said, he would beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India, On what grounds a pecuniary premium is paid out of the taxes of India to subaltern officers of the Royal Army to induce them to enter the staff corps of India, to the exclusion of the sons of old officers of the Indian Army, and others, while numerous gentlemen are prepared to compete for a commission in the military service of India, upon any prescribed standard of agreement, and proceed to India free of cost to the State?

In reply, Sir, to the first part of my hon. and gallant Friend's Question, I have to say that he has been misinformed. No pecuniary premium is paid out of the taxes of India to subaltern officers of the Royal army to induce them to enter that portion of the Royal army called the staff corps of India; but when a subaltern officer of not more than four years' service, belonging to a purchase corps, joins the staff corps, he receives, not out of the taxes of India, but from the War Office, the same sum which he would have received if he had sold out. The latter part of my hon. and gallant Friend's Question points to a policy entirely at variance with that which has been pursued since the amalgamation of the Royal and Company's armies—that policy being to weld these two armies together, and to allow no one to join the staff corps or specially Indian portion of the Royal army as now constituted, who has not passed some time in, and formed some associations with, a regiment not permanently connected with India.

said, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty, To state to the House the object of his recent cruise with the Channel and Mediterranean Squadrons; and, if he will have any objection to furnish a Return of the vessels engaged in the said cruise; such Return to include their names, tonnage, number of officers and men, cost of wages, stores, and provisions per month, consumption and cost of fuel per diem, average speed attained per hour under steam or canvas, separately and together; together with the number of days' fuel each vessel is capable of carrying?

Sir, in reply to my hon. Friend, I may refer him to the answer I gave on the 27th July last to my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for East Derbyshire (Captain Egerton), when I stated that it had been for some time the wish of the Admiralty to bring together the Channel and Mediterranean Fleets, and that we proposed, in order to obviate objections which might possibly be made in consequence of the Vice Admirals commanding the two fleets being nearly of the same rank, to join the Mediterranean Fleet at Gibraltar, and that the two fleets should cruise under the Admiralty flag. I may add, as a further reason, that both my gallant colleague Sir Sydney Dacres and myself were anxious to see much that we could not know except by personal observation, especially as to the performances of the ships of more recent construction—the Hercules, the most formidable iron-clad broadside ship in the navy; the Monarch, our most formidable turret-ship; and the Inconstant, the most powerful and swiftest unarmoured frigate. Perhaps I may say that the result has been, in our opinion, very satisfactory; and that, with reference to the second part of my hon. Friend's Question, I shall lay on the table the Report of the Captain of the Fleet, special Reports as to the ships of new type, a Memorandum by the Controller of the Navy, and a Minute of the Board of Admiralty. These Reports will have tables attached, which, if they do not give the full details asked by my hon. Friend, will give sufficient, I believe, for his purpose.

said, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for War, Whether the Yeomanry Cavalry Force is to be placed on a different footing; if so, by what regulations is it to be governed; and, if reductions are contemplated, whether they will take place at once or as vacancies occur?

Sir, some regulations are in contemplation for the purpose of increasing the efficiency of the Yeomanry Corps, and, with the permission of my hon. Friend, I will state them when I introduce the Army Estimates. Some reductions will be made; some will be immediate, and others prospective.

said, he wished to ask the Secretary of State for War, Whether any change is contemplated with respect to admission of Cadets to Woolwich; if so, whether the new rules will affect detrimentally young men preparing for their examinations on the faith of existing regulations?

Yes, Sir, some changes are in contemplation in the rules for the admission of cadets at Woolwich, in accordance with the recommendations of the Commission on Military Education. They will not, however, affect candidates for the examination at Midsummer. The only change which will be made at Midsummer will be that the examination will be conducted by the Civil Service Examiners, instead of those who used formerly to examine.

said, he would beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India. Whether he will lay upon the Table of the House, Copies of the Despatch of the Secretary of State for India to the Governor General of India, and of the Minutes of the Members of Council, on the subject of the Act passed by the Council of the Governor General for making Laws and Regulations in October 1868, called the Punjaub Tenancy Act; also of the Despatches of the First Governor of the Punjaub, and other Papers on the same subject?

