A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator, 1.1 March 1869—Mr. Cardwell introduced the Army Estimates on Thursday, in a speech which delighted the Tories and old soldiers, and amounted to this. He has knocked off a million and a quarter by reducing the Army, chiefly in the colonies, and by not spending much upon stores, but does not intend to introduce any radical re- forms. The abolition of purchase is postponed, the dual government is to be tolerated under cover of an assertion that it does not exist, the patronage of the Militia is to be left to Lord-Lieutenants, and the Volunteers are to be organised as they are. Mr. Cardwell was not ashamed to talk of the Militia as "the constitutional force of England," a "force ever dear to the people of England from constitu- tional antecedents," to tell solemnly bow Lord Seaton had once said that one Militia regiment "was fit to stand by a regiment of the Line," and to de- scribe the Yeomanry as -that ancient and most ex- cellent force." Clearly, the Horse Guards, the Peers, and the Major-Generals have got the exact man they want, but what he does in a Liberal Ministry it is hard to understand.
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