THE necessity of Military Half-pay and Pensions has been sometimes

denied. " Let a man," say the advocates of this opinion, " be amply remunerated when on active service ; and when his services are no longer required, let him, like any other servant, be discharged." In

this view of the case, one essential element of comparison is omitted.

Almost every other calling may meet with employment from private in.. dividuals ; the professor of arms must be employed by the State, or he will not be employed at all. Assuming that soldiership is not, like

legislation, hereditary or innate, it seems but keasonable to give the means of living to men who devote their lives to a particular pursuit,

even when, from circumstances, such as the cessation of a war, the ser- vices of many may be no longer required,-or when, in individual cases, old age, infirmity,' or bodily injury, may resider it advisable to replace the inefficient officer by one more active. There are other points of difference. In common occupations, ac- cidents occur, but they are the exception ; "casualties" are the rule in war. Even in time of peace, the soldier is generally exposed to greater risk than men in more peaceful professions. He is at all times sub- jected to the effects of climate. When we consider that the military man has but one employer, that his calling leads frequently to loss of life or limb, and that a wound may in a moment, the effects of hard- ship or of climate may in a few years, break down the strongest consti- tution,-to grant a man unskilled in any other pursuit, and without health to follow it if he had the skill, an allowance for non-effective service, appears, on investigation, not altogether so unreasonable as it may seem at first sight. This theory, however, requires to be carefully applied. If we under- take to maintain a nuns for life, we are entitled to expect that he should devote his life to the science he professes. The nation has a right to demand that the soldier, like the lawyer or the surgeon, shall labo- riously train himself', and at his own expense, to the science of war, and not demand or receive employment when ignorant of the common ele- ments of soldiership. But new promotions, and the grant of half-pay, are matters which require still more caution, lest the country should be subjected to a greater burden than is absolutely necessary. The care which our Rulers have exercised in the management of this subject, may be judged of by a few facts. In 1830, the number of men in the Non-effective service exceeded the numbers on active duty by fifteen

thousand.4 Exclusive of militia and disabled officers, the number on retired full or on half pay amounts, in the present year, to 8,848.

The number on actual service we have no means of ascertaining, as the commissioned and non-commissioned officers (corporals and ser- geants) are blended together in the accounts ; but both these classes-- even taking in the recruiting service-do not reach to eleven thousand. The charge for the Non-effective service exceeds the owintenance of the Army on duty by nearly two hundred thousand pounds. if we throw the clothing into the scale, the difference between the two services is not

more than 100,0001. In 1817, two years after the peace, the charge for the Non-effective service NV1!S 2,16.3,6,G0/. ;t for the present year it is esti- mated at 2,720,000/. ; being an addition of considerably more than half a million, after twelve years of profound peace. When Government has perpetrated, when Parliament has sanctioned, such wicked and scandalous profusion, what is to be said-what is to be advised ? We are aware of the impolicy of opening up questions which prudent and moderate men may consider as finally closed : we see the practical diffi- culties which beset any attempt at an inquiry into the distinction be- tween deserved and undeserved half-pay, 87..c.-the expense with which it must be attended, the time it must occupy, the little prospect of its leading to any satisfactory result : and for these reasons, we should feel disposed to submit to the present, and do our best to guard against any future abuse. But can we wonder, that men poor and ignorant-and retained in ignorance, be it remembered, by the Good-Intent Ministry -should feel disposed to exact pledges and demand promises which persons of more enlarged experience and more extensive knowledge of affairs may know to be impracticable, though they cannot help feeling them to be just?

Army Ordnance Effestire. Eon-effective, 51,172 96,081 8,079 1'2.364 93,050 Men 108,445

93,050 1,350,502 98,192 Persons. £2,669,697 *Parliamentary Paper No. 29, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 15th December 1831. t Third Report of Finance Committee 1828, Appendix No. I. p. 30.

$ Exclusive of Governors, Clerks, Szc. engaged in active duty. lBut enough of the theory and practice of Military Dearv leIenghts. It is time to present the SUMMARY OF ARMY NON-EFFECTIVE nxnENDITunn.

Voted for 1932-3.

'Xi9025:000900 64829410 000

26,331

1741.044231

NO. Of rE11011.4.

291 Pay of General Officers 602 Full Pay of Reduced and Retired Officers 6,490 Half-pay 210 Military Allowances 1,260 1Ialf-pay Pensions, Sze. to Foreign Officers, their Widows and Children 300 Allowances to Militia and Yeomanry 3,055 Widows' Pensions 4,271 Compassionate LisLand Allowances, gic. 81,723 Hospitals, viz. Chelsea (including Management and out- Pensioners) £1,333,098 Ribnainham (including Management) 12,404

The following Tables exhibit the details of each general item in the foregoing Summary, so far as we have the means of giving them. It will be seen that in some cases these are very complete, in others as in- sufficient. Taking it altogether, the raw material was pretty ample in the Army Estimate. We generally find that the Non-effective, which in official phraseology is "not susceptible of reduction," is much more fully given than the Effective.

