The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-23 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1871.

THE rejection of• Mr. TREVELYAN'S motions
touching army reorganisation is much to be regretted.
They were needed to complete the scheme of reform.
introduced by the Government, and it is more than
probable that the refusal to entertain them will in-
flict fatal injury on the whole plan. The resolutions
declared it expedient to subject the office
of Commander-in-Chief to the same rule of
five years' tenure that applies to other
posts, and to erase from the estimates certain items
of useless expenditure. The first proposition had
really, though not ostensibly, two objects. If
adopted and carried out it would secure a periodical
infusion of new ideas into the leading council of the
army, and it would have the effect, the importance
of which the reformers did not disguise,
of removing the present COMMANDER - IN-
CHIEF,
whose tenure is practically unlimited.
Both aims are just. It is easy to defend the general
principle that the Commander-in-Chief should re-
main in power for a limited period, and not as long
as he lives or chooses. Nothing is more prejudicial
to the interests of the army than the retention
at its head of men whose military reputation
was made in a past age, and who are
unalterably prejudiced in favour of old and obsolete
systems. The Duke of WELLINGTON himself was
prone to this errcr. Even he could not persuade
himself that methods which had succeeded in the
Peninsula would not answer equally well after thirty
years of progress. If such- a commander failed to
march with the times, can we be sure that any other
army ruler will do better? War is essentially a
.progressive science. It is not the nation which
merely keeps abreast of its competitors that will
triumph, but the nation which, by judicious selection
of novelties, gets en advantage of all others. This
end cannot be secured unless fresh ideas are con-
stantly brought to bear upon military administration.
Such is the general principle by .which the office
of commander ought to be regulated, and by which
Mr. Trtßviminri sought to regulate it. The rule
applies with special force to the Duke of CAMBRIDGE.
His position is exactly parallel to that of a Ministry
discredited through the adoption by Parliament of a
policy which it has consistently and recently
opposed. It was impossible for Mr. _DISRAE. LI

to disestablish the Irish Church. It ought,
on the same principle, to be impossible for
the Duke of CAMBRIDGE to thoroughly dis-
establish the bad and wasteful system which
he has 'so long upheld. It often hap-
pens, it is true, that Ministries veer gradually round
in favour of measures they once discountenanced.
But this interesting process cannot be effected
all at once. Not only has the FIELD-MARSHAL
COMMANDING-IN-CHIEF persistently supported
abuses which now stand condemned, but
only a year ego he, without provocation,
at a time when the country was thinking of army
reform, went out of his way to inform the public that
he would not sanction any changes. An officer of
these views ought not to undertake to demolish the
system so dear to .him. If he does undertake to do
so, the country cannot feel confidence in the efficacy
of the work. Fresh men for fresh measures is a rule
that applies to military as well as to other matters.