and James II., that is to say, the " Blues," no more deserve the name of an army than the "Ironsides" of Old Noll. We have regiments which date from before the Revolution, but no army. The army is not only of modern growth when compared with the navy, but it differs from that sturdy indigenous plant in being an acclimatised exotic. They were foreign monarchs-one Dutch and two Hanoverian kings-who made our army, and they made it after foreign models. Raw materials for an army of the best quality are, and always have been, abundant in this country, but these foreign artists were the first to work them up. And as, unfortunately for the art of war, this country has afforded few opportunities of experimental study since we had an army, most of our great soldiers have been obliged to practise on the Continent. The theory and practice of modern warfare has been developed by Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians. Our army is like our school of painting,-at this moment equal, if not superior, to any in Europe, but not of so natural a growth as in the continental states. Down to the beginning of the reign of George III., our great officers were as foreign as the cut of their uniforms. In short, the real British army is scarcely so old as its very modern head-quarters; for the Ligoniers and Marquis of Granbys, who dated their general-orders from Knightsbridge Barracks,* we look upon as Hanoverian officers. Abercromby, with whom soldiers now alive have shaken hands, was trained in this school; he studied law and the humanities at Leipzig, and tactics (experimentally) in the Seven Years' War. This has been the main cause of scattering the fragments of military management through so many different departments of state, and producing such a confusion and contest of authorities as we shall now attempt to illustrate. The King and Parliament were always scrambling for the management of the army, and with every new department added to make it more efficient, there was a toss up for which should have the control of it.

The Commander-in-Chief and the Master-General of the Ordnance have immediate and independent management of their respective portions of the armed force of the country. But, in addition to them, no less than six different departments of government have various duties committed to them connected with the administration of military affairs. These are:-1st, the Secretaries of State, more particularly the Secretaries for the Colonial and Home Departments; 2nd, the Secretary at War; 3rd, the Board of Ordnance; 4th, the Commissariat department of the Treasury; 5th, the Board of Audit; 6th, the Commissioners of Chelsea Hospital. We shall endeavour to point out as briefly as possible the peculiar functions of each of those classes of authorities, and the means by which so many heterogeneous and independent functionaries are brought to work together with something like harmony and effect.

The point of view from which we must set out, and which, in order to thread our way through this labyrinth, we must keep constantly in mind, is, that the army belongs to the King. Parliament gives it to him, or rather, it every year gives him the means of maintaining it for a year, but here the power and right of Parliament to interfere with the management of the army stops. The whole

*Not the barracks now known by that name, but the building at the opposite end of Knightsbridge, on the opposite side of the road, now effectually screened from public view by Mr. Dunn's Chinese exhibition on one side and a new church on the other.

power and control over the army is vested in the Crown-that is, more especially since the Revolution settlement of 1688-in the King's government, represented in the Cabinet by the Secretaries of State. It is scarcely necessary, except for the sake of distinctness, to remind the reader that there was originally only one Secretary of State; and that though convenience first introduced the custom of having one Secretary who confined his attention exclusively to foreign, and another who confined himself to home affairs-and although in 1758 a third Secretary, for the colonies, was appointed, to divide the labour and responsibility, yet still, most of the functions of Secretary of State may be, and occasionally are, exercised indifferently by any one of the three. In point of fact, however, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs never meddles with the war department-that is left to the Home and Colonial Secretaries. The military administration of the nation in all its political bearings is, in reality, vested in these two ministers. The Secretary of State for the Home Department has the control and management of all the militia and yeomanry, as well as the disposal of the troops of the line at home, and the Guards. According to the necessities of the service, he orders the army to be moved into a disturbed district; he conveys his orders through the Quarter-Master-General to the general officers who are immediately under his guidance; he informs them how they are to act in conjunction with the magistracy, not only in cases of disturbances, but under any cases that may arise. He directs, through the instrumentality of the Master-General of the Ordnance, forts to be built on the coast in time of war, or barracks in disturbed districts. The Secretary of State for the War department and Colonies has the command of the army abroad. In these weak piping times of peace he not only orders what proportion of troops shall be sent to each colony, but he approves of the appointment of the general officer who is to command them; in short, he has the control over the army for all purposes of State policy. He may order a fort or battery to be built in any colony in consequence of its disturbed or exposed state. The offices of these wielders of the destinies of armies must be sought not here, but in Downing Street.

