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Leaving out of view the services and sacrifices of British officers of either branch in activity, we must advert to the peculiar difficulties under which those on half-pay are doomed to struggle through their anomalous course. Their income, the source of so much unworthy clamour, is not, in most cases, more than equivalent to the wages of a journeyman of any handicraft trade, and, in the lowest ranks, barely exceeds those of a bricklayer's labourer! Thus, with the education, feelings, and habits of a gentleman, and encumbered, perhaps, with a family, the half-pay officer, in sustaining his position, suffers privations, and is driven to shifts wholly overlooked by the public. In this country, where the factitious prices of the war are still generally maintained by those who deal in the necessaries of life, and who chiefly profit by the remission of taxes, which they intercept and grasp from the consumer, an officer, upon such limited means, may exist, but no more. Hence the general emigration of that class to cheaper lands.

While demagogues declaim on the expense of our naval and military force, they forget, or keep out of sight, the incalculable wealth in treasure and territory in "ships, colonies, and commerce"-acquired and preserved for the nation by their prowess and patient suffering. Trade must sink without the power that buoys and protects it; and the beneficial diffusion of its returns be contracted in proportion as a wise economy in the public expenditure should degenerate into a sterile parsimony, cramping the return by stinting the outlay, and refusing to the active guardians of the national peace and property, the due reward of their important services. The public money, fairly appropriated, usually returns in some shape to the public: for instance, in the case of naval or military stations,-where the most important benefits accrue to the inhabitants and the district, from the stimulating presence and prompt expenditure of the Blue Jackets or the Red.

Having shown the exaggerated value of military pay, when relatively considered, we turn to the prospects of the officer as to a final provision or retirement. Here again we find a strange anomaly. Although, in every respect, the most actively employed, and the most exposed to those agents which destroy or impair existence, the officer is the only class of public servant to whom no certain remuneration is held out through the far vista of years-no remote competence luring him on through arduous service to an easy and honourable retreat. For the veteran officer of the army or navy, there is no defined provision, graduated to length of service, as in the civil departments. Comparatively few can emerge from the subordinate ranks to the highest; in the army, the subaltern, the captain, the field-officer, may toil on for half a century, and then withdraw into some hole to die upon the half-pay of his rank! Should he be so fortunate as to become a general officer, he may catch a regiment or a Government; but this is an affair of chance and even this chance, though his sole prospect of ultimate provision, is a questionable contingency in the eye of the economist. We fear that even the pension for wounds is grudged by the latter: yet by what fiscal valuation is the wounded man to be repaid-or the loss of a limb, hewn from the living body in its prime and promise, to be compensated?

Contrast the condition and prospects of a civil employé a clerk, for instance, in a public office, who enjoys from the outset a salary never inferior to the pay of a subaltern officer-generally far superior-and

after a certain number of years passed in a comfortable occupation, without exposure or serious privation, retires in the prime of life upon a secure and ample income! Where is the relative justice in these

cases?

Between the condition and services of the British and the Continental Armies there can exist no parallel. Resembling but slightly in their general constitution, they are distinct in the nature and extent of their services, those of the British Army embracing a field as wide as the globe, with its various climates, and demanding peculiar and proportionate sacrifices. The Army of England shares the independence and rate of living of its nation, and could not exist if not upon a footing of corresponding liberality; yet is it content with a remuneration rather below, as we have shown, the relative scale applicable to other classes; the officer faring, in proportion, worse than the private, whose pay of one shilling a day, though made the most of, and going farther in his case, still barely equals the depressed wages, the inadequacy of which was the pretext of the late rebellion amongst the agricultural labourers.

Of the exemplary conduct of the Army it is, we feel, unnecessary to speak. In the present season of delusion and convulsion, they have preserved Ireland, where the troops are compelled to maintain an attitude of activity, little short of the duties of an actual campaign. They have been rewarded by His Majesty's thanks, those of their immediate Commanders, and the gratitude of the Country. The British Army cannot be taxed with being "behind the age." Directed, in succession, by a late illustrious and lamented Prince, by Wellington, and by Hill, it has rather preceded the vulgar march in the spirit and application of practical improvement: but it has not mistaken alteration for amendment, or insubordination for independence. The defects which may be imputed to its Executive are not, we are convinced, wilful, but are fairly open to remedy. Representing every class of the State, from whose various grades its members are derived, and whose sympathies are bound up with its welfare and its glory, it excels all others in good order. Its officers in general, whose actions as a body are governed by a peculiar sense of honour and of duty, fostered by Esprit de Corps, and regulating those nicer springs of conduct which no laws can sway, yield to none at the present day in cultivation of mind and manners, and the laudable desire of improvement; while, upon means touching the minimum of decent subsistence in so artificial a state as this, they are enabled by union and good management to maintain in their respective corps an appearance and a board worthy of associated gentlemen.

