and Dragoons; and 9507. in the Infantry: the price of the other commissions remaining the same.

In February, 1773, as the prices of the several commissions in the Dragoon Guards and Dragoons appeared inadequate, they were raised to the following amount:-Lieutenant-colonel, 53507.; major, 4250l.; captain, 3150/.; captain-lieutenant, 21007.; lieutenant, 13657.; cornet, 11021. 10s.

No mention is made of any regulated difference between full and half-pay till the warrant of August, 1783, when the value of the halfpay of the several commissions in the Dragoon Guards and Dragoons, as well as the field-officers of infantry, was calculated at ten years' purchase, and of the other ranks of infantry at nine years' purchase; and this value being deducted from the price of the commission, the following difference was thus fixed as the regulated sum to be paid for an exchange from half to full-pay :

The regiments of Life Guards having been formed in 1788, from sundry disbanded troops of Horse Guards, the prices of the commissions in these corps were fixed as follows:-First lieutenant-colonel, 6675l.; second lieutenant-colonel, 6275l.; first major, 53751.; second major, 5175l.; captain, 36751.; lieutenant, 2415l.; cornet, 1890%.

In consequence of the difficulty of finding young gentlemen properly qualified for the purchase of cornetcies, they were subsequently reduced to 10501. in the Blues; 12007. in the Life Guards; and 7357. in other regiments of cavalry.

In consequence of the reductions which took place in 1802 and 1808 in the Foot Guards, the difference for a lieutenant exchanging from half-pay to full pay in that corps, was fixed at 10007; and for an ensign 6001.

In August, 1821, in consequence of there having of late years been a considerable increase, both to the full and half-pay of the Army, the following prices of commissions, and differences from full to half-pay, were established, which are those at present in force. The principle upon which these differences were calculated, for all ranks, both for cavalry and infantry, except the ensign, was, that the officer going on half-pay should receive a sum of money equal to eight years' purchase of the pay he thus lost:

Though an officer by lodging the above regulation price can, at all times, prevent a junior from purchasing over him, it does not by any means follow that he can always obtain his promotion for that sum. Commissions, like every other article of sale, vary very materially in price. The regulation is the minimum, but what the maximum price occasionally rises to, it would be exceedingly difficult to establish. Officers possessed of large fortunes will seldom hesitate at any price, even though double the regulation, to advance themselves in their profession; and those who are beginning to tire of the service cannot easily resist a tempting offer, which promises to secure an ample provision for their old age, even though they know that, strictly speaking, such a bargain is illegal.

Our legislators, forgetting the quaint adage of Hudibras, that—

"The intrinsic value of a thing

Is just whatever it will bring,"

have vainly endeavoured to put a stop to this practice by the severity

of legislative enactment. The eighth clause of 49th George III., c. 126, declares, that "any officer who shall take, accept, or receive, or pay, or agree to pay any larger sum of money, directly or indirectly, than what is allowed by his Majesty in regard to the purchase, sale, or exchange of commissions in his Majesty's forces, shall, on being convicted thereof by a General Court Martial, be cashiered, and half the value of said commission, not exceeding 500l., shall be paid to the informer, and the remainder of the price be applied as his Majesty shall deem proper."

This act, however, like all others having for its object the limitation of prices, remains a dead letter; and though in infantry, generally, and in cavalry, almost always, every commission, save that of the cornet or ensign, is sold at from a third to a half more than the regulation price, still, so far as we can recollect, there has not been one conviction under it. The seller trusts to the purchaser's honour for payment of the sum stipulated beyond the regulation, which is all that appears as the nominal price, the remainder being handed over as a douceur on the purchaser's name appearing in the Gazette.

We must confess we do not see any good reason why such an enactment should continue to cumber our Statute Book. The establishment of a regulation price, by the lodging of which an officer might prevent himself from being passed over, was no doubt absolutely necessary, otherwise commissions would always have been sold to the highest bidders, and as the purchase is much more valuable to the junior than the senior of each rank, the former would always have been disposed to give a larger price than the latter, and thus he who had the shortest period of service to recommend him would have had a most undue advantage over the older officer. We can also conceive that, in fixing a regulation-price, there might be a good object intended by not allowing commissions to fall below it; but we really cannot see any beneficial results from restricting an officer who happens to be senior for purchase, from giving any sum he thinks proper to one in the rank above him to retire in his favour, especially when such restrictions ever will be, as they ever have been, ineffectual.

