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 efforts aimed at promoting economy and increased efficiency in the existing administrative body. By an order in council, February 1870, he carried into effect new regulations for promotion and retirement, and revised and reduced the list of officers. In dockyard management he effected some material economies and improvements, and in the matter of shipbuilding determined on the building of an annual tonnage in peace time. His administrative reforms at the admiralty tended to substitute individual for board responsibility, and to enlarge the powers of the first lord (, Naval Administration). He was the first to aim at making England's fleet equal to that of any two other maritime powers (Life, i. 172-173), and in 1869 he came to the conclusion that it would be prudent to purchase the Suez Canal shares; that was afterwards done by Disraeli (ib. i. 230). In March 1871 Childers resigned office, his health being materially affected on the loss of his second son, Leonard, in the foundering of the Captain, 7 Sept. 1871 [see ]. The public confidence in his administration was such that his retirement was described in the 'Times' newspaper as constituting 'a national calamity.' Recovering his health by a period of travel on the continent, he again took office in August 1872 as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. On this occasion (15 Aug.) he was re-elected for Pontefract after a contest which was the first to take place after the passing of the Ballot Act. When, however, the administration was remodelled in 1873, Childers retired from office, making way for Bright.

In opposition Childers was not prominent in the House of Commons. Except when he was personally affected, his energies were rather directed to the commercial undertakings in which he was interested than to the conduct of party warfare. In July 1875 he went to Canada on Lord Dufferin's invitation to settle a land dispute in Prince Edward Island, but the sudden death of his wife in November following withdrew him for a time altogether from public life. In 1880, when Gladstone came again into power, he gave new proof of his confidence in Childers, appointing him secretary of state for war. In this capacity he was responsible for the administration of the war office during the Transvaal war of 1881 and the Egyptian campaign of 1882. He was not slow to display at the war office qualities similar to those he had exhibited at the admiralty. The introduction of the territorial system into army organisation and the linking of line and militia battalions had already been recommended by Colonel Stanley's committee in 1875, and this recommendation the new secretary for war determined to carry into law. He produced his scheme of army reform in a speech in the House of Commons on 3 March 1881 (published 1881), and the bulk of his proposals were carried into effect. Despite very considerable opposition, originating from the service itself, the single battalion regiments with their numerical designations were now done away with and replaced by an entirely new organisation on a territorial basis. The popularity of the service was at the same time enhanced by the granting of greater inducements in the way of pay, pension, and rank to non-commissioned officers, and by the abolition of flogging. With the object of securing greater efficiency in the ranks, the period with the colours was extended from six to seven or eight years if abroad, and efforts were made to gradually raise the age for enlistment. The new organisation thus instituted proved successful, and afforded a means, before lacking, of making a more effective use of the militia and volunteer forces.

After the close of the Tel-el-Kebir campaign, to the success of which Childers's administration of the war office contributed not a little, he was offered, but declined, a G.C.B.; and at the close of 1882 he was chosen to succeed Gladstone as chancellor of the exchequer. He had established a reputation for financial ability when secretary to the treasury, and during his parliamentary career had exhibited a remarkable capacity for mastering finance accounts and the statistical abstracts (, Recoll. ii. 309). A surplus of more than two and a half millions enabled the new chancellor in his first budget, 1883-4, to remit taxation. The income-tax was reduced from 6½d. to 5d., the railway passenger duty on all fares of 1d. per mile and under was abolished by the Cheap Trains Act, 1883, and provision was made by the setting aside of 170,000l. for the introduction of 6d. telegrams. In 1884 revenue and expenditure nearly balanced, and there was little opportunity for financial ingenuity; in his financial statement, however, on 24 April 1884 Childers dealt with the question of light gold, but his gold coinage bill for the conversion of the half-sovereign into a token worth only 9s. was so generally opposed to public opinion that it was abandoned on 10 July. In the same statement he explained his scheme for the conversion of the existing 3 per cents, into a 2½ or a 2¾ per cent, stock. The bill for this purpose was passed on 3 July