The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-06 00:00:00

INCOME,

Customs .• ...................
Excise ••..,•
Stamps . • .. . .
Taxes • . . . .
Property Tax .....
Post-office
Crown Lands.. ......•...•
Miscellaneous • •
Produce of Money received from China
Imprest and other Moneys • • • •
Repayments of Advances ••• ••.• • •

To Cash brought to this Account to bel
applied to pay off Dellciaucy

4,499,548
2,980,653
1,537, 76
2 1 '0,5 2
b 00,991
155,000
30,000
13,653

:2°,262

182,354

12,633,123

250,000

12,888,132

4,523,391
3,117,181
1,730,495
2,006,427
1,009,162
181,000

MOOl
440,000
73,939
111,607

13,211,203

13,211,203

MAGAZINES —( CON TIN UED.)
COLB URN' S UNITED SERVICE.
To an enterprising young legislator, desire us of distin-
guishing himself, we could not recommend a subject more
promising than that of army jobs. Of the grossness of
ale jobs perpetrated in the army, we had no idea until
we read Colonel Firebrace's paper on jobs in general,
in the present number of the United Service. The
following extract, partially anatomising what the writer
calls the great job in the army, is long, but the subject
so important that we feel it necessary to give it :
"All the regiments that were raised up to the end of the
eighteenth century, however proud they may be of their fame
:and honour at the present day, were originally raised by job.
A sort of contract was given to gentlemen, some of whom
were not officers at the time, to raise regiments ; they made a
bargain with subordinates, few or none of whom had been
previously in the army, to raise a certain number of men, and
according to their success in that way, they were rewarded
with Ensigncies, Lieutenantcies, and companies, the Colonels
retaining the absolute property in the regiments so raised,
with all the profits of clothing, &c., and the regiments bore
for many years afterwards, and until they were numbered,
the names of thesa worthy personages, who turned the affairs
into an excellent job. Many of the inferior ranks, who only
;aye their assistance to their patron for the sake of getting a
sort of position in the world, and some pay, or were actuated
by the vanity of wearing the King's livery, soon found out
that they had mistaken their trade, and that a soldier's life
vas not what suited them. In this dilemma they applied to
their Colonel, who, pitying their embarrassment, said he
would endeavour to release them from their engagements, for
s con-si-de-ra-tion, not openly to be avowed, but by permit-
ting these persons to sell their commissions to others whom
he would nominate. A portion of this traffic no,doubt fell to
be Commandant, in the shape of commission, &c. The job
•,f raising the men originally, was one of constant deception,
'rand, debauchery, and drunkenness. Such was the origin of
the British army, arid I blush to say, that it still bears about
with it undoubted traces of its polluted birth.
"Tae Colonels, who had not unfrequently expended large
sums in these levies, looked on the soldiers of their respective
corps exactly as the Russians and Poles do on their serfs;
,he rigour of martial law hung constantly over their heads,
and as to any amelioration of the hard life of a soldier, or
bestowing any instruction
,on him beyond the drill, they
-could just as soon have thought of sending him up in an air-
balloon. Besides the original bargains between those who
retired and those who purchased, the Colonel had all the
waifs and strays, men dying or being killed, or resigning,
whale commissions he might dispose of as he. pleased; when
it might not appear decorous to sell the commission, he had
mnly to put in his own natural son. or that of any friend. I
have known myself of a General Officer pensioning off his
autler in this manner. There were no records kept at head-
platters, and officers might be kept on the pay-lists years
after they w re dead ; and as in the early stages, the Colonel
lad the whole management. of his corps, he might continue
drau ing the pay of dead officers and men, if not withheld
ly principle. I can perfectly recollect in the regiment I was
in, that we had a Captain in our pay-ists who had been
lead five years—who got his pay I never heard. To help
along the emoluments of the poor Colonel, he was allowed a
certain number of imaginary beings—men of straw—for
whom pay was drawn, under the name of non-effectives,
,yhicli name was borne after I went into the army; it was
afterwards altered to commuted allowance, and is now given
in the infantry to the Captains of companies, for the repair
,f arms, and to meet any losses they may suffer from deser-
ion ,sr dying in debt. A ves.ige of these non-effectives for
he benefit of the Colonel is still to be found in the cavalry,
where they are called hautbois—not amis,., for they are all
en Pair. Further to assist the Colonel who had spent money
in raising a regiment, he was made a tailor, and, I rejoice to
say, he still continues so—the cabbage being denominated
off-reckonings ?
" The Colonel thus, besides his pay of 20s. a-day, had the
:ale of the commissions of his regiment, and all the under-
band negotiations inseparable from such transactions. lie
might draw the pay of dead officers and men, as there was no
check on him; he had invented for his use a set of imaginary
beings, for whom lie drew pay ; and he was master-tailor of
,is regiment. I ask if this was not altogether a very nice
job?
"These little pickings were not thought adequate reward
for their arduous services, and they were prcmoted in large
hatches to the rank of Major-General, and successively to
Lieutenant-General and General, and this is the respectable
origin of General Brevets, which in time of war annually
hoisted up, like sacks of flour through a miller's loft, a cer-
;ain number of officers, whose commissions were dated in one
year, without the slightest reference to talent, ability, or
even bodily capability. Without running through the long
:accession of these promotions, I may be allowed to notice
the last year of war-1814.
here were in the "Army List" of that year 5 Field-
Marshals, 87 Generals, 196 Lieutenant-Generals, and 321
llajor-Generals; give to each of the last-named rank a com-
mand of 3,000 men, and it would require an army of 963,00;
give the whole of the 609 Generals the same small command
,f 3,000 men each, and it would require an army of 1,827,000.
Of these 609 Generals, I have counted out 188 that never saw
the face of an enemy, and at least as many more who were
lever entrusted with any command as General Officers ;
and, I ask, is this not a splendid job?
"Notwithstanding the Brevets are far apart since the
Peace, one might have supposed that thirty years would
have entirely done away with this burden; but I find by
he "Army List"'of 1843, that there were still 414 General
Officers receiving pay; of these, 42 are since dead, leaving a
balance of 372 : give each of these, as before proposed, a com-
mand of 3,000 men, and we should have a numerical force of
1,116,000 men, just about the strength of the British army—
griking off the million.
But this is not all ; the power of selling half-pay coin-
nissions has given occasion to the grossest jobbing, and
he consequence of all this is, that the officers of the
British army are, generally speaking, profoundly igno-
rant of their profession, and would, in the opinion of the
writer of this article, be found utterly incompetent to
defend their country in case it should be invaded. He
also makes out a strong case of jobbing against the
Ordnance Department. The statements contained in
his paper may be exaggerated, but unless they are
iitegether fictions, the writer has made out a prima
facie case for inquiry, and we join with him in expres-
ing a wish that Mr. Hume would devote his attention
o the subject. This magazine, in addition to its valu-
able papers on professional subjects, contains, as usual,
much pleasant reading.

