TB F. ARMY ESTIMATF:I.
Tut: Army Estimetea for the enauing. year (31st March 1834 to 31st March la:15) have just appeared. They exhibit it real dvereese, throwing the complication of Exchequer fees out of the question, and speaking in rotund numbers, of 26934101. ; of which 17-2,000/. is on the Effective service, and 97,0041/. on the Non-effective. The chief saving in the former has been made in the Volunteer Corps, and by foilowing Sir HENRY PARNELL'S OW of not filling up the vacancies occasioned by casualties. The reduction in numerieal force which this has oc- casioned, is 8,151 of all ranks, including three officers. The saving in the Non-effective has principally been brought about by pursuing the same system ; the stoppage of recruiting, and the consequent cessation of transfers to the Pension-list from the active service, creating a pro- portiontti reduction in the rank and tile. The officers, too, have decreased much fits ter than those on active service. The total nume- rical reduction by deaths is 1,466 ; of which 1,1)69 are privates and nor-commissioned officers, :397 are officers or their widows. So con- siderabhe a decrease in one year, shows what might have been effected had a proper system been put in practice at the termination of the war. By this time, the Military Deadweight might have been reduced to a very small amount. Even after ell reductions, its &Loma lor the next year is 2,589,060L ; %% Inlet in 1817, two years after the peace, it was only 2,163,000L—Leiag an increase of 4:26,000L after seventeen years of tranquillity. Considering the demands upon them, the Government are maid( d to great praise for this reduction in the Deadweight. The saving in the active service appears slight, but it is perhaps better to take advaettfe of the droppings-off by casualties, than to transfer a large number of men to the Pension-list. If the present system be rigidly followed up, a very considerable retrenchment will soon be made, at till events amongst the men. The disproportionate decrease amongst the officers requires sow. explanation, make what allowance we may for the prac- tical difficulties springing front the purchase of commissions, and for a lesser tete of mortality.
For the reductions, Mr. ELLICE can only claim a proportionate praise ; but the merit—and a very great one it is—of presenting the mammas in a clear and specific shape, is entirely his own. The readers of the Spectator may remember, that we have more than once remarked mum the a ppareot precision but the real vagueness of these documents. This exists no longer. In the compass of sixteen pages, Mr. ELLICE has given us the number and subdivisions of each class, from the Colo- nel to the Private, together with their respective rates of pay, their al- lowances, Sze. ; so that the economic inquirer appears for the first time to possess ample details fur testing the propriety of the expenditure. This is the more creditable, as it is spontaneous. Although, as we observed last year, not a man of business in the House would I are paid a private account rendered as theEstimates have hitherto been presented, not one even of the greatest sticklers for economy uttered a sward (that we remember) upon their form.
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