Preparations for foreign war arc in progress. A circular from
the .Recruiting Department of the Horse Guards directs command- ing-officers to recruit their respective regiments, if stationed at Inane, to "their full establishment of 739 rank and file ;" and if abroad, not in India, to " 769 rank and file :" and this order is to he executed " with the least possible delay." Another announce- ment of the week is, that several ships of war arc to be put in com- mission, anti fitted for immediate service. Among them is the Powerful, to be commanded by the gallant Captain Napier, and. sent to the Mediterranean.
Where is the money to come from ? Arc there to be new taxes or loans? Both probably : but a stout opposition should be offered to the renewal of the loan system. Let the country know and be made to feel at once the burden of increased expenditure. The extreme unpopularity of new taxes will induce the Government to make the present revenue available to its full extent by careful ma- nagement and needful correction of abuse§. The caution is espe- cially required, because the fatal disposition to be generous seems to have taken possession of' the Secretary at War. A circular from the War Office informs commanding-officers of regiments, that . . . . "the deductions to which certain ranks of officers of Infantry, when holding Staff or Garrison appointments, or any other military situations, were subject under the old regulations, increasing the pay of those ranks, and which were made fixed deductions from their Staff pay hy the Royal warrant of 30th of July 1830, shall cease from the 1st of January next."
The meaning of this not very clearly expressed communication seems to be, that whereas the pay of officers of Infantry, increased
under old regulations, was, in 1830, made subject to reduction when the same officers obtained Staff or Garrison appointments, the reductions are not henceforth to be made, though the increased pay is to be continued. Lord Howicx sap that he has "great pleasure in conveying to the Army her Majesty's commands on this sub- ject;" and no doubt the Army are much obliged to the Queen and her Secretary at War : but whether her Majesty's loyal subjects, at whose cost the liberality is practised, will be so well pleased with a measure increasing the expenditure of the Army, and setting an example of restored profusion for all the departments, is another question. Lord Howica should be made to explain, why Infantry officers, holding Garrison or other appointments, deserve higher pay now than in 1830. We should not wonder if the higher price of provisions were assigned as the sufficient cause : which it may be —only if that species of "equitable adjustment" stop at "certain ranks" of military gentlemen, holding advantageous appointments, the "adjustment.. will give rise to many invidious comparisons.
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