Mr. Cardwell's proposal was, on the whole, very warmly received
in the House of Commons, and will greatly strengthen the Government. There are, of course, an infinity of criticisms to be made. A concession has evidently been made to the Court, and the reorganization of the Militia should be pushed further ; but it is felt that the scheme, as a whole, is up to the requirements of the nation. It abolishes Purchase, thereby throwing commissions open to the whole people. It abolishes the military privileges of those useless dignitaries, the Lords-Lieutenant. It gives the country 300,000 trained and equipped men for home defence, and it enables it, hi any extreme emergency, to send an army of 100,000 men to the Continent, to assist an ally or defend a right. These are great improvements, though they are accomplished at enormous and needless cost,-115,00Q,000 a year, exclusive of the million accidentally wanted for munitions,—and though they do not include the immense boon of military training for the entire people. One year's military instruction in county camps would add one-third to the weight of our population, double its capacity for civil organization, and release England for ever from undignified panics.
