During 1741, the number of Marine Regiments was augmented to ten,
and the sums voted to maintain them were £201,752 13 0. If the same
force had been established before the peace of Utrecht, they would
not have exceeded the estimate of £186,666 1 8, as the following
indulgences were granted, and annual allowances made subsequent to
that period:
For servants allowed to Officers £7,786 13 4
Allowance to the Widows of Officers 2,433 6 8
To Colonels, for clothing lost by deserters 2,129 3 4
To Captains, for recruiting their Companies 1,825 0 0
To Agents of different Regiments 912 10 0
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£15,086 13 4
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At this time the whole Half-pay Establishment of Great Britain,
including Horse, Dragoons, Foot, Invalids, and Marines, consisted
of only five hundred and fifty-one Officers, and the annual
expenditure upon the whole was £34,492 10 0, being at the rate of
£94 10 0 per day, and so considerate and œconomical were the public
measures, that the House of Commons addressed his Majesty, praying,
that those upon this list, if fit for service, might be appointed
to the first vacant commissions which occurred in the different
Regiments. But an ill-judged parsimony, as to the _number_ of
Officers attached to Corps, seemed also to exist, and the same
spirit was constantly urging the conversion of the Land Forces into
bodies of Marines.
The regulation for this establishment were nearly similar in their
principles to those framed for the line. The Colonels of Marine
Regiments clothed their respective Corps, and had the liberty of
recommending for commissions--Excepting that the whole battalion
was destined for a particular service, none of the Field Officers
were embarked. The greatest number of men on board the largest
ships did not exceed one hundred under a Captain, three Subalterns,
and the smallest was not less than twenty under an Officer.
The Commanders of Marine detachments were enjoined to forward
_effective_ returns of them every two months to the Commissary
General of Marines, attested by the Captains and Pursers of
each. This was necessary, in order to conduct the musters of the
Regimental Companies, and to guide the recruiting service on shore.
The same deductions were made from them as the Army, for clothing
and Chelsea Hospital, whether embarked or not.
When attached to any ship, their indulgencies were equal to
those of the Seamen, as to the receiving provisions without any
deductions from their pay on that account, they had short allowance
money, and the benefit of Naval Hospitals. When sent thither,
either sick or wounded, they were deemed effective in the musters
ashore, if producing a certificate from the Surgeon of the Ship
to which they belonged, and another from the Commanding Officer at
head-quarters, when in Great Britain.
The Paymaster General of Marines issued the pay, upon receiving it,
to the Colonels of Regiments, or their Agents, and the Paymaster of
each settled all their accounts agreeably to the muster-rolls they
had from the Commissary General.
These muster-rolls, with the receipts of the different Colonels or
their Agents, were esteemed sufficient vouchers for passing the
Paymaster's accounts, and for making out warrants or debentures for
clearings; which terms shall undergo a more particular discussion,
under the head of Examples.
When brigaded abroad, they were paid exactly in the same manner
as the Army; but the arrears of Marine Officers were much longer
withheld, and the Captains of Companies were exposed to very
peculiar hardships, which will be stated more at length in a
subsequent stage of the narrative.--It is enough at present to
remark, that the Officers of these Regiments, when abroad, were
often obliged to assign that branch of their pay, at fifty per
cent. discount, in order to answer their temporary exigencies.
What a contrast does this system present to the reforms, which have
been recently established, in favour of this class of men.