We have been led into these details, familiar no doubt to our comrades and the public, under the impression that, judging from results, they may have escaped the attention of the Legislature. Need we appeal to every officer of the United Service who may have a seat in Parliament, to rally round his "Order" in its need, to support its claims? which being founded in justice, recommended by policy, and guaranteed by good faith, there can be no disposition to slight, if fairly and fearlessly urged. To each, however differing upon unprofessional questions, we would emphatically repeat-be united on this

TUA res agitur.

MILITARY ORGANIZATION OF SWITZERLAND.

THE peculiar geographical situation of Switzerland, placed as a barrier between France and the Italian possessions of the House of Austria, having drawn some of the public attention to the arming and disarming of its military force; it may, perhaps, interest the readers of the United Service Journal to become acquainted with the Military Organization of the only State in Europe which has no standing army, and yet, in case of need, can in a few days, (I should almost say, hours,) produce, in proportion to the general population, the largest body of men equipped, drilled, and trained to the tactics of war.

That

One of the first articles of the Constitution of every one of the Swiss Cantons is, that after exception of the clergy and the first functionaries of the State, every Swiss citizen is a soldier. Tout Suisse est soldat." liability begins in some of the Swiss States at the age of sixteen, until fiftyfive. In some others it begins a few years later and ends at fifty. From the age of twenty to twenty-eight, the citizens are obliged to serve in the Contingents, and are liable to be called out at any moment. After those eight years, they are allowed to withdraw into the Reserve, or Landwehr.

The proportion of the number of armed men in Switzerland is on an average of one for every eight inhabitants, or about 250,000 men out of 2,000,000 souls.*

The above force is divided in three corps, or classes; namely, the two Contingents of regular troops, and the Reserve, or Landwehr.

The first Contingent is composed as much as possible of unmarried men, as above stated, of the age of twenty to twenty-eight.

The second, comprises men of the same age, married or single.

The Landwehr comprises all the citizens, who having served their eight years in the Contingents, claim their discharge from active service.

The basis of repartition amongst the several Cantons fixed in 1814, when the population of Switzerland was computed at about 1,700,000 souls, was two per cent. for each Contingent, making two armies of 33,758 men each, exclusive of the Swiss Federal Staff.

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Staff of the Battalions

Men.

1704

142

71

1194

736

2000

666

217 Companies, Infantry, (Grenadiers, Voltigeurs, and Centre) 27245

with seventy-two cannon or howitzers of various calibre.

The second Contingent consists of,

16 Companies of Artillery

Waggon-train Corps (with 1141 horses) 20 Companies of Riflemen

Staff of the Battalions

219 Companies of Infantry

with forty-eight cannon as above.

33758

Men.

1136

717

2000

666

29239

33758

In almost every habitation or cottage, you will find hung up near to the bed, muskets or rifles, according to the number of men capable of bearing arms in the

family.

The Cantons which furnish the artillery are obliged to hold to the disposal of the Swiss Federal Council of war, besides the above stated, 120 cannon, thirty pieces and mortars of heavy artillery, twenty pieces of various calibre for replacement in case of accident, making altogether 170 pieces of cannon attached to the two Contingents.

The Landwehr is organized in battalions of infantry, and as most of the Cantons have in readiness more cavalry, artillery, and riflemen, than required by the above table,* any corps of Landwehr called out in case of need would be supported by as much élite troops, so as to render it similar to the first or second Contingent.

The Swiss Federal army, when called out by the Swiss Diet, is commanded by officers of the Federal Staff. This corps, to which officers of the cantons are promoted after a certain number of years of service, consists of a certain number of colonels, lieutenant-colonels, captains, lieutenants, &c. &c. of the Staff, belonging to the artillery, engineers, cavalry, and infantry, besides a proper number of commissaries for the administration of the army, and of superior medical officers. A grade in the Swiss Federal Staff ranks one grade higher in the Cantonal service. When the Swiss Diet deems it necessary to call to arms half or more of either of the Contingents, it proceeds to the election of a general-in-chief, a commander in second, and a quarter-master-general. These officers are chosen from the Federal colonels; and from that same Staff are afterwards taken those officers to each of whom is intrusted the command of a division of the army or of a brigade, and in short all the field-officers. That corps wears a peculiar uniform, and the Helvetic cockade, (white and red ;) they receive their orders from the general-in-chief, who acts in immediate communication with the Diet or the Federal Directory.

