The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-17 00:00:00

course of service, or that they should vacate their com-
missions in favour of competent successors.
From our conviction of the necessity of maintaining a
completely effective establishment in every rank of the
Royal Artillery, we were naturally led to inquire what
provision was made for those who, having served long
and meritoriously, might be compelled, in consequence
of advancing age or growing infirmity, to quit the ac-
tive service of the corps.
We found that there was an establishment of retired
full-pay limited to the following numbers Lieute-
nant-Colonels, 12 Captains, 8 Subalterns ; that any
officer who might be declared unfit for further aervice
en the report of a Medical Board, might be placed
permanently upon half-pay, in the event of there being
no vacancy on the retired full-pay establishment ; and
further, that since 29:h August 1836, three Captains,
of not less than 24 years' total service, and one Subal-
tern of not less than 20 yea: s' total service, may be per-
mitted as an indulgence to retire annually upon half-pay.
Examining these provisions in detail, we can have no
hesitation in declaring to your Majesty our unanimous
opinion that the first, as limited to the existing numbers,
is altogether insufficient for the objects in view, viz., a
security that the Artillery shall be kept constantly ef-
fective by the removal of the inefficient officers, which
can only be accomplished by an adequate provision 'of
retirement for those who may be no longer qualified for
service in the corps.
It might constantly occur under the present system,
that the retired establishment being full, there would be
no means of providing for an inefficient Field-Officer,
except by placing him on half-pay, and that hence great
injustice might be committed in dealing with claims of
equal merit. A case, fortunately preferred at a time
when the er_ablishtnent of retired full-pay was not com-
plete, would obtain the best reword that could be given
to it ; and another, occurring a short time after from a
casualty of service, might obtain no more than half-pay,
not because the claim of the last officer was less in value
than the former, but merely because the establishment
of higher rewards was complete.
It may be urged against the course of argument we
are offering in this respect, that in the Marines, under
the proposed new regulations, end in the Army, this
same difficulty may occur, and that therefore the objec-
tions which we are prepaied to take to a limited esta-
blishment of retired full-pay in regard to the Ordnance
corps, would apply equally to the Army and the Ma-
rines. But to us it appears that the services are es-
sentially different, and that the necessities of making
pros ision of retirement are by no means equally apparent.

In the Marines the duties of the Field-Officers are
limited almost entirely to home service, and the rank
itself may be rtgardA more-as a position of honourable
reward for past service, than as one generally entailing
any necessity for Foreign or Colonial duty.
In the Army, by the constitution of the service, an
escape altogether is open to all officers by the privilege
of retirement by sale of commission, and it is not on that
account equally necessary that the retired list should
exceed certain limits, ;is it is in the Ordnance corps,
where the position of the Field-Officer implies an ex-
tended course of service, from which there is no escape
but a retirement on a sufficient pension.
For these reasons, we are induced to recommend to
your Majesty that the extent of the reti:ed full-pay list
in the Ordnance corps should rather be measured by
the necessities of the public service, and regulated so as
to afford constantly a sufficient number of perfectly ef-
fective officers on the service portion of the corps, than
framed in any proportion to the existing number of offi
cers on the establishment ; and we are satisfied that the
most expedient course to be taken would be to invest
the Master-General with a discretionary power to place
a certain number of Field-Officers in each year u-en
retired full-pay, proof being afforded that they ere no
longer equal to the duties that may be required of them.
With regard to the Artillery, our recommendation
would be limited merely to this, that the Master-Ge-
neral should be authorised to allow a number of Field-
Officers, not exceeding four, to retire upon full-pay in
each year, upon its being duly shown that they are, from
age or the effects of service, unequal to any further dis-
charge of duty.

