When the motion thus made room for, actually came on,
on Thursday, Mr. Mundella made a very good speech on economy, but not one in support of his thesis that you might do all you are going to do, or ought to do, and not ask for more money. He inveighed against the disposition of our people to panic, and denied, any tendency of late years to oscillate into parsimony. He stated that £167,000 might be saved in a year by the abolition of sinecure Colonelcies; the pay of the privileged corps might be reduced to the ordinary level ; £40,000 might be- saved in Army agents, now that purchase is to disappear ; paymasters might do much of the work of quarter-masters, and so save £60,000 a year more ; and a great deal might be saved in military prisons, &c., by getting a better class of men, and dismissing all the bad characters of the Army. The cry for- more men should be resisted, and measures taken instead to increase the Reserves,—to induce Militiamen, for instance, when leaving Militia regiments, to join a Militia reserve ; and he quoted
the lines,— 'More men?' More men—that's where we fail,
Weak things grow weaker yet by lengthening; What is the use of adding to the tail When its the head's in want of strengthening?"
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