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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
part of the century, was born a king, not a corporal. With many hateful 
eccentricities, which in later times would have consigned him to a madhouse, 
he possessed one ungovernable passion—a passion for drill. A detestable 
martinet, like most martinets he had no claim to be called a soldier, and his 
gigantic troops would have been probably overborne had they engaged in 
war under his leadership ; for his whole life had been devoted to insignificant 
details, and like Bunyan's “ Man with the Muck Rake,” he became so 
engrossed with the dust at his feet that he was unable to lift up his eyes 
and look around him. He was profoundly skilled in the dimensions of a 
shako, the rolling of a strap, the fitting .of a buckle, and the position of a 
knapsack; yet he was contemptibly ignorant of everything connected with 
■war. He was a saddler, he was a tailor—he was anything but a soldier. 
Happily for his country and for his successor, Frederick William's love of 
drill was coupled with a love of peace, and he consequently handed over 
to his son intact the best drilled cavalry and infantry in Europe. 1 In no 
army, therefore, was the slowness of movement of the field artillery so 
conspicuous; in no army did it clog the motion of the other troops to so 
great and so palpable an extent; 2 and it was but natural for Frederick the 
Great on his accession to regard the artillery as little more than a necessary 
evil. 3 
The third condition was fulfilled only in Prussia. On his accession to the 
throne, Frederick the Great found that his cavalry had been drilled to fire in 
line at the halt. 4 The pernicious consequences of this system were so evident 
at the battle of Molwitz that he abolished it without dela}q and by so doing 
rendered a closer connection between the artillery and the cavalry a matter of 
essential importance to the latter. The cavalry had been deprived of their 
fire, and the necessity thus arose for the creation of a branch of artillery that 
could manoeuvre with that arm. 5 
In the fourth condition Austria rivalled Prussia, and France equalled her, 
if she did not surpass her; for if Prussia possessed Frederick, Austria owned 
Prince Lichtenstein, 6 and France could boast of Gribeauval. But in the fifth 
condition Prussia outstripped both; for wdiile Frederick was an absolute 
monarch, whose will 'was law, Lichtenstein's influence, although great, was 
by no means supreme, and Gribeauval w 7 as for years exposed to the attacks 
of stupidity and the accusations of calumny. 
Thus, while all the powers of Europe fulfilled some of the five conditions, 
Prussia alone fulfilled them all. In Prussia., therefore, by the principle of 
Natural Selection, the invention would be made, and there as a matter of fact 
it was made. 
1 “Die Entwickelung der Taktik,” von Boguslawski. Berlin, 1869, p. 187. 
2 “Als impediment der Heeresbewegungen hatte er (Frederick) die Artillerie vorgefunden.” 
“ Die Beziehungen Friedrich des Grossen zu seiner Artillerie,” yon Troschke, p. 3. 
3 “ Er die Artillerie geradezu fur ein notwendiges Uebel erklarte.”—Ibid. p. 5. 
4 Nolan’s “ Cavalry Tactics,” p. 30. 
5 “ La Cavalerie ne rend pas de feux, et ne peut se battre qu’ a l’arme blanche. C’est pour 
Subvenir a ce besoin qu’on a cree 1’artillerie a cheval.”—Napoleon, in Montholon, Tom. III. 
p. 261. 
“ Friedrichs II. Kavallerie verlangte eine feuerwaffe. ‘ Ihr sollt sie haben und zwar die beste 
Von der Welt,’ erwiederte der Konig, und er gab ihr die reitende Artillerie.”—Von Troschke, 
p. 39. 
6 For a brief description of the improvements introduced into the Austrian artillery by Prince 
Lichtenstein, see “Die Kriegsmacht Oesterreichs.” Wien, 1871, p. 35. 
