MAJOR WYNNsaid, he begged to draw the attention of the right hon. Secretary at War to the Royal Warrant for rewarding non-commissioned officers and soldiers in the Army, dated the 13th day of April, 1854; and to inquire why, when the term of service after which a private soldier becomes entitled to the good-conduct medal and gratuity was reduced from twenty-one to eighteen years in the infantry, a corresponding reduction should not have been made in the term of service required from serjeants and corporals, and the period lessened of ten and seven years in these grades required to entitle serjeants and corporals to receive the reward of their respective ranks; he also wished to inquire the reason why the annual grant to each regiment is made continent on the numerical strength of the corporals and 1309 privates (denominated rank and file), and not on that of the corporals, privates, drummers, and serjeants, it being understood that the two last-named ranks participate fully as much in these rewards as the two first?
§ MR. SIDNEY HERBERTsaid, he thought the hon. and gallant. Officer had made some mistake in reading the Order, because, in the first instance, he must observe, with regard to the last portion of the question, that in the Army a certain number of rank and file have necessarily a certain portion of non-commissioned officers; and when the warrant speaks of the rank and file having certain rewards allotted to them, it means, of course, to include the non-commissioned officers. With regard to the first part of the question, he would tell him what the object of the warrant was. By the warrant certain sums were allotted to each regiment to be given in rewards to the men after a lengthened period of service. As the reward could in that case only he given when the service had expired, the effect of the example of wearing the medal was lost upon the service; therefore, it was proposed to extend the operation of the warrant by granting a larger sum, and, secondly, to shorten the period at the end of which the medal was to be worn. As to private soldiers, the time at which they became entitled to good-conduct medals had been shortened from twenty-one to eighteen years. With regard to non-commissioned officers, their total period of service had been equally shortened, though the period which they must serve as serjeants and corporals, to attain the rewards appropriate to their ranks, remained the same as before. That was to say, that a serjeant or corporal might get a medal at the termination of eighteen years' instead of twenty-one years' service, but then he must still, as before, have served ten years out of that time as a non-commissioned officer.