ble horse and man for this special
purpose, and on the issue of the collisions this mutual concentration
must entail will hang the fate of the battle, and ultimately of the
nation. But the cavalry which will succeed in this task will be the one
in which the spirit of duty burns brightest, and the oath of allegiance,
renewed daily on the cross of the sword, is held in the highest esteem.

_Organization._--The existing organization of cavalry throughout the
civilized world is an instance of the "survival of the fittest" in an
extreme form. The execution of the many manoeuvres with the speed and
precision which condition success is only possible by a force in which,
as Frederick the Great said, "every horse and trooper has been finished
with the same care that a watchmaker bestows upon each wheel of the
watch mechanism." Uniformity of excellence is in fact the keystone of
success, and this is only attainable where the mass is subdivided into
groups, each of which requires superintendence enough to absorb the
whole energy of an average commander. Thus it has been found by ages of
experiment that an average officer, with the assistance of certain
subordinates to whom he delegates as much or as little responsibility as
he pleases, finds his time fully occupied by the care of about one
hundred and fifty men and horses, each individual of which he must
understand intimately, in character, physical strength and temper, for
horse and man must be matched with the utmost care and judgment if the
best that each is capable of is to be attained. The fundamental secret
of the exceptional efficiency attained by the Prussian cavalry lies in
the fact that they were the first to realize what the above implies.
After the close of the Napoleonic Wars they made their squadron
commanders responsible, not only for the training of the combatants of
their unit, but also for the breaking in of remounts and the elementary
teaching of recruits as well, and in this manner they obtained an
intimate knowledge of their material which is almost unattainable by
British officers owing to the conditions entailed by foreign service and
frequent changes of garrisons.

Further, to obtain the maximum celerity of manoeuvre with the minimum
exertion of the horses, the squadron requires to be subdivided into
smaller units, generally known as _troops_, and experience has shown
that with 128 sabres in the ranks (the average strength on parade, after
deducting sick