election of military officers by the votes of the
men they were destined to command would be a hazardous expedient in
the most Utopian of communities; it was doubly dangerous with a people
trained in habits formed by the accustomed life of the Boers in the
nineteenth century. Its evil effects were felt throughout their
armies. Officers of all grades had been selected for any other
qualities than those purely military. Property, family interest, and
politics had often weighed more heavily in the balance than aptitude
for command. In the field the results were disastrous. Few of the
officers had sufficient strength of character to let it be seen that
they did not intend to remain subject to the favour which had created
them. The burghers were not slow to profit by the humility of their
superiors. Jealous of their democratic rights, conscious of their own
individual value in a community so small, the rank and file were too
ignorant of war to perceive the necessity of subordination. Especially
were these failings of leaders and led harmful in the Krijgsraads, or
Councils of War, which, attended by every officer from corporal
upwards, preceded any military movement of importance. Since most of
the members owed their presence to social and civic popularity, sound
military decisions were in any case not to be expected. Moreover, as
the majority of the officers truckled to the electorate which had
conferred upon them their rank, it followed that the decisions of a
Krijgsraad were often purely those of the Boer soldiers, who hung on
its outskirts, and did not scruple, when their predilections were in
danger of being disregarded, to buttonhole their representatives and
dictate their votes. Finally, there were not wanting instances of
unauthorised Krijgsraads being assembled at critical junctures,
avowedly in mutinous opposition to a lawful assembly, and actually
overriding the latter's decision.

[Sidenote: Forms of discipline.]

[Sidenote: Uncertain number in units.]

There was, however, discipline of a theoretical kind in the commandos.
Two authorised forms of Courts-Martial existed to deal with offences
committed on active service. But Courts-Martial were an empty terror
to evil-doers. They were rarely convened, and when they were, the
burgher of the close of the nineteenth century knew as many methods of
evading the stroke of justice as did his father of escaping the stalk
of a lion or the rush of a Zulu spearman.

A ser