ABSTRACT
The existence of an asylum [the Royal Cambridge Asylum for Soldiers’ Widow], dear as it should be to every soldier of the Army, is a painful memorial of the inability of the Service to contribute towards the object which that asylum is designed to serve. It is not to be expected that soldiers, who, though more comfortably provided for than is generally supposed, are not better paid than their own class in civil life, can make any better provision for those whom they may leave behind them than their fellow-countrymen; but we decidedly hold that soldiers, if they were placed themselves under an obligation to subscribe to benefit clubs for the sake of their widows, would bring home to themselves more closely the risks of marriages; and the special dangers to which their lives are exposed, would operate with these considerations to restrain them from marrying. It is sad to confess it, but we greatly fear that the knowledge of inevitable periodical separations often encourage the more thoughtless spirits of our Army (and they abound) to form marriages which they might ponder over far more seriously if perpetual cohabitation were, as in civil life, the natural sequence of the marriage contract, and, further, that a blind sort of dependence upon the State for the ultimate support of their families, persuades others who would similarly stop irresolute at the contemplation of the compact. Whatever the motives the results are the same, and those results are certainly to be deplored. The number of soldiers’ widows is considerable, and the most that the managers of the Royal Cambridge Asylum can hope to do, provided sufficient funds can be forthcoming, is to establish a permanent home for one widow from each regiment of the Service. At present the Asylum accommodates but fifty-eight, and £10,000 are required to fulfil the noble but inadequate purpose of its origin. If every British soldier were to subscribe sixpence a piece the amount would be diminished by one-third, and the Army would be able, at an imperceptible expense, to take some share in a matter so closely affecting its own interests. It is, doubtless, in the power of privates and non-commissioned officers themselves to create a fund towards a purpose so admirable as the maintenance of soldiers’ widows. Though the comparative insufficiency of any contribution from a soldier’s pay may have served to discourage efforts in this direction, it should not be forgotten that a penny a-head per annum would produce from the Regular Army £500 a year, and that such an amount would prove a valuable accretion to the funded income, besides being a respectable evidence of the wish of the whole Army to co-operate zealously in the cause. Of course it is to be borne in mind that no institution can be equal to the demand so long as Army marriages show no decrease, and we find ourselves, therefore, revolving around the same point which is in reality the centre of the whole discussion. The Patriotic Fund cannot supply the claims made upon it in behalf of widows and orphans, and of the sad cases of utter destitution and parish relief we hear nothing. Casualties amongst soldiers are proportionately greater than in civil life, and, as a consequence, soldiers’ widows are worse off than others of their sex. The soldier is well fed and well nourished, and in this respect the laws of life are in his favour; but whatever immunities he may enjoy are more than counterbalanced by other evils. He daily succumbs to climatic diseases, and he is the victim of war; the former tells upon him with deadly effect, and the latter, if happily rare in its incidence, is terribly quick and fatal in its operations. If there be a body of men marked out from amongst all others, whose widows require some special provision, it is our Army, always, of course, excepting the Navy, to which precisely the same arguments apply; yet there exist but two charities, wholly unequal to the emergencies. And it cannot in justice or reason be made a grievance that there are no more, for, with the profoundest sympathy for our soldiers and sailors, it must be conceded that the State is in no sense liable for the support of any but those with whom it contracts and by whom it is faithfully served. The debt is a sufficiently heavy one, and, to the honour of the country, has been fully paid. Indeed, in this respect England is far ahead of all civilised nations, and we are content that she should remain so.
