THE STORY OF A COMMISSION.
" Tri.E Army," says the Duke of Cambridge, "is open to the whole country. Any one may apply for admission and the appli- cations are sure to be received and fairly considered." This, we are told, is the new system. They keep open house at the Horse Guards. You knock—through the Post Office ; the door is opened ; you enter, or rather your letter enters, and if you are comme it faut, and sufficiently well backed by "persons of distinc- tion or position in society," down goes your name for a commission with or without purchase, and in due time you are summoned to undergo the ordeal of an examination before those terrible Com- missioners who invent such pedantic questions. If you are for purchase of course you provide yourself with the needful ; if you are not for purchase you provide yourself with interest. This is the front door open to the country and these are the keys. But there is also a back door. It leads through, say an army tailor's shop, or an agent's office. If you pass that way you must still find the golden key, the agent finds the interest • and you must still knock politely at the front door. It was by the back en- trance that Mr. Andrew Cuningham, a worthy young gentleman, anxious to follow in the footsteps of his warrior forefathers, en- tered the army. But there was " a screw loose " in the process, and the consequence of that lamentable hitch in the machinery employed, was that a curious story of the mode in which Ensign Cuningham obtained a commission without purchase came to light in the Bow Street Police Court.
We write with all reserve. Certain persons have been com- mitted to take their trial for conspiring to sell a commission in the army, a statutable offence ; they have yet to be declared guilty by a jury, We only aspire here to place the facts, as they appear in evidence, in a portable form. Fired by martial ardour, natural to one whose ancestors, for three generations, had served their sovereign, Mr. Cuningham desired to enter the army. his father died in the service ; his mother was poor ; but he had an uncle, Mr. Henry Bridson, a merchant, who was willing to provide the funds necessary to start the young man in life. In March 1858, Mr. Cuningham applied for a commission without purchase. In his memorial he stated that his fathers had served ; but he only sent references where he should have sent testimonials and cer- tificates. He was, besides, over age, and for these reasons his application was refused. Not to be baulked, uncle Bridson came to town and took up the matter. Ire had heard of army tailors and their influence, and he had talked to some of these magicians. One of them sent a Mr. Pugh to him. Pugh, learning the par- ticulars of the case, applied to a certain firm styled " Arm- strong and Co "; because, we suppose, no Armstrong out of Scot- land is member of it, and the persons found in the office were Eicke and Mortimer. Here Pugh learned that commissions were more plentiful and more easily obtained than usual, and that an ensigncy could be got for 200/. and a cornetcy for 2501. Eicke, however, declined to go into the business ; "they " only got com- missions " for their own people." Pugh stated his hard case to Thomas Robert Marshall, army tailor ; and Marshall prevailed on Armstrone. and Co. to do the business. The price was to be 1501. ; and Marshall promised Pugh all he could get above that sum. Marshall, however, seems to have done the work. He supplied Mr. Bridson with a form of application to be sent to the Duke of Cambrige ; he arranged " the terms," namely, 400/. to be depo- sited at White and Co.'s bank, to be paid to Armstrong and Co., when Mr. Cuningham was gazetted. Mr. Bridson consented ; saw Eicke, and deposited the 400/. It will be observed that the " terms " were more than doubled after the matter passed out of the hands of Pugh. Mr. Cuningham himself came to London, saw Mr. Edward Mortimer, commonly called the " Captain " ; Eicke, an active and adroit " party "; and a Colonel Steinbach. The young man being in these hopeful hands was soon introduced to a military tutor, in order to enable him to face the ogres at Burlington House with success ; and in the meantime his matters at the Horse Guards went briskly forward. His memorial was sent in. Sir Richard Vivian and Major-General Steele, "persons of distinction and position in society," such as are indispensable at the Horse Guards as at Almack's, forwarded "high recommenda- tions." " Henry Steinbach, Lieutenant-Colonel, British German Legion," also wrote twice in his favour. Thus thebusiness was done. The Horse Guards, in deference to the high testimonials of Sir Richard Vivian and General Steele, relaxed the rule of age which had been one reason for excluding the young man when un- friended, promised to nominate him for an ensigncy without pur- chase, and directed him to go up for his examination on the 15th July. It is remarkable that Colonel Steinbach wrote on the 14th July, pressing the Horse: Guards to allow Mr. Cuningham to go up for examination on that very day, the 15th. Young Cutting- ham passed his examination. Marshall now wrote to uncle Brid- son telling him that an extra twenty guineas "in the proper quarter " would probably get the nephew gazetted at once. But uncle Bridson thought perhaps that he had done enough and had bled enough, and refused to bleed more. In September Mr. An- drew Cuningham became an ensign in the 13th Light Infantry. ; and on the 27th of that month Mr. Eioke went to White and Co.'s and transferred Mr. Bridson's 4001. to the account of "Arm- strong and Co." On the same day Bloke drew a check for 2001. to Marshall, and a check for 501. to Mortimer. " Other checks were drawn at the same time by Eioke in favour of officers and others," among them Mrs. and Miss Eicke. Marshall drew out his 204/. ; Mortimer transferred his 501. to his private account. But " others " shared the plunder. Who were they ? Mr. Rib- ton, counsel for Mortimer, says that Colonel Steinbach received 50/. in two checks of 251. each. Such was the way that Mr. Brid- son's money went in paying for a commission " without purchase."
