§ MR. OLIVEIRAsaid, he wished to ask the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary-at-War, considering the objects for which the Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea was established, as set forth in the several Royal Warrants bearing dates respectively the 26th day of April, 1805, the 4th day of February, 1809, and the 10th day of October, 1811, by which the whole number of children of non-commissioned officers and soldiers mostly employed on foreign service was 1,200, and that at the present time there are only 350, whether it would not be desirable to fill the number up to 1,200, giving the preference to the children of non-commissioned officers and soldiers now or about to leave on foreign service, instead of permitting them to have recourse to parochial relief?
§ MR. SIDNEY HERBERTIn reply, Sir, to the hon. Gentleman's question, I have to say that it is quite true that under previous warrants the Royal Military Asylum, at Chelsea, did contain a very much larger number of children than at present. At the same time, however, when it provided for the larger number to which this question refers, one part of the establishment was situated at Southampton, where there were, I believe, 450 children. That establishment at Southampton has been done away with, and the capacity of the Asylum, with respect to accommodation, must, therefore, not be measured by the number it contained at that time. Since that period, also, very considerable changes had taken place at Chelsea—a large portion of the buildings, originally appropriated to the Asylum, being now occupied as a normal school for the training of schoolmasters for the education of soldiers' children. There is, therefore, not more than half the accommodation now that there was formerly. And we could not add as many as 150 children to the 350 who are now there without incurring not only an annual increase of expense of upwards of 3,000l.—which I admit is not a very large sum—but a considerable outlay also in the erection of fresh buildings.