of the country, neither erring on the side of absolute confidence on the long duration of peace, nor giving way to unwarrantable apprehensions of danger and aggression.

And your committee further submit, that as the duration and magnitude of the astonishing exertions made by this kingdom during the late war must mainly be attributed to the pecuniary resources then brought into operation, which could never be more justly deemed the sinews of war than during the whole course of that eventful contest; so these can be renovated and strengthened in no other way than by retrenchment and economy during the opportunity afforded by a return of peace.

At the same time, this most important consideration must always be kept in view-that if our military establishments should once be suffered to fall below the standard of efficiency and discipline, to which they are now raised by great exertions founded on experience, it will not be possible to restore them again to the same height without great waste of time, however urgently their best services may be required.

LAND FORCES.

P. 1, in the Estimates. The first of the returns compares the numerical force maintained in the year 1816, with that intended to be maintained in 1817; both as to the difference of actual establishments in those two years, and of the force on account of which a charge is incurred by the public, distinguished from the force in France and in India.

VOL. LIX.

The second gives the comparison of the total numbers in the years 1814 and 1817.

The third shews the comparative expense in the years 1816 and 1817, and also the expense incurred in the year 1815. The reduction of that great establishment which the war had occasioned was begun in 1816, and has been carried considerably further in the present estimates; the difference amounts to no less a sum than 1,738,496. upon the net balance; although several charges, such as half pay, the Compassionate List, and other allowances of a similar kind, are necessarily augmented by the ternination of the war, and a diminution of the numbers maintained on active service.

Besides the mere numerical reduction, a principle of economy has heen applied to the cavalry, by a diminution of the number of horses kept for the service of each regiment, to the extent of 20 in each troop; in the last year there were only ten men dismounted in each troop, and that number is now doubled, by which a considerable charge is saved, without too far breaking down the efficiency of the regiments.

The particulars of the charge of a regiment of infantry in the years 1792 and 1817 are annexed, for the purpose of showing the general establishment of each separate regiment which prevailed at that period, compared with the present; and also for giving at one view the relative charge of maintaining the same numerical force, in the two periods, which bears the proportion of very nearly Y

two

two to three; being 245,0941. in 1792, and 331,9741. in 1817, for 8,000 infantry.

A comparison is also given of the expense of regimenting a force of 8,000 infantry into battalions of 400 rank and file each (the establishment existing in 1792), and into battalions of 800 rank and file each; by which judicious arrangement an annual saving of 74,3261. as well as a more efficient staff, by the present mode of forming this amount of force on the same number, is secured to the public.

The pay of the army, with regard to rank and file, has been exactly doubled since 1792, with additional allowances after seven years of service; but the augmentation of pay and daily allowance has been made upon a much lower scale to the officers; and the colonel stands upon the same footing as in 1792.

In the cavalry no addition has been made to the pay of any rank superior to that of lieutenant, which has been increased from Ss. 5d. to 9s per day; the dragoon soldiers, whose daily pay was 8d. in 1792, now receive 1s. 3d. with the addition of 1d. after ten years, and 2d. after seventeen years of service.

The rate of agency remains precisely the same as in 1792 for corps of infantry; for corps of cavalry, the rate of agency appears to have been reduced one-fourth, from the 25th of July, 1809. It is remarkable, that no augmentation has ever been made to the allowances for clothing and appointments of either cavalry or infantry. The rates of off-reckon

ings were first fixed in the reign of Queen Anne, and they remain the same at the present day; but, in consequence of the great increase in the price of leather during the early part of the late war, an allowance of 15 per cent. upon the off-reckonings was granted to colonels of cavalry regiments from July, 1799, after deducting therefrom 17. 16s. per annum for every man wanting to complete the full establishment. This allowance has been issued every two years, upon a memorial from the respective colonels, showing that no diminution had taken place in the price of appointments, with the exception of two years, from the 25th day of December, 1803, to the 24th day of December, 1805, for which the colonels did not claim it.

The difference which appears in the present and in former estimates, between the expenses of clothing some regiments of equal numbers, is occasioned by some of them being upon the British and some upon the Irish establishment, which, for a cavalry regiment of 464 rank and file, amounts, upon the British establishment, to 2,845., and upon the Irish (in Irish currency) to 3,500l., or 3,2301. British. This is stated to be a very old regulation, in which no alteration has been made of late years.

[Here follows the comparison alluded to; by which it appears that in 1816 the total number, in the abstract, of the estimates, omitting the corps ordered for reduction in 1816, and the corps for service in India and in France, but including 21,401 officers and men in foreign

In 1817, total number, omitting corps ordered home from India, and the corps for reduction in 1817, and also omitting the corps for service in India and in France. . .

Difference or diminution in 1817, upon the force chargeable to the United Kingdom

92,606

40,899 Next follows a comparison between the establishment of the army in 1814, and in 1817; from which it appears that, in 1814, we had, in cavalry, infantry, foreign corps and embodied militia, a force of ..344,746 ....122,952

In 1817, a force of

Decrease in 1817, as compared with 1814.... 221,794 We have then a comparative view of the sums voted for army services in 1815 and 1816, with the sums estimated for 1817. The votes for 1815 were, 18,435,3921.: in 1816, 8,727,9941. in 1817, 6,989,4981. making a decrease for 1817, of 1,738,4961.

This comparative view is succeeded by the particulars of the charge of a regiment of infantry for 1792 and 1817; and it appears that, by forming ten battalions of 800 rank and file each, the present ordinary establishment, instead of 20 battalions of 400 rank and file, as in 1792, a saving is effected of 74,3261.]

