The Express.
London, England, 1866-08-25 00:00:00

NIGH WATZB AT LONDON BEIDOL

TIM DA;=riontrnilij. 44m:::::AtiatVoW. 11 He.
TO.MORROW—Morning, Eh. 1m Ananias, Id Um

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 25.

Tau brilliant campaign which Prussia has just
closed with such signal triumph to her arms offers
certain lessons to us which no national vanity or
overweening confidence in ourselves should lead us
to disregard. Any one who has followed the brief
and rapid course of the war must have been struck
with the completeness of everything, from the first
start to the consummation of the plan of action,
and the final victorious result at Sadowa. Could
our War Department have organized, and our
Generals have planned and carried out, such a
campaign without a reverse, a false move, or a break
down of any kind ? As to the War Department,
there is no reason whateverto give us increaseof faith
in the capacity of its administration, or the prac-
tical efficiencyof theorganization adopted; the name
has been changed into one that sounds more loud
and powerful, but we suspect the old weaknesses
_ .

of constitution would show themselves at the lint
strain upon the sinews of the department. The
heads would come into collision, and the hands and
legs would be waiting for orders, or doing every-
thing that would have to be undone. As to the
generals and the fighting men, they would, no
doubt whatever, rise to the occasion, and as cer-
tainly triumph in the end ; but it would be after
having vanquished their old enemy, " The Depart-
" manta."

We have no confidence in the system which, Sir
Joan Busoonsrc told us, in his evidence to the
committee on our military organisation, could not
be ready for a campaign in less than a year.
It is not bravery or good strategy that we have
now to point to so much in the Prussian campaign,
thougl it would be difficult to praise these qua-
lities too highly, but the perfect working of a mili-
tary system that enabled an army thrice the num-
ber of any that we could bring into the field to be
equipped, and in the space of a week, after a series
of minor battles in its march through a difficult
country, concentrated upon a chosen battle ground
to win a decisive victory. The precision with
which this junction of corps to form one great
host was accomplished was a most vital point in
the success, and had it failed " Sadowa" might not
have remained to be borne on the Prussian colours.
That any military organization should be able to
work such rapid results without bending to those
accidents of war the dealing with which has hitherto
been accounted an important part of the art is
astonishing enough, but it is still more remark-
able that this was done by an army one-third of
which only may be said to have been the standing
army of the country, the rest being called out
from the store of fighting men which the system
provides. Indeed, with the exception of the recent
Danish campaign, the Prussian army had no expe-
rience, the instruction of its officers and men hid
been one of theory for half a century; but
then to what different purpose must this time of
inaction have been occupied to that which em-
ployed our army and War Office between Waterloo
and the Crimea ! At that time the Prussian army
had their needle-gun, when we sent out our lines-
men with the old " brown bees," although it was
well known that the breechloader, which has now
been accepted as an indispensable weapon, was in
use in the Prussian service. It was also, we believe,
actually shown to the "proper authorities." and,
as it now turns out, the present Superin:endent of
the Woolwich laboratory, Colonel Boise, in 1854
specially directed attention to the importance of
such a weapon. But our " Select Committee"
were intent then upon a rifle with great range and
accuracy, and they were so far right in establishing
Enfield and arming the Guards with the weapon
that brought down the Russians by sections at the
Alma and Inkermann ; but still we have to thank
our lucky star that Russia had not got the Prussian
needle-gun. We may admit that this was to some
extent an excusable oversight, but still it remains
undeniable that the Prussian War Department
saw those valuable qualities in a breechloader rifle
of which our Department were entirely ignorant,
and remained so for ten years. It is this want of
official intelligence and foresight that we have
to complain of ; that we pay a price that
should give us the pick of every kind of talent,
and yet we are led by an official eye thlt never
sees an inch beyond the official nose. There is
not a single improvement in modern warfare
that has not had to be hurriedly forced into
adoption by our War Department under most
urgent stress, whether it is iron-plated ships,
turret-ships, or breech-loading rifles. Unfortu-
nately, too, there is still a heavy arrear against
them on all these points, to say nothing of high
steam power, twin screws, steel guns and their
projectiles, to which our mechanical engineering
science has been pointing for years past. The
fault of our system is that years of time and
millions of money are lost in tinkering our arms
and ships, while the real fighting power of men
and officers, and a military system in perfect work-
. ing order, are for ever being neglected.
But the weapon of the Prussian army is really
the least element in their success. It most have
required something more than the possession of