ABSTRACT
In 1850 the British Army consisted of 26 regiments of cavalry, 102 regiments of infantry, the Rifle Brigade, the Royal Regiment of Artillery, and the Corps of Royal Engineers. French soldiers promised to obey “the King, the Nation, and the Law,” an equivocal oath that on occasion must have provided pretty scope for argument. The British oath merely required the soldier “to defend the Crown against all enemies” and “to obey all orders of the Crown and of the Generals and Officers over him.” The Army preferred long service because it saved the trouble and expense of frequent recruitment and avoided the apparent folly of releasing trained soldiers in their prime. To Wellington and Palmerston, the purchase system helped also to ensure that alliance between Army and aristocracy that they felt so necessary for the safety of the constitution, protecting the command of troops from the dubious hands of “unprincipled military adventurers.”.
