The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-15 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.

LEICESTER, Sept. 14.—There is still a good busi-
ness doing in most branches of hosiery goods of a
useful character, and the demand generally is very
active. This buoyancy in the market has continued
for some time, and r future
n-i prospects are encourag-
ing. All the framework ktters are fully engaged,
at remunerative wages. The hosiery trade at
Loughborough and Hinckley is in a healthy state.
Wools continue high, the spinners are well em-
ployed, and yarns are selling at full prices.
NOTTINGHAM, Sept.l4.—The lace trade continues
quiet, and business this week is not more active
than last ; indeed, in some branches there is hardly
so much doing. The home demand is languid, and
orders for shipment do not come in fast. Plain
articles continue principally in request. There has
been a falling off in muslins and cotton lases. The
silk lace trade is -without material change. In the
hosiery trade the demand for most kinds of fancy
goods continues ; in these articles (suitable both for
the present and forthcoming quarter) a good busi-
ness is expected to be done ; orders already received
are numerous. The Americans have been giving
orders for the spring ; and, altogether, trade is in a
satisfactory state. Stocks are light, and the opera-
tives are fully employed. The yarn market con-
tinues firm.

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY.—At e meeting of the
Town Council, at Edinburgh, on Tuesday, was resolved
to dept Sir David Brewster to the chair of Principal of the
University, vacant by the death of the late Principal Lee.

THE EXPLOSION ON BOARD THE
GREAT EASTERN.

THE ADJOURNED INQUEST.
WEYMOUTH, SEPT. 14.
To-day, at two'clock, the adjourned inquiry into
the cause of this melancholy disaster was resumed
before Mr. Henry Locke, the Coroner for Dorset,
at the Town-hall, Weymouth. The investigation
appeared to excite no great amount of interest, and
the court was almost empty throughout the entire

proceedings.
Mr. John Scott Russell, in compliance with a
wish expressed by the Coroner, came down from
town to attend the inquest.
Mr. John Dickson, foreman to Mr. Russell, and
under whose superintendence the machinery of the
paddle engines was fitted, was also present, and
Mr. M'Lennan, the chief engineer of Harrison,
Great
Eastern. The attendance of Captain Harrison,
who of course, has important duties to perform on
board: the ship, was dispensed with by the Coroner.
Mr. Newman (of Freshfields and Newman) at-
tended to watch the case with Mr. Scott Russell.
At the commencement of the proceedings Mr.
Lev erson, the solicitor to the company. said he
lavished to correct an error which had appeared in
some of the papers to the effect that he (Mr. Lever-
son) had stated at the previous inquiry that Mr.
Scott Russell had had ample notice to attend the
opening of the inquest but had not done so. In fact,
what he had stated was exactly the reverse—
namely, that Mr. Scott Russell had had no notice
of the inquiry; that he was at the time in London,
on the company's business, and could not possibly
hiie been in attendance.
After a few words from Mr. Scott Russell, who
explained the caase of his •unavoidaMe absence,
The Coroner said that, on the opening of the in-
quest, he at once considered that it was a case which
ought to be adjourned, in order that the jury might
have the assistance of some of the surveyors from
the Board of Trade. He had accordingly commu-
nicated with the Board of Trade, and received a
letter in reply the previous day, which stated that
it was impossible that Captain Robertson, the Sur-
veyor-General, could attend the inquiry before Sa-
turday, next. He therefore thought that, under
these circumstances, it would be most advisable that
the jury should have the benefit of the experience
of these officers, and, with their permission, he
would adjourn. further proceedings till Satur-
day morning at nine o'clock. He (the Coroner)
trusted that both the company and Mr. Scott Rus-
sell would be ready on that occasion with any evi-
dence which could throw the smallest light upon
the causes which had led to so disastrous an acci-
dent.
One of the jury said that they hoped every effort
would be made to discover the man who had turned
off the cock or valve which led from the standpipe
into the stokehole.
Mr. Scott Russell said it would be proved by wit-
nesses that the cock of the valve was open on Tues-
day and when the vessel left the river on Wednes-
,

