576 
SILVER MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1879. 
should we not turn them into a catspaw for ourselves, and have our 
chestnuts without burning our fingers ? 
Our small campaigns, always successful, are the worst possible 
experiences for us. They even do positive harm, by making us think 
we have reached a high pitch of military excellence, when, as a matter 
of fact, we are far from it. 
Most military men are not taken in by this glamour, but the public 
generally are. Improvement means money, and the public will not 
see the necessity of spending money on improvement when, according 
to their ideas, a high standard of excellence has been attained. 
Expense should not be spared to keep our artillery up to the standard 
of other powers. The greatest exertions of officers and men can only 
produce efficiency up to a certain point: a limit is imposed upon them 
by the nature of the materiel at their disposal. If, then, the materiel is 
not kept up with the latest improvements and inventions of the day, 
the onus of want of efficiency will lie, not with the personnel of the 
artillery, but with the Government who refuse to sanction the expen¬ 
diture necessary for the purpose. 
There is no doubt that the consideration of expense alone keeps the 
Government from sanctioning the introduction of breech-loaders into 
our service. We have been armed with muzzle-loaders at a great 
expense, and to sanction breech-loaders now would be to admit that 
the money has been spent to no purpose—that our energies and money 
have both been wasted in a wrong direction; in fact, that we have 
taken our own road, contrary to the experience of other powers, but 
have at last reluctantly acknowledged our mistake. 
The old proverb that “ Practice makes perfect 33 might be appro¬ 
priately changed, with regard to artillery matters, into “ Progress 
makes perfect.” 
