The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-17 00:00:00

THE ARMY REORGANISATION BILL.

The Times says !—lt is the fate of some characters always
to enjoy what is called npan the stage " un meal (Pastime
and not a few of Mr. Cardwell's friends were ready:to fear
before he rose last night that this would be the only reward
of his speech expounding the Government plan of army or-
ganisation. The result happily falsified their anticipations.
Received at first by it House full, indeed, but dull and so
subdued as to chill the ardour of the most sanguine, Mr.
Cardwell, nevertheless, went doggedly at his task, and pur-
sued his equable way so smoothly and so steadily, that it
was soon seen he was getting through a difficult piece of
work remarkably well. A real reorganisation of
the army required an abolition of the system of
purchase, and of the privileges of the Lords Lieutenant.
It required that the several parts of our military forces
should be worked together, so that each should in turn
depend upon and support the others. • It required also
some securities that the officers of the new army should
be abreast of the knowledge awl practice of their time,
that the inefficient and retrograde should be weeded
out to make room for the intelligent and the ac-
tive. All this the Government plans, as explained,
by Mr. Cardwell, promise to accomplish, and it is not
surprising that the House should have been content, and
even more than content, with the scheme he developed.
The main outlines of the scheme are unquestionably com-
prehensive, if not going beyond the necessity of the time
or the development of public feeling, It will work an
immense change in the organization of Our military
service, and if it leaves points untouched that
require attention, it will in a very short time provoke
such a degree of attention to them that it will be impos-
sible to permit them to continue neglected. The great
merit of the Government scheme is, perhaps, this—that
whatever it does is good, and it will introduce into the
army vivifying influences that will grow stronger and
stronger, till they compel the gradual perfection of the

service.

The Morning Post believes that, on the whole, it may
safely be said that no such comprehensive soheme
of military reorganisation. has ever been presented
to Parliament before. At the same time, it
is the simple truth to say that on some vital
points the Government plan stops short of
what is absolutely requisite to make the defensive
forces of the country thoroughly effective. Mr. Card-
well certainly has not attempted to " glide over the sur
face and to make only a partial arrangement." But, in
failing to make short service compulsory, to found with-
out delay the system of campaign manoeuvres, to pro-
vide every regular regiment with a second battalion,
to leaven the militia with regularly trained soldiers,
and to make the discipline of the volunteers more strict
he has marred the completeness of the scheme. But as
the Estimates were incomplete without the statement, so
the statement is really incomplete without the bill, and
possibly the details of the bill may throw a new light upon
the whole question. Anyhow, a vast step in army
reform has been made even as the bill stands. It is
to be hoped that in committee the Government will con-
sent to certain modifications and additions without which
the measure will scarcely ensure the attainment of the vital
ends in view.

The Telegraph ventures to think that the country will
breathe freely after reading the comprehensive speech in
which Mr. Cardwell expounded, last evening, the views
of the Government with respect to the reorganisation of
our military forces. The scheme of the Government is
characterised by that thoroughness of grasp and
comprehensive mastery of details which have marked all
their measures, and made their success in Parliament a
certainty beforehand. It has striven to achieve a sweeping
but necessary reform with the utmost consideration to the
feelings and interests of individuals. The general effect of
the whole scheme is to introduce an unity of principle and a
facility of combination into the administration of our
military forces which they have hitherto lacked. They
are to be blended as much as possible into one harmo-
nious power. Regiments are to have local designations,
and to be attached to certain districts. 'rise variou
branches of the service are to be under the
government of the responsible Commander-in• Chief,
and the forces located in any district are to be under the
direct rule of the General commanding in that district,
and subject to one uniform discipline when they are
called out for the purpose of military exercises.
The scheme was received with great favour by
the House, and Mr. Cardwell may congratulate
himself on the conclusive answer which he has made to
the unreasoning critics who have clamorously condemned
him without a hearing. For ourselves it is
enough to say that we welcome, in the Army Bill of
the Government, a plan of military reform which is based
on a system that we have strenuously advocated for
years.

