The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 1840.

GENERAL REPORT OF COMMIS-
SIONERS FOR INQUIRY INTO NAVAL
AND MILITARY PROMOTION AND RE-
TIREMENT.

(Continued from The Sun of Yesterday.)
THE NAVY.

Our examination of the systems of prnmotion and re-
tirement in the military services having been completed,
we directed the course of our inquiries to the state of
the navy, with a view to ascertain the condition and
prospects of the officers of your Majesty's fleet, and to
the suggestion of such remedial measures as might tend
to maintain in vigour and efficiency this most important
arm of national defence.

During the whole progress of our inquiry and of our
subsequent discussion and examination of the various
propositions that have been submitted to us, we had
been gratified by the zealous and cordial co-operation
of that most gallant and distinguished officer, Vice-Ad-
miral Sir Thomas Hardy ; and although we are unfor-
tunately by his death deprived of the satisfaction of ob-
taining his signature to this our Report, we beg to assure
your Majesty that we had his full concurrence in all our
propositions.
We proceeded, in regard to the navy, in the course
we had adopted with the other services, obtaining from
the departments of the Admiralty statements calculated
to exhibit, generally, but not in detail, the ages and ser-
vices of the officers of the several ranks. We have,
moreover, called before us for examination such officers
as, from their experience or the attention they had given
to the subject, might be best qualified to afford us in-
formation on the objects of our inquiry, and we have
given our full and anxious consideration to the many
appeals and petitions which were placed before us.
The system of naval promotion may be described as
one of selection up to the rank of captain, and of ad-
vancement by seniority from that rank to be a flag-
officer, the qualification for selection being merely that
the officer shall have served a certain period in each
rank ; the qualification for advancement by seniority to
be a flag-officer on the active list being that the captain
shall have served a certain period in command of a
rated ship.
The brief explanation of the general features of the
system of naval promotion appears necessary as a pre-
liminary to that examination of the subject upon which
we propose to enter, and is sufficiently distinct as a re-
ference in the remarks we shall feel it our duty to sub-
mit to your Majesty on the present state of the navy in
relation to the points adverted to in our instructions.
In the army, the ordnance, or the marines, the esta-
blishment of full pay is defined, and the condition of the
service is, that the officer, while effective, retains his
place on the list of employed officers, passing to another
and separate establishment when he shall be disqualified
for duty.
In the navy, from the peculiar constitution of the
service, and the limit placed upon employment at sea,
there is but one establishment of naval officers com-
prising both the full-pay and the half-pay list. In the
army, the ordnance, or the marines, an effective officer
of good conduct may, on a fixed establishment, be as-
sured of retaining his employment as long as he con-
tinues efficient ; and if he quits that employment for
retirement, it is either because the public service re-
quires a more active officer, or it is a voluntary relin-
quishment of the service, with a perfect knowledge on
the part of the officer retiring that he will pass to an-
cther and separate establishment. In the navy the re-
duction to half-pay after a short period of service often
occurs without any reference to the efficiency of the
officers affected thereby. In this retirement the naval
officer has no choice, and he falls back upon the half-
pay list of his class, merely because his ship is paid off,
from which half-pay he may never again be removed,
although he is still retained on the list of officers liable
to be called upon to serve.
Hence there is this difference between the returns
we have obtained of the ages of officers in the at my
and in the navy ; that, in the former, as we have already
stated, officers on full-pay only are included, while- the
tables of ages and services, prepared by the Admiralty,
refer not only to those in actual full-pay employment,
but also to all of the same rank, whether in retirement
as being notoriously past service, or only on half-pay
from their services not being required. This amalga-
mation consequently tends to increase generally the
averages of ages, as calculated for each particular class.
We were, therefore, prepared to expect that these re-
turns would exhibit generally advanced ages among all 1
classes of officers ; and the result of our examination in '
no way surprised us, or gave us any reason to appre
hend that the high average age of officers of different
ranks in the ❑avy necessarily implied a defective system
of promotion in that branch of the service.
As it is, however, above all things our desire to give
your Majesty a clear view of the condition in which we
have found each arm of your M.ijesty's service, we shall
proceed precisely in the course we adopted with regard
to the marines, the ordnance, and the army, by detailing,
where the official records enable us to do so, the ages
and services of the several commissioned officers of the
navy, as they have been reported to us by the Board of
Admiralty, fully admitting that a much larger propor-
tion of inefficiency is to be found in the various ranks of
the navy than we have discovered in any of the other
services. But we desire to record it as our deliberate
conviction that this admitted inefficiency is not only not
connected with the system of naval promotion, but
that, on the contrary, that system of selection offers
the best security which could be devised for re-in-
vigorating and re-animating the navy to any extent which
the circumstances of the country might on an emergency
render necessary. The condition of the navy at the pre-
sent moment, therefore, trill furnish no data whatever
upon which the value of the system of promotion adopted
'in it could be estimated. Age, ill health, or desuetude,
may have unfitted a large portio❑ of the naval officers
for sea duties, and hero reduced the really available
members of the profession to a comparatively small num-
ber ; but this number during peace is sufficient to meet
the demands upon their services, and whenever more
are required the Minister of the Crown, appointed for
the management and control of this important service,
is vested with ample powers to repair the deficiency on
any moment of emergency by the mere suspension of
those restrictions on naval promotion, which, for finan-
cial reasons chiefly, at present exist.
It seemed to us expedient to offer these preliminary
remarks to your Majesty's notice, fearing that an infer-
ence unfavourable to the system of promotion might be
formed from the condition of some officers of the navy,
and that a generally advanced age with reference to
rank might be considered a consequence of that system,
instead of being, as it is, in evident opposition to a prin-
ciple of selection, and the result rather of an extremel,
liberal distribution of rewards, at the conclusion of a long
war, than of any system of promotion proceeding in an
ordinary course.
From the Admiralty records the ages of the flag-
officers, at the period of our calling for the return, ap-
peared to be as follow ; since that time some casualtie
have occurred :
Admirals. I Vice- Admirals.
1 above 90 years of age 1 above So years of age
7 between 90 and 80 18 between 80 and 70
25 between 80 and 70 24 between 70 and 65
7 between 70 and 65 10 between 65 and 59
1 the youngest, 65 years 1 the youngest, 59 years
—4l —54

