Star.
London, England, 1826-12-01 00:00:00

a very large proportion nould have been spared. The
'Hon. Gentleman here named several Officers of high
rank, who had sold their half pay after a long period of
service. He freely admitted that in the disposal of
promotions the most pirfect impartiality was observed,
and that political connexions never influenced the fa-
vour of the Commander-in-Chief, who equally distin-
guished merit among the fiiends of the Opposition as
among those of the Hon. Glntlemen on the other side
of the House.. Bat still where there was so extensive a
force as 114,000 regular troops,he thought the patronage
must be large enough without keeping up an enormous
half pay establishment. •It was true there existed a re-
gulation by which no Officer was to porchasetwo steps
,at auseei Woes be bad been in the army for two yawn but this
modifies witucendered altogether Dosage'', when ell that wow ft.
ceslaryr to ki fulfilment was to aftpeAr a single tarn Is regimental",
On the whole, bethought that the Noble Lord opposite bad agree
deal to answer for. la the present year a new regulation, MA
adopted. by Which bees tams might redo* Min their
nasal nal sad perebabe.aa rbotiacbeil esumsbiles. Tbt
esmeequelaces Sowing from such an arrangement were
obvious, After a brief recapitulation, the lion. Gentleman cow
cludedly moving for Returns of all Officers who had been per.
milled.tatell their Full-pay. Half-pay, and Brevet Commissiods
sincothe idlt Return in March; also a Return of the money re.
crier(' and paid for the same. specifying the names sad rank it the
Officer% when wid bow long they had served, and whether they
bud been on foreign service or not.

The Hos. MOM' also moved for similar Returns from tie Sth
of January to the sth of April, thence to the sth of July, and finally
to the 10th of October, lam—Ordered.
Mr. DAWSON moved for Returns of the Acts of Sider mat,
passed in the Courts of Scotland during the present year.
After some conversation, in which Mr. Hums and Mr. W.
Mats: bore a part, t►e mains ewe ordered.

SAM Of CoMIII33IONB.
Mr. HUME rose to submit his motion on this to
ject. The effeCtive and non... fecal?. establishmenty4
4101111110 try, he said, were so nunserous, as to hayeles-
oolaaan excessive barthen to the country. In din year.
4817, the half-ply retired allowances had abstracted;
no less than 2,800,0001. and great as that sum was, it
'had since been considerably encreated. In 1822, the
'plan proposed by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer,
bid indbced many people to expect relief from the
burthen of the dead weight, by the dying off of those
officers who had refired on lull pay. Now, in the last
'Parliament, he (Mr. Hume) had moved for certain Re-
turns, to ascertain how far this anticipation had been
verified in Tact, and the result of those returns only
proved that so far from diminution of any kind, the
dead weight had pone on encreasing up to the period of
his (notion. Mr. Vausittart indeed had said, that after
a war such as this country had been engaged in, a war
of twenty years continuance, it was inevitable that there
should be a heavy hal&pay establishment; but he at the
lame titne held out to the public the probability of a
gradual decrease of about 115,0001. in the annual ex-
pense. This, howeyer, was far from king realized, as
Would appear from the expenditure Since.the year 1822•'
which proceeded in au encreasing ratio. In the years
1818. and 1819, the Finance Committee in theirßeport
tecommendedw decrease in the establishment, 'which
they estimatedmigbt, after two years,.. reduced at
ths'rate of 4 or 5 .per cent. per annum. Still no de-
crease ensued; on the contitry, there was a very con-
siderable encrease, &nigh Mr. Vamittart rested his state-
inent on the probable decrement of human lifecaccording
to-very *accurate calculations, which had undergone the
review of Mr. Fuslaisonaa Gentleman well qualified to ex-
press an opinion on such a subject. On those calculations it
was sfiggested, that the dead weight would be entirely
done away is 41 years ' • first by.the natural decrement
`yof life, and secondly, y the number of those brought
from half-pay to full pay. Now, how stood the fact as
compared with tlis calculation ? In 1817. the amount
_
647,0001.
clear that
'Vebich

