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The foregoing table gives ample and detailed information with regard to the strength of the British army, as well as the increase made to it, as compared to the past year. This, as far as the estimates are concerned, amounts to only 3,339 officers and men and 658 horses. The increase to the force in India has, however, been considerable, from 24,741 of all ranks and 2,669 horses in 1857-58, it is for the present year 79,494 of all ranks, and 9,763 horses. The force borne on the East India establishment this year, which includes the depots of regiments in India quartered in Great Britain, is 92,739 of all ranks, and 10,181 horses, as compared with 30,197 of all ranks, and 2,812 horses in the preceding year. Our army in India has consequently been augmented by upwards of 62,000 men. It will be seen that of the cavalry at home, little more than half are mounted, there being 9,241 officers and men to 5,993 horses. The Foot Guards have been increased by 690 of all ranks. Vote 2, provides for the staffpay and allowances, which absorb £290,991, being an increase over last year of £40,227. The sum voted for regimental pay and allowances is £3,836,263; and for money allowance, in the nature of pay, £233,773, both sums being considerably less than were required for the previous year. Good-conduct pay, and the allowances for the first equipment of officers promoted from the rank of noncommissioned officers is set down at £63,800. Few of those who have studied the good-conduct warrant and its results, with the obvious defects which attach to it, will say that this large sum yields any adequate return for its outlay; applied in aid of a revised and well-considered pension warrant, it would prove of the greatest benefit. It might be made to check desertion, and to be of real service in raising the character and condition of the soldier. The whole amount in the estimates for staff and regimental-pay and allowances is £4,361,027, but from this a deduction is made of £680,000–£500,000 of which is to be paid by the East India Company for excess of number of men sent to India on the outbreak of the mutiny, and £180,000 for the pay of men wanting to complete the establishment-leaving £3,681,027, the sum to be voted. Going into the items in detail, the staff of depôt battalions cost £37,659 year, as compared with £47,908 for 1857-58. The prevalent opinion seems to be that these battalions, as at present organized, do not answer. The mixing up of officers and men of different regiments must effectually deprive them of all esprit de corps, as a military body, and is likely to prove permanently injurious in that feeling to young soldiers. The officer in command of the whole can hardly feel any hearty or zealous interest in those under him, and his duties must be arduous and unsatisfactory in the extreme. The old depôt system most assuredly had more good in it, and was more likely to send efficient soldiers to the head-quarters of regiments. The staff of miscellaneous depôts amounts to £1,209, and the invalid depôt at Chatham to £4,516. The riding establishment at Maidstone appears to cost only the expense of the riding-master-£182. The expense of the establishment at Portsmouth, consisting of a paymaster and clerk, is £395. These are some of the small items. The discontinuance of the Provisional Battalion constitutes a saving of £4,355. Recruiting amounts to £104,800 for this year; last year

it was but £42,851. Whenever we fail egregiously in anything, our usual remedy is more money. It is the case in this instance. Certainly some of our proceedings, with regard to giving commissions for raising men, have been anything but creditable to our military administration; nor is our recruiting generally wisely managed. The purchase of horses for this year exceeds that for last year by £55,300; the present vote being for £98,278. Of this sum £2,450 is for the purchase of horses for the officers of the military train, who are not on the same footing, in respect to their chargers, as the rest of the army.

The increase for horses is principally for the cavalry of the line, consequent upon the raising of the two new regiments. Hospital expenses, medicines, and the treatment of the sick, require the sum of £92,945; but this amount is very nearly covered by the hospital stoppages from the soldier, which give back £89,718. The contribution from the farriery allowance adds £1,000 more, so that the actual sum called for from the public for these expenses is only £2,227. The administration of martial law at home and abroad requires £52,408-a reasonable sum, considering the nature and extent of our empire, and the very scattered distribution of our army. In this item is included also the expense of twenty military prisons, ten of which are at home, and ten in the colonies.

The movement of troops has £130,000 allotted to it, but this does not include the transport service; the estimate for which is borne against the naval administration. It provides, however, for the land and water carriage of troops in the colonies. Divine service and the spiritual care of the troops are obtained for £35,522. It is presumed, though it is not so stated, that this sum is for foreign as well as for home stations. The duties are performed by 22 commissioned chaplains, at sixteen shillings per diem, with allowances according to the relative rank they hold with officers of the army; and by 35 assistant chaplains, who have incomes varying from £200 to £400 per annum. The cost and carriage of religious books is estimated at £2,000. Military savings' banks, £3,000; military rewards, being for medals for good conduct, £5,000; miscellaneous expenses absorb £62,545, £11,157 of which is in lieu of stock-purse fund for recruiting and hospital expenses for the Guards.

