ON THE ERRORS AND FAULTS IN OUR MILITARY SYSTEM.

BY COLONEL FIREBRACE.

THE LIEUTENANT-COLONEL.

Nullius apud te gravis auctoritas? Nullum exemplum quod sequi velles ? CICERO.

HAVING proved, in former papers, how injuriously the system of sinecure Colonels acts on the Service in general, and on the cavalry and artillery in particular, it will be now requisite to show in what way it bears on the regiments which they nominally command, and first, on the officer immediately below them. I challenge all other professions, and in every nation in Europe, to point out any of its members who have such a responsibility, such little hopes of immediate advancement, and who are so poorly remunerated for their trouble, as Lieut.-Colonels in the Army. Cases of equal, or nearly equal responsibility, occur in the Navy, and their chances of promotion are quite as slow; but in attaining the rank of Post-Captain, they are not money out of pocket. Four out of six of the Lieut.-Colonels of the Army have purchased two or more of their steps, and many, within my own knowledge, have paid for everything, to the tune of 60007. For this he receives, on a life interest, just five per cent., and has thrown on him, beside, the charge of 800 or 1000 men, to see them hewed out of the rough material, and converted into soldiers; to watch over their behaviour, see them clothed, and with their wives and children, lodged, warmed, lighted, and fed. He has to ascertain that all those under his command are competent to their duties, and perform them. He is responsible that the accounts of the men are properly kept, and that they are settled with at the periods fixed in the Regulations; that the clothing is of proper quality, corresponding with the patterns; and that all the spare arms are kept in serviceable condition. He has to direct the regimental correspondence, sign the different returns and requisitions, and to be present when the men are mustered. The discipline of the regiment must be kept up in all its ramifications, and its aptitude and correctness in field movements never to be a moment at fault. In action he is to be everywhere, aiding by his advice and example; and at its conclusion, he is required to be no less ubiquitous, checking disorder, preventing plunder, and looking after the wounded. In his every-day life, he has to manage the tempers and disposition of a whole corps of officers, and make them "pull together,” -a matter by no means of easy accomplishment. To do this effectually, he is obliged to deprive himself of social intimacy, and all appearance of friendships; so that he is insulated among a crowd: and from this circumstance alone, often driven to commit matrimony. It must be recollected that he performs all I have above stated, and a hundred other things beside, for 300l. a-year, less than the salary of a War-Office clerk, and not more than the interest of the money he has laid out for his commissions, having to provide himself out of it, with all the things necessary for his outward appearance, including horses and their outfit;

all the while doing the work of another man who, as I explained in my last paper, often does not know one end of a regiment from another. To encourage him in these various duties, he has nothing but his feelings of honour as a soldier--of course not equal in the breasts of all men-and the pride he takes in his regiment; which also is qualified by the temper and dispositions of different individuals. Of promotion he has neither hopes nor chance; the only step attainable, is that of Queen's Aide-de-Camp, giving the Brevet rank of Colonel; beyond that small circle he has no prospect. Should he have previously gained that, or the rank of Colonel by seniority, all farther movement is absolutely barred from him. He might, with his regiment, attack and carry off a park of artillery,-then storm a fort, the key of an enemy's position,and conclude by capturing the opposite General-in-Chief. Supposing it possible for him to do all this, it would not make him a General Officer, because it would be consonant with common sense and justice!

Having given this outline of the position of the Commandant of a regiment of infantry, which I have known cost as much as 7500, I leave the reader to judge of the value of the purchase, and to decide whether the money is worth the Lieut.-Colonelcy, or not. All the toil and responsibility, with the stoppage of his promotion, he owes entirely to the sinecure Colonel placed over his head. Let him be the eldest survivor of his rank in the bloodiest field of victory that ever was imagined, in which every General Officer was killed, the Lieut.-Colonel would not gain one single step of promotion, for the reason aforesaid. If his prospects are thus confined during active warfare, it can easily be imagined that in peace his life is one of unremitting drudgery, with not a single ray of hope to look forward to: condemned to a routine of foreign garrisons, for the shortest period ten years, his connexions and associations at home are nearly broken off, unless, by dint of consummate impudence and dancing attendance, he obtains a sort of continued leave of absence. As every man, however, has not that particular species of talent, the largest portion of these Commandants share the banishment of their regiments, shut up perhaps in some unhealthy island, without anything to look forward to, but the daily list of sick in the hospital, or to record the death of some old associate, one of the few remaining of his early years, the rest having been moved to other corps, promoted, retired, or dead. So that in a few years the Lieut.Colonel finds himself among generations unborn at the period of his entrance into the Army, and, of course, out of all sort of fellow feeling or sympathy with them, although they pretty generally associate in wishing him dead or out of the way. If he succeeds, by antiquity, to the Brevet rank of Colonel, he is no way a bit better off, except by being exempted from doing the duty of Field Officer of the day, only required in very large garrisons.