The motion having been seconded and put from the Chair,
Lord PALMERSTON rose and said, that he felt no
objection whatever to the motion of the Hon Gent.
and his sole object in rising was to answer some obser-
vations which had fallen trom him in the course of his

address, and which he could not suffer to pan without
refutation. The Hon. Gent. did not appear to be aware
of the circumstances which had led to the regulation of -
which be complained, nor to have attached due impor-
tance ko the object contemplated in its introduction.
That measure was designed to capacitate as many as
possible on the half-pay establishment for an exchange
to full pay. and also to give the army scope for pro-
motion—( Hear). Those desirable ends were attained
at only a contingent and reversional expense in the case
of younger lives succeeding to older ones. A large
belt.pay list was indeed the necessary and inevitable
consequence of the sort of war in which' this country
had been engaged ; and with so great an army, it was
absolutely unavoidable on the arrival of peace. There
were only two modes of being relieved from the bur-
then—either by the casual daath of the dependent par.
ties, or by their appointment to full pay. Now a great
number of those on the list were totally unfit to under-
take the duties connected with full pay, and was, there.
fore, in the truest sense of the word, a dead weight. One
great object, then, of the new arrangemens,was to enable
such persons to transfer their commissions to those who
were efficient, and capable of being transferred to full
pay, either by exchange or purchase. The cases ad-
duced by the Hon: Gentleman in support of hit motion,
1-.4letbieo far from heists a proot of the inexpediency
'''sin complained of, the they rather proved
. _......e1y eccomplished she object "ought ill .die
..00 • . ity-of an exchange. But the great object was to
never held give scope for promotion in the Army, the want of
than the half-pay was designed as a permanent charge which had previously been sorely felt. It was quite
on the country, nor that any individual had more than plain to those at all conversant in such
subjects,
that
a life interest in any cothmission which he might hold. unless Officers were afforded a reasonable prospect of
But hi the oYder of thelath of M[4,-1825, it was per- promotion, the proper degree of military spirit could not
milted Offteers, not ever 60 years of age, to'sell their be kept up—(Hear). • He could assure the House from
half-paty,,provided they had 'sought their comnsissioos, the result of his expetience that the regulatioa had been
or were 12, years hulls service. The lift which beheld highly beneficial to the service • that it had given a
—.
sheaved bow many ha& availed themselves of thit new spirit, a new spur to the whole Army—(Hear)«
ticenso, No fewer tbak Mr JoientenantaColonels, 45 Adverting to further observations of the Hon. Gentle.
ie.
Major; ISR Captain; GI I.denteaants, and 58 Ensigns, man, he could not agree that the regulation did not
considerable benefit to the service, even in a con.
rt
had sold out their commissions. And to whom had Pa
they sold them? Was it Ao persons of their, awn age? stitutional point of view. It was most desirable, he
INoi four of the. Colonels, five of the Majors.-ionnaem contended, to connect the higher classes of society with
of the Captains, and a great *umber of the Lioutenanu the Army; to rank among the Officers members of
and Ensigns,, Thad rel 4 s.'r half-pay, after having en-
distinguished families, who, however, could not be ex.
joyed it for 40 years; 11 of them after having been 45 Pecrad to enter the military profession, unless they
years, and two after basfitag• been 50 years in the army ; could advance to its highest honours, and were afforded
and they thus transferred their sommissions to young
the profession was never a source of jealousy to their a fair opportunity of promotion. Their participation in
meat,who succeeded to the places of their veteran
predecessors, entailing an expense of half.pay on brother Officers ; on the contrary. they a ere generally
r
the country, probably for thirty years loner than the received with every demonstration of good feeling. For
natural period. If it weae allowable to do so now, why es ideoce of the perfect impartiality a ith which promo-
be would ask should it not be equally allowable and don was dispensed, without regard to the political con.
proper at any future period ? and was not the obvious flexions of its objects, he appealed to die Hon. Gentleman
