The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-01 00:00:00

THE UNITED STATES ARMY.

(ntom CAPT. MARRYAT'S " DIARY IN AMERICA.")
A standing army is so adverse to the institutions, and
so inoffensive to the people of a democracy, that, were
it possible, there would be no such thing as American
regular troops ; but, finding it impossible to do without
a portion, they have a force as follows :
General Staff
Medical Department
Pay ditto
Purchasing ditto 3, Recruits and Uuat-
Corps of Engineers 2Bl tached
Topographical lO
Ordnance Department

On which military force the privates amount to only
.5,6.52 men.

This is very insufficient, even to distribute among
the frontier forts as a check to the Indians ; but now
that the Florida war has so long occupied the troops,
these outposts have been left fn a very unprotected
state. Isolated as the officers are from the world (for
these forts are far removed from towns or cities), they
contrive to form a society within themselves, having
most of them recourse to matrimony, which always
gives a man something to do, and acts as a fillip
upon his faculties, which might stagnate from such
quiet monotony. The Society, therefore, at these
outposts is small, but very pleasant. All the officers
being now educated at West Point, they are mostly
very intelligent and well informed, and soldiers' wives
are always agreeable women all over the world. The
barracks turn out also a very fair show of children upon the
green sward. The accommodations are, generally speak-
ing, very good, and when supplies can be received, the
living is equally so ; when they cannot, it can't be helped,
and there is so much money saved. A suttler's store
is attached to each outpost, and the prices of the articles
are regulated by a Committee of Officers, and a tax is
also levied upon the suttler in proportion to the number
of men in the garrison, the proceeds of which are appro-
priated to the education of the children of the soldiers
and the provision of a library and news-room. If the
Government were to permit officers to remain at any one
station for a certain period much more would be done ;
but the Government is continually shifting them from
post to post, and no one will take the trouble to sow
when he has no chance of reaping the harvest. Indeed,
many of the officers complained that they hardly had
time to furnish their apartments in one fort, when they
were ordered off to another—not only a great incon-
venience to them, but a great expense also.
The Amercan army not a favourite service, and
this is not to be wondered at. It is ill-treated in
every way. The people have a: great dislike to them,
which is natural enough in a democracy ; but what is
worse, to curry favour with the people, the Government
very often do not support the officers in the execution
of their duty. Their furloughs are very limited, and
they have their choice of the outposts, where they live
out of the world, or the Florida war, when they go out
of it. But the greatest injustice is, that they have no
half-pay ;if not wishing to be employed, they must
resign their commissions and live as they can. In this
point there is a great partiality shown to the navy, who
have such excellent half-pay, although, to prevent re-
marks at such glaring injustice to the other service, an-
other term is given to the naval half-pay, and the naval
officers are supposed to be always on service.
The officers of the army are paid a certain sum, and
allowed a certain number of rations per mouth ; for in-
stance, a Major-General has two hundred dollars per
month, and fifteen rations. According to the estimated
value of the rations, as given to me by one of the offi-
cers, the annual pay of the different grades will be, in
our money, nearly as follows :

ARMY.
Major- General
Brigadier- General

NAVY.

Same rank
Do•

Colonel 340
Lieutenant-Colonel 280

Major

Do.
Do.

Captain 2OO
First Lieutenant

Second Lieutenant ... 140
Cadet

The cavalry officers have a slight increase of pay.
The privates of the American regular army are nor
the most creditable soldiers in the world ; they are
chiefly composed of Irish emigrants, Germans, and de-
serters from the English regiments in Canada. Ame-
ricans are very rare ; only those who can find nothing
else to do, and have to choose between enlistment and
starvation, will enter into the American army. They
do not, however, enlist for longer than three years.
There is not much discipline, and occasionally a great
deal of insolence, as might.be expected from such a col-
lection. Corporal punishment has been abolished in
the American army, except for desertion ; and if ever
there was a proof of the necessity of punishment to en-
force discipline, it is the many substitutes in lieu of it,
to which the officers are compelled to resort—all of
them more severe than flogging. The most common is
that of loading a man with thirty-six pounds of shot
in his knapsack, and making him walk three hours
out of four, day and night without intermission,
with this weight on his shoulders, for six days and six
nights, that is, he is compelled to walk three hours with
the weight, and then is suffered to sit down one. To-
wards the close this punishment becomes very severe,
the feet of the men are so swelled that they cannot
move for some days afterwards. I inquired what would
be the consequence if a man were to throw down his
knapsack and refuse to walk. The commanding officer
of one of the forts replied, that he would be hung up by
his thumbs till he fainted—a variety of picquetting.
Surely these punishments savour quite as much of seve-
ritxond are quite as degrading as flogging.
The pay of an American private is good—fourteen
dollars a month—out of which his rations and reginien-
tals take eight dollars, leaving him six dollars a month
for pleasure. Deserters are punished by being made to
drag a heavy ball and chain after them, which is never
removed day or night. If discharged they are flogged,
their heads shaved, and they are drummed out at the
point of the bayonet.

