after they have joined, do not remain in the corps
unless they have been promoted to the first
class. There are two classes, and every man on
his appointment is placed in the second, where,
he must remain at least three months. If found
smart and intelligent, punctual in payments, and
for three months have no serious breakage of
rule charged against him, the second-class man
is promoted to the first class, his remaining in it
being dependent on continued merit. By twelve
months' good service in the first class, the
Commissionaire earns the good-conduct badge, and
only the men who have made their way to the
good-conduct badge get the good posts, or are
recommended to permanent situations. After
twelve months' possession of the first good-
conduct badge, a second bar is earned if the
Commissionaire has laid by five pounds in the savings-
bank; and upon like conditions more bars may
be added afterwards.

No man enters the Corps of Commissionaires
otherwise than at his own particular request
after signing a form of agreement, together with
the rules and regulations, and paying one pound
as guarantee, which is forfeited in case of
dismissal from the corps, but returned in case of
resignation, after any sum that he may owe to
the corps has been deducted. To his voluntary
pledge the Commissionaire is very strictly held;
for, upon this, depends the public confidence,
which is his bread in his new calling. Provision
is made for strict and just enforcement of the
regulations. The men are soldiers trained to
discipline, of which they might not always have
seen the use; as Commissionaires, they cannot
fail to see that upon the credit of the corps, and
the known strictness of its discipline, depends
the value of the uniform of the Commissionaire
as passport to a kind of employment that involves
much trust, and is the more honourable in being
trust from strangers who are content to know
him by his company, his uniform, and his
credentials.

To each man his post is assigned. He attends
morning parade at half-past eight on summer
mornings, and at nine in winter, reporting
himself in a book kept for the purpose at some place
that may be used as the depôt of his station,
takes his stand, trim and soldier-like, at his
appointed place. He must be clean and neat. There
is a fine of threepence for appearing at parade
unshaven, long-haired, or with clothes out of repair.
He must wear his hair according to the custom
of her Majesty's service, but is advised to grow
a beard and moustache. He is not to lounge at
his post, nor to quit it, unless employed, nor
to converse with persons of discreditable
appearance. He is not to smoke in the streets;
the fine for so doing being a shilling. He is
not to enter a public-house during the hours
of duty. When he has to ask his way, he must
apply at a respectable shop of another kind,
or ask a policeman. It is expected that, for
the credit of the corps, Commissionaires will
abstain from frequenting public-houses at all
times. Drunkenness is punished with
dismissal.

When employed, the Commissionaire must
give notice of his absence from his post, and of
the probable duration of his absence, to the
principal post of his district; and, if his time of
absence will exceed four hours, he is to send
notice to head-quarters, in order that his place
may be supplied, and other employers may not
be inconvenienced by his absence. As all
employment of the corps is distributed with due
regard to the interests of the whole body, no
man may take special employment without leave,
and no leave is given for the employment of a
Commissionaire in delivering circulars more
than a quarter of a mile from his post between
the hours of nine in the morning and five in the
evening. With such cautions and provisions
against removing a man from his post, the
delivery of bills and circulars is undertaken as a
regular part of the occasional business of the
Commissionaire. The Commissionaire is
expected, when possible, to avoid giving short
notice of any desired leave of absence, as it is
a principle of the corps that no post, when once
established, shall be left vacant for a single
day.

Permanent employment is distributed, as far
as the wishes of employers will permit, to men
of the first class by seniority. When a club,
bank, hotel, or other house of business, asks for
the exclusive use of a Commissionaire, it is
requested that choice will be made from the first
three men on the roster, and that the first will
be taken if he be not unfit; but the full satisfaction
of employers and the welfare of the corps
being identical, any man specially qualified for
a particular employment is allowed to take it.
The Commissionaire privately employed, if he
have leave of absence from Sunday and Wednesday
parade, must report himself weekly at head-
quarters, at some time convenient to his
employer, between seven o'clock on Wednesday
morning and eleven A.M. on Thursday.

In the office of the Commissionaires' barracks,
down Exchange-court, in the Strand, is a
sergeant-major on duty between half-past eight in
the morning and five in the evening. He
inspects the men detailed for duty during the day,
sees that they are rightly distributed, keeps the
log-book, the descriptive record of the men, the
daily attendance book, and the address book of
men living out of barracks, and he has charge of
the correspondence of the corps, acknowledging
if not answering every letter by return of
post.

The discipline of the men is military, their
relation to their sergeant-major and the non-
commissioned officers is that of soldiers, and "every
Commissionaire will, on all occasions, pay the
usual compliments to military bodies, and never
omit the customary salutes to officers of her
Majesty's service dressed in uniform." A scale
of fines assures strictness of discipline, and as
the fines are for offences against the general