The Press.
London, England, 1855-03-03 00:00:00

1.11-1 u PRESS.

express a conviction, grounded on facts which came
under my own observation, that such an undertaking,
properly conceived, properly started, and properly
carried out, would soon commend itself to the mili
tary authorities at bead-quarters, and would most
eminently conduce, not only to the comfort and well-
being of our army, but to its effectiveness ; and prove
at least as serviceable as miles on miles of roadway,
even where roads are so greatly needed.
But as my plea for a bank at the head-quarters of
the British army now in the Crimea is grounded on
the evils which resulted from our want of such an
establishment in the Peninsular war, 1 would here
crave permission to enumerate some of those evils,
speaking as one who was not only a witness, but an
observer. The subject is touched upon in the able
histories of Alison and Napier, but I believe the full
amount of the mischief has never been placed on
record.

Our difficulties chiefly arose from the unavoidable
necessity, in the absence of a bank, of making so
large a portion of our payments in hard cash. To
this end, every quarter of the world was ransacked
for specie, which had to be conveyed to the Penin-
sula, and brought up to head-quarters. When, in-
deed, the position of the army was favorable for
instance, when head-quarters were not far removed
from Lisbon—some payments, such as those for com-
missariat supplies, were made by bills on the British
treasury. With these paper transactions, however,
the military chest, to which I was then attached, had
nothing whatever to do. Our business, as a depart-
ment, was only with the cash payments of the army,
which, however, were enormous. The pay of the
troops, regimental pay and staff pay, was always
issued in specie. This, then, was our duty under all
circumstances. But when our army was up the
country, far advanced into the interior, in out-of-the-
way places, where payment by bills on London would
have looked like no payment at all, then it also de-
volved upon us to cash the commissariat bills, which
had been given in payment for supplies, such as
cattle, corn, wine, spirits, and forage. When there
was specie in the military chest, the commander in-
chief issued an order at such time as he deemed
most expedient, and we took up the bills of the com-
missariat, or paid the troops. When there was
none, the only remedy for both troops and bill-holders
was patience. The specie with which the payments
were made was generally Spanish dollars, sometimes
with a portion of Spanish gold, sometimes with other
varieties. Occasionally we had large supplies of cash
at head-quarters; much more frequently we were
short.

The financial evils from which the service then
suffered, and which, doubtless, gave occasion to the
Duke's wish for the establishment of a military
bank, were manifold. Among them were the fol-
lowing:—
I. After some heavy disbursement in hard cash,
to the extent of tens of thousands of pounds sterling,
the first remarkable occurrence at head-quarters was
the rapid disappearance of the whole amount. In a
very few days everybody, or almost everybody, was
as poor and penniless as immediately before the
issue, when all were inquiring for it with hungry ex-
pectation. This sudden evanescence of so much
hard cash may be deemed strange ; but it was only
the natural result of existing circumstances. The
native claimant, when he had presented his bill for
goods delivered, and got his cash, of course carried it
away at his best speed, as he was able, to his owu
home—happy if he escaped being robbed or murdered
on the road. Then, as to the pay of the troops, the
privates divested themselves of their own portion in
a remarkably limited period, and with officers the
case was not very different. Each, probably, when
he received his pay, officer as well as private, was in
want of everything ; besides which, the very bulk of
the dollars was an additional incentive to getting rid
of them. Suppose a man's pay to be 10s. a day.
off -