and they are liked by the men, because from long experience they are more considerate than younger officers, and carry on the duties in a pleasanter way: where the officers of a regiment are of long standing, it will generally be found that the regiment is in a good state of discipline. However, the clearance has been accomplished, and Lord Cardwell's pledge amply fulfilled, for never was promotion so fast as it has been since the introduction of this warrant. Officers have been getting their troops and companies in four and five years, without paying for them; promotion in the Royal Artillery, to which compulsory retirement has been extended, has been speeding so fast that Woolwich can hardly supply enough officers to fill up the vacancies, and this at a time practically of profound peace as far as casualties go.
So drastic was the effect, that the authorities became alarmed at their own measures. The actuaries who were consulted, discovered that only a very small proportion of the officers of the army could under the rules escape compulsory retirement, and in order to mitigate their severity, without altering their terms verbally, it was determined to make the higher regimental ranks more easily accessible by largely increasing them. Mahomet was to come to the mountain. This plan, it may be observed, was discussed by Lord Penzance's Commission, and rejected as unsuitable. More senior officers should not be created, they argued, than are actually required, merely to accelerate promotion. Nevertheless, in contravention of this sound opinion, the plan of increasing the number of senior officers has been adopted. A second lieutenant-colonel has been added to each battalion, and a number of captains converted into majors, who, however, are still holding the command of companies. The necessary result of this change is, that in ordinary course officers will reach the rank of major and lieutenant-colonel sooner than they otherwise would have done; and thus has been diminished to a certain extent the drastic effect of the compulsory retirement clauses. But obviously the same result could have been equally well obtained by altering the ages at which the compulsory clauses come into effect. If it were found that too many officers were hit by the rule which makes the retirement of a captain compulsory at forty and of a major at forty-seven, the natural remedy would have been to raise the limit of age for compulsory retirement, say to forty-three or forty-four in the one case, and to fifty or thereabouts in the other. The result would have been precisely the same, so far as regards the age and efficiency of officers retained in the service, and it would have been attained without that degradation of military rank which is such a melancholy feature of English military administration at the present time. Heretofore rank in the English army has represented the same status as in other armies. A captain has been a man commanding a company; a field officer has always fulfilled higher functions than the command of a company; a lieutenant-colonel has had at least the command of a battalion. This is now no longer the case; and although it was hardly to be expected that the officers affected will cry out against a change by which they have gained so largely in pocket, as well as in other ways, nevertheless the general feeling in the army, even among those who have benefited by the change, is that this degra-
