ADDRESS MOVED. (Hansard, 28 May 1858)

§ SIR DE LACY EVANS
said, he rose pursuant to notice, to move an humble Address to Her Majesty, praying that Her Majesty would be graciously pleased to take into consideration the hardships experienced by captains of cavalry and infantry who, having been reduced to the non-effective list by order of Government at the termination of the late war in 1856, and being replaced upon the effective strength of the Army on the breaking out of the war in the East in 1857, find themselves posted to regiments in relatively inferior rank to lieutenants who had obtained the rank of captain, by purchase or otherwise, during the intermediate year of peace. He would take occasion to state, that at the close of the Crimean war the Government of the day having deemed it expedient to make certain reductions in the Army, had with that view determined to 1101 place a number of captains, instead of subalterns, upon half-pay. The reason why the former had been selected rather than the latter being, he believed, that a saving of 6d. or ls. a day would by the adoption of that course be effected. Now, he was at the time to which he referred, and still continued, to be of opinion that so trifling a saving constituted no sufficient justification of the step which had been taken; but, be that as it might, a war had ten months afterwards unfortunately broken out in the East, and Her Majesty's Government had then deemed it to be its duty to secure again the services of those officers who had at the close of the Crimean war been reduced to half-pay. They had consequently been reappointed to the regiments in winch they had previously served, but on returning to them they had found that those who had been subalterns when they had quitted the army, and who, in some instances, had absolutely been under their command, had become their seniors in the service owing to the circumstance that those subalterns had, within the ten months, purchased their promotion. Now, he could not help thinking that it was on the face of it an injustice that officers, who had been placed upon the non-effective list against their own will, should labour under such a disadvantage; and he might add that the principle of there being a claim upon the part of those captains to return to their relative ranks in the army, was in point of fact admitted by the authorities at the Horse Guards, inasmuch as it was laid down by them as a rule that if the captains upon half-pay should be called out for service within two months after having been placed on the non-effective list, they should be permitted to resume their original place in their respective regiments. Although this was nugatory in practice, it was an admission of the principle for which he was contending, while the consequence of acting upon a different principle in those cases in which a longer time than two months had elapsed was, that many captains were extremely unwilling to return to the service to be placed under the command of those who had been their lieutenants, and that in doing so they were animated by the hope, that when the attention of the authorities was directed to the grievance of which they complained a remedy for it would be provided. The authorities, however, seemed determined to adhere to the rule which they had laid down upon the subject, but 1102 as it could not be defended upon the grounds of equity, he thought that the sooner it was departed from, the better. The subalterns ought to have, in the first instance, he contended, come in for their due share of the reduction; but that not having been the case, they ought not, at all events, to be allowed the privilege of holding a superior rank to those officers who had originally been their seniors. Entertaining those opinions, he begged to move the Address of which he had given notice.

§ MR. SPEAKER
having asked if any hon. Member was prepared to second the Motion,

COLONEL NORTH
said, he should be happy to do so; but he must at the same time observe, that there would be found to be great difficulties in the way of carrying out the objects which the hon. and gallant General sought to attain. He (Colonel North) was one of those who had most strongly protested against the injustice of reducing the officers in question, but how the grievances of which they complained were to be redressed he did not clearly understand. He thought it better on the Whole, to leave the matter in the hands of the authorities.

GENERAL PEEL
said, he would admit that those captains who had been placed upon half-pay very naturally complained of the hardship under which they laboured in having originally been put on the non-effective list, as well as in finding themselves upon their return to the service occupying a position under those officers of whom they had previously been the seniors. He felt, however, at the same time perfectly assured that the hon. and gallant General who had made the present Motion must feel that it would be absolutely im- 1103 possible to make an exception in favour of the particular officers to whom he referred without making the rule extended to them applicable to the entire army. It was invariably the case, that when an officer who had been on half-pay rejoined his regiment, he was placed at the bottom of the rank to which he belonged. To act upon the contrary principle, would be to do an injustice to those officers who had purchased their promotion in the service upon the faith of the system which was actually in operation, and unless the hon. and gallant General was prepared to reverse the entire system upon which such promotions proceeded, he (General Peel) did not see how the object of the Motion could be accomplished. He had not been in office at the time when the reduction of the officers in question had been carried into effect, and he could not, therefore, be justly held to be responsible for that step. It had resulted, he believed, in placing upon half-pay thirty-six captains of cavalry and 171 of infantry, out of which number 195 had already been brought back to active service; and although it might be a great hardship to those officers to find themselves at the bottom of the list, yet he could not help thinking that a much harder case still was, that of those officers who happened to have been for years upon half-pay, and many of whom would be glad to return to the service upon similar terms. While, therefore, he was ready to admit the existence of the hardship to which the hon. and gallant General had called the attention of the House, he did not see how it was possible to make the exception for which he contended.