PROTECTIVE MIT I Es.—Where would have
been the large incomes of the owners of the soil, and what
would have been the condition of the population at large,
bad our skilful artisans and our indefatigable and enter-
prising merchants persisted in an indolent dependence on
that fallacious system of protection to which the landlords,
as a body, still so blindly adhere ?—Anti. Corn-law Cir-
cular.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL said it certainly was his in-
tention to propose such a measure in the present Session,
for he would be sorry that the recess should be lost with-
out the Magistrates having an opportunity of making pre-
parations for such a force.
The Payment of Rates Bill was read a second time.
The Ecclesiastical Districts Bill was read a third time.
Sir S. LUSHINGTON brought up a clause, directing
how the consent of the patron shall be given in certain
cases under the acts referred to in the Bill.
The Bill was then passed.
POOR RATES COLLECTION BILL.
On Lord J. BUSSELL moving the Order of the 121.1
for the second reading of the Bill,
Mr. HAWES inquired what course the Noble Lord
intended to take with respect to the business before the
House that evening ? He had understood the Poor Law
Continuance Bill was to come on the first thing.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL replied that he had under-
stood it was the wish of the House that the discussion on
this Bill should be taken on going into Committee, and
not on the second reading. He would therefore move
that the Bill be now read a -second time. He would
take this opportunity of stating that it was his intention to
postpone the Poor-law Commissioners Bill till to-morrow.
Mr. HAWES said he objected to the Bill on account
of the nature of the remedy which it gave to Guardians
against overseers. The Board of Guardians ought
not to have any greater power against Overseers
than Overseers now had against any contumacious
rate-payer; but the Bill proposed to give Guardians
the power to issue a warrant of distress against
any refractory Overseer. He should not object to this
power if it was attended with some safeguard. The
Guardians ought to proceed by way of summons—there
ought to be a hearing and an adjudication. He objected
to the principle of the Bill in toto, but would not oppose
its going into Committee if the Noble Lord would intro-
duce a clause to the effect stated.
l Word JOHN RUSSELL said be understood that the
Hon. Gentleman did not object to the powers granted by
this Bill if they were necessary. Now the Hon. Gentle-
man knew that there were cases in which a Board of
Guardians having been elected, and proposing to proceed
according to law for the relief of the poor, they had not
been able to procure from the Overseers the money
necessary for that purpose, and thus were placed
in the greatest possible difficulty. Having a duty
imposed upon them by law, and not being able to obtain
requisite funds from the Overseers with whom the money
rested, it could not be denied, therefore, that these cir,
cumstances rendered this Bill necessary. He (Lord
J. Russell). was quite ready to consider in Committee
whether any proviso or amendments could .be intro-

duced which would not interfere with the effi-
dent working of the Bill. But the Honourable
Member must be aware that if any proviso were introduced
by which the legal question should be raised, and the
detti§iott of that question postponed for a year or a year
and a half, the ohjeCt of the Bill would be frustrated,
for the poor could not wait Kt long a period. Sc me
persons might bold that Guardians and Unions Were
altogether unnecessary, or improper, but while they existed
by law they must not be left in a condition in which
an Act of Parliament imposed a duty upon them tiiC; were
unable to exercise, and by charging them with a respon-
sibility which they could not bear, would compel them to
resign their offices and leave the law unexecuted.
Mr. GRIM SD ITCH objected to the Bill, thinking the
present law sufficient for all necessary purposes—declaring
the Bill in some parts to be an ex post facto measure, and
deprecating an interference with the rights of the
local Poor-law authorities to manage their own concerns.
The Hon. Member concluded by moving that the Bill be
read a second time that day three months.
Mr. T. DUNC 0 MBE would most cordially second the
amendment of the Hon. Member, because he did not see
why this measure, as well as others, should not be post-
poned to another Session. The first and second clauses
were most objectionable, as, in truth, was the whole Bill.
There was fraud upon the very face of the Bill. It was a
new law altogether, although it was called only a decla-
ratory one, but it was declaring that to be law, which the
Court of. Queen's Bench had decided was not. That Court
declared that the collector of rates was not the officer of
the Guardians. The clause was a most insidious one, and
he would vote against the Bill in every stage, so that it
might during next Session receive that consideration to
which it was entitled. _

