The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-18 00:00:00

COLONIAL MILITARY EXPENDITURE.

This committee resumed its inquiry on Thursday.
The members present were—Mr. A. Mills (chair-
man), Mr. Ellice (Coventry), Sir G. Grey, Mr.
Marsh, Lord Stanle) , Mr. Roebuck, Mr. S. Fitz-
gerald, Mr. Adderley, Mr. C. Fortescue, Lord R.
Cecil, Mr. 'l'. G. Baring, and Mr. Baxter.
The Duke of Newcastle was called, and his evi-
dence occupied the whole of the sitting. In reply
to questions by the chairman his grace said—l think
as a general rule a local colonial force is not so de-
sirable or emelent as one periodically relieved trom
the home country—they become too much identified
with the population, and lose their military cha-
racter and discipline. The Canadian Rifles are of
a very different character; generally speaking they
are the elite of the colonial corps, and there is hardly
a man of them who has not three, four, or five
medals for service in different parts of the world.
When I was in Canada last year I asked several
men in authority, of course non-officially, as to
those rifles, and they all said they would like to see
another regiment of them formed.
By Mr. Marsh—With reference to volunteers,
they would be a very bad force to put down riots ;
it would be a very one-sided affair. Ido not look
upon the connection between Canada and England
as a question of dependence ; I regard it as a ques-
tion of the retention of our colonial empire, a mat,
ter of great consideration which I cannot enter into
before this committee. I believe the retention of
our colonial empire is a matter of great importance
to us.

Chairman.—My course during this inquiry has
been to avoid any discussion about retaining our
colonies, and only to consider how we can best de-
fend them.

The Duke, in reply to Mr. Adderley, said—
The Canadian Rifles are so fine a body of men that
I should like to see another regiment of them, but
the colonists consider that they ought not to be
saddled vk ith the cost. I speak of Canada in this
respect as an exception. I do not wish to see a
great extension of that kind of force, as I do not
think it desirable either for the colonies or for this
country. I think the garrisons in Quebec and
Halifax could, in case of an attack from without,
defend themselves for a considerable time till they
got relieved, aided as they would be by a very con-
siderable volunteer force. I think it would be as
hard upon Nova Scotia to ask her to meet the ex-
pense of keeping up the garrison of Halifax as it
would be to inflict upon Hampshire the expense of
keeping up Portsmouth. I look upon Halifax as
an imprial post quite as much as Gibraltar. With
regard to an opinion expressed by Sir A. Banner-
man, that if the fishery question between
England
and France were settled it would not be peCesnrY

PRICE 4D. STAMPED, SD.

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to retain a single British ship of war on the Ame-
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aout this time last year,he English and French
but the treaty hangs now at Paris, and I hope it
will soon be ratified.
The examination of his grace had not concluded
when the committee rose at four o'clock.