The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-31 00:00:00

THE PURCHASE SYSTEM' OF THE

BRITISH ARMY.

(From the Anglo American Times.)
The purchase system of the British army is inex-
plicable to Americays, and a mystery to other na-
tions. The general idea is that her Majesty sells

commissions as a broker sells bales of cotton, and

that the Prince of Wales spends the proceeds on
the turf and other extravagances. What the limi-
tations are, people do not take the trouble to under►

stand, supposing when the purchase and sale of
commissions are sanctioned they obey the ordinary
laws of commerce, and are knocked down to the
highest bidder. As the subject is likely in this ses-

sion of Parliament to be fully debated, it will not
be out of place here to explain the A B C of this
question, as the discussion cannot be understcod

without such knowledge.

In olden days, when the King required to raise a
force, he empowered gentlemen of influence in cer-
tain localities to organize regiments, aiding them
with a grant, and leaving in their hands the gift of
officering the corps. Thus armed, they proceeded
to their counties and gathered around them young
men of lesser influence, to whom they entrusted
the raising of the different troops or companies,
with the understanding that when completed they
should have the command, the expense being thus
subdivided, while the King became possessed of a
regiment at a trifling outlay to the exchequer, but
with some cost to the officers themselves. At that

time the highest posts in England were openly
bought and sold, and if the Prime Minister paid
for his place, we cannot wonder that a colo-
nel who raised a regiment, perhaps at consider-

able expense to himself, required to be reimbursed
his outlay before he surrendered the command. If
his right was recognized, that of the captain could
n)t be denied, nor of the lieutenant- or ensign, each
of whom had brought in many men. So.completaly
was the regiment considered the colonel's that it

bore his name, and it was some time before every

corps received its numerical designation. Even to
this day the companies of a battalion are known by
the name of their captains, and the colonel ap-

points the agents for his regiment, w lid' he never
sees, indeed may never have seen in his life. This

is a remnant of an obsolete system, which), having

pievailed for centuries, does not appear so ab3urd
to officers as it does to the outside public. The
colonel of a battalion is a major-general, and his
duty in connection with the regiment is essentially
honorary. The fixed number of general officers is

272. of whom 150 are titular colonels of regiments,

selected by the Commander-in-Chief as vacancies

fall due, when their pay rises from £455 a year to

perhaps. more than £l,OOO, an unjusti64ble dispa-
rity, the appointment being a sinecure. Tile
colonel then is not a regimental officer at all, and

as regards the regiment is a. mere myth, the chief
of each battalion being regimentally a lieutenant-

