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Extract from Colonel Tulloch's Memorandum.

BY the recent organization of the pensioners in this country, the services of 13,000 men, whose average age does not exceed 16, have been obtained, for an expense not exceeding that of a single battalion permanently kept up. ·

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Ten or twelve days' exercise in the course of the year has been found quite sufficient to enable these old soldiers to manœuvre with sufficient precision for all military purposes; and as the drill seldom extends beyond mid-day, so short a period of absence has not been found to interfere materially with their employment, while the rate of pay for these days, being nearly double that which they have been accustomed to receive in the line, induces them to serve cheerfully. The annexed return of this force shows how extensively it is spread over the country, and that, should any emergency occur which would suddenly call away a large proportion of the regular army, there would be sufficient at least to preserve the peace, and carry on such duty as was absolutely necessary in their respective districts, till the Government could make arrangements for an addition to the regular army, to relieve them.

The power which the Government possesses, of suspending the pensions of these men for misconduct, has hitherto been found quite sufficient to check all tendency to crime and insubordination when on duty; and though when so employed they are liable to the provisions of the Mutiny Act, it has not been necessery in any one instance to resort to it. A few slight fines, the whole not averaging 5s, or 10s. in each district, have enforced order and discipline; and any serious offence has been sufficiently punished by expulsion from the corps.

That men who have been discharged the army as unfit, should still be capable of forming so useful a force, will not excite surprise, when it is borne in mind that the oldest soldiers who come on the pension-list after completing the full period of service, rarely exceeds 40, while many down to the age of 30, and even under it, have been discharged for diseases contracted in tropical climates, which under the influence of the reduced temperature of this country speedily disappear. The annexed return of the ages of pensioners in Ireland, which may be taken as a fair average of the whole kingdom, will show how considerable a portion there must be of that class.

By the annexed return of the pensioners paid, in each of the colonies marked B, it will be seen that in none of them is there at present a sufficient number to be available for a local force of any importance, except in North America; but there can be little doubt, were proper encouragement held out to those who are of proper age and constitution to settle in healthy colonies, where they could be located under officers competent to direct them in the management of their land, and whose duty it would be to pay and superintend them, that thousands would gladly avail themselves of the offer; and that too of a class whom it has been found very difficult to bring into the organization of the force in this country, viz., those pensioners who have no other occupation but agricultural labour.

The difficulty which these men have to contend with in carning a livelihood among the over-crowded population of this country is exceedingly great; and yet a large propor- tion of the pensioners, having learned no trade or occupation, are obliged to resort to agricultural labour, as the only means they have of adding to their pensions; and wherever they are possessed of sufficient capital to build a cottage, and obtain two or three acres of land, they are almost invariably found industrious, well-conducted, and in comfort- able circumstances,-more so, indeed, than those employed in manufacturing towns, on double the nominal income.

These, however, are the exceptions. At least four-fifths of the agricultural pensioners have nothing to depend upon but the hire of their labour, and this does not amount to more that 2s. 6d. to 38. 6d. a-week, however well-fitted or well-disposed for labour they may be. Their earnings are thus low, because they are always the first to be thrown out of employment and the last to obtain it, the parishes and farmers, for their own interests, always prefer giving employment to men who have no pensions in preference to them who have, as the latter cannot apply to the parish for relief without their pensions being attached to reimburse any advance made to them; and this operates so extensively throughout the kingdom, that many of the pensioners on low rates complain that they are absolutely in a worse condition than if they had no pension at all, seeing that they are thus compelled to subsist in idleness on 38, or 3s. 6d. per week of pension, instead of earning twice that amount by having employment found for them like other labourers.

This class of men have generally been the most urgent to be taken into the local force, for the sake of the 21. per annum which it secures to them, and which they declare is more than all they earn in the course of the year; but it has been necessary to refuse their request, as many of them are constantly migrating in search of employment, so that it is difficult to know where to find them; and those who do settle are obliged, from motives of economy, to reside in remote parts of the country, too far away from the head-quarters of districts to be brought together with facility.

F

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference

LIC.O.

885

1

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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