252 
THE CORPS OF COMMISSIONAIRES. 
elude special engagements being made by employers with the men 
themselves on terms settled by mutual agreement. 
For the convenience of employers and to promote uniformity of 
system throughout the corps, the following scale of wages has been 
authorized for the different classes of commissionaires in permanent 
and temporary employment in the Metropolis and principal manufac¬ 
turing towns :— 
Permanent Employment. 
per week. 
Sergeants.- . . £1 8s. Od. 
Corporals ... £1 6s. Od. 
Commissionaires £1 4s. Od. 
Temporary Employment. 
per day. per half day. 
Sergeants . . 
6s. 
Od. 
4s. 
Od. 
Corporals 
5s. 
Od. 
3s. 
6d. 
Commissionaires 
4s. 
6d. 
3s. 
Od. 
The above tariff does not apply to commissionaires of special 
attainments and education, whose salaries would range from 30s. to 
50s. a week. Nor does the printed standard of normal wages preclude 
engagements between employers and commissionaires on such terms 
as may be found mutually suitable. 
The real cause why the corps, which is organized on so excellent a 
system has not grown to larger proportions, is not the want of employ¬ 
ment, but the difficulty in obtaining men who come up to the standard 
necessarily required from those who are enrolled as commissionaires. 
As Sir Edward Walter points out in his report for last year “ there is 
employment in London alone for 50,000 commissionaires, and if retired 
soldiers and sailors will qualify themselves for the best situations, they 
will undoubtedly get them.” This statement comes as a rather 
startling surprise in view of the complaints made so frequently that 
employers will not take old soldiers into their service. It brings us 
face to face with the cause why so many old soldiers pass their time 
in tramping the roads and end their lives in the workhouse. With 
such organizations in existence as the Corps of Commissionaires, the 
Army and Navy Pensioners’ Employment Society, and the National 
Association for the Employment of Reserve Soldiers, there is no reason 
whatever why any reservist or discharged soldier should not be able 
to earn an honest living and provide for his old age if he is determined 
to do so. No organization, however, will provide work for idle and 
useless men, who will not help themselves, and it is to be feared that 
the large proportion of ex-soldiers who doom themselves to the life of 
tramps belong to this class. 
The remedy would seem to be found, not by appealing to the 
patriotism of employers to engage men who are not worth their wages, 
but by efforts as far as possible to improve the men while still serving 
in the Army, and to train them to habits of regular work, thrift and 
industry. With this object, it becomes a necessity to impress on 
recruits as soon as they join that their army service should be 
regarded as a period of preparation for their future duties when they 
return to civil life. If this view of their life in the Army is kept 
