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THE GUARDS AND THE LINE.
The readers of the Spectator may remember that the officers of the Guards, with Prince Albert at their head, presented a memorial to the Queen pray- ing that they might be placed on a footing of equality with the Line in the promotions occasioned by active service. That memorial was disallowed ; the Line retained the advantages which the change brought about by the war conferred upon it. We have now returned to a state of peace, and it might be assumed that the interest in the subject had dropped. Such is not the case : there is a permanent interest in the whole matter, and some officers of the Line are disposed to press for a much larger mode of dealing with the question raised by the Guards. The fcllowing letter, written two months ago, shows in what light the subject was regarded in the camp ; and the feeling it expresses is far from being transitory.
"Camp, Sebastopol, 8th April 1856.
"A printed memorandum, signed by Colonel James Lindsay, of the Gre- nadier Guards, has been circulating here among the Commanding-officers of Regiments of the Line. It is a sort of commentary on the memorial lately presented by the officers of the Guards on the subject of their promotion. Colonel Lindsay does not advert to the fact that petitioning at all Is a breach of military discipline. Had the officers of the Line petitioned, as they might well have done, that they might be put on a footing of equality with the Guards, they would have been immediately called mutinous, and would
have been punished for such a combination. Colonel Lindsay begins by ad-
mitting that the former arrangement was unjust, and that the new one has for its object to repair this injustice ; he only complains that it does so too
effectually : he thinks that all the Captains and Lieutenant-Colonels of the Guards, who had served three years in that rank, at the period fixed by authority for the introduction of the new system, should have been made full Colonels, as were those officers of the Line who had commanded batta- lions for that length of time, taking no account of the different degree of military knowledge possessed by men who had commanded battalions com- pared with that of those who had only commanded companies of the Guards. He talks of the higher price of commissions in the Guards, but he does not mention what the difference of the price is : that in the rank of Lieutenant- Colonel I beg to record, and it is just 2601.—no such mighty matter, con- sidering that their pay is much larger than that of Lieutenant-Colonels commanding battalions of the Line, and that the officers of the Guards, on an average which I once struck, attain that position in about fourteen years, while the average in the Line was twenty-five years. I have no books or documents here, but the averages I quote, I remember, were struck from a blue-book which contained the average length of service completed by officers of the Guards and of the Line, before they got command of battalions : the average length of time before the officers of the Guards became Captains and Lieu- tenant-Colonels was omitted, but I thought it of consequence, and found it td be about fourteen years. The average, if taken now after this active war, will, I suppose, be lower in both services. Some young officers of the Guards have lately become Captains in their Regiments, and Lieutenant- Colonels in the Army, with seven or eight years' service. Colonel Lindsay does not take any account of the bad climate, and the banishment to the Colonies, which is the lot of the Line ; in fact, he calls out that the Guards have a right to a vested injustice. I, who have Served in the Crimea and in the trenches with the Guards, have seen the consequences of this rank of Lieutenant-Colonel being held by the Captains of the Guards. These officers, instead of doing duty as Captains, were put on the roster of Field- Officers ; they were senior in rank to all Majors of the Line ; and I have seen a mere boy of eight years' service detailed to command 2000 men in the trenches for twenty-four hours, and before such an enemy as the Russians This practice became so notoriously improper, that the Com- manding-officer of the Brigade of Guards was obliged to break the roster, and put older officers on duty out of their turn ; which is quite contrary to the customs of the service. The real remedy is, to take away from the Guards the absurd and monstrous privilege of holding the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel while they are in reality only Captains. Co- lonel Lindsay says nothing about this rank qualifying the Captains in the Guards to hold certain Staff appointments, which lead in three years to the rank of Colonel, while Lieutenant-Colonels commanding battalions cannot hold them ; and he overlooks the condition of this army, in which there are present three battalions of the Guards and about fifty battalions of the Line, out of which the Guards furnish the Commander-in-chief, the Chief of the Staff, the General Officers commanding two Divisions and two Brigades—total, six general officers, besides numerous other Staff appoint- ments. They also furnished the previous Commander-in-chief. There are seven battalions of the Guards altogether, and they have about 80 officers of the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, while the whole 112 battalions of the Line have not, at the outside, more than about 190. A common rule of three sum will show that the proper proportion which the seven battalions of Guards ought to have would be only twelve officers of this rank. These 80 field-officers compete with the 190 of the Line for all Staff appoint- ments; and with the greater success, because so many officers of the Guards are highly connected, and are known to the authorities from their being always in London: besides which, the Guards officers form a clique ; they are bound together by the strongest ties of self-interest and of personal friendship, and from their widespread relations with the all-powerful Bri- tish aristocracy and plutocracy, they compose a very formidable political body, combining as one man in defence of their privileges, and blinded by hab.t to the injustice of their possessing any such advantages.
"As to Colonel Lindsay's second point,—namely, that from the average he goes upon, the future Lieutenant-Colonels of the Guards will have to serve ten years at least before they become full Colonels,—I am contented to hear that is the case. They will become Captains and Lieutenant-Colonels in about fourteen years, ten more will make them full Colonels—total, twenty- four years' service whereas the Lieutenant-Colonels of the Line will, on an average, only obtain the_rank of Lieutenant-Colonel after twenty-five years' service; after which they must serve three years to become full Co- lonels—total, twenty-eight years' service, all over the world ; while the of- ficers of the Guards will have spent their time, when not on leave or on active service before the enemy, in parading at St. James's or Windsor."
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