Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/46

42 of by their commanding officer, and on certain other conditions, with the object of earning the pension after completing twenty-one years' total service. Short service has, no doubt, provided the army with a valuable reserve. But it has, like every other scheme, its shortcomings and drawbacks. The problem which still remains to be solved is whether our recruiting powers will at all times be found equal to the emergency, combined with the drain upon the finances of India caused by bringing home the time-expired men.

In dealing with the political career of Sir H. Hardinge, the prominent part he took in the debates on the Carlist War in 1836 and 1837 must not be passed over. On the death of King Ferdinand, the Ministers of England and France saw the necessity of maintaining the title of Isabella to the throne of Spain; she became bound to us as we became bound to her and the other Powers by the Quadruple Treaty, which was signed in 1834. The object of this Treaty, as stated in its principal articles, was the establishment of peace by the expulsion of the Infantas from Portugal, where Don Carlos and his adherents were not only supporting Don Miguel, but entering into every sort of intrigue to subvert the Spanish Monarchy. By the third article, England engaged to co-operate with a naval force in the operations to be undertaken by the troops of Spain and Portugal. Shortly after the signing of the Treaty, Lord Palmerston had issued an Order in Council suspending tho Foreign Enlistment