AGENT, ARMY. A person authorized by the government to manage the monetary affairs of regiments in the army, as a kind of military banker. In early times, persons were employed to effect the purchase and sale of commissions in the British army (the only army in which this strange system of purchase existed), without much reference to honesty or fitness; but to prevent pernicious trafficking, uo one was after 1809 permitted to manage these transactions except the authorized A.A., under a heavy penalty. The A.A. were also bound down by restrictions, in relation to any pecuniary advantage deri vable by themselves from the sale and purchase. Their business, however, is now con• fined to the regular expenditure of government money. Every regiment has an agent, selected by the col., and empowered by him to be his representative in the monetary arrangements of the corps. The col. is responsible to the crown for the honesty of the A.A.; but the A. is in many ways regarded as a servant of the public. When money is wanted for the regular expenses of the regiment, the agent applies to the war office; whereupon the secretary of state for war issues an order to the paymaster of the forces to advance the requisite sum; the paymaster does so, and takes a receipt from the A. There is an annual settlement of accounts between the paymaster and the A., each one paying or reeciviag, according to the side on which excess or deficiency may appear. The A. then distributes the pay and other charges of the regiment. The tendency of recent alterations has been greatly to reduce the public functions of the A., who now only receive A5,000 from the state, while in 1858 they had £40,000. The per
centage allowed to A.A. for their trouble in paying the full pay of officers was allowed for by the state, and was included among the annual army estimates; but the officer generally bore this charge in relation to half.pay and allowances. The A.A. conducted all correspondence, and sent all the requisite notices pay and payment; the col. of the regiment took no part in the matter. The details of the system varied con siderably at different times, and in different portions of the British dominions. Some times the A. received twopence in the pound on the amount of pay; sometimes three halfpence in the pound, with an addition varying from sixpence to one shilling per day for each company of infantry or troop of cavalry; sometimes (in Ireland and in the colonies)a fixed annual salary. When the cols. of regiments provided the men's clothing, under a system now abandoned, the A.A. were very intimately mixed up with the trans actions; but at present the duties of those agents are limited to the following: applying monthly to the war office for the money required for each regiment; receiving that money; applying part of it to the payment of officers; disbursing the regimental pay masters' bills for the cost of the expenditure; paying soldiers' remittances for the benefit of their families; settling the effects and credits of soldiers. Many experienced govern meet officers have recommended the abandonment of the system, and the paying of all moneys by the war office direct, as a measure of simplification and economy.