ability; for the former may and should proceed on a before-determined
plan, while the latter may, and often must, be shaped to meet
unforeseen exigencies. The conditions of sea-battles of the future
contain one element that land battles cannot have,--the extreme
rapidity with which encounters and changes of order can take place.
However troops may be moved by steam to the field of battle, they will
there fight on foot or on horseback, and with a gradual development of
their plan, which will allow the commander-in-chief time to make his
wishes known (as a rule, of course), in case of a change in the
enemy's attack. On the other hand, a fleet, comparatively small in
numbers and with its component units clearly defined, may be
meditating an important change of which no sign can appear until it
begins, and which will occupy but a few minutes. So far as these
remarks are sound, they show the need of a second in command
thoroughly conversant with not only the plans, but with the leading
principles of action of his chief,--a need plain enough from the fact
that the two extremities of the order-of-battle may be necessarily
remote, and that you want the spirit of the leader at both
extremities. As he cannot be there in person, the best thing is to
have an efficient second at one end. As regards Nelson's position at
Trafalgar, mentioned at the beginning of this discussion, it is to be
noted that the "Victory" did nothing that another ship could not have
done as well, and that the lightness of the wind forbade the
expectation of any sudden change in the enemy's order. The enormous
risk run by the person of the admiral, on whose ship was concentrated
the fire of the enemy's line, and which led several captains to
implore a change, was condemned long before by Nelson himself in one
of his letters after the battle of the Nile:--

"I think, if it had pleased God I had not been wounded, not a
boat would have escaped to have told the tale; but do not
believe that any individual in the fleet is to blame.... I only
mean to say that if my experience could in person have directed
those individuals, there was every appearance that Almighty God
would have continued to bless my endeavors," etc.[128]

Yet, notwithstanding such an expression of opinion based upon
experience, he took the most exposed position at Trafalgar, and upon
the loss of the leader there followed a curious exemplification of its
effects. Collingwo