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of the service are; let them be properly organised as a department holding respectively His Majesty's commission for general service, and not treated, at the will and recommendation of any individual, as officers holding local staff appointments, which appears to be the plan at present, notwithstanding the frequent declarations of their chief against permanent local situations: as far as duties and circumstances will permit, they ought to be assimilated as nearly as possible to the manner in which the Royal Engineer Department is conducted, a corps worthy of imitation in every respect.* Until some such measures are adopted, all the advantages expected from the laudable exertions of a late Secretary-at-War (Sir Henry Hardinge) to improve and place the Medical service of the army upon an equality with others, will be frustrated, and Medical Staff appointments, as they have done for the last fifteen years, will continue to depreciate, and ultimately only be accepted by those least eligible to hold them, and that at a period, perhaps, when most required. The consideration is a serious one in the event of a force taking the field, and not beneath the attention of those high in power; and we further affirm, whatever schemes interested persons may hold out, and under whatever pretences, that they will fail in yielding solid influence to the head, respectability to the body of the staff, or satisfaction to the public.

M. & S.

The communication from M. M. in reply to Senex, is unavoidably postponed till our next number, for want of space.-ED.

Remarks on the relative duties of the Commissariat and Purveyor's Departments.

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MR. EDITOR,-In your United Service Journal of the month of June last, there appears several observations upon the duties and distribution of the unattached medical staff of the army at home, (written, it appears, by a Medical Officer,) which embraces, amongst other branches of the army medical department, that of the Purveyor's, forming a collateral part of the medical establishment; and the writer of these observations, in adverting to the duties of purveyor and deputy-purveyor, advances an opinion, that they are not medical officers, and never should have been so classed, but are, to all intents and purposes, commissaries, as every one acquainted with their respective duties must be perfectly aware; with the commissaries, therefore, they should be incorporated," &c. Now, notwithstanding this positive assertion, I beg leave to offer a few remarks upon the subject, with the endeavour to show, that the purveyors, by analogy, and by operating cause and effect, although not absolutely medical officers, are medical stewards or attendants, and as such, judiciously attached to the medical department; and a little investigation of the duties of purveyor will demonstrate that their position, as now annexed to the medical department with an army in the field, is most natural in its existing state, and could not there be dispensed with, although possibly not very essential, under other circumstances, which the Army Lists best show, by stating that the employment of the department is confined at this time to three deputy-purveyors only; but the duties of the purveyors in field service are important.

The purveyor's department consists of 8 purveyors and 47 deputy-purvey

true cause; not an unprovoked dissatisfaction on the part of those composing the department, but to their mismanagement who conduct it.

The late regulations render such steps imperatively necessary: as the department is at present conducted, it is next to impossible that any Medical Staff officer can reach, what must be the ambition of every person worth being admitted into the service, the highest grade of his profession, or can, almost in any grade above that of regimental surgeon, reach his ultimate retirement; the injury to the public service from which must be too apparent to require farther illustration.

