§ LORD CLAUD HAMILTONasked the Under Secretary for War to state the exact meaning of the circular recently promulgated in Ireland, respecting the gradual disembodiment of the militia. Was it intended that men who left their regiments with permission before the time fixed for their disembodiment should not receive the gratuity of fourteen days' pay 734 which had been promised by the noble Lord at the head of the Government?
MR. PEELsaid that, as the Irish militia was to be kept embodied longer than that of England and Scotland, and as some of the men desired to return home prior to the period fixed for its disembodiment, permission was given to them to leave, with a provision that they should receive the pay and bounty to which, up to that time, they were entitled. It never was intended by the circular of the Irish Government that they should be deprived of any of their rights in regard either to bounty or gratuity, but the settlement of their claims in the latter respect was to be made upon the disembodiment of the regiment, the intervening period being regarded as a sort of a furlough. As the militia was now about to be disembodied, however, instructions had been given that men who were permitted to go home should be settled with at once, and should receive all to which they were entitled in respect of gratuity and bounty. He agreed with the right hon. Baronet that, among these, those who had distinguished themselves at Sandhurst had as strong a claim to the consideration of the Government as the others; but he could not say that any of them had a claim to be kept in full pay in preference to those who were senior to them in the service. It would be impossible to retain a junior officer on full pay, and to place his senior on half-pay, even although the junior had distinguished himself at Sandhurst.