day.
31r. Leverson intimated that the company were
in no degree responsible for what had taken place,
and the evidence adduced had established this on
the company's behalf. He had no desire to call
further evidence unless wished for by the Court.
The Coroner said it was most likely the jury
would like to examine Mr. M'Lennan, the chief
esigineer.
The inquiry was then adjourned till Saturday

morning.
The interest evinced by the public in this part of
the country in all relating to the ship seems as great
as ever. During all yesterday, though it blew a
severe gale from the south-west, accompanied by
heavy rain and sometimes thunder, ate steamboats
bringing visitors to the vessel were densely
thronged. Nearly 6,000 persons paid their half-
crowns to go on board, and promenaded the deck
all day, defying the svallg of wind and rain with
an endurance worthy of a better cause. The scene
of the explosion, as far as it could be viewed from
the deck, is the great centre of attraction, and as
the monstrous fragments of ironwork have now been
got up from the stokehole and placed on deck,
enough evidence is given of the fury of the explo-
sion to satisfy the most eager curiosity. Mr. Not-
t,idge,of the London Stereoscopic Company, who has
been on board from the first time of starting, in
order to get good pictures of the vessel, has photo-
graphed this mass of ruins most successfully.
From these pictures the public will be enabled to
gain a fair idea of the force of the explosion and
the sweeping destruction it occasioned. Owing to
the haste in which the account of the catastrophe
,was necessarily written, I omitted to mention that
in the morning following the occurrence a subscrip-
tion was raised among the visitors on board for the
benefit of the sufferers and their families, and £124
collected in the course of a few minutes. Since
that day several benevolent persons have forwarded
small sums to the ship to-be applied to the same
charitable purpose, and this, with the sale of photo-
graphs, which were given for the purpose by Mr.
Nottidge, have swelled the sum to nearly £l4O.
The repair of the damages inflicted by the ex-
plosion has alroady commenced, Mr. Scott Russell
having contracted to restore the whole for £5,000.
If it should turn out that either of the forward
boilers has been injitred, £5,000 will scarcely suffice
for the entire restoration. From the fact of there
having been no escape of steam from either of the
boilers at the time of the explosion, when there
was a pressure on each 221 b., it is believed that
they have escaped without material injury. The
mere joinery of the cabin fittings and the redecora-
tion of the grand saloon, eon, and doubtless will,
soon be completed. With the ironwork, however, it
is a different affair. All this must be executed in Lon-
don from the working drawing-x
-0f the vessel and
sent down piecemeal by rail to NV eymouth, where it
can be bolted together on board th e ship. Mr. Scott
Russell's contract is to finish the whole ship in
her former state as she left the rive' within three
weeks.

