The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-20 00:00:00

for perfect accuracy is not attainable, and the fol-
lowing_is the result : -
I. What would the regimental officers gain or
lose by the alterations proposed by Sir C. Treve-
lyan, viz. :
a. The increase of pay.
b. The relief from the band subscription.
c. The discontinuance of the non=lfective allow-
ance.

d. The discontinuance of additional pay for
length of service and brevet rank.
e. The discontinuance of rations of provisions
abroad.
f. The discontinuance of mess allowance.
g. The discontinuance of agency.
h. The discontinuance of pensions to widows and
children, except when the officer is killed in action.
i. And considering, at the same time, that the
officer would not pay for any of his commissions.
The first table shows the gain or loss which
would resat to each rank of non-purchasing com-
batant officers.
It follows from this statement that the senior
ranks, from colonel to captain inclusive, will lose
from £2 to £B3 per annum, whilst the junior ranks,
except lieutenants of seven years' standing, will
gain from £6 to £5B per annum.
We must, however, observe that while we can
calculate with accuracy the advantages which each
officer will gain by the increase of pay and the dis-
continuance of band subscriptions, the loss to offi-
cers from the proposed discontinuance of pensions
to their widows and of compassionate allowances to
their children, and the abolition of rations to offi-
cers and their civil servants abroad, and especially
to their families when in the tropics, cannot be
accurately estimated, and these allowances, there-
fore, have been necessarily thrown, for the purposes
of calculation, into an annual average amount per
officer.
The discontinuance of rations abroad would be of
no great importance to the unmarried officer. But,
to a married officer who, from want of means to
keep a separate establishment at home, is compelled
to take his family abroad to the tropics, the loss
will be very considerable, varying according to his
family from £22 to £5B:
With respect to the abolition of pensions to the
widows of officers, not killed in action, it is scarcely
possible to calculate correctly the sum which each
married officer would have to pay to secure to his
widow a pension equal to that now granted by the
public, so much would depend upon the respective
ages of the parties, and upon the position of the
officer, at home or abroad ; nor is it more easy to
ascertain what provision he would have to make for
the loss of compassionate allowance to his children.
These would be very heavy expenses to married
officers, and the sum named in the statement before
alluded to represents rather the contribution that
would be required from every officer of the rank,
whether married or single, to make a fund whence
pensions could be granted, than the amount of loss
to individuals who had to provide deferred annui-
ties for their widows and orphans.
Sir Charles Trevelyan estimates the saving to
the public on this head at £78,401, but this saving
is no criterion of the loss to the officers. His view
that the officers will be compensated by
not purchasing their commissions, can only
apply to those who have hitherto been purchasers
out of their own resources, or have otherwise found
the means of purchasing.
The increase of pay obtained by such purchase at
an earlier period than would otherwise have been
the case must, of course, also form an element in
the calculation, and in order to illustrate the ad-
vantage which the earlier promotion thus acquired
bears to its cost by purchase, we have endeavoured
to show, in tables (A) and (B) in the appendix, a
comparison between the prospects of non-purchas-
ing and purchasing officers, every item being re-
duced to its present value.
Table (A) represents the case of an officer in
each rank who, having previously purchased no
step, has served in his rank the average time in
which officers obtain promotion by purchase.
He is supposed to have the option of purchasing,
and the table shows the present value of his pro-
spective pay in each rank if he purchase, and if he
do not purchase, the next step ; if the sum of
these values in the case of the purchasing officer
exceeded the sum of those pertaining to the
non-purchasing officer by an amount equal to the
cost to the former of his step, it would follow that,
in purchasing such a step, an officer beneficially
employs his money. It will be seen, however, that
in each rank the loss is very considerable.
Table (B) institutes a comparison between the
prospects of a gentleman just entering the line with
the intention of purchasing all his commissions, and
those of one entering at the same time under the
determination to purchase no step. Here the pre-
sent value of the prospects of the former exceed the
value of those of the latter by 11,071, but for that
he will have prospectively to invest sums of which
the total present value is £2,487, so that in reality
he will be a loser of an amount equal to a present
sum of £1,416. We would here remark that in
1856 there were in the line but 24 lieutenant-co-
lonels who had purchased all their commissions, so
that the circumstance of this loss is a very excep-
tional one. It appears also from the same, authority,
viz., a return submitted by Sir C.Yorke to the Pur-
chase Commission, that the total amount which had
been paid by all the purchasing officers in the in-
fantry of the line was £3,089,810, and the sum paid
on an average by each purchasing officer £912 ;
whence the proportion of the present value of
average loss to each purchasing officer probably
does not exceed £297.
