Levy (military)

“ Levy. To raise or collect troops or funds by a levy. The word has also other meanings; as, to levy war, to make war, to begin hostilities; to levy a siege, to desist from, to raise the siege. In this latter sense it is nearly obsolete.
Lewes. A town of England, in Sussex, on the Ouse, 7 miles northeast from Brighton. Near this town, in 1264, Henry III. was defeated by Simon de Montfort, and imprisoned in the castle. ”

“ To have ordered the offenders under arrest would have created a formidable mutiny; to have tried and punished them would have been impossible. They could scarcely be called soldiers; they were merely armed citizens, with a nominal military organization. ”

“ Your civilian, introduced into the place with full powers, a blank cheque and the uniform of a general officer, stood on a very different footing from the soldier ever hampered by a control that was not always beneficently administered—financial experts on the War Office staff are apt to deliver their onsets upon the Treasury to the battle-cry of Kamerad. Still, should the civilian elect to maintain on its military lines the branch that he had taken over, he sometimes turned out to be an asset. ”

“ There will then require to be raised a new levy of 6,279 men to replace the non-commissioned officers and [Pg 41] men of the household corps who are to be discharged; the bounty money for which new levy, with expenses prior to joining (officially stated at 5l. 2s. 6d. per man) , will amount to 31,475l.; and this sum being added to the previous balance of 442,645l. will swell the amount to be provided by the public to 474,120l. for raising regiments of the line to serve as substitutes for our present household troops. ”

“ Meanwhile, to augment the English Militia to the prescribed figure, an Act was passed, after the model of that of 1778, empowering the Lord-Lieutenants to enrol volunteers, to be added to the Militia, and to be entitled to the same bounty, subsistence, and clothing. Finally, in April, was passed an Act, limited to the [Pg 281] duration of the war, authorising the formation of district corps or companies of Volunteers, to be entitled to pay and subject to military discipline if called out for invasion or in aid of the civil power. ”

“ The levy was administered at first by the Minister of Munitions; but when the levy was repealed by the Finance Act of 1917, the administration was transferred to the commissioners of Inland Revenue, the body in whom the administration of the excess profits duty was vested. Appeals against assessments to the levy were referred to a board of referees under the Munitions Acts.
In itself the munitions levy can hardly be regarded as a scheme of taxation ”

“ If a Corps, or any part thereof, shall be called upon to act in cases of riot or disturbance, the charge of constant pay may be made for such services, for all the effective Officers and Men employed on such duty, at the following rates, the same being supported by a Certificate from His Majesty’s Lieutenant, or the Sheriff of the County; but, if called out in case of actual invasion, the corps is to be paid and disciplined in all respects, as the regular Infantry; the Artillery Companies excepted, which are then to be paid as the Royal Artillery. ”

“ The Field Paymasters are stationed at convenient places nearer the troops; they provide Commanding119 Officers with cash for paying the men, and pay bills incurred locally, if urgent.
At the Base is the Military Chest, holding the cash reserve of the Army. That it should be ample during the Campaign is of vital moment. Credit notes are a poor substitute for cash in an enemy’s, or even an ally’s, country. As von der Golz says, “a full exchequer may be worth an Army Corps, and a clever financier at the side of the Commander-in-Chief equal to a first-rate General.” ”

“ The whole question, therefore, may be condensed into one point—the wisdom or otherwise of officering the Horse Artillery from the Regiment at large. Such petty considerations as higher pay, special privileges, &c., which are apt to embitter the minds of some, must be put aside as unworthy. In a question affecting not merely the Regiment, but our whole military life as well, we cannot be too careful in clearing the ground of all but the purest argument. ”

“ To reimburse battalions for their music may seem a costly item—it certainly is a great expense to the present uniformed corps—but as the project is based upon the idea of a self-supporting establishment, there is no injury to the State; a nominal tax paid by the enrolled ununiformed militia should be sufficient to pay the entire expenditures of the State military department. ”

“ The place is chock-a-block from morning to night, and outside there is always waiting a string of lorries, mess-carts, wagons, limbers, from all over the place. The part played by the E.F.C. in the war is by no means unimportant. It is a regular military unit, with officers, n.c.o.s and men (in khaki, of course) , run under the authority of the War Office and subject to military law. Profits on sales go to the purchase of fresh stock, and I believe, in part, to the Military Canteens Fund at the War Office. ”

“ I have already mentioned that during the last years of the long service system the average annual number of recruits was only 12,546, whereas in 1892 no less than 41,659 men joined the army, and the reserve had in January 1894 reached the large figure of 80,349. Before leaving the subject of reserves, it will be as well to mention that Lord Cardwell, in 1870, also gave effect to the Militia Act of 1867, by which a certain number of men of that force, on receiving a small annual bounty, engage to join the regular army in case of war. ”

“ A levy of 80,000 was therefore indispensable, and these could only be taken from the four classes of the conscription of the years 1806, 7, 8, and 9, which, exclusive of the men who had married within those years, might furnish 600,000. In levying 80,000, only one conscript out of seven would be called out, and the vacancies in the armies would thus be filled up with soldiers of 21, 22, and 23 years of age,366 that is, with men fit to undergo the fatigues of war. ”

“ The United States provides the arms and uniforms, which are, when furnished by the General Government, those prescribed by the army regulations. The best regiments, however, prefer a handsomer dress, and provide their own uniforms. The city makes an appropriation of five hundred dollars per annum for each regiment, for an armory. The cost of parades, music, etc., is paid by the regiments themselves. Each regiment has its armory, in which are deposited the arms and valuable property. An armorer is in charge of the building, and it is his duty to keep the guns in good order. ”