(From the Morning Post.)
There has been a sort of tendency for some time
past to mystify the public by spurious ,scientific
twaddle. It matters little what the ocazsion—
from the poisoning of an individual to the bursting
of a funnel-casing one beaten path must be purso.ed
for gaining public acquiescence in a dogma, or
leading judgment astray from the safe ground to
which plain common sense would have led it.
By this time every London newspaper has had
some account of the calamity on board the Great
Eastern. In the hurry and anxiety of writing on,
the spot trivial errors of description may have
occurred, and it would have been hardly fitting to
scrutinise the scientific accuracy of a mere para-
graph at any time. When a leading contemporary,
however, affects to throw light on the catastrophe
in all the dignity of a long article, set up in large
type, it is as well that the public should not be
misled.
Such a journal yesterday made a discovery of
great scientific importance. It is no less than this
—superheated steam (by which readers are to
understand steam heated up to a minimum of five
hundred pounds pressure to the inch) is resolved
into oxygen and hydrogen gases ; which gases, in
their turn, on being brought into contact with a
mere hot iron (without flame, be it understood),
immediately combine, with explosion. Anything
more utterly absurd would be difficult to conceive,
and might be safely left to the derision of every
dabbler in science, from mechanics' institute-men
downwards. We advert to it as illustrative of a
peculiar type of judgment aberration very preva-
lent now-a-days, and perhaps best termed scientific
-bamboozlement.
Why, in the name of Archimedes, should our
contemporary go so far out of his way to make the
aktounding physical discovery signalised yesterday
in large type, to the end of explaining a calamity
•(an Accident, mark, we do not feel justified in call-
ing it), when the origin, the progress, and the
fl
iali,gy of that catastrophe lie within the compass
of a nu-Ashen ? Why, indeed, but this ; somebody
(we kn ow not who, and had rather not know, for
then we conld not be so outspoken)—somebody does
well to prate about abstruse physical conditions,
howev,cr silly and impossible, causing, to the best
of his alaity,, the wordy gossip to go forth, in order
to turn the public aside from the real point at
p revent their
issue, an d to asking, with sharp, clear
voice—V Vhose fluty was it to see to the efficiency of
the mach inert, :before the starting of the Great
Eastern? '.. Chat is the first question to be propounded.
It is a sim, Ile quest Yon, and should elicit a direct
answer. AV furnisLed the donkey engines ?is the
next questi on. Direct replies having been elicited,
short work might be .made of the examination.
There is only one veiled secret in the matter, only
one, and that is not a philosophical secret. If our
discovery that super-
contemporar.;t has made the
.ly resolvable into its
heated steam be spontaneous
the two redom-
constituents, a xygen and hydrogen,
ron we would
billing under the contact of mere hot i ,
ittinm or the
suggest the BA itish Association, now s
Royal S ocietv, as a fitting place for publishing it,
and gaini'ug vicri niescence. The public don't want
to connect that d. ;scovery with the blowing up of the
Great Easte.rn's fi, •nnel-casing in any sense. They
want to kno 77, in l'he first instance, on whom the
responsibility t su,nerintending the machinery of
that magnific at but ill-used ship devolved. They
want to knov r, in the Cecond place, whether burst-
ing sooner or later would not be the inevitable re-
sult of stoppin g the stand pipe as it was stopped,
and isolating - the water in the funnel-casing from
all cemmuniei ition with the boiler. Granting this
(and' there is no disputing it), there rests on some
one, we know 7 not whom, a fearful responsibility.
It is not dill icult to recognise in the progress of

this matter the influence of two separate tendencies.
One, to make things pleasant as between the com-•
pally and the public ; the other, to promote confu-
sion, by importing extraneous speculations into a
matter which is clear to ordinary common sense.
Explosion under the conditions given was sooner or
later inevitable. It was. a preventible calamity,
which some one ought to have prevented. The
public voice demands his name. Half a dozen
human lives are already at his door,and but for the
merest chance, it might have been half a hundred.

2HE NAVY.

