REPORT. (Hansard, 22 July 1862)

§ SIR HENRY WILLOUGHBY
took the opportunity of asking the Secretary for the Treasury, whether it was intended for the future that in the case of all charges connected with Civil Contingencies, they shall form the subject of special Votes to be brought before the House.

MR. PEEL
said, that under the new system every change relating to Civil Contingencies would be made the subject of a distinct Vote.

§ SIR HENRY WILLOUGHBY
said, he also wished to draw attention to the fact that there was no detailed estimate of the Militia Expenditure, similar to that of the Army Expenditure furnished in the Estimates on the authority of the War Office, and wished for an explanation.

SIR GEORGE LEWIS
said, the expenses of the Militia stood on quite a different footing from the expenses of the Army. The Militia Estimates were not in form prepared under the authority of the Crown. They were kept quite distinct from the Army Estimates, and were formally prepared by a Committee of that House. In former times, the privilege of the direct control of the House over the 662 expenditure upon the Militia was highly prized as one of the safeguards of the liberties of the country, the Militia force being considered a constitutional force as distinguished from the King's standing army. Of late years that feeling had undergone an entire change in consequence of the control which the House had acquired over the regular army in Committee of Supply, and there did not seem any very good reason for keeping up the distinction in the mode of preparing the Estimates. It was not, however, a matter on which the Government could with propriety initiate any change; but if the House were to express an opinion that it would be desirable that the Militia Estimate should be prepared by the executive Government, and should in some manner be embodied with the ordinary Army Estimates, it seemed to him that that would be an improvement in their practice, and would lead to a clearer view of the entire expense of our military establishments. They did vote in the Army Estimates the expenses of the Yeomanry and of the Volunteers, and it seemed the practice had been to give a fuller account of the expenditure included within the Army Estimates than of that for the Militia. The accounts for the Militia were kept in the War Office; and if it were the wish of the House that a fuller account should be presented, there would be no difficulty in complying with that desire.

§ SIR DE LACY EVANS
thought it would be better that the Militia Estimates should be embodied with the other Estimates of the Army, and would recommend the Secretary for War to make this change without waiting for a Vote of the House.

SIR GEORGE LEWIS
wished to explain that the Militia Estimates were in fact prepared in the War Office, and were afterwards assented to by the Militia Estimates Committee. The proceedings of that Committee were therefore to a great extent formal.