Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/41

1885.] cheap defence of nations is afforded by the new mode of handling the rank of colonel. In our army the command of a regiment – or a battalion, if there be more than one to a regiment – has always been held by a lieutenant-colonel, not, as in other armies, by a colonel. This peculiarity has arisen out of the circumstance that the regiment was originally raised by a colonel whose association with it was mainly pecuniary, and who did not accompany it into quarters or the field. Eventually, colonels of regiments came to be all general officers; but the title of lieutenant-colonel was still maintained for the actual commandant, and promotion to the rank of colonel was made by brevet at irregular intervals: usually the Sovereign's birthday or some other special occasion was taken to issue a general "brevet," when a batch of the senior lieutenant-colonels of the army would be advanced to the rank of colonel by brevet. The list of general officers was maintained in the same way at a varying strength by the "brevet" promotion of batches of senior colonels, and moving up the seniors of the different grades of general officer. Thus a lieutenant-colonel would pass an uncertain time in that rank, which might vary from twelve or fifteen years to seven or eight years, according as he might happen to come in at the top of one brevet or the bottom of the next. The brevet-colonel continued to be eligible to command his regiment until promoted to major-general by a succeeding brevet.

The result of the brevet system was that an officer on promotion to lieutenant-colonel could never again be superseded in the army, except by the selection of a junior lieutenant-colonel to be aide-de-camp to the Queen, so that all inequalities in promotion up to that rank remained hereafter unadjusted throughout the career of the officers concerned. The brevets were so regulated that the higher ranks were less numerous than the lower: there were many more lieutenant-colonels than colonels, and more colonels again than general officers in any grade. This system of promotion by batches at uncertain periods was abolished in 1854, when a fixed establishment of general officers was created, promotion to which and throughout the different grades of which was henceforward determined by the occurrence of vacancies therein. This was a decided improvement, although the mistake was made of fixing the establishment at a strength far in excess of the wants of the army. It is true that, there being no limit of age for general officers, the majority were past work, so that the list was practically in the main a retired list, and the rank continued to be to a great extent a mere ornamental one; but even of the effective general officers, all could not possibly find employment. Simultaneously with this change, periodical brevets were discontinued for promotion to the rank of colonel, which was henceforward to be given after a certain number of years' actual service on duty in the rank of lieutenant-colonel. It was further provided that an officer might be promoted to the rank of brevet-colonel for distinguished service in the field. This provision was an excellent one, because it should be an object of military administration to promote the most deserving officers, and secure their early advancement to the rank of general officer. Unfortunately it has been too sparingly exercised to have much effect upon the lists of the upper ranks of the army.