1872] REORGANISATION OF THE ARMY 471 parties both as to the legality and the wisdom of the Government policy. By the people at large it was accepted, without complaint of the method employed, with approval of the object gained. Reorganisation of the Army. 1872. The organisation of the army thus became the duty of the Government of the day; and in the following year, on moving the estimates, Mr. Cardwell explained in detail the scheme he intended to adopt. The German organisation which had produced such great results was necessarily taken as the groundwork of the arrangement, but so modified as to suit the peculiar requirements of the English army. The objects which Mr. Cardwell set before him were the localisation of the regiments, the establishment of an army sufficient at once for foreign service and for home defence, and a ready means for raising both the home and foreign regiments on any emergency to their full strength. The country was divided into districts, in each of which a central depot was established, where the home battalions of the local regiments were stationed, with which during their period of service the militia regiments of the districts were brigaded. The volunteers were likewise brought under the same general system. To remove the evils which had attended the system of long service, and to pass a greater number of men through regular training, a short service was introduced. Recruits were to enlist for twelve years; for seven of these they were to serve with the colours and then pass for the remaining five into the army reserve, still liable to be called out for foreign service. Each regiment of the line being divided into two battalions, while one remained at home the other was employed on foreign service, the intention being that at least onehalf of each arm of the service should be constantly at home. Along with this arrangement went a considerable amount of decentralisation, each military centre being in many respects complete in itself. But unity was given to the whole by a new arrangement of departments. The Secretary of State for War was responsible for the whole working of the machine. The three branches, presided over respectively by the Commander-in-Chief, the Surveyor-General of Ordnance, and the Financial Secretary, were brought together at the War Office. The Commander-in-Chief was given the command of all the land forces of the Crown whether at home or abroad. The Quartermaster-General, hitherto a rival and co-ordinate power, was subordinated to the Adjutant-General, who became practically what is known as Chief of the Staff. Considerable complaints were made as to several points in the scheme; short service was held to deprive the army of its chief element of steadiness-the presence of veteran soldiers; the esprit de corps which forms so large a factor in the efficiency of a regiment was thought to be weakened by the change of name which the regiments underwent and by the destruction of the privileges and peculiarities of various corps, which was a necessary consequence of the scheme of reorganisation; while as a matter of fact the frequent demands of foreign service have prevented that balance between the home and foreign regiments which was essential to the completeness of the scheme. But there can be little question that taken as a whole,— including as it did a considerable amount of decentralisation, the establishment of better arrangements for commissariat and transport, higher requirements for obtaining commissions, and a general unity of system, the scheme was a great and valuable one. Failure of the One other reforming attempt, meeting with much the same reception as the Army Bill, occupied the attention of Parliament in 1871, and was not completed till the following year. This was Mr. Forster's Ballot Bill. Its object was to render secret voting necessary both in municipal and parliamentary elections, and generally to secure the purity of elections. Though introduced early in the session, its discussion was long postponed by the debates upon purchase. Mr. Gladstone, who had previously opposed the principle, now became its most ardent supporter. The feeling in the House was however not strong in its favour, the Opposition pursued the same course of obstruction as had delayed the Purchase Bill, and though the Government and its supporters adopted the very unusual policy of allowing its opponents to speak unanswered, it was very late in the session before the Bill could be got through the House. Full of anger against the Ministry, and not observing any great or general feeling in favour of the Bill, the House of Lords threw it out by a very large majority. The year was indeed one of legislative failures. Mr. Bruce had vainly endeavoured to advance the cause of temperance by a Licensing Bill; the interest of the licensed victuallers was too strong for him, and it had been withdrawn. A Bill introduced by Mr. Goschen for the reform of local government and taxation met the same fate. In fact of more than one hundred Ministerial Bills the Universities' Test Bill was alone passed. Nor was the financial scheme of the Government more successful. Although the receipts of the last year had largely exceeded the estimates, Mr. Lowe, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, reckoned that, on account of the outlay rendered necessary by the abolition of purchase and the other improvements in the army, there would be a 18711 FAILURE OF THE BUDGET 1871. 473 This he deficit for the coming year of more than £2,000,000. proposed to meet by alterations in the probate and succession duties, by an increased income-tax raised on a system of percentages and amounting to 10s. 8d. per cent., and by a tax upon matches. On this latter point he explained the immense waste and the immense consumption, and calculated that a duty of a halfpenny on Matchbox-tax a hundred would produce a very large sum. He pro- thrown out. posed that the tax should be collected by means of stamps attached to each box, and suggested the punning motto, "Ex luce lucellum." No one of his propositions met with approval. The match manufacturers of the East End feeling that the matchtax would fall chiefly upon them, made a violent opposition to it, and the very poor class employed in the manufacture expressed their disapprobation by crowded processions to Westminster; the wealthy classes regarded the alteration of the succession duties as an assault upon property; while the collection of the income-tax upon percentage instead of by a definite sum per pound excited general suspicion. It was found necessary to withdraw the whole Budget, and to substitute for all the various methods of Mr. Lowe a simple addition of 2d. in the pound to the income-tax. Gladstone's speech. This year of failures had so