Rear- Admirals— 1 above 80 years of age
5 between 80 and 71
19 between 71 and 65
26 between 65 and 59
10 between 59 and 53
2 not reported
1 the youngest, above 50
—64

From the same records the ages of 670 of the Cap-
tains would appear to be as follows, on the Ist of April,
1889

Capttins— 1 above 90 years of ago
1 between 90 and 80
28 between 80 and 70
103 between 70 and 60
140 between 60 and 55
210 between 55 and 49
104 between 49 and 43
52 between 42 and 37
27 between 37 and 31
2 the youngest, 30 years of ago
----WO

The official documents are not equally available to
give us the ages of the commanders and lieutenants'
One return would show the average age of the former
to be 49 years, and of the latter 43 years ; but it is evi-
dent that from the large number of each class who may
be considered in permanent retirement, any deductio
drawn from an average would be an unsafe guide. We
have endeavoured to supply the information required
with regard to the ages of the commanders and the
lieutenants, by an estimate calculated in the following
manner :—We propose to take 13 years as the average
ago at which the youth commences his naval career, and
to add to that eight years as the assumed average ser-
vice of each commissioned officer, as mate and midship.
man, or volunteer. We are of necessity compelled to
assume an average of service before the officer receives
his commission of lieutenant, as there are no means of
tracing such service, except by reference to the books of
each ship in which the officer may have served.
Upon these data, two being admitted assumptions,
and in the unavoidable absence of more accurate infor-
mation, the following statements of the ages of the com-
manders and lieutenants have been prepared, and it is
believed that they will afford as near an approach to
the real facts of the case as could be desired :
Commanders. Lieutenants.
6 between 81 and 76 years. 11 between 81 and 63 years
15 between 71 and 66 42 between 62 and 59
61 between 66 and 61 45 between 59 and 55
100 between 61 and 56 275 between 55 and 51
183 between 56 and 51 441 between 51 and 47
161 between 31 and 46 910 between 47 and 43
107 between 46 and 41 87 between 43 and 39
87 between 41 and 36 232 between 39 and 35
58 between 36 and 31 415 between 35 and 31
27 between 31 and 26 185 between 31 and 27
1 not reported 104 between 27 and 24
1 below 26
-807 111 between 24 and 22
20 below 22
-2,879
!!, the •Latement;
officers generally to be far

IL I,e (16-,r2iej th
show the ages of the nave