he becomes qualified as an adjoint of the second class. A chef de bataillon is eligible as an adjoint of the first-class, a lieutenantcolonel a sub-intendant of the second-class, and a colonel a subintendant of the first-class. Previous to the war the several ranks of the Department were represented as follows:relative rank Field-Marshal Intendant-General : 8 26 56 100 56 24 264 In "L'Armée Française en 1867," General Trochu ventures to condemn a scheme which thus places men of unpractical and unprofessional experience in such matters at the chief posts of an administrative service. "Under the system which prevails nowa-days," he says, "all these functionaries, without exception, before entering upon their business calling have been during long years, the years of youth, during which, men study with most fruit, officers and sous-officiers in the Army! In such cases an examination takes the place of ten or fifteen years of experience -what do I say? of thirty or forty years of such practical experience, since we see Generals of Brigade, most frequently at the last hour of their career, become Intendant-Generals-that is to say the arbiters for the next war of the existence of our troops in the field." Has the prophecy of their failure had sharp and sad fulfilment or no? Echo from Wilhelmshöhe answers, "too true." "Instead of having, as is the case with Prussia, army corps always in an organized state, recruited in the province itself, and possessing on the spot their matériel and complete accessories, in France the troops composing an army are dispersed over the whole country, whilst the matériel is stored in different cities in crowded magazines. "In case it is decided to form an active division upon any given point of the frontier, the artillery generally comes from some distant place, and the train equipages and ambulances from Paris and Verdun. Nearly all munitions and provisions are brought from the capital; as for the soldiers of the Reserve, they rejoin their regiments from all parts of France; the consequence is, that the railways are insufficient for the transportation of the men, horses, and matériel; confusion takes place everywhere, and the railway stations are often incumbered with objects of which the nature and the destination are equally ignored." Echo from the Camp of Chalons reminds us that at the opening of the war, the Gardes Mobiles were for thirty-six hours without bread to eat, or straw to lie on. That the troops, while marching, were actually dependent for their food and drink "on the charity of the excited and enraged inhabitants," and that they had, on arrival at Metz, to lie in the streets and open fields without tents. Echo from Sedan recals the army of McMahon, "dragging its slow length along," at a snail's pace of ten miles a-day, when, had his transport been even moderately provided, he could have accomplished twenty, and have averted the crowning disaster of the campaign. It was in consequence of the "slowness and bad feeling" that existed in the ranks of the Intendance, that the French Armies wasted, in impatient restraint and irritating suspense, precious time which ought to have been employed in snatching the first victory from the Prussians, and "by the éclat of a first success, secure the alliance of Austria and Italy." How different might have been the result of the campaign had Napoleon accomplished his purpose, and bivouacked on German soil! and then, too, remember that he dared not advance-that he dared not give battle, because his troops were actually without cartridges, his mitrailleuses without ammunition in consequence of the wretched mismanagement of an inefficient Control! It is, indeed, distressful to reflect how often the famished Gardes Mobiles were surprised in the very act of devouring the meal tardily served out to them. How often they have gone fasting into battle, fainting from exhaustion and utterly demoralized. How often the sick and wounded in hospital have fallen into the hands of the enemy from sheer insufficiency of transport. In fine, what disasters and humiliations are not due to the inaction of the Military Intendance as the primal and proximate cause. While thus we are inclined to make sweeping assertions as to the utter break down of the Intendance in the present war, we must not forget that it has had its advocates and admirers, and still retains adherents even in this its sore hour of trial, seeing that in the provisioning of the capital it has, at all events, not failed in its duty. A system may in itself be sound and politic which is improperly organized and inefficiently officered. In the Crimean War the Intendance is said to have worked with good results, and Lord Strathnairn, who was an eye-witness, thus bears testimony to the fact: "The present Intendance is a corps admittedly well-adapted to secure at once administrative efficiency and economy. The Administration of the Army is conducted by officers in the vigour of life, possessed of superior professional attainments, and trained to the performance of their special duties." In very different language, and with very different ideas on the subject, the gallant and prudent Defender of Paris records his views : "At present all the functionaries of the French Military Administration, great and small, have the army for a common origin. They retain the instincts, the prejudices and the sympathies of the profession in which the first, and often the greater part of their life has been passed." And he goes on to add, with considerable truth and justifiable irony," the Control Department holds directly from the State a high and necessary mission, which it should pursue with an absolute independence. It is in the plenitude of this special independence that the Department should seek for the consideration and respect which are indispensable to it, and which are its due; but it has, while creating up to a certain point an antagonism, sought to obtain such consideration and respect by military rank, and the military prerogatives attaching to such rank prerogatives which the combatant branches, often with some warmth, do not fail to contest and render unpleasant." Yet this is the organization-this the ill-regulated institution upon which our Control Department has been modelled in its minutest detail, and it behoves us to enquire now-will it answer? Will it bear the exhaustive strain of war? Will it accommodate itself to the economical depression of peace? In 1867, the Committee of which Lord Strathnairn was President, sat to consider the subject of the transport duties of the army, but their proceedings unexpectedly developed into an enquiry