§ LORD NAASinquired whether the Governor-General of Canada had been requested by the Government to make an application to the Colonial Legislature for a grant of one million of acres of land, to enable Her Majesty to offer settlements to such of Her Majesty's foreign legionaries as might be willing to settle in Canada; and, if so, whether it was the intention of the Government to offer similar settlements to the officers and soldiers of Her Majesty's regular army?
§ MR. FREDERICK PEELreplied that there was no intention of altering the arrangements regarding the grants of land as an inducement to persons to enlist in the regular army. There was no resemblance between soldiers enlisted for a long period and foreign legionaries merely enlisted for the period of the war or until disbanded. No offer of land had been made to the Swiss or German legionaries for the purpose of inducing them to enlist; but a suggestion had been made to the Governor-General of Canada to the effect that it would facilitate enlistment if such an offer of land in Canada were made. He was not aware, however that any Act had been passed by the colonial Parliament for this purpose. With respect to officers in the army, it was already arranged, with a view to their settlement in the Colonies, that an abatement should be made in the price of the purchase of land in those Colonies in which 2034 the Crown had the disposal of the waste lands.
§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLsaid, he could answer the question so far as it regarded Canada. The Governor-General of Canada had received a despatch from his right hon. Friend (Sir G. Grey), and that despatch had been laid before the Colonial Legislature; but no proposal on the subject had yet been made in the Colonial Parliament, which had adjourned before the matter could be discussed.