STATE PAPERS. 



331 



public, occasioned by assigning a 

 special rate of pay to general offi- 

 cers, which was first granted from 

 the ySth of June, 1814, must be 

 estimated for the current year at 

 83,000/. being the difference be- 

 tween the amount of regimental 

 pay or half- pay, to which they 

 would have been entitled if this 

 unattached allowance had not 

 been granted, and the total sum 

 of 17t>,044/. proposed to be voted 

 for the current year under this 

 head : the arrangement which 

 created this charge appears to have 

 arisen in the circumstance of a 

 protracted war, diiring which the 

 establishment of regiments be- 

 came burdened by officers who had 

 risen to the rank of general, and 

 who, when necessarily replaced 

 by effective field-officers, became 

 entitled to an equivalent for their 

 regimental commisions, until they 

 should be promoted respectively 

 to the command of regiments. So 

 far the arrangement appears to 

 have been suggested by a necessity 

 of upholding the efficiency of the 

 service, and of affording some 

 remuneration to general officers 

 more suitable to their rank than 

 the mere half- pay of the regimen- 

 tal commi.ssions, which, in many 

 instances of long standing and 

 meritorious services, seems to 

 have been the only provision for 

 enabling them to support their 

 station in the service. But your 

 committee are of opinion, that the 

 liberality of Parliament was car- 

 ried beyond what was requisite to 

 satisfy either the claims of justice, 

 or the efficiency of the military 

 service, when an unattached pay 

 progressively increasing for the 

 three classes of major-general, 

 lieutenant-general, and general. 



was granted indiscriminately to all 

 who, by successive brevets, bad 

 attained those ranks respectively, 

 without having been appointed to 

 the command of regiments. 



The aggregate expense of this 

 system has aj)peared to be such, 

 as to lead yoiu" committee to in- 

 quire how far the public could be 

 protected from its progressive in- 

 crease in proportion to future pro- 

 motions, by any change in the 

 existing regulation, which might 

 at the same time effect the gradual 

 reduction of the present charge to 

 a more moderate scale of expense, 

 without breaking faith towards 

 the individuals to whom this pro- 

 vision has been granted. Your 

 committee have great satisfaction 

 in being enabled to state to the 

 House, as the restdt of their in- 

 quiries on this head, that it is in 

 the contemplation of the proper 

 department, to modify the whole 

 system, by providing that this un- 

 attached pay, instead of accming 

 to all who may be promoted to 

 the rank of general-officer, shall 

 henceforward be granted to a 

 fixed and limited number only ; 

 to which number the present list 

 will be gradually reduced, either 

 by casualties, or by the officers 

 now receiving this provision be- 

 ing appointed to the command of 

 regiments. Youi' committee trust 

 that they shall be enabled on some 

 futuie occasion to bring before 

 the House the particulars of the 

 proposed arrangement ; and that 

 it will then be found to be such as 

 on the one hand to satisfy the ex- 

 jtectations which have been held 

 cut to them, of its ultimately 

 effecting a very large, though gra- 

 dual, reduction in the amount of 

 this charge ; and on the otlier, to 



remove 



