MEMORANDUM of such Instructions or Particulars, as may be necessary for the information and guidance of the Officer in charge of the Reserve Companies or Depot.

NOMINAL LIST of Men who have joined the Service Companies of the Regiment of

during the last Month.

REMARKS, stating whether recruit ;

NAME3.

Date of joining.

re-joined from desertion; transfer

(specifying from what corps); joined from Reserve Companies, &c.

NOMINAL LIST of Casualties which have occurred in the Service Companies

of the

Regiment of

during the last Month.

REMARKS, containing such particulars as may be necessary for the information of the Officer Commanding the Reserve Companies or Depôt.

CIRCULAR.

Horse Guards, 29th Sept. 1831. Sir, It has been represented to the General Commanding in Chief, that notwithstanding the orders which have been issued on the subject, and the instructions laid down in the form of discharge annexed to His Majesty's Warrant of the 14th Nov. 1829, there is frequently a great want of precision in filling up the certificate, which is intended to describe the disability on account of which a soldier has been discharged, and that the Lords Commissioners of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, experience in consequence great difficulty in awarding pensions.

Lord Hill is persuaded it will readily occur to commanding officers of regiments, that in preparing the discharges of soldiers on account of disability, in order to enable the Commissioners duly to determine with respect to the pension to which they have a claim, it is equally essential to explain the origin and nature of the disability, as it is to detail the exact period of service.

In directing, therefore, your especial attention to this particular point, in filling up the discharges of soldiers, I am to signify his Lordship's commands, that the certificate may, in every case, distinctly distinguish the origin of the disability, whether arising

1st. In consequence of service, or on duty, or by the service, specifying the particular act of duty.

2nd. While in the service, by constitution or accident.

3rd. By misconduct or design.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your obedient humble servant,

foreign commands, towards placing an effectual check upon applications, which, otherwise, would turn indulgence into abuse, compromise the interests of the public service, and entail hardship upon those who never absent themselves from their regimental duty but from necessity.

To this end, his Lordship desires, that henceforth all applications for leave of absence, from foreign stations, upon private business, shall specify the rank and names of the officers already absent upon that plea from the regiment whence the applihave respectively obtained leave of absence. cation comes, and the time for which they

All such applications shall likewise specify how long the applicant has been absent from the United Kingdom since he obtained his last leave of absence, and how long he has served abroad altogether since the regiment left the United Kingdom.

It is far from Lord Hill's purpose to oppose unnecessary obstacles to the grant of leave of absence from foreign stations on account of health; yet, circumstances which constantly fall under his Lordship's enjoining a more rigid examination of the observation, suggest the expediency of grounds of application under this head also; grounds which ought invariably to rest upon the opinion of a medical board, except in situations wherein one medical officer only happens to be stationed.

Officers who obtain leave to return to the United Kingdom on account of health, will henceforth, as soon as they are sufficiently recovered for that purpose, be liable to be ordered to join and do duty with the reserve or depôt companies of the regiment to which they belong, without

JOHN MACDONALD, Adj.-Gen. reference to the period for which they may

CIRCULAR MEMORANDUM.

Horse Guards, 10th Oct. 1831. The General Commanding in Chief can no longer refrain from requiring of General Officers Commanding upon Foreign Stations, a more careful consideration of the grounds upon which they grant Leave of Absence.

Lord Hill has observed, that officers are not unfrequently permitted to return home from foreign stations, on account of their private concerns, before they have been two years absent from the United Kingdom; also, that two, and even three, officers of the same regiment are, at one and the same time, occasionally allowed to return home upon that plea.

Lord Hill promises himself the cordial assistance of the general officers holding

have obtained leave of absence from the General Officer Commanding at the Foreign Station upon which they were serv ing.

Lord Hill takes this occasion to direct the more particular attention of general officers serving abroad, to page 70 of the general orders and regulations of the army, as well as to the Adjutant-General's circular letter of the 22nd June 1829, specifying the declarations required of officers upon obtaining leave of absence on account of private concerns.