Why these hospital and recruiting expenses are not thrown in with those of the rest of the army, and the duties conducted similarly for all, it would, perhaps, be difficult satisfactorily to explain. If the system of the Guards is the best, why is it not applied to all? If it is not, where is the use of having them on a different footing to others? The Guernsey and Jersey Militias are respectively done for £1,371 and £1,874. The German military settlers at the Cape of Good Hope (it is an item that will sound disagreeable to most English ears) numbering but 2,338 of all ranks,

figure this year at £30,947. Last year they cost the enormous sum

of £92,793,-£123,740 in two years for these foreign gentry, might have done much in relieving our own bred-and-born pauperism. We could do nothing to relieve the misery of crowds thrown out of Government employment at the close of the war-skilled

mechanics and others, who would gladly have emigrated-but we could expend with a lavish hand, for a parcel of dingy foreigners, who never did a day's service of a useful kind for England in their lives.

Paper A, in the estimates goes into minute details as to our staff, and the rate of pay connected with the different appointments in it; civilians, however, must remember, that these rates are all in addition to regimental or unattached pay borne elsewhere The general-commanding-in-chief has nine pounds nine shillings and sixpence a-day, or £3,458 per annum. He has five aides-de-camp, four of whom are paid at the rate of nine-and-sixpence a-day each. The fifth aide-de-camp is an extra one, and receives no pay. The military secretary has £2,000 and considering the onerous and responsible nature of his duties, it is not too much. The adjutant-general receives £1,383 a-year, and the two deputy-adjutant-generals, a sum to the same amount between them, with an allowance besides of £150. The assistant-adjutant-general gets £364 a-year, and an allowance of £100. What this allowance is for is not stated. The deputy-adjutant and deputy-assistant-adjutant-general of militia are similarly paid. The quarter-master-general's office requires a similar amount to that of the adjutant-general's; and the number of deputies and deputy-assistants are the same for both. The adjutant-general of artillery and his aide-de-camp no longer exist. The duties of that part of the service now devolve on a deputy-adjutantgeneral and regimental-lieutenant-colonel, who has had no experience of war whatever under the adjutant-general of the army: he is aided by two assistant-adjutant-generals; all these are paid like similar appointments in the rest of the army. The major-general who inspects the cavalry, and the officers of the same rank, who inspect the footguards (the latter are appointments since the war) receive each the pay of a deputy assistant-general. They have each a staff of an aide-de-camp and an assistant-adjutant-general.

The inspector of infantry, another appointment since the war, is a lieutenant-general, and his pay is exactly double that of the officers previously mentioned; he has £3 15s. 10d. a-day, with two aidesde-camp and an assistant-adjutant-general. Her Majesty has the small establishment of six paid aides-de-camp, at the very moderate rate of ten shillings and five-pence a-day each. These appointments are almost quite of an honorary nature, and are usually conferred on officers who have served with distinction. Although six only are paid, the war in the Crimea, and to a very limited extent that in India, has caused the officers who have been made Queen's aides-decamp to be very numerous. The distinction confers with it the rank of Colonel. We still adhere to the territorial division of the country into military districts, and each district has its general with a retinue of staff. The northern district is commanded by a lieutenant-general with two aides-de-camp, an assistant-adjutant-general, and an assistant-quarter-master-general. The south-eastern district, with a division at Shorncliffe and Dover, has three major-generals, two of whom command brigades. Each of them have an aide-de

camp; and there are two brigade-majors, an assistant-adjutantgeneral, and an assistant-quarter-master-general besides. The western district is under a major-general with an aide-de-camp, and a major of brigade. The south-western is the same, but the majorgeneral has an allowance as lieutenant-governor of £173 per annum, and a temporary one in the same capacity of £200-rather a singular mode of remunerating him. The staff consists of an aide-de-camp, an assistant-quarter-master-general, a major of brigade, and a townmajor. Next on the list comes Aldershott, which is likely to be an incubus in the way of expense upon the country. It is under a lieutenant-general and two aides-de-camp, four major-generals, and four aides-de-camp, one colonel in the staff to command the artillery, an assistant and deputy-assistant-adjutant, and quarter-mastergeneral, five majors of brigades, one camp quarter-master, and one superintendent of the fire brigade. The hut encampment at Pembroke last year, consisted of one individual, a garrison-adjutant, at £86 a-year; he disappears from the present estimates, a sacrifice to the stern spirit of our economy, which never spares the unnecessary recipient, however small may be his stipend. Guernsey has a colonel on the staff to look after it, who is also the resident governor. staff is a very humble one, and consists of one fort-major.

