Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/650

588 feet ; kitchen and storehouse for ditto ; separate rooms for 7 staff-sergeants and 40 company sergeants. Men, 32 rooms to hold 18 men each, 45 feet x 20 feet, arranged by companies in blocks of four, with an ablution-room attached to each block ; 48 separate quarters for married soldiers, each 1 6 feet x 1 4 feet. Offices, Stores, and Workshops. Orderly-room, commanding officer s, paymaster s, and quartermaster s offices, 4 rooms; quartermaster s store, 40 feet x 20 feet ; provision and issuing stores, two rooms, 18 feet x 16 feet; armourer s, tailor s, and shoemaker s shops, 3 rooms, from 16 feet x 14 feet to 16 feet x 32 feet ; guard-room, with prisoners room and lock-up; cook-house, 40 feet x 20 feet, with separate apparatus for each company ; women s washing-house, 66 feet x 20 feet; latrines parti tioned and screened. Schools, Recreation-Rooms, Canteens, &c. -Where no garrison schoolroom exists, a building, 50 feet square, divided into 2 large and 4 small class-rooms for the school. Recreation-rooms 2 rooms, 40 feet x 20 feet, fitted with bar in one room, and bookcases in the other. Canteen bar, including counter and space in front, 24 feet x 12 feet; sitting-room for men, another for non commissioned officers, and quarter for canteen sergeant. Skittle-alleys and ball-courts are also usually provided. Where no garrison hospital exists, a complete hospital establishment, including medical officer s office, surgery, dispensary, and store-rooms, quarters for sergeant and orderlies, cook-house, wash-houses, &c., and wards for 10 per cent, of the force, are included in the barrack. In constructing barrack-rooms the beds are usually arranged in two rows, with a passage of 5 feet between the beds, and 1 foot between head of bed and wall ; giving a width of 20 feet. The barrack beds are of iron, made to double in the middle ; during the day they are folded back, and the centre of the room thus cleared. Straw mattresses, blankets, and sheets are provided by Government; also forms and tables for day use. The arms are kept in racks by the side of the bed ; knapsacks, kit, and accoutrements on shelves and pegs over the bed; 5 feet lineal space and 600 cubic feet are allowed per man. In hospitals 1200 cubic feet are allowed. In cavalry and artillery stables 1500 cubic feet are allowed per horse; the stalls are 5 feet or 5 1 feet by 9 feet, with 12 feet down the centre of a double stable, or 7 feet on each side where the horses stand head to head. Since the formation of the Control Department the construction, maintenance, and repair of barracks have devolved on the Royal Engineers ; but the charge of them when once finished and handed over, the allotment of quarters, and the supply, maintenance, and repair of all barrack stores and movable furniture, rest with the Control Department. The existing barrack accommodation in the United Kingdom, according to the new appropriation, is sufficient for about 122,000 men, 88,000 in Great Britain, and 34,000 in Ireland; and when the works now in progress, or about to be undertaken, are completed, this will be raised to about 135,000. Of this, however, about 2 per cent, must be deducted for small detached forts and coast batteries, which cannot be occupied without great inconvenience to the troops so dispersed, and a margin of at least 10 per cent, must be left for barracks and rooms only partially filled, so that the available accommodation will not exceed 120,000.

Arms, Equipment, and Clothing. The arms issued to the several branches of the service are supplied partly by contract, but mainly by the ordnance manufacturing establishments. The, principal of these is the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich (see article ARSENAL), divided into the carriage factory, laboratory, gun factory, and experimental branch. From these factories are pro duced the whole of the guns and gun carriages for naval as well as land service now in use, and the greater pro portion of the ammunition and equipment belonging to them. Rifles, sword bayonets, and swords are manufactured at the Royal Small-Arms Factory at Enfield, and gunpowder at the Royal Gunpowder Factory at Waltham Abbey; a considerable quantity of powder, however, is also supplied by contract. The various articles worn and carried by the soldier in the field, or issued to him and under his care, are usually classed under the three heads of arms and accoutrements (or equipment), clothing, and necessaiies. Of these, the first are supplied and maintained by Govern ment (though the soldier is held answerable for damage by carelessness or neglect), and under no circumstances become the property of the soldier. The articles included under the second head (clothing) are issued periodically to the soldier, and expected to last a given time ; during this time he is required to maintain them at his own cost, but at the expiration of the period, and when replaced by the next issue, they become his property. Lastly, the articles termed necessaries are supplied free to the soldier on first joining, but afterwards have to be replaced and maintained at his own cost. The articles supplied as &quot; clothing &quot; vary slightly in different branches of the service, but usually consist of a tunic, a pair of trousers or overalls, and two pairs of boots annually, and a second pair of trousers biennially. Head-dresses, greatcoats, and leggings are issued at intervals varying from three to ten years, but these articles do not become the property of the soldier when done with. All clothing is supplied from the army clothing depot at Pinilico ; a certain amount is manu factured there, but the greater part is obtained by contract, and only examined and stored there. The bulk of the clothing is sent to regiments ready made-up, in sizes according to a size-roll furnished by the regiment ; but a certain proportion is sent in material unmade, and an allowance is made to the master tailor of the regiment for making up such articles, and fitting the clothing generally. &quot;Necessaries&quot; include serge frocks or stable jackets, forage caps, shirts, socks, towels, brushes, combs, and other small articles, of which a stock is always kept on hand by tho quartermaster of the regiment, and supplied by him to companies as required. These articles can either bo obtained (on payment) from the clothing depot at Fimlico, or purchased independently ; but in the latter case the articles must be compared and found equal to the sealed patterns, and the price must not exceed the Government tariff.

England, from its insular position, has always been a great naval power rather than a military one. On her own element she has for years maintained an empire more undisputed than any power or potentate has ever claimed on land. The rule of Napoleon in the height of his fame was not so haughty and despotic on the Continent as was that of England at sea. Men still living remember the times when the British flag was saluted by every sail that traversed the sea in any quarter of the globe, and no ship, of any nation, dared to pass a British man-of-war without striking its flag. It was to the victories of her navy, and especially to Trafalgar, that England owed her immunity from invasion. It is natural, therefore, that the fame and popularity of the navy should partly have eclipsed the deeds of the army. And yet the British army has a history of which any nation might be proud. If it cannot count such a list of victories as Napoleon em blazoned on the banners of France, neither has it suffered such disasters ; and it may lay claim to the longest con tinuous history of any army in Europe. The French army dates all its traditions from Napoleon s time ; 