His Lordship is persuaded, that however the checks prescribed by the foregoing regulations may tend to the disappointment of unreasonable applicants for leave of absence, they are checks which cannot fail to be regarded by the officers of the army in general as so many benefits, since they are calculated to ensure for the future a more just and impartial dis

tribution of, perhaps, the most valuable
indulgence connected with a military ca-
reer, and to prevent that indulgence being
enjoyed, to an undue extent, by those who
have least claim to it upon the score of
service.

By Command of the Right Honourable
The General Commanding-in-Chief,
JOHN MACDONALD, Adj.-Gen.

ABSTRACT OF PARLIAMENTARY

PROCEEDINGS CONNECTED WITH THE NAVY AND ARMY.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, OCT. 7. Consolidated Fund.-On the motion of the Secretary-at-War, the House resolved itself into a Committee on this Act, and to receive the Appropriation Act.

Sir Henry Hardinge said, that as he understood it was the intention of Government to introduce a clause into this Act for the purpose of removing the disability under which the officers of the navy laboured, of being debarred from holding civil offices and receiving half-pay at the same time, and enabling them to fill civil offices while they retained their half-pay, he was desirous of calling the serious attention of the House to the injustice which such a proceeding would be to the officers of another service equally honourable and deserving. The measure for removing the restrictions on the officers of the navy had his most unqualified ap. probation. He had only to complain that the same boon was not extended to the army, for the officers of that service were the worst rewarded of almost any of the public servants of the state. The extension, therefore, of such a benefit to the officers of the navy alone, appeared invidious to the officers of the army, and was calculated to excite feelings of jealousy and discontent, which could not be too carefully avoided. After advocating at great length the interests of the officers of the army, the gallant officer adduced in proof of the hardships to which they were subjected by the restrictions in question, that a captain, whose half-pay was 6s. 6d., if appointed to the situation of barrack-master abroad, and in all likelihood in some unhealthy place, received 7s. a day, being an advance of 6d. for which he must sacrifice his half-pay. hoped the Committee would consider it just and advisable to pause before they agreed to a measure of such importance and of such partial justice.

He

Sir Henry Parnell said, the effect of the restriction had been a saving of 73,0007.* a year to the public, by the stopping of the half-pay of officers filling civil offices.

Sir Henry Hardinge wished to know how it could be a saving, when the offices so filled were necessary, and if not filled by officers must be filled by civilians.

Sir James Graham said, that by the Appropriation Act of 1828, officers were restricted from receiving half-pay who held civil offices. The half-pay of those officers amounted to 73,000l. a year, and of course being withheld was a saving to the country. But the complaint of the honourable and gallant member, that an injustice to the army was contained in the proposition to remove the disabilities of officers of the navy in this respect, was premature, for the proposition in question only contemplated giving the benefit to officers holding civil service in the royal household, and the question really ought to be, whether His Majesty was or was not to have the privilege of remunerating from his privy purse members of the service upon whom he felt disposed to confer his gracious favour.

Mr. Maberly thought the officers of the of any other service. Their half-pay was army possessed a greater title than those but a very poor rate of interest on the vast sums paid for their commissions, and one which ought in justice to be granted to the advantage of holding civil places was them. He thought it was not fair to the army if the benefit was conferred on the navy alone.

Mr. Hume, Sir James Graham, Mr. FerAfter a desultory conversation between Colonel Fox, Gen. Phipps, and the Changusson, Sir G. Clerk, Sir H. Hardinge, cellor of the Exchequer, the clause was agreed to and added to the Bill.

COURTS-MARTIAL.

Sept. on board His Majesty's ship Melville, in Portsmouth Harbour, consisting of President, Admiral Sir Thomas Foley, G.C.B. Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom and Commander-in-Chief at PortsNesham, of the Melville; Sir E. T. Troumouth; Members, Captains C. J. W. bridge, Bart. of the Stag; David Dunn,

A Court-Martial was held on the 23rd

Returns have been called for which will enable us to place this subject in its true light.-ED.