The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-24 00:00:00

THE PAY OF MILITARY OFFICERS,

"An Ensign of the Line," this morning, in a
letter to a coutemporary, says—

"As in the space of a few weeks Parliament will have
met and commenced its deliberations on, among one/
subjects, that of army reform, may I request you to ex-
tend your powerful assistance to the cause of the lower
and ill-paid grades of the British officer ; and will you
allow me a small space in your columns to state a fey.
statistics, of the truth of which I am aware from my
own experience ? In the first place, then, we find at,
ensign's pay is sc. 3d. psr diem, that of a lieutenant
6s. 61. (alter seven years' service 7s. 6d.), and that of a
captain Hs. 7d. Now, the case of the ensign living on
his pay being the hardest, as he is forced into the sam
expenses as his superiors, we will take that as an ex-
ample. _

the pay, then, amounts to SR. 31 per diem, or 951
165. 3d. per annum, and the expenses he has to pay out
of this are the following :

Per Annum,
£ s. d.
Messing, at 4s. per diem .. 73 0 0
Wine and genera). charges, at V. per

mensem - l2 0 0
Servant, at los. per mensem.... 6 0 0
Washing, at Ds. per mensem 9 0 0
Plain clothes, including servant's livery 20 0 0
Uniform, arms, &c
Mess subscription
Baud do. 3 3 0
Occasional exienses, at 1/. per mensem 12 0 0

Total
Substraut year's pay ......... £9.5 16 3

Debt at the end of the year £6l 8 9
As many people doubt the truth of these statis-
tics, I may as well explain them. The mess din-
ner costs 2s. ;4d. and breakfast is., to which add 6d.
for two glasses of beer and 2d. for other little
extras—and I feel sure no one who knows any-
thing about the expense of a mess will cons der
this anything but a most moderate calcul.ltion,—and we
nave a total of 4s. per diem—the sum stated. 1/. per
month, again, is the only charge I make for wine, mess
guests, newspapers, and general charges of all sorts.
With regard to the servant's wages, although not of liged
by the Queen's regulations to give more than is. 6d. per
week, yet it has grown into a custom to give 103. per
month, and a 'ran is by no means overpaid at that rate ;
and although 15s. per month appears high for washing,
yet, as it is done by soldiers' wives, frequently 'abolish);
under great difficultie4, and includes your servant's
linen, c., Ido not think it is so in reality. Ac regards
plain clothes, I believe no one can think that any one can
dress like a gentleman and find his servant in livery
under 201. per annum,—and happy is the man who can
do it Ur that ; and uniform, &c., certainly costs the same,
particularly as we have to wear the expensive tunic at mess.
The mess and band sub,cription fixed for us ; and
finally, but one pound a month is but a trifling allowance
for pocket7money and occasional expenses. Besides all
these we are frequently thrown into expenses of different
kinds by being moved from place to place, for which the
extra allowance mate us is inadequale ; and we also
have to supply ourselves with furniture, &c., but as
these are partially optional I do not include them in my
calculation, although they
must not be cast entirely in
the background.

The increase of pay that I would recommend is the
following :

Per diem. Per annum.
a. d. £ s. d.
Ensign
. 10 0 182 10 0
Lieutenant l2 0 219 3 0
After five years' service l3 0 237 5 0
Captain
And surely, when the changes of climate, hardships,
'540.9 of a soldier's life are taken into consideration,
this rate cannot be thought too high.
I am thankful to say that I am not one of those wbo
are reduced to such a manifest absurdity as attempting
" to live on my pay," but still, with other means at my
command, I find it requires strict economy to make the
two ends meet at the close of the year.
The argument that the service contains many rich men
cannot be held valid, as surely in every profession the
labourer is worthy of his hire, and in the army as much
so as in any other ; and men of talent must not be ex-
cluded from it because they possess less of this world's
goods than their neighbours. The put chase system may
be a crying evil, but surely this is a greats.

Mt. Phinn, it is sail, is &out to reign the tfEcßof
permanent secretary at the Admiralty, and return t 1 the
bar, and in time to Parliatuti,t, where he bad alrtady
eared the reputation of a useful member before he gave
up Bath for the Admiralty.