The administration of the army under the Secretaries of State, or the Crown, whose representatives these ministers are, is entrusted to executive officers who are appointed to, and receive their orders directly from, the King or his Secretaries. The finance of the army is kept rigidly separated from its discipline and promotion: the financial arrangements are the business of the Secretary at War; the discipline and promotion, of the Commander-in-Chief as regards the Household Brigade, Cavalry and Line, and of the Master-General of the Ordnance. Two of these demi-gods of the army exercise their functions here.

The financial arrangements of the army, as a system, the exclusive control over the public money voted for military purposes, rests with the Secretary at War, who transacts business at the Horse Guards. The office was established in 1666. Mr. Locke, the First Secretary at War, appointed in that year, was an officer detached from the Secretary of State's office. The Secretary at War has access to the Sovereign, and takes his orders from his Majesty direct. He prepares and submits the army estimates, and the annual mutiny bill to Parliament, and frames the articles of war. The expenditure of sums granted by Parliament for the exigencies of the army takes place by warrants on the Paymaster General,

signed by the Secretary at War. In every regiment there is a paymaster not appointed by, nor under the control of the Commander-in-Chief, but under the control of the Secretary at War. The accounts of the regimental paymasters, and of other officers charged with the payment of other branches of the service, are examined and audited in the War Office. The insertion of all military appointments and promotions in the Gazette' pass through the Secretary at War, because they involve a pecuniary outlay, and he is the channel for obtaining the authority of the Secretary of State for issues of arms by the Ordnance when required by the military authorities. In concert with the Commander-in-Chief, and with consent of the Treasury, he may from time to time make alterations in the rates of pay, half-pay, allowances and pensions. By ancient usage the Secretary at War, aided by the Judge-Advocate-General, is, in the House of Commons, the mouth-piece of the Government to sustain any attack that may be made on the Commander-in-Chief or his office.

The Commander-in-Chief has his office at the Horse Guards also. He, too, has access to the King, and may either receive orders direct from him or from the Secretary of State. He has always been held a simply executive, not a ministerial officer; for the officers of the army are extremely anxious to have nothing to do with the handling of money. The business of the Commander-in-Chief's office is dispatched by an Adjutant-General and a Quarter-Master-General, with their subordinate functionaries. Both of these officers are appointed by the King on the recommendation of the Commander-in-Chief. The Adjutant-General has under him a Deputy Adjutant General, an Assistant and a Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General, appointed also by the King, and a number of clerks, messengers, &c. appointed by himself. Everything relating to the effective or non-effective state of the troops; to formation, instruction and discipline; to the direction and inspection of the clothing and accoutrements of the army; to recruitments, leaves of absence; to the employment of officers of the staff; and to ordinary or extraordinary returns relative to other matters, falls under his department. All regulations and instructions to the army are published through this officer by direction of the Commander-in-Chief. The Adjutant-General prepares monthly, for the King and Commander in Chief, returns of the troops stationed in Great Britain or Ireland, and of the home and foreign force. The principal duties of the Quarter-Master-General are, to prescribe routes and marches, to regulate the embarkation and disembarkation of troops, to provide quarters for them, to mark out ground proper for encampments, to execute military surveys, and to prepare plans and arrange dispositions for the defence of a territory, whether such defence is to be effected by the troops alone or by means of field-works. Attached to the office of Quarter-Master-General of the Forces is a board of topography, with a depôt of maps, plans, and a library containing the best military works that have been published in different countries. Every British army, when in the field, has a special Quarter-Master-General and staff, organised in exact analogy with that of the permanent officer at the Horse Guards.

We must now turn our steps towards Pall Mall, and visit the Ordnance Office, in order to prosecute our analysis of the composite organisation of the British army. The Master-General of the Ordnance stands in the same relation to the

