per day to each officer, whatever his rank may be, which, considering the difference of living in the two countries, places these allowances pretty much upon a par.

There is, however, a very humane regulation in the French service which does not exist in the British. Every officer who is upwards of 50 years of age receives an allowance of 4 francs per day, for a horse when on the march, and forage, or an allowance for it, when in the field. The allowance for forage averages from 1 to 1 francs daily *.

The French officer, like the British, is, when not provided with quarters, entitled to an allowance in lieu thereof, under the denomination of lodging-money; but he possesses this advantage over the British, that wherever he goes he becomes entitled, not only to quarters, but to have these quarters properly furnished, or an allowance corresponding to his rank in lieu thereof. Thus saving the expense, which falls very heavily on the British officer, of hiring furniture at every station, besides the annoyance to himself and the service of carrying about with him, from station to station, bedding, bed and table linen, and a variety of articles of a similar description, which he cannot expect to obtain on hire, but which, in the French service, would be provided by the barrack-master of each station at the expense of government.

To show how minutely the wants of officers are attended to in this respect in the French army, we subjoin the following list of the principal articles furnished by government to a subaltern's quarter:

Bedstead and curtains and quilt.

Wool mattress, hair do., and feather pillow.
Blankets and sheets.

Chest of drawers, table, and three chairs.

Sofa or elbow chair.

Mirror, candlestick, and snuffers.

Fire irons, bellows, water-pot, and drinking-cups.
Table-cloth and two napkins a-week.

Besides several other items of trifling moment.

All the washing of the above articles takes place at the expense of government, and is contracted for at each station.

The total worth of the furniture thus supplied is about 167., being nearly the same amount as a British subaltern requires to hire at each station, in addition to his table, two chairs, fender, and fire irons, in order to make his quarters habitable.

The expense thus incurred by an officer in the British and provided for by government in the French service, may be safely estimated, including the washing of bed and table linen, at 2s. 6d. a-week for a subaltern, 5s. for a captain, 7s. 6d. for a major, and 10s. for a lieutenant-colonel or colonel, which must therefore form a deduction from the pay of the British officer, in the comparison we are about to institute.

When quarters are not procurable, officers in the French service are not left at the mercy of the inhabitants with regard to the charges for lodging and furniture, but the mayor of each town is directed to see that no more than the allowances granted by government in lieu there

*Gonvot, p. 295.

of are ever charged for the accommodation of officers, and that the lodging and furniture, supplied to them at that rate, are in every respect suitable to their respective ranks. The allowances granted for this purpose are as follows:

The French officer possesses a further advantage,-that when on the war-establishment he receives rations proportioned to his rank, for which he does not pay as an officer does in the British service. At the commencement of each campaign, too, he receives a sum for his equipment, of from 400 to 500 francs for a subaltern, and from 600 to 700 francs for a captain, and for the other ranks in proportion: whereas we have no similar allowance in the British service, except the field allowance of 9d. a-day for a subaltern, and 2s. for a captain, during the period employed on actual service, which can scarce be held as equivalent.

We have now noticed the principal distinctions between the French and British service, in regard to allowances when not serving in the colonies; it is only necessary to add, that there being no charges for mess or band subscriptions in the French service, as there are in the British, a deduction of 20 days' pay must be made from the pay of our officers on this account, before bringing it into comparison with that of the French. It being obviously not the nominal amount of pay which we must compare, but the balance receivable in each case after all authorized deductions have been made.

For a like reason, in comparing the pay of cavalry, a further deduction must be made from the British officer for the number of rations of forage with which he is chargeable according to his rank at the rate of 84d. each, as the French officer's pay is liable to no such deduction.

Making due allowance, then, for these differences in the two services, the comparative pay of the French and British officer, when on a home station, will be as follows:

* As the Manuel d'Adminstration à l'Usage d'Escadron,' from which the above scale is quoted, does not specify the exact amount of the allowance to the fieldofficers, we have calculated the increased rate to them according to the ratio in which their pay exceeds that of the junior grades, which is the principle on which the allowance to the captain and subaltern seems to have been regulated.

