Decrease in 1817, as compared with 1814.... 221,794 We have then a comparative view of the sums voted for army services in 1815 and 1816, with the sums estimated for 1817. The votes for 1815 were, 13,435,3921.: in 1816, 8,727,9947. in 1817, 6,989,4981. making a decrease for 1817, of 1,738,4961.

This comparative view is succeeded by the particulars of the charge of a regiment of infantry for 1792 and 1817; and it appears that, by forming ten battalions of 800 rank and file each, the present ordinary establishment, instead of 20 battalions of 400 rank and file, as in 1792, a saving is effected of 74,3261.]

Your committee, in making a reference to the year 1792, desire to call the notice of the House to the low establishments of the latter part of that year, which were deemed sufficient for all national purposes at that time, in the con

templation of a long continuance of peace; and although many circumstances are materially changed by events which have subsequently taken place, so as to prevent any exact parallel from being drawn between the two cases, especially in the amount of pecuniary charge, yet they submit, that as near an approximation to that low scale of establishment and expense as may be found consistent with our more extended possessions, and with the augmented rates of various fixed disbursements, would be highly dens, and in supporting the public advantageous in relieving the burcredit of the country.

The difference in numbers be

tween the estimate of 1792 and the present estimate is, for Great Britain, 14,011.

Of these, 3,000 are on account of reliefs for the foreign service, which is very considerably increased by the distant possessions acquired during the war. The difference for Ireland is 12,000.

The numbers estimated to be kept up in the colonies and foreign dependencies, for the last six months of the year 1792, amounted to 12,650 rank and file. The numbers allotted to the estimate for the current year, for the same foreign service, amount to 20,4 16.

The numbers maintained in the foreign possessions newly annexed to the Crown, amounted, for the last year, to 18,200 rank and file; and they are for the current year 12,600. It is observable, that this last number is almost exactly the same numerical force as was spread over the whole colonies and foreign possessions of the Crown of Great Britain previous to the war.

It may be further remarked, that in the estimates for the year Y 2

1816,

1816, these newly acquired possessions bore the proportion of two-thirds to the force employed in the old colonies; but in the estimates for the current year, the force in the former is intended to be 12,600, and in the latter 20,416; so that the force in the former is relatively somewhat more reduced than in the latter.

A charge of 5,000l. in the regimental contingencies (page 13) for repairs at the Horse-guards, including the salary of the surveyor, belongs properly to the army services; but all expenses of that kind should in future be carried on under the direction of the Board of Works, by which regulation the office and salary of a separate surveyor for this department will be rendered unnecessary. The present surveyor appears to have been appointed by the Secretary at War, and his salary fixed in the manner recommended by the Commissioners of Military Inquiry, in their 8th Report, p. 165 and 166.

dent Lieutenant-governor at Gibraltar, are no longer included in the estimate for the staff pay of their military rank, their civil appointments in time of peace being considered adequate to the support of their respective situations.

Your committee cannot leave the subject of governments abroad, thus incidentally brought before them, without expressing a wish that some means may be devised for rendering the foreign possessions of the Britsh empire more efficient towards defraying the expenses of their own military protection, since their value to the parent state must be greatly diminished by their continuing a lasting drain on its resources.

The subject here adverted to may well deserve the attention of the House hereafter; but the papers and information before your Committee are not at present sufficiently ample to afford the means of pursuing such an inquiry, during the present session, to any useful result; they content themselves, therefore, with giving a very short general summary of the documents which the Colonial Office at present affords, so far as relates to the dependencies acquired during the late war.

It appears from these, that the revenue of Malta, with its dependencies, for the year 1815, amounted in sterling money to 114,1267.; and that the expenditure for 1816, consisting principally of what are denominated salaries and pensions on fixed establishments, amounted to 60, 1197.

The funds in the Ionian islands, under the immediate administration of Great Britain, in July 1815, left a favourable balance of 20,650l.

Expenses

Expenses are stated in this return as being incurred in the island of Zante, by building a mole, by the continuation of an aqueduct, and in the making roads.

The revenues of the Mauritius for the year 1814, including those of the isle of Bourbon (since restored to France by the treaty of peace) gave 206,8601.; and the charges for the same islands amounted to 119,900l.

There being no later return for the Mauritius, in the Colonial Office, it will be proper that orders should be sent out to the governor of this, as well as of every other foreign possession, to render more accurate information with regard to the several heads of income and charge in each respectively.

The military expenditure of the islands of Mauritius, Bourbon, and their dependencies, for the same year, 1814, amounted to 186,9121.

The revenue, and other receipts, of the island of Ceylon, during the year 1815, including also a balance in hand, amounted to 640,4441. and the expenditure to 647,8481., a very large proportion of which expenditure was incurred for the military establishments of the island, the whole of which, with the exception of the King's pay of the European troops, is defrayed out of the civil revenue. The native troops, at the period of this return, are stated to have amounted to about 5,000 rank and file.

The revenue of the Cape of Good Hope, for the year 1815, was 229,495l., and the expenditure 234,8321., including the pay of a native corps.

Total Staff in Great Britain, Jersey, Guernsey, and Ireland: Appointments in the years 1815, 217-1816, 111-and 1817, 100. Foreign Staff in 1815, 329; in 1816, 141; in 1817, 111.

PUBLIC DEPARTMENTS.

The detailed particulars of the public departments, printed by order of the House in the present session (No. 73.) led to an inquiry into the necessity of keeping the office of Commander-in-Chief at its full establishment, under the circumstances of so large a reduction in the numbers of the army; in which it appeared to your committee, that no decrease of business in that office has yet taken place, the multiplicity of correspondence, of applications and references, having been, in fact, for the present, materially augmented. Some retrenchment may reasonably be expected in the number of persons employed, whenever this temporary pressure of business shall cease, and when the military establishments shall have been settled upon the basis of a permanent peace.

The salary of the Secretary of the Commander-in-Chief was fixed, in conformity to those of the Under Secretaries of State, at 2,000l. with an augmentation of one-fourth after three years of service; which your committee submit to the House as being too rapid a scale of advance to be followed in any future appointment in any of those departments. And they further submit, as an improvement in this arrangement, that the augmented rate of allowance should not commence till after the expiration of seven years'

service.

DEPART

DEPARTMENTS OF THE ADJUTANT

of expense which would otherwise be occasioned by a reduction of establishment, or a diminution of the magnitude of the annual ac

counts.

The Deputy and Assistant-Deputy Paymasters-General abroad are intended to be abolished during peace, and the duties of paying the troops on foreign stations are to devolve upon the Commissariat Department: the saving of expense upon this head will be, for the last, 8,5281. which is the difthe present year, as compared with

ference between the actual reduc

tion of the expense of this branch

of the department, and the allowgulation of 12th July, 1816, fixances granted according to a re

ing the rate of such allowances. These allowances amount to onefourth of the pay of those Deputies who received 31. or 21. per day, and to one-third to all Deputies who received 1. 10s. and to assistants (in all cases) to onefourth of their pay; which allowances, considering the great trust and responsibility imposed on those officers, your committee do not think unreasonable.

Your committee observe, that many of the clerks who have been added during the war for conducting the increased business of this departnent, have been admitted as temporary or extra clerks, without being put upon the establishment; in consequence of which, no permanent expense can be thrown upon the public, whenever the diminution of business will allow a reduction in the number of the persons employed.

WAR