Mr. Cardwell proposes that in future men shall enlist for
twelve ,years, of which six shall be passed at home in the Reserve. He 'believes that this change will greatly encourage recruiting, which, however, improves. The standard has been raised to 5 ft. 8 ; every recruit who is enlisted when drunk is released, aud every unfit man engaged is charged to the recruiter, that is, the re- cruiter pays the expenses of his medical inspection and his
return home. The consequence of these changes is that recruit- ing is really free, and out of 8,182 recruits sent to their regi- ments in 1869 without escort only seven failed to appear, a result without a parallel in the armies of the world. It is really a splendid change, and suggests the possibility of ulti- mately securing the one great improvement which, if it is ever Adopted, will give us a boundless supply of men, an enlistment
of soldiers on the officers' principle, that except when engaged in actual warfare they are at liberty to depart when they will. We believe that will be tried yet, and then the British Army will be the one really free army in the world.
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