CHAP. XXXI 1.] ORGANISATION OF CAVALRY. 



ft2ft 



SECTION II. — MOUNTED RIFLES. 





We have said that the cavalry proper should only 

 consist of one-fourth of the mounted force of an army. 

 The sphere of cavalry on the battlefield has so narrowed 

 that it would be a mistake to maintain too large a force 

 of a kind not likely to be much used. The light cavalry, 

 however, intended for the minor operations of war, the 

 force upon which the army should depend for information, 

 for protection, for convoying, raiding, &c., will always have 

 the most important and most vital services to perform 

 in covering the marches and camps of the main body. 



No studeac of military history can fail to have been 

 impressed with the extraordinary influence which the 

 operations of the light troops and outposts have always 

 exerted for good or ill, as they have been either well or 

 badly performed. The instances in the preceding pages 

 are so numerous and striking as not to need reference. 

 It may simply be said that perhaps nothing tended more 

 to the defeat of the French in 1870 than the wretched 

 inefficiency of their horsemen as outposts, and the careful 

 performance of that service by the German cavalry. 



Again, speed in movement is one of the greatest 

 elements of success in war. 3o much was the Great 

 Napoleon imbued with this idea that he expressed the 

 opinion that an army of 10,000 men which could average 

 twenty miles a day would produce as great an efiect on 

 the success of a campaign as one of 20,000 that only 

 marched ten miles a day. If this is true, and it is un- 

 doubtedly the correct principle, by placing 10,000 

 men upon horses they should be equal in value to 

 20,000 men. But we have seen 3at cavalry cannot 

 defend a position, cannot even act effectively upon the 

 defensive, that they cannot act on every description of 

 ground, or attack entrenched positions ; therefore, in 

 most instances, these circumstances would detract from 

 the value of the 10,000 men and counterbalance the 

 effect of the extra speed. But if these men, on arriving 

 at the point where they are required, can dismount and 