King and Secretaries of State, in his department, as the Commander-in-Chief. Like that officer and the Secretary at War, he has access to the Sovereign, and takes his orders direct from the King or his Secretaries of State. This is a very complicated department: it combines within itself both civil and military functions, which are not separated as in the army of the line, and has moreover taken on its hands since the peace a great number of other departments. This complexity is in a great measure unavoidable, for the Ordnance combines scientific with mere professional services. The Master-General, however, directs personally, and without the assistance of the Board, all those matters which, in the case of the rest of the army, come within the province of the Commander-in-Chief. All military appointments, all questions of discipline and orders relating to the employment of the force come under this description; and likewise the general direction and government of the Military Academy at Woolwich. The MasterGeneral of the Ordnance has the title and powers of Colonel of what is called the "regiment" of Artillery-absurdly enough, for the body is increased in time of war to 24,000 men. An officer with the title of Deputy Adjutant General of Artillery, who is in no way dependent on the Adjutant General of the British forces, is at the head of the Artillery Staff. The Board of the Deputy Adjutant General of Artillery is at Woolwich; which may be considered as the head-quarters of this arm of the service. The Royal Artillery corps consists of the Brigade of Horse Artillery and of the Artillery serving on foot. The Rocket corps is attached to, and forms part of the Artillery; as also the Artificers, and the Royal Waggon Train. There was formerly a corps of Drivers: but the men are now always enlisted as " Gunners and Drivers," and made to do duty in both capacities. As the army of the line was developed under the auspices of the Dutch and Hanoverian Kings of England-squabbling all the while with a jealous and niggardly Parliament-from the few regiments of Guards maintained by the last Stuarts (or engrafted upon them, if the readers think the metaphor more just); so the Ordnance department has, in due course of time, been, after the same fashion, eked out from the old Artillery Companies of Queen Bess and other antique Sovereigns. Perhaps, however, the Worshipful Artillery Company of the City of London may claim to be the legitimate descendant and representative of the body commanded by the Earl of Essex in 1596. The first warrant fixing the constitution of the Ordnance is that of Charles II. (20th July, 1683), only five years previous to the Revolution.

The corps subject to the Ordnance are the "Regiment," already described, and the Engineers. The books of the Artillery show the number of battalions and companies in each battalion from the year 1710 to the present time. There are, we believe, no authentic documents to show how long the Royal Engineers have existed as a separate corps, or what was its original constitution; but from a warrant dated at "our Court of St. James's, the 3rd day of March, 1759," the origin of its present organisation may be inferred. The document runs thus :-" His Majesty this day took the said representation into his royal consideration, together with the establishment of Engineers now subsisting; and likewise the new establishment, proposing to increase the number of Engineers to sixty-one; and was pleased, with advice of his Privy Council, to approve of the said new estabblishment, &c.

and instead of all former establishments of Engineers, which are to cease and be discontinued for the future." The Horse Brigade-commonly called the Horse Artillery, or Flying Artillery-only dates from 1793. The Artillery" Regiment " was composed, in 1710, of one battalion, divided into three companies the officers were a Colonel Commandant, a Colonel, two Lieutenant Colonels, and a Major; for each company a Captain and a First and Second Lieutenant; six Lieutenant Fireworkers, an Adjutant, Quartermaster, and Bridgemaster. The names of all the officers since 1743 have been preserved, and notes of what became of most of them. The Engineers consisted, in 1759, of one Chief, two Directors, four Sub-Directors, twelve Engineers in Ordinary and twelve Extraordinary, fourteen Sub-Engineers, and sixteen Practitioners: the names of the Engineer officers since 1783. The privates were called Military Engineers till 1813; since that time they have been organised into a corps called Sappers and Miners. The whole of the Engineer department is under the Inspector-General of Fortifications. Both the civil and military engineering of the army is entrusted to this corps. The erection and maintenance of forts and barracks devolves upon them. There are 29 of the officers engaged in the survey of Great Britain and Ireland. Of 201 officers, 156 were, in 1836, employed in affairs which were partly of a military, partly of a civil character. The Engineers are, properly speaking, a regiment of officers; but attached to it are the companies of sappers and miners, with the pontoon train, its forges, waggons, &c., under a major of the Brigade of Engineers.

The Board of Ordnance, enumerated as the third of those which take part in managing the military affairs of this country, takes upon it those duties which are more especially termed civil. The Master-General attends its meetings only on rare and very particular occasions. All its proceedings, however, are regularly submitted in the form of minutes for his approval, and are subject to his control, His authority is supreme in all matters, both civil and military; and he, not the Board, is considered responsible for the manner in which the business of the department is managed. The three Board officers of the Ordnance are the Surveyor-General, the Clerk of the Ordnance (at Pall Mall), and the principal Storekeeper. Sometimes the whole of these officers-uniformly the Clerkcontrive to be in Parliament, and act as the mouth-pieces of this arm of the service. Upon the Clerk devolves the duty of preparing and carrying the Ordnance Estimates through Parliament. Each of these three officers has his own separate and distinct duties; but as all acts are done in the name and by the authority of the Board, all important questions are brought before it, and every member is expected to have a general knowledge of the business transacted in every separate division. The business of the Board compre hends, with regard to the Ordnance corps, the greater part of the business which, as relates to the rest of the army, is transacted in the War Office; for example, the examination of pay-lists and accounts, the decision of all claims by officers to pensions for wounds, to compensation for the loss of horses or baggage, to command-money, and to allowance for passages, or in lieu of lodgings and servants. But by far the greater part of the duties of the Board have reference to matters not merely concerning their own particular