§ MR. HEYWOODrose to ask the Clerk of the Ordnance whether any public notice had been given of a recent examination for cadetships at Woolwich, and whether, on the non-appearance of candidates, a number of commissions in the artillery had been given without any special examination in scientific subjects?
§ MR. MONSELLsaid, that, in order to meet the augmentation of artillery and engineer corps, it had been found necessary to have a number of young men older than the cadets in the public school at Woolwich generally were. For this purpose the Lieutenant General or the Ordnance had first the idea of having the same examination as for cadets rising from a junior to a senior class; but it was found that at the age of between seventeen and nineteen there were not to be found at the Universities a sufficient number of young men whose attainments in mathematics equalled those of the senior class at Woolwich; consequently he had been driven to adopt another expedient, which was to communicate with the heads of the different public schools and colleges all over the country. By this means he had selected thirty young men, who had given the greatest possible satisfaction to the Lieutenant General and the Examiners, who, indeed, had stated that they were about the best lot that had ever come under their inspection. For the future the ordinary course of examination would, so far as was practicable, be resorted to; but he could not promise that if a similar emergency arose a similar expedient might not be resorted to.