DECEMBER 243 



liberal use of the lash he had broken his men from the 

 inveterate habit of plundering, until, at the close of six 

 victorious years in the Peninsula, he was able to 

 announce that his troops had been ' brought into such 

 a state of discipline that every description of punish- 

 ment was almost discontinued altogether.' 1 



The Duke was, in truth, a great military reformer ; 

 his impress upon the British Army was as distinct and 

 lasting as that of Frederick the Great on the Prussian 

 service. He set a new standard of efficiency and 

 discipline, sternly cut away abuses, and discouraged 

 mischievous tradition ; but he was slow to sanction 

 scientific improvements in the details of armament. 

 He relied more upon the workman than his tools, just 

 as he said he would trust to an army of stags commanded 

 by a lion sooner than to an army of lions commanded 

 by a stag. 



LIV 



Very great was the reluctance I had to overcome 

 before bringing myself to accept an invitation 

 to address a section of the International Con- gations to 



gress of Women which was held at West- 

 minster in 1899. It was not shyness, although 

 it is no mean test of steady nerves to raise a hoarse 

 masculine voice in a debate chiefly sustained in more 

 musical tones ; it was not want of interest, for no 

 reflective mind could be indifferent to the conference 

 of so many eager, active intellects; still less was it 



1 Duke of Wellington's evidence before the Royal Commission on 

 Military Punishments, 1836. 



