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Essex Institute.

LIBRARY OF FRAlSrCIS PEA.BODY.

PRESENTEDBY

MRS. MARTHA PEABODY.

The Library Committee shall divide the books and other
articles belonging to the Library into three classes, namely:
(a) those which are not to be removed from the building; (b)
those which may be taken only by written permission of
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late under the following rules :—

Members shall be entitled to take from the Library two
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the plates belonging to the same, upon having them recorded
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make good any damage they sustain, while in their posses-
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No person shall lend any book belonging to the Institute,
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The Library Committee may allow members to take more
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the Library under such conditions as they may impose.

No person shall detain any book longer than four weeks
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volume shall be detained longer than three months at one
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The Librarian shall have power by order of the Library
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On or before the first Wednesday in May, all books shall
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No book shall be allowed to circulate until one month after
its receipt.

THE DETERIORATED CONDITION

SADDLE-HORSES:

CAUSES AND THE REMEDY.
THE STATE OF OUR CAVALRY,

AND THE IMPERFECT SYSTEM UNDER WHICH THIS

FORCE AND THAT OF OUR ARMY GENERALLY

IS ADMINISTERED.

LONDON:

T. HATCHARD, 187, PICCADILLY.

1853.

LONDON :
G. J. PALMER, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

On the deteriorated character of our saddle-horses, and its effect
on our cavalry ....... Page 1

CHAPTER II.

The causes which led to the former excellence of our saddle-
horses, and those which have caused their deterioration —
Remedy 11

CHAPTER III.

Character of Arab horses, and their fitness to restore the qualities
lost by our present race horses 29

CHAPTER IV.
On the form and action of good saddle-horses . . . 38

IV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

On the close analogy between the principles which should guide
us in breeding saddle-horses, and those by which we have so
long succeeded in breeding other domesticated animals . 57

CHAPTER VI.

CAVALRY.

Our cavalry horooo to be tested during peace, and its discipline
improved ......... 77

CHAPTER VII.

INFANTRY.

A system should be established for bringing forward talented
officers in this force ....*... 89

ERRATA.

Page 6, line 18, for mistakable, read mistakeable.

10, — 12, for she has now failed, read it has now failed.

24, — 10, for Groverment, read Government.

31, — ■ 3, for lienes, read lieues.

31, — 13, for Flemcon donner read Tlemcon donna.

31, — IS, for lienes, read lieues.

36, — 3, /or viendrout, read viendront.

48, — 6, for hock, scould, read hocks, could.

ON

THE DETERIORATED CONDITION

OP OUR

SADDLE-HORSES,

ETC.

CHAPTER I.

On the deteriorated character of our saddle-horses, and its
effect on our Cavalry.

Several years ago I published a small work,
in which it was stated, that unless the down-
ward change then going on in the character of
our saddle-horses was arrested, it would soon
become difficult to buy a good one at any
price; and this prediction has already been
fulfilled. Certain at least it is, that while the
demand for good saddle-horses remains great,
the supply has become almost nil. I should not,

2 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

however, have again written on this subject,
had I not lately observed the wretched quality
of the horses on which our cavalry are now
mounted. This has become so striking as to
make it a duty to draw the attention of Govern-
ment to the subject. Very many of these
horses are unable to carry fourteen stones of
weight, even at home, where they are well fed,
and exposed to no privations, while on service
they will be hard worked, exposed to great
privations, and have to carry, on an average,
twenty stones of weight when fully equipped
for service.

The horses of the household cavalry are the
best, but many are quite unequal to the weight
they will have to carry on active service, hav-
ing weak loins, a form incompatible with the
power necessary to carry a very heavy weight.
Even the chargers of the officers, though usually
costing much money, are unfitted to go through
a severe campaign. Most of them are well
bred, but nearly all are characterised by weak
forms.

The incapacity of our cavalry to carry much
weight is of little consequence, so long as
peace continues ; but when war arrives — and

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 3

arrive it will — a large portion of our dragoons
will be dismounted after a single week's real
service ; while the increased demand for horses,
consequent on a war, will be met with an in-
sufficiency in the supply unknown in the pre-
vious history of this country.

For some years past a large portion of our
cavalry horses have been purchased in Ireland,
but the supply there has greatly declined,
owing to the farmers who bred them having
emigrated.

In the report of the last Ballinasloe fair, as
given in the Globe newspaper, I find the fol-
lowing paragraph : — " The horse fair was held
yesterday. Some good horses were exhibited,
but the majority were rather inferior. Both
breeders and dealers concurred in stating that
one-fourth the number of horses are not now
produced in this country, as compared with
former years" What the writer here calls
good horses, were hunters, not calculated for
the road, or coming under the head of useful
saddle-horses.

A large portion, too, of the Yorkshire
farmers, who till lately bred so many of our
best saddle and harness-horses, have now

is 2

4 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

ceased to breed either. The reasons they
assign for this is :— first, the large quantity of
com which our well-bred horses now require
while growing ; secondly, the difficulty, after
this expense has been incurred, of rearing
anything that is good, or worth much money ;
and, thirdly, the strong disposition in this
stock to become unsound. The result is, that
a large portion of Yorkshire farmers, who for-
merly entered largely into the breeding of
well-bred horses, now breed only cart-horses,
one of which, at only two years old, will sell
for £40.

Looking, then, at the present insufficient
supply of horses calculated for our cavalry,
and at the further diminution of it about to
take place, I submit that a crisis has arrived.
If this be so, let us take advantage of a period
of military inaction by adopting some well-
considered measure calculated to insure, in
future, an adequate supply of good saddle-
horses.

It will be said, that our cavalry-horses can-
not be worse than those of other countries, so
long as foreigners purchase them. But they
ought to be, as they long were, much better,

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 5

seeing our great extent of fine pastures, our
large farms, our great demand for the best
class of horses, and the large sums we are
ready to give for them.

France does not breed a sufficient supply of
horses to meet her own demand, which is not
surprising, seeing her small amount of pastures,
the minute extent of her farms, and the poverty
of her farmers. She purchases, in conse-
quence, from Germany, many horses for her
cavalry, and to a very limited extent she some-
times purchases English horses for it. Her
cavalry horses, however, are much improved,
as well as the riding of her dragoons. In
short, her cavalry, as seen at Paris, has become
better than ours.

The other great military nations breed all the
horses they require for their cavalry. Russia
and Austria possess very valuable ones for
light cavalry in their Polish, Cossack, and
Hungarian horses. They have but few well
calculated for heavy cavalry, but their quality
is improving.

The Russian artillery horses are admitted to
be admirable.

The Prussians have, as a whole, still the

6 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

best mounted cavalry on the continent, but her
finest breeds are become much deteriorated ;
and in this way — there was, it seems, in that
country after the conclusion of the last war a
universal Anglo-mania for our race-horses, which
they purchased largely for many years, and
crossed extensively with their own breeds ;
some of which before this event were excel-
lent, uniting compact and fine forms with good
breeding, and much speed. This form it seems
has disappeared, and the long legs and shallow
bodies of our race-horses substituted ; and so
extensively has this cross been had recourse
to, that the pure and best Prussian breeds are
lost.

There is a fact well known to all Prussians
taking interest in horses which bears directly
on this subject, and is unmistakable. It is
this : — before the blood of our race-horses had
been so largely had recourse to in Prussia, the
king was accustomed to be driven between
Berlin and Potzdam in little more than an
hour, the distance being twenty miles. Since,
however, the blood of the old breeds of Prus-
sian horses has been lost in its purity, his
majesty is no longer able to get horses capable

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 7

of performing that task ; a change generally
admitted to be the result of introducing into
that country our racing blood in so large a
stream. Foreigners still buy many of our
horses, but chiefly for harness, and this on
account of their high stature and showy ap-
pearance. The Germans and French still buy
a few of our best saddle-horses while these are
very young, and being good judges they select
our best, and give from their scarcity enor-
mously high prices.

The French cavalry horses are inferior to
ours in speed, but they are much hardier and
last much longer on service, as was shown
during the last war in Spain, when our horses
were better than at present. In that war the
mortality amongst our horses from disease and
work was enormous, and three times greater
than amongst those of the French. The legs
of the French horses were never what, in vulgar
but well understood language, is called greased,
while those of ours were but too often so. Thus
the expense of keeping up our cavalry in Spain,
owing to the delicacy of its horses, was in-
tolerable. In the next war, if at all protracted,
the mortality will be much greater, because

8 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

the quality of our horses has become much
worse.

Our cavalry horses are not wanting either in
speed or breeding, but in strength and consti-
tutional vigour. If it were only to reduce the
ruinous expense of this force in war we ought,
while peace continues, to improve our breed
of saddle-horses, enabling them to carry our
dragoons, when on service, with tolerable ease.
The great wear and tear, and consequent
cost of this force in war is a serious evil, but
less than that of losing brave men whose lives
depend much on their horses maintaining their
strength.

When we reflect on the important services
good cavalry, well commanded, may perform,
the present deteriorated condition of our
cavalry horses calls for all the attention that
Government can give to it. A charge of
cavalry, while its horses remain fresh, made
at the right moment, sometimes decides a
great battle. But cavalry, to be efficient, must
have its horses equal to the weight they have
to carry, for dragoons on tired horses are use-
less.

Our light cavalry, unlike that of the great

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 9

continental nations, has to act in line, so that its
duties differ little from those of heavy cavalry,
and ought therefore to be mounted on horses
of much physical power. At Waterloo, though
at the opening of a campaign, our light cavalry
failed from want of physical power, while our
heavy cavalry charged successfully, from its
greater weight.

Our artillery horses were, down to a recent
period, the best in our army ; they are now
become as bad as the rest.

Looking at our great facilities for breeding
horses, we ought, without taking credit to our-
selves for much skill, to possess now what
we formerly so long had — the best mounted
cavalry in the world; while, for bearing up
under the fatigues and privations of a severe
campaign, both our cavalry and artillery horses
are now become the worst in the world.

The late Lord Harcourt, who was considered
in his time, an excellent cavalry officer, told
me so long ago as the year 1826, that our
cavalry horses in the American war were very
much better than they had been since ; that
the 15th and 16th regiments of light dragoons,
which went with him to America, and were

10 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

raised for that war, exhibited a union of
strength and activity unknown at the time he
was speaking (1826), yet our cavalry horses in
1826 were much better than at present.

The Polish, Cossack, and Hungarian horses
being little removed from a state of nature,
still possess the one great attribute of animals
in that condition, namely, great hardiness.

This is the only civilized country that has
ever succeeded in breeding anything like a suf-
ficient supply of a fine class of saddle-horses,
and she has now failed.

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 11

CHAPTER II.

The causes which led to the former excellence of our saddle-
horses, and those which have caused their deterioration —
Remedy.

This country having been long celebrated
for its saddle-horses, I shall proceed to show
the causes of that excellence, after which I
shall endeavour to point out the causes of the
present deterioration.

The main cause of their former excellence
was the creation of what is called our " Turf."
This establishment worked well for a long
period of time, exercising a preponderating
and admirable influence over the character of
our useful saddle-horses.

Doubtless, gambling and pleasure have ever
been the sole objects of those who bred our
race-horses ; but their large importations of
good Arabs, followed as they were by a careful

12 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

and continuous selection, not for one quality,
but for a fine union of qualities, succeeded for
many years in producing both for the turf and
for all useful and pleasurable purposes, the
best saddle-horses in the world.

We possess a document which throws some
light on the nature of the tasks our earlier
horses performed. Their stature so late as
1764 seems to have ranged from fourteen to
fifteen hands ; a horse of the latter height
being considered tall.

The late Mr. Smith, in his work on " Breed-
ing for the Turf," refers to a document which
shows the nature of the tasks performed at
Newmarket from 1718 to 1764, but it is only
from the first period to 1757 that the distances
run are always mentioned, while the weight
carried is often omitted.

Referring to this document, Mr. Smith says,
" It appears that in the year 1718, twenty-
three matches were made at Newmarket, and
in all but one of them, the distance run was
four miles. In the next year only two races
are recorded. First, the Duke of Wharton's
Galloway, 8st. 101b., against Lord Hillsbo-
rough's Fiddler, 12st, six miles. At New-

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 13

market, in 1720, there were twenty-six matches,
none of them less than four, some six miles.
In October, the Duke of Wharton's Honeyskin,
list. 101b., against Lord Hillsborough's Speed-
well, the best of three heats, twelve miles, 1 ,000
guineas. The match was drawn. In 1721,
twenty matches were run, and with few excep-
tions, these distances seem to have been run
up to the year 1757. The published account
from which these performances are taken refer
only to the short period mentioned, and no
consecutive account of the running, even at
Newmarket, appears to have been kept until
late in the last century. We have selected,
however, the chronicled performances of a few
horses. One of these, called Exotic, com-
menced his running 1760, and continued on
the turf to the year 1767.

