enter the service through the barrack-room
door, so long shall we have to depeud upon
the "roughs" of our large towns, and the least
intelligent of our yokels, to fill our ranks;
precisely so long shall we be obliged to maintain
many expensive military prison establishments.
In the French army there are certain
educational and professional tests, and, to such
soldiers as pass them, promotion to the rank of
officer is merely a question of time. With us
it is wholly different. An officer might be the
best soldier in theory as well as practice
throughout his regiment, but unless he had the
money with which to purchase his next step,
he must remain where he is, for his advance
is an utter impossibility, save in the very
exceptional case in which lie should happen to be
senior of his rank, and an officer of the rank above
him died. The great majority of our officers
do not remain long enough in the service to be
good soldiers. Knowing that promotion can only
be decided by their banker's book, they feel
that to give themselves trouble to acquire
professional knowledge would be but to throw it
away. It is true that in order to pass from
ensign to lieutenant, and from lieutenant to
captain, they are obliged to pass certain
examinations; but these are far from difficult to get
through, and even when once passed, the ordeal
is of no avail whatever unless the candidate for
promotion has a certain sum at his command.
With money—- say about six thousand pounds,
or six thousand five hundred pounds in the case
of infantry, and from ten thousand pounds to
twelve thousand pounds in the case of cavalry—-
an officer of ordinary gentleman-like behaviour,
and with ability enough to get through the very
easy examinations required of him, may reckon
with tolerable certainty on commanding a regiment
in sixteen or eighteen years; but if he
have no money with which to purchase, he will
find himself at the end of a quarter of a century
among the junior captains of his corps. Poor
men do sometimes—- very, very, rarely—- get to
the top of the tree, but only in quite exceptional
cases which prove the rule. Of all who have
attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the
English army, not one in fifty has obtained it
without purchase.

And, as if the regulations of the service were
not enough to prevent poor men from getting on
in the army, the custom of the service has made
it almost obligatory to pay nearly double the
regulation price for all promotion, and, in some
cases, very much more than double. Thus
the " regulation " price of a captain's
commission in the cavalry, is one thousand eight
hundred pounds, and in infantry the same, this
sum including all that has been paid for the
previous steps. But, in the former branch of
the service, the rank is never obtained for less
than six thousand pounds, or even six thousand
five hundred pounds, and in the latter the same
commission costs from two thousand four
hundred pounds to three thousand pounds. If an
officer who is first for purchase in his regiment
declare that he is either unable or unwilling to
pay more than the "regulation" sum for his
promotion, he is looked upon by his companions
as the blackest of black sheep, and is cut by
them, on the plea that he stops the promotion of
the corps. Nor is the accusation untrue in fact,
however unjust in spirit. For, if an officer who
wants to sell out finds that his successor will only
pay the "regulation " price for the step, he has
nothing to do but to go to an army agent, who
quickly finds out some regiment in which the
full price asked for the commission will be given,
and into this corps the retiring officer exchanges
and then sells out, thus depriving his old corps
of the promotion which his retirement would
have caused. And yet it will hardly be believed
that, although this systematic paying of immense
sums for promotion is perfectly well known at
the Horse Guards, it is strictly against the
"Queen's Regulation for the Army " and the
"Mutiny Act." In fact, by the latter code,
any officer who pays, no matter how small
a sum, more than the regulation price for his
commission, is guilty of misdemeanour, and
might be punished, both by the civil and the
military law of the land!

This buying, selling, and bartering, go on
through all ranks, from the ensign or cornet to
the lieutenant-colonel. "However came you to
command a regiment?" asked a gentleman of
an old schoolfellow, whom he knew to be very
far from clever. "Because," said the other,
"my aunt left me six thousand pounds, and that
was enough for me to purchase my steps." If
an officer oehave himself tolerably well, if he be
able to pass two very easy examinations, and if
he have a certain amount of money, his reaching
the top of the tree is merely a question of
time. But, if he possess the two former qualifications
and not the latter, he might as well be
the worst officer in the English army. Is it
likely—- is it possible—- that under such a system
we can ever expect a respectable class of young
men to enter our ranks as private soldiers?
If gentlemen, with interest enough to obtain
commissions, have before them such prospects
as these, what chance can those have who,
before they even attain the junior commissioned
grade, have to work their way up from the
ranks?

In the French army, nothing is more common
than officers who have risen from private soldiers,
and who obtain the rank of captain while yet
quite young men—- when still under thirty years
of age. The reason is, that whenever a young
man of good education enlists in the ranks, and
can pass certain examinations, he is promoted
by degrees—- he is kept a certain time in every
grade, but still his promotion is pretty quick—-
to a commission, and thus others of his class
are encouraged to enter the army. There are
no direct commissions, and there are only two
ways of obtaining commissions in the French
service. The one is by the Military College of
St. Cyr, to enter which a strict examination is
required, and the candidate must be over
fourteen and under sixteen. At this institution
he remains three years, during which he goes