“ Finding a proper substitute of good character, or paying down say—twenty pounds, under the same rules as those established for the regular army, should entitle individuals to exemption from serving in the army of reserve. And it might fully be expected, that the reserve regiments, under officers so patriotic and zealous as those of our militia always were, would soon become like battalions of the line, and so highly disciplined as [Pg 19] quite to equal them, as was the case with many of our militia corps last war. ”

“ The National Defense Act of 1920 authorized a Regular Army of 296,000 men, but Congress gradually backed away from that number. As with the Regular Army, the National Guard never recruited its authorized 486,000 men, and the Organized Reserves became merely a pool of reserve officers. The root of the Army's problem was money. Congress yearly appropriated only about half the funds that the General Staff requested. Impoverished in manpower and funds, infantry and cavalry divisions dwindled to skeletal organizations. ”

“ Grenadiers on foot and on horseback, riflemen on foot and on horseback, heavy and light artillery, dragoons and hussars, mamelukes and sailors, artificers and pontoneers, gendarmes, gendarmes d’Alite, Velites and veterans, with Italian grenadiers, riflemen, dragoons, etc., etc., compose all together a not inconsiderable army.
Though it frequently happens that the pay of the other troops is in arrears, those appertaining to Bonaparte’s household are as regularly paid as his Senators, Counsellors of State, and other public functionaries. ”

“ In the last three years the cost of the army has been considerably increased, and there has been an increase in numbers voted. Yet there has been a decrease not only in the militia, but also in the regular army and in the army reserve as well during that period—an additional evidence of breakdown.... The territorial system here can never be anything more than a sham so long as we have to provide for India and garrison coaling-stations, and so long as the battalions are constantly moved about.... We have year by year made our statements with regard to artillery to the House. ”

“ The concept of volunteer Militia units was confirmed in the Uniform Militia Act of 1792, which prescribed flank companies of grenadiers, light infantry, or riflemen for the "common" Militia battalions and a company of artillery and a troop of horse for each division, to be formed of volunteers from the Militia at large and to be uniformed and equipped at the individual volunteer's expense. ”

“ The German law of 1913 gave 63,000 more men to the active army and increased the effectives to 5,400,000. The speaker was even more impressive when, looking forward to 1937—in twenty-four years from that date—he anticipated that the adverse balance in the reserve would amount to one million and a half. "Since our numerical weakness is undeniable, we must increase the value of our troops," declared the veteran in the thunder of the House. And he added, that military value was dependent upon cohesion and training. ”

“ Beyond this sanction no assistance was offered, and according to the patronage of people of influence, or the length of their subscription list, so did these rifle volunteer corps get into existence and continue to live. Arms, accoutrements, ammunition, uniform, drill sheds, practice grounds, armouries, magazines, &c., &c., everything had to be found by the corps, and to country corps, those afterwards forming part of an administrative battalion, the expense was ruinous; far more expensive than to companies raised in large town or cities. ”

“ Under the law as it now stands it is necessary that the cavalry regiments be recruited to 100 men in each company for service on the Mexican and Indian frontiers. The necessary effect of this legislation is to reduce the infantry and artillery arms of the service below the number required for efficiency, and I concur with the Secretary of War in recommending that authority be given to recruit all companies of infantry to at least 50 men and all batteries of artillery to at least 75 men, with the power, in case of emergency, to increase the former to 100 and the latter to 122 men each. ”

“ The officers and men are ambitious and eager to make themselves thus available and to become an efficient national reserve of citizen soldiery. They are the only force of trained men, other than the Regular Army, upon which we can rely. The so-called militia pay bill, in the form agreed on between the authorities of the War Department and the representatives of the National Guard, in my opinion adequately meets these conditions and offers a proper return for the pay which it is proposed to give to the National Guard. ”

“ All these treasurers or paymasters were subject to their several comptrollers of accounts, and their issues, &c. were audited accordingly. There were likewise provincial or subordinate paymasters of the extraordinaries of the army. They were appointed by the treasurers or paymasters-general, and resided in the different departments and general districts of the kingdom. These appointments fell, of course, at the revolution, and they have since been replaced by a more simple and economical consolidation. The artillery has still its separate treasurer or paymaster. ”

“ These recruits are clothed, equipped with arms and ammunition, and "subsisted" with daily rations of rice, oil, etc., but are not otherwise paid. The small standing army, which serves as the nucleus upon which these irregulars are gathered and formed, consists of infantry, cavalry, elephant-riders, archers, and private body-guards, paid at the rate of from five to ten dollars a month, with clothing and rations. ”

“ A proposal to ask for a corps of fifteen thousand Frenchmen could only be acceptable to the commander-in-chief. But if that surplus were to lessen the sum of money by means with which fifteen thousand regular troops, ten thousand militia, and a southern army should be put into motion; if it were to lessen the number of ships that would enable us to act in all places, and with a decided superiority;—I must again repeat, that pecuniary succours and a naval superiority are the two most essential points ”

“ It cannot be denied, sir, that by augmenting the regiments, there would be immediately saved to the publick the expense of the officers which are necessary in the method now proposed; but it is to be considered how much the number of officers contributes to the regularity and discipline of the troops, and how much discipline and order promote their success. It is to be considered, sir, that the most successful method of making war is undoubtedly the cheapest, and that nothing is more expensive than defeats. ”