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SUGGESTIONS FOR INCREASING PROMOTION IN THE ARMY WITHOUT EXPENSE TO THE PUBLIC.

NOTWITHSTANDING the exertions which have been made of late years to accelerate the course of promotion in the British army, so that it may, in some degree, keep pace with the increasing age and service of officers, and thereby maintain a due degree of efficiency in all ranks, still the number of claimants for promotion without purchase seems continually on the increase. Nor will this excite surprise when we consider, that the mortality among regimental officers of all classes, being the principal source to which these claimants look for promotion, does not exceed two per cent. annually throughout the whole army; and if that portion of it serving in the East and West Indies be excluded, it barely amounts to one per cent. In five regiments no death vacancies have occurred at all within the last nine years; and in upwards of twenty, there has only been one each, during the whole course of that period.

It is hopeless, therefore, to expect that the army can be kept efficient in officers from this source of promotion, notwithstanding the number who provide for their own advancement by purchase; and though the warrant of 27th October last is doubtless a great boon, to such as have little expectation of regimental promotion, still as it will not, on the average, extend to more than 5 majors, 4 captains, and from 15 to 18 subalterns annually, it must be many years till the host of officers already claiming the benefit of it are provided for; and long ere then, a new class will have arisen, with claims of service as strong, but with prospects of promotion infinitely more distant than their predecessors. The difficulties in regard to promotion will thus be continually increasing, till some remedy be applied of a more extensive nature than has hitherto been adopted.

Not only are there thus increasing obstacles in the path of those who are striving for promotion without purchase, but since the sale of unattached promotion has been checked, even those who may possess the means of purchasing, find considerable difficulty in obtaining an opportunity for doing so, till it is probably too late; and many individuals of this class who, at an earlier period in life would gladly have paid for their promotion, are ultimately thrown into the already-crowded ranks of those who trust for promotion to death vacancies. In the following pages we have endeavoured to suggest a remedy for the difficulties which thus obstruct the course of promotion to both classes of officers; and as it involves no extra expense to the public, and will tend materially to improve the efficiency of the army, we trust that some part, if not the whole of the measures which it embraces, may prove worthy of the attention of those authorities to whose consideration it is humbly submitted.

One obvious cause why there are always so many old officers contending for promotion without purchase, is the want of a reduced scale of prices for promotion, graduated according to the length of service of

See "Essay on Mortality among the Officers of the British Army," published in the U. S. Journal for June last.

U. S. JOURN. No. 83, Oct. 1835.

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the purchaser. At present, for instance, there is no difference in the price of a company, whether the lieutenant purchasing be of two or of twenty years' standing, though the value of the step to the former is at least double what it is to the latter, and consequently the reward to the older officer, in the shape of promotion by purchase, is exactly in the inverse ratio of his services.

The value of any commission, like that of an annuity, must depend on the age of the purchaser; but as the portion of life generally available for military service does not, among officers, exceed thirty years, a difference of seven or eight years in attaining promotion makes treble the reduction in the value of the commission which it would in the value of the annuity. Besides the advantage in purchase which the junior lieutenant thus possesses over the senior, on account of the probable difference in their ages, it must also be kept in view, that when a seven years lieutenant purchases, he, being in receipt of 7s. 6d. a-day, receives only 4s. 1d. of additional pay for his outlay, while the junior lieutenant, who is in receipt only of 6s. 6d. a-day, receives an additional pay of 5s. 1d. for the same outlay. Thus the purchase of a company, even at the same nominal price, is on this account less valuable to the former than the latter by Is. a-day, which, averaged at 10 years' purchase, would ultimately create a difference of nearly 2001.

These circumstances operate so powerfully against a lieutenant who may have been for eight or nine years in that grade, without an opportunity of obtaining his promotion for the regulation price (and many are so unfortunate), that he then begins to hesitate as to the propriety of expending the sum requisite to attain this long-delayed rank. As his length of service increases, the idea of purchasing is ultimately abandoned altogether, and he contributes to swell the list of candidates for promotion without purchase, determined, so soon as he has attained it, to quit a profession wherein his bad fortune at the commencement of his career has thrown him too far behind to leave much prospect of future success.