Many officers who have entered the Army as younger brothers, and who, from prudential or other motives, have not married, consider their regiment their home, and cling to it under all circumstances, in preference to an idle life at home, in that species of activity that consists in spelling a newspaper in a club window. They thus drudge on, until their regiment is sent to India, where they turn to in making money, and soon forget everything else.

I appeal to the general sense of the Army, and ask if I have over

rated the case, and not given a just picture of the hardships of old Lieut.-Colonels commanding regiments? And why do they suffer them? because the creation of a sinecure office stops all hopes of looking upwards, with every chance of promotion; and however long and arduous the servitude, not a penny is given to increase the income of the old officer. What would be thought of it in the Navy, if a PostCaptain was for ever to remain on the pay which he received on first obtaining his rank, and have no increase whatever? when he became three years Post, and was possibly removed to a first-rate line of battleship, to be told, that he must still remain on the same pay, that the great ship he was appointed to had an Admiral for a Captain, who received the additional emoluments, and he was to remain as he was, until by seniority he became himself an Admiral! Would not this appear both absurd and ridiculous? and yet it is only the counterpart of what actually takes place in the Army, all day and every day.

I may be asked, Do not these officers receive some honorary distinctious that compensate in some degree for the disadvantages you have stated? I boldly answer, No! The Government of this country are as yet in Cimmerian darkness as to the cheap reward of nations; and if we merit from the Chinese the appellation of outside barbarians in any one point, it is in the way that honorary distinctions are served out amongst us they come, like the oriental fable, a cataract of waters, that, soon exhausted, leaves behind it only the dry bed of a torrent.

Referring this topic to the matter now under consideration, I had some conversation lately with an old and experienced General Officer, when speaking of the various qualifications necessary for a commanding officer, he told me he had known every regiment in the Service, with most of their commanding officers; and a great many that had a succession of seven or eight within his knowledge; and out of all these, during the space of nearly half a century, he would be going to the farthest limits, when he named twenty, as being in all respects competent to the command of a regiment. One man is particular as to the appearance and dress of his regiment, will stand by, with most constant patience, to see each soldier fitted exactly into his jacket; he takes a survey of every officer as he appears on parade, and notices the smallest deviation in dress. His ambition is to command a fashionable regiment; he patronises balls, parties, great mess-dinners, &c.; and as these must be partaken of, and contributed to, by his officers, he will not have any one in his dandy regiment that has not a couple of hundreds a year besides his pay. The antithesis to this gay article is the man who has plodded his weary way for many a long year, until he gets to the head of a regiment, without having learned any single thing by the way. Although accustomed every day to go through the routine of Dundas, assisted by his covering Serjeant, when he comes to command himself, all his former practice is entirely lost, he cannot move an inch without his Adjutant, and every movement is regulated by a card. In other respects he is master of some of the minor details,-knows the price of every article that forms what are called necessaries, has a correct knowledge of worsted lace and cap-plates, and a critical taste in soldiers' broth. He is a Quartermaster on stilts, and an exceeding great bore. He sticks fast, however, against all hints about the pleasures of retirement, until his regiment, tired to death, club a large sum to bribe him out.

Then comes occasionally a Staff man, full of his own abilities, but quite ignorant of everything pertaining to a regiment; some clever fellow takes upon him to be instructor, gets possession of him, and the Commandant cannot move afterwards without his crutch. A man is sometimes met with whose whole ideas are absorbed in the love of play; willingly he would pass the whole of his day in the card-room or at the billiard-table. As long as he is in a large garrison he can get plenty of playfellows; but when quartered separately he is at a loss, and on these occasions he exerts all his ingenuity to procure leave of absence, to pass his days and nights in the clubs. A fourth variety may be found in the man who pretends to do everything himself, and does nothing well: he is Commanding-Officer, Major, Captain, Subaltern, Quartermaster, and Adjutant. He interferes with every man's business, and disgusts them all.

