The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-24 00:00:00

money for colonial fortifications, and urged that in the case
of self-governed colonies, in particular, the cost should be
borne by themselves. He moved the reduction of the vote
by £lO,OOO on that account.

Mr. HALIBURTON said that most hon. members had
heard of Paganini and his wonderful fiddle; it had only
one string, but on it he played many tunes, The hon.
member for Montrose was more fortunate, for the Scotch
fiddle he was so fond of scratching—(oh, oh, and laughter)
—had two strings—subsidies to steamers and colonial forti-
fications. He played upon them every session; but the
fact was that some of the colonies he mentioned bad no for-
tifications at all. He thought it ill-advised that such dis-
cussions should be repeated every year.
Mr. A. MILLS should vote for the motion of his hon.
friend the member tor Montrose. They had spent two
millions upon the fortifications of Bermuda, and they
never had a force there sufficient to resist the attack of
two French frigates. They had no power to man the for-
tifications of the colonies, and insufficiently manned fortifi-
cations were only traps. Their navy was the only proper
defence for the colonies,

Mr. DODSON opposed the motion. He agreed that
England should trust to her naval supremacy for the protec-
tion of her colonies, but fortified places in the colonies were
absolutely necessary for the use of the navy to retire to for
provisions, coals, and repairs. (Hear, hear.)
Colonel NO It,TH opposed the reduction.
Sir G. C. LEWIS said the vote had been set down by the
Government at the very lowest possible sum which was
likely to be sufficient for the defence of the places without
being extravagant. He went through the various items to
show how small they were separately.

After a few words from Mr. Childers, Mr. Baxter, and
Mr. Butt, the committee divided—

For the reduction of the vote
Against it
Majority
The vote was then agreed to. On the vote of £172,201
for military education,
Col. NORTH called attention to the system of marks
adopted at Sandhurst for good conduct. He contended that
those marks ought to take precedence of all other marks on
examinations, and should be then taken into account.

Sir G. C. LEWIS said there was a difficulty in giving
good conduct marks a proper examination value, but he
would take the matter into his consideration.
After some discussion on several items contained in the
aggregate sum, the vote was agreed to. The vote of £85,441
for surveys of the United Kingdom and topographical de-
partment was agreed to, as was also the vote of £88,135 for
miscellaneous services.

Sir J. TRELAWNY wished to know what was the rule
with respect to the appointment of staff officers.
Sir G. C. LEWIS said that the rule was that staff
officers should only be appointed for five years. There
were only three officers on the staff who had not been
re-appointed if they remained on the staff more than five
years, one of whom was the commander-in-chief.
The vote was agreed to.

The following votes were also agreed to : £25,933, rewards
for military services ; £72,782, pay of general officers ;
£464,895, pity of reduced and retired officers; £172,167,
widows' pensions and compassionate allowances ; £32,843,
pensions and allowances to wounded officers; £33,776 in
pensions; and £1,142,702 out-pensions. On a vote of
£144,964 for superannuation allowances,

After a few words from Col. DUNNE and Sir G. C. LEWIS
the vote was agreed to.
The vote for £32,786 for the disembodied militia was then
agreed to and the house resumed.