consequence a perpetuity; of loss to the nation? The opposite whether, on any occasion. the Commander-in.
amount of that loss might be pretty well ascertained by Chief regatded politics where the interests of their
the average amount of service from the sellers and pur- friends were concerned ? and whether they did not re.
chasers of Commissions, ,supposing the ages of both eeive appointments on the sole ground of personal merit?
parties to be the same at the respective periods of their Re felt bound to say that it was utterly impossible for
entering on •their Commissions. Now the Colonels any human being to administer patronage tn-re for the
whom he before mentioned had served on an average public .good, or more disinterestedly, than was dune
thirty-two years each, and the purchasers of their half by his Royal Highness the Duke of York— ( Laud
pay, not more than sixteen, leaving the public at a loss Cheers). As to the suggestion of the Hon. Gentleman,
for the value of sixteen years' service.
•The forty-five that the Commander-in Chief should be compelled to
Majors had served thirty-one years, and the buyers to
stake his appointments' t, active service exclusively
f
whom they made the transfer only fourteen. The ave.rom the halt pay—the obvious consequence would be;
that the army would be filled with the worst Chficen in
rage of the Captains' service was twenty•six years, of
the world. Some retired Ensigns would find it a
'that of the purchaser's, not more than eight and three
rious hardship, indeed, if forced to resume the labours
se-
quarters, so as to occasion I loss of at least the amount
of their profession. Many of *them were old men,
of eighteen yews' pay, The 61.Liewenants averaged
in their service seventeen years and a half each, their living on a small pittance with their families in the
country. How distressing to such persons to enter into
purchasers but two and a quarter. Theservice of the
the junior ranks, from which they could not by possis
58 Ensigns was estimated at sixteen years and a half,
while those to whom they had soldbia not served one bility rise, or be fit to rise, into higher ones. In fact,
upon the proposed plait no Officer could reach promo-
day. In the last instance it was plain that the period
[ton until all of equal tank had been taken from the half
of the service, and the period of loss to the public were
the same. • He complained not only of a substitution of Pal- • This would the Hon. Gentleman effectually cut
new lives for old ones, but of a substitution of a new and off all men of distinction from the army. Then, in.
increased rate of half pay ; for the purchaser of a cons-
deed, would the army become that which be deemed it
mission received more in the way than his predecessor. now to be. It was only in such a state as the Hon.
It was, he contended, the proper plan, to fill up all Gentleman recommended, that a standing army was a
source of political and . constitutional datiger—(Load
vacant coinmissions out of the all pay establishment.
Six hundred pro Motions took place every year in the cheers). indeed,. the proposition of drawing from the
army, and of course afforded sufficient opportunities•for half pay, till the half pay was dissolved, was. one
carrying such an Arrangement into effect. In 1822 which negatived itself, foe in such a case a Captain
could never become a Major until all the other half
there had been 6887 Offices, on half pay, and 6393 on
full pay. In 18'29 the number of those on half pay was pay Captains were promoted. But by reference to
6373, of those on full pay 5096, making an aggregate returns of the manner in which vacant commissions
of 11,489. Four years pieviousla• the whole -esta. were disposed of, it would appear that at least one iin
three were given to Officers on half pay, and that he
blishment did not elceed 11,250, so thgt then was an
looked upon it to be about a fair proportion. Gentle.
actual increase of 219 in the year 1823. Had the tog-
. men were, no doubt, aware of the difference between
gestions contained in the Report of the Finance Cow
brevet and
frroeiminbend t.sl rank,dut akold the. Inconvenience arising to bre-
mittee of the year 1819 been adoptei, there would now
be onloaed
y 8,000 Officers instead of 11,000 and 100,0001. vet
the arrangement whigek euabkd r regimental rank,
unattached"
charged ou the country for promotions, or at all events conasisdeoe. Since March, 414,234 bad bccn paid in for she