COLONEL DICKSONrose to ask the late Secretary of State for War whether he had noticed a letter in The Times of the 8th instant, signed "An Officer commanding a Regiment," and dated Portsmouth; and whether, in the statement which he made of our forces at home on the evening of the 5th instant, he included marines ashore, recruits in readiness for India, enrolled pensioners, and Irish police? The letter he alluded to was headed "General Peel and our Army."
§ SIR CHARLES NAPIERrose to order. He believed that the House was going into Committee on the Navy Estimates, and not on the Army Estimates.
§ MR. SPEAKERintimated that the hon. and gallant Colonel was not out of order, as the Question was that the House resolve itself into a Committee of Supply.
COLONEL DICKSONproceeded to read the following extract from the letter in question:—
General Peel is reported to have stated last night that we have in these islands a force of 110,000 men. I should like to know where this force is located. We hear of 20,000 men at Aldershot and of 10,000 at the Curragh of Kildare. Where are the rest? Does General Peel include marines ashore, recruits in readiness for India, enrolled pensioners, and Irish police? I rather think he does, and, as the French Emperor, and, indeed, all foreign Governments, know those matters better than we do ourselves, I may as well mention that such exaggerated statements are but calculated to throw dust in the eyes of the people of this country, who, heavily taxed, expect a respectable and well-trained army for the large sums ungrudgingly voted.He would not trouble the House with the rest of the letter, but commanding, as he 988 did, a regiment at Portsmouth, and having an intimate acquaintance with every branch of the British army, he was competent to form a tolerable judgment as to its condition, and he did not hesitate to say that the letter he had quoted from was a tissue of most unmitigated nonsense. He did not pretend to say that our military organization was perfect, or that reforms were not required, nor would he quarrel with the liberty of the press, to which the army owed so great a debt of gratitude, and he was ready to admit that even when the newspapers published trash under the signatures of "Commanding Officers," "Jacob Omniums," and "Civilians," they caused the subject itself to be thoroughly ventilated, and the cause of truth at length prevailed. But when an officer of rank, described to be actually commanding, stamped with his seeming authority such a document as the one he had referred to, the proceeding was calculated to affect our position in the present critical state of European politics, and the writer of it was guilty of a breach of military discipline. He thought, then, that the military authorities ought to endeavour to discover who the writer was, and to take his conduct into serious consideration.
GENERAL PEELregretted that the time of the House should be occupied so much in asking and answering questions arising out of anonymous letters in the newspapers. For his own part he always treated these personal accusations with the greatest possible contempt. However, as the question put by his hon. and gallant Friend was a proper one, and as it was important that the House should know the exact number of troops that were in the country, he would, without hesitation, reply to it. His hon. Friend the Member for West Surrey (Mr. Briscoe) stated the other night that there were only from 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers in the country, and in noticing his observations, he (General Peel) stated that he was mistaken— that the number of troops in the country amounted to nearly 110,000. He at the same time stated that this number included the embodied militia. It did not, however, include that fine body of men, the marines ashore, the enrolled pensioners, who were certainly fit for better service than the writer of this letter attributed to them; neither did it include the constabulary force of Ireland. He held in his hand the last return made to him before he left office, dated 1st of 989 June, 1859, and in that return he found that the army at homo consisted of: —Cavalry, 11,698; Foot Guards, 6,184; Infantry, 50,032; Horse Artillery, 1,749; Foot ditto, 12,669; Engineers, 1,854: Military Train, 1,861; Medical staff, 375; total regular forces, 86,422. Embodied Militia, 23,218. Total, 109,640. This officer, who described himself as commanding a regiment, said the Artillery was almost in a disgraceful condition. Now, it appeared from the return to which he had referred, that there were about 14,500 Royal Artillery; and besides these there were 5,000 Militia Artillery, and he had the authority of the Commander-in-Chief for saying that the Artillery Force was in a most efficient state. About 180 guns could be turned out to-morrow, if it were necessary, and there were 110 guns in store; and he repeated what he had said on a former evening, that at no time had the Artillery of this country been in a more effective condition.