28 APRIL 1849, Page 12

MILITARY EXPENDITURE.

THE controversy on our naval and military expenditure illus- trates the fable of the gold and silver shield : a onesided objec- tion is met by a onesided reply, neither attaining to a true de- scription of the thing in question. Mr. Cobden, who entertains a wholesale dislike to military expenses, as an absolute evil though not altogether to be avoided, declares that "the County Members keep up an enormous expenditure for the Army and Navy in order that their younger sons may find berths." The Times appeals to Hart's Army List for proof that a commission in the Army returns but a small profit on the money invested in the purchase, and that the pay for each officer is not excessive. Now this reply does not answer Mr. Cobden, and it still less vindicates the system of purchase.

As a reply to Mr. Cobden, it has many flaws. It may be per- fectly true that, in a commercial sense, the profit on investment in a commission is small; that numbers in the Army are not con- nected with the aristocracy ; and that promotion proceeds, in the majority of cases, by certain gradations : but such conditions are quite consistent with other conditions which cannot be denied. The purchase of a commission in the Army is an eligible invest- ment, because the money sunk is quite safe, and with the an- nuity called pay it purchases social consideration. The system of purchase, although it does not in terms secure a prerogative to any class, is yet favourable to "the aristocracy," because on the whole that is the most wealthy class ; so that on the whole the aristocracy has an interest in keeping up the system, although members of other classes are lumped with men of good family. The truth is not tested by an appeal to the Army-list in the gross: there are classifications. Nobody pretends that the Marine force, of which the Chatham officers were treated so scurvily the other day, is officered principally by men of birth and influential con- nexions. The Times mentions a gentleman who bad served in the Army for seventeen years, and died in Barbados, having realized a profit of not more than four or five per cent per annum on the amount invested : but what were his connexions ; and in what regiment was he when he died ? Was it one of the West India regiments? Assuredly it was not a regiment of the Guards. Although the individual incomes, measured by an aris- tocratic standard, are not high, yet coupled with the social dis- tinction, a commission in the Army is accounted a suitable provision for younger sons, and in the aggregate the cost is carried to the highest point which could be tolerated by the nation. The fact that the commissions have been pur- chased constitutes a strong vested interest against reforms of the system. The same fact checks promotions according to merit and capacity, by the levelling influence of equal money claims ; thus obliging the public to put up with a mere average capacity according to a sort of rota, instead of having the very pick and flower of the profession ; and thus virtually aggravating the waste, by giving the public an inferior article for its money. These conditions are quite compatible with those on which the Times insists, but they materially mitigate the force of the answer to Mr. Cobden.

Nor is it at all enough to answer Mr. Cobden, since the thing wanted is, not to silence him, but to put the Army in a satisfac- tory and safe position. The arrangements which have for their basis the present system of purchase, tend to weaken the Army in various ways, but we will only glance at one. To a mischievous extent, the system tends to render the body of officers in the British Army an exclusive body, drawn from certain classes. That the position of a British officer is not uncoveted by the most influential classes, is proved in the intense competition to obtain a place on the Commander-in-chief's list for commissions ; a list, we have understood, on which persons without influence have remained for years ungratified : it is no small favour to be allowed to purchase a commission. The real people—or, to use a less political phrase, the great bulk of society—is obstructed in seeking commissions in the Army by pur- chase, and also by service promotion—a twofold exclusion. The bulk of the Army itself being excluded from commissions, the people cannot enter the ranks with the view to rising by the laborious path of service in the ranks. It is true that re- laxations have taken place of late years ; but they are barely more than sufficient to recognize a principle which is not satis- factorily observed. The effect of this exclusion is twofold. One we have already pointed out, in the repulsion of the candidates from the classes not wealthy, who might otherwise, on the spur of congenial taste and conscious ability, compete for military em- ployment. The other effect is still more serious : as the body of officers remains so exclusive an incorporation, with a minimum of inducement or facility to pass in and out of the profession, there is the least possible amount of personal connexion between the military class and the bulk of the people, including the mid- dle classes. The common soldier enters the barrack to leave it no more, and to be kept within it somewhat rigidly. The bulk of the people therefore, including the middle classes, has little personal sympathy with military affairs. Hence, probably, the spread of a strong anti-military spirit, especially among the mid- dle classes—a settled hostility to any army ; which cornea as a judgment upon the Army for its exclusiveness.