Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/129

 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. 103 ington ; but wliil.st he was still in his early man- cilAP. hood, wars had ceased, and thenceforth, for near ; forty years, he had bronght his strong energies to bear upon the kind of military bnsiness which used to be practised ))y the English in peace-time. A long immersion in the Adjutant-General's de- partment had led him to go even beyond other men in laying stress upon the value of discipline ; but the practice of this sort of industry had not at all helped to school him for the command of a division in war-time; for in labouring after that mechanic perfection which, after all, is only one of many means towards an end, the end itself had been much forgotten by those who controlled our military system, and the business of war (as, for instance, the art of carrying a brigade in line through enclosures and thick grounds) had been little or never practised in England.* To a mili- tary system which omits to anticipate and to deal with the common obstacles to be expected in a battle-field, war is a rough disturber ; and unless the industry of the barrack-yard is supported by other and better resources, it is liable to be turned to nothingness by even a gentle contact with reality. A belt of garden - ground, a Avinding though fordable stream, and an enemy hitherto inert, had sufficed to make Sir George Brown de- spair of being able to present his troops to the enemy in a state of formation. Great dislocation the importance of practising trooiis iu this way, but without success.
 * Sir Charles Napier, the conqueror of Seinde, used to press