The Sun.
London, England, 1812-02-13 00:00:00

ROYAL MARINE CORPS.

Mr. HUTCHINSON rose, in pursthince of bis no-
tice, to call the attention of the House to the loyal
Marine Corps. His motion would be for Popers,
on which he meant to found an Address to the
Prince Itegent, unless the 'Right Honourable Gen.
tleman oppOsite should declare that an arrangement
was in contemplation, by which the wiShes the
Corps would be gratified, •and that redress atiOrded
them to which they were justly entitled ; iu which
case he would most willingly withdraw his motion.
It was a great cr:wsulatron to him that the Corps in
question was one, the merits of winch were uni%er7
solly acknowledged, for he thereby telt assured, that
however he}night lad in placii.g then (-)unii ion in
a clear point of view, the Corps itself could sustain
no injury from his deficiencies. The 11.1al Marine
.Corps cougisted of - thirty-five thousand men, bring

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one-fourth of the strength u. note Na.vy
,importance in every situation. in all times, under
ctimates, and all commander, was well kroawn ;
but tt.e peculiar hardships under which they la-
boured had not been sufficieetly attended to. The.
floe of these hardships was, that the highest sitna-•
tiona in the. Corps were held, not by Marines, but
by Nayld Officers. In staling this, he trusted that.
he shoOld not be supposed so to mispresent the sen-
timents of the Marine Officers, as to imply that they
considered the NavalOfficei s as not wholly deserving
any rewards they nvght receive; but unquestionably
it was a great hardship, that the most lucrative ap-
pointments in the Marines were ere in the possession
of Or&erg of that corps. The nsxt grievance was,
_that the Marine Officers did not receive emoluments
equal to-those of Officers of the same rank in other
services. There
.were four great divisions of .the
Royal Marine Corps—Plymouth, Ponsmouth,Wool-
wich, and Chatham. Each division was superin-
tended by aeenior Commandant, whose emoluments
were not equal even to those of 'a Major-General.
Promotion in the Marines was also so slow,. that a
Subaltern was frequently seventeen or eighteen
years in the service, before he obtained a company,
and a Captain twenty years, before he became a Field
Officer. The proportion also of Field Officers in
the Marine Corps, as compared with Field Officers
in the Line, or in the Artillery, was ery small.
The Marines, consisting of 35,000 men, had only
45 Field Officers. The Ai ttl:ery, consisting of on-
ly 17,000 men, had about 80 Field Officers. The
situation of the Marine Field Officers was also pe-
culiarly hard, and-of a non-descript nature ;as they
were not employed_ in any efficient service. The
situation of the senior Captains aleo deserved at-
tention.
.Many of these brave men had served
above thirty years. Seseral at the hsad of the list
had aau illy served during the last three wars, and
• yet entertained very little prospect of ever becom-
ing Field Officers. Let this statement
,be compared
to the situation of Captains in the Artillery and in
the-Line. , There was no Captain in the Artillery
who had served longer than 17
,years ; and in the
whole line there were not twenty Captains of the
same standing as theMatine Captains whom lie had
mentioned.; several of whom had the mortification
of seeing every day Admirals and Generals who.
had not entered the NNy and Army at as early a
period as that at which they had entered the Ma-
rine Service. There was . another very important
circumstance, to which. he wished particularly to
(Fred the atten+ion of the House, and that was,
that by some late regulations the Officers of the
Royal Marines were directly superseded in their
,rank, by having been prevented fronnaa participa-
tion in garrison duty. After the distinguished va-
lour and pod conduct which this Corps had for so
many 'years exhibited, there was no point on which
they naturally felt more sore than that which he
had mentioned, and which could not be considered
in any other light than a kind of degradation. Ad-
verting to tht: comparative promotion in the Navy
and in tie Marines, he stated, that since the year
1809, see en or eight hundred officers had -been
womoied in the one, and only about forty in the
other ; the expence to the nation of the one being
50,0001. and of the other only 70001. a-year. -Did
he say this by way of complaining that the Officers
of the Navy were too liberally ree.arded By no
means. No recompense could be too great ha- their
'services. All that he lam.-rated was, that equal at-
tention was not paid to another service, so univer-
sally acknowledged to be in the highest degree me-
ritdrious. No Marine Officer, however long in
service, was ever put upon the Staff. No Marine
Captain enjoyed the pay of his Company, an ad-
vantage to which ail Military Officers of his rank
were entitled. The Captains who commanded the
:Marine Artillery, the efficiency of which had been
proved by their substitution afloat for the Royal Ar-
y, did not enjoy similar advantages to other Ar-
tillery Officers of his own rank. The Marine Ser-
jeants were far ,from enjoying the same advantages
as the Serjeants of the Line and the Artillery. Nor
was the situation of the private soldiers of the Royal
Mteine Corps equal to that of the private soldiers
of the line, the !alter of whom enjoyed premiums
proportionate .to their length of service which were
denied to the former. Alter dwelling at constdera-
ble length on other grievances to which the Royal
Marine Corps was subjed, he stated that the objects
most dear to the corps might be attained at an ex-
pense not exceeding 50001. a year ; aided by omit-
ting to fill up a number of the vacancies in the se-
cwid Lieutenancies. He particularly apologised to-
the House for having intruded so very long up •ts
their attention, and declared that he felt. him,elt
wholly unable to do justice to the alibied. He
trused, however, that he had said enoutels to induce
the Right Hon. Gentleman opeosite, and the House,
ICOpAy that attention to it which it deserved. When,
last year, he had trespassed upon the attention of
the House on the sante subjed, the Right Hon.
Gentlerrian said that it was under the ceusideration
of the Admiralty. Nothing had since been pro-
posed. If however, he should hear that that con-
s•deration was likely to turn out favourably, he-would
not persevere in his motion ; if not, he should feel
it his duty to press :he House serioualy to consider
the claims of a body of men so highly meritorious
as those whose cause he had been endeavouriug to
advocate. At present, he would content himself
with moving that there-be laid before the House a
copy of the Memorial of the Commandants, Field
atficers, and Senior Captains of the Royal Marines
to the Admiralty, relative to the situation of the
Royal Marine Corps.
Mr. YORKE allowed that the merits of the corps
were t undosibo d. Buts-the only question for the
House to consider was, whet her the grievances ain't-
planted of were such as to induce them to interpose ?
If it could he distindly made ow that the.. Executive
Government had not done its duty, then, nuked,
there could be no doubt that Parliamentary interfe-
rence would be highly proper ; but he was persuad-
ed that die House would agree with him in the ne-
cessity of having a very grave case before them be-
fore they would consent to
.any such interference.
The. Hon. Gentleman had not even attempted to
shows that the established rules and regulations re-
specting the Royal Marine Corps had been violated,
or that their established emoluments and advantages
had been set aside. The whole of his argument
tended to alter that which had for many years ex-
isted. In proposing something new, the strongest