OUR INFANTRY. Ill 



Our object should be to place such officers, 

 as much as possible, in the situation of talented 

 men in other professions, these being early 

 excited to exertion by a well grounded ex- 

 pectation that they shall in time reap an ade- 

 quate reward. 



It is to be regretted that so large a portion 

 of our army is always serving in our colonies, 

 as it goes to delay the operation of almost any 

 plan calculated to improve it. For this evil, 

 however, patience is our only resource. 



If the plan here recommended for trial be 

 not the remedy required, no time should be 

 lost in devising a better, for the country may 

 be assured that our present military system is 

 bad, a fact which may one day signalize itself, 

 by the loss of a great battle and a fine army. 

 I say a great battle, because, when we again 

 go to war, it should be on a scale proportioned 

 to our means for carrying it on, and those are 

 now become very large. The excellence of 

 our soldiers is such, that with a proper officer 

 always available to command them when 

 in the field, we should have little to fear from 

 a conflict with any nation in the world. We 

 should then not need to advance the large 



