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 contemporary, says—
" As in the space of a few weeks Parliament will have
met and commenced its deliberations on, among other
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 few
statistic,,, of the truth of which I am aware from m:•
own experience ? In the first place, then, we find al,
ensign's pay is 5s 3d. per diem, that of a lieutenant
61. 6.1. (atter 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, ash, is forced into the same
expenses as his superiors, we will take that as an ex-
ample.
His pay, then, amounts to 51. 3.1 per diem, or 951
3d. per annum, and the expenses he has to pay out
01 this are the following :

Per Annum.
£ e. (1.
Messing, at 4s. per diem. 73 0 0
Wine and general charges, at it. per

mensem
Servant, at 10s. per mensem ...... .... 6 0 0
Washing, at Ds. per mensem 9 0 0
Plain clothes, including servant's livery 20 0 0
Uniform, arms, kc 2O 0 0
Mess subscription
Band do. 3 3 0
Occasional expenses, at 1/, per mensem 12 0 0

Total 4157 5 0
Substract year's pay £9s 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 24.
.4d. and breakfast ls., to which aid 6d.
for two glas.es of be,r and 2d. for other little
extras—and I feel sure no one who knows any-
thing about the expense of a mess will con.i
ter
this anything but a most moderate calcol,tien,—and we.
have a total of 4s. per diem—the sum stated. 11. per
month, again, is the only charge I make for wine, mess
guests, ee ,spapers, and general charges of all sorts.
i
With reeard to the servant's wages, aithough not o liged
by the Queen's regulations to give more than is. Gd. per
week, yet it has grown a custain to give 10.. pe,
month, and a roan is by no means overpaid at that rata;
and although 15s per month appears high for washing,
yet, as it is done by soldiers' wives, frequently labouring
under great difficultie=, and includes your servant's
linen, c., Ido not think it is so in reality. A,regards
plain clothes, I believe no one can think that any one can
dress like a gentleman and find his servant in livery
under 261. per annutu,—and happy is the man who can
do it f r that ; and uniform, &c , certairly costs the
Caine,
particularly as we have to wear the expensive tunic at mess.
The mess and band subcriptton are fix,d I,r us ; and
finally, but one pounda mouth is but a triflingall ,wauce
for pocket-money and ozcasional ixpenses. J 3 sides all
these we are trzquently thrown into ixpenes of different
kinds by being moved from I)zice to pace, for which the
extra allowance made us is inadequa'e ; and we also
have to supply ourselves with furniture, &c., but as
these are partially optiahal I do not include them in my
calculation, although they must not be cast entirely in
the background.

The increase of hay that I would recommend is the
folowiog

Per diem. Per annum.
Ensign ..................... ~ 10 dO.
182 X a. d.
10 0
Lieutenant l2 0 219. 3 0
After fire years' service l3 0 237 5 0
Captain
And surely', when the changes of climate, hardships,
&c., of a sollier's life are taken into consiJeration,
this rate cannot be thought too high.
I am thankful to say that I am net one of those who
are reduced to z,uch a manifest absurdity as attempting
" to live on my pay,'' but still, with other means at toy
command, I find it requires strict economy to make tLe
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 profes,iou the
labourer is worthy of his hire, and it, the army as touch
so a, in any ottmr ; and men of talent mint not be ex-
cluded from it because they possess less of this worm's
goods than their neighbours. The pu:chave system may
he a crying evil, but surely this is a greater.

Mr. Minn, it is said, is about to resign the offic3 of
permanent secretary at the Admiralty, and return tithe
bar, and in time to Pariiann et, where he had already
earned the reputation of a useful member before be gave
up Bath for the Admiralty.