" We know not how many times this horse
started during this period ; but in the course
of it he won eighteen times. The account says
that he won in 1767, which was his seventh
year on the turf, a race at Peterborough, con-
sisting oifour heats ; the distance of the other
races which he won are not stated, but they
probably were not less than four miles.

14 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

" Cartouch was only fourteen hands high,
but it is supposed that no horse was able to
run with hirn of his time, carrying from eight
to twelve stones weight !

"In 1737, Black Chance, at five years' old,
won a plate at Durham, carrying ten stones ;
with the same weight he won the Ladies' Plate,
at York, in that year — distance four miles. In
1738, he won the King's Plate at Guildford,
beating several horses. After this he won the
King's Plate at Salisbury, then the King's
Plate at Winchester; afterwards the King's
Plate at Lewes ; and, lastly, the King's Plate
at Lincoln; all these in the course of one sea-
son ; every race four miles, and every race
contested ! It appears that in the October of
the same year this horse started for the King's
Plate at Newmarket, when he fell in running ;
this was the only time he was beaten that year.
In 1739 he seems to have won twice. In 1740,
he won at Wresham, at Shrewsbury, and at
Oswestry, carrying thirteen sto?ies, he won at
Denbigh, at Chester, and won at Manchester.
In 1744 he walked over for the Annual Plate
at Farnden.

" It does not appear whether this horse ran

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 15

in 1738, but if he did he was running and win-
ning, carrying twelve stones. He won, in
short, every time that he started in this year.
In 1741 he won at Chester, at Manchester, and
at Hereford. In 1742, he received a £15
premium seven gears consecutively.

The following extract is taken from an ac-
count of a horse called the Carlisle gelding:
" He had no rival in carrying all degrees of
weight in supporting repeated heats, travelling
and constant running, and this maintained to
an age seldom heard of.

" Johnny, a horse of a more recent period,
won or received forfeit twenty-five times !

"Mark Antony started twenty-eight times,
and won twenty."

This account of the running of our older
horses is interesting, because every one ac-
quainted with our present race-horse knows that
none of them could perform a fourth part of
these tasks without breaking down. We see,
indeed, the best horses, at the present day,
after winning a race of only two miles, dis-
abled from ever running again.

If, after reading these extracts from Mr,
Smith's work, the reader will look at the por-

16 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

traits of such of our older race-horses as have
been handed down to us by the pencil of Sey-
mour and other artists, he will find that the
forms of those horses corresponded with the
great tasks they accomplished, for they
had short legs, deep bodies, wide hips, and
strong loins. The fine shapes of those
horses show how little, as a race, they had
been injured by their great performances,
which commenced early in the reign of Charles
the Second.

With the exception of a single race at New-
market, of four miles, and only run twice a
year, two miles, two miles and a half, one mile
and a half, and one mile, are the distances now
usually ran. Then how is this four mile race
run by our present horses ? By cantering
through a great part of it. The tasks now
performed, however, are enough, and more
than enough, for the diminished powers of our
present horses.

Besides the great change which has taken
place in the forms of our race-horses, they are
become strongly disposed to lameness. Before
even starting for their first race many of the
best are lame, others are rendered so for life

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 17

by running a short race like that called " the
Derby." Nearly all are more or less infirm
from their birth, knuckling in their pastern
joints before they have done an hour's work.

Our race-horses have been much injured
under the existing practice on the turf of
breeding them much in and in. Their great
number seems at first sight sufficient to pre-
vent this, but we must recollect that it is
only from a small portion of the whole that
the race is kept up ; every one breeding for
the turf sending his mares only to the stallions
whose stock have most speed.

Had the old tasks been maintained this evil
would have been avoided, because, when en-
durance and constitutional vigour became at
all reduced in any stud, the owner of it would
naturally have sent his mares to a stallion yet
in possession of those qualities. Thus we see
into what a vicious circle the present system
of making momentary speed everything has
led us. In viewing the defects of our present
race-horses, as respects useful purposes, I must
add that they exhibit straight shoulders, and
to an extent unknown to our turf so late as
thirty years ago. This great defect in our

c

18 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

race-horses is another cause which makes it
now so difficult to breed the first class of
saddle-horses, and is one of the results of
breeding " in and in," for the purpose of fol-
lowing up a blood which has had momentary
success in racing. Few people unconnected
with the turf can imagine the degree of con-
stitutional weakness exhibited by our present
race-horses. The growing stock requires as
much corn daily as they can eat, and for the
first twelve months each has also the whole
milk of a cow. It will here be said it is the
early running which renders high feeding of
the young stock necessary, but it is not so ;
on the contrary, many of the foals possess so
little vigour, that without unnaturally high
feeding they would be mere weeds, as they
usually are when bred by persons not intend-
ing them for the turf, who in consequence do
not feed their young horses so expensively.
This high feeding sometimes enables those
who breed for the turf to produce very large
animals, but wanting that compact form which
springs from much constitutional vigour in
the parents. Nothing is so different as the
form produced by extravagant feeding, and

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 19

that which results from much constitutional
vigour.

The high stature of our race-horses has given
a like form to nearly all our mixed breed of
horses, and with more or less delicacy and
want of constitutional vigour. Another bad
consequence of this high stature, and accom-
panying delicacy, is the present frequency of
the disease called roaring, which indicates
imperfect action of the lungs. This disease
seems to be every year increasing amongst our
tall horses, while it is comparatively little
known amongst those whose stature does not
exceed 15h. 2 in. On the continent, where the
horses are much less delicate, roaring is
unknown.

Jt is now many years since I have seen any
English horses with those very flat fore legs,
which result from very large back sinews, for-
merly so common amongst our well-bred horses,
and yet to be seen amongst the best Arabs.

It is curious to observe the helplessness of
our thorough-bred foals, which usually cannot
move about for some days after being born.
On first observing this I thought it natural, but
soon found it was the pure effect of constitu-

c 2

20 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

tional weakness in the parents, as the foals of
all other breeds of horses throughout the world
run about as soon as they are dropped.

Notwithstanding the grant of public bounties
to our turf for the encouragement of a fine
breed of saddle-horses, we cannot in the ab-
sence on the part of Government of any attempt
to influence the proceedings on the turf, be
surprised to find that the Jockey Club met the
growing weakness of their horses only by giving
them less to do, in other words, by giving them
slighter tasks to perform when they found the
old ones had become too severe.

The Jockey Club, as a body, being content
to see their horses lose every quality but speed,
no individual of that society can be expected
to make an effort to arrest this evil by taking
a course in his individual capacity calculated
to diminish the speed of his horses, so long as
speed alone is the only quality required under
the existing system of running.

To the Jockey Club, or to the gentlemen
who breed our race-horses, it matters not what
is the character of their horses as a whole,
each individual desiring only to have the best
of that whole. The question now is, whether

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 21

it be not desirable to grant such bounties on
the part of Government as shall enable it to
influence the proceedings of the turf, and thus
render them subservient to national and useful
purposes. These bounties pass under the name
of King's or Queen's Plates, because paid out
of the privy purse, and the Crown obtains the
money to meet this special disbursement for
the benefit of the public ; yet those who receive
these bounties make to the public no return ;
yet surely when the Jockey Club began to
diminish the tasks formerly so well and so
long performed by their horses, this downward
course should have been met by Government
advising the Crown either to suspend the pay-
ment of these bounties altogether, or to increase
their amount to an extent which would enable
it so to influence the proceedings of the turf,
as to get there maintained the old standard for
regulating the tasks the horses were called on
to perform. Instead of taking one of these
obvious courses, the Jockey Club was allowed
successively to diminish the tasks which for so
many years our race-horses had so well and so
easily performed.

But we are told that these lighter tasks are

22 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

the result of making our racers run at a much
earlier age, at two instead of at four years old.
Doubtless, this change in the age at which
the animals are made to run, has contributed
to the totality of the evils complained of; but
this system of early running did not exist
when the tasks performed were great, and
would never have been adopted had the old
standard for measuring the performances on
our turf been maintained. Nothing at least
can be more certain than that horses bred to
obtain increased bounties, but having to per-
form the old tasks, would not be allowed by
their owners to run until they had arrived at
what was found to be the best age for per-
forming those tasks.

The qualities in our race-horses which are
become so deteriorated are natural ones, namely,
constitutional vigour, freedom from hereditary
diseases, compactness of form, and great en-
durance under severe exertion. A general
deterioration of the natural qualities of domes-
ticated animals consequent on having been
long subjected to highly unnatural treatment,
can only be remedied by having recourse to
fresh blood, to that of a race which as yet has

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 23

been permitted to live in a more natural state ;
and I hope before closing this work to adduce
facts which will fully bear out this opinion.

I formerly wished Government to create a
great haras, making it directly influence the
quality of our saddle-horses ; but, besides the
certainty of improper persons being too often
placed at the head of such an establishment, it
would labour under the disadvantages of being
unattended by competition, thus losing the
mainspring on which great productive excel-
lence depends.

If, however, we are to continue granting
public bounties to the turf, it is surely desir-
able to obtain for the public some return.

The plan I propose rests on a sound prin-
ciple— that of sharp competition amongst the
breeders of our race-horses to obtain very
liberal bounties, but under conditions which
should render the outlay one of public utility.

It is impossible to determine, a priori, or
until some trials have been made, the exact
amount of bounties that will suffice to secure
to the public the object in view. Probably
three or four hundred pounds would be about
the sum to award to the winners of certain

24 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

races, making no allowance for age. How
many of such races should be run in the course
of a season can only be finally determined by
gradually feeling our way in the new direction.
For the first few years the aggregate amount
of bounties annually required would be much
greater than after sufficient time had elapsed
for importing a considerable amount of fresh
blood.

Goverment would only have to determine
the nature of the tasks to be performed for
which it granted the new bounties, leaving to
the owners of the horses to find out the best
mode of managing them. This would not fail
to succeed if Government only sternly main-
tained a fixed standard for measuring the
powers of the horses. Under this four miles
with heats should be the shortest distance run
for which the new bounties were granted. One
or two races in the year should be five miles and
heats. We need not fear the effect of these
distances being evaded, as is now the case with
the four mile race, yet maintained by allowing
the horses that start for it to do little more
than canter during a great part of the race.
Why ? Simply because now the proprietors

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 25

of such horses are all in the same boat, by all
possessing horses unfitted for running the whole
of that distance. Thus it is not worth any
man's while now breeding horses for our turf
to change the nature of his stud on account
of this one four-mile race. But grant liberal
bounties annually for several four-mile races,
and you will make it the interest of all who
start horses for those races to breed such as
they think best calculated to win them.

Insist on proper tasks being performed in
return for more liberal bounties, and you will
soon find our "turf" abounding with horses
displaying a fine union of constitutional vigour,
physical strength, endurance, with sufficient
speed for every useful and pleasurable pur-
pose. It can matter nothing to the gentlemen
on the turf what is the average speed of their
horses. Their sole object is to win money,
and if endurance be in future made by more
liberal bounties as necessary to enable their
horses to perform the new tasks, as speed is
now to enable them to perform the present
tasks, the owners of our race-horses will be in
future as desirous to breed horses displaying a

26 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

fine union of qualities, as they now are to breed
horses wanting every quality but speed.

No one dislikes gambling of every kind more
than I ; but so long as we have a great racing
establishment, patronized both by the Crown
and the Government, and paid annually a sum
of public money by way of bounty for a public
object, we ought to try at least to obtain for
the public some return for this outlay.

If in commencing this new system it was
found, on trial, that our present breed of race-
horses could, without any admixture of fresh
blood, best perform the new tasks, no fresh
blood would be needed, and many of my
observations under that head, being thus proved
erroneous, would fall to the ground. If, on the
contrary, it should be found that our present
breed of horses could not compete in the per-
formance of the new tasks with horses that had
an admixture of fresh blood in their veins,
then that mixture, we may be assured, would
be generally had recourse to. If, on the other
hand, it was found that the new tasks were
best performed by Arabs of pure blood, then
that class of horse would be alone had recourse

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 27

to by those who competed for the increased
bounties. One of the many advantages result-
ing from this plan is its simplicity, requiring
Government only to determine the nature of
the tasks to be performed; namely, the dis-
tances to be run, and the weights to be carried,
leaving all the rest to be worked out under the
principle of competition by the owners of the
horses.

