Year: 1872

Systematic war is an art which requires
entirely by instinct, even to the most brilliant
military genius. Long and careful drill is
needed in the school of the soldier and
manual of arms before the country pumpkin
of eighteen is formed into the soldier who can
be implicitly relied upon to obey the commands
of his officer in every emergency. More than
this, it requires actual experience of the
vicissitudes Of q campaign to teach even the
trained soldier to use not alone his military
education, but his utmost tact and invention,
for the protection and support of himself and
tbs injury Of the enemy. Recent improve
ments in arms and in transmission of intelli-
gence and movement of forces and material
have done much to advance tho rank and file
of armies beyond the condition of machines.
To be effective under the fire of repeating
breech-loaders the private soldier as well as
his officer must think. He is not to stand
firm on a smooth plain a target for
a thousand rifemen Instead, he is to
find or make for himself screen, or if none
is available he is to change position,
to advance or oblique or retreat so speedily as
to nulify the enemy's advantage of capacity
for rapid firing. In short, only actual war
is the school which can adequately teach
soldiers, whether in the ranks or wearing
official insignia. England has of late tried
the experiment of instructing her armies by
annual Autumnal man@uvres in which the
troops were exercised in sham campaigns,
with fictitious representations of battles,
sieges, sorties, attacks, resistance, defeats and
victories. This year the costly show for which
John Bull is to pay half million dollars took
place in the counties of Willis and Dorset.
Fifty thousand troops Of all kinds Joined in
the performance, thirty thousand on foot and
twenty thousand mounted, representing the
regulars, the militia and the volunteers. These
were divided into the Northern army, under
Sir Robert Walpole, which was supposed to
guard the approach to the English capital,
while the Southern army, under Sir John
Michel, occupied at first the position of
having effected landing and threatening
to march towards Londcn. After four
days of make-believe fighting, with incessant
marchings and constant discharge of blank
cartridges, the invaders had broken the line of
defence and placed themselves in the rear of
the Northern camp, while their adversaries had
gained position between the invaders and
the sea, which cut off the retreat and supplies
of the Southern army. So both sides suffered


if not actual defeat, certainly such serious loss
of strategical positions as would demoralize
and destroy the efficiency of real army


Many laughable incidents took place during
the campaign. AS last year the forces were
thrown into disorder by a stampede of the
horses of a corps imperfectly tethered with
patented contrvance, so this year q swarm of
hornets drove back an army and very nearly
caused fatal results by suddenly unseating
horsomen. But there were terrific charges and
magnificent uncoverings Of masked batteries,
with wonderful flank movements, while solid
regiments gained the applause of spectators,
steadily taking the harmless fire of attacking
lines whose powder filed two counties with
noise and smoke. SO terrific was the shock
of battle on Salisbury Plain that the shepherds
declare it will require three generations for
their hocks to recover from the shock to their