If the circumstances of all those now claiming promotion without purchase could be investigated, a large proportion would be found to belong to this class, nor can they be blamed for their prudence. It is, at all times, a hard case to be under the necessity of expending a private fortune in the attainment of rank, which is so ill paid as in the military profession; but it is particularly galling when a subaltern, who perhaps has grown grey in the service of his country, has no other alternative than either to throw away his money on a most disadvantageous purchase, or submit to the mortification of allowing another, many years his junior, to step over him by the attainment of that promotion which, when of the same standing, he would have been equally willing to purchase, had he only possessed an opportunity.

We are told that the army is a lottery, but we believe there are few who will attempt to adduce any weighty reason why it should be so, or why, so long as purchase continues the principal means of promotion, the price should not be so graduated as to favour him who possessed the strongest claims from length of service.

This could never be done, we are aware, with regard to regimental promotion, unless indeed Government made up the difference to the seller; but we shall be able to point out, how the sale of unattached

rank might be so arranged as materially to lessen the price to the officer of long standing, not only without costing the country a farthing, but absolutely with a saving, sufficiently obvious to satisfy even the most rigid economist.

To promote a lieutenant to an unattached company, replacing him by another on the half-pay of 4s. 6d. a-day, costs the public 2s. 6d. a-day, or 45. 12s. 6d. per annum, being the difference between the half-pay of the two ranks; therefore, to insure against any expense resulting from this promotion, it is only necessary that such a sum should be paid over to the half-pay fund, or into the Government annuity office, by the lieutenant promoted, as will be sufficient to purchase an annuity corresponding to the increase of pay resulting from his promotion. As arrangements will be made, in every instance, that the purchaser is to be immediately brought back to full pay, giving the difference, we may safely assume that the captain receiving such difference, and who then becomes the real annuitant, will, on the average, be at least 40. The price of an annuity of 45l. 12s. 6d. to a person of that age, at the Government office, does not exceed 16 years' purchase, or 7301., even at the present price of the Funds. Now to this if we add 511. for the difference to be paid by each officer promoted, in order to effect his exchange back to full pay, the cost of each company will be 12417., and five such companies will amount to £6205

In order to effect that gradation in price corresponding to length of service, for which we have just been contending, let them be disposed of as under :

One to a Lieutenant of 14 years, at
One to a Lieutenant of 10 years, at
One to a Lieutenant of 7 years, at
One to a Lieutenant of 5 years, at

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This is equivalent to 11007. for the unattached company, and 5117. for the difference, being what is generally paid at present for unattached promotions, whatever the standing of the purchaser may be.

One to a Lieutenant under 5 years, at

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This is 11007. for the unattached company, and 8001. for the difference, being what is sometimes paid at present if the lieutenant is of short standing.

£700

900

1100

1611

1900

Total proceeds
Surplus

6211

£6

Though, at first sight, such an arrangement may, from its novelty, appear a little complicated, yet nothing can be simpler in its operation: all that is necessary, so soon as the sum of 6211l. is lodged by the officers selected as purchasers, is to pay 2555l. out of it to the five captains who retire receiving the difference, and the balance of 3656/. on the half-pay fund or Government Annuity Office, to cover the expense of the additional burden on the public by five captains being substituted on the half-pay list for as many lieutenants, who replaced them on fullpay. The promotions need not take place till the captains are also selected who are to exchange to half-pay, when the whole could be arranged in one Gazette, and thus the possibility of any contingent charge on the public be avoided.

It is not anticipated that there would be any difficulty in finding purchasers for the two highest priced companies, seeing that many are sold even at that rate at present; and it is but fair, when young officers step thus rapidly over the heads of their seniors, that they should, in some degree, contribute to their promotion.

