120 MARLBOROUGH AND HIS METHODS OF WARFARE. 
Dr. Macuire—I am afraid if I ventured to give any information I should be 
drowned in that “yawning hiatus ” referred to in the letter. I do not know a 
single thing about it. 
Tar Cuarrman—Then I will call upon Colonel Rainsford-Hannay, who has 
kindly consented to speak on the subject which has interested us all to-night. 
CoLoNEL RarnsrorpD-Hannay-—My Lord, and gentlemen, if I venture to 
thank Dr. Maguire for his very excellent lecture I shall do so as the repre- 
sentative of what I consider is a numerous class of officers who have not, for 
various causes into which it is unnecessary to enter, studied history, but who are 
all ready to receive information when we can get it without much trouble to our- 
selves, and more especially when it is given us in the splendid manner in which 
Dr. Maguire has given it to us to-night (applause). 
I have been looking up some books that the Secretary of the Institution has 
kindly lent me, and in them there are most interesting records of Marlborough’s 
and Hugene’s battles ; the prints are very fine, and there are also plans of the 
various battles ; but it is very difficult to see really what part the artillery took 
in these battles. You see that they did take an important part—you see the 
guns are put down upon the plans, and you see in every siege and battle there 
were several guns in action. But the plans are wanting in scales, and there is 
really no detailed account of what the artillery did. I should therefore ike to 
ask Dr, Maguire whether he can give us any idea of the organization of the 
artillery at that particular period, of the ranges of the guns, and of Marlborough’s 
system of parking them. On the table before us there are various guns that 
formed part of Marlborough’s ordnance equipment, guns from 3 lbs. up to 24 lbs., 
and I think there are 8-inch and 15-inch howitzers. There are also scaling 
ladders and pontoons which are part of the engineer equipment now. ‘There are 
also kettle drums, and I believe the covering of those very kettle drums is now in 
the charge of the Senior Store Officer at this station. But what I particularly 
want to know (and I think it would interest many officers here) is something of 
the performances of the artillery in these sieges and battles, because the more we 
study the part the artillery takes in these various wars the more I think we shall 
feel that in artillery development we are keeping our place and advancing part 
passu with other arms, and that in our organization, and in our training, and in 
our equipment we are holding our own—aye, and more than holding our own— 
as an important factor in the arbitrament of battle. 
Tue CHarRMAN—I now call upon Colonel Maurice. 
CoLtoneL Mavricr—-Really I do not think there is anything to be said about 
the lecture. It seems to me it was a most interesting exposition, and it has been 
so clear and so simple that I do not think we can do better than leave it to 
its own effect upon this audience, who, I am sure, have appreciated it most 
thoroughly. ’ 
Dr. Maguire suggested that I should say something about those long contin- 
uous lines of defence that he has put on the board there; but it seems to me that 
he showed in the clearest possible way what their weakness was. He showed in 
the first instance the enormous extent of the line stretched across France and 
Belgium, and he has shown the mode in which Marlborough imposed on Villars 
and passed him. I cannot see that it can be much improved upon by anything 
that I could say on the subject. It is certainly interesting to contrast the 
peculiar weakness of that long line, which was there traced as Dr. Maguire has 
given it on the map, with the very different kind of weakness which I think most 
soldiers now-a-days attribute to the yet more elaborate and more costly line which 
has been traced by France in our own time. I take it that the weakness of that 
particular line was simply what Marlborough showed—that he had only to attack 