ors, and must remain, distinct and unconfused, from those of the commissariat, and when compared with them, will prove a negative to the adoption of such a measure as suggested to combine or class them under the same administration, which could not be carried into effect without introducing irregular deviation from the usual method of things; and if the writer of these obser vations will carry research into the duties of the officers connected with the general hospitals established with an army in the field, he might be convinced his opinion is fallacious. The commissary could not, under existing circumstances, effect the duties of the purveyor, for it is necessary to be instructed in their various ramifications, and information must be acquired peculiar to that vocation; and admitting a substitute could be found for the purveyor, his agency must exclusively be devoted and solely attached to the medical department. The purveyor of hospitals is not only to the sick and wounded soldier what the commissary is to the healthy, but a great deal more; he is the administering agent to the invalid, from the hour he is brought under his notice, until removed from it by renovated health, or by death! and should the latter event occur, the purveyor finishes the task by consigning the remains of the soldier to the grave. The sound and vigorous soldier can in a degree provide for himself, if neglected; but it is morally impossible the invalid can do so. The comforts of the sick depend upon the purveyor, by the good and careful preservation of his stores, who, according to the instructions for general hospitals, has charge and is responsible for the care, management, and issue of all provisions, diet, utensils, &c. (medicines excepted,) belonging to the hospital, and for the due supply of the same by contract or requisition. The functions of the purveyor are more varied, and combine, if possible, more arduous and more important objects than the commissary; the former, in conjunction with the apothecary, is scarce ever absent from the hospital; he takes charge of sick troops when proceeding on foreign service; attends to the fitting up of hospital ships, invalid transports, and pest and quarantine establishments when necessary; administers to the sick every requisite that contributes to their welfare; and his duties are so closely assimilated and identified with those of the apothecary, that a co-operation in the hospital, and indeed in every situation, is indispensable; and without such aid, the medical officer alone could not accomplish his object. In field service, the duties of the purveyor are incessant; they are, to all intents and purposes, medical attendants or stewards to the sick in all stages of their malady; and when it is considered, that at one period of the Peninsular war, when the army was concentrated at Lisbon, the hospitals contained near 7000 sick and wounded soldiers, whose wants and necessities were supplied by the purveyors, and whose restoration to the service, in a great degree, depended upon the care and attention bestowed, (a benefit equally essential as medical treatment,) it must be admitted that the hospital purveyors are of the most vital importance to an army in the field, and the duties confided to them can only be properly and effectively executed by distinct and heedful devotion to their employment. An attempt to unite the duties of the purveyor with the commissariat was essayed at Paris in 1815, after the battle of Waterloo, but it was found impracticable-they could not be blended. The internal management and duty of the general hospital, which devolves on the purveyor, is difficult and complex, of which the commissary is at present totally ignorant; nor is an insight into them readily obtained, any more than a knowledge of the quality of their stores, which, as before observed, are selected by the purveyor, and comprise no less than four hundred articles!! The purveyor inspects, registers, and takes in charge each man's kit or necessaries, with any other property the soldier may possess when admitted into hospital, and renders a debtor and creditor account to Government of the effects of all soldiers who die therein their abstracts of receipts and issues are voluminous, and their cash disbursements various. Thus, the magnitude of their duties is evident, and, as it will appear, bears no corresponding

affinity or classification that could reasonably combine them with the commissariat, whose sole object is to supply the soldier with rations, and anticipate his wants, and does not interfere with, or trench upon the internal arrangement of regiments; but the purveyor has not only to furnish the sick and wounded with food and diet, but to direct the administrative management and economy of the hospital; and these responsibilities and duties are so great and multifarious, altogether approaching so nearly to those of a medical officer, that they seem naturally classified in the attributes of the faculty; nor can this order be disturbed without confounding opposite duties, and consequent injury to the service, for the purveyor's department is an indispensable auxiliary and absolute agency required by the medical staff when accompanying an army in the field. Yours, &c. I. B.

D. A. C. G.

Naval Assistant Surgeons.

"O ye! who, sunk in beds of down,

Feel not a want but what yourselves create;
Think for a moment on his wretched fate
Whom friends and fortune quite disown!"

MR. EDITOR,-Aware of the anxiety evinced by the conductors of your Journal for the welfare of every class of His Majesty's Navy, I am induced to solicit a place in your well-read columns, for the following remarks on the comparative situations of Military and Naval Assistant Surgeons-which demand the most serious attention, not only of those who have it in their power to equalize the services, and every member of the profession who has its good at heart, but also of those who are looking forward to their entry in the latter service.

