CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



occur, unless promoted out of his turn for dis- 

 tinguished service. Field-marshal is an extra- 

 ordinary rank, rarely conferred, and only as a 

 mark of the sovereign's special favour. The 

 retirement of officers is provided for by ' retired 

 full-pay,' which is a limited establishment attain- 

 able after thirty years' good service, and ' retired 

 half-pay,' to which every officer has a right after 

 twenty-five years' service. These periods are 

 reduced if the officer be disabled by ill health or 

 wounds. 



Recruiting, Enlistment, Promotion, and Retirement of Soldiers. 



The country is divided into a certain number 

 of recruiting districts. From some central place 

 in each, a recruiting agency, consisting of an 

 officer and several non-commissioned officers 

 and men, scour the district for recruits. As 

 military service has always been voluntary in this 

 country, it is difficult to persuade men to enlist, 

 especially in times when wages are good, and 

 food and work plentiful. Hence it has been the 

 unvarying policy of the government of late to 

 increase the inducements to enter the army. 

 This has been done in two ways : ist, by aug- 

 menting the pay ; 2d, by shortening the service. 

 By 33 and 34 Viet. c. 67, a recruit can now 

 enlist either for short or long service. If he 

 elects short service, he enlists for twelve years 

 the first six of which he must pass in the 

 regular army, the other six in the ' army re- 

 serve.' After his first six years' service, he may 

 go back to civil life, and live anywhere in the 

 United Kingdom, and follow any trade he chooses. 

 Whilst serving in the reserve he will getfourpence 

 a day, and will be liable to be called out for drill 

 occasionally, but so as to injure as little as pos- 

 sible his general occupation. If, however, he 

 elects to enlist for ' long service,' he may enlist 

 for the whole twelve years in the regular army. 

 At the end of this time, if he has conducted him- 

 self well, and gets leave from his commanding 

 officer, he may re-enlist, and complete his twenty- 

 one years' service, so as to entitle him to a pension 

 for life. Great care is taken by the law that men 

 shall not be enlisted on false pretences, or in a 

 state of intoxication. Every recruit is taken 

 before a magistrate, who explains to him the step 

 he is taking. If he does not appear, or on appear- 

 ing does not assent to be enlisted, no further 

 proceedings are taken. If he signs the declaration 

 and takes the oath, he is enlisted ; but by the 

 Army Discipline and Regulation Act of 1879, he 

 may at any time within three months of enlistment, 

 be discharged on payment of ten pounds. Once 

 established in his regiment as a private soldier, the 

 man must look to his own steadiness and courage 

 for promotion. The ranks of corporal and sergeant 

 are earned in the company or troop to which the 

 soldier may be posted ; promotion from sergeant 

 to be a staff-sergeant or sergeant-major is made 

 by selection among all the sergeants in the regi- 

 ment A deserving sergeant or sergeant-major is 

 usually selected for the commission of quarter- 

 master, and a few sergeants are promoted to be 

 sub-lieutenants. The number so advanced to 

 commissions is not, however, large ; and unless 

 the man be still young, and of manners above his 

 class, the boon is questionable. A sergeant pro- 

 moted to a commission is thrown among men 

 socially his superiors, and probably richer than 

 200 



himself. It will be difficult for him to adapt him- 

 self to this change ; and, considering that a sub- 

 lieutenant's pay is very low, still more difficult for 

 his wife, should he be married. 



The Army, as a Profession, compared with Civil Life. 



In comparing the military and civil professions 

 as a means of livelihood, and a mode of passing 

 life, it is unnecessary to consider the liability to 

 violent death. The devotees of any calling fur- 

 nish a considerable percentage as martyrs to their 

 pursuit. As regards the officers, the rich and 

 aristocratic ones care little for any profit from the 

 service, and enter for the social position, or the 

 chances of honours and distinction. With the 

 poor officer, the service is his means of living ; to 

 him it is a lottery. If he be fortunate, he may 

 obtain promotion, distinction, and, in start employ, 

 no contemptible income ; if he be in a regiment 

 where promotion stagnates, his career is weari- 

 some, slow, and ill-paid. Army appointments 

 indeed, all government appointments open to 

 gentlemen shew badly by the side of commerce ; 

 but they are as good in the earlier stages as the 

 learned professions, and later on, though with less 

 brilliant prizes, they possess more certainty, and 

 carry with them a retiring allowance after the 

 work of life is over. As to pay, the yearly salary 

 of a field-marshal and general-commanding-in- 

 chief is .5999 ; of a general-commanding-in-chief, 

 ^3458 ; of a general, ^2075 ; of a lieutenant- 

 general, ^1383; of a major-general, .691 ; of a 

 brigadier-general, .520; of a colonel, ^41 5; of 

 an adjutant-general and quartermaster-general, 

 if a general, ^1383 if a colonel, ,1095 ; of 

 .a deputy-adjutant-general and deputy-quarter- 

 master-general, ^691 ; assistant ditto, ^346 ; 

 deputy-assistant-deputy ditto, .260 ; assistant at 

 headquarters, ,346 or .501. The regimental 

 pay is represented in the following table (see next 

 page) : 



A private in the Foot Guards gets is. a day; in 

 the cavalry, is. 2d. ; infantry, is. A gunner in the 

 artillery (field), is. 2^d.; in the horse artillery, is. 4d. 

 There is no stoppage for rations now, except in 

 the case of groceries, which cost the soldier about 

 4d. a day. This rate of pay is very small. Still, 

 it is twice as good as the pay of the French 

 soldier ; and whilst the average yearly cost of the 

 English soldier, including pay, clothing, and food, 

 is ^78, i8s. Sd. a head, according to Colonel 

 Sykes, that of the German is only ,35, 155. 



In the present state of the labour-market, the 

 poor pay offered the soldier is a very serious 

 drawback to recruiting ; yet, considering the class 

 from which the army is recruited, and the advan- 

 tages in the way of gratuitous education, pension, 

 easy work, and good regular living, insured to the 

 soldier, the army, as an occupation, is preferable 

 to most of the occupations the same class of men 

 in civil life would find open to them. The men 

 who offer themselves for military service do not 

 belong to the class of skilled workmen, as a rule. 

 Out of every 1000 recruits, in 1871, there were 637 

 agricultural and unskilled labourers, only 80 skilled 

 manufacturing artisans, 182 mechanics (smiths, 

 masons, carpenters, &c.), 77 shopmen and clerks, 

 and 7 belonging to professional classes. Neither 

 are the recruits men who, even as unskilled 

 labourers, would be worth much, for one in every 

 three had to be rejected for physical incapacity 