Mr. CLAY could not oppose the second reading of the
Bill, because it did not take the collection of rates from
the local authorities. He was of opinion that :if they
threw upon the Guardians the burden of relieving
and keeping the Poor, it was necessary to give them
the power of getting the means of doing so. He
was of opinion, however, that it would be necessary
to insert a clause for the prevention of litigation.
He did not think the Bill could remain in the state in
which it at present stood, but he trusted that beneficial
alterations would be made in Committee.
After a few observations had been made by Mr. R.
PALMER and Lord JOHN RUSSELL, in a very inaudible tone
across the table,
Mr. WAKL E Y said the Bill was so objectionable that
he hoped it would be rejected at once. The Hon. Mem-
ber for the Tower Hamlets said he objected to the mea-
sure, but he hoped that certain amendments would be
made. That was the way they were everlastingly going
on. When a Bill of this kind was once read a second time
it was easily passed through Commitee, and became the
law of the land. He agreed with his Hon. Colleague in
thinking that no Bill properly framed would ever
emanate from Somerset House. The powers
of the Poor-law Commissioners were enormous, and the
present Bill was as violent a coercion Bill against a certain
class of men as was ever framed. This was a Bill of
Pains and Penalties against those officers who resisted the
introduction of the Poor-law Amendment Act. What
pretence was there for introducing a law of this
description into parishes in which the parishioners were
content with the present mode of management ?
The Bill gave the Commissioners the most extraordinary
powers. The Noble Lord had promised that a general
measure should be introduced next Session, and this Bill
ought to be deferred till that time. He cordially sup-
ported the amendment.
Mr. G. PALMER did not think the House would
allow any one to exercise greater power over the Over-
seer than he could exercise over the rate-payer.—( Hear. )
Mr. HUME said he hoped the Noble Lord would not
press the Bill, for it violated two principles of great
im-
portance which, looking to the present feeling against the
New Poor-law, and the recent refusal of the House to
effect certain ameliorations in its provisions, it was ex-
ceedingly injudicious to do. The Bill took from the
public officers of each parish the power of levying, as the
original Act directed, the rates from the parishioners.
Now, he really thought the House should have some better
reason than he had yet heard, for taking such a step. It
was going another, and a considerable step, from the rights
of local self-government. He had consented to the ori-
ginal Poor-law Bill, hoping that it would be left to the
local authorities to carry it into operation. But the pre-
sent Bill would virtually take from the parochial authorities
all such powers. The House was called upon to do what
he indeed considered an outrage on every principle of
li-
berty—to make the regulations of the Poor-law Commis-
sioners the same in authority as Acts of Parliament.--
( Hear, hear.) The House was asked, in fact, to make re-
gulations in laws which were not before them, and of which
they were not at all cognizant—to give to the Poor-law
Commissioners a power which this House did not possess—
for this House could not make laws by itself.—( Hear.)
It did appear to him that to pass a measure like this would
tend greatly to increase the popular discontent against the
New Poor-law. The benefits of that law would not, he
fully believed, be sufficiently appreciated until more uni-
versally brought into operation, and he did not see why it
should not be made general in its operation ; but if this
Bill passed into a law, he feared that this object would be
greatly retarded. He did not think that the House should
have been asked to enact such a measure as the present,
when they had recently refused to correct the abuse of
proxy voting in the elections for Poor-law authorities—
abuses which his own experience had convinced him were
of a most pernicious tendency. Once more, therefore, he
entreated the Noble Lord to postpone the Bill, remembering
that he had refused to correct abuses, or to remedy griev-
ances complained of, under the pretext of the more ge-
neral measure which was hereafter to be introduced.