§ MR. BENTINCKsaid, he rose to ask the Under Secretary of State for War, Upon what grounds the prayer of a Petition to the War Office from four Companies of Rifle Volunteers—namely, the 5th, 16th, 17th, and 23rd, raised in the county of Norfolk, the Petition praying that according to the War Office regulations these four Companies should be formed into a separate administrative battalion, and having been presented to the War Office by the Lord Lieutenant of the county of Norfolk, was refused?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONsaid, in reply, that the request of the four companies could not be complied with, because the new Volunteer regulations fixed six as the lowest number out of which a battalion could be formed, and to which an adjutant could be allowed. Before the issue of the new regulations four companies was the minimum number allowed to form a battalion, and that number was fixed before the adjutants were paid by the Government. It was thought in the present case the better course to divide the four companies and attach them to other battalions rather than to form them into one separate battalion, and the Lord Lieutenant of the county entirely concurred in the views of the War 1756 Office with regard to that arrangement. Subsequently, however, as it appeared that these Companies wished to maintain their connection with each other, this arrangement had been altered, and instead of being divided between the two administrative battalions, they had been all attached to the first.