The fight over the Army Bill in the Lords began
on Thursday, Lord Northbrook leading the way with an excellent exposition of the policy of her Majesty's Government. He denied absolutely that they were without a plan. Their plan was to introduce the Prussian system into this country without compulsory service, by dividing the total forces of the country into districts, linking together Army, Militia, and Volunteers, giving the Militia a first training of three months, allowing officers to transfer themselves from one service to another, raising the Artillery until it was sufficient for an army of 150,000 men, and educating all officers employed. He showed by exhaustive illustrations that none of these things could be accomplished until Purchase had been abolished, and the Crown reinvested with the right .of selecting officers for the Militia, and concluded by an emphatic declaration that all he had said had been said at the very beginning by the Secretary of State for War, and that no portion of the Bill essential to the Government plan had been dropped in the other House.
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