§ MR. EYKYNsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for War, Whether, in view of the existing and almost total stagnation in promotion in ' the non-purchase corps, as evidenced by the fact that in the (Old) Royal Artillery, numbering over one thousand officers, there has been only one step of promotion over a period of seven months, it is the intention during the present Session to act upon the scheme for promotion in those corps by adopting the recommendations of the Select Committee of 1867, or by any other plan of which the Bill for the Commutation of Pensions might or might not form a part; or when they intend applying any remedy for the dead lock in promotion now existing?
§ MR. CARDWELLsaid, in reply, that the Committee to which his hon. Friend referred had made two recommendations, one of which was that the Government should have the power of purchasing retiring allowances for a capital sum; and the other was an alteration, 996 specified in the Report, of the scale of retirement. The first of these recommendations had been carried into effect by a Bill which, within the last few days, had received the Royal Assent and become law; but there would not be time, during the present Session, to deal with the remaining part of the plan.