Mr. Rylands made a very able speech of its kind
against the- proposal to pay the additional £3,000,000 compensation for over- regulation prices, showing that they were paid contrary to law,. indeed under the penalties of a misdemeanour, and that the Horse Guards had again and again stated that if they had any pro- ducible evidence of such prices being given they should interfere and punish the offenders, and yet now it is proposed to raise- £3,000,000 from the pockets of the people to compensate the connections of the richer classes of the community for breaking a penal law. Colonel Leartnouth (M.P. for Colchester) made a gallant little maiden speech of the regular British officer type in favour of purchase ; and then Sir H. Storks, who was defeated by Colonel Learmouth at Colchester, followed with another maideft speech, gracefully made and well received, on the impossi- bility of effecting any real Army reform without getting rid of the innumerable vested interests' which stand in the way of every change, and quoting the authority of Colonel Cameron, of the 4th Regiment, a most eminent officer, who served both in the Crimea and in Abyssinia with the greatest distinction, in favour of the abolition of purchase. The (very wearisome) debate was. adjourned to Monday, Mr. Gladstone in vain conditioning that oa Monday it should end.
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