SECOND READING. (Hansard, 16 March 1858)

§ MR. BAXTER
said, he could not allow that opportunity to pass without calling the attention of the right hon. and gallant Gentleman the Secretary for War, to a most injurious alteration made in the Mutiny Act two years ago, without previous notice thereof having been given to the House. It was carried through in August, when the greater number of hon. Members had returned to their homes; and the grievance of which he complained in the first instance affected Scotland, though it was also a matter in which England and Ireland were intimately concerned. Before the alteration, to which he alluded, almost every householder in Scotland was liable to have soldiers billeted upon him; and when the militia was called out during the Russian war, this liability was found to be an intolerable grievance alike destructive of family peace and highly subversive of military discipline. The matter was thereupon represented to the late Government, who put it off with one excuse after another, until at last an appeal was made to the House of Commons that proved successful. An Amendment moved by the hon. Member for Edinburgh, was carried in Committee of Supply, and the system that formerly prevailed in Scotland was abolished. But, although that was the case, a proper remedy for the inconveniences it produced was not applied; for, instead of doing that or investigating the subject at all, the late Government, in the month of August, without giving any notice whatever, assimilated the law of Scotland to that of this country and threw the whole burden of billeting our soldiers upon the publicans, in entire forgetfulness of the fact that there was nothing analogous in the circumstances of that class of men in the two countries. It was his (Mr. Baxter's) intention, had the late Government remained in office, to have moved an Amendment in Committee on the Mutiny Bill, or the Army Estimates, and take the sense of the House upon the question to which he referred. In the present state of affairs, however, he was unwilling to adopt that course, but he thought that if the right hon. Gentleman would, in 266 a spirit of fairness and candour, investigate the subject, he would be able to provide an efficient remedy. The grievance was one against which he might say that the people of Scotland were "up in arms." The effect of the law as it now stood in Mont-rose, one of the boroughs he had the honour to represent, would give the House some idea of the height to which these grievances had risen. The population of that borough, amounted to 15,000 persons, out of which number thirty-three were publicans. Now, for two months during last autumn, there were billeted upon these thirty-three persons an entire regiment of militia, numbering more than 800 men, and he found from a petition which he had presented this evening from the Provost and Magistrates of Montrose, that not less than 35,963 billets were issued in the two months of October and November, entailing a tax of £224 13s. 4d. upon these thirty-three victuallers. The consequence was, that although some of them had been enabled to bear the expenditure which the system entailed, yet others, who were in a smaller way of business, had been obliged to sell off their stock in order to pay their debts, and had applied to the parish authorities for the means of support. In the city of Edinburgh, the state of things was still worse; and one individual alone had had 5,000 billets imposed upon him in the space of nine months, and some most respectable men were, under those circumstances, talking of giving up their business altogether. He (Mr. Baxter) should therefore appeal to the Government to take the subject into their serious consideration, and, if possible, to do away with a system which was a remnant of barbarism, and which was alike subversive of military discipline and opposed to the best interests of the public. He might be permitted to suggest that the most advantageous course to adopt would be the appointment of a Select Committee to inquire into the whole system of billeting for the three kingdoms, with a view to the adoption of measures of redress. If no remedy were granted for the present most obnoxious state of the law in the course of this Session, he begged to intimate that he should avail himself of another opportunity of bringing the matter forward and taking the sense of the House upon it.

§ MR. KINNAIRD
said, he would beg to add his entreaties to those of the hon. Member for Montrose, that the right hon. Gentleman would take this question into his serious consideration. The Scotch had 267 every willingness to afford every assistance to the troops passing through the country; but, if this inquiry were granted, it would be found that the existing system acted in a peculiarly oppressive manner in Scotland, and not at all in England. There were in the Scotch towns numerous places which might be secured at a cheap rate, and in which the troops could be much better accommodated than they were at present.