The next class may be called magnified Adjutants. They are formed of that exact calibre, and if they rise to the rank of Lieut.-General will still be Adjutants, and no more. It is this order of people that has served to perpetuate the harsh portion of our military discipline; they are merciless floggers,-dogmatic and peremptory in their commands, -and cannot even grant the smallest favour in a way that it may look as such. A man of any feeling had better break stones in a quarry than serve under such persons, who have no consideration whatever for anything out of the pale of discipline, which they make as rigid as possible. Kind treatment, indulgence, or conciliation, are not of their vocabulary. Being in general men of uncultivated minds, one of their principal moral vices is listening to stories, which can only be effected through the means of some toady, who is universally hated. There was an officer of this genus some years ago, whose regiment was quite a pattern to the Army for discipline, order, and thorough drill. This man got by accident the command of a brigade, and a position to defend, he was as helpless as a child. Most military men will recollect some individual to whom this description will answer. If historical examples are required I may give Whitelocke, and his second in command. I shall conclude with one other variety, fortunately very rare, the fanfaron,-a man who talks of nothing but himself and his regiment,-military copies of the excellent Justice Shallow, and "the feats he hath done about Turnbull-street." My friend, the General, told me of one of these bragging gentlemen, who was always the hero of his own tale. He had known him on service, and after every general action this genius appeared with a handkerchief round his leg, or his arm in a sling,-contusions he called them,-the boys of the regiment called them confusions. He always reported that his regiment was cut to pieces, scarce a man left; nevertheless, the dead men all came next day for their rations, as if nothing had happened. When he came home, after the peace, he went begging to every scarecrow in Europe for a badge or a riband,-which he does not hide under a bushel. "When I have seen him," said the General, "enter a ball-room, with all these things dangling on his breast, I have often thought what a nice man he would be to let loose in a nursery, for the amusement of the children." During the Peninsular War there was a large number of Lieut.Colonels commanding regiments, whose presence would have done honour to any army of ancient or modern times: but this bright metal

was alloyed with a considerable portion of the dross I have endeavoured to describe. Imagine, then, the astonishment, when, at the conclusion of the war, every man who commanded a regiment in the Peninsula, with, I think, one exception, was made K.C.B.!! Some of the ancient Trojans, who were aware that they had no other merit than that of being there, when they could not be anywhere else, were quite overpowered with the honour; but soon getting reconciled, they wore their feathers with great assumed dignity. It was subsequently remarked, as is it at the present day, that those who were the least deserving of the honour were the most ostentatious in showing it; they attended all meetings and balls, and did not even scorn a "tea and turn out," where they thought they might exhibit their finery. I have seen of these who were the lions of the evening, who, in soldier's phrase, were not "worth their salt." But how did the men of merit and desert receive this boon? With pure and unmixed disgust; they considered it nothing less than a prostitution of honours. I had gone over to Paris to see the sights at the time of the Occupation, when the Order of the Bath had been extended in this uncouth manner. I happened to meet with one of the men of the right sort that had just received the K.C.B. "Well,” said I, "how do you like your honours?" "Honours!" quoth he, "to be placed on the same level of merit with and !! Had it not been," said he, "for the fear of giving offence to my Sovereign, I would have returned the Order at once: as it is, I shall put it in my writing-desk, where it shall have a long repose." "But," said I, in a jocular way, "will you have no ambition to marry, and make your wife a Lady ?" "The very thing, of all others," he replied, "that will determine me to remain a bachelor all my life. It makes me sick, the very idea of such ladyships as we shall soon see!"

Nothing possible to be devised that could more effectually render cheap and degrade a military order than this indiscriminate distribution. I have often wondered by what ingenuity it could be effected: at last I came to the conclusion that the tapster of the fountain of honour was drunk, and did not know what he was about.

By the way, I have the greatest curiosity to learn something of this invisible personage, who lies perdu under the steps of the throne. Has any body seen him? What is he like? Where is he to be found? Like Dame Fortune, he seems blind, and is, beside, as deaf as a post. He distributed all these honours alluded to in a wholesale way; not only to officers commanding regiments, but to sundry and divers of the Staff, without ever asking the opinion of the only man competent to say who was worthy. The Duke of Wellington appears not to have known of this extended creation of Knights until they were all booked, and too late for him to remonstrate. When he put in his opinion that the order should not be confined to Field-Officers, and that many Captains were deserving of it, a deaf ear was turned to this remonstrance, and to at least a hundred applications since, in favour of the junior officers of the Peninsular War, who got no other reward for their services than starvation and hard knocks. A few more Commanderies were bestowed on the official people at Head-quarters, to reward them for their redtape labours, and then the source of honour seemed dried suddenly up, -only to be opened again in the strangest and most capricious manner. Captains and Subalterns who have led storming parties in "th' immi-.