§ VISCOUNT HARDINGEasked, Whether the Secretary of State for War has considered the propriety of allotting a certain number of marks for proficiency in riding and athletics in the examinations for entrance into Woolwich and Sandhurst Colleges? He thought that the giving of such marks was so desirable that it ought to be the rule in examinations for the Army; though, with candidates for the Militia, he would leave riding and athletics entirely optional. It was hardly necessary to say that proficiency in riding was of great importance to young men who proposed to enter the Cavalry. The Duke of Wellington used to say that he found the best Cavalry officers to be men who had been accustomed to ride to hounds. Now every officer who sought admission to the Staff College must produce a certificate of proficiency in riding. It might be said that a young officer would be taught at Sandhurst all the riding he required. He had nothing to say against the system of instruction in riding at Sandhurst. A large number of young men entered the riding school there who never had been on a horse before; they were made to go over a number of fences, and they got a number of falls which did them all the good in the world; but they could not in a term or two at Sandhurst make a good rider of a young fellow who had never been on a horse till he was 19 or 20 years of age. As regarded athletics, they were now practised at all their public schools, and not unfrequently were a part of the curriculum; but a proportion of the candidates for commissions in the Army were not educated in their public schools. It was to be borne in mind that, while the medical examination of the men was very critical, that of the officers was 352 not very strict. If the heart and lungs of the latter were found to be sound, and they had not varicose veins, they were passed; but very weedy young men might pass the medical examination, and the gymnastic course which the cadets went through in the Military Colleges would not convert a weedy man into a strong one. It was an old saying that no person should go into the water till he knew how to swim. He thought it might fairly be said that no one should go into the Army till he knew how to ride. He would have examinations in four physical exercises—swimming, leaping, walking, and riding; but a boy need not go in for them all—he might even go in for one only; and it might be left to the candidate to choose from among them. He submitted that the examinations should not be, as they were at present, purely intellectual.