OUR INFANTRY. 105 



satisfy himself that an open plain is inde- 

 fensible for an army deficient in cavalry and 

 artillery, but the positions I am now referring 

 to, displaying a much less decisive character, 

 require, in consequence, a practical military 

 eye, to be properly appreciated. An officer, 

 therefore, without experience in real warfare, 

 and without that practice in peace here recom- 

 mended, cannot, by reading alone, become a 

 judge of the relative strength of military posi- 

 tions. 80 long as he remains in this ignorance 

 he is unfit to command an army. 



In the absence of war, there is nothing so 

 well calculated to mitigate this painful igno- 

 rance, as a visit to countries which have been 

 the scenes of war, accompanied by well selected 

 officers who were actors in it. By this plan, 

 the experience of one generation of officers 

 may be handed down to every succeeding one, 

 and may be thus continued to the end of time, 

 or to that of the British Empire. 



If this plan should be thought worthy of a 

 trial, it should soon be made, so rapidly are 

 the officers who served in the Peninsula passing 

 away. Waterloo should be visited, and the 

 grounds well considered on which the actions 



