[138]. This observation would appear to clash with the remarks of Sir Charles Pasley (note F, p. xvii. ‘Elementary Fortification’) upon the impropriety of enlisting militia-men; but after carefully tracing the history of many volunteers from that arm, the fact cannot be concealed that the transfers alluded to were decidedly beneficial to the corps. The best sapper, miner, and pontoneer, that ever served in the corps—perhaps the best in Europe—was a militia-man; and the name of Jenkin Jones, the faithful and zealous sergeant-major under Sir Charles Pasley at Chatham, now quartermaster at Woolwich, need only be mentioned, to verify the assertion and to corroborate the encomium. Quartermaster Hilton, the efficient sergeant-major to the corps in France under Sir James Carmichael Smyth, had also been in the militia.
[139]. ‘London Gazette Extraordinary,’ September 13, 1806.
[140]. With fifty women and forty children! More than, in these days, are permitted to accompany a battalion on foreign service.
[141]. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ note A, p. iv.
[142]. In the treaty of Amiens it was stipulated that one-half the soldiers in the garrison at Malta should be natives; and although the treaty had been violated by Napoleon, Great Britain still regarded its provisions, in this respect at least, as sacred and obligatory.
[143]. Styled, by local usage, “Assistant Engineer.”
[144]. Of the regimental allowances of the foreign adjutant nothing is known, nor can any record be discovered of the uniform worn by him.
[145]. In 1808 the companies were clothed in a uniform made of cotton, manufactured in the island, similar to the local corps. The facings were of black cloth. The sergeants and corporals were distinguished as before, and the sergeant-major still wore the home uniform. The substitution of cotton for cloth was ordered on account of its being cheaper and better adapted to the climate, besides forwarding the views of Government, in aiding the sale of the staple commodity of the island, deprived by the war of its usual vents.
[146]. Sir John Jones states, evidently by mistake, that the corps was composed of thirty-two companies.—Journals of Sieges, ii., note 38, p. 389, 2nd edit.
[147]. Styled Second Lieutenants in the warrant by mistake. The Sub-Lieutenants were junior to the Second Lieutenants of engineers, but held rank with Second Lieutenants of the line, according to dates of commission. This right was often questioned, but never, as long as the Sub-Lieutenants were attached to the corps, officially settled. In 1835 the position of a Sub-Lieutenant (H. B. Mackenzie), who had joined the line as paymaster being disputed, it was then settled that Sub-Lieutenants were junior to Ensigns.