HC Deb 02 May 1856 vol 141 cc1926-7
COLONEL DUNNE

said, he would beg to ask the hon. Under Secretary for War whether the allowance usually granted to troops in the field had been allowed to a foreign legion in the British service, but refused to regiments of the line?

COLONEL GREVILLE

said, before that question was answered, he should be glad to know whether the militia regiments had been ordered to proceed home on the shortest notice. He understood that it was the intention of the Government to send home to their respective counties the Irish and English regiments of militia, and that orders had been issued to that effect to the commanding officers of regiments. He owned that he should view with considerable apprehension many thousands of men being thrown upon the country all at once without any provision being made for them. Many of those men were labourers, and not only had their places been filled up by others, but just at this time there was a great scarcity of employment, for the spring labour was over and the harvest was yet distant. He wished to know whether the Government intended to disembody these regiments simultaneously or by degrees? These men were well worthy of some consideration at the hands of Her Majesty's Government, as their conduct had been very good during their period of service.

COLONEL FRENCH

said, he had to complain that the Irish regiments of militia now in England were under orders to be conveyed back to their own country; and he also understood that the English regiments had been embodied for four years, while the Irish had been embodied for only one year, and, at this moment, the remuneration of the subaltern officers had not been more than sufficient to provide for their regimental clothing, their mess, and the expense of the band. He hoped those regiments would be kept on foot as long a time as the English were.

MR. FREDERICK PEEL

was understood to say, in answer to the question put by the hon. and gallant Member opposite (Colonel Dunne), that the extraordinary field allowances in the Crimea were granted only for so long a time as those regiments should be in the field before the enemy; but, the war being now over, these allowances had ceased. With regard to the militia, the Irish would be disembodied at the same time as the English regiments. The case referred to of the subaltern officers was now under the consideration of the Government.