DEDICATION.
VU
During your administration of the Forces, not only the officer, butthe private soldier, has been raised from a comparative state of indi-gence and degradation into one of comfort and respectability amonghis fellow citizens; their wives, widows, and children have beenrelieved and even the higher orders of the profession have beenplaced in a condition of honourable independence. Emulation hasreceived an additional incentive by honorary marks of distinction, andthe unavoidable calls of life have been answered by a fair appeal tonational justice and liberality. The soldier of fortune and the unpro-tected officer, with grey hairs and crippled limbs, are no longer left tovegetate upon a miserable half-pay with nominal rank ;*f and althoughthey may remain without regiments, they are still above the want ofthose means which are required for the support of their respectivestations. And this has been done upon the best of all good princi-ples, that of justice to the individual and economy to the public ; foras regiments become vacant they are filled up according to seniority,Jand are given to such meritorious officers as have distinguished them-selves on actual service. In the distribution of military pensions thesame regard has been paid to the public purse; for as officers recover,and become enabled to return to the full exercise of their functions,they are examined by the Medical Board, and the allowance drops.The Date obolum Belisario is no longer a matter of reproach toEnglishmen ; while a profligate expenditure of their means for theexclusive benefit of the army, ceases to be a just object of com-plaint. The interior economy of corps has been equally benefitedby the wisdom of your arrangements. Troops and companieshave obtained effective officers by the abolition of nominal captainsin the several field officers. The Colonel ’s company, instead ofbeing left, as it formerly was, to the sole direction of an ensign, (for theadjutant w’as usually its lieutenant,) is now under the immediate com-mand of a captain and two subalterns ; and the gay and thoughtless gre-nadier or light-infantrv paymaster has been replaced by an unassumingman of conduct and calculation. Nor have the superior departmentsof the army been less fortunate under your influence and personal di-rection. Not only the General Staff has been improved and new-mo-delled by you, but all its minor branches have been made to corre-spond with the exigencies of real service. You have destroyed thatsystem of plurality which once prevailed in the army, and which is sodestructive in every well-regulated state, civil, military or ecclesiastical.We no longer see vested in the same person the contradictory duties ofcaptain-lieutenant,adjutant,paymaster, quarter-master, and chaplain by
* See the Regulations respecting the provision for the widows and children,and the security of the effects of deceased officers and soldiers.
t For particulars respecting the melancholy situation of a General Officer ofthis description, before the allowance took place, see the Preface to the last edi-tion of the Regimental Companion.—Ab uno disce oinnes.
t The Royal Branches are, of course, an exception to the rule; and this excep-tion is no more than one of the scarce feathers in the prerogative..A 2.