FOR PEACE AND WAR. 117 



people in the world, and no efficient army — as we have the finest 

 volunteer force in the world, and it is snubbed and kept down by 

 military jealousy — as we have the best engineers and mechanics, 

 and are short of guns and short of powder, as in all other things 

 with us unready Saxons, so it is with our Cavalry. We have the 

 best breed of horses in the world, sought after by all other coun- 

 tries, and yet our Cavalry are badly mounted, and are not what 

 they ought to be ! and for all this who is to blame 1 Why the 

 people at large — you amongst the rest — who ought to speak out 

 through your members of Parliament, and through the " press ; " 

 and let those know who manage your affairs, that above all things 

 we will have an effective army, ample guns, artillery of the best, 

 with horses of the best class to draw them, without which they 

 are useless ; and cavalry horses of the highest class, to mount 

 our cavalry soldiers upon, with ample reserves, which in cavalry 

 is most important ; for though we may buy horses in haste for 

 draught horses, you cannot make a horse a broke charger under a 

 year or two, any more than you can a good cavalry soldier to ride 

 him. Let us then have no more cheese-paring Chancellors of the 

 Exchequer ; they do not pay in the long run any more than other 

 cheap articles. Let us have the best horses at any cost ; it is the 

 cheapest in the end, and all the money is spent amongst the 

 farmers and breeders who pay the Queen's taxes. At the present 

 moment, under sudden pressure, we require a much larger number 

 of cavalry chargers than usual. As the late Lord Hobart said, 

 we are always vibrating between parsimony and panic. Just now 

 we are something in the latter stage — in other words we are not 

 prepared ; we want 4,000 horses ; 2,000 of them for artillery, 

 for which £40 each will be given. These they may get, but there 

 will be much difficulty in getting the other 2,000 for cavalry, such as 

 they ought to he, to carry heavy weights long distances,* and without 

 that they are useless for work of war, and not fit for much in time 

 of peace, and when you have got them they will take from one to 

 two years to make. 



* Note.— Does not this assertion, from such a source, impress the reader 

 with the justice of the author's theory as to degeneracy in our breed of 

 general horses. 



