§ LORD EUSTACE CECILsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for War, Whether his attention has been called to the Horse Guards Circular 220, of the 2nd September 1862, by which
No application from any Officer to retire from the Service by the sale of his Commission is, under any circumstances, to be entertained unless the application be accompanied by a Military Medical Certificate of the state of health of the Officer who desires to retire;and, whether he sees any good reason wiry that Order should not be rescinded, and Officers who have contracted mortal disease in the service of their Country should not be permitted to realize the value of their Commissions for the benefit of their wives and families?
§ MR. CARDWELLThe object, Sir, of the regulation is to secure to non-purchase officers that they shall not be deprived of the intended number of commissions. In 1867 the attention of my Predecessor was called by Captain Hayter to a case in which it was supposed that a sale had been effected in violation of the rule, and he pledged himself to take steps to prevent in future an arrangement prejudicial to the interest of the non-purchasing officers. I am not prepared to depart from this engagement.