colonel, though by brevet he may hold the rank
of colonel ; its establishment consists, besides, of 2
majors, 12 captains, 15 lieutenants, 10 ensigns, to-
gether with 4 regimental staff officers,• two others of
that staff being includll in the subaltern grades.
A cavalry regiment, besides its titular colonel, his
a lient.-colonel and major, 8 captains, 9 lieutenants,
and 8 comets, that is 3 officers to each troop, with
a supernumerary lieutenant as adjutant. In the
Artillery, the Engineers, and the Marines purchase
never prevailed, nor in the regiments lately trans-
ferred from the Indian service, neither cavalry nor
infantry. Our remarks therefore apply simply to
the hundred old regular regiments of the line, and
the cavalry (excluding those added from India),
together with the household troops, and the few
colonial- corps. The first commission, - that of_
cornet or ensign, costs. £450, promotion to the next
grade £250 more, and to captain an additional
£l,lOO, between which and major the difference is
£1,400, while the lieutenant-colonel is one hundred
less, being only £1,300, making a total of £4,500
up to that rank, beyond which there is no purchase.
Before the Crimea, cavalry commissions were much
higher, a cornet commencing at £B4O, paying £350
extra for his lieutenancy, and £2,035 more for his
troop, the cavalry majority being appraised at a less
difference than in the infantry £1,350, while a sum
of £1,600 was required for the lieutenant-colonelcy,
making a total of £6,175. The highest post_ both
in the Life Guards ana iaorse Linares, costs
although these regiments differ in the subaltern
grades. Prior to 1856 a majority in the Foot
Guards was reached at £8,300, and a lieutenant-
colonelcy at £9,000. But the purchase of these steps,
we presume, has been abolished. Now a captain in
the Guards pays £4,800 for his commission, but that
col-emission in the line equals a lieutenant-colonel's,
with whom the captain in the Guards can exchange,
being paid handsomely to do so by those who pre-
fer-commanding a company in these favour'd regi-
ments to commanding an ordinary battalion, while
the lieutenant ranks as captain and the ensign as
lieutenant. 'The system requires the officers of the
junior grades to return their names if they desire to
purchase, informing the regimental agents where
the money is lodged. If A, the senior of the
grade, declines, and B, the next, declines, C, being
the third, is taken, his money called for, and he is
duly gazetted, when A and B find their former
junior C at the foot of the next grade over them.
All officers promoted up to captains must be re-
ported qualified, after examination, and if C, al-
though for purchase, were not so qualified, D, who
was, would pass over his head ; but it is necessary
to serve in the subaltern grades two years era elig-
ible for-promotion to captain, and six years for the
rank of major. A and B continue to be purchased
over until a death or other vacancy occurs, and the
step is given in the regiment without purchase, when
I the seniors, being qualified, succeed. One of those
extraordinary anomalies of the British army grows
directly from the system. The prices are all fixed
by regulation, and the Mutiny Act decrees a severe
punishment to any officer who shall offer or give
more, or any agent who shall negotiate such
I trtiffic. The commissions are first put up for
sale,. and then the buyers and sellers are pro-
hibited from buying and selling in their own
way. Of course such a law is only made to be
broken, for it has never yet been found practicable
to tie down by enactment the venders and pur-
chasers of anything. A senior desires to retire ; if
he be a major the regulation price of his commission
is £3,200, and he lets it be known that if that sum
is made up to, say £5,000 by those who will suc-
ceed to the vacancies, that he will do what is tech-
nically,called "send in his papers." The first cap-
tain, lieutenant, and ensign for purchase get into
consultation and apportion among theni this dif-
ference, but should they be unable to reach the limit
an appeal is made to those who stand next. The
second captain for purchase may consider it worth
.his while to pay for becoming first, and the arrange-
nient being completed the step is duly gazetted.
When wealthy officers are willing to sacrifice money
for rank they enter liberally into such arrange-
ments, carrying them even a step further, for they
pay their poorer brethren to withdraw their names
for purchase, and thus throwing gold into the oppo-
site scale rapidly ascend to the head of the regi-
ment. The outlay in the cavalry was enormous,
and in the infantry there were commanding officers
who had paid for their commissions a sum which,
if put into the Three per Cent. Consols, would
have given them an interest much higt.er
.
than their pay, while they were liable to
tropical service ; and if they died, the capi-
tal thus sunk was wholly lost to their families.
This made the profession a " screaming farce," and
a screaming farce it proved in the branch wherein
the system was carried out to the fullest extent on
the fiery ordeal of war. When the Crimea became
a trying campaign in which these wealthy gentle-
men were subjected to hardship and inconvenience,
the cavalry collapsed. and the G ,vernment hawked
cornetcies about in vain. But a few years before it
was the pride of a rich parvenu to get his son into a
cavalry regiment, and the young man's airs when
he put on his spurs exceedel ordinary bounds. But
paterfamilias, when neweritto the Horse Guards dur-
ing the Crimean war, had a cornetcy thrustin his face,
and was often seen running down the stairs with
the Military Secretary after him flourishing a
commission of a cornet. Every effort was made on
'his discovery to break up the expensive cavalry
system, and the first step was the reduction of the
regulation price of commissions to a level with the