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During the period he remained in these seas he was almost constantly engaged. On one occasion he fought three Danish gun-boats, on another, six; and on passing through the Belt with a convoy, he engaged eight, and conducted his charge through in perfect safety. He was selected for the protection of about 300 sail of merchant-ships at Carlscrona, and was present at the siege of Dantzic. For these and other services he received the thanks of the veteran De Saumarez, who thus certifies also, "That during the years 1911, 1812, and 1813, when I commanded in chief in the Baltic, Lieut. Price conducted himself on all occasions to my highest satisfaction. The Briseis being principally employed for the protection of the trade of his Majesty's subjects through the Belt, was frequently in contact with the enemy's flotilla of gun-boats, when the greatest zeal and cou. rage was evinced by her Commander, Lieut. Price.

(Signed) "DE SAUMAREZ."

Sir Manly Dixon also states, that during the two years he commanded in chief, he, on several occasions observed the very active and zealous conduct of Lieut. Price when in contact with the enemy's numerous gun-boats, and recom. mended him strongly to the favourable consideration of the Lords of the Admiralty.

At the peace in 1814, having been thirty, eight times engaged with the enemy-in three general actions, assisted in the capture of thirtysix sail of vessels-he paid off the Briseis. Still anxious for employment, as the only apparent means of obtaining promotion, he was appointed in 1815, Senior Lieutenant of H.M.S. Ramilies,

and afterwards, in the same capacity, to the Malta and Rivoli.

In 1816 he obtained the command of the Algerine revenue cutter, on the Channel station; between that period and 1820 he successively commanded the Annesley revenue cutter on the Irish coast, and the Harpy in the British Channel. These commands were far from bettering his condition in a pecuniary point. as those who are aware of the expense of travelling to three distant points, and to fit out three different vessels in four years, will readily understand.

At length, on the 19th of July, 1821, after twenty-eight years' service, he was promoted to the rank of Commander. As immediate employment was out of the question, his duties as a citizen claimed his earliest consideration, and he turned his active mind to the formation of the Royal Naval Annuitant Society, which was finally established on the 9th of April, 1823; an institution which has been justly stated to be "honourable alike to the best feelings of human nature, and to the British naval charac ter-an institution which will be handed down to posterity with accumulated blessings on its founders;" and of which he was one of the trustees.

As a husband, a father, and a son, he may be held up as a bright and unexcelled example, His last days were embittered by intense bodily pain, which he bore with manly fortitude and resignation. He has left a widow, one son, a college Midshipman, and a daughter. Com. Price expired at Plymouth on the 12th of Sept., aged 60.*

METEOROLOGICAL REGISTER,

KEPT AT THE OBSERVATORY OF CAPT. W. H. SMYTH, at bedford.

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COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE PAY OF OFFICERS IN THE FRENCH AND BRITISH SERVICE.

THAT the British Army is the best paid in the world, is an assertion so often repeated, that few are disposed to question its correctness, save those who experience the difficulty of subsisting on the limited pittance which it affords them. We have already exposed its fallacy by a rigid comparison of the pay and allowances of soldiers in the French and British armies in the January Number of this Journal, the accuracy of which has been admitted by the Journal d'Armée in a review of that article; and we now propose extending that comparison to the pay of the officers of the two services, for the purpose of exhibiting similar results, and thereby stopping the idle clamour of many of our countrymen in regard to the superior economy of the French Army.

The erroneous ideas which are entertained by too many even of our legislators on that head, can only be attributed to that want of information on military subjects, which is so prevalent among all classes in this country. In every nation but the British few attain the honour of sitting in a legislative assembly without having first borne arms for a few years in the service of the state. Among the ancient Romans that was deemed indispensable to the attainment of any civil office, and it would be well were the necessity of this qualification extended to more modern times. Our senate would then be likely to contain within its walls men really fitted to decide on the important subjects of military finance and military legislation.

But, alas! for the Army!-the frothy spouting of schoolboys fresh from the classical retreats of Oxford or Cambridge, ignorant of every thing save the graces of eloquence, the rounding of periods, or the apposite quotation of some favourite author, too frequently possesses greater weight in our councils, even when military questions are under discussion, than the sage advice of veteran officers, who perhaps can only clothe the hard-earned experience of half a century in the quaint and homely language of truth.

