364 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
country was uninclosed, and that even around the Metropolis, within a few 
miles of Charing Cross, the uninclosed land] was four and a half per cent, of 
the whole area. He thought that out of all this common, or uninclosed land, 
sufficient space could be found for manoeuvring large bodies of troops. The 
country in the neighbourhood of Aldershot was suitable for the purpose, but 
great parts of it were strictly inclosed, and if any of the troops engaged in a 
particular manoeuvre chanced to go out of the beaten track, they heard 
immediately of actions for trespass. There was an important result of the 
Prussian system to which the lecturer had not referred. It not only trained 
the officers, but enabled the government to discover and select the officers best 
qualified to command. (Hear, hear). This experience alone had enabled 
Yon Moltke to obtain the officers who had carried out the grand achievements 
of the present war. He had himself seen a similar system in the Russian 
army, where opposing forces of 25,000 or 80,000 a-side were handled to 
perfection ; and he had also seen it in Switzerland. The Swiss system was 
very similar to that described by Colonel Bray as having been witnessed by 
him in Prussia, the manoeuvres extending over a tract of country twenty-five 
miles in one direction and forty miles in the other, lasting for several days, 
and the men bivouacking at night as in an actual campaign. The effect of 
these manoeuvres was good in other ways ; it settled many moot points of 
detail about which in England there are endless discussions, such as the 
best mode of supplying troops with ammunition, the efficiency of their 
control system, the supply of provisions to the army in the field, the removal of 
sick, the establishment of field hospitals, and so on. All these subjects might 
be thoroughly tested by the practice the lecturer had described and advocated, 
and the experience which would be gained thereby would be most valuable. 
The expense of the manoeuvres would be amply repaid by the settlement of 
many of these moot and contested points, the discussion of which was so 
subversive of discipline and disparaging to the position which our army ought 
to occupy. (Applause.) 
Lieutenant-Colonel Bray, in reply, said he could fully bear out the 
remarks of Sir J. L. A. Simmons, for when he asked an officer of the Prussian 
service to explain the extraordinary earnestness which the officers displayed in 
this duty, the answer was, that the capacity of an officer for command and 
employment in high and important offices was tested by his efficiency in 
practice. A brigadier or colonel who made serious and inexcusable mistakes 
in the field, and showed incapacity for command, want of energy, and want 
of knowledge of his profession, had little chance of promotion. He did not, 
however, wish to dwell too strongly upon this part of the subject in his 
lecture, because his object was to have the system introduced, and its 
probable consequences referred to might not favour that result. (Laughter 
and applause.) 
Major-General F. M. Eardley-Wilmot, R.A., said that an obstacle to 
adopting in England the Prussian system of campaigns in time of peace was 
the well-known fact that the English farmers were in the habit of working 
their land all the year round. In most cases, as soon as the crops were off 
the plough was on, and the seed was put in for next year. There was, there¬ 
fore, seldom more than a week during which troops could pass over the 
ground without doing considerable damage. Sir Lintorn Simmons had spoken 
of the acres of waste or uninclosed land in the country; but could he tell 
them where there was sufficient at one spot for the purpose required ? He 
knew there were a number of small open spaces scattered about here and 
there, but they were seldom more than a few acres in extent, and could not 
afford room for extensive manoeuvres. A main point of the admirable lec¬ 
ture they had heard was one which many officers had striven for years past, 
namely, a better and higher class of instruction for themselves and their 
