362 
MINUTES OF PEOCEEDINGS OF 
Deductions, 
My lecture may be reduced to the following practical points :— 
(1) That an improved system of large manoeuvres should be tried 
on the Prussian model. 
(2) That the u umpire system 55 should be tried. 
(3) That outpost duty should be rigidly practised, both by cavalry 
and infantry. That, in the summer months, the troops should take 
up long lines of outposts (without tents), and that those outposts 
should be attacked with skill. 
(4) That every officer should be obliged to carry a map of the 
country (on a large scale, larger than is now obtainable), and in¬ 
structed in the use of it by lectures from the educational staff 
officers. 
(5) That every officer should carry a field glass as a part of his 
equipment. 
(6) That every colonel and lieutenant-colonel at Aldershot should 
command brigades in succession, according to a divisional roster. 
(7) That all the field officers of regiments should command their 
battalions in succession on divisional days. 
(8) That an improved system of half-yearly inspections should be 
adopted; and that the capability of captains should be tested as to 
their ability to manoeuvre one body of infantry against another ; and 
that the field officers (majors) of cavalry and infantry should be 
required to show their power of commanding and manoeuvring a bri¬ 
gade (composed of the three arms) against another brigade of similar 
strength and composition; and that, in fact, a higher standard of 
efficiency should be exacted from all regimental ranks —especially the 
higher ranks—as upon their training depends our success in war. 
The “ general idea ” of the operations of the day should be printed 
in larger numbers, and distributed to every officer in the field on 
division days, and communicated by the captain to their men, as 
no officer or troops can be expected to take an interest in matters 
which are not even communicated to them, and which they do not 
understand. I think this very essential. Officers and troops should 
always be informed, as much as possible, of what is really happen¬ 
ing, or what is supposed to be happening, at a sham fight or large 
manoeuvre. 
At the conclusion of the lecture, which was frequently and warmly 
applauded, 
Major-General Dickson, as president of the meeting, invited discussion, 
saying that there were many points in the admirable lecture they had heard 
calculated to improve their knowledge and induce remarks by officers who 
might be able to give their information on the subject, or by others who might 
desire further details. Any officer, therefore, who wished to make observa¬ 
tions on the subject would now be at liberty to do so, and the meeting would 
be happy to hear him. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Biddulph, ft.A., said: There was one point which 
Colonel Bray had not exactly explained in describing the week’s peace 
campaign of the Prussian army. They were informed that at the end of the 
