OUR INFANTRY. 109 



a great natural genius for war or strategy, 

 allied with an almost unerring judgment. 



The "Dispatches" show clearly what the 

 talents are which the commander of an army in 

 the field requires. The Duke was not a man 

 of science, but his talents were those most 

 wanted but rarely found. 



The only difficulty which the system here 

 recommended might have to grapple with, would 

 be that of finding officers possessing sufficient 

 military knowledge to form a good board for 

 examining the reports. We must not, however, 

 forget that an officer may be able to judge pretty 

 correctly a military report, who could not write 

 a good one ; just as a man may be a competent 

 judge of poetry without being a poet, or a good 

 judge of the arts without being an artist. 



None of the reports should be signed by the 

 writers, but each should be accompanied by a 

 note stating the writer's name, and affirming, on 

 his honour, that no one had assisted him in 

 drawing it up. 



A confidential person in the Horse Guards 

 should collect all the reports sent into that 

 office, numbering them in a book, with the 

 writer's name annexed to each number. Then 



