CAPTAIN LEICESTER VERNONsaid, that, referring to the present arrangement to obtain officers for the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers from civil colleges and public seminaries, he would beg to ask the hon. Clerk of the Ordnance, whether it was the intention of Government to take such cadets from the Military Colleges of Sandhurst and Addiscombe (the latter with the permission of the Honourable East India Company) as may on examination be found to be competent, seeing that such cadets are already militarily educated, that formerly it was considered essential that Woolwich cadets should first enter at Marlow, and that by giving commissions to officers volunteering from the militia, the line would be more than compensated for the loss of any cadets taken from Sandhurst to enter into the two scientific corps?
§ MR. MONSELLsaid, it was not the intention of the Government to select any cadets from the colleges at Sandhurst or Addiscombe. The cadetships to be given away in July would be given after the examination which had been appointed by the Secretary of State. It was competent for the gentlemen in these colleges to compete for the cadetships, and if their examination should be satisfactory, no doubt their claims would be fully considered.