MARLBOROUGH AND HIS METHODS OF WARFARE. 127 
knew would secure him victory. The tactics he adopted in order to obtain 
possession of those decisive points are beyond all praise and are worthy of the 
most careful study. 1 have no intention of going into or describing those 
tactics ; no doubt they are as well known to most of my hearers as to myself ; 
but there is 2 point which the Lecturer a little glossed over when he was re- 
ferring to the battle of Blenheim, and that was the folly, the great tactical error, 
committed by Tallard in blocking up a very large body of men, a whole division, 
in the village of Blenheim. When subsequently he was most anxious to with- 
draw them from it, he found it impossible to do so owing to the tactics pursued 
by Marlborough. This was really one of the chief causes which led to the com- 
plete overthrow of the French upon that occasion and which enabled Marlborough 
to win the battle. Leaving the village of Blenheim on his left he pierced the 
centre of the French army, cutting it in two and hopelessly separating its two 
wings, became master of the position, and compelling at last the surrender of this 
large French force that Tallard had foolishly locked up in the village of Blenheim. 
The Lecturer referred to the parallel between Blenheim and Waterloo, and told 
you that the positions were reversed. So they were in many ways, but it is an 
interesting study to consider that parallel. He has also told you that Marl- 
borough nearly fought a battle on the plains of Waterloo. It was very nearly 
coming off; but you must remember that it would have been an entire reversal 
of what took place on the 18th of June, 1815; that is to say, Marlborough would 
have been in the position that Napoleon found himself in at Waterloo, and the 
French would have occupied Wellington’s defensive position ; Marlborough would 
have been the attacking party coming from the south as was Napoleon’s case in 
_ 1815. 
There has been much reference to the artillery of Marlborough’s day. If I 
were asked who created the artillery as a separate arm, the Royal Artillery to 
which most of you belong, I should say it was Marlborough. He was the first 
man who recognised the necessitysof making it a, separate and independent arm. 
Previous to his days the artillery occupied a rather unimportant position in our 
armies. It was not that he altered the nature of the guns, because the guns that 
he used—I say so with all deference—were the same guns as were used for a long 
time previously ; they were the same guns as were used by William III., and so 
far as I know, even in the reign of Charles II., and I think they were mounted 
on the same carriages. But it was he who, I will not say, created the artillery, 
but who used his field guns in action in a new manner and in a fashion which in 
a great measure led to the development of the Royal Artillery as an independent 
corps. It is curious to note that the guns of those days were largely used for 
high-angle fire. I think you will find that before long we shall also use that 
sort of fire very commonly in the field. Marlborough used howitzers to a large 
extent in the field, and in some cases he even used mortars. But howitzers were 
largely used in all the great battles of the opening years of the eighteenth 
century. 
As the material of war then made use of, it is very interesting to see what a 
very conservative people we are in war as in all other respects. I am glad to notice 
what the Lecturer told us, that Marlborough always used English material, and 
I hope we in our turn may always do so also. But our models came from 
France ; we were not an original people in the art of military appliance in those 
days any more than we have been lately. I think that the great curse of the 
English army for the last 200 years has been, that we have always been content 
to copy guns and war material as well as drill from some other nation. We want 
the self-assertion to strike out a line for ourselves. Gentlemen, I hope those 
days are gone. I believe in the ingenuity of the English people first of all to 
make us the best material, and to invent us the best guns, and I look to 
