The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-25 00:00:00

THE ARMY ESTIMATES.

We gave a general description last week of the
scale and charges at which the army is to be main-
tained, according to the estimates of the present
year, but the subject has since been incidentally
illustrated by a debate in the House of Lords, and
we shall be doing the public a service by placing
before them a comprehensive view of the military
establishments of the country. The truth is, that
much greater' changes have been made than appear
on the surface of the account, and, though the esti-
mates seems to leave affairs almost undisturbed,

there are, in reality, considerable reductions both
in force and expenditure, while the constitution of
the army at home is materially modified. We have
already explained the origin of these apparent
contradictions, but we now present the facts in

greater detail.
Last year the regular forces of her Majesty
amounted in the aggregate to 228,854 men, and as
they will only amount this year to 212,773 men, it
is plain that upwards of 16,000 men are deducted
from the strength of the army. The army, how-
ever, has two great branches—one for ordinary,
and one for Indian service, and it is in the latter
branch exclusively that the reductions have been
made. Owing to the pacification of the country
and the termination of the Chinese war, the Indian
Government run afford to dispense with a portion
of its garrisons, to the relief of its Exchequer, and
several regiments are now, or soon will be, on their
voyage to this country from the East. Inasmuch,
however, as the other branch of the army will not
receive any accession to its numbers, but will re-
main, with a merely nominal variation, at the
strength of last -year, it is plain that there must
be an actual reduction of strength in some way
or other. Of late, the custom has been to em-

ploy the militia as a species of regulator by which
the army could be kept at its proper standard,
and when troops were shifted from Irdia to
England a proportionate force of the embodied
militia was dismissed to make room for the new-

comers. It happens on the present occasion
that the proceedings on each side would have
been exactly matched. It had been deter-
mined at home to disembody the whole of the
militia, and the vacancies thus created in our ordi-

nary establistunents would have just sufficed for
the reception Af the force returned from India. The
embodied militia numbered 15,911 men on the Ist
of last June, smd,;as that force was no longer to be
retained on an ..active footing, the 16,000 men sent
home from Ilia vvauld have stepped into its place

without any derangement of our accounts. - We
should have had exactly the same number of troops'
in 1861 as in 1860, though they would have been'
all regulars, instead of regulars and militia com-
bined, and as the charge of a militia regiment em-
bodied is equivalent to that of a regiment of the
line, the expenditure upon the home branch of our
land forces would have remained as before.
This substitution, however, is no longer to be
practised, We disembody the militia, but we do
not take up the disengaged regulars, and accord-
ingly we reduce our establishment and lighten our
charges by about 16,000 men. This reduction does
not appear in the " numbers of land forces to be
voted," because that vote, though so apparently
comprehensive, never includes the embodied militia.
These figures therefore are nearly identical with
those of last year, and we appear accordingly to be
left in statu quo ; but the fact is that, as the vote
for the embodied militia drops out altogether,
we are really diminishing our establishments by
the amount of that force, and effecting a propor-
tionate economy. Last year, in short, we were
maintaining for all services but that of India an
army of 145,269 regulars and some 16,000 embodied
militia. This year we maintain 146,044 regular
troops, but no embodied militia. The charge for
the latter force therefore—L32o,ooo—is saved as
truly as if the retrenchment had been effected in
the vote for the regular establishments.
The manner in which the reduction is accom-
plished is this:—By the last estimates no fewer
than 60 battalions of the line, serving principally
in India, were maintained at a strength of 1,200
rank and file each. Two battalions of the Rifle
Brigade stood at 1,300, and one regiment—the
65th, on duty in New Zealand—was 1,400 strong.
This regiment will be left untouched, but it is now
proposed to *educe the other 62 battalions to 950
rank and file each, which will give an aggregate
reduction of 15,700 men, or exactly the curtail-
ment required in our establishments to fit the
purposes described as above. On the other hand,
the 2d battalion of the 14th Regiment, also serving
in New Zealand, is raised from 950 men to 1,400,
but that is the only augmentation effected in the
line. The Cavalry regiments are reduced also,
but more sparingly, and with less result, as the
numbers to be dealt with are so much smaller ;
but the Artillery and Engineers aro somewhat
increased, as are also the auxiliary departments of
the army, such as the Army Hospital Corps, Com-
missariat Staff Corps, &c.
We can now review the results of these disposi-
tions both as to economy and efficiency. In con-
sequence of the saving effected upon the Militia,
as well as in other departments, a net decrease is
established on the whole estimates of £185,000,
and this decrease might more fairly be put at
three times the amount, for, as we stated last week,
there is a reckoning of £500,000 with the Indian
Government, which diminishes the apparent saving
to that extent. Except for that " matter of ac-
count " there would not be the increase on votes
9 and 11 which so pulls down the decrease on the
others, and the actual saving therefore on the
Army Estimates is not far short of that on
the Navy Estimates. Nor does it appear that
any sacrifice has been made in the way of effici-
ency. The total strength of regular troops,
for all services but Indian, remains as con-
siderable as before, with a certain addition,
indeed, to the Artillery. It is true that we lose
some 16,000 Militia, and that the loss falls directly
on the garrisons of these islands, but the men
remain in the country still, and according to
theory,:are as available against emergencies as ever.
\%e learn, too, from the Lords debate that the
establishment of regular troops is regarded as suffi-
cient; and it seems indeed as if our autho-
rities would have satisfied all their hearts' desires
if they could but have got that Tipperary Regiment
of Artillery. It appears that there is really a little
pressure for gunners, owing to the extension of our
coast defences and the large number of guns now in
position. India, too, can give us no help at this
point ; for, though the Government of Calcutta
is
ready to dispense with cavalry and infantry,it has
claimed an increase of artillery, so that the Com-
mander-in-Chief and his colleagues in office would
be decidedly glad to get just a few hundred more
gunners. However, if that is all the doireficitp,oeuvbe
tn.
in.official eyes, we are not so very