The Press.
London, England, 1855-03-10 00:00:00

MARCH 10, 1855.

have been a sufferer, conjointly with my whole family,
through the operation of one of the se (according to
my experience) worthless figments called " local
commissions," I may, perhaps, be pardoned for this
attempt to obtain an examination into their intrinsic
merits in general, by laying a particular case before
you, and by urging you, for humanity's sake, to open
the subject for public consideration; requiring, as it
does, free and candid investigation, in order to
remedy its evils, or, if that be not possible, at least
to secure men from accepting them in the delusion
that they thereby secure the social advantages they
indicate. I will condense, as much as may be, the
facts I personally know as to their practical value to
the individual on whom they may be conferred, as
well now as during the last war, and leave you, sir,
and the country to judge whether what I shall state
has been

" A fee grief due to a single breast,"
or whether it constitutes but a type of a general in-
justice, and I will add indignity, for it is an indignity
to confer o n a brave, well-informed man, for his heroic
qualities in action, a mere empty distinction that will
neither avail him to take the position it should entitle
him
to during his life, nor secure his widow and
family, in the event of his death, from absolute indi-
gence.
Briefly then, sir, the writer's father had such a com-
mission conferred upon him during the last American
war, for distinguished bravery and intelligence, with
which .he was empowered and directed to arm and
discipline the Cherokee Indians to act in favour of
Britain and themselves against the Americans, then
fighting under General Jackson, on the borders of the
Mississippi, afterwards made the boundary of Ameri-
can rule, owing to the energetic resistance then made
by troops under British leaders on its banks. So
effectually did the man intrusted with this, to him,
fatal commission execute the task assigned to him
byincessantly harassing the troops of General Jack-
son, that that o3mmander offered a reward for his life ;
and so critical and peculiar were the circumstances
and the men he had to act with and command that
I will venture to say nothing short of high military
genius and rare intelligence could have accomplished
results favorable to the interests of his country, or
creditable to himself from them. Yet the commis-
sion conferred on this brave and zealous soldier and
well-endowed man, was, as far as concerned himself,
and after his death his bereaved family, a worthless
figment ! At the conclusion of peace between this
country and America he was ordered home, and on
his return he was advised (i.e. commanded) to retire
on a pension of 501. per annum, his commission
being retained officially for confirmation in the event
of his services being again required. I will not
depict his life of yearning for that event, nor descant
on his anomalous social position consequent upon his
hybrid rank. No colouring could be too sombre for
the melancholy of such reminiscences, and I do not
wish to seem to colour where the simple felt needs
no exaggeration. Suffice it, that he at length saw,
or thought he saw, a chance of realising his life's
hope (he was little more than twenty when he re-
turned from America) by joining an expedition
proceeding to Africa in 1831 under command of an
officer of the corps to which he belonged. He died,
nine months after landing, of the fatal fever which
infest those shores—his rank still unconfirmed —in
his thirty-ninth year. His widow and children were
in their turn long held in the trammels of the delu-
sive hope that he was really a commissioned officer,
entitled to the privileges of his class, and capable of
bequeathing them to his family. A narrative of their
sufferings and struggles for succour wou
ing, therefore I refrain from giving it, The answer
to theirprayer was ever the same—" The commission
was local; you. have no claim." A petition, pre-
sented to Parliament in 1853, printed in the appendix
to the twenty-first report on public petitions, p.
.182,
was the last step taken, with no result. The widow
stilllives (now aged and intim), and is still unprcroided
for; and all through the chapter the so-called distinc
Lion conferred upon a brave man has proved what I
have designated it—a worthless figmen
t!
In again breaking up this, to me, horn-bearing
ground, 1 am actuated by no hope of personal or
relative advantage ; but 1 do hope, sir, that your clear
sense of justice will induce you to make the sad ex-
perience of one family, in regard to the value of a
" local commission," the means of securing the brave
men whose recent deeds have immortalised the name
of " Englishman," against a continuance of such in-
jury and indignity, under the name of distinction, as
I have described. Whatever maylbe the cry against
aristocracy, do not let it be said that patrician officers
shrink from seeing the rights of the brave fellows
who win distinction under their own eyes (often, too,
by timely succour to those of their own order whose
knightly ardour may have led th. em into the jaws of
lbstruction)—do not let it be said they care not whe-
ther the honours bestowed upon such men be sub-
stantial or not.
The "patient merit" of Englishmen, evinced with
such constancy of late in the army, combined with
their awful courage, should claim for the lowliest

THE PRESS.

soldier a nation's respect. Let it therefore respect
them as they are, whatever be their rank, rather
than mock them with unsubsta /aka honours now,
only to lead them to future despair•
I shall be happy to furnish any private confirma-
tion of the truth of this letter should you require it,
and I devoutly trust it may be the means of directing
attention to a grevious evi) if you can accord it a place
in your columns.—l am, sir, respectfully yours,
Fruk.

