ield cornet.]

It was his business, moreover, to see that each man of his levy took
the field with clothing, rifle, horse and ammunition in good and
serviceable order; and if, as was rarely the case, means of transport
were insufficiently contributed by the burghers themselves, to provide
them by commandeering from the most convenient source. The whole
military responsibility, in short, of his Ward fell on him; and though
the men he inspected annually were rather his neighbours than his
subordinates, their habitual readiness for emergencies smoothed what,
in most other communities, would have been the thorniest of official
paths, and rendered seldom necessary even the mild law he could
invoke.

[Sidenote: Ward levy.]

The first acts of the Ward levy at the rendezvous were to elect an
Assistant Field Cornet and two or more Corporals, the former to serve
their commander during the campaign, the latter to serve themselves by
distributing rations and ammunition, and supervising generally their
comfort in laager, by performing, in fact, all the duties performed by
a section commander in the British infantry except that of command.

[Sidenote: The commando and commandant.]

The Field Cornet then rode with his burghers to the meeting-place of
the commando, usually the market town of the District. There a
Commandant, elected by the votes of the District, as the Field Cornet
had been by those of the Ward, assumed command of the levies of all
the Wards, and forthwith led them out to war, a Boer commando.

[Sidenote: A nation in arms.]

Thus, at the order to mobilise, the manhood of the Boer Republics
sprang to arms as quickly, as well prepared, and with incomparably
more zeal than the best trained conscripts of Europe. Not urged to the
front like slaves by the whips of innumerable penalties, their needs
not considered to the provision of a button, or a ration of salt,
shabby even to squalor in their appointments, they gathered in
response to a call which it was easy for the laggard to disobey, and
almost uncared for by the forethought of anyone but themselves.

[Sidenote: Defects of system.]

[Sidenote: In Boer army doubly dangerous.]

In so far, therefore, as it applied to the actual enrolment and
mobilisation of the commandos, the military system of the Boer
Republics appeared well-nigh perfect. Yet it had radical and grievous
defects, and these, being in its most vital parts, robbed it of half
its efficiency. The