§ MAJOR ARBUTHNOTasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether it is his intention to submit any scheme to Parliament this Session framed with the view of meeting the stagnation in the Non-purchase Corps, and calculated to secure a flow of promotion for the future?
§ MR. CARDWELLSir, the right to retire on permanent half-pay after 25 years' service now enjoyed by the Line, will be extended without limit to the Engineers and the Artillery. In the Engineers promotion to the extent of one battalion is conferred at the charge of India, in consequence of the number of officers added to the corps for service in India. In the Artillery it is proposed that the lieutenant-colonels about to be employed in the Reserve Forces shall be supernumerary, and a sum is taken in the Estimates to be distributed in an- 49 nuities to officers who form a portion of the block caused by the abnormal increase made in the time of the Crimean War and Indian Mutiny who may be willing to accept them.