The Lords have avoided voting for Purchase, but the speeches
of the majority all show that their wish was to protect that mode of promotion. The Duke of Rutland's point, for example, was that purchase and professional education were quite compatible things ; Lord Harding° held that purchase secured "a rapid flow of pro- motion ;" Lord Vivian believed that better officers could not be found in Europe than those of the British Army ; the Duke of Beaufort thought the feeling of officers was against abolition ; Viscount Melville could not see how Purchase interfered with the effectiveness of our forces ; the Duke of Manchester believed that if properly carried out purchase would do no harm ; Lord Car- narvon, though in theory condemning Purchase, stated that in practice it had prevented the conversion of the officers into a separate caste, that they had hitherto been English gentlemen, rather than professional men with professional polities; Lord Abinger frankly avowed that he was opposed to change because officers liked the system ; Lord Lucan thought it his duty as a soldier to uphold purchase as long as he could ; the Duke of Northumberland objected to every other system of promotion ; Lord Stratford de Redoliffe thought high professional opinion was in favour of Purchase ; Earl Brownlow said selection dis- satisfied the Navy ; and Lord Strathnairn utterly condemned the stagnation of promotion caused by every system except Purchase. It is needless to go further with the list, for not one Peer con- demned both Purchase and the Bill. The true feeling of the Opposition was that Purchase, while not a satisfactory device in itself, did confine the military career, as far as is possible in a . country like this, to the " gentle " class. Strange to say, not one, however, except Lord Carnarvon incidentally, had the courage to affirm what Frederick the Great constantly affirmed, that only the aristocratic sense of honour could be trusted to make officers good. Yet that would have been a far easier thesis to maintain than the fighting power given by a full purse.