We are fully aware that we are advisinc, your Ma- I
jest), to extend an unusual privilege to the Ordnance
corps, and that the maintenance of this grant may entail
a considerable additional charge upon the public reve-
nues ; but we are quite satisfied that if the Ordnance
corps are to be kept, es they ought to be, complete.und
fit for duty, it is essential that no inefficient officer should
encumber any one of the ranks, but that all alike should
be, without evasion, prepared to undertake and satisfac-
torily to discharge any duty that the rollster of service
may impose upon them.
We can fully appreciate the feelings to which Lieut.-
Colonel Mitchell alludes of strong attachment to the •
corps, for which the officer had been educated, and in
which he has passed his best days, operating to retain
him in the regiment when his inefficiency shall have
become notorious, and that he will be slow to seek any
retirement from a body to which he is knit by recipro-
cal ties of affection and esteem ; but the public ne-
cessities require his removal, and the object should be
to effect this in a manner as little discordant to his
feelings as possible.
To accomplish this, we would venture to suggest to
your Majesty that tLe retirement on full pay so caused
by ill health cr advanced age should not altogether de-
stroy the expectation which the meritorious officer had
so long entertained of ultimate advancement to high
rank, but that, as we have suggested in regard to the
Marines, the retired Field-Officers who are on the list.
or those who may be placed thereon as Regimental
Field-Officers, should be advanced in regular brevet suc-
cession to the highest rank equally with the serving offi-
cers of the corps.
The reasons we have to offer for this recommenda-
tion, particularly with reference to the Ordnance corps,
are briefly these :—The Field-Officer may be himself
conscious that irs inability to meet all the contingen-
cies of his commission is increasing, and that he must
soon cease to offer even the semblance of efficiency ;
but he has seen that his predecessors have, under simi-
lar circumstances, had indulgence shown to them, and
that they have been allowed to retain their rank till
they were removed by a brevet to the unattached list
of General Officers, and he naturally covets the same
distinction, secured by the same indulgence, for himself,
as a reward to which probably a previous long and un-
blemished service may give him a fair title. He is,
therefore, most unwilling to relinquish his connexion with
t'ae corps, through which alone this reward has hitherto
been obtained.

It appears to us that it would be most expedient, both
with a view to the efficiency of the service and to give
satisfaction to the meritorious but worn-out officer, to
combine a system of retirement and of further brevet
promotion, exclusively in seniority corps, so that, though
no longer efficient for military duty, the retired officer
' might have the advantage of that ultimate rank to
which he has, all his life, been looking forward. In
the line, from the facility of exchanging to half-pay,
which does not exist in the seniority services, this pri-
vilege of brevet advancement may be secured by any
officer, whom ill-health or the infirmities of service may
compel to to retire from active duty, and the Line Offi-
cer, although on half-pay, may obtain both rank and
pay as a General-Officer, after a certain period of ser-
vice as a Field-Officer. We desire to recommend to
your Majesty the grant of a similar indulgence of pro-
motion to the Field-Officers of the seniority corps, with
this difference only, that as in those corps they hate
not the privilege of selling their commissions, their re-
tirement should be full pay, and not half-pay. But to
preserve to the Master-General the power of rewarding
past service even in this body of retired officers, we
would recommend that a limited number only of those
retired Field-Officers should be entitled to the min;-
mum pay which is granted to Major-Generals of the
line, viz., 400/. a year ; and we consider that the ob-
ject in view of marking past meritorious service, would
be sufficiently secured by investing the Master-General
with a power to select eight to receive that rate of pay,
on their becoming Major-Generals, and that the two
seniors so selected should receive 50/. per annum in
addition.

—_.......
We are persuaded that a liberal provision of retire-
ment such as we have proposed will contribute most
materially to free the Master-General from all embar-
rassments as to enforcing the rollster for service upon
all Field-Officers, and that it will tend manifestly to
the improvement of the corps, both with regard to its
present efficiency, and its capability of receiving aug-
mentation in the event of more active services being
required.
Raving reference still to the necessity of facilitating
the promotion to the rank of Field-Officer, we would
further recommend to your Majesty that the Master-
Generalm.'
should be authorized to admit of the perma-
nt retirementArti annually of two Ifieut.-Colonels of the
Roval
.do not suggestry to
that
tf-tphaeys
ea t
officers their ownsho u requestici
b e l
i;g
ibbul e
for t
we
.anY further promotion by brevet or otherwise.
will operate very extonnsio
We have no reason
exists with regard to- t. ,
eh.y, e believe
dthat
t.l
Subalterns,
arrangementrns b u t
onlonly
I ellus such a privilege already
one Captain bad Captainsavailed
from its introduction to JuinmesellBf3oBf it in the two years
We have hitherto con,ide el
the Field-Officers of the Royal Artillery,
th.eb
utour conditiona t
atten-
tion no-f
ina,te of the Captains
the. evidence
tion was equally directed to the
of the corps, among whom, accords
we received, there must he found "rtirtnuy inefficient fur
presented
ernstsahlishmput
resdhaldess than
active service. We found from the many
to us, that of the eighty Captains on tehteu
served
' of the Royal Artillery,. no one had
thirty years, and thAt the thirty-three seniors
from
[ thirty-five years ; and that their a forty-
' eight to more than fifty years.
It was quite impossible to consider a body thus con-
stituted as to age and service as efficient for all duties.
A complete class, composed altogether of men who had
passed middle life, containing no portion whatever of
youthful vigour, did not offer to our minds a sound basis
upon which an efficient fires for active employment
could be built ; and whop it is recollected that the
win& service of Artillery iiibei;formeil by rollster of corn-
Panics, it appeared to u. aI, • c essential that some open-
-11,4 should be made b) Will h the inerfiei,nt might pass
away from active duty in their present ranks, without