Lord Wolseley on Tuesday made a highly optimist speech to
the North London Rifle Club. No one can be more com- petent to judge, and, according to him, the Fighting Services were never in so good a position. "Thanks to the energy of the English people during the last two years," the English Navy would in the immediate future be the "most powerful organisation of all the navies of the world." There "had never been an Army in his time which could compare with the Army at the present time," a fact mainly due, as he believed, to the adoption of promotion by merit, instead of by seniority. The Militia, also, was "in a fair way ;" the Volunteers had received a new rifle, which had been carefully tested, and was "second to none in the world ;" and even the Yeomanry, a force supposed to be dying, had suddenly "turned the corner." Their numbers had increased, and men of much finer physique were joining the force, and showing a new desire to become soldiers. The whole statement is most satisfactory, but we wish Lord Wolseley had explained that last statement of his a little, as it is of some social interest. What has happened to the Yeomanry P Have the farmers' sons become bigger men
during the past seven years of bad crops and low prices P Or has some new class acquired money enough to keep horses fit for cavalry work ? Or has the work itself become more attractive, and if so, to what is that alteration due P
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