COLONEL NORTHsaid, he would beg leave to ask the right hon. Gentleman at the head of the War Department whether there was any truth in the rumour that it was in the contemplation of Her Majesty's Government to reduce 10,000 of the present embodied militia force?
GENERAL PEELsaid, that the strength of the embodied militia always had depended, and would continue to depend, on the number of men required to complete the establishment voted by Parliament, which during the present year amounted to nearly 22,000. It would depend entirely on the number of regiments sent home from India this year whether that number would be diminished or not. No doubt the rumour had arisen from the circumstance that it was the intention of the Government to disembody some regiments in order to substitute others. The Government did not think it advisable to keep the same regiments embodied for a very great length of time, inasmuch as the men acquired per- 108 manent military habits, and lost all their ordinary connection with the classes from which they were drawn. It was, therefore, the intention of Government to disembody some regiments and call out others, especially in the artillery service, in order to give more opportunities for drilling and practice.