The difficulty hitherto experienced in converting
the ordinary cast iron guns into breech loaders has
at length been surmosntod by Mr. Warny, the in-
ventor of the new breech loading percussion can-
non, which during some recent trials at Chatham
discharged 20 shots per minutes, who has just suc-
ceeded in attaching a wrought iron breech to a cast
iron gun, the first attempt of the kink which has as
yet proved successful. The gun experimented upon
consisted of the ordinary cast iron barrel, weighing
about 401 b., which having been rifled, Mr. Warny
attached his breech loading invention to it ; this
gun being also fired by percussion, as is the case
with Mr. Warny's ordinary breech loading cannon.
The breech is provided with a lever fixed at the
end, which by one movement lubricates the cham-
ber, primes the nipple, and closes the breech. By
an exceedingly simple contrivance the breech can
be almost instantaneously detached from the other
portion of the gun, so that in the case of a Midden
surprise by an enemy, these guns can have their
breeches removed and be rendered entirely unser-
viceable. During the trials made at Chatham yes-
terday to test the newly finished cannon it was
ascertained that with a small charge of gunpowder
the shot could be thrown, 4,000 yards, or upwards
of two miles, while by slightly increasing the charge
a range of 5,000 yards was obtained, the gun throw-
ing a shower of balls at the rate of 10 per minute,
a rapidity of firing which the inventor is able to
maintain as long as the ammunition lasts, the cur-
rent of air admitted each time the breech is opened
preventing the gun becoming heated and expand-
ing. Mr. Warny has expressed his readiness to take
any ordinary metal or cast iron gun now in nse, and
to convert it into a breech loader which shall be
capable of discharging from 10 to 20 shots per
minute a distance of at least three miles, the barrel
being previously rifled.
The screw frigate Ariadne, 32, with engines
of 800-horse power, has arrived in harbour at
Chatham, from Deptford, in tow of the Wid-
geon and Bustler, paddle-wheel steamers, to be com-
pleted and prepared for sea. She was yesterday
taken alongside the sheer hulk, for the purpose of
having her masts put on board, anis, as soon as this
operation has been completed, she will be taken
into the large new stone dock to be rigged and
brought forward for commission with all possible
despatch.
In consequence of the serious intelligence just
received from China and the recommencement of
hostilities in that country, the Government have
decided on despittching several additional steam-
frigates and corvettes, together with a sufficient
number of sailing frigates, to augment the squa-
dron now in the Chinese waters. It is also ex-
pected that a force of 1,000 additional Marines
will be despatched to China, the divisions at Chat-
ham, Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Woolwich being
able to give that number of men. The names of the
ships that are to be ordered to China from the
several stations are expected to be announced in a
few days.
The Duke of Somerset and the other Lords of
the Admiralty left the Osborne yacht in Hamoaze
at 11 o'clock on Tuesday morning, and went at
once to the office of Admiral Superintendent Sir
Thomas Pasley, in Devonport Dockyard, where
they continued some time, and then, accompanied
by Sir Thomas Pasley, Mr. Brown, master attend-
atst, Mr. Elliott, storekeeper, Mr. Peake, master
shipwright, and the various officers of the estab-
lishment, proceeded to inspect the building slips,
boathouses, smithery, enginehouse, shops, &c. No.
1 slip is ocsupied by the new screw steamsloop
Phoebe, 10 guns, which is about one quarter built:
there are no men on her now. No. 2is unoccu-
pied. No. 3 has the Narcissus, 50 (same class as
the Liffey) ; she is planked and partly caulked,
and preparations are making for her launch, which
is intended to take place this year. No. 4, the
Jason, 20, half built And planked, will also be
launched this year. No. 5, the Gibraltar, 101
(same class as Conqueror), in frame ; one-fifth
built ; will be finished, in 1860. Special atten-
tion was paid to this ship by their Lordships.
Alongside the jetty is the Lion, 80, and
Revenge, 91, both fitting for the third
division, steam ordinary. In dock No. 4,
the Royal William, 120, recently cut down and
altering to a 90-gun screw ; her stern frame is up,
she is almost ready for planking, and may be
finished in February next. No: 5 contains the
ailing frigate Phase, 50, pulled apart for a screw,