These calculations are founded upon the ordi-
nary rate of pay at home and in the colonies (ex-
cept Ceylon, Hong Kong, and Mauritius). But in
those stations and. the East Indies higher rates are
received, which, of course, would materially add to
the advantage of the purchasing officer. The effect
of this may be supposed from the following scale of
pay and allowances for all regimental ranks at
those stations above the rank of subaltern :
East Indies. 'Mauritius
Full Ceylon,
Batta Station. Half Batta. or China.*
Lieut.-Colonel command-
ing a corps £1,717 £1,472 £BlO
Ditto not in command .. 1,237 992 780
Major
Captain
*Exclusive of tentage or field allowance. There are also
some similar allowances in Victoria, though the precise ex-
tent is not known, being paid from colonial funds.
The tables (A) and (B) have been computed at
the regulated prices of commissions. Had the
prices notoriously current been taken into calcula-
tion, the loss to purchasing officers would have
been proportionately greater. On the other hand
it must be remarked that there are many incidental
advantages accruing to the purchasing officer which
do not admit of computation ; such as higher rank
at a comparatively early age ; the greater chance of
receiving honorary distinctions ; increased pension
to the widow ; and the prospective share of prize
money, whatever it may be, which is of course pro-
portioned to the rank of the officer.
11. What are the relative advantages, in a pro-
fessional point of view, and in a pecuniary sense, of
the present and proposed systems, taking into con-
sideration the following points, viz.:—
a. The result of the foregoing inquiry-As to
the loss or gain of regimental officers.
b. The officer's prospect of promotion under
Sir C. Trevelyan's proposed scheme of
voluntary and compulsory retirements as
compared with his prospects under the
existing system.
c. The estimated number of general officers.
d. The establishment of a staff corps with new
rates of pay and allowances in lieu of the
present staff system.
e. The proposed scale of full pay retirements.
a. The result of the foregoing inquiry as to the
loss or gain of regimental officers upon pay and
allowances is, as has been already pointed out, vari-
ous upon different ranks and positions of officers,
and upon the two classes of officers who do and
who do not purchase.
b. From the calculation we have made, and which
we
believe to be as accurate as possible, we find
that, if the purchase system be abolished, and Sir
C. Trevelyan's plan substituted, the' prospect of
promotion would, up to the rank of colonel be con-
siderably slower than it is under the existing sys-
tem, but that an, officer would arrive at the rank
of major-general nearly one yedr earlier than at
present.i,heaverage periods of obtaining the several
ranks, under Sir C. Trevelyan's system, we have
calculated to be as follows :
At the age of
23 Years.l-12,
or 15Y1e167p122r latere s
eut tahvaenr a thege
.
Rank attained.
Lieutenant
32 10-12 or
Captain
Col.L u
(now.-Co 1
L. 45 10.12,' or 8 5-12 „
Lieut.-Cal.)
50 11-12 or 8 7-12 „
Major-General
plan General
by 6 Sir C
-12,0 r 010-12 earlier T
submittedsB
ex-
cludes one source of advancement—that cementL Trevelyanthat caused by
exchange—whence officers, both purchasing and
non-purchasing, probably
double now benefit to an extent robably
double that which they obtain from death vacancies;
purchasing officers being thus enabled to effect '
ex-
changes into corps where few are before them for
purchase, or to avoid colonial service. On the other
hand, non-purchasing officers, by remaining steadily
in their corps, rise by exchanges of senior officers
of the same rank to the head of the list, and are ul-
timately in a position to profit by the first vacancy
arising in the corps from death or augmentation.
We must at the same time record our dissent from
his view, that resignations under the proposed sys-
tem would equal, or even approach, the proportion
of the present retirements. by the sale of commis-
sions. •
The.periods of promotion have necessarily been