lowances vary from 5s. to 1-1/2 d. a day, the
latter being paid to natives. The usual rate is about 1s. for a private,
and 2s. 6d. for a sergeant. The in-pensioners, of whom 540 are at Chelsea
and 150 at the sister hospital of Kilmainham in Ireland, receive sums
varying from one shilling to a penny a day for tobacco money, and are
"victualled, lodged, and clothed" in addition. They have rations of cocoa
and bread-and-butter for breakfast; tea and bread-and-butter in the
evening; mutton for dinner five days in the week, beef one day, and beef
or bacon the remaining one. The allowance of meat is thirteen ounces, and
the bread one pound, per diem. Besides this they have potatoes and
pudding. They are clothed in dark blue in the winter, the coats being
replaced by scarlet ones in the summer. Peaked caps are worn usually, and
cocked hats with full dress. H. Herkomer's picture "The Last Muster" is
too well known to need more than a passing comment. The scene it
represents is enacted every Sunday in the Hospital at Chelsea. Twenty
thousand men have ended their days peacefully in the semi-military life
which in their long service has become second nature to them, and 500,000
have passed through the list of out-pensioners.

The establishment is now kept up by annual Parliamentary grants, of
which the first vote, for L550, was passed in 1703. Up to 1873 sums
varying from L50,000 to L100,000 were voted annually, but these were
embodied with the army votes. Since that year the Hospital grants have
been recorded separately. They amount to three and three-quarter
millions, but part of this is repaid by the Indian Government in
consideration of the men who have served in the Indian Army. In 1833 the
levies from the poundage of the army ceased.

The annual expenditure of the Hospital now equals L1,800,000, and 98 per
cent. of this goes to the out-pensioners. In 1894 the question was raised
as to whether the money now supplied to the in-pensioners could not be
better used in increasing the amount of the out-pensions. A committee was
appointed to "inquire into the origin and circumstances attending the
formation of Chelsea and Kilmainham, and whether their revenues could not
be more advantageously used for the benefit of the army." Numbers of the
old soldiers themselves, as well as the Governor and all the Hospital
officials, were examined. One or two of the old men seemed to imagine
that they would prefer a few pence a day to spend as t