Page:The supersession of the colonels of the Royal Army.djvu/17

 and Sir Charles Yorke and Lieut. General Cameron, in dissenting from the Report, state that the proposals suggested would be "a very inadequate remedy for the injury of which the British Army, as our Report shows, have good reason to complain."

Nothing further was done in the matter till well on in the Session of 1870, when arrangements of a most unsatisfactory nature, and which were almost resented as being worse than the evil they were designed to remedy, were made by Mr. Cardwell and the Duke of Argyll.

In consequence of this, I was asked by some of the injured Colonels to take up their case in the House of Commons; which I accordingly did, and gave notice that I should move for a Select Committee to inquire into the subject. The Government opposed my motion; but on the night upon which it was to come on, I had such an enormous majority at my back, that they gave in and granted me the Committee.

Now begins the almost incredible part of the story, to which I desire particularly to draw the attention of Members of the House of Commons.

On Tuesday, the 28th of June, it was ordered

"'That a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into complaints of hardships urged on behalf of the Colonels of the British Army in consequence of their supersession by the Colonels of the Indian Army,'"

and on Wednesday, 6th July, 1870, the following Select Committee was nominated:—