§ MR. H. B. BARINGsaid, he begged to ask the hon. Under Secretary for War whether it was the fact that Colonel Crombie, late of the Coldstream Guards, was placed on the half-pay list in consequence of ill health, and at his own express desire? He asked that question in consequence of a statement made by the hon. Member for Aylesbury (Mr. Layard) the other evening, that Colonel Crombie was compelled to resign his commission to make way for Lord Burghersh, and a son of Viscount Hardinge, and that he did not know he was put on the half-pay list until he saw his name in the Gazette.
§ MR. FREDERICK PEELsaid, in reply, that the statement of the hon. Member for Aylesbury was entirely incorrect. He could add nothing to the memorandum upon this subject which was read upon a former occasion by his hon. and gallant relative the Member for Huntingdon (General Peel). From that memorandum it appeared that Colonel Crombie, having been advised that his health had suffered so much from an attack of illness at Varna as to unfit him to return to the Crimea, applied to be placed upon the half-pay list, and so far from its being the case that the first notice he had of the circumstance was the appearance of his name in the Gazette, he was actually expecting to see his name there during the whole of the month of January.