§ MR. W. WILLIAMSsaid, that before the House went into Committee of Supply, he wished to ask a question of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Last year they voted 136,000 men for the militia, and a sum of £3,365,684 was voted for their support. From returns which had been made, it appeared that not one-half of the men had been embodied. There was, therefore, a sum of £1,500,000 which had not been expended. He asked the right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Monsell) the other night what had been done with that money, and he said he thought it must be in the Exchequer; but the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his financial statement, said that the whole of the money voted last year was expended. What he now wished to ask was, what had become of the money; whether it had been expended on other objects than that for which it had been voted, or remained in the Exchequer?
§ MR. WILSONsaid, his hon. Friend was mistaken if he supposed that when Estimates were voted all the money was supplied which was required for the Estimates, and it did not follow that all the supplies voted in Committee of Ways and Means were expended. In the present case, if the whole of the militia had been embodied, the effect would have been that there would be a further deficiency of £1,500,000 than there actually was. By 2054 the Appropriation Act the Government were enabled, if there was an access in one part of the department, to supply deficiency in another part of the department, and the saving of the expense of the militia was applied to other services of the army.