When I wrote lust week Viscount Wolseley had just delivered his vindica~ tion in the House of Lords. He did not have it all his own way, however. The Marquis of Lansdowne was, it is true, quite unable to reply to the most telling passage in the ex-Commander-in-Chief's speech, in which he asked, "If I was so inefficient why did you never give. me a hint of ity Why did you not accept my resignation when I tendered itt" But on all other points, or nearly all other points, I think any unbiassed critic must come to the conclusion that the es-War Minister had the best of the duello. Lord Wolseley complains that the office of Commander-in-Chief is, under the present system, invested with too little authority. Lord Lansdowne's reply makes it pretty clear that, whether this is the case or not, Lord Wolseley did not make the best of the authority and opportunities which he wndoubtedly possessed ax principal expert adviser to the War Office. Probably the most logical plan when our military was reorganised would have been to abolish the office of Commander-in-Chief altogether, 2s the Hartington Commission recommended; but that title was really retained as a concession to a sentiment in the army
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.