Читать книгу History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, Vol. 1 - Duncan Francis - Страница 12

The hour had come, – and the man! The Duke of Marlborough was again at the head of the Ordnance, and was both capable himself of detecting the faults of the existing system, and of critically comprehending any suggestions for its improvement which the Board might lay before him.

Never had the old system so completely broken down as during the rebellion in Scotland in 1715. The best practical Artilleryman in the pay of the Ordnance had been sent in command of the train – Albert Borgard; but two years' rust since the peace of Utrecht had so tarnished any brightness which Artillery details in England had gained in the friction of the preceding campaigns, that Borgard's task was a hopeless one. Suspicions have been cast upon the loyalty of the Duke of Argyle, who commanded the King's forces in Scotland, and certainly, at first sight, his contradictory orders to the Artillery excite astonishment. But it is more probable that the key to his management of this arm lay in the impossible task of creating order out of what Borgard himself described as "such confusion as cannot be expressed." In the month of December, the train was ordered to Scotland; it was February before they anchored in the Firth of Forth. The first orders received by Borgard from Argyle, were to send his ships and guns away to Innerkithen, and march his officers and "artillery people" to Stirling. On arriving there, he was ordered to take command of a very confused train of field-pieces, which had been ordered up from the Castle of Edinburgh. Part of this train he succeeded in getting as far as Dundee, where orders were sent him to take the whole back again to Edinburgh by water. In the following March, his enforced idleness was brought to an end by orders he received to send back his vessels with the guns, which had never been unshipped, to London. He and his men were then to be available for other service.

Such a gross case of inability to furnish, within any reasonable time, Artillery for service in the field, followed by such uselessness and confusion, could not be overlooked, nor allowed to pass without an effort at improvement for the future. Public admission of defects in a Department cannot be expected; and when consciousness of their existence is present in the minds of the officials, their manner is to suggest a remedy, but to evolve the evil, which the remedy is to cure, either from other sources, or from their own imaginations. The student, who turns from the ghastly tale of incompetence and blundering in 1715, to see what steps the Ordnance Board took to prevent its recurrence, need not, therefore, be surprised to find a very slight allusion to their own blunders, and a gushing catalogue of the benefits which will result from the adoption of their new suggestions. In fact, in their letter of 10th January, 1716, to the Master-General, the members of the Board use language of virtuous and indignant protest; and instead of alluding to the recent failures, they talk of the hardships which the existing system had wrought upon their office. It is, perhaps, ungracious to criticise too closely the language used when suggesting a really important and valuable innovation; but when we find the foreign establishments of Annapolis and Placentia, of Gibraltar and Port Mahon, quoted as the arguments in chief for a change, which would probably never have been suggested but for the conspicuous failure of the preceding year, the temptation is irresistible to draw the mask from the face of complacent officialism.

Summing the case up in a few words, it may be said that the annual cost of that part of the military branch of the office of the Ordnance which the Board proposed gradually to abolish at this time, including the foreign establishments at the places above mentioned, amounted to 16,829l. The Regimental establishment, which it was now proposed to substitute by degrees, consisting of four companies with an adequate staff, would, on the Board's calculation, cost only 15,539l.

The main reduction was to be obtained by allowing the North Britain establishment, which cost annually 1200l., gradually to become extinct, the duties to be performed by the new companies. The foreign establishments were also to be supplied in the same way. Of course, it was not pretended that all this could be done at once. But as vacancies occurred in the existing establishment, the money would go to furnish men for the cadres of the new companies, which it was proposed at once to create. And by removing the Artillery officers and the 120 gunners now on the old establishment to the rolls of the new companies, the skeletons would have a little flesh and blood from the commencement.

The details of the other economies suggested by the Board, and the list of officials whose places it was not proposed to fill when vacant, naturally excite the curiosity of the student. Surely, this time at least, a little self-denial will be practised by the Honourable Board; some superfluous clerks and secretaries will be lopped off; and after their protest against those members of the military branch who never go on duty without having heavy travelling charges and extra pay, surely we shall find some economy practised by the Honourable Board, whose members revel in these very items. Alas! no. Tradition is too strong; and self-preservation is their first instinct. There are storekeepers in Edinburgh and Fort William, whom distance will prevent from personal remonstrance; a percentage of their wretched income can safely be taken. And as for those whose offices are ultimately to be extinguished, they themselves can have no personal grievance, and posterity can look after itself. So, engineers, and firemasters, and petardiers, are marked for destruction; and the Board's sacrilegious hand is raised against the Master-Gunner of England himself!

It was on the 26th day of May, 1716, that the Regimental Baby was born. It was smaller than had been expected; but it has proved a healthy and long-lived child, and, as its nurse might have said, it has grown out of all knowledge. Only two companies – without any staff – were given at first, at an annual cost of 4891l. But, in Colonel Miller's clear language, "considering that these two companies were never reduced, and that the remaining two, as well as the field-officers, were added within a few years, there can be no hesitation about taking this as the starting-point for any Regimental Records of the Royal Artillery."

In December, 1716, the Board was able to inform the Master-General of the success of the scheme: the two companies were nearly complete; but the dream of feeding the foreign establishments could not be realized, from the fact that only half its proposal had, as yet, been carried into effect. So it was obliged to request, that arrangements for these should be made for the present, elsewhere than from the two companies at home. Ere many years had passed, the whole of the scheme recommended by the Duke of Marlborough was at work; in 1722, a Colonel was given to the Regiment; and in 1727, we find a Lieutenant-Colonel and a Major, as well as four complete companies; but in the years of comparative quiet which followed, no further augmentation took place. It was not until the year 1740, that we find two more companies were added to the Regiment.

The name of the Lieutenant-Colonel in 1727, one we have already met with, and who had seen much service, was Jonas Watson. That of the Major was James Petit. He also had seen considerable service; but neither of them in that respect could approach the brave and experienced officer to whom the command of the Regiment was given by George I., in 1722, and emphatically renewed by George II., in 1727, the celebrated Albert Borgard.