§ MR. T. DUNCOMBEsaid, that the other evening he had put a question to the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for the Home Department, as to the intention of the Government to call out the militia during the present year. He had understood the right hon. Gentleman to say that they had no immediate intention of doing so, but that it was their intention to introduce a new law for the enrolment of the militia, and that in any emergency it should be embodied under the amended law. He wished to ask the Secretary at War whether it was a correct interpretation of the intentions of Government?
§ MR. S. HERBERTsaid, that he was not present when the hon. Gentleman put his question to his right hon. Friend. A great deal of the misapprehension on that subject had arisen from not drawing the distinction between training and embodying. The Government had no power to embody the militia, but it had a power to call them out for training, and beyond that it was not intended to go. With regard to the present law it was the intention of the Government to introduce a Bill to amend and consolidate the different Militia Acts, and when such a Bill passed it would be in the power of the Government to call out the militia for training. Whether they were called out for training would, of course, depend on circumstances, and upon that point he would rather not give an answer. But it was not the intention of the Government to embody the militia. If called out it would be for training only. On this part of the subject he was anxious to say a word with respect to the formation of militia clubs, which he understood was being carried on in many parts of the country, and 427 which offered, on certain pecuniary considerations, to guarantee to persons drawn by the ballot to provide them substitutes. He would recommend to persons engaged in or joining such clubs to suspend their proceedings until they were aware of the measures which would be introduced by the Government, which, as related to the mode of raising the militia force, would be found much less onerous than the present system of the ballot, which the new Act would put an end to. Under these circumstances, he did hope that all parties interested in this subject would suspend their proceedings until they saw what the Government intended to do.