loosened the hold of the Government upon the people that it was not without serious marks of disapprobation that the Prime Minister presented himself in the autumn to his constituents at Greenwich. The speech Greenwich he then delivered was a remarkable effort, and secured for the moment a complete triumph. He was obliged to confess that nothing had been done except the abolition of purchase, but upon this he laid great stress, excusing the want of success in other directions upon the ground that it was in accordance with the English custom to think long before adopting changes, and asserting the necessity of the ultimate success of the rejected Bills. He at the same time drew attention in eloquent words to the deeper social movements which underlay the surface of politics, the growing desire for restrictions on intemperance, the necessity of sharing between the rich and the poor the increasing wealth of the country, and of raising the appreciation of honest labour. Yet, although the year 1872 somewhat redressed the disasters of the preceding year and the Government was enabled to pass several important measures, it had received a blow from which it never properly recovered. Its very successes in some respects tended to increase the disfavour with which it was regarded. The Ballot Bill Popularity of Government decreased by passage of the Ballot and Licensing Bills. 1872. was indeed carried in the face of much opposition, and after a compromise with the House of Lords; but many even among the Liberals regarded secret voting with dislike as contrary to the principles of the Constitution, and as a further step towards annihilating the influence of wealth and education. The abortive Licensing Bill of the preceding year was reproduced in a moderate form, and was successfully carried through the House. It contained provisions against adulteration, organised the licensing bodies both in counties and boroughs, leaving the power of licensing in the hands of the magistrates, and fixed the hours during which public-houses could be open; eleven o'clock in the country and twelve o'clock in London was the hour appointed for closing. But the Bill though not otherwise than moderate excited the anger of the licensed victuallers, and aroused the feelings of many of the lower classes, who disliked the restrictions laid upon their habits, and clamoured vehemently against the advantages accorded to the wealthier classes by the exception of clubs and hotels from the action of the new law. By many also the attempt to enforce virtue by legislation was regarded as a step in the wrong direction. The Budget, though simple and easy, did little towards restoring the prestige of the Ministry. The receipts so far exceeded the estimated expenditure that a surplus of more than £3,000,000 resulted, but Mr. Lowe contented himself with half, thus undoing what he had done the preceding year-withdrawing 2d. from the income-tax, and lessening the duty upon coffee by one-half. But the very existence of the large surplus, and the simplicity with which it was handled, seemed a confession that previous estimates had been erroneous, and the contemplated changes proposed in the previous year ill-judged. It was not however the legislation of the Ministry alone which naa Discontent with shaken their popularity. No doubt there was a general feeling that they were guided by a vexatious eagerness for uncalled-for reforms and guilty of want of tact in carrying them out. But still more dangerous to them was the growing opinion that they were inclined to tamper in their management of foreign affairs with the honour of the country. The FrancoGerman war, the Black Sea Conference, the Treaty of Washington, each in turn afforded ground for charges of the kind. the management of the Foreign Office. The outbreak of the war in the middle of 1870 had been somewhat Origin of the a surprise to Europe. There was every appearance of peace, when among the candidates for the vacant throne of Spain there appeared a Prince of the Hohenzollern House, and it Franco-German War. 1870] THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR 475 Candidate for Spain. at once became apparent that the signs of peace were fallacious. The misgovernment of the Queen of Spain had led in 1868 to a revolution which drove the Bourbons from the throne, and since that time Serano, acting as Regent, and Marshal Prim as Commander-in-Chief and Minister, had carried on a pro- the throne of visional government with the avowed intention of ultimately re-establishing the government of the country upon a constitutional basis. The difficulty was to find a sovereign at once acceptable to the people of Spain and to the Powers of Europe. Many candidates had been proposed; among them the most prominent was the Duke of Montpensier, the son of Louis Philippe. But as a vote of two-thirds of the Cortes was necessary to secure the acceptance of any candidate, and none of them had as yet gained sufficient popularity to allow of the hope of such a result being obtained in their favour, General Prim looked elsewhere for a candidate. He had found a man whom he believed answered his requirements in Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen, who was indeed distantly connected with the Prussian House, but far more nearly with the supporters of the Napoleonic tradition, for one of his grandmothers was a Murat, and the other a Beauharnais. There was no reason to suppose that such a candidate would be distasteful to the French Emperor. But events had occurred in France which induced Napoleon to desire a foreign war. Opposition to his personal rule had increased to such an extent that he had found it necessary in 1869 to promulgate changes in the constitution, giving it a greater appearance of liberty, and to place the Government in the hands of Ollivier, one of the leaders of the constitutional party. The general election which followed, in spite of the large use of government influence, had resulted, especially in the towns, in the choice of representatives opposed to personal power. But though compelled to adopt the forms of constitutionalism, Napoleon had no intention of surrendering the position he had so long enjoyed. He found as he believed the means of obtaining a renewed lease of power in the application to existing circumstances of the principle which he had always maintained. He called to his aid universal suffrage, and insisted upon superseding the legislative body, and submitting the constitution to the verdict of a plebiscite. He obtained a large majority in his favour, but there was an ominous diminution in the numbers of his partisans as compared with those who had voted for him in 1863; in the large cities his cause was in a minority, and even among the Napoleon's desire for war. |