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‘Cardwellian Mysteries’1: The Fate of the British Army Regulation Bill, 1871

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Thomas F. Gallagher
Thomas F. Gallagher
Affiliation:
Xavier University, New Orleans
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Extract

In his volume in the Oxford History of England, R. C. K. Ensor gave us the first scholarly and dispassionate account of the reforms which Edward Cardwell made in the British army between 1868 and 1874. Ensor consciously followed Gladstone, who called Cardwell the greatest war secretary since die era of die Napoleonic wars. Ever since Ensor wrote, it has been impossible to do what Fortescue, the army's historian, did when he wrote whole chapters on the army after the Crimean War without once mentioning the name of Cardwell. Among more recent scholars diere has been a good deal of writing around the subject of the Cardwell reforms widiout actually attacking them head-on. We have a brief biography of Cardwell which quotes at some length from his correspondence, and we have a description of the purchase system in the army. There have been studies of a part of the background of the Cardwell era, and of die working-out of the reforms in the army of the 1870s and 1880s. Two recent works have been rather critical of the value of Cardwell's work.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , June 1975 , pp. 327 - 348
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

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82 Ibid. (24 Apr. 1871), pp. 1619, 1642.

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85 Ibid. p. 861; (18 May 1871), p. 1021; (22 May 1871), pp. 1134, 1170.

86 Ibid. (25 May 1871), pp. 1274–9.

87 Ibid. pp. 1279–81.

88 Ibid. pp. 1284–1303. Those who spoke for Russell's motion included Colonel Corbett, Colonel North, Colonel Ruggles-Brise, Major Dickson, Colonel Barttelot and Colonel Stuart Knox, all Conservatives.

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