On Monday Lord Wemyss tried to induce the House of
Lords to agree to a Bill enforcing the Militia Ballot. The proposal was, however, and as we think, rightly, opposed by the Government, though in fact Lord Wemyss was only reintroducing the Government's own Bill of a year ago. The most important and interesting part of Lord Lansdowne's reply was that which contained an outline of some of the Government's proposals as to the Militia. After mentioning that there were now nearly twenty-four thousand men en- rolled in the Royal Reserve regiments, and that there were nearly six thousand men in the newly raised batteries of Royal Artillery, he went on to say that the Militia battalions were to have regimental transport, and to have proper and clean clothes, that the officers were to be trained, not at their own, but at the country's expense, that the recruits are to have a longer period of training, and that changes were to be made in the Militia Reserve. All these things, though we hope they do not exhaust the intentions of the Govern- ment as to the Militia, are, of course, to the good, but we cannot help being a little astonished and amused at the tone in which they are spoken of. One would think that the Government was a kind of beneficent old gen- tleman, and the Militia the deserving poor, when its pro- posals are announced in such phrases as "we have given to Militia battalions, for the first time, I think, regimental transport to the extent of five vehicles per battalion and a certain number of horses." It is not sense to talk as if this were a generous concession instead of a mere act of business. When a big farmer finds he urgently needs six more waggon- horses and buys them, he does not talk as if he had played the part of Lord Bountiful to his carters.
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