The Army Debate drags on, the Colonels being resolved to
talk the abolition of Purchase out. OnlIonday, Mr. Muntz moved an amendment in Committee, providing that officers should be paid the regulation value of their commissions at once, and should not receive the over-regulation value from the State at all. His main argument was economy, but he proposed also to substitute seniority for selection, and to accelerate promotion by the bonus system, officers olubbing together to buy their Colonel out. The Colonels- supported the amendment, and the Government opposed it, under- the idea that the officers would have to pay the over-regulation. price, and thus purchase would be maintained ; but having seen• the system at work we are inclined to suspect that Mr. Muntz was too sharp for his military allies. The officers are to enter by competitive examination. That system gives almost a monopoly of office to the cultivated poor, who are as well educated as the rich and work under• a sharper whip. They have to live on their pay, and could not provide the over-regulation money, which the Colonels would consequently either demand from Parliament, or, as it is go without. Mr. Muntz's scheme has, in fact, only one drawback, that it fills the Army with officers a little too old ; but a sharp rule- forcing retirement at sixty,—except in special cases—would very soon remedy that. The system works well in Prussia, and would here, were we not so afraid of dismissing the incompetent. After- s long debate the amendment was rejected by 260 to 195.
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