One consequence resulting from this plan
being carried out would be the certainty of the
best horses being imported that were obtain-
able in the East, as some of the persons who
breed our race-horses would go there them-
selves to select horses, while others would send
competent judges there for that special pur-
pose. No allowance of weight should be made
in order to encourage the system of late years
so much indulged in of running horses too
early, diminishing by this practice their con-
stitutional vigour, and disposing them to early
infirmities; evils which we know, by experi-
ence, extend to all our mixed breeds of saddle-
horses. Though it would be well not to neglect
this precaution, it is not however likely to be
required, seeing that if our race-horses were

28 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

called on to perform the old tasks, they would
be pretty sure to be started by their owners at
the age best calculated to enable their horses
to perform them well.

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 29

CHAPTER III.

Character of Arab horses and their fitness to restore the qualities
lost by our present race-horses.

Most of the Arab horses which have of late
years come to this country, have not been of
the first class, being purchased on the coasts of
certain Eastern countries, by persons having
little acquaintance with horses beyond that of
profit and loss in buying and selling them.
Thus, while the Arab horses can only be pur-
chased in the Desert at high prices, no one
either in England or India will now give those
prices for any class of Arabs, seeing that they
have very little marketable value here since
discarded on our turf. Still, even under this
discouragement, an Arab horse now and then
arrives in this country, having much merit, and

30 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

in breeding from which good stock has been
obtained for every purpose, save that of com-
peting on the turf with the speed of our present
race-horses. The Arabian horses, as found in
the Desert, are not without speed, as was shown
some years ago at Goodwood ; but they can
only run at their full stretch for about half-a-
mile. At a hand gallop, and under a burning
sun, their endurance is scarcely credible, and
their value in the Desert rests on the distances
they can travel at that pace without fatigue or
being attacked by staggers from long exposure
to an ardent sun. When a horse has acquired
in the Desert reputation for this power, a large
sum of money can be obtained for him, as the
life of a freebooter is often made to depend on
the endurance of his horse.

General Daumas, who has been in Africa,
either as Consul or General, since the year
1837, and speaks the language, says in his work
on the horses of the Sahara district, that a
good horse there will travel during five or six
days continuously journeys from 75 to 90 miles,
and after two days' rest will be fit to recom-
mence this task. He adds that " Les voyages
dans le Sahara ne sont pas toujours d'aussi

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 31

long haleine, mais il n'est pas rare, d'un autre
cote, de voir des chevaux faire cinquante ou
soixante lienes dans les vingt-quatre heures."
In other words, that it is not uncommon to
see horses in that country travel in twenty-four
hours from 150 to 180 miles !

After citing other facts, illustrating the great
powers of endurance of the horses in Sahara, he
adds, "Et pourquoi chercherais-je a prover ces
faits ? Tous les anciens officers de la division
d'Oran peuvent raconter qu'en 1837, un General
attach ant la plus grande importance a obtenir
des renseignements de Flemcon donner son
propre cheval a un Arabe pour aller les lui
chercher. Celui-ci parti du Chateauneuf a
quatre heures du matin, et rentrait le lende-
main a la meme heure apres avoir fait 70
lienes (210 miles) sur un terrain bien autre-
ment accidente que le desert." The General
then adds, " Le cheval European a disparu de
noire armee d?Afrique dont il ne pouvait se-
conder ni les charges impetueuses ni les
marches incessantes. II a ete remplace par le
cheval du pays"

The General then says that the French Go-
vernment have established three depots or

32 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

haras for the maintenance of the best stal-
lions they could select in the country. When
he wrote, the number of these stallions was
seventy-four ; but he says, instead of being con-
tent with this number, it must be raised to 150.
It seems that to these depots the farmers send
their mares, and that the quality of the race is
improving under this system.

General Daumas brings forward the opinion
of Abd-el-Kader to show that the horses called
barbes, which abound in Africa, descended
originally from Arabs. Whatever they de-
scended from, they possess wonderful powers
of endurance, and some of the best should be
imported into this country.

In a letter written by the lamented Burkhart,
and lent to me for perusal by Mr. Sewell, of
the Veterinary College, the writer says that a
breed of horses called Koheys is the best in
Syria, yet that amongst them " not more than
about 200 of the first class of horses are usually
to be found, each of which may be worth in the
Desert itself from £150 to £200. Of these
horses very few, if any, ever found their way to
Europe, although it is through them alone that
successful attempts could be made to ennoble

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 33

the European race, while the usually imported
horses are all of a second or third quality."

We may be assured, for the reasons already
stated, that these prices are now never given
by those who buy Arab horses for the Indian
or English market. Very high prices are
sometimes given by a foreign sovereign or
wealthy foreign individual sending an agent
into the Desert for this special purpose, and
obtaining by these means horses very superior
to those which usually arrive here or in
India.

There are here two conflicting opinions re-
specting the merits of Arab horses, and both
are erroneous. The first is, that no Arab
horse is worth having ; the second, that all are
good. There are to be found in certain
Eastern countries, by those who will seek
them, Arab horses capable of satisfying the
best judges ; but the great mass of them,
though good for hard work, are not agreeable
to ride. We want true, safe, and agreeable
action, while Arab horses having such are not
numerous even in the Desert. The natives of
those regions care, it seems, little about the
form, or even the safe action of their horses,

D

34 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

provided they are very enduring under severe
exertion, enabling the rider to travel long
distances in a few hours. But individual
horses have been occasionally brought to this
country with all the qualities of first-rate
hacks.

One of the objections made here to Arab
horses is, that they trip in their walk, all, how-
ever, admitting that they don't trip in then-
other paces. The reason of their tripping in
their walk is their being tied from an early age
by their forefeet instead of the head. Thus,
in their walk they are compelled to step short,
being just what they ought not to do. When
not subjected to this barbarous treatment,
Arab horses, I believe, walk generally as well
as any others.

There is now in London an Arab horse that
was obtained by a Spanish gentleman, his pre-
sent owner, many years ago by sending out a
competent person with a special mission to pur-
chase the best animals he could find in one of the
Eastern Deserts, and this horse was the result
of that mission. He is now very old, but his
form is quite unlike that of the Arabs usually
imported, while very like the portraits of se-

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 35

veral of our best horses that raced about the
middle of the last century.

There is a black Arab in London, the pro-
perty of M. Helbert, the action of which is
perfect both in the walk, trot, and canter. M.
Helbert tells me an Arab he previously had
walked quite as well as his present one. Out
of several Arab horses that have arrived here
for her Majesty and Prince Albert, two or three
have turned out excellent hacks, and walk
well. It is therefore certain that Arabs can be
selected, even under the present system of the
Desert of tying them by their feet, instead of
their head, that are excellent hacks.

Other horses have during the last thirty
years arrived in this country from the East
whose progeny have been very good. The
Wellesley Arabian, imported by the late Lord
Cowley, only about forty or fifty years ago
was so speedy that his blood yet holds a
high place at Newmarket.

General Daumas says, and I believe truly,
that people who want the best class of either
Arabs or Barbes must not rest content to send
to the coasts for them ; that, on the contrary,

d 2

36 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

they must send special agents into the heart
of the Desert.

" Ces nobles animaux ne viendrout pas nous
trouver sur le littoral, il faut aller les chercher
dans l'interieur des terres, souvent au loin."

The reader has seen that Burkhart travelling
in Syrian deserts expresses the same opinion
as to the only mode of obtaining in these coun-
tries the best horses.

Whenever competent judges shall go into
the heart of the Desert, ready to give high
prices, they will obtain very valuable horses,
but such persons must look to fine form and
true action, as well as endurance. On no
account must they select horses with straight
shoulders or weak loins. Neither must they
object to a horse on account of low stature,
because when our system of feeding is applied
to small but vigorous Arabs, the progeny ob-
tained from them will, like that obtained from
their predecessors on our turf, be only too
much disposed to acquire high stature, in doing
which they, after a time, wholly lose the com-
pact and strong form of their ancestors.

There is no doubt that the stature of our

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 37

early race-horses did not exceed fourteen
hands, while that of our present ones is rarely
less than sixteen hands; and often more,
while they have lost the fine symmetry of their
ancestors, that performed so long and so well
great tasks.

Nothing is more certain than that there are
Arab horses to be found more agreeable to ride
than any others in the world, save a very few
of our thorough-bred, or nearly thorough-bred
horses, but these are now become such rare
exceptions as only to make us regret the more
that the great mass of our well-bred horses are
become so bad for all useful purposes. Even
those that are so agreeable are usually dis-
posed to lameness when ridden at a quick
pace on hard roads, and can rarely carry
more than very light weights.

38 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

CHAPTER IV.

On the form and action of good saddle-horses.

A good hack has become so rare in this
country that few people are practically ac-
quainted with one ; and few, in consequence,
have experienced the pleasure which riding
one affords to a competent judge of action.
On a horse of this class a rider does not think
it necessary to pick his way, even on the worst
roads, feeling an instinctive but correct assur-
ance that he is riding an animal which will not
fall. The fore-feet of such an one, be the pace
it is going what it may, are ever well forward,
and fall flat on the ground, while the fore-legs,
when in action, are sufficiently, but not too
much bent, while their action comes from the
shoulders. But the most striking characteristic
in these horses is the ease with which they

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 6V

move in all their paces, thus sparing the rider
any feeling of fatigue. Not only is the number
of such horses in this country become very
limited, but those we have usually display
early some of the infirmities to which their
race has become so subject.

We could not, under any system of manage-
ment, expect to produce horses capable of
carrying eighteen and twenty stones of weight
while having the agreeable action and high
breeding of horses that are only wanted to
carry much lighter weights. But once able to
produce a great number of saddle-horses full
of good blood, and yet able to carry fourteen
stones of weight in the best manner, and we
shall have no difficulty in producing, by the
aid of a cross with a lower, but stronger breed
of horses, the finest cavalry horses in the
world.

It is not necessary to a good cavalry horse
to have the best class of shoulders, but these
must be strong, and the fore-feet not so far
back as to make the horse ■' stand over," as it
is called, like a cart-horse. A good cavalry
horse must join, to great physical power, suf-
ficient breeding to render him active and en-

40 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

during under long marches, and with the heavy
weight of a fully equipped soldier on his back.
What is most essential to a cavalry horse is
strong loins, for without these no horse can
properly carry the heavy weight of a fully
equipped soldier.

Seeing what selection, carefully and long-
continued, on our turf has effected, when the
object in view became the single quality of
speed, and this in respect to a race which has
sprung from Arabs, we may reasonably antici-
pate much more important and durable results
from equally careful selection, when the object
has become a fine union of desirable qualities.
This change of system would be followed by a
loss of some speed on the turf, but what could
that matter to the public, or for any useful
purpose, seeing that the new class of horses
would have more endurance under severe exer-
tion, and more power to carry weight, while
gentlemen connected with the turf would win
and lose money with as much facility as at
present ? But the speed lost by our race-
horses would be amply made up to the public
by the additional speed gained by its useful
saddle-horses, and for this reason : in breed-

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 41

ing hunters or hacks now strong enough to
carry more than very light weights, we dare
not have recourse to much racing blood, be-
cause, if we did, the produce would want phy-
sical strength. Thus, we have scarcely any
saddle-horses able to carry fourteen stones
which are not so full of bad blood that they
want both speed and endurance, while our bet-
ter bred horses are so deficient in strength that
they can carry but little weight.

It is the wretched condition of our cavalry
which calls on Government so loudly to im-
prove, by its interference, the present supply
of our saddle-horses, but it would be desirable
to see a large class of the community able to
buy saddle-horses calculated to cany them
safely, and for a reasonable price. Besides
invalids, there is a large mass of persons in our
highly fictitious state of society, confined to
the house during the greater part of the day by
mental occupation, and of more or less public
importance. Many of these, no longer young,
have become somewhat heavy, and require, in
consequence, horses to carry them of consider-
able strength ; while such as are strong enough
to do this have become in the last degree bad,

42 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

because, being full of cart-horse blood, they
have straight shoulders, and, what is worse,
their fore-feet greatly too much under them.
Then their low breeding makes them quickly
tire after trotting one or two miles, when
their action undergoes a change, by their be-
ginning to step short — next to show the rider
their shoes — then to trip — and, if not soon
pulled up, to fall. I have known several
persons of the class now described, whose
sedentary labours were of no small importance
to their country, whose health would have been
much improved if they had been able to get
daily exercise on horses sufficiently safe.

