1-150-631 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

Doom'd!, 1871. The House of Lords plans an ambush of the Army Regulation Bill which, sword under its arm, marches unsuspectingly towards sudden death. The Army Regulation Bill was mainly concerned with the abolition of purchase. It was possible to buy one's way into officer positions. It had had a third reading in the Commons but was being fiercely opposed. On the 17th July 1871, it was thrown out by the House of Lords. However, the Lords was forced into a corner as the Prime Minister, Gladstone, advised Queen Victoria to cancel the warrant under which purchase operated. This was done. Eventually, the Lords gave the Bill a second reading and it passed into law at the beginning of August 1871. From Punch, or the London Charivari, July 22, 1871.