The National Register.
London, England, 1809-06-04 00:00:00

SUNDAY, JUNE 4, 1809.

POLITICAL DISQUISITION.

NUMBER SEVENTY-TIIREE.

VIOLATION OF THE ORDEItS AND REGULATIONS
OF THE ARMY, BY THE APPOINTMENT OF
LORD BURGHERSH.

When, in compliance with publieopinion, the DUKE of
YOR3 :teemed it prudent to resign the office of Commander
in Chief, the public fondly anticipated that a new fera of
Military Administration was abOut to commence, and that
thereafter the Commissions in the Army would be distri-
buted on a system, froM which court favour and private
partiality would he'excluded. The spirit of the army it
was said, had long suffered from the want of a system of
promotion which might reward service, and encourage
etnalatiosi. The exemplary punishment of the Commander
in Chief, for such it was, was supposed to be the establish-
ment of this new system. Who will hereafter, it was de-
manded, violate the regular order of promotion, when
even Royal Rank was not sufficient to screen his Royal
Ilighness from its consequences.

The Military Regulations of the DUKE of Yonx were
aCknovaedged by every one to have been most admirably
calciilated, not only to maintain the military skill in every
rank -in the army, but, as much as was possible, to exclude
that system of favouritism which, in other branches of the
state, supersedes merit of all kind. The complaint against
the DUKE: was not• against his avowed system, buta*ainsti
his secret administration. Accordingly, when on thedis-
missal of the DugE another Commander in Chief was ap.'
pointed, the public yoke most loudly and generally de-
manded, that the former military regulations should be
acted upon, and that the army should be honestly and
purely administered on the rules and regulations which had
hitherto formed its fundamental law. . .

Sir D. Du NDA s, therefore, was no sooner appointed, than
as his fait official act, he issued (Le folloWing

MILIT %ItY ORDER.

BY special Command of his 11A.Tusrv, it is hereby ordered
arfl announced to all Regiments in his MAJESTY'S t•crvice) and
to :tit persons N% ht to it may concern—

1. That from thk day, Alnrch 20th,.1E09, no officer shall be
plotow.ed to the rank of Captain, until he shall have been thtee
Ca san act bal lballerq.

2. That no Officer shall Ito promoted to the rank or Field
()fiber Until l►e has been sevea ::er.N in the service of which he
shA•hat.e been at f:•:ast two 3-ears a Captain.
3. N:► Onleer shall he pro:noted to the rank of Lieutenant-
Colonel until he has been nine years in the service of which he
shall have been two years at least a ;Ila}:►r.
Q. No Officer shall be allowed to fill any Stair Appointment
(that of Aid-dc-Camp excepted) until he has been one
.year a

The above Regulations having been submitted tn his MAI rsTy
by the present Commander in Chief, his MAJESTY wa4 pleased
to confirm them, and to order that they•hereafter he strictly exc-
uoted as the standing rule and regulation of ,all. Military Pro-
DA VID IDVXDAS.

xnu:ioa;
I,XXV.

These Orders, however, were scarcely issued before they
were violated in the unprecedented appointment of J.ord
litylwarnsit. 'This Will immediately appear. by a cornpa-
rion of the dates of the several appointments with those
periods required by the above Order. The Papers hawing
been laid before the House, we arc enabled to give the
following abstract :
DATES OF TUC DIE FEIIENT COMMISSIONS OF lIIEUTosCOL.

LOUD BURGH mists. • •
Ensign 11th Foot • 25th Mar. 1803, without purchweAo22
. -
the Ist of May 1803, Vas Co/mission teas reported bg Lieut.
General Grittfield, commanding in the West Indies, to havo
been vacant from thc 231Aittoc, 1802. )
Lieut. 7th Foot sth Jan. 130.1, without purchase.
Capt. -23 d Foot 3d May 1805, ditto.
Capt. 3tl Dragoon Guards, lst*Nov. 1805, ditto.
Major 2d West India Itegt. 4th May, 1809, ditto.
Lieut. Colonel in the Army,l
upon being appointed to I
serve in Por;ugal under the
command of Lieut.-General
Ileresford,vacat in the Ma-
jority in the 2d West India
Item. and retiring upon half
pay on the expiration of the
above service.

11th May, 1803, ithout putchafe.

.

It will be seen from this abstract, that Lord BURGBERSII, •
was madti a Miljor after he had been only Six years in the
service, thou ?:h. the above-mentioned regulations required
that such an .appointm4nt should never lte made, till after
the object of it- had been seven yeari in the army. • The
date of- this appointment, moreovee, hs compared with
that of the order, is peculiarly. dtrirciritis.. • The order was
issued on the 20th of March., and oh the 4th of May fol-
lowing Lord Be antmasn is appointed" a major indirect vio-
lation of it.

It is another feature it' this" affair; within six'days
after the'abovo appointment as In 2 or, fre'was promotedtto.
be a Lieutenant-Colonel., . Thy .dppoifittnelifi is still a wire.
daring infrinmenient of the 'Above ciders. Acc.ordint
the ordcr, no officer shall be promoted to the rank orLiets-
tenant-ColOne!, .until . lic has been nine years in the service.
In direct contradiction to ...this. order, Lord Bunozzaaa
appointed Lientenant-Colonel after six years service.?
Thb above quoted regtilatioiy however, requires another
qualification. No Officer, Says:the Order, Shall be ap-
pointed a Lieutenant-Colonel, till' 'aftei- be shall have been
two ;;elms a Alajor. • • • .
Now hoW has it been in the caii>of toed BURGHER=
Why he is appointed Lientenant•ColOner after having beea

seven days a ajoi.
Therd is an additional circumstance in this picture which
should not be omitted—that of the four regiments through
which he passed in' his way to promotion, he never tetrad,
and, we believe, never even joined, one of them. •+
All the above Commissions, ►noreover, it will be re-
marked, were without purchase. Surely this is not rigit.
If purchase is admissiblein the army, and we really see nu
reason why it should not be so, surely none are so fit 'to pur-
chase as thegreat and wealthy. Would it not have been more
decorous if souse of these commissions bad been proc::rud