I have said that our hunters and hacks, not
now able to carry more than a light weight, have
less racing blood in their veins than the same
classes had in the recollection of many persons
now living. Formerly, horses when capable of
carrying fourteen stones of weight, were so
well bred as not only never to have their coats
clipped in winter, but never to require it ; and
this was the case for some years after the com-
mencement of this century.

Then, up to nearly the end of the last cen-
tury, what long journeys people made in a day !

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 43

One gentleman told me, when I was a boy,
that he had often travelled from London to
Derby in a day on the same horse, distance
140 miles. This person was six feet high, with
broad shoulders. Where is now the English
horse able to cany a large man such a dis-
tance ? Yet, unless we disbelieve what General
Daumas tells us, with the express sanction of
other French generals, who were long in Africa,
this journey to Derby sinks by comparison
into nothing.

Should it ever please the Government of
this country to influence the character of our
race-horses in the way here recommended, we
cannot fail once more to possess a good supply
of horses, uniting sufficient speed with much
endurance and great physical strength. Then,
and then only, in breeding horses intended to
carry much weight, we shall not fear to give
them much racing blood.

Our thorough bred horses are now rarely fit
for riding on the road. Those which are
sufficiently strong are too tall for this work,
and their fore-legs are usually too infirm, while
few bend their knees enough to be safe. Those
which move with straight knees are called

44 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

" daisy cutters," and their value for hacks is
thereby destroyed.

I am, however, far from admiring that action
which displays much bending of the knees,
because it is always laborious in the trot or
gallop, usually indicates low breeding, and
always an action which does not come, as it
should do, from the shoulders.

Let us now suppose that sufficiently liberal
bounties have been granted to our turf, and
the old tasks in consequence resumed upon
it ; that a sound, compact, and vigorous race
of horses is the result, and that in consequence
our farmers are able to breed good, instead of,
as at present, bad horses. The price of good
ones would then soon fall, while our farmers
would yet be better remunerated ; because
where they now breed one good saddle-horse,
they would then breed many, and at much less
expense.

Good saddle-horses have long been so scarce
with us, that few people know the form of
one. Like good pictures, fine forms are best
understood where they most abound, it being
vain to reason with people upon forms of
either art or nature which they have never

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 45

seen. To understand, however, the best form
for a saddle-horse, we must not only often see
it, but become practically acquainted with the
result by frequently riding well-formed horses.

Thus few people are now found amongst us
who know what constitutes good shoulders in
a horse ; persons of experience asserting they
should be fine, meaning by this lean at the
withers. It is however certain that a young
horse's shoulders that is intended to carry
more than a very light weight can hardly be
too thick at that place, provided they are not
thick at the points or lower ends, while in-
clining at their tops well back, leaving the
greatest obtainable space between the end of
the mane and the pummel of the saddle.
There is a certain cross bone which con-
nects the lower end of the shoulder blades
with the animal's fore-legs, which very mate-
rially affects action. When this is long it
throws the fore-legs too much back, making
the animal stand over like a cart-horse ; such
a horse, when at all tired, is pretty sure to
fall. 1 am here stating Avhat is A B C to a
good judge, but I write for the many.

The shoulders hero recommended, however,

46 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

only contribute to good action, they do not
secure it ; good hind-leg action being quite as
important as good fore-leg action. The hock-
joints should bend well when in action, bring-
ing the hind-feet well forward. All superior
horses, whether racers, hunters, hacks, or
harness horses, are eminently characterised by
fine hind-leg action. Be the shoulders ever
so good, unless the action of the hind-legs be
also good, a horse is not safe while its paces
are uneasy to its rider, and this because the
action of the two sets of legs are not properly
balanced. Such a horse is unsafe, and makes
his rider, if a judge, feel that he is so ; but if
the animal's hind and fore-leg action be pro-
perly balanced, the rider feels that his horse
cannot come down ; and he seems, in this case,
to use a dealer's phrase, to be always " riding
up hill," while under opposite circumstances
he seems to be always " riding down hill."

Much importance is assigned, and this by
judges, to great length between the hips and
the hocks. This form, however, carried to the
extent it is amongst our race-horses, is wholly
factitious, and the pure result of long-con-
tinued selection for speed, as exhibited in

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 47

that highly factitious animal the greyhound.
I am old enough to remember when this form
in our race-horses was much less developed
than it is at present; and if we may judge of
the older race-horses by their portraits, this
form, as now seen, was unknown to them.
For a hack this form is uncalled for, and
would soon disappear on our turf if the old
tasks were renewed. In now, however, select-
ing a hunter, it may be right to choose one
with this form, because it proves that the
animal has much good blood in his veins, and
that he is in consequence speedy. But our
hunters had not formerly this shape, and did
not require it. Some say that the hunters of
the last century would not have been speedy
enough for modern fox-hounds, but this is
assertion only, and opposed to two important
facts. The first of these is, that the speed of
modern fox-hounds was given to their race in
the last century by Mr. Meynell, and no one
pretends that our horses in his time could not
keep up with his hounds. Our hunters had
not their present form until some years after
the commencement of the present century,
while nearly all our fox-hounds had before

48 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

that become very speedy, but not too speedy
for the horses of that period.

The second fact is one to which I can speak,
namely, that our hunters very early in this
century, and before they became so long from
the hips to the hock, scould keep up with our
stag-hounds, while these have even gone much
faster than our fox-hounds, because they have
to work on a stronger scent. But I have
shown that our hunters, formerly able to carry
much weight, had more racing blood in their
veins than those of the present day.

This unnaturally wide space between the
hips and his hocks is inconvenient from fre-
quently producing " over-reach."

A horse's hips should be wide and his loins
highly muscular, but the lower end of his
shoulders should be light.

The chest of a horse of the first class can-
not be too protuberant, but may be too wide
for speed. The chest, however, cannot be
too deep, or the ribs before the girths too
long, while the back ribs, when much speed
is required, should be rather short. For
very fine action, therefore, the shoulder-blades
miist be long, while they cannot be so without

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 49

inclining well back. If a horse so formed has
good hind-leg action he will be very valuable,
because this form of shoulders is, I regret to
say, now scarcely to be found amongst our
saddle-horses, in the stronger portion of which
the girths are only kept from slipping away
forward by the animal's fore-legs ; making the
rider sit almost on the withers rather than on
the back of his horse.

Unless the space which intervenes between
the end of the mane and the punnnel of the
saddle be thick in a young horse, it becomes
too thin, and consequently weak when the
animal arrives at its prime.

The neck of a saddle-horse of the first class
is never very fleshy or coarse until the animal
becomes old. The only good shape for useful
purposes now to be found in our race-horses is
that of their hocks. Sickle hocks, as they are
called, so frequent in other breeds, will not
stand racing, though they frequently remain
sound when less speed is required. But this
form should be avoided.

The best height for horses intended for
hacks of the first class ranges from 14 h. 3 in.
to 15 h. *2 in. A horse 15 h. 3 in. may be a

E

50 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

useful saddle-horse for several purposes, but
not so good for a hack as one of lower stature ;
and for these reasons : a tall horse does not
move — all other things being equal — with the
ease and lightness of one of lower stature,
and, in consequence, wears its legs more, and
fatigues more its rider.

In thus comparing horses of different statures,
I have been supposing them equally well-bred,
and equally well-formed, but nearly all our
tall horses«are tall now only because they have
long legs, which are objectionable ; first, be-
cause they don't wear well ; secondly, because
always allied with a shallow body. These
horses do well enough for the London streets,
where a showy appearance is the object in
view, but they are not calculated for hard work,
and are peculiarly unfitted for a hilly country.

Fifteen hands three inches is not too high for
heavy cavalry horses, provided it be attained by
a deep body instead of long legs. Plorses really
tall do not appear so when well-formed. We
see this exemplified in a tall and well -formed
man, who never appears so tall as one of like
height who has a narrow chest and narrow
shoulders, who in short has a weak form.

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 51

That of our thorough-bred and nearly
thorough-bred horses, is at present well illus-
trated by the greater part of our officers' chargers.
If one of these had appeared at the commence-
ment of this century its form would have excited
universal surprise. Now the downward course
of our horses has so long been going on as to
prepare people for the sight of these feeble
creatures.

As respects cavalry horses that have to
carry twenty stones of weight, not a drop of
our present race-horse blood should be in
their veins, yet they must not be cart-horses.
They should have the compact form obtainable
from Arab blood, crossed with that of a stronger
but lower bred race, yet superior to that of the
cart-horse. It is not long since they bred in
Ireland good hunters without recurrence to the
blood of our race-horse, but the Irish horse
they then possessed has disappeared. I have
much to say on obtaining a cross for our race-
horses that will produce animals with that
strength and activity required for cavalry of a
high class, but it is useless to do this unless
Government consented to influence the pro-
ceedings on our turf.

e 2

5*2 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

Political economists tell us the supply of
everything should be left to the operation of
the general principle which they assert regu-
lates supply and demand, but I submit that,
powerful as that principle undoubtedly is, it is
not a general one, and that as respects many
objects of art the supply may remain — as re-
spects home production — for centuries either
nil or bad. Such is the case with many arti-
cles we are content to get from France. The
Swiss too have ever been our superiors in
making watches, and nearly all those sold now
in this country by those of our tradesmen who
call themselves watch-makers come from Swit-
zerland.

If it be said that breeding a sufficient supply
of good saddle-horses requires no skill, how
then are we to account for no civilized nation,
save our's, having ever succeeded in doing this,
and that we should at length have failed ?

The Polish, Hungarian, and Cossack horses
are very good for some purposes, but have not
enough physical power to carry heavy cavalry,
or any class of cavalry that has to act in line.
For this purpose a factitiously strong animal
is wanted, but having a sufficiency of speed
and endurance.

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 53

To succeed in breeding the best class of
saddle-horses, that practical experience which
is obtained by riding long distances at con-
siderable speed is needed. The Irish farmers
owed much of their former success in breeding-
good saddle-horses to their custom of riding-
after hounds. Having lost their own race of
well-bred horses, they are now compelled to
breed partly from the English race-horse, a
measure which has been fatal.

Returning to the general principle which we
are told regulates supply and demand, I must
remind the reader that the stock from which
all our best horses have descended was not
imported by farmers, but by gentlemen regard-
less of expense, yet the animals they imported
turned out excellent, not only for racing, but
for useful purposes, and this I have shown was
their character for a long period of time, or
until the old test of merit was abandoned.
Farmers who breed in every country the mass
of saddle-horses, have no time to go to Syria
or Africa in search of stallions, and, if they
had, have rarely either the capital or necessary
knowledge for securing success.

Supposing a farmer to leave his numerous

54 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

and important affairs at home, in order to go to
Syria or Africa in search of a stallion, and that
he returns home with a good one, what must
then soon happen? Why unless many other
farmers took a similar course, our farmer must
soon go abroad again in search of another
stallion, or allow his stock to breed in and in,
by which it would soon become deteriorated.
This must be the final result unless other
fanners, following this man's example, secured
for their country a sufficient supply of foreign
stallions. It is enough, however, to say that
no farmers in any country have ever yet taken
such a course.

If, then, our saddle-horses have generally
become bad, and our cavalry is in consequence
ill-mounted, this is one of those cases in which
the principle which usually regulates supply
and demand fails, and we must look either to
direct interference on the part of Government,
or to some special plan suited to this ex-
ceptionable case.

The reader will observe that I have been
directing his attention chiefly to what con-
stitutes the first class of saddle-horses, but we
cannot under any system expect to mount our

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 55

cavalry on this class. A cavalry soldier fully
equipped for service requires an amount of
physical strength in his horse incompatible
with much speed, or highly agreeable action.
All that can be expected in cavalry horses
that have to act in line, and to do also the
duty of light troops, is much strength, com-
bined with sufficient activity and endurance,
and such can only be obtained from a cross
between the Arab and a stronger but inferior
race.

Government may not now think itself called
on to take any step for improving the breed of
our saddle-horses ; but a day will arrive when
the matter will be forced on its attention, though
not, I fear, should war in the meantime arrive,
till the lives of many brave soldiers have been
sacrificed.

