To the first, it might be replied, that even supposing one artillery and one engineer general are wanted at the heads of the corps, it is no reason why the others should not be employed on the general staff during the period they are not required with their own. That till now a general officer was never allowed to serve in this position; and if while debarred from the general staff and holding the regimental command on the regimental allowances, his position would be a very unfavourable one, as contrasted with that of a general officer of cavalry or infantry. To the second we would say, that if true, some compensation would be found to the Royal Ordnance general officers in the numerous regimental superiorities they enjoy in Europe over regiments of the line; such as rising regimentally to colonelcies, the greater proportion of field officers, higher pay, the use of a horse, superior regimental rank, ordnance staff offices, and many other points which it would require more space than we can afford to go fully into; but, in reality, Royal Ordnance officers were not excluded, and at the time of publication of the order there were twelve or fifteen of them employed on the home and foreign staff of the army. Feeling that their prospects were much blighted by being thus debarred from those honourable and lucrative commands to which every officer hopes (though few live) to succeed, the officers of the ordnance corps in Bengal (and also in Madras and Bombay) memorialized the Court of Directors, praying for a revision of the orders in question, and their reply was published in August, 1817. The Court did not enter into the question; they refused the point at issue, but directed that general officers of artillery and engineers in command of their regiments should be placed on a similar footing as to allowances with other general officers serving on the army staff. But although at this time the representations of the ordnance officers had no effect, there is little doubt that they were subsequently reconsidered and their justice admitted, for in the general remodelling of the military system in 1824, “an additional general officer on the Honourable Company’s establishment was authorized for the staff of each presidency, and the generals of artillery and engineers were rendered eligible to the staff, the command of those corps devolving on the senior colonels or field-officers.”