of making some satisfactory arrangement for the future, not only with respect to the marriages of soldiers, with or without leave, but with respect to the provision to be made for their wives and children during their absence (hear). Their lordships would remember that the wives and children who remained at home—their husbands and fathers having gone on foreign service—must be maintained in some way, and that the only question was as to the best mode of doing it (hear, hear). If he were asked why there should be any particular movement now which there had never been before, his answer was that they had improved the condition of the soldier very much—he hoped, to the advantage of the service—and that the neglect which had been shown in former times towards his wife and children they would not be disposed to show now, because it would not be consistent with the spirit of their new regulations (hear, hear). If he were asked why anything more should be done now than was done in the ordinary case of regiments going to the colonies, he would reply that this last was a portion of the common service of the soldier, which could be foreseen and provided for, but that the circumstances of the present case were altogether exceptional (hear, hear). We had a long peace, and had been drawn suddenly into war. An unusually large number of soldiers had been sent away; an unusually large number of women and children had been consequently thrown upon the liberality of the public at home; there was a strong determination on the part of the people to support the war, which had been most unwillingly entered on, to the utmost of their ability, and the feeling with which the war itself was regarded extended to the soldiers who had gone forth to fight our battles; their embarkation had been witnessed by thousands, who had greeted them with the most enthusiastic cheers. And surely those cheers would never have been given unless they had meant something substantial—unless they had been intended to convey to the men in whose favour they were raised an assurance that those who were near and dear to them should not be forgotten in their absence (hear, hear). As he had already said, these women and children must be provided for in some way; and it appeared to him that there were but three modes of doing it. The first was by Government aid, which ought not to be resorted to if it were possible to avoid it. The second was by throwing them on that fund which must inevitably maintain them, unless some other means could be provided by the voluntary liberality of the public (hear, hear). In many cases he believed the ordinary rule had been followed, and the wives and children had been forwarded to their homes, where they had any, or to the place where the man himself had been enlisted. But what was to become of them when they arrived there? The number of children would frequently prevent the woman from earning a subsistence for them all as well as for herself, and the necessary consequence would be that they must all go into the union, and the soldier would feel himself not only injured but degraded (hear, hear). He could venture to state as a fact that, except the idea of dishonour before the enemy, nothing weighed so much upon the soldier’s mind as the idea of his wife and children becoming inmates of the workhouse (hear, hear). It seemed to him, therefore, that the only course which could be satisfactorily taken was a course which it was not in the power of that house to adopt, but in which every noble lord within that house might co-operate—a course which he would not call charity, because charity in the common acceptation of the word would be an odious term to apply to it, but which he believed would enable them, with a little care, to provide for all those wives and children who stood in need of assistance, without entailing any great burden on themselves (hear, hear). A considerable sum of money had been raised, which he had no doubt would be dispensed with great care and economy; but it was important, in the first place, that they should not give merely casual relief; and, in the next, that they should avoid, as far as possible, the danger of accustoming the women who might be assisted to rely upon money thus contributed, and so lead them into habits which might unfit them for their position as soldiers’ wives (hear, hear, hear). He thought that these returns would enable them to come to a conclusion as to the course which it would be best to adopt (hear, hear). He had paid a good deal of attention to the subject lately, and he would venture to say that if, where there were large families, two or three children were taken to be provided for during the war, the benefit which would be conferred would not be confined to these particular children, who would be maintained, and clothed, and educated, and provided with medical attendance, but would be extended to the whole family, whose maintenance would thus be within the power of the woman herself, with the assistance of her immediate friends. In this way, at comparatively small expense, a vast amount of good might be effected; and large numbers—those who were most near and dear to our absent soldiers—be spared the necessity of applying for parochial relief. In one instance, within his own knowledge, a woman of good character, with a family of six children, having thus been relieved of two of them, had been able with her friends’ assistance to maintain the other four, and thus seven persons had been provided for, while only two were being maintained (hear, hear). There was no direct relief to the mother, but she was relieved indirectly by the assistance given to her children (hear, hear). Nothing would cheer the heart of the soldier so much as the knowledge that his family at home were cared for, and the health, and moral and scholastic improvement of his children properly attended to; and he hoped that this object might be secured by individual and voluntary effort in the several parishes, without Government assistance, which, he repeated, should only be had recourse to in case it became absolutely necessary (hear).