§ MR. BLACK
said, the present system of billeting in Scotland was an injustice and a grievance to a certain portion of the inhabitants of that country. The remedy for the evil was simple enough. If it cost a certain sum to maintain soldiers in billets, there was no reason why that sum should not be paid by the country generally, instead of being drawn from the pockets of a few. He understood that fourpence a night Was sufficient to maintain a soldier upon a march; but the allowance to the innkeeper was only three half-pence, which was an obvious injustice. Much attention had lately been excited by a report upon the sanitary condition of the army, and he thought that it would tend greatly to improve the soldiers' health if the present system of billeting were abolished, and proper places provided for the reception of soldiers.

MR. RIDLEY
observed, that the persons upon whom soldiers were billeted were bound to find meals for the men and forage for the horses. The amount which was allowed for that food was less than the cost, and those persons were made to suffer by their obedience to an Act of Parliament. He admitted that it was not possible entirely to abolish billeting when troops were upon a march, but the late Government had given a very satisfactory promise that billeting should be resorted to as little as possible, and he hoped the present Government would give a similar assurance.

§ MR. W. EWART
said, he thought the system was injurious alike to the soldier and the public. As he thought an inquiry was the best means to take preparatory to a settlement of the question, he should support the proposition to refer the whole subject to a Select Committee.

GENERAL CODRINGTON
said, that a year or two since it had been agreed to place Scotland in the same position in respect of billeting as England, but it was quite true that in Scotland there were not the same means of accommodating soldiers as existed in the more populous districts 268 of England. There could be no doubt that it was also better for the soldiers themselves if they could be lodged in barracks rather than quartered in billets, and especially when they were permanently stationed in any place. If men were billeted, the allowance made to the innkeeper should be fairly proportioned to the expense he incurred. The right of billeting, however, must be maintained, in order that the soldiers might be enabled to procure food and lodging whenever the necessities of the service required them to be moved. In the present state of things that was a power which could not be well abandoned.

COLONEL NORTH
could not see why billeting was any greater hardship in Scotland than it was in Ireland, and it was impossible to abolish the system, or there would be no means of providing for the wants of troops when upon a march. In stances had occurred in his experience in Ireland, where the men had to be quartered at gentlemen's houses because there were no public houses in the neighbourhood.

§ MR. ELLIOT
said, he could confirm the statement of previous speakers as to the hardships of the present system as applied to Scotland. It was a great grievance which called loudly for a remedy, and if the Government would take the matter into their consideration, and institute an inquiry by means of a Committee of this House, they would be conferring a great boon upon the aggrieved parties, and pressed upon the gallant Secretary for War the propriety of some inquiries into the subject.

§ MR. BLACKBURN
said, he was of opinion that Scotland did not labour under any peculiar grievance in this respect. The evil of quartering soldiers upon private houses was represented to the House last year, and the Mutiny Act was altered in consequence. No doubt it would be pleasanter if the soldiers were not billeted anywhere; but he, for his part, was acquainted with no better place for the accommodation of the soldiers than the public-house, which was open at all times; and the only real grievance appeared to be that the publican was not sufficiently paid for the accommodation he provided.

§ SIR EDWARD COLEBROOKE
said, he must differ from the hon. Member because there was a difference between the public-houses of Scotland and those of England and Ireland. Under Forbes 269 Mackenzie's Act, Scotch publicans could not lodge on their own premises, and therefore when soldiers were billeted on them they had to find the accommodation elsewhere. Now one of their complaints was that the allowance made by the law fell very far short of what they had to pay for lodging the soldier. He would not, however, put the case as an exclusively Scotch grievance as he thought the whole system was bad. He thought the Government could meet the difficulty in the simplest manner either by providing proper barracks for troops, or else by paying persons liable to have men billeted upon them a sufficient sum for the expenses they were put to.

GENERAL PEEL
said, the only pledge he could give was that the subject should have his most earnest attention; and he thought he could not furnish a better proof of his willingness to consider it than the fact that he had already, at the request of the hon. Member for Edinburgh (Mr. Black), agreed to receive a deputation from that city on Thursday next upon the subject. He himself was of opinion that there were hardships connected with the billeting system which arose from changing the station of troops. No alteration had been made in the allowances since 1830; and of course when the prices of provisions were high it was felt to be a peculiar hardship upon the publican. What was the best mode of applying a remedy he was not prepared at that moment to say; but he would promise to give his earnest attention to the subject.