§ LORD HOTHAMsaid, he was anxious to put a question to the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for War with regard to the state of the Reserve Fund. Few hon. Members were aware of the existence and extent of that fund; and of the mode in which it was disposed 1528 of nobody perhaps knew but the right hon. Gentleman himself. His right hon. Friend would require no assurance that he had no intention to impute to him any misappropriation of the fund; but it was contrary to constitutional practice for any Minister of the Crown to have at his disposal a large sum of money without rendering an account of it. The secret service money was a case in point; it was necessary even there that a statement should be signed by a Secretary or some high officer of State that it had not been improperly disposed of. What might be the increased demands on that fund he had no means of knowing; but certain it was that the fund was largely increasing in consequence of a rule which the right hon. Gentleman had recently made to prohibit the disposal of any first commissions except by purchase, with the exception of those to the military colleges where certificates had been granted entitling the parties to receive commissions. He wished to know whether his right hon. Friend had any objection to lay on the table of the House a statement by which they might be enabled to know the condition of this fund and how it had been disposed of?