Whenever that time shall arrive no country
at all likely to possess a good breed of Arab
horses should be left unvisited. The impres-
sion now generally is that Syria has better
horses than any other portion of the East;
but after reading attentively Daumas' work on
the horses of Africa, I recommend the im-
portation of some of the best of those. Their

56 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

exportation was effectually prevented under Ab-
del-Kader, but the French Government would
probably not refuse us its assistance in en-
deavouring to purchase horses in that country.

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 57

CHAPTER V.

On the close analogy between the principles which should guide
us in breeding saddle-horses, and those by which we have so
long succeeded in breeding other domesticated animals.

In breeding other domesticated animals it
has very long been the practice to have re-
course to fresh blood when the natural, as well
as some of the acquired qualities of those
animals have become deteriorated.

The first of these cases I propose to consider
is that of our fox-hounds, which, not being
assisted, like foreign hounds, by fire-arms,
have to kill their game by their own exer-
tion. They require a strong sense of smell,
speed, and endurance. If the master of
such hounds were to remain quiescent when
they begin to fall off in any or these qualities,
they would soon cease to kill foxes, be-
cause these being wild animals, as a race

58 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

their physical powers do not vary so long as
they have to obtain their food in the usual
manner. In a district factitiously full of game
foxes have less endurance than in one where
they are obliged to travel daily some distance
after food; and in most of our hunting districts
foxes are compelled to make this exertion, and
by it they maintain their speed and great
natural endurance. As these strong foxes are
what our hounds have usually to hunt, these
cannot afford to lose any portion of their speed
or endurance. When those qualities begin
to deteriorate in a pack of hounds, the master
of it can only meet this by having recourse to
fresh blood, to that of a pack of hounds which
has been better managed than his own, as he
cannot render the killing of foxes less difficult
when the powers of his hounds are become
diminished.

The work of a fox-hound is severe, requir-
ing speed, endurance, a particular form of
foot, and sloping shoulders, and in the absence
of this form they soon become lame.

Thus our fox-hounds are not bred in refer-
ence to one quality, but to four ; namely,
form, speed, endurance, and fine sense of

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 59

smell. The standard by which these qualities
are measured, being a fixed one, our fox-
hounds are not allowed to deteriorate.

How different is the situation of those
who breed our race-horses. Having no fixed
standard by which to test the physical powers
of their horses, they have gradually lowered
that they so long maintained, as the power of
their horses diminished.

If speed alone had been the object of those
who breed our fox-hounds, it would have led
to breeding in and in, as on our turf, and thus
endurance, constitutional vigour, and that form
which is the result of vigour, would have been
lost.

The history of our pointers is also signifi-
cant. We have succeeded in giving them the
factitious quality of pointing game, instead of
rushing on it, under their natural instinct;
but these dogs after a time deteriorate ; point-
ing all sorts of animals, losing their speed and
their spirit. It becomes then necessary to cross
them either with other pointers not yet de-
teriorated, or with fox-hounds whose integrity
of character has been better maintained.

The history of the deer-hound is equally

60 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

instructive. This animal is not assisted in the
chase by the sense of smell, but depends wholly
on its speed and courage, this last quality
being soon lost unless the race be occasionally
crossed with that of the bull-dog. The result
of the first cross makes the offspring too slow,
but one cross back with the grey-hound gives
them sufficient speed without too much lower-
ing the spirit they derived from the bull-
dog.

The course taken with the deer-hound has
been produced, to a certain extent, with grey-
hounds, which are only required to kill hares.
These dogs, after a time, lose their courage,
and soon give up the chace when it ceases to
be easy. When this happens they are crossed
with a more vigorous race of greyhounds, and
sometimes with the bull-dog. The standard
by which the power of each of these animals is
measured is a fixed one, and when that power
declines the remedy had recourse to is ever
fresh blood.

The necessity, after a time, of having re-
course to this, when a race of animals under
domestication has been too far removed from
one of nature, is well illustrated by Mr. Bake-

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 61

well's new Leicester sheep, so celebrated for
their extraordinary disposition to fatten, and
for their long wool. The pure breed of those
sheep soon became very delicate, and I am
confident that not one is now to be found in
the full integrity of Mr. Bakewell's blood.
Crossed, as they have been, by other flocks of
Leicesters, having less constitutional delicacy,
they rarely drop more than one lamb each, and
require a rich pasturage.

The history, however, of our cattle is yet
more instructive than that of any other of our
domesticated animals which have been much
withdrawn from a state of nature, or from one
little removed from it. Such of our breeds of
cattle as have endured for any considerable
time, have been always reared, and continue
to be reared, on poor or indifferent pasturage.

In our rich pasture districts, where our best
cheese is made, the cattle are soon forced up
to a large and unnatural size, and in conse-
quence lose, after a time, so much of their con-
stitutional vigour as to require frequent renova-
tion from fresh blood, from that of cattle which
remain in a more natural state. I do not
blame the course thus taken with the cattle in

62 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

our dairy districts, as they have been made by
rich food to yield much more milk. Cows in
a state little removed from one of nature,
namely, those still bred on poor soils, yield
much less milk than those which inhabit more
fertile districts. In a state of nature, or in one
little removed from it, the udder and milk
veins of the cow are little developed compared
with those of cows which have been kept on
rich pastures, and under a system of continued
selection for their milking qualities. A race
of large dairy cattle, while not called upon to
make any physical exertion, or submit to any
privations, may continue for many years to
answer the object of the farmer, if breeding
too much in and in be avoided.

The buildings required by dairy cattle dur-
ing winter are expensive, and large cows are,
therefore, more economically housed than small
ones. The history, however, of these enlarged
cattle, shows that their existence as a race is
ephemeral, while that of the smaller cattle which
occupies poorer districts of land, there is every
reason to believe has endured for ages. In
our rich dairy counties, where the pasturage is
rich, the breeds of cattle which occupy them

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 63

have been of late years frequently changed,
either wholly or partially, by a cross with
cattle in a more natural state, and so far as
we are acquainted with the facts resulting from
this change, with excellent results.

The old short horns, which thirty years ago
came from Yorkshire in such crowds to London
to supply it with milk, had become coarse, long-
legged, ill-shapen, and delicate. They re-
quired expensive food and fattened slowly,
yielding a large quantity of milk, but little
either of curd or butter. This race has been
renovated within a few years by a cross with
a hardier breed, that is, with one in a more
natural condition, and the produce is known
under the name of the " new short horns."
This race is a great improvement upon the old
one, and has spread over all our dairy counties,
displacing the race of long horns which forty
years ago occupied those districts. The long
horns, as a race, had little antiquity to
boast of, for Lisle, who wrote towards the end
of the 17th century, says, "that in his time
the dairy counties of York, Derby, Stafford,
and Lancashire, were occupied with black
cattle having wide spreading horns." This

64 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

race, we may suppose, continued for some time
after the death of Lisle. The county of Glou-
cester is stated to have had a distinct breed of
cattle, which was changed about the middle of
the last century for the long horns, and these
having since given way to the new short horns.
Thus, all our dairy districts distinguished for
rich pasturage, have been compelled, at short
periods, to change entirely their breeds of dairy
cattle, by having recourse to such as were in a
more natural condition.

The long horns were relinquished in our dairy
districts because they had ceased to fatten well.

Dairy fanners are liable to great losses from
their cows miscarrying ; and when this once
begins in a cow-house, it extends rapidly, and
subjecting the farmer to great losses, unless his
cows after this fatten kindly. Thus, while
housing during winter is necessary for large
milking cows, it is attended with this very
serious drawback. The little disposition to
fatten after miscarriage of the old long horns,
led to the introduction throughout our dairy
counties of the improved short horns, a hardier
race, formed by a cross with the Scotch cattle.

As milking cows require to be housed dur-

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 65

ing winter, and as large ones, besides yielding
a greater supply of milk, are more economically
housed than small ones, there is no objection to
the course taken by our dairy farmers, consider-
ing how easily, when their cattle become too de-
licate, their vigour can be renewed by a cross
with breeds in a more natural condition.

The small Suffolk polled cows maintain their
ground because reared on a poor pasturage,
for which they are suitable, but they are un-
fitted for a rich one

The history of our cattle intended for the
butcher is very different. There is every
reason to suppose that nearly all the existing
breeds have lasted in their present form for
ages. The most numerous are the Scotch,
which are in a state very little removed from
one of nature, exhibiting excellent forms, and
yielding unrivalled beef.

It is an unfailing characteristic of wild
animals to die under severe hardships, or
wholly to recover, those of the same race
never exhibiting the essential differences of
form displayed by domesticated animals kept
in a very factitious state, some exhibiting long,
while others display short, backs — some long

F

66 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

legs, and others short ones — some strong loins,
and others weak ones.

Thus, most of the Scotch cattle being in a
state little removed from one of nature, dis-
play, when of the same race, a striking unifor-
mity of shape. This, however, is not the cha-
racteristic of cattle kept on rich pasturage and
housed during the winter months, as in our
dairy counties.

The Welsh cattle are inferior to the Scotch,
but are well fitted for districts where the pas-
turage is poor.

The Devons and Herefords are supposed to
be indigenous. The oxen of these races ar-
rive at a considerable size, and are active in
the yoke. The Hereford oxen are larger than
the Devon, but are equally active in the yoke.
These are probably the two best breeds of
cattle in the world for the purposes of working
in the yoke, and yielding a large supply of
excellent food.

How then does it happen, that without re-
curring to fresh blood, or to a cross, the oxen
of these two races arrive at a large size, while
continuing hardy, and active in the yoke ?
The solution of these apparently incompatible

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 67

facts is found in the judicious practice of keep-
ing down the stature of the parents — that is of
the bulls and cows, as is shown in the follow-
ing extract from a letter of the late Mr. Knight,
of Herefordshire, to the Board of Agriculture,
in which that able physiologist alludes to the
great difference between the size of the coivs
and oxen of that county. He appears in
this publication to take just pride in the
oxen, but he seems ashamed of the cows.
He thus writes : — " The Herefordshire breeders
seem unanimously agreed that a very large
cow, however well-formed and perfect in every
other respect, rarely produces a good ox ; and
they, therefore, justly disregard the weight and
intrinsic value of their cows, reckoning those
the best which experience has taught them are
best calculated to produce good oxen." Thus,
it follows, that the Herefordshire ox is a very
superior animal to the cow, often attaining
double the weight. I do not, however, admit
but that this county can show as beautiful
cows as any in the island, but it is the ox on
which it prides itself, and stands, I am con-
fident, without a rival.

If so able a man as Mr. Knight could over-

F 2

68 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

look the nature of the necessity which obliges
the Herefordshire farmers to maintain this
great distinction between the size of their cows
and that of their oxen, we cannot wonder at
finding this principle so generally disregarded.

The author of the "Farmer's Series" speaks
in the same sense of the Hereford cows and
oxen.

I think it impossible for any thinking man,
after reading this account of our cattle, not to
be struck by the affinity it displays between
the principles which should guide us in the
management of both horses and cattle.

The history of the last points out how im-
possible it is to withdraw them from a state of
nature, so as to increase greatly their size with-
out reducing their constitutional vigour. It
shows how this difficulty has been successfully
met by those who breed our Devon and Here-
fordshire cattle, keeping down the size of the
parents of their large oxen.

We cannot reflect on these facts without
coming to the conclusion that when any domes-
ticated animals have been long much removed
from a state of nature, and have in consequence
lost some of their natural qualities, a cross

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 69

with animals of the same race, which have
been less removed from a state of nature, is
the only remedy. These facts prove that no
domesticated race of animals whose natural
habits have been much changed by human
interference, long escapes deterioration in re-
spect to some of its natural qualities, unless
renovated by fresh blood.

Seeing, then, the course taken with our
cattle, we cannot doubt that our farmers would
pursue the same course with our saddle-horses
if they could.

We have no power over the qualities given
by nature to animals, save that which results
from long-continued selection of individuals
for propagating their race, which possess, in a
pre-eminent degree, the qualities we want.
Horses of the same race are not equally
speedy, or equally enduring. If, then, the
object of the breeding of saddle-horses be
speed alone, we select for that one quality ;
but if the object of the breeder be en-
durance as well as speed, he must breed
from animals that possess that union of
qualities. It is the same in cows; such as
naturally afford more milk than others we

70 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

breed from, when milk is our object, but when
beef is our object we select those individuals
for breeding which will be soonest fat ; such,
in short, as make the greatest return for the
food they have consumed. When we require
in cattle activity in the yoke, as well as a
strong disposition to fatten, we select those
individuals to breed from which possess the
best union of these two qualities.

