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, 