to carry SO guns ; she will be lengthened altogether
60 feet—viz., 33 feet 8 inches by the bow, and 26
feet 4 inches by the stern; the artisans are very
busy on her, and she may be finished in 1860. On
completing this portion of their duties the Lords
of the Admiralty, at half-past two, went on board
their yaCht, and about an hour afterwards landed
again in the dockyard, and, walking through the
tunnel, entered the steam-yard at Keyham, where
they were received by Mr. Biddlecombe, Assistant-
Master-Attendant ; Mr. Trickett, chief engineer of
the factory ; Mr. Townsend, civil engineer ; Mr.
Foster, surgeon ; and CaPt. Robinson, of the steam
reserve. Their Lordships sat in the board-room for
about an hour, and then went through the factory
and the buildings in course of erection. In Keyham
yard, fitting for the second division of steam ordi-
nary, are the Windsor Castle, 116 (which their
Lordships visited) ; the Sanspareil, 70 ; the En-
counter, 14 ; and the new steamsloop Greyhound,
17. 'The paddle-wheel steamsloop Centaur, 6, is
repairing for the third division. The paddle-wheel
steamvessel Prospero is shipping new boilers ; and
the screw steamsloop Curlew, 9, is under repair.
Last year about £50,000 was voted by Parliament
for the extension of the works ; of this £25,000
has been expended in the purchase of land. The
Government contemplates making a further pur-
chase, and Mr. Townsend has surveyed some con-
tiguous land belonging to the trustees of the late
Sir John St. Aubyn, with whom they are in treaty.
Their Lordships continued some time at this point.
In consequence of the comparative smallness of the
amount at command no very great progress has been
made in the works, The north storehouse, for a
rigging-house and store, is completed. New masting
shears, 110 feet high, made of wrought iron, and
capable of lifting 40 tons, have been erected on the
edge of the basin. The iron workshops constructing
between the docks for the carpenters and joiners are
progressing. Several weigh-bridges, two of which
are capable of weighing each 40 tons, have been
fixed ; some of Taylor's traction engines are being
tested in the yard ; and one of Armstrong's hydrau-
lic lifts will shortly be attached to the Cove stores.
The Lords of, the Admiralty dined in the evening
with Admiral-Superintendent Sir Thomas Pasley,
at his official residence in the dockyard.
The Goliath, 80, line-of-battle screw steamer, has
been towed from Chatham to Sheerness by the
African and Adder steamers, and will be attached
to the second division of the steam reserves at that
port.
The Charybdis, 21, screw corvette, was undoeked
at Chatham yesterday, and will be attached to the
second division of the steam reserve in the Medway.
The paddlewheel steam sloop Virago, 6, C3lll-
mander Dunn, got up steam on Tuesday morning
at Plymouth, and went to sea. It is reported that
she will communicate with the fleet either to de-
liver despatches, or to convey instructions for the
ships to repair to the Sound.
The screw steam gun vessel Pioneer, 6, Com-
mander Reilly, has been removed from the basin in
Devonport Dockyard to her moorings in Hamoaze,
and has received her powder. It is reported that the
Pioneer, with seven others which are named, will
proceed at once to China.
Yesterday orders were received at the Royal
Naval Rendezvous, Tower-hill, to enter able and
ordinary seamen, landsmen, petty officers, and
artisans for the ships new fitting for the reinforce-
ment of the fleet in China. In order that the ships
of war ordered on the China station may be manned
with all expedition the Coastguard are to be called
on to volunteer. Her Majenty's, steamer Sea Mew,
Commander Broad, has gone round to Fleetwood
and the East coast to receive such men as will juin.
Yesterday a large draught of men arrived from
Greenock, at the receiviel,,,,e. ship off the Tower,
whence they will be draughted to Portsmouth and
the stokers to Sheerness.
Great improvements are ordered to be made in
the fortifications at Dover Castle, the parapets of
the Citadel arc to be raised, a new magazine is to
be built, and a covered way and new military
road constructed ; the fosses and ditches are
to be widened and deepened,
and a sum of £150,000
placing Dover Castle in an efficient
bd, and bettoth em-
bark. expended
rst oar tehs emofAodefence.
iin
ar
har our troopshipfrom was
Bpithiea
yesterday
alongside the Pitch-house jetty, inreadiness
bark her troops this morning.
The entering of seamen for the navy still proceeds
at a steady rate at Liverpool. A few days ago a
draught of 35 volunteers was forwarded to Sheer-

