THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONsaid, before you leave the Chair, Sir, I wish to Bay a word or two in explanation of something I stated a few nights since in reference to the subject of Depot Battalions, because I regret that what I then said should have occasioned some misapprehension in the minds of the Inspector General of Infantry and of some of the officers in command of these battalions. I said on that occasion that I believed that officers in command of regiments generally preferred that young officers and recruits should join the head-quarters of their regiments at once, instead of going first of all to the depôt battalions, because, when they joined their regiments, they had frequently to spend some little time in unlearning what they had previously 242 acquired at the depôt. Now, I did not in the least mean to say that recruits or young officers usually learnt anything at the depots which was in any way injurious or contrary to the principles of the drill to which they would afterwards be subjected. All I meant was that regimental officers generally had their own system, and that they liked their recruits to fall into that system as soon as possible. If an absolute uniformity of drill and discipline prevailed in the British army, then the depot battalions or some such system would be necessary, but in the ordinary relations of our army such absolute uniformity does not exist. Therefore, without in the least degree discrediting the exertions of the Inspector General of Infantry and the officers in command of the depots, I think that the efficiency of the British army will not be injured by the abolition of the depôt system. I only wish to state now that nothing could be further from my intentions, and from the opinions of the Secretary of State and the Commander-in-Chief, than to impute the slightest fault to the Inspector General of Infantry or to the officers in command of depot battalions, because I believe that they are not only most excellent officers but that they admirably discharge the duties of their office.