HC Deb 28 June 1861 vol 164 cc69-70

House in Committee, Mr. MASSEY in the Chair.

(In the Committee.)

Motion made, and Question proposed, That a sum, not exceeding £261,014, be granted to Her Majesty, to defray the Charge of the Educational and Scientific Branches, which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1862, inclusive.

MR. G. W. HOPE

said, he did not propose to enter into a discussion of the new plan of education to be pursued at Sandhurst, but it must be obvious to the Committee that if they granted money to carry it out they would make themselves parties to the plan, and be responsible for it. They were, therefore, justly entitled to ask for full information, and he desired to know when papers would be produced, showing how the money voted would be expended?

MR. T. G. BARING

said, the detailed regulations, which would show in every particular what the new system of education would be, were nearly completed, but had not been submitted to the Queen for Her approval. If approved they would be published, and laid before the House. That course would take only a few weeks, and then any hon. Gentleman who objected to the arrangements would have an opportunity of calling the attention of the Government to his objections.

MR. G. W. HOPE

said, he desired to know whether the hon. Gentleman would give a pledge that the money voted the other night should no be expended in the meantime?

MR. T. G. BARING

said, that on a former occasion he offered to do so if the House would follow the course he then proposed. It refused to agree to his proposition, and he was now not prepared to give any such pledge.

MR. MONSELL

asked why the age at which cadets were to be admitted to Woolwich had been altered?

Mr. T. G. BARING

said, that in accordance with the opinion of the Committee of Council on Military Education, the maximum age at which cadets could be received into the College had been fixed at nineteen instead of twenty years as formerly.

MR. MONSELL

, with great respect for the Council on Military Education, must say he differed very much with them. The system hitherto had been entirely successful. It was notorious that the Universities were great feeders of the Military Academy, but the change of the maximum age from twenty to nineteen would practically shut out young men at the Universities, and he understood there had been a strong protest from Cambridge on the subject. The subject had been brought before the House of Commons some four or five years before, and the House refused by its vote to agree to change now made by the Government, and he believed there had been something like a pledge on the subject. He believed it was an effort on the part of the Government to defeat the new system of examinations, and he for one protested strongly against a course which would lead to disastrous results.

MR. T. G. BARING

said, he would promise to consider the subject. He was not aware that any pledge had been given by the present Government.