ness, and another batch of about 20 men was sent to
the same destination yesterday.
Mr. J. B. Ricards was yesterday appointed sur-
geon to her Majesty's ship Simoom.

LAUNCH OF THE GALATEA.
WOOLWICH, Sept. 14.—Another important addi-
tion was made to the royal navy this day by the
launch of the Galatea, screw corvette, of 26 guns
and 800 horse power. She was laid down at this
yard in February, 1857, and has been constructed
on the most approved principles of modern naval
architecture. The following are her exact dimen-
sions :
Length between perpendiculars .. 280 ft. Oin.
„ of keel for tonnage .. 245 ft. Bin.
Breadth extreme .. • . 50ft. Bin.
for tonnage 49ft. bin.
Moulded 48ft. sin.
Depth in hold .. • • • • 19ft. 4in.
Burthen in tons .. 3,202
At half-past one' o'clock tk• gates were opened
to visitors, and many. thousandes looked to
the' building-slip to witness the proceedings.
Am,nle accommodation was provided by means of
seats erected on each side of the vessel, and a plat-
form .at the bow was fitted up in a superior style for
naval and military officers, and those provided with
tickets.. The band of the Woolwich division of
Royal 31exines was in attendance ; and amongst
those present, in addition to Commodore Superin-
tendent fle Hon. J. R. Drummond, were Vice-Ad-
miral Sir AL Stopford, Admiral Sir James Gordon
(Governor of Greenwich Hospital), Col. Stransham
(Commandant of the Royal Marine Light Infantry),
numerous officors of the Royal Artillery and Mili-
tary Train Corps, Mr. Alderman Salomons, M.P. &c.
A novel feature in the present launch at this
yard was the introduction of hydraulic pressure
for the purpose of easing the ship on her launching
ways, and thus affording a propelling power
on the removal of the dog-shores. Four hy-
draulic rams, manufactured by Messrs. Huxham and
Brown, of Exeter, were used, two being placed
under the cutwater, ai d two at the sides of the
vessel. At 20 minutes to three o'clock the work of
removing the timbers anadog-shores was completed
under the superintendence of Mr. Turner, master
shipwright, and the ceremony of christening the
vessel was performed by the lady of Vice-Admiral
the Hon. Sir Montagu Stopford, K.C.B. Imme-
diately afterwards, the hydraulic machines were
applied, and the splendid vessel, with her decks
covered with visitors, glided gracefully off the slip
on which she was built into the Thames, amidst
the cheers of thousands of spectator:, the band per-
forming the " National Anthem." After the launch
—which was in every respect perfect—the Galatea
was removed into the outer basin, where she will
be fitted with her screw machinery, manufactared
by Messrs. J. Penn and Sons, of Greenwich. An
accident of a serious nature occurred during the pro-
ceedings to one of the spectators, a private of the
Royal Marines, who foolishly mounted the tall
hydraulic crane on the wharf, and received severe
injuries on his head by falling from a considerable
height. He was immediately conveyed to the in-
firmary. The building slip from which the Galatea
was launched is to be cleared forthwith, for the pur-
pose of laying down a new screw-frigate, to be
named the Bristol.

PAY AND POSITION OF INDIAN
OFFICERS.

The following letter appeared in a contemporary :
Sir,—As great ignorance is daily exhibited on
this subject, perhaps the following may interest
those who have relatives in the service, and serve
to explain the origin of that crying evil, " debt,"
which so deeply excited Sir C. Napier's attention,
and which at present literally overwhelms vast
numbers of Indian officers, especially in the junior