Sir, in reply to my hon. Friend, I have to say that it will give me much pleasure to lay upon the table full information about the Punjaub Tenancy Act, including all or most of the documents which he has mentioned.

said, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for War, If the General Order which was issued in September last depriving Soldiers when not on duty of their service ammunition, in order to afford security against military homicides, is in force in Ireland; and if not why not; and, if he has any objection to lay before the House any Correspondence that has taken place on the matter?

said, in reply, that when the Order requiring that the service ammunition should be taken from soldiers not on duty, and placed in the regimental magazines was issued, in September, general officers in command of districts were desired to use their discretion, and if they thought that the state of the locality required any exception to be made, they were to forward a representation to that effect to His Royal Highness the Field Marshal Commanding in Chief. Lord Strathnairn had reported that it was desirable there should be a suspension of the General Order in Ireland, and that report was approved.

said, he would beg to ask the First Commissioner of Works, Whether he will state what are the intentions of Her Majesty's Government as to the Site of the intended Courts of Justice, and as to the plan of the Building?

said, in reply, that Mr. Street, the architect of the New Courts of Justice, was now engaged by his directions in drawing up plans for the construction of the courts within the limits of the site prescribed by the Act passed in 1865, also within the limits of the funds which were provided by the Act passed in the same year. It was a very difficult work, and required a great deal of time and attention. He hoped—indeed he had no reason to doubt—that Mr. Street would in the end succeed in fulfilling his instructions; and, assuming that the requisite consents were obtained for proceeding with the work, and that the plans were approved, he saw no reason why the work should not be commenced at an early period. At present, however, they had not arrived at a point at which he could tell his hon. Friend what the plans and arrangements were.

Is it a part of the plan that there shall be a communication from the north to the south side of the Strand?

That is exactly a part of the plan as to which I am not in a position to give information. If there should be no funds provided by Parliament for making such communication it cannot be carried out, however desirable it may be; but that, of course, will be considered with all other matters relating to the work.

said, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for War, Whether the rumour that has appeared, in the public papers, that the giving of commissions without purchase to the successful Cadets at the last half-yearly examination at Sandhurst is indefinitely postponed in consequence of the contemplated reductions in the Army, is true; and, if so, whether he is disposed to take the case of these young men into his especial consideration?

, in reply, said, that the Government thought it right to give commissions to all the young men who had passed the last half-yearly examination at Sandhurst.

said, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, If it be his intention to introduce this Session a Bill to repeal or alter the Ecclesiastical Titles Act?

in reply, said, it was the intention of the Government to propose to Parliament, in the course of the Session, a measure on the Ecclesiastical Titles Act, and to propose it with a view and with the hope, if possible, of passing it into law during the present Session. But in the actual state of Business, and with the mass of measures announced in the Queen's Speech, he could not feel at all confident that it would be in their power to introduce it before Easter. There would be no use in introducing the Bill until they approached the time when they would have a probable chance of carrying it forward.

said, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether there is any truth in the report that it is intended to arm any of Her Majesty's ships with Guns manufactured on the Whitworth pattern; and, if so, if he will lay on the Table of the House any Report which has led him to adopt this Gun for further trial?

, in reply, said, the Admiralty had proposed to the War Department that Sir Joseph Whitworth and Co. should be called upon to tender for the construction of a rifled muzzle-loading gun on his principle and of his metal, for the purpose of competition with a rifled gun constructed on the service principle. Their object in doing so was to decide by experiment which of the competitive principles it would be most advisable to adopt for the very large guns which were to be used in the large turret-ships now in course of construction. It had not yet been decided whether Sir Joseph Whitworth's tender should be accepted.

said, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to propose, during the present Session, any alteration of the Standing Orders with reference to Morning Sittings, and to the practice of counting out the House, especially on those occasions when the House reassembles at nine o'clock after a Morning Sitting?

