absent. The staff was increased by thirty men
in the Exhibition year, and is at all times ready
to grow to the extent warranted by the requirements
of the public. Clever Commissionaires
are always on the look-out for a new post, and
the man who finds a new post, keeps it for six
months, and proves it to have been well chosen,
gets a gratuity of ten shillings out of the funds
of the corps. A good post is one that yields an
average of from three shillings to three-and-
sixpence a day; three-and-sixpence a day represents
the highest average earning of the
Commissionaire, in addition to his pension from the
country, and to this scale the charge of a guinea
a week for the permanent attachment of a
Commissionaire to any house or institution is
adjusted.

The great post is of course the Royal Exchange,
which finds full duty for one-and-twenty members
of the corps, besides half a dozen or more
counterfeits, these being old members discharged
for dishonesty, or others, who imitate as closely
as they safely can the uniform of the corps, but
are always to be distinguished from the honest
men by being unable to give their employers the
right ticket. This ticket, for the protection of
the corps as well as for his own security, every
employer of a Commissionaire should take on
giving him any commission. It furnishes the means
of identifying the Commissionaire at his
headquarters in case of neglect or imposition, and as
it has upon it the badge of the corps and the
signature, "Charles Handford, Sergeant, Corps
of Commissionaires," the man who is not really a
member of the corps is unable to give it. Again,
on the back of the Commissionaire's ticket is
printed the tariff of charges; and overcharge is,
by the rules of the corps, a breach of discipline
punished for the first offence by a fine of double
the amount, the fine being made payable to the
person overcharged, with a request that he
will send it as a donation to King's College
Hospital—that being the hospital which
undertakes the medical care of the corps. The
second offence, if wilful, is punished by
immediate dismissal. Again, the holder of the printed
ticket, and he only, holds the guarantee of the
corps for the safety of property up to the value
of ten pounds, or up to twenty pounds where a
Commissionaire wearing chevrons has been
employed.

The average rate of earnings shows that the tariff
cannot be lower than it is; and it is low enough
to justify a constantly increasing habit among
the public of employing the Commissionaires.
Among the pensioners in the corps was an old
Waterloo soldier, who lately died, and was ready
with the rest to walk with a message or a parcel
his half mile for twopence, or his mile for threepence,
or to be paid for his trusty service at the
rate of sixpence an hour, with a condition that,
if no fare was paid for him by boat, rail, or
omnibus, two miles and a half an hour should be
his slowest pace. In carrying large parcels, a
penny a mile is charged for every seven pounds
over a stone. That Waterloo man had a right to
take his ease in Chelsea Hospital, where he
would have cost the country fifty pounds a year;
but he preferred earning the fifty pounds, by
thus giving valuable labour for it. There is an
old soldier now in this corps who wears seven
medals. There is another who has been wounded
in the head, has lost an ear, has had his left arm
removed at the socket, and is wounded in the
right hand, yet, thanks to this corps, he is not
disabled from living by his industry. The
youngest man in the corps is a pensioner of one-
and-twenty, who has been shot through the neck,
and invalided upon a shilling a day; the oldest is
of more than threescore, a one-armed
Commissionaire who stands at the Post-office. Of the
two hundred and sixty-four men now in the
corps, forty are sailors. It is open also to members
of the police force who have been wounded
in the performance of their duty, but at present
it contains none but those who have been soldiers
or sailors.

Such is the general character of a corps which
owes its existence not only to the first
suggestion, but also to the continued active support
and superintendence of its founder. The seven
men who were the first members of the corps
when it was founded, in February, eighteen'fifty-
nine, could be managed with an occasional hour's
supervision. As the corps grew, the resolve to
establish it firmly by strict individual attention
to its interests led to a regular demand for the
voluntary and gratuitous expenditure of at least
eight hours' daily labour. From the founder,
also, and his personal friends, the corps received
loans amounting to about a thousand pounds for
the furniture of barracks, establishment of the
band of Commissionaires—which may now be
heard playing of evenings before sunset in the
Cambridge enclosure of St. James's Park (and
through which, with help of a school, sons of
Commissionaires are trained for band service in
the army)—for adjutant's salary, and other
charges. It is now time for the public to secure
permanence to an institution of proved value to
itself, and to a body of men peculiarly deserving of
its favours. The thousand pounds that have been
lent, the founder and his friends put out of
consideration; and the corps of Commissionaires, out
of debt, requires only a permanent organisation.
Of that we will speak presently. Let us first
give a few more exact details of the organisation
to which only assured permanence is wanting.

No man can be a Commissionaire unless he
has served in the Army, Navy, Militia, or Police,
and earned a pension. His character must bear
the strictest examination. Preference is given
to men who have been severely wounded when
on duty. Soldiers of good character but broken
health, whose temporary pensions have expired,
may be Commissionaires if they deposit twenty-
fIve pounds in the savings-bank of the corps,
which money will be liable to forfeiture in case
of dishonesty proved against them in a court of
justice. Commissionaires whose pensions expire