e._, the right of trial in the first instance] is vested in
the lieutenant or captain of the artillery, as it was before. I
have written this so long and specific relation to your Majesty,
as I desire that you may in each and every thing order what is most
suitable for your service. [85]
I have found introduced here the custom that retired officers, upon
finding themselves without office, even though it be that of sergeant,
will not serve in the regular companies. Thence results a decided
inconvenience, for when a soldier has once become skilful and known
as a good man, and when he is admitted to greater obligations and made
an officer, upon leaving that office, not only are his services lost,
but even his person likewise, and he becomes corrupted, when outside of
military discipline. Consequently instead of the companies continuing
to increase their number of well-disciplined and old soldiers,
those who by excelling most and being the best soldiers have been
appointed officers, are daily leaving them, and there is a continual
lack of those particular persons who are the masters and patterns in
the companies for the new soldiers, of those who are trustworthy for
matters of importance and opportunity, and of those who are generally
the cause of the best results and the avoidance of ill. As causes for
not continuing their services in the regular companies, they assign
the fact that those retired are not given any preferments here, as
in other districts.
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