§ CAPTAIN HOMEasked the Secretary of State for War, If his attention has been directed to a report in "The Times" of June 21st, of a Deputation to the First Commissioner of Works respecting "the discreditable condition of the Kensington Road," attributed by certain residents in that neighbourhood to "the existence of the Knightsbridge Barracks and their natural associations;" and, whether he is in possession of any information proving the truth or untruth of this and other similar statements which have been recently made reflecting on the character and conduct of the three regiments of Household Cavalry while quartered in Hyde Park?
MR. GATHORNE HARDY, in reply, said, that his attention had been very much directed to this subject, since the deputation referred to. First of all he 791 received a letter from the clergyman at Windsor who had care of the Household Troops, and who was indignant at the charge made against them, as he knew them to be incapable of the conduct attributed to them. He had likewise received many communications on the subject from the commanding officers, the police, and others, and it was universally stated that the conduct of the Household Cavalry at the Knightsbridge Barracks was altogether unexceptionable. No complaints had been made about them by the police or any other persons. Their officers were extremely strict, and they did not frequent any bad house at all. They did not go to houses in the immediate neighbourhood, which he was afraid were kept up by customers of a totally different kind. No complaints on military grounds had been made to the Commander-in-Chief respecting these soldiers, nor was their any foundation for the assertion that they were the cause of any discreditable associations in the neighbourhood of Kensington Gore. His noble Friend the First Commissioner of Works desired him to repudiate in the strongest language the idea that he said anything injurious to the character of the soldiers in these barracks. As to the Cavalry in the Regent's Park Barracks, no complaint had been made of them and no complaint had been made respecting the conduct of the Cavalry in the streets of Windsor. Therefore, he thought the House would agree with him that the officers and soldiers had good reason to feel aggrieved at having imputations cast upon them which they in no way deserved.