ranks.
In India the pay of both services, Queen's and
Company's, is nominally of precisely similar amount,
but, in consequence of deductions for funds, expen-
sive fatigue duties with native troops, increased ex-
pense of maintaining regimental institutions with
an average complement per corps of only 1 com-
mandant, If, captain, and 8 subalterns, the pay of
the Indian regimental officer is actually less than
that of the Queen's officer, whose more rapid pro-
motion also gives him immense advantages.
The Indian officer, after fifteen years' tropical
service, becomes a brevet captain, but does not ob-
tain any increase of pay. On the contrary, he is
compelled in his ordinary routine to perform the
additional duty of the higher ranks on the pay of
the subaltern.
When on furlough this discrepancy becomes still
more glaring. The Indian Army List prove that
Bengal alone contained in 1855 (after some seven-
teen consecutive years of war) nearly 350 officers
on the active list, who had actually served from
fifteen to twenty-three years in that tropical cli-
mate before attaining the subordinate rank of regi-
mental captain.
But for the evidence of the Army List these facts
would be incredible.
These brevet captains—men who have fought
through half-a-dozen tropical campaigns—receive
when on furlough only 6s. 6d. per diem, which is
reduced by fund and other deductions to an annual
income of exactly 1061.
The ,Queen's lieutenant of seven years' standing,
who may never have left England, or have seen a
shot fired, receives 7s. 6d. per diem, or per annum,
1361.
The Queen's lieutenant of seven years' standing
thus receives considerably more than the Indian
brevet-captain of from 15 to 20 years' tropical ser-
vice, and who, moreover, is generally a married
man approaching his 40th year.
Had the celebrated Hodson (who was a lieu-
tenant, and in his 37th year at the siege of Delhi,
and who had fought in seven general actions), chosen
to return home on furlough, his pay would have
been exactly 1061. per annum, or less than 6s. a
day.
The Queen's lieutenant, in addition to the receipt
of higher pay than the Indian brevet captain, is
also provided with coals, candles, quarters, servant,
mess. If he be on leave, he can fall back on the
regimental depot.
The fact is, however, that the pay received by
all regimental officers in India, whether Queen's
or Company's, is greatly exaggerated, more especi-
ally in the case of the junior officers in the local
army.
The Indian officer is an ensign up to his "fifth,"
a lieutenant up to his " fifteenth," and a captain up
to his " twenty-eighth" year of tropical service.
(See Army Lists.)
Ensigns, pay at ls. 10-Id. per rupee (average for
the last 15 years), from first to fifth year of tropical
I service, 2251.
Lieutenants, from fifth to fifteenth ditto, 2801.
Captains, from fifteenth to twenty-eighth ditto,
460/.
This pay, however is a deception ; being in a
great measure made up of allowances for items,
which in England are supplied by the Government.
Thus the numerous military stations of our vast
empire have been built with money borrowed at
15 to 20 per Gent. by the officers of the Indian
army ; and whenever these stations are abandoned,
or the garrisons reduced—as was the case at Kur-
nal, Loodianah, Ferozapore, &c.—no compensation
whatever is granted for the total loss of property
which ensues.
The officers' annual disbursements are as follows :
Subaltern average pay for quarters, which
if small are unhealthy, from 451. to 351.
Maintenance of camp equipage, tents, Sze., break-
ages,
marching expenses, loss by purchase and sale
of furniture, from. 35/. to 251.
The Company's officer has ever to be prepared for
solitary detached duty," and therefore must of
necessity keep the number of servants sanctioned,
or rather enforced, by caste and custom, 50/.
Every Indian subaltern is also, nolens volens, com-
pelled to keep a horse, not only for preservation of
health, but due performance of military duty in a
tropical country and with native troops—purchase
and keep, with saddlery, 351.
The above compulsory outlay (for items which in
England are supplied by the government or are
unnecessary) reduces Indian pay to the following
limits :
Ensign, from first to fifth year of tropical ser-
vice, 80/.
Lieutenant, from fifth to fifteenth year of tropical
service, 1351.
Captain, from fifteenth to twenty-eighth year of
tropical service, 3151.
Half batta further deprives the captain, lieute-
nant, and ensign of 50/., 401., and 30/. per annum,
at a moment when they can least afford the loss.
Owing to increased exposure on duty consequent
on the paucity of officers, the regimental officer
rarely escapes sick leave every "third" or at most
"fourth" year; and each journey to the hills costs,
including house rent, tastvelling, and loss of allow-
ances, from 601. to 801.
The Indian officer generally, but not always,
obtains the command of a company as a subaltern ;
and this allowance (451. per annum), though pre-
Carious, in some measure enables him to' meet the
extra expense of messing, clothing, payment for
steps, half batta, building, &e., hut his pay is not-
withstanding undoubtedly less (when his expenses
are considered) than that received in England.
The chief grievance of the regimental officer is,
that he is compelled to perform up to his 35th or
40th year of age, and in a tropical country, the addi-
tional duties of ensign, of lieutenant, of captain, and
even of field officer, on the regimental pay and rank
of a subaltern.
This of itself is virtual supercession ; but it is
also notorious that the Indian regimental officer is
openly and avowedly superseded en masse, not only