The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-15 00:00:00

THE, GUARDS AND THE LINE.

The relative positions of the Guards and the
Line are thus described by a professional corres-
pondent, whose letter appeared in the Daily News
. yesterday :
" For many years past the Foot Guards have had the
greatest passible privileges in the way of promotion. A
young lad who, fresh from Eton, Harrow, or any other
' school, obtains a commission ris ensi.gn in the Guards,
becomes ipso facto a lieutenant in the army, and can,
and often does, exchange with an officer of the Line of
the latter rank. Now, when we consider that until the
war broke out there were in many Line regiments en-
signs and cornets of four, five, and six years' standing,
—I remember a cornet in the 7th Hussars who, although
he had plenty of money, and was always ready to pur-
chase, remained in that rank eight years,—when we re-
member that even now, in corps serving in the colonies
and in India, there are ensigns and cornets of two,
three, and four years service, this start in the race for
promotion which the Guards obtain ought to satisfy
those most greedy of patronage. But this is only the
commencement of their advantages. At every step as
they advance. a like double promotion is granted them.
Thus a lieutenant in the Guards becomes by that very
rank a captain in the army ; while their captains have
the rank of lieutenant-colorels, and can exchange with
that rank into the Line. Before the commencement of
the war—l copy from a table made out and given me
ten years ago in India by a very gallant Guardsman and
brave soldier, who lost his life in battle, the late Major
Fitzroy Somerset—the average time which an officer of
the Foot Guards took to obtain the rank of lieutenant-
colonel was 13 years ; while in the Line—taking cavalry
and infantry together, and considering only those who
had money to purchase—the came rank upon au average
required 25 years to arrive at. Thus the Guardsman got
the start by no less than 12 years in the race for the ma-
jor-general's epaulets. Take up the Army List, and see
in the names of general officers the result of this system.
Although there are but seven battalions of Foot Guards,
while there are 23 regiments of cavalry and about 110
battalions of infantry, the general officers who have risen
from the household brigade are as numerous as those
who have gone through the various grades in the Line
taken altogether. Of these the great majority are all
men who, as regimental officers in the Guards, were
never above the rank of mere captains ; but, having the
double army rank, they jumped from the command of
companies to be general officers. Take one instance out
of many : —One of these favoured persons, the Hon. Ger.
Anson, was 29 years ago a captain in the Guards and a
lieutenant-colonel in the army. The only regimental
duty he ever did was as a lieutenant in the Guards and
a captain in the army. From the very day of his promo-
tioa he retired upon half-pay, and continued a gentleman
at large for 27 years, when he was given the command
of the whole of the Madras army, and is now made
Commander-in-Chief of all India
"For many years the officers of the Line grumbled at
the enormous advantages Guardsmen had over them.
Veterans who bad fought their way from ensign to lieu-
tenant-colonel in every part of the globe— who had done
duty in Canada, the West Indies, India, and the Cape—
who had always been ready and willing to purchase their

various steps-found themselves superseded as major-
generals by men who bad entered the service a dozen
years later, and had never dune a day's duty out of Lon-
don. In plain English, to enter and rise through the
Guards was a premium upon idleness and want of mili-

