the money spent on the operations would have proved to
be a harsh, yet effective forms will have to make way for good investment of the public funds. It is sound policy to methods which touch the moral nature and self-respect of pick out faults and dwell on shortcomings, to regret that some the men. things have been done and others left undone ; but it is Another characteristic of this year's performances is the campaigns are still an experiment in England. We are not than one sort of drill has been practised on both sides. Lord so far from the period when the experiment could not have Mark Kerr has one method of putting skirmishers in action been attempted. All the actors are new to the business, and and supporting them, Sir Charles Staveley has a second,
the business itself has to be carried on under conditions that Sir John Michel a third. All this speaks of the advent of a, must try the patience of every real soldier. So different are new spirit in the Army. The most gratifying fact about it is
peace manceuvres from actual war. It is rare that the critics the frank recognition of the lessons taught by the late war. bear in mind differences which tell so severely not only on Every plan designed and practised is based on the elemental the conduct of the campaign, but the results, regarded either truth that soldiers in close order cannot live undeethe fire of as tests of fitness or evidences of what would be done. The the breech-loading rifle, preceded and sustained by the rifled
whole fabric rests on a basis far enough removed from reality, cannon. Practically it comes to this, that the individual and the estimate of what is done should have due regard to soldier is of more value than ever, and that the best army will
the conditions. If each department is helped in some ways, it be that in which the privates have attained the highest
is hampered in others absolutely essential. The great busi- excellence. This indicates the direction in which our military nese of transport and supply, always arduous, is obliged to be training should go. The old fundamental principle of prompt few that the people have often to come three and four days in tor or bench of magistrates preventing you from driving succession in order to have an opportunity of declaring their cattle. Conceive a farmer crying "'Ware turnips 1" just as nationality. The game is fruitless, however. According to skirmishers are advancing in order of attack. But we need the National Zeitung, the lower classes are seized with a perfect not pursue the argument. Is not the town of Salisbury, the mania for French nationality, and according to the Nieclerrhein- most important military point on the theatre, excluded from ischer Kuria., it is the upper classes who are turning the back the area V We must consider the operations within the limits on Germanisation,—a brace of statements which permit a allowed by an Act of Parliament, and be content with such tolerable glimpse of the fact that rich and poor alike through- experiences as can be obtained from simulated warfare so out the annexed provinces are animated with precisely the cabined, cribbed, confined.
same feelings. A question still in dispute between the French And we have no misgivings in saying that the experience is and German authorities relates to the options of minors. The good, wholesome, valuable. It has been acquired in a fashion French hold that parents who are unable to quit Alsace and more soldierlike than that of last year. Indeed, the errors then Lorraine within the appointed time can at least preserve the made have been wisely remembered and corrected. In the nationality of their children by sending them to France and first place, two corps wholly distinct and of equal strength making option on their behalf. The Germans insist upon the have been formed far apart from each other. Each has been contrary view, and in this sense the German officials are made complete in itself, and is really a miniature army. The spreading intimidating notices, of which the circular issued by Northern troops, supposed to be defenders, were organised at the functionary who styles himself Maire of Sainte-Marie- Aldershot ; while the invaders, or Army of the South, col- aux-Mines is a specimen. In this precious document the lected at Blandford, on the Stour. Each has its due comple- unhappy people are specially warned that if they persist ment of guns, horsemen, and infantry, the latter including in favouring the departure of their children, " who for the both Militia and Volunteers. Now, this separation from the most part are liable to the German military conscription," outset is an immense advantage. Last year there was no they will incur the risk of prosecution " for complicity in the proper combination between the divisions of Carey and crime of desertion." It is with such refined feeling—Geist und Staveley, and when at the last two forces of equal strength Bildung, we presume we should call it—that the German were formed, neither troops nor Generals quite knew to which Government seeks to mitigate the horrors of the annexation, side they belonged. This year the evil is avoided. Sir by impressing on the unfortunate Alsatians the very feature Robert Walpole and Sir John Michel will know every hat- er their captivity which must be to them the most repulsive talion, squadron, and gun under their separate commands, and revolting. It is consoling, at least, to know that the and leaders and troops will have had time to pick up a little proverbial piety of the Prussian monarchy is at hand, and is esprit de corps and to breed a passion for victory which will about to interest itself in Alsace and Lorraine. "From the call forth the energies of every man. let of October," writes a correspondent of the Allgemeine Then the Northern Army, after being formed, marched Zeitung, "the Government will act with less reserve, inasmuch from Aldershot to Pewsey, a valuable experience in itself. No as its relations to the population will have become completely living soldier can remember any incident of the kind in England; settled. From that date, accordingly, prayers for the the "flying columns" at Aldershot alone have approximated German Kaiser will be compulsory in all places of worship." towards the proceeding. But useful