It should be observed, that the pay for General Officers might with some propriety be classed by the concocters of the Estimates amongst the Expenditure Capable of Reduction ; for surely a soldier's pay is not placed beyond the "omnipotence of Parliament." We may remark, en passant, that the charge for General Officers has increased by one- fourth since 1817. The number of Regiments in the Army is rather more than 100; the number of Generals, it will be seen, is 291; being within a fraction three Generals to every Regiment.

PAY OF GENERAL OFFICERS.

NOT COLONELS OF REGIMENTS. Voted for 1832-3.

4 Generals each at per Day £1 18 0 X 2,774

35 Generals 1 1 12 6 30,842

17 Lieutenant-Generals 91 Ditto ditto 1 5 0 41,518 Additional allowance to 12 of the above officers, who were re- moved in 1314 from Commissions as Field Officers and Cap- tains of the Foot Guards 1,161 GENERAL OFFICERS WHO CONTINUE TO RECEIVE THEIR REGI- MENTAL RATES OF PAY.

1 General 3 Lieutenant } as Lieutenant-Colonels of 10 Major-Generals Cavalry ..each at per Day £1 3 0 1 Major-General, as Major of Cavalry 0 19 3 37 Major-Generals, us Lieutenant-Colonels of Infantry 0 17 0 1

1 Ditto, ditto 1 3 0 J

1 Major-General as Captain of Infantry 0 12 6 13 Major-Generals who were removed in 1821,1825, and 1830, from their Regimental Commissions in the Foot Guards

GENERAL OFFICERS wHO AT THE TIME OF THEIR PROMOTION WERE ON IIALF-pAy AS REGIMENTAT, OFFICERS.

77 Major-Generals (from 16s. to 1/. 3s. a day) 25,070 Deduct 128,572

Probable saving by Casualties 3,572

291 - General Officers, Total Amount £123,000 The fourth itern, of 1,164/. in the above account, is, we believe, a specimen of what • Tories call "an arrangement." Formerly, the " Guards" were strictly preserved. An individual who once entered (and the entrée was by no means easy to procure) gradually mounted to the "top of the tree," if he lived long enough. At the close of the Peninsular War, the Duke of WELLINGTON wished to introduce some of his "old campaigners" into these favoured and fashionable regiments. But how was this to he accomplished? There were no vacancies ; the " Guardsmen" were horror-struck at the profanation about to be offered to the corps ; and had they rot been so, it would scarcely have been decent to require them to retire upon half-pay to accommodate other people. It was at last "arranged," that a sufficient number of Guards- men should be made General Officers, not only with the usual pay, hut with " additional allowances" beyond it,-exceeding, in several in- stances, 2001. a year.

We believe this is the true explanation of a "charge" which is not fully understood even by many military men. Into the propriety of preserving any regiment-into the merit of the Peninsular heroes, or the question of how far the officers "who were removed from the Guards in 1814" were entitled to remuneration-we do not enter. We allude to the circumstance merely to show how easy it is to make "an arrangement" at other people's expense.

FULL PAY FOR REDUCED AND RETIRED OFFICERS.

Persons. No. of

X "S. (I. X. s. d.

Pay. Agency. for 1032-3, Total Voted

17117 1 4511 176

1 Retired Surgeou of the Foot Guards 23 Reduced Officers of the late

Royal Invalids £4,226 7 11 Allowances to 9 Captains

of the same Carps 720 0 0 2 Reduced Officers of the late Royal Garri- son Battalion 1 Reduced Major of the late 7th Royal Ve- teran Battalion 480 Reduced Officers of the late

It. Vet. Battalions ... £79,873 15 5 Allowance to 1 Field Officer who formerly held a Com-

pany in the Invalids . 20 0 0

6 Reduced Officers of the late Garrison - Companies in the West Indies, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in New South Wales 2 Reduced Colonels of the late Irish Brigade, at 1/. 75. Gd. a day each...

1 Reduced Captain of the late Scotch Brigade 4 Reduced Officers of the late Horse Grenadier Gnarls 2 Reduced Lieut.-Colonels and 2 Reduced Trumpeters of the Life Guards 28 Retired Officers of the Veterans (under the Acts 51 George Ill. c. 103, and 52 George III. c. 151) 4.624 47 Retired Officers of Regular Regiments 5,712 602 Deduct Probable saving by Casualties (Deaths?) 3,067 Total Amount for Reduced and Retired Officers.... X 90,000 ARMY HALF-PAY. Voted for 1832-3.

