Page:The Earl of Mayo.djvu/176

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168
THE EARL OF MAYO

would be unsafe from a military point of view, and returned to the proposals which it had previously submitted. Thus the question remained at the time of Lord Mayo's death.

In his military measures, as in every other department of his Government, the Earl of Mayo lived long enough to carry out a large part of his proposals, but not the whole. His original plan would have eventually reduced the military expenditure by £948,253 a year. The portions of it adopted by Her Majesty's Government, and practically carried out, yielded an annual saving of £591,440.

The current administration of the army is conducted by the Commander-in-Chief, and to Lord Sandhurst and Lord Napier of Magdala belongs the credit of improvements in detail effected during Lord Mayo's rule. But to these improvements the Viceroy gave a liberal and strenuous support. 'Lord Mayo,' wrote a high authority on his military measures, 'hated waste, but knew that waste follows excessive saving no less than excessive expenditure. His object was to reduce what was superfluous in the army, but not to starve what was essential.' He advocated the economising of the health and vigour of the European troops by a system of sanataria and hill-stations, and one of his latest orders in the Military Department was to this end. 'To him also it is mainly due,' says the high authority above cited, 'that the troops in the hill-stations occupy quarters, or cottage barracks, which, while fulfilling every desideratum of health, comfort,