f
his own fire on the enemy he feels merrier, and may be then worked up
to the blind passion of fighting, which is, contrary to general
belief, controlled by a chilly Devil and shakes men like ague. If he
is not moved about, and begins to feel cold at the pit of the stomach,
and in that crisis is badly mauled and hears orders that were never
given, he will break, and he will break badly; and of all things under
the light of the Sun there is nothing more terrible than a broken
British regiment. When the worst comes to the worst and the panic is
really epidemic, the men must be e'en let go, and the Company
Commanders had better escape to the enemy and stay there for safety's
sake. If they can be made to come again they are not pleasant men to
meet; because they will not break twice.

About thirty years from this date, when we have succeeded in
half-educating everything that wears trousers, our Army will be a
beautifully unreliable machine. It will know too much and it will do
too little. Later still, when all men are at the mental level of the
officer of to-day, it will sweep the earth. Speaking roughly, you must
employ either blackguards or gentlemen, or, best of all, blackguards
commanded by gentlemen, to do butcher's work with efficiency and
despatch. The ideal soldier should, of course, think for himself--the
_Pocket-book_ says so. Unfortunately, to attain this virtue he has to
pass through the phase of thinking of himself, and that is misdirected
genius. A blackguard may be slow to think for himself, but he is
genuinely anxious to kill, and a little punishment teaches him how to
guard his own skin and perforate another's. A powerfully prayerful
Highland Regiment, officered by rank Presbyterians, is, perhaps, one
degree more terrible in action than a hard-bitten thousand of
irresponsible Irish ruffians led by most improper young unbelievers.
But these things prove the rule--which is that the midway men are not
to be trusted alone. They have ideas about the value of life and an
upbringing that has not taught them to go on and take the chances.
They are carefully unprovided with a backing of comrades who have been
shot over, and until that backing is re-introduced, as a great many
Regimental Commanders intend it shall be, they are more liable to
disgrace themselves than the size of the Empire or the dignity of the
Army allows. Their officers are as good as good can be, because their
training begins early, and God has a