The comparative pay of the staff of each regiment we shall reserve for after consideration; it is sufficient at present to show that in the preceding ranks the nominal superiority of the British pay varies from 33 to 94 per cent. in infantry, and from 45 to 99 per cent. in cavalry; or it may be stated on an average at 63 per cent. in the former, and 72 per cent. in the latter branch of the service; but if serving in Paris and its vicinity, this difference, in consequence of the additional sum there allowed to the French officers, would be 25 per cent. less.

Now, by an investigation into the comparative value of money in France and England, as ascertained from the average rate of wages in these countries, which our readers will find stated in the January NumThe rank of colonel in the British service confers no extra pay, whereas in the French service it does.

We have not included with the colonel's or lieut.-colonel's pay the 38. per day of command allowance, because the French officers of these grades are entitled to a similar allowance under the head of "indemnité de representation," the exact amount of which, however, we do not possess at present the means of stating.

ber of this Journal, page 9, it appeared that there was a difference of about 62 per cent. in favour of the former. In other words, that 1007. in France is about equivalent to 1627. in England, which corresponds almost exactly to the superiority in the pay as above stated.

Thus, then, we have established one important point in our investigation, viz. that even if the British officer obtained all his commissions without purchase, as the French does, the nominal superiority of pay which he receives on home service is not more than commensurate to the difference in the value of money in the two countries.

Where, however, an officer has purchased his commissions, as is the case with at least four-fifths in our service, it would be out of the question to put his pay in comparison with that of a similar grade in the French army, without first making some deduction for the interest of the sum thus expended in the attainment of his promotion. It requires no great powers of argument to show, that if the English officer attains the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel by the outlay of 4500l., while the French attains the same rank for nothing, though the clear pay of the one may be 2671. 5s. a year, while that of the other is only 1721., still the latter is much better paid than the former; for, besides the probability of the purchase-money being altogether lost by the death of the British officer, he sacrifices the interest of the 4500l. thus sunk in the price of his commissions, and which, deducted from his pay, leaves him little more for the reward of his services than a half of what is received by an officer of similar rank in the French service.

The only correct way of viewing such a question is by ascertaining what income the price of each commission would realize if laid out in an annuity on the life of the purchaser, deduct that from his net pay, the balance is what the officer actually receives as the reward of his services. We entered at very considerable length into the requisite calculations on this subject, in the September Number of this Journal *, on referring to which it will be seen that the actual reward in the shape of pay to the officers of each rank in the British service who purchased their commissions, even at the regulation-price, would be as under:

* See Article on Promotion in the British Army, in No. 82, p. 1,

Annuity purchasable
with price of com-
missions.

Difference
annuity

between

and pay,

being sum officer pays for serving.

and annuity, being sum he receives for serving,

Difference between

So that while the lieutenant-colonel in the French service receives 1721. a year in infantry, and 1881. a year in cavalry, as the reward of his service, without any outlay for his promotion, the British officer of the same rank, when he takes into account the value of the money expended on his commissions, not only receives nothing for his service, but would absolutely gain upwards of 50l. a year by securing his money in a life annuity, instead of expending it in the attainment of army rank, and be it remembered, that this is the case with at least nine-tenths of the lieutenant-colonels at present serving in the British army.

So much for the lieutenant-colonel; the difference between the pay of the junior ranks in the French and British service, when the value of their purchase-money is taken into account, is as follows:

Here, then, we have the fact clearly established, that when the necessary allowance is made for the price expended in the attainment of rank in the British service, the officers of the French army are by far the best paid of the two, even setting entirely aside the difference of 62 per cent. in the value of money in the two countries.

Had we extended our comparison to embrace instances where more than the regulation price had been paid, or where unattached had first been purchased, and then the difference lodged to return back to full pay, as has been the case with a large proportion of the officers now in the service, the results would of course have been much more unfavourable to the British officer.

It must also be kept in view, that in all the preceding calculations the pay of the French officer is stated at the lowest rate he can possibly receive on home service, and we have left entirely out of view the addition of 25 per cent. which he receives when serving in Paris and