Clerks. Mobilisa of the commander-in-chief. He is assisted by a deputy judge-advocate-general, who is the permanent and working officer of the department, receiving 1,000l. a year, and a deputy judge-advocate with a salary of 7007.° He has also the nomination of the various clerks employed in the department; but the office is under the general control of the commander-in-chief, except in pecuniary matters, which come under the direction of the secretary of state for war. Mobilisation. As a part of the army reorganisation system, it will tion of the not be out of place, before leaving the subject, to give a brief sketch of the mobilisation scheme. army. 1874. In a memorandum issued by the secretary of state for war on February 28, 1887, it will be seen that since the successful Prussian organisation of 1870 the attention of the British government has been drawn to the question of the localisation of the forces as a means of mobilising with rapidity on the emergency of war. Scheme of Accordingly a plan was worked out and adopted in 1874. This chiefly concerned the infantry of the regulars, militia, and volunteers, which were formed into brigades, each attached to certain districts in the country, having headquarters at the depôts of the line regiments. Mobilisation tables were drawn out in the following year for the assembling of the forces at any given point-in the event of war-each in their classification complete as army corps. This scheme proved defective, as it assumed that the militia and volunteers as well as the regular army were available for mobilisa Scheme of 1881. tion. The next attempt was made by Mr. Childers in 1881, when the whole of the infantry was localised by territories-excepting the guards, rifle corps, and rifle brigade and designated accordingly, in substitution for their historic numbers. This plan provided for one army corps, composed entirely of regulars, to be in readiness for any of the small wars, the battalions first for foreign service being chosen according to their standard in strength. As the militia and volunteers were local, the constitution of the army by territories dates from this period. Still, this scheme did not meet the requirements of the army for larger wars. To scheme. Accordingly, in 1886 a third attempt at mobilisa Present tion was made, which is now being carried out. wards this end the relative strength of each branch of the service is being reduced, or increased, in proportion to their requirements, so as to establish two completely equipped army corps of regular troops, the first of which is always to be maintained at full strength, so as to be ready for service in the case of emergency. The infantry is organised in units of two battalions, and the system is that every battalion on foreign service should thus have a sister battalion at home, from which the drafts to fill up its casualties should be furnished.'e Besides these two army corps the force is to be sufficiently large to garrison home and foreign stations, together with a strong cavalry division and necessary troops to guard their line of communication. In the session of 1888 the secretary of state for war introduced the National Defence Bill,' which became law, to facilitate the calling out of the yeomanry, volunteers, and royal naval artillery volunteers, whenever national danger would require the embodiment of the militia, and the calling out of the naval reserve. This bill likewise made provision for the transport of troops, under a similar contingency, by conferring upon government more definite powers over railways, canal or river transit, carriages and horses, to this end. e Hans. D. v. 303, p. 1590. Origin of the Admi ralty. THE ADMIRALTY. This department of state may be said to date its origin from the year 1512, when Henry VIII.-who had founded the naval dockyards at Deptford, Woolwich, and Portsmouth, planted and preserved timber for naval purposes, and made the sea service a regular profession-created an office for the transaction of naval affairs, and appointed commissioners to inspect the state of the ships of war and naval stores, and to report thereon to the lord high admiral, to whom the government of the royal navy was then entrusted. The guardianship of the seas, and, as a consequence, the command of the naval forces, is by the common law vested in the crown. In early times the crown delegated this power to officers who were at first styled guardians of the seas, and afterwards admirals. The office of admiral thus forms one of the prerogatives of the crown, but is distinct from that of the sovereign, and is capable of being conferred, either partially or in full, upon a subject. At first it would appear that there were four admirals, having charge of different parts of the coast, and answering to the four seas, as they were Lord High called, of England. However this may be, the first officer recorded to have been lord high admiral, or admiral in full, was appointed in 1385. The office of lord high admiral is one of such dignity and consideration that it has frequently been conferred upon a member of the royal family, and occasionally retained by the king himself. It is only from the year 1405, however, that an uninterrupted series of these high functionaries can be traced. Admiral In 1636 the office of lord high admiral of England was, for the first time, put into commission, the great officers of state being the commissioners. During the Rep. of Comm. on Board of Admiralty, p. 41. Com. Pap. 1861, v. 5. Commonwealth, Admiralty affairs were managed by a committee of Parliament. At the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, James, Duke of York, was appointed by his brother, the king, to be lord high admiral, and he held the office for thirteen years. Afterwards, when he ascended the throne as James II., he again declared himself, in council, to be lord high admiral. In the interval of his appointment and reappointment, and subsequently upon the accession of William III., the Admiralty was a second time put into commission, pursuant to a statute passed by the Revolution Parliament in 1690, which was enacted on account of the abuses of power by the lords high admiral, in the reigns of the Stuarts, and for the purpose of removing any doubts as to the complete and absolute transference of all the powers appertaining to the office in question into the hands of commissioners, whensoever it might please the crown to place it in commission. This Act would seem, however, not to have been brought into operation until two years afterwards, when the House of Commons came to the following resolution: Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that, in pursuance of his Majesty's speech, the House be moved that his Majesty be humbly advised to constitute a commission of Admiralty of such persons as are of known experience in maritime affairs; and that for the future all orders for the management of the fleet do pass through the Admiralty that shall be so constituted.' This is the origin of the Board of Admiralty, as it now exists; and with two or three brief exceptions the commission has endured under this statute from the reign of William III. until the present time. The exceptions are as follows: first, for about four months in the year 1702, the Earl of Pembroke was appointed lord high admiral. His removal followed upon the accession to 8 2 Will. & Mary, 2nd sess. c. 2. 6 h Rep. on Board of Admiralty, p. 112. Com. Pap. 1861, v. 5. The Board of Admi ralty. the throne of Queen Anne, who immediately afterwards replaced him by her royal consort, Prince George of Denmark. Prince George held the office for six years until his death. Again, in 1827, H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence (afterwards King William IV.) was appointed lord high admiral on the retirement of Lord Melville. His royal highness, however, held the office for a very short period. He was not allowed to have a seat in the cabinet, contrary to the invariable usage in the case of first lords of the admiralty. Certain professional men, and others, heretofore acting as junior lords of the admiralty, were appointed to act as councillors to his royal highness, after the precedent established in the case of Prince George of Denmark. But the system was found to work so ill that, in less than eighteen months, the Duke of Wellington (then prime minister), was obliged to remonstrate with his Royal Highness repeatedly, which ultimately led to his resignation and to the revival of the Board of Admiralty, agreeably to former usage.' 6 The commissioners consist of the first lord and five other lords. They form a board, and are commonly called the lords of the admiralty.' They are appointed by letters patent under the great seal, during pleasure, 'commissioners for executing the office of high admiral of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the dominions, &c., thereto belonging, and the territories or parts beyond the seas possessed by any subjects of the Queen. Under this patent, as interpreted by usage, the Admiralty Board conducts the administration of the entire naval force of the empire, whether at home or abroad, commands the royal marines, and has control over all the royal dockyards, and of an immense number of labourers employed therein in the building of ships Haydn's Book of Dignities, pp. 151-165. Forsyth, Const. Law, p. 110. Bulwer's Life of Palmerston, v. 1, p. 295. Wellington's Desp. 3rd S. v. 4, pp. 514-639, 578, 588-639, v. 5, pp. 1-20. |