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 |
| —————— | |||
| £15,086 | 13 | 4 | |
| =========== | |||
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.