Star.
London, England, 1809-03-01 00:00:00

..
BARRACKS.

TO THE EDITOR 'OE THE STAX:. "• ' I
it—As your Paper is favourable to die itieriti,
interest of the British Army, I make no doubt
you will give insertion to. the accompanying
copy of a letter which has been addressed to the Bar-
rack Commissioners on a subject, which, from want
has

of a proper representation, . been long and se-
verely felt as a hardship by many individuals in the
service • and, by directing their attention thereto, I
trust that the known liberality of the present Board
will be exerted in behalf of the sufferers on this occa-
sion. I am, Si?, your constant Reader.

TO 'OSBORNE MARKHAM, JOHN FISHER, AND ALEXAN-
DER LORAINE, ESQRS. COMMISSIONERS' FOR THE SU•
PERINTENDANCE OF THE AFFAIRS OF THE BARRACK
DEPARTMENT.
GENTLEMEN—The high situation you hold in one
of the principal departments under Government, and
the great importance of your duties to the Army at
large, render it necessary that you shouia possess
a high degree of zeal for the service, and should be
attached in a particular manner to the comfort and
convenience of the troops.
You are placed in an arduous and a delicate situa-
tion, and though you may be impelled by the most
disinterested motives, you will be often liable to un-
merited censure in the discharge of your various func-
tions to the country and to the army : yet the mode
in which you have conducted the Barrack Depart-
ment, since you have been vested with the direction,
has manifested your zeal ; and the liberality of your
proceedings, have proved that the great confidence
reposed in you by the country has not been misplaced,
and that the comfort of his Majesty's noops is not less
the object of your wishes than the saving of the pub-
lic purse from unnecessary expence, and-I-row the de-
signs of mercenary individuals.
As you have much in your power, so you can
contribute greatly to the comfort and convehience of
individuals in the army, often without laying the
country under additional expence ; and, as I trust
you are at all times disposed, from the best of mo-
tives, to lighten the hardships and inconvenience of
a military life, I propose to call your attention to the
general want of provision of barrack accommoda-
dation in Great Britain, for the wives and families of
army officers.
The regulations in force for apportioning barrack-
rooins to the different ranks of officers, are no doubt
founded on propriety ; but, in the framing of these
regulations, it would appear to have been at the same'
*time understood, that every officer in the British army
was necessarily a bachelor ; and that the accommo-
dation allotted to his rank was deemed perfectly suit-
able and commodious. Now, as military men are
not interdicted from marrying, and as a matrimonial
state may be followed by a numerous progeny, it
seems to me altogether unaccountable, that the
framers of Barrack Regulations could overlook the
difficulty that an officer, with his wife, and perhaps
half-a-dozen children, would labour under, if cram-
med altogether into a single room. I do not, nor
can I think, it was ever the intention of our humane
and benevolent Sovereign, that any of his officers
should be reduced to so humble and indelicate a ne-
cessity. •Yet, nine-tenths of the army officers, arc
positively entitled to only one room ; and while a pri-
vate soldier, in many barracks, can command a de•
cent and separate birth for his wife and family, we
often see a poor subaltern officer either lowered to an
equality with the most wretched labourer in a garret
by living in a single room, or, on the other hand,
subjected, through delicacy, to the most cruel priva-
tions, in order to enable him to hire a lodging out of
the pittance of his pay.
But this is nit the only hardship to which a mar-
ried officer is sAject when he is necessitated to pro-
cure a lodging, even at his own cost. By an extra-
ordinary law, or late innovation, he becomes, -in
consequence, liable to the forfeit of his allowance of
coal and candle, if *his delicacy hinders him from
living in one barrack-room with his wife and family.
This almost seems a glaring instance of injustice to
the individual ; but, I am inclined to think, some ex-
planation is necessary to correct the operation of this
practice, and to prevent it from running into a Cus-
tom ; for it is well known that some Commanding
Officers and Barrack-Masters, are either so very fas-
tidious, or so very zealously bent on saving coal-dust,
cheese-parings, and candle-ends, to the country, as to
insist on all officers, who cannot be accommodated
in barracks, to relinquish their undoubted right to
coal and candle—an assumption which cannot surely
be founded in justice ; nor does it accord with the
character of a great and a liberal nation.
I kriow that it is sometimes the practice to indulge
married officers with additional accommodation,
whenever the number of rooms in the barrack will
admit of it : but, it must be recollected, that all
extra accommodation is always considered as an un-
claimable indulgence, and entirely in the gift of the
Commanding Officer, who may dispose of all extra
rooms, either by appropriating them to his own use,
or to that of his favourites.
I have, therefore, strong hopes that from your ac-
tive exertions in behalf of the army, you will be
enabled to effect same relief for these serious and un-
accountable grievances. Instead of the present regu-
lation, I would propose that every married officer,
whenever the barracks will admit of it, shall be per-
manently entitled to one room over and above what he
can claim for his regimental rank ; and that in the
future construction of barracks, some provision be
made for the married part of the officers in respect of
accommodation ; and, instead of an officer being
deprived of his right to coals and candles, when, for
want of proper accommodation for his family, he
gives up his rooms to another, would propose that he
be declared, at all times, entitled thereto, when pre-
sent with his corps.
Before I dote this letter, as it is not unconnected
with your province, I must remind you of the inade-
quacy of the lodging money granted to officers in lieu
of barracks, and of the delays and difficulties always
thrown in the way of paying it to them. Can a gen-
tleman live in a lodging at sir shillings a week in
England ?
I have to mention another .circumstance, and then
I have done. Why is a Captain who may have served
twenty years, and perhaps fought and bled for his
country, only entitled to the same accommodation as
the youngest Ensign of yesterday ?
I shall faith this hurried letter by expressing 'a