One principle of breeding has become
well understood by those who breed either
cattle or sheep, which is carefully to avoid
breeding in and in. Happy would it have
been for mankind had this principle been
better kept in view in propagating the human
race.

A paper published some years ago by the
late Mr. Cline having exercised a pernicious
influence, it is necessary here to refer to it.
He wished to show what he considered to be
the advantage obtainable by breeding from
large females. He had horses and cattle
principally in view, and thus writes : — " The
proper method of improving the form of animals
consists in selecting a well-formed female pro-
portionably larger than the male. The im-

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 71

provement depends on this principle, that the
power of the female to supply her offspring
with nourishment is in proportion to her size,
and to the power of nourishing herself from
the excellence of the constitution.

" The size of the foetus is generally in pro-
portion to that of the male parent, and there-
fore when the female parent is proportionably
small the quantity of nourishment is deficient,
and her offspring has all the disproportions of
a starveling. But when the female, from her
size and good constitution, is more than ade-
quate to the nourishment of a foetus of a
smaller male than herself, the growth must be
proportionably greater. The larger female has
also a greater quantity of milk, and her off-
spring is more abundantly supplied with
nourishment."

There can be no doubt that in breeding
animals of any kind the females should be
well formed, and have good constitutions ; but
on what facts Mr. Cline grounds his assertion
that the females for breeding should be larger
than the males, he does not say, while all the
facts bearing on this subject lead to an oppo-

7*2 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

site conclusion. No cattle are probably so
hardy as the Scotch ; none have more vigour,
none are better formed, and few so well ; yet
they yield little milk, but this of such good
quality that the offspring of those cows are
well nourished, yet the cows are not " in
proportion larger than the males."

Then I have showed on good authority how
careful are the breeders of our Hereford and
Devon cattle to keep down the size of their
cows, and that the result of their doing so is
that the oxen of this race are the finest in the
world, being equally well constituted for the
yoke and for the butcher. These cows do not
yield much milk, but the quality is excellent ;
and it is this and not the quantity of milk
which is important to the offspring.

It is well known to every man practically
acquainted with the subject, that the large cows
kept in our dairy counties are much less hardy
than the Scotch, the Welch, the Devons, or
the Herefords ; but the former yield much
more milk, which is the object of the dairy
farmer to obtain.

Then what are more vigorous than the mares

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 73

yet found in a state of nature, or in one
but little removed from it? When one of
these is put to a large horse is the produce
ill nourished ? is it a starveling ? No ; the
only fear of a judicious and experienced
breeder in this case is, that the produce of this
cross, when well fed, after being weaned, may
turn out too large. But when I speak of small
cows and small mares, let me not be supposed
to refer to weedy or weak females, having
shallow bodies and weak loins. I allude only
to well-formed, strong, and compact mares,
showing by their forms that they have vigorous
constitutions. I further submit that in no race
of animals in a state of nature, or nearly so,
are the females larger than the males.

As respects the human race, we do not find
that large women produce the finest offspring.
On the contrary, such females have usually
less vigorous constitutions than smaller ones,
when these have well-proportioned forms. It
is equally well known that very tall men are
not so enduring under exertion, or so likely to
live to a great age as smaller men.

If, in breeding horses, we were to select mares

74 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF

of larger stature proportionably than the stal-
lions, we should invert the clearest order of na-
ture, for naturally females are smaller than the
males.

It is certain, that in enlarging the na-
tural size of both cattle and horses, we do
not pari passu increase the natural amount of
nervous, or, if I may use the expression, vital
power. Dr. Holland, in his work on Mental
Physiology, says in the chapter entitled, " In-
quiry into the Nervous System," " Other
arguments, in addition, might be used to sanc-
tion the idea of quantity in the nervous power
as expressed by its deficiency. May we not
under this view find the explanation of the
great exhaustion (sometimes involving danger-
ous results) which follows sudden or excessive
growth of the body ? regarding such debility
as the effect of disproportion between the size
of the frame, and the amount of nervous force
ministering to its functions." On this passage
Dr. Holland adds the following note : — " In
such cases, however, we are bound to advert
also to the want of proportionate growth in the
muscular structure of the heart, and its conse-

OUR SADDLE-HORSES. 75

quent inability to carry on an active and
healthy circulation through a vascular system
thus unduly extended. I have seen some very
striking examples of this disproportion ; and
it is a point in pathology meriting more atten-
tion than it has received."

How many facts illustrate this doctrine
in respect to both men and horses. Per-
sons of experience in horses which have to
work hard daily, either in harness or in the
saddle, are agreed on the unfitness of large
horses for severe work. A large soldier may
beat down one of much lower stature, but in
making long marches, and submitting to priva-
tions the smaller men beat the larger. It is
the same in horses. Heavy dragoon soldiers
require horses having great physical power,
but these horses cannot compete with the light
Cossack and Hungarian horses in bearing long
marches and privations, but these in the actual
charge have not sufficient weight to oppose
horses of greater physical power. Here then,
again, we see the wisdom of those who breed
our fine Hereford and Devon cattle, who keep
down the size of their cows in order to main-
tain the vigour of their constitution, knowing

76 CONDITION OF OUR SADDLE-HORSES.

that those of their progeny, which are not al-
lowed to perpetuate their race, will, under this
system, arrive at a large size, and this without
their activity in the yoke being lessened.

OUR CAVALRY. 77

CHAPTER VI.

Our Cavalry boos* to be tested during peace, and its discipline
improved.

Seeing that our cavalry horses have become
deteriorated since the last war, while in that
they displayed much delicacy and perished in
consequence in great numbers, we should while
peace continues, subject our present cavalry
horses to a practical test calculated to prove
which class can and which cannot be depended
on for carrying their riders fully equipped
through a campaign. I am glad to hear that
our cavalry is about to be encamped, but re-
gret to learn that their horses are to be covered
in when at the picket-post. If this expense
has now become necessary, what clearer evi-
dence is needed to show how much our horses
have fallen off in constitutional vigour, seeing

78 OUR CAVALRY.

that till now they were always when encamped
tied to the picket-post in the open air, and this
without sustaining the smallest injury ? Surely
this encampment is an occasion which should
not be neglected for trying how our horses are
likely to go through a campaign with their
riders fully equipped for the field. The last
encampment in England was near Weymouth
in 1805, and as I was in it I am able to say
that, though the horses were tied to the picket-
post in the open air, they were in the finest
condition.

Advantage should be taken of the coming
encampment for further testing our cavalry
horses by marching them daily, when not
otherwise employed, for a month, a considerable
number of miles. We test our cannon and our
muskets before using them in war, and if this
be a wise precaution, it is not less so after a
very long peace to test our cavalry horses
before we enter upon war, particularly now
when they appear much more delicate, and
much less able to cany the great weight of
fully equipped soldiers than were their prede-
cessors in the last war.

The number of miles to be marched each

OUR CAVALRY. 79

day in the trial here recommended should be
rather more than is likely to be required in a
campaign, seeing that our horses at home are
better fed than in a campaign.

This trial would serve to clear up another
point now little understood yet of great impor-
tance— that of ascertaining the best means of
preventing or greatly diminishing the serious
evil of sore backs amongst the horses by un-
equal pressure of the saddle.

General Cathcart, when in Canada, in order
to prevent this had a quarter blanket placed
under the saddles of his regiment, and this
with very good effect ; but on that regiment
coming home the blanket was ordered to be
discontinued on the sole ground of unsightliness
without any trial being made of it. This is to
be regretted, seeing who was the author of that
system, and that it had answered in Canada,
while we remain, down to the present day,
without any plan for preventing our horses'
backs becoming sore when having to travel for
only a few consecutive days.

The Life Guards, in Spain, had a large
portion of their men dismounted while only
marching up the country to join our army, by

80 OUR CAVALRY.

the horses' backs becoming sore ; and a few
years afterwards the 1st Life Guards in
marching the short distance between London
and Nottingham, suffered much, with the ex-
ception of one troop, by their horses' backs
becoming sore. The troop which escaped this
malady did so from unusual care being exer-
cised by its captain, a proof that this subject
requires elucidation by a trial of marching
under different plans of management. Looking
at the enormous expense of this force, no pains
should be spared calculated to prevent this
evil.

By the trial here recommended— if pro-
perly carried out — important knowledge would
be acquired of the causes which produce sore
backs, as well as the best means of either
wholly getting rid of that evil, or diminishing
it.

But how different would be now our situa-
tion if a few years ago Government had tried
some crosses with well selected Arab horses
to improve our cavalry. If that experiment
had been made, even on a very small scale, we
should by trying now the produce against our
present horses at the picket-post, and by long

OUR CAVALRY. 81

daily marches have acquired a body of facts of
much importance to our army.

The question of arming the front rank men
in our dragoon regiments with lances deserves
attention. It might be well to appoint a
military commission to investigate the subject,
but be the opinion of such a body what it might,
a partial trial of this system should be directly
adopted.

The great improvements effected of late
years in the Continental cavalry — particularly
in that of France — is an additional call upon
us to examine attentively the present state of
our own.

Our cavalry is brave, but becomes in action
unmanageable. This is a serious fault, and led
at Waterloo to the almost entire destruction of
our heavy cavalry. This defect can only be
remedied by an improved system of discipline.
For this purpose much more attention should
be paid to troop drills.

The discipline of our cavalry regiments
should cease to be, as at present, dependent
wholly on the officers commanding regiments,
assisted by the adjutant and riding-master. By
calling on the captains to drill their troops, a

8*2 OUR CAVALRY.

spirit of emulation would spring up amongst
those officers now unknown. The improvement
resulting from this system might be slow, and
confined, perhaps, at first, to one troop, then
gradually to others, while one or two might not
improve at all. The captains commanding
these last should be first encouraged to do
better, and reprimanded if the evil arose from
their want of will. From whatever cause the
inferior discipline of a troop might arise, it
must not be allowed to continue, though it
should become necessary for its captain to
leave a service for which he had shown himself
unfit. There would be no cruelty in this when
we reflect on the fatal consequences which so
often result when cavalry display a want of
discipline in action.

The dragoons, when exercised in troop drills,
should move with very wide intervals between
each horse. Persons who understand riding,
and have seen much of our riding-schools, know
that they never turn out a good horseman ; and
the principal reason for this is, the confined
space of a school. But troops are in a school
when out of doors, unless made to move with
wide intervals. Dragoons cannot maintain

OUR CAVALRY. 83

accurately proper intervals between each other
until they have acquired a skill in horseman-
ship not obtainable under the present system.

These drills, if well carried out, would show
which of the captains of troops knew how to
command them, and this would not be lost on
the soldiers, who estimate very accurately the
amount of military knowledge their officers
possess. This knowledge on the part of the
men leads in cavalry to much good, or to great
mischief, according as the officers do, or do not
know their duties. When the men have con-
fidence in the knowledge of their officers, they
yield them ready obedience in any situation,
but not so when the officers do not merit their
confidence.

It is of little use to bring a whole regiment of
cavalry together for a field-day, until they
have been prepared for it by well conducted
troop drills.

The junior field officers, as well as two or
three of the older captains in every cavalry
regiment, should each be occasionally allowed,
under the eye of the officer commanding the
regiment, to put it through some movements.
After this practice had been established, the

g 2

84 OUR CAVALRY.

inspector-general should sometimes call out
one of these officers, to put his regiment
through some movements; and if this officer
failed to do this properly, he should be allowed
a reasonable time for improvement; after
which, if he still failed to perform this very
easy task with perfect facility, he should be
reported by the inspector-general to the Horse
Guards, whose painful but indispensable duty
it would be to remove such officer from the
service. This may seem harsh, but not so when
it is recollected how many valuable lives may
be sacrificed, and how many occasions for
snatching an advantage lost, when an officer
commanding a cavalry regiment cannot perform
his duty properly when before an enemy.

It is very desirable to have the older officers
in a cavalry regiment well looked after by the
inspector-general, who, from his rank, and
other circumstances, would have more influ-
ence over such officers than the lieutenant-
colonel, who, living on a more or less intimate
footing with them, is less disposed to exercise
that strictness which the interests of the service
require. While living in social intercourse with
a corps of officers, it is very difficult for the

OUR CAVALRY. 85

commanding officer to be sufficiently strict,
while this duty is very easy of performance to
the inspector- general of such force. When
this person calls on a junior officer to put
his regiment through some movements, these
should be named by him, as little instruction
would be obtained by these officers putting
their regiments through movements before a
reviewing or inspecting general which they
had been previously practising for the occasion.