In every discussion regarding the pay of the British as compared with that of the French Army, nothing is more likely to lead an inexperienced person to erroneous conclusions, than his ignorance of the numerous allowances and contingent advantages possessed by officers in the latter service which do not exist in the former. Owing to this important difference, there is indeed very considerable difficulty in bringing the pay of similar grades into comparison at all. The French officer receives his commission free of expense; the British, in four cases out of five, purchases his promotion, and that, too, at such a price as would, in many instances, insure him a better income than his were it laid out in an annuity. The French officer is unincumbered by the expenses of a mess which, in our service, abstracts at least half of a subaltern's pay to furnish him with one meal. The expense of maintaining the band, too, falls on the British officer, while in the French service it is supported entirely at the expense of the Sovereign. The U. S. JOURN. No. 85, DEC. 1835.

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clothing and equipment of the French officer are furnished to him at the lowest possible rate, while the British officer has to submit to a profit of upwards of 100 per cent. to the rapacious harpies who supply him. The uniform of a French officer not only insures his obtaining his messing and lodging at a much lower rate than would be charged to a civilian, but serves as a passport to most places of public amusement at a reduced rate; while to an officer in this country, the very reverse is the case, and the honourable insignia of his profession only serves the more readily to subject him to every species of extortion and imposition.

With all these advantages enjoyed by the French officer, but from which the British is excluded, we conceive it will be no difficult matter to show that the superiority of the British pay is merely nominal, and that when due allowance is made for all the above contingencies, it is by no means commensurate to the difference in the expense of living in the two countries.

It is our intention in the following pages to confine our observations merely to the pay of the regimental ranks of officers, as we have neither time nor space to extend them further, nor is it necessary we should do so, the pay of the higher ranks in our service, as compared with that of other countries, having already received a sufficient exposition by the evidence of various general officers before the "Committee on Military Appointments" in 1833, to which we cannot do better than refer our readers.

In all that evidence, however, scarcely any mention is made of the insufficiency of the pay of the junior grades, though it were much to be desired that those who so successfully pleaded the cause of themselves and their cotemporaries in the higher ranks, should also have called the attention of the committee to the case of their still more unfortunate juniors, instead of leaving their cause to be thus advocated through the humbler medium of these pages.

During the continuance of the war the insufficiency of the pay of the junior ranks of our army was but little felt, though the necessaries of life were much higher than at present, for the period of service in the subaltern grades then seldom extended beyond a few years, the greater part of which were spent in the active duties of the field, with little call or opportunity for any extra expenditure; but in these dull times of peace, when the greater part of an officer's life is, in many instances, spent in the subaltern grades, some further increase in the scale of pay, proportioned to his length of service, obviously becomes necessary to compensate him for his long-delayed promotion, and provide for the wants of his increasing years.

All such propositions, however, are generally met by the objection, that the pay of British officers being already nominally higher than that of similar grades in the continental armies, there would be more propriety in a diminution than an increase; and as the French army has, in this respect, been the favourite subject of eulogium with our economists, we have preferred meeting them on their own ground, and adopting the pay of that army as the standard of our comparison. Luckily there is no want of French authorities to refer to on this subject, and having made ourselves tolerably conversant with the subject, we sub

join the following scale of the pay and allowances of a French officer of the line, in all the circumstances in which he is likely to be situated, leaving it for our readers thence to form their estimate of the comparative advantages of the two services.

The following scale exhibits the pay of the French officers of the cavalry and infantry of the line when on home service*:

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The additional allowance of 200 francs a-year was granted to subalterns by the Ordonnance of 11th January, 1826, for the purpose of enabling them to live more comfortably on their pay.

The preceding is the lowest rate of pay, exclusive of all allowances; but when French officers are serving in Paris or its vicinity, as a large proportion of their army generally are, they are entitled to the following extra daily pay for each rank, making a yearly addition of the undermentioned amount in British currency§:

* Gonvot, Manuel de Legislation Militaire. See Tariff of Pay.

There are two classes of captains in the French service, the one receiving 2400, the other 2000 francs per annum : having no such difference in the British army, we have only stated the pay of the first class in our comparison.

An Adjutant on his appointment immediately receives the rank and pay of a second captain.

The franc is converted into British currency at the rate of 25 per pound sterling. § Gonvot, Manuel de Legislation Militaire. See Tariff of Pay.

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Thus an allowance of about 25 per cent. additional is granted to French officers when subject to the increased expense of living in or near the capital, while no corresponding allowance exists in the British Army. This is one of many instances we might adduce to show how carefully every contingency, tending to add to an officer's necessary expenditure, is in the former service provided for by a corresponding increase to his pay.

Officers in the French service are also entitled to the following allowance under the head of indemnité de route, corresponding to marchingmoney in our service; viz. :*

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The allowance for marching-money in this country is five shillings

*Gonvot, p. 292.

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