Page:The supersession of the colonels of the Royal Army.djvu/7

 THE

OF THE

came into office he found, ready cut and dried, a grievance of a very grave character, under which the Colonels of Her Majesty's Army were suffering.

At that time the grievance complained of might easily have been removed by the exercise of very little liberality and energy on his part, and as every week that passed added to the hardship, one would have supposed that Mr. Cardwell would have lost no time in settling it one way or another; more especially as the Officers affected were some of the oldest and most distinguished in the service, deserving a certain amount of respectful consideration from the fact of their having commanded Her Majesty's Regiments, many of them in the Crimea and in India, while some of them had even held independent commands before the enemy, and others had filled