STATE PAPERS. 



329 



count with the East India Company, 

 presented to the House on the 28th 

 of May, 1816, as follows : — 



Principal, partly esti-T ^^^ ^^ 

 mated J ' 



Interest] 125,000 



£535,000 

 Two regiments of dragoons, and 

 five battalions of foot, are under 

 orders to return, which will re- 

 duce the amount of force stationed 

 in the territorial possessions of the 

 East India Company to very nearly 

 the number of 20,000, provided 

 for by the charter. Every ex- 

 pense belonging to these troops 

 will be borne by the Company up 

 to the period of their landing, 

 when a reduction of numbers to 

 the extent of these regiments and 

 battalions will take place; so that 

 no charge can fall on the public 

 beyond ihe pay and allowances 

 requisite for the short period of 

 effecting that reduction. 



ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE. 



P. 32. (No. 9.) 

 In the Royal Military College 

 every thing seems to be conducted 

 in a manner honorable to those who 

 are in authority, and on a plan 

 conducive to the good education 

 of all classes resorting to it for 

 instruction. Your committee can- 

 not, however, but question the ex- 

 pediency of continuing this esta- 

 blishment on its present extensive 

 scale. They most heartily join 

 in the feelings which would in- 

 duce Parliament to provide for the 

 orphan children of those gallant 

 men who have sacrificed their lives 

 in the service of their country; 

 and also for the children of meri- 

 torious officers now actually serv- 

 ing; but if the whole number at 



present on the establishment are 

 to be provided with commissions, 

 it must unavoidably operate nearly 

 to the exclusion of all other classes 

 from the aimy ; and your com- 

 mittee submit, whether such a 

 system would not be in direct va- 

 riance from what has hither to been 

 practised in this kingdom ; and 

 whether it might not justly be 

 considered as inconsistent with the 

 spirit of our constitution. But if 

 these young men cannot be pro- 

 moted, it is almost superfluous to 

 remark on the inexpediency and 

 eventual cruelty of educating them 

 for stations which they are not 

 likely to fill, and of encouiaging 

 hopes that must be disapi)ointed. 



8ome reductions of expense have 

 already taken place; among which 

 your committee cannot but notice, 

 the voluntary relinquishment of 

 his table allowance by the distin- 

 guished officer at the head of the 

 establishment, accompanied at the 

 same time by a statement, that 

 although an accession of property 

 rendered it unnecessaiy for him to 

 receive any longer this allowance, 

 he wished to be understood as by 

 no means considering it improper 

 to be continued to any officer who 

 might be his successor. Some 

 other reductions may probably 

 still be made, independently of 

 lowering the number of young 

 persons who receive eleemosynary 

 education ; and it well deserves 

 consideration, whether, with re- 

 gard to the senior branch, for 

 which an entirely separate esta- 

 blishment is maintained at Farn- 

 ham, some additional contiibution 

 might not be reasonably demand- 

 ed from the t)fficers who desire to 

 receive the benefits of the mode of 

 instruction there afforded. The 



whole 



