5 SEPTEMBER 1868, Page 3

General Peel has addressed a long letter to the Times

in defence of the Tory military expenditure. We have reviewed this letter incidentally elsewhere, and have endeavoured to show how imperfectly it meets Mr. Gladstone ; but we wish, in fairness to one of the ablest and most estimable Tories alive, to give one sentence in extenso :—" This brings me to the state of efficiency in which the Whig Government had left the Army. I have shown that the production of guns, gun carriages, small arms, ammunition, and everything necessary for the equipment of an army was at a standstill, from the patterns not having been decided upon, and on -the 31st March, 1866, there was a deficiency in the number of -men voted by Parliament for that year of no less than 7,154; and this inability to raise the number of men required for the service had been going on for some years." Here, we admit, there is a substantial charge, a charge of inefficiency, which can, we know, be met, but which Lord Hartington should in his next speech 'meet fully.