COLONEL DUNNEsaid, he wished to inquire the intentions of the Government as to advising Her Majesty to grant compensation to the army engaged in the siege, for stores, &c., taken in Sebastopol. He understood that, after previous wars in which this country had been engaged, it had been the custom for the then Chan- 270 cellor of the Exchequer to propose that a sum should be granted to the army by way of compensation for prize-money; and at the end of the last war, two sums of £500,000 and £800,000 had been voted for that purpose. In India, also, almost every army had received prize-money. It had not always been very wisely distributed, as, for instance, in the case of the Deccan prize-money, but, at all events, it had been voted; and, among other instances, a sum of £150,000 was granted for the troops who were present at the capture of Java, where a considerable quantity of stores was taken. Now, at the taking of Sebastopol, an Anglo-French Committee was formed for the purpose of dividing the stores found in the town, and this into two sub-committees, one of which took the eastern and the other the western half of the place. In the western town, or Karabelnaia quarter alone, he (Colonel Dunne) believed he was right in stating, they found 2,089 guns, 1,770 of which were serviceable, and among them were several brass guns. Of course, iron guns would not be so useful to us, as the calibre of our guns was different; but brass guns were always valuable. They found also 257,000 solid shot, 60,000 shells, 30,000 grapeshot, and 1,200,000 or 1,500,000 live shells. There wore also 417,000 lb. of powder, and 434,000 rounds of small-arm ammunition. A large stock of provisions was also found; but, although they were condemned as food by the English and French Commission, they were sent to Eupatoria, and there made use of. He thought the army had some right to prize-money for the ships which would have been taken if the war had continued. He would also observe that the troops had been put to extraordinary expenses during the late war—from the loss of horses in the passage from Varna to the Crimea, and other causes; he, therefore, hoped the Government would give some equivalent for the stores that had been taken by the army. He was aware that there was a theory abroad that prize-money belonged to the Crown. He did not know how far that might be legal. In the times when the general and his troops divided their spoils at the drum-head they had not to go to the office of some prize-master, who generally robbed them of what they had won. That was the course pursued in the case of the celebrated Koh-i-noor, and some other recent instances; he would, therefore, ask whether the Government 271 intended to advise the Crown to give an equivalent? He had stated the account of the Karabelnaia suburb, but the French prize was even larger than the English. He might add, that he was far from grudging any honour done to the household troops—they had fought bravely at Inkerman; but, as the destination of the line would probably be the West Indies instead of London, he thought some reward might be bestowed on them.
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTON; Sir, there is no doubt that, in former wars, when property of great value was taken from the enemy, which belonged to the Crown, an equivalent in money was distributed to the troops engaged in its capture. But the property taken in this instance is so extremely small, that if divided among the troops it will not amount to more than 2s. 6d. for each officer and 6d. for each man. These sums are so small, that I fear they would be considered rather a mockery than a reward;—and we are, therefore, not prepared to advise the Crown to make a grant of so small a sum of money.