ary experience. I do not say that there have not been
good solders and brave men in these corps, but they
have risen in spite of, not by, the system pursued.
" Last October a year a new warrant respecting pro-
motion in the Line was promulgated to the army. Among
other reforms was one which allowed all officers who
bed served three years on full pay as regimental lieute-
nant-colonels to have ipso facto the rank of fall colonels
in the army. The object of this order was plain enough.
It was to do away with a small portion of that measure
ef injustice which the Guards had for years inflicted on
the Line, and also to give the latter some slight chance
in the race for promotion. The privilege was not ex-
tended to all the captains and lieutenant-colonels of the
Guards, although it was greeted to the seniors of that
rank in each battalion who act as field officers.
" Most people would have thought that the household
troops might have been content with the many other ad-
vantages they enjoy in double rank at every step, and
that from mere prudence they would not have commenced
an agitation which would call public opinion to the enor-
mous 'pull' they have over their comrades in the Line.
But not so. To do them justice they have tried hard to
work the oracle' secretly, and are very angry that the
affair had got wind before the affair was made pleasant
at the War-office and at Court for the brigade.' Within
the last few days they had got up petitions, praying that
they mey be—mark the cool impudence of?
the sentence
—` put upon the same footing as their more fortunate
brethren of the Line.' In other words, they request her
Majesty so to alter the warrant of October, 1854, that
every captain in the Guards—who, remember, is also a
lieutenant-eilonel in the army—may, affer serving three
years with that rank, and doing the duty of a regimental
captain, obtain the rank of full colonel ? The result of
this would simply be that Guardsmen would in nine or
ten years obtain that which in the Line no officer can
hope for under at least 20 years' service, and that
only by sticking to his own corps wherever it may be
sent. Aid to whom would this boon be granted ?
To men brought up in a system calculated less
than any other in the whole English army to make
officers real soldiers. I have watched both at drill often
within the last few months, and I have no hesitation in
saying that the officers of the Guards know far less of
their parade duties than do those of the Militia. At
the guard-mounting at St. James's it is impossible for
any man who has served not to observe that only by
means of their sergeants prompting them, and not of
their own knowledge, the officers of the Guards manage
to get through even the every-day well-known routine
of giving certain simple words of command. The
offioers of these corps never live in barracks with their
men, the adjutant alone excepted. I have resided a
long time in the neighbourhood of a Foot Guards' bar-
' racks, And, except on days of drill or parade, never even
saw an officer in the barrack-yard. Officers of the regi-
ment have themselves acknowledged to me that, owing
to the very little duty they did witk their companies, it
was almost impossible for the captain to know even the
faces of the men he commands ; and as to a knowledge
of their tempers, dispositions, habits, &c.—such as is in-
sisted upon in all infantry and cavalry regiments by
colonels who de their duty—that is out of the question.
The work which in the line is performed by captains
and subalterns in the Foot Guards devolves upon the
pay sergeants, while what in cavalry and infantry is the
commanding officer's duty is in the Guards done by the
adjutant of each battalion. This is a plain and simple
truth which no one with any knowledge whatever of the
subject can deny. The Guards are gentlemanly fellows
and brave men, but as a general—l may say universal—
rule they are certainly not soldiers.
" If these gentlemen think they have been badly used,
and want to be put on the same footing as their more
fortunate brethren of the Line,' let them not do the
thing by halves. Let them Petition to be placed ex-
actly, and in all respects, on the standing they envy so
much. Let their ensigns be ensigns, their lieutenants
hold no higher rank than that, their captains command
companies, and their lieutenant-colonels battalions. If
this is done— if they consent to commence and con-
tinue their military career upon an equality with the
rest of the army—then. but not until then, will public
opinion be in favour of granting them the privilege
they now seek."

An officer who has served six years in the cavalry,
and the same time in the infantry, in a letter to a
contemporary, says :—I proceed to make known a
few interesting particulars respecting the modus
operandi by which the " royal road" to promotion
in the English army is entered, and how they fare
who travel thereon. Let not Guardsmen complain
that the rude hand of "a mere Line officer" has torn
aside the veil which hid the sanctuary of their holy
spot. They themselves have by their preposterous
olaims invited, nay almost challenged, an exposure
of what certainly will not stand the light of day.
How is an entrance into " the brigade" effected,
and by what means do a certain exclusive class of
officers obtain, from the very outside of their mili-
tary career, two steps in promotion for every one
that is gained by a comrade in the Line ? Or—to
put the case more clearly to civilians—how comes
it that if two young men enter the service the same
day, the ono going into the Line and the other into
the Guards, the latter finds himself a lieutenant-
colonel about the same time that the former obtains
the rank of captain ?
The reply is, partly by interest and partly by
money. These two form the double hedge by which
" the brigade" is kept alike free from the taints of
plebeianism and of poverty.
First as to interest. In order to enter the Guards,
a young man must make application to the colonel
of the particular regiment in which he wants a
commission. The three colonels of these corps
are at present—Prince Albert, Lord Strafford,
and the Duke of Cambridge. The Great Duke
held for a long time one of these profitable
commands, which seem always conferred upon
distinguished soldiers. Much interest is re-
quired before a candidate can even hope to have
his name favourably considered for a commission
in the Guards, and unless he is the sen of a
nobleman, or of a rich commoner with parliamen-
tary or other good influence, his presuming even to
ask for such a favour would be considered little
short of insanity. To judge of the great quantity
of what Americans call " the upper crust " that
exists in " the brigade," any one has but to take
up an Army List, and if he is of the " Jeames " or
plush " school, let him reverently uncover his
head whilst reading the sounding list of handled
names. Thus, in the Grenadier Guards, we have
no less than one Prince Consort, one German
prince of royal blood (son-in-law of a British duke),
one younger son of a duke, one ditto of a marquis,
one earl, four viscounts, fifteen honourables, one
baronet, and fourteen nephews or other near con-
nexions of peers. In the Coldstreams there are
six lords (sons of dukes, marquises, or earls),
twelve honourables, two baronets, and eleven near
connexions of noblemen. The Scots Fusilier
Guards have the Duke of Cambridge for their
colonel, two lords, one viscount, ten honourables,
and twelve' near connexions of peers amongst their
officers. Add these together, and it will be found
that in the three regiments there are no less than
8G officers out of about 160—I do not include sur-
geon 4 or quArtorgostera—qho Aro most deoidodly