Sir, our attention has not, up to the present, been given to the subject of Morning Sittings; but I think our opinion generally is that the practice of recent years has been satisfactory, and that it would not be wise to alter the hours at which the House meets on Wednesdays. We have not observed any sufficient reason for taking that step. The usage first introduced by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Buckinghamshire (Mr. Disraeli) of meeting from two to seven on other days when a Morning Sitting is to be held, has been a very decided improvement on the old practice of meeting; from twelve to four, and resuming at six. With respect to the subject of counting out the House, all I can say is that I agree so far with the apparent intention of the hon. Member's Question that I think the matter will require to remain under the vigilant observation of the House and of the Government. The laws of political economy command us all, whether we will or not; and I am told that the facilities provided for exporting Members from the House about the hour of seven, and re-importing them at a later hour, have decidedly enhanced the difficulty of maintaining the necessary quorum within those hours. I can assure the hon. Member that the matter will be kept in view, and that we will not shrink from the necessity of proposing a remedy in case circumstances should appear to call for one.

said, he would beg to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether the Government have caused the promised inquiry to be made into the operation of the Party Processions Act; and, if so, what was the result of the inquiry?

, in reply, said, that the intimation he gave last year was to this effect, that the Government would, during the Recess, carefully look into the matter of party processions in Ireland, and if they thought it requisite to order a special inquiry to be made into it, they would do so. But they had not deemed it necessary to institute an inquiry in that special form, and he should be able to state the intentions of the Government on the subject early in the Session.

said, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for War, If the Irish Militia will be called out for training this year; also if he can state what has been the cost of that body since it was last called out for training; and, if not, whether he has any objection to have a Return of that cost made out, and laid upon the Table of the House?

said, in reply, that it was not intended to call out the Irish Militia for training this year. He could not state what the cost of that body had been since it was last called out, but if the hon. Member moved for a Return on the subject there would be no objection to comply with his Motion.

said, he would beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether the Lords of the Treasury concur in so much of the Forty-seventh Report of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Woods and Forests and Land Revenues, presented to Parliament June 29th, 1869, as recommends building upon property belonging to Her Majesty upon the Thames Embankment, to the extent of 2 acres 2 roods 19 poles, or whether arrangements will be made to deal with this portion of Crown property in the same manner as the remainder of the site acquired by the Metropolitan Board of Works is dealt with in the Thames Embankment Act, by which Act such remainder is set apart in perpetuity for purposes of public recreation?

Sir, eleven acres of land below high water-mark, belonging to the Crown, were taken for the purposes of the Embankment. Of those 11 acres the Crown has retained 5½ acres, but it has received no compensation for the remainder. We do concur with the recommendation in the Report of the Commissioners that buildings should be erected on 2½ acres of the 5½ acres, the property of the Crown. I do not think it would be right to lay out in gardens so valuable a plot when it may be de- voted to buildings and produce money which may be applied in relief of taxation.

Sir, the object of the Bill, the foundation of which I am about to lay, by moving some Resolutions, is to carry out to the fullest extent the policy adopted last year of giving greater facilities to the holders of the Public Debt. Last year the Bank of England consented to allow the dividends to be paid without requiring the personal presence of the holders of Stock; the object of the present Act is to increase the number of payments of the dividends on Consolidated Stock, so that, instead of holders drawing their dividends half-yearly, they will draw them quarterly. This will be very agreeable, particularly to the poorer class of stockholders, who would rather receive their money in smaller sums and at more frequent intervals; and I am induced to hope, from correspondence I have had with the Bank, that it will not be attended with great inconvenience or trouble or expense. I do not intend to enlarge upon the advantages of such a system. Of course, the more convenient we can make this Stock to the holder the more popular we render it, the better the price it will fetch, and consequently the better for the public. Another part of the Bill, ancillary to the former part, aims at absorbing the Reduced and New Three per Cents into the Consolidated Stock. These reduced Stocks, although bearing precisely the same interest, probably through being a smaller amount—£277,000,000 altogether—stand at a lower price in the market than the Consolidated. A man must give £100 10s. of this Stock to obtain £100 of Consolidated; and we propose to give the option of exchanging these Stocks for Consolidated on the payment of 5s. percent—that is to say, if a man holds any Reduced or New Stock he may obtain £100 of the Consolidated by paying £100 5s.; in fact, we take one-half of the 10s., which is the market price, and give the other as a bonus on account of the transaction. The change is perfectly voluntary; but as we propose to make the Consolidated a more marketable and more convenient investment, by allowing the dividends to be paid quarterly, we believe the change will be made. The right hon. Gentleman concluded by moving the Resolutions.