affecting the Reorganization of Army Administration and Military Finance. The Report was adopted by Government, and at the opening of Parliament in the spring of the following year, it was announced by Her Majesty, that a considerable Reform had been made by the appointment of a Controller, "combining thereby the various Departments of Military Supply under this one authority." Major-General Sir Henry Knight Storks, an officer of universally acknowledged high attainments, tact and experience was the supreme and august individual indicated, and he entered upon the duties of the complex position he was selected to fill, with the sounding title of Surveyor-General. In the administration of the office, he was aided by the appointment of three assistants, viz: (General Balfour, Sir W. Power, and Colonel Adye), who were empowered to convey his orders, and exercise command and control over the officers of the executive subdepartments." "to re These latter are now subdivided into two sections: 1. Supply and Transport. 2. Pay. The duties of the first being ceive, issue, and account for all stores and provisions, and to superintend and direct, under the Administrative officers, the land and inland transport of the Army." The duties of the second consisting in "receiving, disbursing, and accounting for monies receivable and payable on account of Army services." Besides which, the officers represent the Treasury abroad, in the same manner as officers of the late Commissariat used to do in their capacity of Treasury clerks. Before going into the further intricacies of supply and transport consequent on the formation of the Army Service Corps, it may be well to enumerate the officers in detail who have been placed over this complicated system, observing, en passant, that, in the distribution of favours, the Departmental Officers of the amalgamated Services naturally head the lists. The ranks of the Administrative officers are three, viz.: Controller, Deputy-Controller and Assistant-Controller, of whom there are three Controllers, thirteen Deputy-Controllers, and thirty Assistant-Controllers. None of these are military men, with one exception; the combatant element has, however, been cautiously admitted among the sacred tribunes in an acting capacity, but with the relative rank of Major only, and among the nine Acting Assistant-Controllers (to the honour of Control be it written) is the accomplished historian of the "Seven Weeks' War," and the "Abyssinian Expedition." The pay and relative rank of the above officers, on appointment, are fixed as follows: Controller (relative rank, Major-General) £3. per diem. diem. And after five years in the rank, an increase takes place, while charge-pay" and the allowances of relative rank, including pensions for wounds, when they receive them, are thrown in as a sort of afterthought, not to mention Half-pay and Retired Fullpay, which are equally generous in amount and tantalizing to their brethren of the Combatant Services. The officers of the Sub-departments are: Supply and Transport. Twenty-six Commissaries, nineteen Supernumerary Commissaries, three acting Commissaries (on probation, being Captains of the late Military Train), ninety Deputy-Commissaries, forty-six Deputy-Commissaries Supernumerary, ten Acting Deputy-Commisaries (on probation, being Lieutenants of the late Military Train), one hundred and four Assistant-Commissaries, seven Acting Assistant-Commissaries (on probation, being Lieutenants late Military Train).-Total number, three hundred and five officers. Pay. Ten Paymasters, twenty Deputy-Paymasters and thirty Assistant-Paymasters.-Total number sixty. The better to disclose the elaboration of supply and transport, we will take the Aldershot division separately, and give the detail of the Sub-departments as there established. Control. Supply-one Commissary, three Assistant-Commissaries. Stores-one Deputy-Commissary, two Assistant-Commissaries. Barrack-one Deputy-Commissary, two Assistant Commissaries. Transport-one Commissary. Army Service Corps. One Commissary, Commanding, one Deputy-commissary. Six Deputy Commissaries. Companies. Five Assistant Commissaries.* There are six Companies, averaging one hundred and thirtyfour men each, of the Supply and Transport, and Army Service Corps; or a total of eight hundred men, the majority of whom formerly belonged to the Commissariat Staff Corps, Military Store Department, and the Military Train. The Supply Companies are composed of tradesmen, who, in their civil capacities of butchers, bakers, tailors, shoemakers, &c., are utilised with some benefit to the service at large. The officers are interchangeable as circumstances require; thus officers of the late Commissariat Department may be detailed for the duties of the Barrack branch, and assign quarters, superintend sanitary arrangements, &c.; late Deputy-Superintendents of Stores, who had been thoroughly instructed in the myriad varieties of artillery stores, may be ordered to supervise the weighing of pork, or the packing of candles; while late Purveyors may be called upon to issue ammunition, or regulate the camp equipage of a field force, and very ugly stories are told of contretemps arising therefrom.t Certainly the Gazette may make a Control officer, while it fails to secure one fit for the position, but we believe that at no distant date the Authorities intend to detail officers with some view to their usefulness aud capabilities; indeed, the key of the entire scheme rests really on this question of distribution. Ne sutor ultra crepidam should be the motto of the Controller-inChief in assigning their duties to each. The Army Service Corps, formed in the first instance of volunteers from the late Military Train, Army Hospital, Commissariat and Military Store Staff Corps, is now recruited from the army generally, candidates being under thirty-four years of age, and of at least two years service. A period of three months * For so great a number of officers a mess has of course been established, and with very good effect as may be supposed, in toning down the antagonistic elements of rival departmental officials. Indeed, we believe that this good feeling prevails generally, and that in lieu of the early bickerings and heart-burnings, a spirit of brotherly love obtains throughout this important branch. † A sham fight took place on a recent occasion whereat opposing regiments fired away "blank" in the approved noisy fashion; suddenly an unmistakeable "ping" was recognized, "Be japers it's ball they're firing!" cried a Holy-boy excitedly, "can't we give them the bayonet ?" The next moment he flung up his arm struck by a bullet. |