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 