said, he believed the 5s. which the Chancellor of the Exchequer imposed on the transaction was something in the nature of a fine, and would be fatal to the scheme. Few persons would deem the loss of 5s. compensated by the opportunity of receiving their dividends quarterly; besides, many trustees holding the Reduced Stock had no power to make the change. So far as the holders of Consols were concerned the quarterly payment would be a boon; but the public at large would suffer in the first instance, because paying dividends of £2,000,000 or £3,000,000 by anticipation would drain the Treasury just as the taxpayer by paying taxes in anticipation would raise the balances in the Exchequer.

said, he had no doubt that the quarterly payment would be a boon to the holders of Consols; he, however, agreed with the hon. Member for the City (Mr. Crawford) that the proposed charge of 5s. would be fatal to the scheme, and thought it would be better to consolidate the whole funded debt by Parliamentary authority; without option. He also thought that trustees would be unable to exchange unless they were especially empowered; to do so by the Bill the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to introduce.

said, that as the proposal was optional, it was a very innocent one. It would do no harm and not much good. It was a sort of doubt- ful matter whether many people were anxious to receive their dividends quarterly; but, as the Governor of the Bank had stated, the facility was hardly worth paying for. He rather thought the Chancellor of the Exchequer would find it was a scheme not of much value to the public at large. But, it being perfectly optional with parties to make the conversion, it could, as he had said, do no harm. It was one of those many experiments which, perhaps, they would now see constantly occurring in financial matters.

said, he understood from the statement of his right hon. Friend (Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer) that it was the intention of the Government in the Bill he was about to lay on the table to provide that the dividends on Consols should be paid quarterly. [The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER: Yes."] Well, then, he did not see why the holders of the New Three per Cents and Reduced should not have the same boon without the payment of 5s. per cent premium. He thought it would be much better to unify the whole debt. He ventured to press on his right hon. Friend what had been urged by the Governor of the Bank (Mr. Crawford) that when entering into large transactions for the advantage of the public he should not hamper himself by taking a narrow view of small details, but offer to the holders of the other Stocks the same advantage he gave to the holders of Consols free of charge.

would only say, in reply to his hon. Friend the hon. Baronet (Sir David Salomons) that at present when £100 and 10s. of Reduced was required to obtain £100 of Consols, if he allowed the holder of £100 Reduced to obtain the same boon as the holder of Consols, he would be making him a present of 10s. percent.

said, that would only be in case the holder sold.

, in moving that the Select Committee to inquire into the present modes of conducting Parliamentary and Municipal Elections, in order to provide further guarantees for their tranquillity, purity, and freedom, be re-appointed, said, he would detain the House with the shortest possible statement. Hon. Members were well aware that the Committee was appointed early in the Session of last year. They met about the beginning of April, and continued to sit during the remainder of the Session. They examined a great number of witnesses and collected a great amount of evidence. That evidence was printed, and was before the House; and it contained a large amount of information, which, in his opinion, would be found of considerable use when they came to legislate on the subject. The Committee, thinking that the time occupied in the examination of witnesses had extended so far that it would not be possible for them to devote sufficient time to the preparation of their Report, agreed to a Resolution recommending the early re-appointment of the Committee, with a view not to the examination of additional witnesses, but solely to consider their Report. In pursuance of that Resolution it was now his duty to move the re-appointment of the Committee, and, presuming that their Resolution to examine no more witnesses would be adhered to, no very long time need elapse before the Committee reported to the House, and it would be perfectly possible during the present Session to legislate on the Report. He, therefore, begged leave to move the re-appointment of the Committee.

