] 60 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
this, and nothing was further from my thoughts when I first consented to 
come here. It was, I believe, to create and foster an interest in professional 
subjects amongst a larger number of officers, to stimulate discussion which 
might bear fruit in practical improvement, that these meetings were first 
started. It is, then, only right and proper that those serving in the command 
should come forward to do what they can, and it would be out of place for 
able and well known men to come from outside to lecture on abstract subjects. 
The lecture room here should be in close connection with the practice ground. 
I wish that these meetings were sometimes followed by discussion; but, at 
all events, if they ever strike a note in the mind of any present, they do not 
entirely fail of their object. 
The negative criticism which condemns them for not being better, and 
equally condemns the training in the field, which it will not take the trouble 
to try to improve, is an enemy to knowledge and to progress. But the im¬ 
mensely increased interest shown on all sides in professional subjects, shows 
that there is pow r er working that must bear fruit in the future. Everywhere 
new ideas are taking root, everywhere we are recognising that knowledge is 
power, and we must not forget, what we are somewhat slow to grasp firmly, 
that union is strength. 
Aldeijshot, 
March 27, 1872. 