BANK FOR THE ARMY.
TO TEUS EDITOR OF " TEM PRESS."
Sir,—The four evils (enumerated in my last letter)
under which the Peninsular army laboured, and
more especially the last, were greatly aggravated by
a race that sprung up at head-quarters, the pariahs
of the camp. They originally appeared as sutlers;
came penniless as adventurers, or brought up from
the coast their cargoes of " notions" on speculation,
and sold them to the army at enormous profit. While
their prices were appalling, their wares were most
paltry. These also were the persons who gained by
cashing the officers' bills in England. Employing
for this purpose the dollars which they had acquired
in payment for their goods, they thus realised an
additional profit of from 33 to more than 00 per
cent. But this was not all. Ere long they discovered
another mode of investment, more profitable still,
but highly damaging to the credit of the British

army.
I have already spoken of the commissariat bills,
often an occasion of so much trouble and difficulty to
the native holder. These bills at length the sutlers
began to buy up at a discount. Now, this traffic, if
conducted on the principles of honourable trade,
would have been both unexceptionable in itself and
beneficial to all parties concerned. And, doubtless,
there were gentlemen at head-quarters who did so
conduct it, and who would have scorned a dirty act.
But it was not so with all. Carrying out the principle
of " buying cheap," the inferior and less reputable
class of traders employed every art, practised on the
fears and credulity of the native bill-holders, left no
deception untried to depreciate British securities held
by the native; dealer, and he who could purchase a
commissariat bill at the lowest figure was of course
considered the smartest trader. To this end, the
means sometimes employed were most flagitious.
Bills, which in the course of a few days would be paid
in full, were represented to the holder as worth only
so much paper, purchased for a trifle, carried off in
triumph, and ere long presented and cashed. The
gallant enemy to whom we were opposed being then,
unfortunately, rather low in funds, this circumstance
helped the fraud, for the imperial " bons " were
latterly worth little or nothing in the market, and this
the hapless natives knew by sore experience. It was,
therefore, so much the easier to persuade them that
an English bill was equally worthless ; and, while
with the army in the south of France, I heard some
very ugly tales of the frauds thus practised by Eng-
lish adventurers who hung about head-quarters. In
fact, i sometimes wondered that the presence of such
a set of scamps was tolerated. Probably, from ser-
vices which they rendered to the troops in other
respects, they were regarded in the light of a neces-
sary evil. Yet it is easy to see how such doings
tended to damage the British name, to impair our
credit, and thus to discourage the free supply of pro-
visions for our troops.
Now, sir, the Duke saw to the bottom of every-
thing ; and the Duke felt the necessity of a head-
quarters' bank. I venture to say, had such a bank
existed during the Peninsular campaigns, bad it
commenced with adequate resources, and had it been
conducted by a competent head, in the large and
enlightened spirit of commercial enterprise, all the
evils which I have now specified, and some others
to boot, would have been greatly diminished, if not
entirely kept under.
Suppose such a bank established at the head•
quarters of an army on actual service. The working
would be this. The bank, like any other bank, would
receive deposits, and would also issue its own paper,
payable on demand. An establishment once opened,
where depositors could safely lodge their loose cash,
many, depend upon it, would be prompt to avail
themselves of such a convenience. The general, the
staff officer, the regimental officer, who previously,
on receiving his pay, had no option but either to
keep the coin, often to his great personal incum-
brance, or to spend it off-hand (which latter result
the incumbrance tended to produce, and often did
produce), would be glad enough to place it in safe
hands, whence he might draw it out in smaller
amounts as occasion required. Those who preferred
it might at once, when they paid in cash, take out
the whole amount in bank notes. But many, no
doubt, would lodge their deposits just as we do in
London, taking nothing, and trusting to the character
and solvency of the establishment as their security.
An Englishman, wherever in the wide world be finds
himself, soon falls in with what he has been accus-
tomed to at horns,