as the inspiriting march It is to be apprehended that the impugners of the efficacy has been to the soldiers, it has been of far greater importance of Prayer might, with considerable safety, base their averages to the country-side. Not only the hinds and villagers, but on the resulting petitions. With this last display of what the classes above them, have, for the first time, learned what a "the liberation of the separated brothers" really means, we soldier is, and the fame thereof will radiate over and through gladly, for the present, turn our eyes from this, the most the adjacent counties. Lord Shaftesbury himself, who has sickening page of our century's history. Every observer will seen the world, seems to have become finally convinced that be able to judge of the pacificatory tendencies of a policy British troops are not only endurable, but welcome, from his which penetrates into the very sanctuary to insult the national personal acquaintance with the Blandford force upon his own sentiment of the conquered people, which converts every downs and in his own park. The golden opinions won by the Alsatian in France and every Alsatian volunteer in the ranks of troops are eloquent testimonies not only to a triumph over France into an incarnate spirit of vengeance, which holds up to prej udice, but to the actual and vast change which has taken the French nation the maddening spectacle of the oppression place in the military world. Education, discipline, good of their fellow-countrymen to quicken the sense of their own treatment, have told upon the Army, and it is worth humiliation and loss. The enforcement of the German mili- all the money spent to have that demonstrated. The tary conscription on natural-born Frenchmen, while every presence of the Volunteers is plainly destined to exert an bruise is still raw and every wound is still fresh, is alone elevating influence. The privates of the Line feel that their sufficient to brand the attempted Prussianisation of the calling is, after all, more estimable than they have been taught separated provinces of France as a proceeding worthy of the to consider it, when they see the rich and leisured classes living
age of Attila. on rations, doing fatigue duty, and sleeping twelve in a tent.
What a new light dawned upon the Infantry private who
THE AUTUMNAL CAMPAIGN, reported to his comrades as the most interesting fact, IF the two corps d'arme'e now on the march across the that he had seen a Field Officer shake hands with a Volan- Downs of Wilts and Dorset, intent on trying conclusions teer private ! Major Buffies will want to know what is between the Nadder and the Wiley, were to halt and disperse, to become of discipline! The answer is that the old,
the money spent on the operations would have proved to be a harsh, yet effective forms will have to make way for good investment of the public funds. It is sound policy to methods which touch the moral nature and self-respect of pick out faults and dwell on shortcomings, to regret that some the men. things have been done and others left undone ; but it is Another characteristic of this year's performances is the possible to carry fault-finding too far, and in detecting inevit- experiments in Tactics. An amount of freedom unheard of in able error lose sight of substantial good. These Autumnal modern British Armies seems to prevail in the two corps. More campaigns are still an experiment in England. We are not than one sort of drill has been practised on both sides. Lord so far from the period when the experiment could not have Mark Kerr has one method of putting skirmishers in action zealously with his comrades, will have to rely more on his own resources, and combine the craft of the trapper with the steadi- ness of the old linesman. Depend upon it, the men will respond to the confidence it is now essential to repose in them. They never had their equals in the grand old style of fighting which distinguished the regiments of Wellington's army. And just as their forefathers, the bowmen of old England, under the best leaders, adapted their fighting to the ground and the circumstances of the moment, so will our present soldiers readily acquire the habits and aptitudes demanded by the war- fare of our day, if they are treated with frankness and patience. It is quite correct to say that umpires are bad substitutes for ball-cartridge ; but peace manceuvres do, for all that, bring out the capabilities of the men, and as a matter of fact, one battalion shows great superiority over another. As an experi- mental curriculum in tactics, the proceedings of this year will be a great advance over those of last. Indeed the Autumn Manceuvres of 1872 will be the real beginning of a tactical change which must come over our whole method of fighting.
At the end of this week the corps will come into collision. The theatre of the war, despite the scarcity of water, is not unfitted for the purpose. It is well provided with roads, abounds in undulating ground, is not destitute of woods, or absolutely unprovided with streams. Strategy, in a space without special points of decisive importance, is out of the question, and the two Commanders will have to confine themselves to skilful displays of the larger tactics. As each advanced in search of the other for a given time, there could be no mystery about the area upon which they would come in contact. It must lie in the angle between the Wiley and the chalk ridge. The interesting question, therefore, is, can Walpole drive Michel back towards Shaftesbury or Blandford, or can Michel force the line of the Wiley in such a way as to throw his oppo- nent off his communications with Amesbury and Pewsey ? Speculation on such a subject is without value, especially as it is not absolutely certain that the issues are not foregone conclusions. If there is to be a march-past on Beacon Hill, it may be assumed that Sir Robert Walpole will be first obliged to retire upon the Avon. We trust that the Generals, at least up to a certain point, will be allowed to fight, or rather manceuvre it out, even if a march-past becomes impracticable. No- thing takes the heart out of a soldier or blunts his intelligence more than a belief that his defeat has been pre-arranged.
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