Sir, the House is aware that the Government have now for many years received, the deposits of the savings banks, and have paid interest to the savings banks for their deposits, coming under obligations to restore those deposits in solido when called upon to do so, being allowed to invest those deposits in certain securities in order to enable them to pay the amount of interest. The rate of interest the Government now pay to the savings banks is. £3 5s. per cent, and the object of the measure which I ask leave to introduce is to reduce that rate of interest by 5s., so that it shall henceforth be £3 per cent. The reasons for that are extremely simple, and, I think, extremely cogent. The Government paying this £3 5s. percent interest to the savings bank is very much in the position a banker would occupy who should receive money on deposit and pay to the depositor a rate of interest equal to what he obtained for the discounting of bills. Such a banker would obviously be a loser in the business, because, in addition to having to pay for his whole establishment, he would lose the interest on the amount he was obliged to keep in his till to meet demands, and would have no margin to cover any deficiency on the realization of his engagements. That is honestly the case of the Government. The interest the Government receives does not protect it from having loss by these transactions. The National Debt Commissioners must keep a considerable balance to answer demands, and it is of the nature of the business they carry on with the savings banks that the money comes in when securities are high and they sell out when securities are low. Therefore it is evident there is an element of loss in these transactions. The only thing to counterbalance it is the rate of interest they receive, and that rate of interest is not sufficient to counterbalance it. Now, I think it is a perfectly obvious principle that, though it be the undoubted duty of the Government to take care of these funds and allow a reasonable interest on them, it is not right that the general taxpayer should be heavily burdened in order to make good the deficiency actually occasioned. It is quite enough if we take care of the deposits, that we should give absolute security to restore them in full and pay whatever interest we agree upon, without putting our hands into the public purse and spending large sums of money in order to make up the deficiency. There is an element of socialism in this that ought to be excluded. That is no imaginary case, as I may show by reference to a Parliamentary Paper which gives an account of what was due at the closing of the accounts to the savings banks in November, 1868. It appears that on the 20th of November, 1868, the savings banks were entitled to receive from the Commissioners of the National Debt Office £37,177,000; and the securities held by the Commissioners, according to the estimated price on that day had they been realized, would have produced £34,399,000, so that there was a deficiency of £2,778,000. But that by no means exhausts the whole deficiency, for there had been large losses or deficiencies before that. I think the case very simple, but very clear. Though bound to give the savings banks as good interest as we fairly can, we ought not to give such interest as would involve loss to the taxpayer; and, therefore, I hope the House will allow me to introduce this Bill. There are plenty of precedents for the course I now propose. From 1817 to 1828 the savings banks were receiving £4 11s. 3d. per cent from the Government. From 1828 to 1844 the Government paid the reduced sum of £3 16s. 0½d. percent. And from 1844 up to the present time Government has only paid at the rate of £3 5s. per cent. I now propose to reduce the interest to £3 per cent. The right hon. Gentleman concluded by moving for leave to bring in a Bill to amend the Law relating to Savings Banks.

, in moving for leave to bring in a Bill to make provision for the proceedings of Boards of Management and Boards of Guardians upon the dissolution of Districts and Unions, or the annexation of Parishes to Unions, said, the Bill was of a technical character, and it was intended by it to supply certain omissions in the Poor Law of 1834, and the Acts amending the same, with regard to what took place when a Union was dissolved. Provision was only made by those Acts for the adjustment of liabilities between the parishes, but with respect to liabilities due to third parties, which would have to be met by the parishes constituting the dissolved Unions, there was no remedy. The Boards of Guardians were dissolved, and there was no one left responsible or who could be sued. The Bill was of an urgent character, inasmuch as the liabilities of several of the Unions that had been dissolved could not be met until the Bill was passed.

, in moving for leave to bring in a Bill for the Amendment of the Railway Construction Facilities Act (1864). said, the object of the Bill was to remove from the Act of 1864 the power which it conferred on certain railway authorities of putting their veto on the action of the Board of Trade in respect to railway projects, even where the landowners and ratepayers assented. The right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Trade, whose absence from the House he deeply lamented, had intimated his assent to his Motion.

said, he would not oppose the first reading, but the House was not, therefore, to understand that he agreed to the principle of the Bill. He (Mr. Shaw-Lefevre) might propose a Bill on the same subject, and he proposed that the second reading should be postponed for a fortnight, to enable the House to judge of the Bill he proposed to lay before it.