That it would be no less a boon to lieutenants above seven years' standing there could be no doubt, since we frequently see such officers purchasing unattached companies, and paying the difference. But perhaps this very circumstance will be urged by some as a reason why that rank should not be given for less. We trust, however, that the day has not yet arrived when promotion is to be sold to the highest bidder; and it must be kept in mind that for one who might probably be able to give this extravagant price, for which the difference of pay never could remunerate him, there are many who, after seven years' service, would refuse to give more than the regulation, and who, if they remained two or three years longer without an opportunity of purchasing, would probably hesitate to give as much. To Lieutenants thus situated, the offer of a full-pay company for the regulation-price, after seven years' service, or for 900l. after ten years' service, would be regarded as a very great boon indeed, seeing that it would prevent their being left behind in the march of promotion, and still they would not require to pay for it more than an adequate price. Many lieutenants, too, of upwards of fourteen years' service, who are now candidates for unattached promotion without purchase, would be likely to avail themselves of the offer of a full-pay company for 700l., which, including the difference, is in fact within 2001. as valuable as the promotion on half-pay which they are anxiously contending for, but perhaps only with a distant prospect of success. The chances of promotion for the other candidates would thus be materially improved, and the pressure of claimants in future years considerably reduced.

One very obvious advantage also attending this graduated scale of prices for promotion, is that there may be many officers possessed of a part, who yet are unable to muster the whole of the present regulationprice. What these officers want in money they will thus be able to eke out by service; and instead of remaining hopelessly till they acquire promotion by death vacancies in their corps, or become candidates for unattached companies without purchase, they will thus have an opportunity of contributing the little all of their worldly possessions to the object soldiers ever have most at heart-advancement in their profession.

Let it be observed, it is not our wish to trench upon the present system of regimental or unattached promotion by purchase. Let lieutenants under seven years' standing continue to have the benefit of this at the current prices; all we contend for is, that so soon as seven years' service in that rank has been attained, the efficiency of the army, the professional prospects of the officer, and the economy of a shilling a-day to the public, alike require that the means of promotion at a moderate rate should be placed within his reach.

To avoid any undue increase in the number of captains on the halfpay list, the extent of this promotion might be so limited as not to exceed two-thirds of the annual casualties among those on half-pay in that rank; so that, including the one-third to be promoted without

purchase, under the warrant of the 27th of October last, the nominal amount of captains might remain nearly the same as at present, though the pecuniary burden on the half-pay list would be annually decreased by casualties as heretofore. This arrangement, we conceive, would be attended with very considerable advantage both to the service and the public; for the number of captains on half-pay has now so far diminished that, in the event of another war, there would scarce be sufficient for the second battalions which must immediately be raised, and consequently very extensive promotions to that rank would become necessary, at a heavy expense to the public, which would, to a considerable extent, be obviated, by having a reserve on the half-pay list, ready to be called into active service for a short period, if the exigencies of the country required it.

The extent of this promotion must also, in some measure, depend on the number of captains wishing to retire on half-pay, receiving the difference; but as the casualties on the half-pay list will not admit of more than from 30 to 35 annually being promoted by the operation of the present plan, it is not anticipated that there would be much difficulty in finding the requisite number to exchange with them, it being understood that there are at present many more of that rank anxious to receive the difference than can readily be accommodated with it.

These suggestions, if adopted, will not only remedy a very obvious defect in our system of promotion by purchase, but, as we shall proceed to show, are likely to be attended with no less economy to the public than benefit to the service.

The first result in point of economy would be that, as the lieutenant thus allowed to purchase unattached promotion, is in receipt of 7s. 6d. a-day, and the one brought from half-pay in his place having been long unaccustomed to the occupations of military life, is likely to sell in preference to serving, the ultimate successor thus promoted will receive only 6s. 6d. a-day for the next seven years, which will create a probable saving to the public of a shilling a-day for at least seven years, the value of which is about 1277. 15s.

This probable saving, too, in some cases might be made a certain one, if the lieutenants thus brought from half-pay were such only as wished to sell, and it was stipulated they should do so when called from the half-pay list. Few, if any, after being 14 or 15 years in the retirement of civil life, can be fit for regimental duty, and yet there are hundreds of that class who can be possessed of but very slender claims to remain permanent annuitants on the public.

In many cases, too, a considerable saving would result from the lieutenants thus selling being only entitled to the old regulation, instead of the new price, by which 1501. for each lieutenancy sold would be carried to the credit of the half-pay fund.

As the age of the captains who retire receiving the difference will probably be at least five years more than that of the lieutenants who replace them from half-pay, an older annuitant will thus be substituted on the half-pay list for a younger one, and a constitution worn out by service and impaired by climate for one which, having been for a long series of years exempt from the diseases incident to a residence in the colonies, may naturally be supposed healthy and vigorous-an arrangement no doubt highly favourable to the public.

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