The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-24 00:00:00

EVEN IN G EDITION .

lor other officer, he furnished by the public ; that a
' moderate assortment of table plate, of cabin furniture,
of cutlery, and tab!e lieeti, and of cooking utensils,
should be supplied f, ow public stores in the several
dock-yards, for the use of the captains on taking a
command. aceortline to a an .le and rates to be 'fixed
by the Board of Mreiraite It appears to us reason-
able to subject the captain to a certain per tentage for
the use of these areeles, which miabt be applied to
form a fund for the future supply. The most equitable
mode of proceedine Oeat occurs to us, in regard to these
(
articles of cabin equipment, would be to have a fair
valuation made of the articles supplied, and to lease
them to the captain for the term of his command, at
the rate of ten per cent. per annum, with an under-
standing that he week; he litble to the full cost of any
of the articles missieg, itekss it were shown that the
cause of the deficiency arose out of the casualties of
sea-service, and that i,. was in no way ,ittributable to care-
lessness or neglect. 'l'nis propetition e e are qui!e aware
is entirely strange to tar practice of the service. The arti-
t cles of plate, Bte..winol it is our recommendation should
J be supplied by the public. have hitherto been furnished at
! the cost of the officer. But feeling that these supplies
are actual!y necessat3 for a public purpose, that the
expenditure at the captain's table is mainly devoted to
a public object, and that it is, in fact, essential for the
well-being of the servic7, we should, in our opinion, be
shrinking from our duty to Sour Majesty if we failed to
press it seriously upon your Majesty's consideration,
that it is not corisstent with the position of a naval
captain in the British service, that the mere equipment
or this table, which he must maintain for the advantage
of the discipline of the navy, should be, as it too often
kg, a matter involving him in serious pecuniary difficulty.
The sea-pay of the captain does not appear (0 us to be
fixed at a rate which would render the in,!u!gence we
propose to extend to this class anything more than might
be justified by the scale of expense in which the officer
holding the commission is, for public ends, compelled to
maintain his establishment.
The following are the rates of sea-pay in round
SUMS :—...

Captain 6th rates 3501. a year.
sth -- 4001.
41 h WO/. ---
- 3d --- 6001. --
- 2(.1 7001. --
-- Ist 8001.
The ship being paid off, generally after abut three
1 years' service during peace, the captain falls back upon
half-pay at one of the following rates :
The first 100, 14s. 61. a day, 2641.125. 6(1. a year.
Thenext 150, 12,e 6il.
2281. 25.6k1.
The rest 10s. 6(1.
1911. 12s. 6:1.
L. If it were necessary to offer any further grounds upon
which our preceding recommendations should rest, we
feel that it might derive some support from a reference
to the position of the officer's family during his absence
on service. We might urge that in the captain's case,
an establishment in no way benefited by the cepense
of his out-fit must be maintained at home for his tar:lily ;
that sacrifice must be made by them, to enable him to
secure his pos:tion as an officer on service, under any
circumstances, and that it must in all cases be necessary
for the officer to infringe largely upon his private re-
sources, or to forestall his accruing income from his ap-
pointment, by procuring advances from his agent, to
prepare for the habitual and almost daily expenditure
arising from cabin charges, which he not only cannot
1 avoid, but which it is almost his duty to incur, to assist
in the maintenance of good order and discipline in
his ship.
It does not occur to us to suggest to your Majesty
the adoption of any other changes in regard to the
captain's pay or allowances. Various propositions were
made to us to recommend the establishment of a retired
list for officers of this rank, as well as for other ranks in
the navy, the particulars of which will be found in the
evidence given in the appendix. The whole of these
propositions had, however, reference rather to claims
arising out of seniority on the respective lists than of
service performed ; and they did not appear to us to
be calculated to advance the public interests to any
extent commensurate with the charge they would entail
upon the public revenues. We, therefore, upon a full
consideration of these suggestions, have refrained from
eeering any recommendation to your Majesty to extend
the vrtnciple of a retired list beyond the present prac-
tice, except in the cases of mates and commanders, for
the reasons we have explained in our observations on
those classes.
The most important question connected with the
rank of captain, which came under our consideration
had relhrence to the system of promotion to the rank
of flag-officer.
By the evidence in the appendix it will be seen that,
' prior to the year 1747, flag-officers were taken from
any part of the list of captains, from which the Board
of Admiralty thought proper to select them ; and that
in consequence of complaints preferred by certain cap-
-1 tains who had been passed over in such selection, the
I rank of retired rear-admiral was established ; this re-
tired rank being in the first instance limited to such
officels as hail distinguished themselves in the recent
Spanish war. In 1771, by Order in Council, it was de-
clared that this boon of the retired rank—for such it
was stated to be, should be conferred upon any captains
who might be passed over on selection, provided they
I had served with approbation in any war immediately
' /Ince i, din, any promotion which passed their names.
So striatly was this rule as to approved service being
necessary to establish a claim to the retired rank of
rear-admira! enforced, that in Lord Howe's naval admi-
nistration, when sixteen captains were selected far flag-
officers' rank, and twenty-nine were passed over, there
were only five of those passed over who were consi-
dered entitled to the retired rank. This exclusion pro-
duced great discontent ; and by a subsequent regulation
on the 19th Dec., ISO 4, it was established that every
officer who had served at all in the last preceding war,
should be entitled to be placed in his turn upon the
active list of flag-Ai-ears, the retired rank being given
to those who had not served in the last preceding war.

Difficulties and embarraisments, however, grew out

, of this regulation, and cases occurred in which officers
of good service were excluded, even from the retired
rank, because they had not served in the last war, the
terms of the Order in Council operating severely and
infairly against Ilion.
To remedy this state Dr things, and to secure to
sitery captain of unblemished character, who had not
declined nor avoit!vd service, the rank and pay of a flag-
officer, an Order in Council was issued on June 30,
1827, which first prescribed the conditions under which
a captain might be qualified for promotion to be a flag•
officer on the active 'tilt, viz., lour complete years in
command of a rated ship during war, or six complete
years during peace. or five complete years of war and
peace combined. F.,iling these terms of service the
officer would be pi •e; c 1 upon - the retired list of real-
admirals, with admit. l's pay, !Jut eligible neither for
further employme:t nor for promotion.
In proof th.:t the rule for exacting the requisite
period of se..-vi:e t. qualify a captain for his flag is very
rigidly enco-emi it ,s stated il evidence that an offi-
cer who had lost an arm in the service, and wanted but
• one day of four year:' war time, was compelled to serve
ono year and a day, to inak,!. up the fire years of war
and peace comblocd. to entitle him to the active flag.
But it might recur iltat an officer having an equal
cLim with the one in quv•tion, and with as little dtli-
, eieney of service, migl,t not succeed even in obtaining,
1 as he , did, the ~pportuni. v of completing his period,
j 1.1 which case Le would b'placA irretrievably in the
. I retired list.

Upcn a fall consideration of this question, we confess
that the ituprcasiou oo our minds is, that the distinction
between the actiii! and retired list of officers is pro-
ductive of little, if of an) r.,al Advantage to the pubic,