A and B, two gentlemen of the same acquirements, brought up and educated together, have obtained their diplomas, and, mayhap, their degrees. Both are intended for the public service. A's choice and interest luckily are in the Army; B's choice is the same, but unfortunately his interest is in the Navy. A enters upon his military duties, has an uniform becoming a gentleman-the undoubted rank and privileges of a Lieutenanta seat at the mess-table with his Colonel, and, according to seniority, choice of quarters-his time as Assistant-Surgeon when promoted, should it be twenty years, allowed as Surgeon's time on retiring, and his pay increased, from seven and sixpence, to ten shillings a day, after ten years' service.

Mark the difference!-B enters the Navy-ships an uniform no man of feeling would voluntarily be seen in-is denied that rank of Lieutenant His Majesty George III. of happy memory, was pleased to confer on his class, and a seat with his equals and inferiors, subalterns of marines, at the wardroom table-is condemned to associate with boys; partake, and be a spectator of all the frolics of youth and childish gambols of the nursery, or become the butt of his mess, a subject for every species of annoyance, which old heads can invent or young hands put in execution!

"Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart,

Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart !”—

has the satisfaction to see a boy, corresponding in age to his "when first the college-rolls received his name," in the form of a Second-Lieutenant of Marines, his inferior, furnished with a cabin and a servant to attend his call; while he-a Vir Doctus, who has attained the Summos Honores Medicina-is allowed neither cabin nor servant; finds that he has yet to learn and perform the offices of shoeblack, valet, and chambermaid; himself unqualified to walk, and warned off that side of the deck upon which the above-mentioned stripling struts unmolested-prevented coming up the accommodation-ladder

because he is not a ward-room officer-cannot be admitted, like his
in the army, into any of the clubs formed, or now forming, nor, in the event
compeer
of his death, his children into that excellent institution now in progress;
he is not, and his children, poor devils! were not fathered by
or above ward-room rank," the only qualification!

"The smallest worm will turn being trodden on,
And doves will peck in safeguard of their young!"

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an officer of

For the same reason, when the officers' company is requested to any party, although bona fide one of these, ignorant of the fact, while his should-be messmates are 66 moving 'midst the glitt'ring throng," he is too often to be found sacrificing to Bacchus, the god he soon learns to put trust in, amidst the deafening shouts and endless clamour of thoughtless hobbledy-hoys and youngsters. To their sorrow, how many grey-headed, hope-deferred young gentlemen can corroborate this statement! He finds his professional knowledge has retrograded in a ratio with his service. For a convincing proof, look into the Medical and Surgical Journals of the kingdom-there! there! will you see the predominant superiority of improvement in the Armythere some may learn, that the hardiest plant, exposed to every biting blast, cannot produce that fruit which the most tender will, exposed only to the genial warmth of the south. But luckily for him, so far as a disgraceful rejection is concerned, he is not expected-by the justly celebrated Sir William Burnett-to pass as severe an examination for "Surgeon of any of His Majesty's ships, as for an Assistant-Surgeon of a ten gun brig!!!" His pay, after serving ten or twenty years, is the same as when he entered, six and sixpence-and he has only three of these ten or twenty years allowed for retirement; while, as I have already said, A's pay, after ten years, is increased from seven and sixpence to ten shillings a day, and every hour of his service allowed. Exempli gratia.—A, if promoted when twenty years an Assistant-Surgeon, is at once a Surgeon of twenty years' service; while B— (is it just?—is it pardonable?)—if promoted after the same-surely as arduous -service, is only a Surgeon of three years' standing; and must serve-or rather suffer, seventeen more years deprivation and banishment to put him on the same footing with A!!!

"Milk-liver'd man!

Thou bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs,

Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning
Thine honour from thy suffering!"

After perusing these remarks, can any one, compos mentis, be surprisedthat the most respectable and well-educated prefer the Army? That, even at the sacrifice of the best of their lives, many, who unwittingly entered the Navy, discontented and disgusted, leave that for the other service? Or that a person should exchange the situation of a valet-de-chambre for that of an officer and a gentleman?