Having already stated the way in which the men are raised, I shall briefly state the manner in which they are armed, equipped, and trained to military tactics.

When the Swiss citizen has attained the age at which he becomes liable to military duties, he becomes also obliged to provide himself with full accoutrements; in the poorer States of Switzerland, he only provides his uniform, and the State furnishes him with the musket, cartridge-box, knapsack, sabre, and capote. In the other cantons, it is a sort of individual tax, (and a heavy one it is,) and the parish is obliged to assist those who have not the means of equipping themselves at their own expense.

In the month of April each year, the captains of the Contingent recruit amongst the young men of the class of the year, a number of men equal to that of those who have finished their time, and gone into the reserve; the artillery has first the choice, after come the grenadier captains, the riflemen officers choose those young men known as good shots; finally, the voltigeurs and centre companies are placed in full complement by the remainder. The cavalry is chosen amongst those rich peasants who always have horses, and so is the waggon and artillery train; the proprietor of the horses receiving an indemnity when called in active service.

Various are the means of drilling the troops. In all cantons, there are a certain number of days of exercise in the spring and early part of the summer, besides inspections and reviews. At those exercises, which last from four to six hours each time, the contingents, the reserve, and Landwehr, are all drilled and trained from the first platoon exercises to the grand manoeuvres. The contingents are besides called into camps for three or six weeks, during which they are broken to all military duties, and subject to the most strict

* The Canton de Vaud, which in the Federal army is rated at 5800 for the two Contingents, has always in readiness about 9000 of élite troops.

discipline. The Cadres of several cantons and thirty soldiers by company, are besides called together, under command of Federal officers of the staff, in camps where manoeuvres are performed on a larger scale. Finally, in the larger cantons there is always in the chef lieu one or more companies of the contingents doing duty, and relieving one another every six weeks, which time is entirely devoted to drilling and manoeuvring. The officers of the artillery are named and advanced, but after very severe and strict examinations in mathematics and every thing relative to their arm, are obliged every two or three years to go for two months to the Federal School of artillery at Thun, near Berne, where the Cadres of the staff, and of the cavalry and light troops, are also called to the study of theory.

In order to render the re-union of the Swiss army instantaneous, I may say, each company has its own officers in the same district; and its place of rendezvous in a central spot, where others join to form a battalion; a certain number of battalions form a brigade, which has its chief appointed, and a Federal colonel commands a certain number of brigades forming his division. Battalions of infantry, companies of artillery, cavalry, and riflemen, have their own officers of the same canton. Superior and field officers, as above stated, are taken from the Federal staff.

The dress of the troops is not exactly uniform throughout Switzerland. Each canton being an independent and sovereign state, has its cockade, its colours, as well as its own uniform. This latter part of the dress is dark blue throughout Switzerland, the facings varying only, being in some states red, in others light blue. The artillery throughout Switzerland is dark blue and red facings, the cavalry green and red, the riflemen green and black. The head-dress is the Schacko, about the same shape as the present English When called out in the Federal army, all officers and soldiers wear on the left arm a piece of scarlet cloth with a small white cross, and the colours, red and white, have a large white cross set transversely.

one.

It is very much talked in Switzerland to have henceforth but one colour, one cockade, and one uniform. Old glorious recollections may render some of the cantons attached to their old colours, but the feeling for unity becoming very prevalent, I believe the time not far distant when such a plan will be adopted. ONE OF THE FIRST CONTINGENT.

HINTS ON NAVAL AND MILITARY POLICY.

THERE cannot be a question that the disposition of commercial men, to regard taxation principally as a withdrawal of a portion of the capital or revenue of the country, from the support of the productive labour of the people to the unproductive and even wasting expenditure of Government, may be carried so far as to paralyse those energies upon which the safety of the British empire depends. It never can be too frequently or seriously impressed upon the minds of the English people, that neither their commerce, nor their empire,-neither the comfort and security of their homes, nor the extent of their foreign dominion or commerce, can exist longer than the decided and undoubted superiority of their Navy and Army, and the possession of those

In every town and village there is very frequent firing at the target, with the musket, and chiefly with the rifle, the prizes being given by the governments and by clubs.

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