The Press. — 1855-03-03 (London, England)

PRESS.  express a conviction, grounded on facts which came under my own observation, that such an undertaking, properly conceived, properly started, and properly carried out, would soon commend itself to the mili tary authorities at bead-quarters, and would most eminently conduce, not only to the comfort and wellbeing of our army, but to its effectiveness ; and prove at least as serviceable as miles on miles of roadway, even where roads are so greatly needed. But as my plea for a bank at the head-quarters of the British army now in the Crimea is grounded on the evils which resulted from our want of such an establishment in the Peninsular war, 1 would here crave permission to enumerate some of those evils, speaking as one who was not only a witness, but an observer. The subject is touched upon in the able histories of Alison and Napier, but I believe the full amount of the mischief has never been placed on record.  Our difficulties chiefly arose from the unavoidable necessity, in the absence of a bank, of making so large a portion of our payments in hard cash. To this end, every quarter of the world was ransacked for specie, which had to be conveyed to the Peninsula, and brought up to head-quarters. When, indeed, the position of the army was favorable for instance, when head-quarters were not far removed from Lisbon—some payments, such as those for commissariat supplies, were made by bills on the British treasury. With these paper transactions, however, the military chest, to which I was then attached, had nothing whatever to do. Our business, as a department, was only with the cash payments of the army, which, however, were enormous. The pay of the troops, regimental pay and staff pay, was always issued in specie. This, then, was our duty under all circumstances. But when our army was up the country, far advanced into the interior, in out-of-theway places, where payment by bills on London would have looked like no payment at all, then it also devolved upon us to cash the commissariat bills, which had been given in payment for supplies, such as cattle, corn, wine, spirits, and forage. When there was specie in the military chest, the commander inchief issued an order at such time as he deemed most expedient, and we took up the bills of the commissariat, or paid the troops. When there was none, the only remedy for both troops and bill-holders was patience. The specie with which the payments were made was generally Spanish dollars, sometimes with a portion of Spanish gold, sometimes with other varieties. Occasionally we had large supplies of cash at head-quarters; much more frequently we were short.  The financial evils from which the service then suffered, and which, doubtless, gave occasion to the Duke's wish for the establishment of a military bank, were manifold. Among them were the following:— I. After some heavy disbursement in hard cash, to the extent of tens of thousands of pounds sterling, the first remarkable occurrence at head-quarters was the rapid disappearance of the whole amount. In a very few days everybody, or almost everybody, was as poor and penniless as immediately before the issue, when all were inquiring for it with hungry expectation. This sudden evanescence of so much hard cash may be deemed strange ; but it was only the natural result of existing circumstances. The native claimant, when he had presented his bill for goods delivered, and got his cash, of course carried it away at his best speed, as he was able, to his owu home—happy if he escaped being robbed or murdered on the road. Then, as to the pay of the troops, the privates divested themselves of their own portion in a remarkably limited period, and with officers the case was not very different. Each, probably, when he received his pay, officer as well as private, was in want of everything ; besides which, the very bulk of the dollars was an additional incentive to getting rid of them. Suppose a man's pay to be 10s. a day. off