§ MR. TORRENSsaid, he would beg to ask the hon. Member for North Lancashire, Whether there are any vacancies in the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum at Wandsworth; if so, what number; and further, will he state whether it is the rule or intention to fill up any vacancies in the Asylum solely with children of soldiers who died in the Crimea, to the exclusion of the children of those who, having served in the Crimea, have since died on service with their regiments in India or elsewhere?
§ COLONEL WILSON PATTENsaid, in reply, that the number of vacancies in the Victoria Patriotic Asylum at Wandsworth was thirty-seven. Those vacancies had been caused by the necessity which the Royal Commissioners were under to provide temporary accommodation for hospital purposes, but they were gradually being filled up, and he believed that the number of three hundred would be completed in a very short time. In reply to the second Question of the hon. Gentleman, he had to state that the institution was originated by the Royal Commissioners of the Patriotic Fund for the education of children of soldiers who had been either killed or wounded, or died from disease contracted during the Russian war. The Commissioners held that the children of such soldiers had the first claim on their attention and the funds of the institution; but it was under the considera-of the Commissioners whether, when all these claims had been met, they should take into consideration the claims of the children of soldiers who had served in the Russian war, but had since met with calamities in other parts of the world. When all these claims had been satisfied, the institution would be applied to the education of the children of soldiers generally.