DOUGLAS Jh_.'Rß('Ll►'S SHILLING
MAGAZINE.

There is in this number of Douglas Jerrold a most va-
!cable paper, entitled "Ireland and the Irish," which it
•could be well that all those who talk or write
daunt Ireland should read, and that those who
.re called upon to legislate for that unfortunate
and ill-used country, should study. That Ireland is
suffering under great and intolerable evils it is impos-
ib'e to deny, the question to be considered is, how are
tiose evils to be remedied?

-
" There is but one true remedy for the evils of Ireland, and
it is comprised in one word—JUSTICE ; justice to her toiling,
ill-clad, ill-housed, ill-fed children. She might, with a fair
claim to being heard, ask of England mercy, and a helping
hand as well. From her she I a rect ived the deep wounds
,hat vet rankle in her sides; but let her receive justice, free
and unstinted justice, and rapidly will the evils of her condi-
tion disappear, and plenty and prosperity visit her. This is
vague: I will explain what I mean. It is security for life
and property—the cant phrase of some of her doctors, but
ot as they mean it :—security, not for the lordling in his
castle, he does not require it, but for the peasant in his cottage ;
tot for the landowner, but from him ;—security to the poor
man for the just results of his industry. There are robbers
and murderers in Ireland who disturb its whole moral and
physical constituti,n, and prevent its progress; but they are
not clad in rags or frieze, but in brocades and broad cloth,
reclining in saloons, living in clubs and palaces, and received
and acknowledged in the houses of the great—not the puny
midnight assassin doing his solitary murder, but wholesale
slaughterers, who sweep away whole families by tens and
hundreds at a time—not the caitiff wretch, driven by penury
to snatch from the traveller his gold, and trembling for the
consequences, but men of title Voblemen, as they are called,
wresting from the trembling hand of penury the bread of life,
from the toiling hand of industry its hard-earned profits, and
i .e; 'he whole with legal sanction, according to Act of
Parliament.

•".ro do that justice, to effect that security, the whole sys-
tem of landed tenure should be altered—it is at present most
artificial and absurd. Improvements are proposed, and they
show a disposition to grapple with the monster evil of Ire-
land, but they are but tinkerings. It is not enough that a
simple form of lease should be appointed ; landholders should
be obliged to give them, by decreeing that in all disputes
about land, where there is not documentary evidence to the
contrary, a, d in all doubtful cases, the occupier should be
deemed to be the owner. This is the case with regard to all
other property ; why is land an exception ? Thus would
the granting of leases be enforced. These should be as simple
as possible, and always at the expense of the landlord, as
they would be for his protection, and not that of the tenant.
With regard to the proposal to remunerate the tenant
for improvements, the writer consieers it good, as far
as it noes, but it does not go to the root of the evil;
to do that the writer says every encouragement and faci-
lity must be given to the purchasers of land :
" Th. laws of entail and all the legal difficulties mid tech •