In July of the same year the regiment marched to Edinburgh and Hamilton, and remained in Scotland for ten months. This was its first visit to North Britain since 1760, when Colonel John Hale himself was in command. 1870. In 1870, as in 1764, the regiment moved from Scotland to Ireland—history thus repeating itself (if any one took notice of it) with commendable accuracy.
On the 15th August 1870 the establishment of the regiment was increased—the men from 457 to 540, the horses from 300 to 350. For France and Germany just then were flying at each other’s throats, and even while the order was a-signing, were fighting the four days’ battle (August 14–18) around Metz. As the outcome of this war, we shall have shortly to mention a number of sweeping reforms in the army. Meanwhile let us note that the first change of 1870, ordered before the war (1st April), was a retrograde step—a reversion to the old troop organisation. A step further back would have retained the name of a troop with the strength of a squadron, as in the days of the Ironsides. But the Army knows little of its own history.
1871.
With 1871 we enter on the first series of reforms, or let us call them changes, accomplished under the influence of the war of 1870.
First, the establishment of the regiment was fixed permanently at eight troops, after vacillating for more than a century between the minimum of six troops and the maximum of ten. Here, let us note, is a final break with the traditions of the great Civil War, when the six-troop organisation (each troop being 100 men strong) was first founded. Strictly speaking, the system of 1645 continued for some years later in the British regiments quartered in India; the Indian establishment consisting of six troops, while the other two formed a depôt in England; but this failing has now been remedied, and the old order is therefore wholly extinct.
Next, by Royal Warrant, the Purchase and Sale of Commissions in the Army were abolished. The system had existed for more than three hundred years, and had been threatened as far back as 1766.
1871.
Next the “short service system”—six years’ service with the colours and six in the reserve—was introduced; and thereby the old British soldier of history was, for good or ill, extinguished. The Seventeenth felt the change little before 1876; and the British public hardly found it out before 1879. It may be worth while to note that both short service[14] and the territorial system were first suggested just about a century before they were introduced.
Lastly, on the 1st November the historic rank of Cornet was abolished. Corneta or cornette signifies the horn-shaped troop standard which (like the ensign in the infantry) gave its name alike to the officer who carried it and to the troop that served under it. The rank is gone and all its historic associations with it; and a generation is arising which will need to resort to a dictionary if it would understand what Walpole meant when he called Pitt “that terrible cornet of horse.” It is amusing to note that since the expurgation of the word Cornet no abiding name has been found for the rank of a junior subaltern of cavalry. Sub-lieutenants there have been and second lieutenants, sometimes both and sometimes neither, but nothing of permanence.
1872.