The Press.
London, England, 1855-03-31 00:00:00

The Purchase System and the Staff By an
Officer. London : Ridgway.
Hart's Annual Army List, 1855. London:
Murray.
THE medical faculty are not the only persons
who are seized with a periodical mania in favour
of one particular remedy. The military re-
formers are just now suffering under a similar
enthusiasm for the abolition of purchase in
the army, and are, as usual, blind to every
other suggestion for the remedy of admitted
evils. The subject is one that has occupied
much attention since the last war, and on
which even the most competent authorities
have differed. It is only recently, however,
that it has been proposed as a cure for evils
produced by the grossest mismanagement in
every department—mismanagement arising
from the incapacity for his duties of every
member of an incongruous Government, and
from the "wretched, rash, intruding " vanity
which forced men unfit for second-rate clerk-
ships to undertake the administration of a
mighty war. It made, surely, little difference
whether the officer had purchased or been
promoted by supposed merit who found him-
self deprived of shelter and food by the delay
,or even the quarrelling of the authorities at
home.
The origin of purchase in the army is at
bast but a matter of curiosity, let we should
have been glad if "An Officer had given the
authority for his opening assertion that it arose
during the reign of Charles 11. That private
corruption may have caused high commands
to be given for money, and that Charles him-
self was ready to offer anything as an equiva-
lent for that commodity, there is no doubt, but
Charles at no time was " determined to keep
44 up a larger force than was consistent w:th
" the interests of the country" by means of
any other purchase than the subsidies of Louis
and the grants of the Parliament when under
any pretence they could be obtained. We are
disposed to agree with the Duke of Wellington
'that purchase began with the Revolution,
being probably in imitation of a practice of
selling commands nut previously unfrequent
in the Low Countries.
With respect to the evils of the system as
it exists, it is strange to find in the pamphlet
before us that these are almost wholly arising
from the abuses which have been allowed to
creep into it by the giving and receiving sums
in excess of the regulation price, in defiance
both of the Queen's Regulations and of the
statute 49 George 111., which makes such sales
on retirement a misdemeanour. All the
blemishes on which " An Officer " rests his
case against the purchase system are clearly
abuses, and whatever be the merits of the
argument against it, they constitute none of
them. Of the system itself the Duke of
Wellington's opinion, condensing all that can
be said in its favour, is worth preserving :
In point of fact, the promotion of the officers of the
ammy by purchase is a saving of expense to the public, and
/highly beneficial to the service, although it falls severely
.upon individuals. It is not the practice of the officers at
the head of the army to refuse to those desiring it the
permission to sell their commissions which they have pur-
chased. Neither is it the practice of the officers at the
head of the army to refuse permission to sell their com-
missions to those under the rank of lieutenant-colonels of
regiments who have served for twenty years, although they
have not purchased their commissions.
These officers would probably be bereft of all means of
subsistence upon their retirement from the service, reit-
.dered necessary by their advanced age or loss of health.
They would endeavour to remain in ( and could not be re-
moved from their situations in the service) rather than ex-
pose themselves to want.
The permission to sell their commissions to younger,
more active, healthy, and energetic and better qualified
men, relieves the service from a burthen, at the same time
'that it throws none upon the State in the shape of remune-
ration, reward, or provision for men worn out by the length
and arduous nature of the services required from all British
officers.
It is the promotion by purchase which brings into the
service men of fortune and education, men who have some
connexion with the interests and fortunes of the country,
besides the commissions which they hold from his Majesty.
It is this circumstance which exempts the British army
from the character of being a " mercenary army," and has
rendered its employment for nearly a century and a half,
not only not inconsistent with the constitutional privileges
of the country, but safe and beneficial.
Lord Raglan gives a similar opinion as the
result of his judgment, and in fact the case
becomes one very similar to others in our
civil constitution where the pecuniary test