Mr. Childers has been very fortunate. It is evident from
the debate of Thursday that he will pass his Military Estimates, and with them his reforms, without serious opposition. Colonel Stanley, though critical on details, did not really oppose; and though Sir Alexander Gordon was savage on trifles such as the number of kilted regiments, it is evident that the
Army likes the proposed changes. This agreement is fortunate, the first necessity of military reform being that a scheme, if accepted in principle by the War Office, the Horse Guards, and the Army, should be passed as a whole, and passed. quickly. The endless fighting over details daunts reformers, and leads them to the despairing opinion, often expressed by great officers, that reorganisation will come after a groat disaster, and not before. The strongest armies of our day have been remodelled in silence, by small groups of men who have not been compelled to defend audibly every alteration which they felt to be expedient.
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