The Daily News remarks :—Mr. Cardwell's Army
Reform Bill deserves to be welcomed as a broad, bold, and
thoroughgoing endeavour to place the military system of
this country on a national and popular basis, and to
bring it into accordance with the pervading
'spirit of all our civil institutions in an age of
free competition, of open careers, of promotion by merit,
of payment by results. Doubtless it would be easy to
point out its large omissions, and instead of indicating and
commending what it does, to comment on and censure all
that it leaves undone. If Mr. Cardwell has spared
the highest branches of the old tree, he has
laid his axe to its root. We shall have abundant leisure
to dilate, if we please, on all the shortcomings of this
Army Reform. Let us be content for the moment to in-
dicate its effects. It bears the character and impress of
the great measures of Irish policy in the two preceding
sessions. It stops short of the theorists ; it goes
as far as practical and decisive, though limited,
action can go at once. If it does not wholly satisfy the
furthest demands of Mr. Trevelyan and those whc have
followed his banner, it concedes something ; and it con-
veys the wholesome moral, that popular agitation suc-
ceeds, and deserves to succeed, when it is practical in its
aims, and positive in its propositions ; and when, instead
of beating the air, it condescends to deal with dry figures
and plain facts.
The Standard observes :—The army scheme of Mr.
Cardwell is "a thing of shreds and patches"—an elabo-
rate provision of a great many little devices, not for the
solution, but the avoidance of the great problem
of national defence, which was set before the
Government. There is a little plan for increasing the
regular army, and a little plan for encouraging and
developing what are called the " auxiliary forces."
There are numerous little ways by which the military
service is sought so be made snore popular, or rather more
in accordance with accepted Liberal theories. There is a
little of short service for the regulars—a little of extra
drilling for the militia—a little of scientific training for
the volunteers. There is a little localisation, a little
concentration of authority, and a little pulling together of
the various elements of the army. The leading idea of Mr.
Cardwell's scheme is, however, simple arithmetical in-
crease. The number of artillery is to be increased, the num-
ber of cavalry, and the number of infantry. The army
reserves are to be permitted r. ;ecrease if they can. The
number of breech-loaders is to be increased, and so anxiou
is Mr. Cardwell to do perfect justice to the inventions of
every age that, with a stolid fatuousness which becomes
laughable from its impenetrability to all criticism, he
would increase the stock of Sniders as well as the stock
of Martini-Henrys. The only wonder is that he
has not proposed to make new cross-bows or new
catapults to be kept "in store." The few real reforms of
any boldness which Mr. Cardwell has proposed, are re-
forms on which we are all unanimous, and which could no
longer be deferred. The other features of the Government
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The Al Advertiser considers that there is very
litTtlebreidnini toi a vast deal of sack in Mr. Cardwell's
speee •
h Eight or nine millions to abolish purchase is a
heavy item, and may be put down as the " sack " which
will draw heavily on the nation in the shape of income.
tax. But the rest is all tinkering on the smallest scale.
We have stated our belief that this is not the proper
time, at a crisis so alarming, to enter upon so large
an expenditure in the way of army social reform. Eight
or nine millions spent in guns and gunboats might place
England in a position to make the next Blue-book publi-
cation of correspondence between herself and her foreign
dictators less degrading and less disgusting in the eyes of
those who have not lost all English self-respect and feeling.
There is nothing broad, solid, assuring, or really economic
in Mr. Cardwell's " plan"—nothing generous nor en-
couraging towards the soldier—nothing to give the nation
confidence and warmth—nothing to inspire her councils
with new-born courage and firmness, nor her foes with
respect. What cares Count Bismarck whether we
abolish army purchase or not ? He will merely
say, with cynical effrontery, " These doomed idiots
have begun just where they should have thought of leav-
ing off." On the whole Mr. Cardwell's highly-laboured
speech. is most unsatisfactory in a practical point of
view. He labours to create a paper army, which is,
after all, not so numerous by half as the work-
ing elite of the German army, nor by one-fourth as
the German forces, including their Landwehr and Land-
sturm ; and this without artillery, save for a little more
than a third of the proposed forge, and without any solid
reality beyond about one-half of the field-state which he
has named as the future army of Great Britain.