The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-05 00:00:00

THE ARM.

In consequence of the representations made by
Col. Harness, C. 8., the newly appointed director of
the Royal Engineer establishment at Chatham, to
the Duke of Cambridge, his Royal Highness has
sanctioned a reorganisation of the system pursued
at the Royal Engineer establishment, by which the
non_commissioned officers and men of the Royal
and Indian Engineers will in future be employed
more on the operations connected with that depart-
ment of the service, and will be in a great measure
exempt from the drill and other duties performed
by the soldier, making in fact the Engineers more
a scientific corps, and employing that body less in
mere nil ilitary duties. With this view an order has
been promulgated at head-quarters, Brompton,
defining the rules and regulations for the future
guidance of the corps, as sanctioned by his Royal
Highness the Commander-in-Chief.

It was yesterday rumoured at the headquarters
of the Royal Enginems, Chatham, that several
important changes will be shortly made in the
disposition of the companies of Engineers new
employed on foreign service. The 30th Company,
under the command of Capt. A. S. Creyke, now
stationed at Dover, where it is employed in. the
repair of the defences at that part of the coast, will
proceed to Malta, to relieve one of the companies now
in the Mediterranean; which returns to England.

THE N 4 TAY.' Ers:TlN4,l7:4s.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—Through the kindness of a Liberal M.P. I
have been furnished with the Navy Estimates for
this year, and the disclosures they furnish to my
simple mercantile mind may be worth a place in
your columns, and probably induce some of our
members to give a little more heed than heretofo're
to the way the money goes.
In pages 20, 21, and 22 I find, for example, that
there are 316 clerks in the Admiralty, viz.:—

Secretary's department
Controller l7 „ 4.820
• General
Storekeeper-General
Controller of Victualling and Transports 57 „ 15,414
Medical Directcr-General l4 /9 3, 287

316 87,822
or an average of £277 each ! Besides this there is
a charge of £5,985 12s. for temporary assistance;
in all, £93,807. The salaries vary from £9O to
£l,OOO, and by far the largest portion of the work
to be done the style of men employed ought to be
at much more intellectual occupations. I believe
the great majority of those officials are the sons of
gentlemen, have received their education at our
best schools, and are tempted into this ser-
vice by an idea of its security and the prospect
of dropping into one of the higher posts some
time or another. The progress to these prizes
is very tardy, and the dislike to their routine
work in the interval is, very notorious. But,
withal, it is a very costly establishmont for the
quantity and quality of the work that is per-
formed. Few people have ever reckoned that this
machinery of book-keeping, which has no transac-
tions equal to Rothschild's, Baring's, or the lead-
ing London bankers', costs as much as all the flag
officers in commission and their retinues, 246 in
number (page 6) £55,776 11 3
All the officers superintending dockyards,
and their retinues, 34 in number

(page 6) . . . . ..
396 mates (page 7)..
23 assistant-paymasters.in-elarge(page7)

5,795 17 11
26,499 0 0
4,197 10 0

or-699 persons
441 junior lieutenants (page 6)
89 naval instructors (page 7)

.. £92,268 19 2
.. 80,482 10 0
.. 13,400 1 3

530 officers
and only about £5,000 less than-
-152 chief engineers (page rj . .
166 surgeons (page 7)
158 second masters (page 7) ..

.. £93,882 11 3

34,197 9 4
48,875 1 0
15,800 0 0

478 officers ..
• • • • •.. £98,872 10 4
In addition to the 316 Admiralty clerks, there are
heads of departments and other officials (page 23),
which bring their numbers to 361, and these are
waited on by no less than 81 messengers, at a
cost of £7,000, or about one servant to 41
masters, who occupy no less than 197
rooms and repositories (page 23), or less
than two gentlemen tto each apartmeit, in the war-
rens of Somerset-hon ie and Whitehall. This esta-
blishment is a mistak :e in every way. The clerks
should be arranged a in our banks, with private
rooms for their chiefs, and plain directions where
the public could find tl tie department wanted. Nine-
tenths of the clerks sPlould be recruited from the
well-conducted petty eficers of the Navy instead
of ' Rugby and other schools, not omitting Eton
and Harrow, and you. would then have a good
class of workmen, to whom the situation would be
a great boon, and £511,000 a year might be lopped
off the vote.

Another striking thing is the difference in the
cost of management at; .our various dockyards. For
example :

Deptford—The sum to be expended in labour (page 53)
amounts to £38,978, and tine management (page 45) £9,564,
or about 24 per cent. '

Woolwich—£lo9,679; management, £19,316; or about
L 74 per cent,

Chatham—£lll,4l6; 'management, £18,750; or 17 per

!lent.

Sheerness—£lol,779; management, £16,055; or less
than 141 per cent.
Portsmouth—£2o6,l44; management, £25,557; or less
than 122 per cent.
Plymouth—£l93,3o9; n 31 inagement; £28,760 ; or nearly
16 per cent.

Pembroke—£6o,44o; nia7 aagement, £10,093; or upwards
of 16i per cent.

It is quite evident ' that the sooner the smaller
yards merge into then larger the better, and it is
well worth inquiry to 11 warn the cause of Plymouth
being 31 per cent. mor a than Portsmouth.
At page 59 there is a. most flagrant vote—viz., for
two troopships, .£60:0 30; two ditto, £140,000;
total, £200,000.
This is based on CaptA in Eden's evidence before
the Transport Committe, = last year, who have not
reported on the evidence. Captain Eden stated that
he Himalaya and Pen' ,evt irance had dome certain
work cheaper than the Indiana hired transport, and,
although this has 1 )een contradicted again and
again, the Board of Admiralty have launched his