The same principle should be extended to
every inspection of a regiment, whoever may
be in the command of it ; for after a cavalry
regiment has been properly instructed, first in
the riding- school, and afterwards in troop
drills, it ought to be able to perform well any
movements that could be required from it
without a previous preparation.

When an officer at the head of a regiment
of cavalry cannot act rapidly, or on the spur of
the moment, before an enemy, he may wholly
lose a fine opportunity for striking an important
blow.

It is then injurious to allow the officers who
command our cavalry regiments to prepare
themselves for a reviewing, or inspecting

86 OUR CAVALRY.

general, by performing before him movements
previously practised expressly for the occasion.
If an officer commanding a cavalry regiment
require more than a momentary glance at an
enemy for attacking him, he is not fit for that
arm of the service.

Our cavalry regiments should not on their
field days be allowed to dwell so much as they
usually do between their movements. Two of
these should be made in rapid succession, in
order to accustom the non-commissioned offi-
cers to take up the new lines rapidly. When
the commanding officer on a field-day dwells
long between every movement, the attention of
both officers and men becomes wearied. If a
cavalry regiment cannot perform its move-
ments rapidly, without getting into more or
less of confusion, either its troop or its regi-
mental drills have been neglected. When a
general then arrives before a cavalry regiment
to review it, he should name the movements he
wishes to have performed, instead of being
content to accept those which had been pre-
viously practised for the occasion.

In the course of the last war I knew some
junior field officers of cavalry regiments, who,

OUR CAVALRY. 87

though of long standing in the service, could
not put their regiments through a common
field-day without the continual aid of the adju-
tants. Had this occurred in battle the result
would have been serious. Such officers should
have been dismissed, or made to learn their
duty.

A thoroughly well instructed, and well
mounted cavalry regiment, may be compared
to a fine frigate with a highly disciplined crew.

A cavalry officer in the command of a regi-
ment may on service greatly distinguish him-
self, as may a captain in command only of a
squadron when this happens to be detached.

There are still men in our Household Cavalry
much too heavy for service. The horses re-
quired to carry them are necessarily too low-
bred and too slow. They are, in consequence,
when in a column on its march, like to slow
sailing ships, which delay the progress of a
whole fleet. The speed of a cavalry regiment
is in all its movements diminished, by the slow
horses which cany the heaviest men. These

88 OUR CAVALRY.

men may be very showy, but if their limbs
were shorter, their chests wider, and their arms
stronger, they would be more effective in action,
while pressing less on the power of their horses.

The form of the men in our Household
Cavalry should resemble more that of the men
in our Grenadier Guards, which is for the most
part perfect.

We ought not to enlist or retain, even in our
heavy cavalry, men of more than five feet eleven
inches; yet, we have still men in that force,
particularly amongst the sergeants, who, besides
being very tall, are also very heavy, and too
much so for any horse of proper breeding to
carry. I doubt not, these men, and particularly
the sergeants, are very deserving, but actual
service should ever be before the eyes of our
military authorities.

It is the long limbs of the men in our House-
hold Cavalry which make them, when on foot,
look so tall ; but when mounted, they look less
tall than men formed like those in our Grena-
dier Guards would do if they were placed on
horseback; while these have broader chests,
and stronger arms than the very tall men now
to be seen in our Household Cavalry.

OUR INFANTRY. 89

CHAPTER VII.

INFANTRY.

A system should be established for bringing forward talented
officers in this force.

The case of infantry differs much from that
of cavalry, its movements being comparatively
slow, and performed by rational beings instead
of mere animals. An officer in a line regiment
of infantry has scarcely ever an opportunity,
till he becomes a lieutenant- colonel, and then
few, of distinguishing himself. The duties of
all other officers in that force are so simple, as
to be at once understood by persons of the
most limited capacity. From this branch of the
service, however, nearly all the generals are
obtained, and with scarcely an exception, as
respects such as obtain the command of armies,
while their success in that important situation

90 OUR INFANTRY.

has little relation to any knowledge they have
acquired of regimental duties. Even the scien-
tific education given to Artillery and Engineer
officers does not enable them to command
armies, unless they possess that natural genius
for war which education, however good, does
not give.

At present, in consequence of the great
success of our armies under the Duke of Wel-
lington, it seems to be a pretty general opinion
that our military system is good, and may be
relied on for ensuring the success of our arms
in a future war. But what is the fact ? Why
that, until the Duke of Wellington obtained the
command of our armies, they have been, from
the time of Marlborough, almost uniformly
unsuccessful, save in India, where the native
armies were, with hardly any exception, very
feeble. The immediate cause of the ill success
of our armies before the Duke of Wellington
appeared, is their having been usually placed
under incompetent commanders, as happened
in the war for independence in America, and
by the placing such men as General Whitelock,
Lord Chatham, Sir John Murray, and several
others, at the head of our armies in the field.

OUR INFANTRY. 91

These men disgraced themselves and our arms.
Four or five generals were placed in quick
succession at the head of our expedition to
Portugal in the last war, and were all as
quickly recalled. Then how ill was the army
commanded we sent to America in 1814 ! Can
we then believe that a system under which
such events occurred can be sound ?

The state of the army we sent to Germany
at the commencement of the last war was dis-
graceful. Its outposts, when before the enemy,
were not visited by the general officers on duty,
and head-quarters was every night a scene of
drunkenness, while the soldiers were without
discipline. This statement rests on no less
authority than that of the Duke of Wellington.
Until he was placed at the head of our armies
in the field, they had rarely any success. But
how did he, while young, arrive at so high a
station ? Was it by the force of his talents ?
No. By his great interest — by the instrumen-
tality of his brother, Lord Wellesley, Governor-
General of India, when the then Colonel
Wellesley arrived in that country, where he
was quickly placed at the head of an army, in
which post he had brilliant success.

92 OUR INFANTRY.

It may be said that this case makes in favour
of patronage. It would be unwise to come
to such a conclusion on account of a solitary
case. It is, on the contrary, melancholy to
reflect, that had the Duke of Wellington not
been the brother of the Governor-General of
India, but an officer without interest, he would,
in all probability, notwithstanding his great
military talents, have been compelled to re-
main the best part of his life performing the
simple duties of an officer in a line regiment of
infantry.

It will probably be very long before so able
a general appears again ; but whenever this
country shall possess an officer having much
more than the average amount of military
talents, there should be no chance of his not
becoming early known to the commander-in-
chief, and by him quickly afterwards brought
forward in his profession.

The great mass of our officers must, under
any system, be content to remain the best part
of their lives doing duty with their regiments,
and so long as they continue what they have
hitherto ever been — distinguished for their
bravery and honour — we ought to be well

OUR INFANTRY. 93

satisfied, seeing how well they perform the
duties assigned to them.

The situation of our staff officers — that part
of them below the rank of general — is very
different, having to perform in a campaign
important, as well as instructive duties. Thus
being mounted when in the field, they are sent
about in every direction — particularly those on
the staff of the general commanding the army —
and become, in consequence, acquainted with
the whole of the ground on which the army
they are attached to in a campaign moves, as
well as the spots on which its battles ?xe
fought. In carrying and explaining the orders
which, from time to time, they receive in the
course of a campaign, they may, when talented,
distinguish themselves by important services.
Thus, at Albuera, it is well known, Lord
Hardinge, then on the staff, saved that battle
by two suggestions he addressed in the midst
of the fight to Lord Beresford. This of itself
would suffice to show the importance of having
our staff officers selected wholly on account of
their talents. But what is the fact ? Why
that the officers on the staff of our generals
are uniformly selected on account of their

94 OUR INFANTRY.

connections, and never on account of their
talents.

The situation of an officer in a campaign
doing duty with his regiment is very different,
as he can see little beyond the ground it occu-
pies, and does not come in contact with the
general officers.

The public believes that much talent is not
required by officers of the army, which is true
as respects infantry officers doing duty with
their regiments during the best part of their
lives, but it is impossible to read the "Dis-
patches" without feeling assured that no posi-
tion is more difficult than that of an officer in
command of an army in the field ; and that to
be long successful in that situation, he must
combine much natural genius for war, with an
almost unerring judgment. But such talents,
however great, require to be exercised before
they become impaired, either by age or by a
too long course of idleness.

What would now be the condition of all
difficult professions, trades, and arts, if those
who entered them, and were clever, relied for
their success on their connections rather than
on their talents ? Would such a system make

OUR INFANTRY. 95

profound lawyers, clever surgeons, superior
manufacturers, or accomplished artists ? The
reply must be, No. How, then, can we
expect to be usually supplied with officers
fitted to command successfully an army in the
field, while they look to getting on in their
profession solely either to their money or their
connections ? Until we place talented officers
in the situation of talented men in other diffi-
cult professions, by giving them a sufficient
motive for exertion, they will not exert or
improve themselves.

We should then adopt a system, which shall
early make known to the commander-in-chief —
even in a period of peace — those officers who
possess much more than the average amount
of military talents ; but this point being accom-
plished, such officers must know, that after
studying the higher parts of their profession
with success, they will obtain an adequate
reward.

This change in our military system was
never more loudly called for than at present,
after a peace of nearly forty years duration on
the grand theatre of war, leaving us without a
general who has had the command of an army,

96 OUR INFANTRY.

a division, or even a brigade in the last
European war, while young enough now to go
through the fatigues of a campaign.

Our present Commander-in-Chief is suffi-
ciently talented and experienced, whilst suffi-
ciently active to command an army in the field,
but he is getting old.

In the absence of any plan for carrying out
this alteration in our system of military policy,
I submit that the Commander-in-Chief should
invite officers to send to the Horse Guards
their opinions in writing on certain military
questions. These to be named, and their
nature briefly explained in letters sent to the
officers commanding regiments in Great Britain,
to be by them communicated to the officers
under their command. Henceforth, I shall
call these opinions reports, and I use the word
invite, because to command in this case would
be improper, seeing how very few officers in
any army are calculated to discuss great mili-
tary questions who are yet excellent executive,
or regimental officers. The invitation should
be addressed only to officers who have attained
the rank of captain and of not less than
two years' standing. Younger officers, when

OUR INFANTRY. 97

talented would not remain in the meantime
idle, but would be preparing themselves for
the period when they would be allowed to
send in their reports. In the meantime it
would not be desirable to bring them into com-
petition with older officers, because while the
former might fail only from being too young
they might succeed at a maturer age, if not
disgusted with their want of success at an
earlier period.

A board consisting of two well selected
officers, should be formed whose duty would
be to peruse the reports sent to the Horse
Guards, layingthose only before the Commander-
in-Chief which had merit, and when the two
officers forming the board, differed in opinion
on a report, they should refer it to the Com-
mander-in-Chief for his decision. It would
doubtless save trouble to have the board consist
of three instead of two officers, but it would be
easier to obtain two officers than three cal-
culated for such a duty.

As a commencement, a supposed invasion
from the opposite coast would form a good
subject for discussion in these reports. The
practicability of effecting a landing, being more

H

98 OUR INFANTRY.

a naval than a military question, these reports
should commence by supposing the debark-
ation of a hostile army effected on certain
parts of our coasts, pointing out the best spots
between the places of debarkation and the
metropolis for making a succession of stands
against the progress of the enemy and pointing
out the best spots for throwing up entrench-
ments.

Diagrams should not be required in these
reports ; when wanted, engineer officers are
the persons to supply them, and not the com-
mander of an army.

All that is wanted in the reports here con-
templated is unmistakeable evidence of stra-
tegic genius, allied with striking good sense.

As our coasts offer many spots calculated for
a debarkation, each of these would afford matter
for a separate report. The Commander-in-
Chief after receiving from the officers com-
manding regiments the names of their officers
who accepted the invitation to send in reports,
should appoint a time for a certain number
of them to proceed to the coast, allowing
them ten days for observation and drawing up
their first reports, which should, at the end of

OUR INFANTRY. 99

that period, be sent into the Horse Guards.
Each officer whose first report was there
approved, should be invited to send in a second,
being allowed only seven days for composing
this. An officer whose second report was ap-
proved should be invited to send in a third,
five days only being allowed for this purpose.
These reports should refer exclusively to defend-
ing the route from three separate spots on our
coasts, on which the debarkation of an enemy
was supposed to have taken place. The officers
whose reports were approved should now be
each invited to make one on the defence of
London in the supposed event of an enemy
succeeding in reaching that place.