Within the last ten years the Navy has, on its list of Assistant-Surgeons, enrolled persons, who, for qualifications and respectability, would have done honour to any association: yet it has been wondered at, how so many have already bid adieu to a service they found a loss of respectability in gaining admission to. Notwithstanding the bond imposed upon those who have served, or are now serving in an hospital, should the Army or Honourable East India Company's land service be freely opened for candidates-1 venture to predict, that many, the most accomplished, who now only wait an opportunity, will be glad to commence the world again-make way for the Morgans, Thompsons and Jacksons of former days, and give "the powers that be" an opportunity of feeling, ay, feeling the want of those they know not the value of-unless a salutary reform speedily takes place!

"Accipite hæc, meritumque malis adventite numen,
Et nostras audite preces."

"CANIS ULLAS ORO."

Commanders of the Navy without a special Retirement.

MR. EDITOR,-As it appears that some alterations are about to be made in the Navy and Marines upon the Coronation of His beloved Majesty, allow me, through the medium of your valuable publication, to call the attention of the heads of that department to the circumstance, that commanders are the only class of officers that have no list of retirement. Captains, if they do not obtain their flag, retire as rear-admirals, and lieutenants as commanders, upon the lowest rate of half-pay of that rank.

-pay

How trifling would be the expense, Sir, to allow fifty of the senior of this deserving class, (the junior of whom have now held that rank twenty-nine years, to retire with the rank of captains upon the lowest rate of halfof that rank; the difference would be but sixpence per diem; a total of 4557. 58. annually. Who could object to so trifling a sum being awarded where so deservedly due? for something is decidedly due to this most neglected class; yes, most neglected, in holding a rank twenty-nine years without (at present) the slightest prospect of advancement in rank, pay, or retirement. Sir, your obedient humble servant, A TAR.

July 27th, 1831.

I am,

Military Law.

MR. EDITOR,-I was glad to perceive in the Journal of this month, one of your correspondents, adverting to the very extraordinary and pernicious doctrine, promulgated (according to newspaper report) by Judge Johnston, at one of the late trials in Ireland; "That the soldier, in cases of riot, is to judge for himself whether the orders which he receives from his superior officer, are legal, or illegal, and to act accordingly, as he is accountable for the consequences."

Agreeing with your correspondent in the main principle of his communication, and fearing the danger that may accrue from the promulgation of Judge Johnston's opinion, my anxiety for the welfare of the service at large, and each individual of it, makes me desirous of offering to you (and if you deem them worthy, to your readers), the following considerations, in addition to the valuable letter to which I have alluded.

The army being a separate and distinct body, having duties to perform peculiar to itself, has always had, and must have, a specific code of laws for its particular direction: this code is based on the Common Law, and more particularly on the Equity portion of it (a Court-Martial being peculiarly à Court of Equity); by this code, construed according to the manifest meaning of its framer, the individuals composing the army must be judged. From the law as laid down in the Mutiny Act, I shall merely borrow this short and pithy sentence: "And be it enacted, that any officer, non-commissioned officer, or soldier, who shall disobey any lawful command of his superior officer, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as by a CourtMartial shall be awarded." Now, with regard to the seemingly qualifying expression of lawful, I think I shall be borne out in the opinion, that the framer of this act never intended, by the above word, that each individual soldier was to erect himself into a tribunal to judge the merits of the commands given by his officer previous to obeying them. Upon the absurdity of such a supposition it is unnecessary to dilate; besides the endless disputes and delays to which it would give rise, it would render not only useless, but dangerous, the employment of a military force to put down riots; the efficiency of which principally consists in its promptitude and unanimity of action. It is, I believe, a well known and generally received precept in the army, that the soldier is in all cases to obey first, and if he thinks himself aggrieved, or improperly applied, to complain afterwards; but without insisting on this, I will refer Judge Johnston to the civil code, and I much question if he can point out any one instance of a soldier being punished for firing, in cases of riot, when ordered by his commanding officer; nay, in most instances, the officer alone is prosecuted, whatever injury may be

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