How came this romance of what the French Emperor would call the region infime, into the light of the upper world ? By a familiar process. Poor Pugh fell upon evil days and descended from his high place as assistant-procurer of commissions in the Army, to the tenancy of apartments in Whitecross Street Prison. He reckoned his share of the Bridson money at 2501., the surplus over 150/. first asked by Armstrong. But the business-like Eicke said to Mrs. Pugh-
" We have nothing to do with it. We did not recognize Pugh in the transaction. Our agreement was with Marshall, and whatever he arranged with Pugh he ought to act up to, but we have no power to compel him."
Marshall offered 51. balance of an account with Pugh ; after- wards offered 57/. ; finally refused to pay anything. Pcgh informed the Horse Guards ; the Commander-in-chief ordered a prosecution ; Mortimer and Marshall were arrested ; Eicke slipped away out of reach ; Steinbach, not included in the prosecution, but useful as a witness at least, went to the Continent to look after family af- fairs ; and had not returned on Monday, when Mortimer and Marshall were eommitted for trial. Had Mr. Pugh been paid it is difficult to suppose that Armstrong and Co. would not be now pursuing their business as agents for getting commissions in the Army.
The Horse Guards come out very well from the investigation. No sort of imputation attaches to the Duke of Cambridge or Sir Charles Yorke. But they should evidently keep a sharper look- out upon the tailors and upon negotiations for commissions, how- ever unrecognized." The correspondence produced at Bow Street reveals the items of a flourishing trade in commissions. Here are specimens of the letters found on the premises of Arm- strong and Co.
" Dear Eicke—All right with Blakeney. Let Mortimer send in another application at once. I hope for luck with Scarlett. " Yours sincerely, W. Don."
" Dear Captain—Let your brother send in another memorial, stating full particulars, viz., by whom he was recommended, the names of the colonels who recommended him, with any other claims he can think of. I doubt not he will get it. Let him send it direct to the Horse Guards, as Sir E. B. will say there is one coming in.
" Yours truly, W. E. MOLE." Again Eicke writes—.
" Although Morell has received a denial yet I can bet you anything you like that if General Scarlett's interest can get it he will have it, and so will your brother get his majority. I myself posted the letter to Sir E. Blakeney and General Scarlett, so I know there is no mistake about that."
There are other letters referring to other negotiations of the same kind, showing a flourishing business connexion. If this case has no other good effect we trust it will open the eyes of the public and induce persons to take the more open and direct course of making properly attested applications to the Horse Guards, where, as the Commander-in-Chief tells us, all applications are sure to bZ received and fairly considered. We cannot but think, however, that the system of purchase and sale, whether legal, as when the regulation price is paid, or illegal, as when prices in excess of the regulations are paid—at which the Horse Guards is obliged to wink hard—has something to do with the current no- tion that commissions can be had for money judiciously paid to army tailors and firms like that of Mr. Eicke. This notion of corruption in connexion with army patronage, the authorities at the Horse Guards should do their utmost to destroy. It would be a severe measure, but perhaps a beneficial example, were Mr. Cuningham's illegally obtained commission cancelled. It might teach parents and guardians to eschew the crooked paths that lead into the Horse Guards.
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