Reports should be invited from the officers
quartered in Ireland, on a supposed invasion of
that country on the spots naval men have judged
best calculated for a successful descent. This
duty should be executed on the same plan as
has been here sketched out for England.

After this, the Commander-in-Chief might
send those officers to Ireland whose reports in
England had been approved, inviting them to
send similar reports on a supposed invasion of
the former country. Then the officers quar-

H 2

100 OUR INFANTRY.

tered in Ireland whose reports on a supposed
invasion of that country had been approved
might be directed to come to England, and
send in similar reports on a supposed invasion
of that country.

In the commencement of this plan a great
mass of worthless reports would doubtless be
sent in, the result of vanity rather than talent ;
but if only one first-rate report was received in
the course of a dozen years, how great might
become its value by making the Commander-in-
Chief early acquainted with the writer.

The reports received at the Horse Guards
from our officers in their several expeditions
should remain the exclusive property of the
nation, and be divided into three classes. The
first should be for the reception of reports
which displayed an unusually great amount of
merit. The writer of such should be rewarded
by immediate promotion, and placed in a high
staff situation the moment it became vacant.
His advancement in rank should be rapid, not
only as a proper reward to the officer, but as
being of much advantage to the nation to obtain
early the greatest services which increased rank
enables a talented officer to render to his

OUR INFANTRY. 101

country. We must bear in mind that talented
officers are as little disposed to exchange a
life of indolence and pleasure for one of much
mental exertion, as are the rest of the profession
unless an adequate reward be held out.

It might happen that no reports were received
for some years, the merit of which was so su-
perior to the rest as to deserve being placed in
the first class. The reports placed in the
second class, should display decisive merit,
though much less than one entitled to be placed
in the first.

The third class should be for the reception
of reports not wholly without talent, but without
enough to be placed in the second class. To
the writers of these inferior reports further time
should be granted for further exertion ; but if,
after waiting a reasonable period, the reports
of these officers did not become sufficiently
improved for placing in the second class, the
writers should be informed that further reports
from them would be dispensed with.

It will here be said that filling the staff situa-
tions with officers selected solely on account
of their talents, as displayed in their reports,
would deprive general officers of their present

10*2 OUR INFANTRY.

patronage ; yes, but only to confer an ines-
timable benefit on their country by placing
early on our staff precisely the officers best
calculated to perform its duties.

The next and last step should be to send
such of the officers, whose reports were satis-
factory, to Spain, under the orders of a general
officer, accompanied by an able artillery and
an able engineer officer ; the three having
served under the Duke of Wellington in that
country.

The object of this expedition, in the first
instance, would be to show these officers the
districts which were the scenes of the Duke
of Wellington's campaigns. The movements
which had preceded every battle should be
carefully pointed out to these officers, and
should be by them as carefully considered
as everything afterwards connected with the
battles.

It must be desirable to show young officers
who have had no experience in war, how our
armies were distributed in different fields of
battle, by such a general as the Duke of
Wellington. In the absence of such instruc-
tion, as well as of experience in actual warfare,

OUR INFANTRY. 103

nothing can be more difficult on a field of
battle, offering striking varieties of ground, than
to occupy it well. Thus, to give in the course
of a campaign, or in a great battle, a sufficient
lateral extension to an army, without too much
weakening its communications, is a class of
knowledge which cannot be taught by books.

Having then selected the best officers for
affording instruction, as well as the best for
profiting by it, we should have done everything
in our power for securing a supply of officers
during the continuance of peace, fitted to com-
mand our armies in the field when war shall
arrive.

The officers sent to Spain would of course
consult carefully the "Dispatches," and Ge-
neral Napier's work.

Strategy is one of those arts which is not
wholly directed by what are called general
principles. Doubtless there are such in war
which should, in the great majority of cases,
be kept in view, but great commanders are
found occasionally to neglect them, and with
advantage. If it were otherwise, the art of
war, or the business of a general command-
ing an army in the field, might be wholly

104 OUR INFANTRY.

taught by books, like geometry and arithmetic.
This reminds me, that on its being mentioned
to the Duke of Wellington, that Bonaparte,
while only a general commanding an army,
had declined to give the then Government of
France a plan of his intended campaign in
Italy, before he left Paris, observed that Bona-
parte was right, as no general could determine
his plan of a campaign till he had surveyed
the district likely to be occupied.

This it is which renders going over a country
which has been the seat of war carried on bv a
great commander so pre-eminently useful. A
young officer there sees the situations where
what are called general principles were attended
to, and where they were neglected.

As an illustration of my opinion, that a visit
to the districts where a war has been carried
on is desirable, 1 beg the readers attention to
the terms, strong and weak, as applied to
military positions — terms necessarily in con-
stant use in all military works, and yet perfectly
vague, and practically unintelligible to officers
who have not seen service, or been in peace
instructed in the manner here pointed out.
Doubtless every man capable of thinking, will

OUR INFANTRY. 105

satisfy himself that an open plain is inde-
fensible for an army deficient in cavalry and
artillery, but the positions I am now referring
to, displaying a much less decisive character,
require, in consequence, a practical military
eye, to be properly appreciated. An officer,
therefore, without experience in real warfare,
and without that practice in peace here recom-
mended, cannot, by reading alone, become a
judge of the relative strength of military posi-
tions. 80 long as he remains in this ignorance
he is unfit to command an army.

In the absence of war, there is nothing so
well calculated to mitigate this painful igno-
rance, as a visit to countries which have been
the scenes of war, accompanied by well selected
officers who were actors in it. By this plan,
the experience of one generation of officers
may be handed down to every succeeding one,
and may be thus continued to the end of time,
or to that of the British Empire.

If this plan should be thought worthy of a
trial, it should soon be made, so rapidly are
the officers who served in the Peninsula passing
away. Waterloo should be visited, and the
grounds well considered on which the actions

106 OUR INFANTRY.

of the 16th and 18th of June were fought.
As a finish to the instruction of these officers,
it might be well on their return to England, to
show them two or three districts calculated for
a campaign, inviting each of them to send in
two reports — one on the course an invading
army should take, and another showing the
course a defending army should follow — allow-
ing twelve hours only for drawing up each.
This would show what officers were most ready
in taking up military positions.

Under this system, no military man pos-
sessing more than usual abilities for war, could
long remain unknown to the Commander-in-
Chief, thus putting an end to our present
system, under which the most and the least
talented officers are placed and retained in the
same category.

When the next war shall arrive, and we
look at an army about to leave our shores, well
appointed and well disciplined, it would be
sad to feel, that while its success against
the enemy will depend almost wholly on
the talents of its commander, these are
lamentably insufficient. Yet how often have
we not sent out fine armies, which failed

OUR INFANTRY. 107

because placed under incompetent com-
manders ? and if nothing in the meantime
be done to prevent this, it "will occur again
and again.

Doubtless under our present system, when
a clever officer in a time of war does happen
to get placed on the staff, he has a good
chance of rising high in his profession. What
I complain of under this system is, that though
a clever officer may get on the staff, he does
so not on account of his fitness, but on
account of his connections.

Such a system may be approved by those
who profit by it, but to the nation it is very
mischievous.

No system can be devised calculated to
measure with absolute exactitude the extent of
an officer's genius for war which stops short of
placing him at the head of an army in the field,
but it is not on that account less desirable to
know all that is ascertainable of an officer's
fitness for such an important post before he is
placed in it.

The knowledge which the system here re-
commended requires in officers who are to fill
high military posts, differs wholly from the

108 OUR INFANTRY.

knowledge obtained in schools. The object of
the system here recommended is first to find
out the officers who possess the necessary
talents for war, allied with a sound judgment,
and then to excite those talents into healthy
action. This is I submit a sound system, while
one which orders all officers to acquire the
scientific education which artillery and engi-
neer officers obtain and require, will break down ;
as only a very limited number of youths possess
the natural talents required to insure success in
those branches of the profession. It would
then be not only useless, but cruel to order the
great mass of our officers to send to head
quarters reports or opinions on difficult but
important military subjects which they cannot
grasp, yet they may be excellent regimental or
executive officers. But to invite officers to
send in their opinions on difficult subjects would
be unobjectionable.

A great army is rarely found wanting in
officers who have enjoyed and profited by a
scientific education, but those persons are rarely
found capable of commanding an army in the
field, because to do this successfully an officer
requires that which no education gives — namely,

OUR INFANTRY. 109

a great natural genius for war or strategy,
allied with an almost unerring judgment.

The "Dispatches" show clearly what the
talents are which the commander of an army in
the field requires. The Duke was not a man
of science, but his talents were those most
wanted but rarely found.

The only difficulty which the system here
recommended might have to grapple with, would
be that of finding officers possessing sufficient
military knowledge to form a good board for
examining the reports. We must not, however,
forget that an officer may be able to judge pretty
correctly a military report, who could not write
a good one ; just as a man may be a competent
judge of poetry without being a poet, or a good
judge of the arts without being an artist.

None of the reports should be signed by the
writers, but each should be accompanied by a
note stating the writer's name, and affirming, on
his honour, that no one had assisted him in
drawing it up.

A confidential person in the Horse Guards
should collect all the reports sent into that
office, numbering them in a book, with the
writer's name annexed to each number. Then

110 OUR INFANTRY.

the reports should be handed to the board
with the numbers only annexed without the
names of the writers. This book should be
seen only by the person who had charge of it
and the Commander-in-Chief. This last plan
would be useful, not from an apprehension
that the judgment of the board would be im-
properly influenced, but because disappointed
candidates, being usually indisposed to concur
in an unfavourable judgment on their works,
are apt to fancy that their successful competi-
tors are unduly favoured.

The plan here recommended, to be fairly
judged, must be contrasted with the existing
system under which generals are placed at the
head of armies in the field, with whose fitness
for such a situation, those who place them in it
are too often wholly ignorant. Thus individual
members of our civil government have fre-
quently appointed officers to command our
armies without reference to the Commander-
in-Chief who was, sad to say, a cypher. If
we are not prepared to see this state of things
return, we must render the military profession
one which clever men, without interest, shall
henceforth be disposed to enter.

OUR INFANTRY. Ill

Our object should be to place such officers,
as much as possible, in the situation of talented
men in other professions, these being early
excited to exertion by a well grounded ex-
pectation that they shall in time reap an ade-
quate reward.

It is to be regretted that so large a portion
of our army is always serving in our colonies,
as it goes to delay the operation of almost any
plan calculated to improve it. For this evil,
however, patience is our only resource.

If the plan here recommended for trial be
not the remedy required, no time should be
lost in devising a better, for the country may
be assured that our present military system is
bad, a fact which may one day signalize itself,
by the loss of a great battle and a fine army.
I say a great battle, because, when we again
go to war, it should be on a scale proportioned
to our means for carrying it on, and those are
now become very large. The excellence of
our soldiers is such, that with a proper officer
always available to command them when
in the field, we should have little to fear from
a conflict with any nation in the world. We
should then not need to advance the large

112 OUR INFANTRY.

sums we have done to other nations for their
assistance in previous wars, obtaining usually
a very small return.

If no better plan suggest itself than that
here proposed for getting our armies well com-
manded when in the field, aided by a competent
staff, it is surely worth while to give this a fair
trial, as by doing so no expense worth naming
would be incurred.

The improper interference of our civil
government with the Commander-in-Chief in
a time of war should not be again practised.
We lost very many men at Waterloo on account
of our want of guns, yet the Duke of Wellington
had written sufficiently early to the government
to state the number he required. Then, in-
stead of allowing the Duke to select his own
staff for that campaign from amongst the
officers he had known in Spain, they sent him
young ones, with whom he was wholly un-
acquainted. He remonstrated on both these
subjects, but to no purpose. He says, in one
of his letters to government, " It is quite im-
possible for me to superintend the details of
the duties of these departments myself, having
already more to arrange than I am equal to ;

OUR INFANTRY. 113

and I cannot entrust them to the young gen-
tlemen on the staff of this army. Indeed I
may say I do not know how to employ them"
If our government could so conduct itself to-
wards so powerful and able a commander as
the Duke of Wellington, it is clear that a
military system under which such things could
happen, is a dangerous one, and if in the next
European war we send, as we ought, a large
British army on the continent, it may, by
failing, endanger our national independence.

LONDON :
G. J. PALMER, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.