His

We have enumerated nearly all the principal military stations in England, and it would be tiresome and unnecessary to go into the same detail with regard to all of them. Those we have omitted are Jersey, Colchester, Woolwich, Bristol, Tilbury Fort, the Isle of Man, and North Britain: the latter comprising the whole of Scotland. In Ireland we have the same territorial districts, but to a less extent than in England: the state of that country admitting of our concentrating the army more than we used to do. It is no longer required in aid of the revenue or for police purposes. The military commands consist of Dublin, Dublin district, the Cork, or south-western, and the Curragh, Kildare, and south-eastern district -the last being the Irish Aldershott. This part of the United Kingdom employs two lieutenant-generals, 9 major-generals, 13 aides-decamp, besides 4 other officers in the staff of the lord-lieutenant, 1 military secretary, 1 deputy-adjutant-general, 1 deputy-assistantadjutant-general, 1 deputy-quarter-master-general, and one deputyassistant-quarter-master-general; 5 assistant-adjutant-generals, including 1 for the royal artillery, 3 assistant-quarter-mastergenerals, 6 majors of brigade, and 1 town-major. The general staff of our colonies, exclusive of anything in the East Indies, comprises 4 lieutenant-generals, 14 major-generals, and 59 other officers on the staff. The total cost of this part of the service, inclusive of the medical and commissariat staff, is estimated for the current year at £112,967 for home duties, and at £178,023 for the colonies: in all, £290,990. The further expense of the staff departments is shown in part 2 of the estimates, under the head of " Civil Establishments,' and will be alluded to further on.

An abstract of the members of the staff, shows that in the general staff we employ 288 officers this year, as compared with 293 for 57-58, always be it understood, exclusive of the Indian establish

ments. On the commissariat staff there are 179 officers, being an increase of 14 over last year. On the medical staff there are 335, or a reduction of 42 from the number for 1857-58.

The following detail of the cost of different regiments and portions of the service, may be of interest; the numbers of each are given:-"The 1st Regiment of Life Guards, consisting of 33 officers, 54 N. C. officers, trumpeters, &c., and 354 rank and file or 438 of all ranks, and 275 horses, is maintained at a cost to the country of £26,276. The Regiment of Horse Guards costs £1,718 per annum less. The Royal Horse Artillery at home, which consists of six troops, giving a force of 36 guns of six and nine pounders, comprising 44 officers, 90 N. C. officers, trumpeters, &c., 1,426 rank and file, and 1,200 horses, requires £57,394, or little more than is required for the two Regiments of Life Guards, who are more for show than use, and who could, at the utmost, bring but 550 sabres into the field, there being nearly two officers and men to every horse. The 1st Regiment of Cavalry shown in the estimates, the one preceding it being on the East India establishment, is the 5th Dragoon Guards, with 34 officers, 49 N. C. officers, trumpeters, &c., 577 rank and file, and 48 horses, it is maintained for £24,911, or a few hundreds more than the Regiment of Blues, who are about two-thirds less strong, in men and horses. These sums apply solely to daily pay allowances and agency, and include also annual allowances to field-officers, captains, riding-masters, and for farriery. They have nothing to do with clothing, or equipment, forage, &c., or the purchase of horses. A regiment of Dragoons costs precisely the same as one of Dragoon Guards, and the strength is the same. A Regiment of Cavalry in India is much stronger than one on the home establishment. The former consists of 43 officers, 72 N. C. officers, trumpeters, &c., 676 rank and file, and 703 horses. In the one case the number of rank and file much exceeds the number of horses; in India this difference is reversed-the number of horses exceeds the number of men. The latter do not groom their horses. Hussars or Lancers are neither more nor less expensive as to pay and allowances than other Cavalry. All the Regiments of Cavalry are of uniform strength according as they are serving at home or in India.

The Royal Regiment of Artillery consists of 14 battalions of 8 companies each. It comprises 652 officers, 1170 non-commissioned officers, trumpeters, &c.; 14,802 rank and file, and 2,540 horses, the annual cost of whom are £574,984. The Royal Engineers, if we may judge by the estimates, are organized on the most extravagant scale as to officers. There is 1 of the latter to every 8 and a fraction of the rank and file! In the Royal Artillery there is about 1 to 23-in the Life Guards 1 to nearly 11-in the Horse Artillery 1 to 34-in the Cavalry 1 to 17-in the Grenadier and other regiments of Guards, 1 to nearly 22 rank and file. In the Infantry at home 1 to 21, and in that in India 1 to 25. This is the proportion which the estimates would seem to lay down, but it may vary in actual practice. The Engineers number 367 officers, 307 non-commissioned officers, trumpeters, &c., and 3000 rank and file, with 120 horses; yet this small body cost no less than £169,094. The Grenadier