6.333 Reduced Officers of Lis Majesty's Land Forces X 643,658

147 Ditto ditto American Forces 8,426 6,480 £652,084

-Deduct

Probable saving by Casualties 8,084 Total Amount of Half-pay £ 644,000 5,376 351 11,899 228 3;350

4,946 7 11

153 3 4 292 0 0 105 13 3 3 19 1 7 6 0 5,052 162 299 72,393 967 1,003 171 988 1,020 £93,067 MILITARY ALLOWANCES.

Voted for ieze.s

128 Reduced Officers of his Majesty's Land Forces X 16,859 13 Ditto .... ditto American Forces 525 50 Retired Regimental Chaplains, at 4s. a tiny each 3,650 9 Retired Garrison Chaplains, and Chaplains of Brigades, at va- rious rates 544 • 5 Reduced Garrison Officers 1,050 Reduced Commissaries of Muster 640 -- X 23,268

763

Total Amount of Military Allowances £22,500 FOREIGN OFFICERS.

HATS-PAT AND REDUCED ALLOWANCES TO OFFICERS OF DISTIANDED FOREIGN CORPS PENSIONs TO WOUNDED FOREIGN OFFICERS, AND ALLOWANCES TO THE WIDOWS AND CHILDREN OF DECEASED FOREIGN OFFICERS.

Voted for ISM.

765 Half-pay and Reduced Allowances to Foreign Officers, deducting estimated Savings from probable Casualties £70,000

75 Pensions to Wounded Foreign Officers 6,900

420 Allowances to Widows of Foreign Officers, and to Children of Deceased Foreign Officers 12,000 Persons. Total Amount for Foreign Officers, their Widows and Children £88,900 MILITIA AND YEOMANRY.

ALLOWANCES To RETIRED OFFICERS OF MILITIA, REDUCED LOCAL MILITIA ADJII- T.ANTs, AND REDUCED ADJUTANTS AND SERGEANT-MAJORS OF YEOMANRY.

No. of Great Persons. Britain.

RETIRED OFFICERS or MILITIA.

Adjutants Al

Qiuirtermasters at 58s. a day 31 4,526

17 1,351 No. of Per,ous. Ireland.

X 15 2,190 2 182 Voted for

10324. X

Quartermasters .. 3 1 54 - -

Surgeons 6 26 2,847 5 547

- - -

-

75 8,978

22 9,919 .... 11,897 ADJUTANTS OF LOCAL MILITIA.

X

1 Adjutant .... at Gs. a day

109

188 Adjutants 4 -

13,724 ..

13,833

ADJUTANTS AND SERGEANT-MAJORS OF YEOMANRY.

8 Adjutants .... at 3s. 02. a day

439

1 Adjutant 1 6 --

o•-•

-r

5 Sergeant-Majors. 1 6 -

136

- .... 601 Total of Allowances to Militia and Yeomanry £26,331 TO WIDOWS OF OFFICERS IN THE. ARMY.

No. of Annual nate 'rated "Bnk of t of Pension. for ltr.t2-3.

their late Husbands. P io

General Oflicers Col,;nela

lieutenant-Colonels £182‘2000

31 ti;ors, 1; irectors of Ilnsidlals, and Inspectors of Hospitals 70 Captains, Paymasters, Chaplains to the Forces, Deprit y In- speetons or Hospitals. Physicians, and Surgeon-Majors of

the Foto Guards 50

Sin-goons and Purveyors of Hospitals 43 Lieutenants, Adjuto ms,Physieitin,, not having served abroad as such, fl slant I nspoet or: of I lospitals, Apothecaries, Assistant Surtmons, and Ii ospital Assistants 40 Second Lieinenants, Cornets. Ensigns, and Quartermasters 36

Chaplains or iteghnents, hospital Mates, Veterinary Sur- geons, and Deputy Purveyors 30 3,055 Widows. Total Amount of Widows' Pensions £147,423

Pensions to the amount of 3001. are granted to fifteen widows by the will of the late Colonel DitouLv, who bequeathed 10,000/. 3 per Cents. for that purpose.

ARMY COMPASSIONATE LIST.

ALLOWANCES FROM THE ROYAL BOUNTY, AND PENSIONS, RC, TO OFFICERS FOR WOUNDS..

Voted for 1.8.1e-3.

3,059 Allowances on the Compassionate List to the families of de-

ceased Officers £33,479 411 Allowances as or his 3Iajesty's Royal bounty to Relatives of Officers who have been killed in action 31,609 801 Pensions, Gratuities. and Allowanees to Officers who have lost

an eye or limb, or sustained ether serious and permanent injury on Service 107,953 4,271 Total of Compassionate List £175,041

5 210 Deduc- t. Probable saving by Casualties

1,260