teaching which scoffs at 'manoeuvres,' 'tournaments,' and
the 'Cavalry spirit,' proceeds almost entirely from the pens and from
the brains of men who have no practical knowledge of the handling of
the Cavalry Arm.

The great value of this book to the British Cavalry officer of to-day
seems to me to lie in the fact that this particular vein of thought
and argument pervades it throughout.

The General tells us, with the soundest arguments and the most
positive proofs, that 'the brilliant field of enterprise which is open
to the Cavalry soldier in his role as a mounted rifleman can only be
attained by him when he has overthrown the enemy's Cavalry.'

The author, having unmistakably insisted upon the preliminary
overthrow of the enemy's Cavalry, proceeds to vindicate the idea that
the Cavalry spirit is in any degree opposed to the idea of dismounted
action when necessary. On the contrary, he declares emphatically that
the Cavalry fight is only a means to an end, and that the hostile
Cavalry once disposed of by means of horse and cold steel alone, a
brilliant role lies open to that Arm by reason of their possession of
an efficient firearm, in the use of which the cavalryman has received
a thorough training.

The great difficulty, he tells us, lies in the necessity of
discovering a Leader who possesses the 'power of holding the balance
correctly between fire power and shock, and in the training for the
former never to allow troops to lose confidence in the latter.'
'Whether,' says the General, 'it be in the working out of some
strategical design, or in joining hands with the other Arms to obtain
by united fire action some common purpose, a balance of judgment and
absence of prejudice is implied which is of the rarest occurrence in
normal natures.'

In dwelling so persistently upon the necessity for Cavalry being
trained to the highest possible pitch to meet the enemy's Cavalry, I
do not wish to be misunderstood. I agree absolutely with the author in
the principle he lays down that the Cavalry fight is only a means to
an end, but it is the most important means, and I have thought it
right to comment upon this because it is a principle which in this
country, since the South African War, we have been very much inclined
to overlook. To place a force of Cavalry in the field in support of a
great Army which is deficient in the power to overcome the opposing
Cavalry is to act like one who would despatch a squadron of
war-vess