The

The high prices thus occasionally given for commissions by officers who hesitated at no sum to obtain promotion, probably first suggested to the Commander-in-Chief the idea of improving the efficiency of the Army, and conferring at the same time a great boon on those on halfpay, by permitting them to dispose of their commissions for the regulation-price, the purchasers in most cases lodging the difference to exchange back to full pay with officers in all probability as old as the original sellers, and equally unfitted for the active duties of their profession. In this way three classes of officers were benefited. purchaser, by gaining the promotion for which he was anxious; the seller, who was a mere annuitant on the public, and otherwise had no means of realizing the price of his commissions; and the officer retiring on half-pay, who thus received a difference where formerly he could obtain none, there being very few then on half-pay willing to lodge the sum requisite for an exchange. The only officers really injured were those who, possessed of the regulation price, though unable to pay the extra sum thus required for promotion, had the mortification of seeing their juniors in the Army rapidly outstrip them in their professional

career.

Numbers availed themselves of this new system of promotion notwithstanding the enormous prices which their commissions thus cost them. In 1825 and 1826 alone, 203 ensigns purchased unattached lieutenancies, and were brought back on full pay, in almost every instance paying the regulated difference, and many of them we believe considerably beyond it; 393 lieutenants purchased companies, and all except 67 were in this way brought back to full pay; 124 captains purchased majorities, of whom 66 were thus brought back to full pay; and 67 majors purchased lieutenant-colonelcies, of whom 27 were brought back to full pay so that even if there had been no unattached promotion but in these two years, we should find that about a fourth of the lieutenant-colonels, majors, and captains, and an eighth of the lieutenants in the British Army attained their present rank at the following enormous prices :

Notwithstanding these high prices, however, it was found that these commissions, particularly in the rank of captain, were purchased with avidity, and still more disadvantageous terms were consequently offered to candidates for promotion. Half-pay companies at 5s. were substituted for those at 7s. a day; the price was still kept the same, and the purchaser had to pay 8001. instead of 5117. as a difference from halfpay to full, thus raising the price of a company in infantry to 2600l., and in cavalry to 40251.; and many of the unattached companies sold. within the last few years have been at that rate.

Those who are not acquainted with the eagerness with which officers will sacrifice even their last farthing to obtain advancement in their profession, must wonder how purchasers could be found on such disadvantageous terms. They will be still more surprised when we come to set before them the fact that most of the purchasers would have received as much, or even more than their pay, by purchasing an annuity with the price of their commissions.

The value of an annuity of course depends not only on the age of the purchaser, but the degree of mortality to which his profession subjects him. Let us suppose the average age of the purchasers of commissions to be-lieutenant-colonels 38, majors 32, captains 25, lieutenants 20, ensigns 18, which we apprehend is considerably under the mark. We have already shown in our former article in the June Number of this Journal, that the mortality among the officers of Household troops and

Cavalry at home is much the same as among civilians; and therefore we may conclude, that the yearly rate they would receive if their purchase-money was vested in an annuity would probably be the same as shown by the Carlisle Annuity Tables for corresponding ages. shall extend the same supposition to such as purchased unattached and remained on half-pay, seeing that they also would be subject to no extra risk; but with regard to those who may have attained promotion in infantry, either by paying the regulation price, or by purchasing and lodging the difference, some allowance must unquestionably be made for the increased mortality consequent on their exposure to the risk of colonial service. As this mortality amounts on the average to nearly double what occurs at similar ages in civil life, and on which the value of annuities in ordinary cases is calculated, it is certainly not too much to assume that any insurance company or public corporation, from whom such an annuity might be purchased, would willingly add one-fifth to the amount of the annuity beyond the rate usually granted to persons subject to no such extra mortality, and who of course would be likely to continue in the enjoyment of the annuity for a much longer period. Return for Prices of Commissions in Cavalry Corps :SCALE I. Supposing the Regulation Price merely has been paid.