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.