The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-27 00:00:00

TIM' ENROLLED PENSIONERS.

TO THE EDITOR. OF THE SUN
SlR,—Observing in your columns of yesterday a stets'
ment, annexed to your leading article, which reflects on
the efficiency and expense of the enrolled an
Of
the army, perhaps I may be excused, as an officer of
that force, for offering the following ample and, I trust,
satisfactory contradiction of every assertion it contained'
So long as a statement of that kind was confined to
the United Service Cazette, intended chiefly
readers, most of whom must have known the wmilitarY
ilful in'
correctness of its assertions, it seemed to require n°
notice ; but when it appears in so widely t
circulated
journal as yours, even though given merely on tb:l3
authority of a c irrespondent, it cannot well be reate
with the same silence.
Your correspondent refers to the necessity for tbe
inspection, by general officers, of this force with refe;
cues to its efficiency ; not apparently being aware, beat
ever since its formation, it has been thus inspected bien-
nially by general officers, at all the large stations Whtehre
the great mass of the men are enrolled, and,nti--;
smaller stations by field officers, expressly deputed by
them for the purpose, and that by each of these office--
coefidential reports are forwarded to the Horse Guards;
on the fitness of the men for garrison duty, their Wen";ance,
ance, capacity for drill, and every other particular ea
which it is desirable that the Commander-in. Chief shoe'
be informed. Consequent on these reports, and onoothre
inspections in each alternate year made by the 113-‘
office, the number of men to be enrolled at each station
is determined.
It augurs very little for your correspondent's 1501:
ledge of the subject to which he professes to direct
lie attention, not to be aware of so simple a fact as t'i'd
nor that this very General officer, on whom he proper°,
to devolve the inquiry; has an opportunity of seeter:
the force in each district on all occasions when they
out under arms, and, I believe, has at several timed'
seen them.
In fact, during the period that the Enrolled Pensingai
are under arms, either for exercise or in aid of the 'lasir
Power, they are, by the Enrolment Act, placed on"
the superior officers of the army, precisely in the
way as any other part of the forces. There is oe is
culiy in understanding, what your correspondent'
pleased to term, their civil-military character, are
perhaps, by one of his limited comprehension ; theY:os
exact,ly, in this respect, like the Militia, viz., civiliaori
when not called out under arms, and soldiers wa",-/
armed. Their officers and sergeants, on permanent Pt'rel
being, like the staff of the militia, always under Mlaw.
ar
t
The expense of the whole of this force, which 01%t1,0
to 16,000 men, or about 20 battalions is less than,
of one permanently kept up, and before considerluree
whether this is too much, it may be as well to incieibat
into the accuracy of the statement made—and wibig
" emphatically " too--by your correspondent, thet "
most expensive force has not, by a single man) reli°l
the savere pressure on our active army. to,
Is your correspondent so entirely ignorant of ohe
tart' arrangements of the last few years as not t: t
ro
aware that during most of the time since Wes tebe
Australia became a convict station, the whole °f
ral
military duties there have been performed by lathe
hundreds of Pensioners—that for several years aA'
Guards, sent out in charge of convicts, have been sped
posed of Pensioners, and that this duty still eclt,„`us rS
to be performed by them—that for the first tic° "clet,'
after the discovery of gold in Victoria,
there was entirely performed b these men--tbas
Upper Canada, when suddenly denuded of troePos
consequence of the last war, the whole of the duty it
done by enrolled pensioners, and agreat portion (),'
1p
still is so—that at Hudson's Bay a companYr r
New Zealand a whole battalion were in like r" ears
employed till the present year, when their seven Y-fer
the military t
engagement expired—thus obviating the necessity
sending regular troops to those remote regions? toot°
These facts would perhaps have been better icac't all
your correspondent, but for the circumstance tb%nero
expenses connected with the employment of Pen-el abet
abroad are defrayed from the local treasuries ;,,,eietb 0-
U:rely did not appear in the army estimates. /T, force
gard, however, to the value of such a better
o‘cl.
inforoie,
at home, he has no excuse for not being better
Will he inquire who took the coast-guard duties that
some thousands of seamen were . withdrawn foto ;pis
duty and sent to the Baltic—who furnished the ego-
at most of the dockyards, prison hulks, and overarills
sian prisoners—who supplied some thousands of "died
and N. C. 0. for the militia staff when hastily einb°olll
—who afforded trainers for the thousands of rr
horses sent to the seat of wart Surely your nt.'s IA
spondent must have spent the last two or three Yeawsre
the cave of the Seven Sleepers, not to have been ;fullf
of these circumstances ; or has he an object for svi
concealing them ? f the
Happily, in consequence of the rapid conclusion ei-mly
Crimean war, it did not become necessary to sea%-oar
portion of these men abroad, but who that i'a
back on that great struggle, and our feeble efferneeci
raising men to meet ic, can doubt that, had it can"; to
much longer, it would have been absolutely neCeSsar;icart
adopt the same course as during the Peninstilara fer
when 13 battalions of pensioners bad to be fornaeot to
permanent garrison duty, of which several were set'bee,
the colonies to set free troops of the line. Would,',o tbe
the moat rigid economist hesitate to acknowleebli of
advantage of retaining these pensioners (the 03aig.10 foil
whom are still between 35 and 50 years of age), lioyfi
recollection of their military training, so as to be a thin
ready for any such emergency, particularly elsevv ia'
can be effected for the moderate expense at pres
currod for that object ? VIND°'
June 26.

tion to
[We very much regret having given inser „-ci 00
a statement which " Vindex" has so ably. 8"'
satisfactorily refuted.—Ed. Sun.]