ABUSE OF PURCHASE IN THE ARMY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
SIR—In the letter you were so good as to insert in your excellent paper of the 19th May, I showed how, without prejudice to " vested rights," the system of purchasing promotion in the Army might be got rid of. I will now, with your permission, show how that system of buying and selling promotion operates, to use Lord Barrington's expression, " to the great scandal and detriment of the service."
The rule or custom is, that promotion by purchase takes place regimentally; that is, that if a Major retire, a Captain of the same regiment succeeds him, a Lieutenant of the same corps succeeds the Captain, and an Ensign the Lieute- nant, unless the officer be of too short standing, in which case the Commander- in-chief will appoint the successor from some other regiment. In cases of pro- motion without purchase this is frequently done,—the senior is deemed disquali- fied for promotion by short standing in the service; but rarely in cases of par- chase,—the ability to purchase compensating the want of time and experience. There is a return made periodically from each regiment of the officers de- sirous of obtaining promotion by purchase. When an officer applies for leave to sell, the senior on the return of purchase candidates is selected to succeed; he may be very far from being the senior of his grade in his regiment. An officer who wishes to sell, suppose he is the Lieutenant-Colonel who com- mands the regiment, says to some friend, perhaps to the Major who is returned for purchase—" If you make up seven thousand pounds or guineas, or eight thousand pounds, (or whatever sum he may fix as his price,) I will sell." This is whispered through the grades among the purchasers; who proceed to make up the sum, fixing what each to be promoted is to give, and, frequently, what each who gets a lift on the return of candidates is to contribute in aid, so as to com- plete the whole sum required. Sometimes this must be done quietly, for fear of some one, senior to a purchaser, exerting himself at the moment to raise the regulated or legal price, and then coming forward saying he is ready to purchase, which would spoil the whole arrangement. It may be readily supposed that there are not many who would venture to act thus; but there are some, who, unable to bear what Lord Barrington so feelingly calls " the infinite distress "—" the cruel mortification of seeing themselves commanded by young men of opulent families who come much later into the service," may be hardy enough to brave the sager of the disappointed. The Adjutant-General, in his evidence before the Military Commission in 1839, said—" There is no member of a regimental society so un- popular as he who proclaims his determination not to exceed the regulated price; thereby standing as an obstacle to promotion by purchase, in the regiment to which be belongs."
The promotion of officers does not lie in the department of the Adjutant-Gene- ral. He evidently was quite aware of the long prices, the auction system of promotion; but, from the nature of the subsequent questions put to him by the i
Commission, it is equally clear that there is a profound official ignorance of such illegal practices in the Commander-in-chief's part of the house. However, every- where except in the Commander-in-chief's office, it is notorious that illegal traffic in commissions, giving illegal prices, is the c"mmon practice. Officers used to be required to sign declarations that the regulated sum only had been, or was to be, paid or received. Some hard remarks as to the number of officers who bad made such false declarations having been uttered in the House of,Commons, the regula- tion requiring these declarations was rescinded ; a step which very much re- sembled a licence for free trade, as in effect it was.
The declaration was but a clumsy mode of preventing the practice of giving and receiving more than the regulated price. By adopting the rule that no officer, not being the senior of his grade, should be promoted in his own regiment, the cure would have been effectual: but was the cure desired?
In page 68 of the Regulations and Orders for the Army, an intention to enforce the law is declared; and, doubtless, if it came officially before the Commander- in-chief that anything illegal had been done, notice would be taken of it: but of course no one would act the informer in such a case, and therefore the Com- mander-in-chief knows nothing of the matter. No officer promoted for merit, or by interest, without purchase, is put over the head of others in his own regiment; but lie who buys is promoted over the beads of those who cannot buy. Now, that riches instead of merit should raise a man over others, does not in the least lessen the " infinite distress" of being so passed over, to those who were his seniors. Must it not be, not only a "cruel mortifica- tion" to the individual, but, as Lord Barrington also states it, a "detriment to the service," disheartening, and zeal-destroying, that an old offic,er, we will sup- pose a Captain, shall see a young lad join the regiment, perhaps his own company, and pass rapidly by successive steps to be his equal in rank, then to be his superior, his commanding-officer, while he still continues in the same post, and without a prospect of advancement? Tell a student when he enters college that it matters not whether he study or otherwise amuse himself—that he is equally certain of his degree—is it probable that he will read ? Yet such is the position of the young officer, under the pur- chasing system, who has money wherewith to buy promotion: but in the Army there is this additional evil, that unless he can buy, the most ample professional knowledge and aptitude, the most painstaking attention to his business, will net aid his promotion. The most ignorant get on as well as the most accomplished. Much anxiety has been expressed in the House of Commons for the promotion of meritorious non-commissioned officers to commissions. Of what value is this promotion to such men, if they are to remain " all their lives in the lowest ranks because they are poor"? Whether a man be the son of a cotton lord or the son of a peer it is the same—if he have money he can command improved and this is the system which our military authorities think cannot be mproved I Yes, the Adjutant. General thought it would be an improvement to increase the price of commissions !!—See his evidence before the Military Commission. But the non-purchasing officers have no friends either in the upper ranks of
the Army or in the House of Commons. Mmes.
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