§ MR. LONGFIELDsaid, he rose to ask the Under Secretary of State for War, If the same consideration which is shown to the relatives of Officers who fall in battle will be extended to the relatives of those Officers who lost their lives in the late campaign on the Gold Coast; and if the purchase money for the Commission of the late Major Merrick will be returned to his representatives?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONsaid, in reply, that the Pension Warrant did not sanction the issue of the same pension to the relatives of Officers who had died of disease as to the relatives of those who had fallen in action. With reference to the latter part of the Question the relatives of Captain (not Major) Merrick would not receive the price of his commission, because the Warrant also laid it down that the purchase money should be returned in the case of Officers who had been killed in action, or had died of their wounds within six months; but, as he stated the other night, Captain Merrick landed from the Megæra in August, 1863, and died of fever at Cape Coast Castle in the following October, and had never taken part, as far as he was aware, in any expedition to the interior.