Your committee, in making a reference to the year 1792, desire to call the notice of the House to the low establishments of the latter part of that year, which were deemed sufficient for all national purposes at that time, in the con

templation of a long continuance of peace; and although many circumstances are materially changed by events which have subsequently taken place, so as to prevent any exact parallel from being drawn between the two cases, especially in the amount of pecuniary charge, yet they submit, that as near an approximation to that low scale of establishment and expense as may be found consistent with our more extended possessions, and with the disbursements, would be highly augmented rates of various fixed

advantageous in relieving the burdens, and in supporting the public credit of the country.

The difference in numbers between the estimate of 1792 and the present estimate is, for Great Britain, 14,011.

Of these, 3,000 are on account of reliefs for the foreign service, which is very considerably increased by the distant possessions acquired during the war. difference for Ireland is 12,000.

The

The numbers estimated to be kept up in the colonies and foreign dependencies, for the last six months of the year 1792, amounted to 12,650 rank and file. The numbers allotted to the estimate for the current year, for the same foreign service, amount to 20,416.

The numbers maintained in the foreign possessions newly annexed to the Crown, amounted, for the last year, to 18,200 rank and file; and they are for the current year 12,600. It is observable, that this last number is almost exactly the same numerical force as was spread over the whole colonies and foreign possessions of the Crown of Great Britain previous to the war.

It may be further remarked, that in the estimates for the year Y 2 1816,

1816, these newly acquired possessions bore the proportion of two-thirds to the force employed in the old colonies; but in the estimates for the current year, the force in the former is intended to be 12,600, and in the latter 20,416; so that the force in the former is relatively somewhat more reduced

than in the latter.

A charge of 5,000l. in the regimental contingencies (page 13) for repairs at the Horse-guards, including the salary of the surveyor, belongs properly to the army services; but all expenses of that kind should in future be carried on under the direction of the Board of Works, by which regulation the office and salary of a separate surveyor for this department will be rendered unnecessary. The present surveyor appears to have been appointed by the Secretary at War, and his salary fixed in the manner recommended by the Commissioners of Military Inquiry, in their Sth Report, p. 165 and 166.

STAFF.

P. 14 (No. 2.)

dent Lieutenant-governor at Gibraltar, are no longer included in the estimate for the staff pay of their military rank, their civil appointments in time of peace being considered adequate to the support of their respective situations.

Your committee cannot leave the subject of governments abroad, thus incidentally brought before them, without expressing a wish that some means may be devised for rendering the foreign possessions of the Britsh empire more efficient towards defraying the expenses of their own military protection, since their value to the parent state must be greatly diminished by their continuing a lasting drain on its resources.

The subject here adverted to may well deserve the attention of the House hereafter; but the papers and information before your Committee are not at present sufficiently ample to afford the means of pursuing such an inquiry, during the present session, to any useful result; they content themselves, therefore, with giving a very short general summary of the

Office at present affords, so far as relates to the dependencies acquired during the late war.

It appears from these, that the revenue of Malta, with its dependencies, for the year 1815, amounted in sterling money to 114,1261.; and that the expenditure for 1816, consisting principally of what are denominated salaries and pensions on fixed establishments, amounted to 60,1197.

The funds in the Ionian islands, under the immediate administration of Great Britain, in July 1815, left a favourable balance of 20,650l.

Expenses

Expenses are stated in this return as being incurred in the island of Zante, by building a mole, by the continuation of an aqueduct, and in the making roads.

The revenues of the Mauritius for the year 1814, including those of the isle of Bourbon (since restored to France by the treaty of peace) gave 206,860l.; and the charges for the same islands amounted to 119,900l.

There being no later return for the Mauritius, in the Colonial Office, it will be proper that orders should be sent out to the governor of this, as well as of every other foreign possession, to render more accurate information with regard to the several heads of income and charge in each respectively.

The military expenditure of the islands of Mauritius, Bourbon, and their dependencies, for the same year, 1814, amounted to 186,012/.

The revenue, and other receipts, of the island of Ceylon, during the year 1815, including also a balance in hand, amounted to 640,4441. and the expenditure to 647,848/., a very large proportion of which expenditure was incurred for the military establishments of the island, the whole of which, with the exception of the King's pay of the European troops, is defrayed out of the civil revenue. The native troops, at the period of this return, are stated to have amounted to about 5,000 rank and file.

The revenue of the Cape of Good Hope, for the year 1815, was 229,495l., and the expenditure 234,8321., including the pay of a native corps.

Total Staff in Great Britain, Jersey, Guernsey, and Ireland: Appointments in the years 1815, 217-1816, 111—and 1817, 100. Foreign Staff in 1815, 329; in 1816, 141; in 1817, 111.

PUBLIC DEPARTMENTS.

The detailed particulars of the public departments, printed by order of the House in the present session (No. 73.) led to an inquiry into the necessity of keeping the office of Commander-in-Chief at its full establishment, under the circumstances of so large a reduction in the numbers of the army; in which it appeared to your committee, that no decrease of business in that office has yet taken place, the multiplicity of correspondence, of applications and references, having been, in fact, for the present, materially augmented. Some retrenchment may reasonably be expected in the number of persons employed, whenever this temporary pressure of business shall cease, and when the military establishments shall have been settled upon the basis of a permanent peace.

The salary of the Secretary of the Commander-in-Chief was fixed, in conformity to those of the Under Secretaries of State, at 2,000l. with an augmentation of one-fourth after three years of service; which your committee submit to the House as being too rapid a scale of advance to be followed in any future appointment in any of those departments. And they further submit, as an improvement in this arrangement, that the augmented rate of allowance should not commence till after the expiration of seven years' service.

DEPART