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252 ___ ¦ THE LEADER. , [Battopay ,
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RAILWAY ENTERPRISE IN HUNGARY. Not many ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Wanted A General Of Cavalry. T££- I - Re...
are ready to ride over guns or dash upon bayonets ; we have steel , and workers in steel ) at least quite good enough to make sabres . Well compounded , these elements would resolve into as complete a chivalry as could be desired — -and a force of 10 , 000 such might be made to ride over or through anything . There is one thing only lacking , but without that , all the rest goes for little ; and that one thing iswhat we don ' t seem likely to get—a General of Cavalry .
Our farst venture in this campaign has been a sad failure . We had the men , the horses , the steel—but in the place of the man we had a man ; potent , perhaps , as a Peer , impotent , nay worse , as a General of Cavalry . But how can we hope to do better ? How , when influence and station carry a man to the head of a division , either of infantry or cavalry , can we expect to find genius at the head of our armies ? You cannot make a general by printing his name and civil and military titles in the London Gazette . We have tried that mode of manufacturing a General of Cavalry , and -we obtained an—Earl of Lucan .
Now what do we want ? Cavalry in action depends almost entirely for victory upon good leading . An officer who commands cavalry must always know where the enemy is , sometimes better than the enemy himself , as Seidlitz showed at Rosbach , when the enemy suddenly found the Prussian cavalry , not only on their flank , but in among them . The Prussians knew where the French were : Soubise , like
Lord Lucak , did not know , and took no pains to know , the position of the Prussians . And the consequence was ^ that Seidlitz , without waiting for orders , but attacking at once and impetuously , swept the enemy from the face of the field . Victory depends upon resolution and the glance of a moment , not upon numbers . At Marengo , Kelxerman , riding with 200 horse on the flank of the French , saw the
Austrian infantry pursuing , in some confusion , an advantage they had gained . In an instant he was in the midst of them , and they laid down their arms . Nor did he stop here . The left flank of the astonished grenadiers was covered by 1200 horse . Kellerman , perfectly master of his faculties , stopped his troops and sent them _ against the horse . At Salamanca , by seizing the right moment for a charge , General Le March ant cut up the left wing of the French , and contributed in no slight degree to that brilliant victory . Take another il * - lustration—the conduct of Seidutz in
Frederick the Great ' s two grand battles with the Russians . * In both instances the Prussians attacked the enemy in strong positions , but with very different results . At Zorndorf , Seidlitz watched the battle from the extreme left at the head of the Prussian cavalry . The King thrice sent him orders to charge , the third time with a menace of death for disobedienceyet thrice this great general disobeyed , saying * at the third request—" Tell the King my head shall be at his service after I have won the
battle . " The result justified the boast . The Prussian infantry were repulsed , were flying ; the Russians pursued in disorder . This was the moment ; and order ing his movements with great coolness , Skidlitz made a double attack -with the swoop of an eagle , and defeated'both the cavalry and infantry before him . This retrieved , but did not win the day . The King
made another infantry attack ; but troops which had never failed before failed him now ; and again , at the very crisis of the battle , with his squadrons reorganised and newly arrayed , Skwlitz , shouting-, " My children follow me !" led his host of horse once more to the front , broke the cavalry , and bursting on the infantry , drove the Russians from the field . Here were displayed the greatest qualities of a cavalry leader in action— --judgment and valour .
Skidlitz led , and always knew when to lead , his men to the charge . He only made one mistake , which can be compared to the Balaklava charge —and he made that at the express command of the King . At Kunersdorff , Frederick , after two vain , requests , ordered Seidi-itz , "in the devil ' s name , " to charge the Russian batteries . Feeling how rash was the order , Seidlitz reluctantly obeyed and repeatedly and vainly charged the batteries at the head of his cuirassiers . The Prussians were crushed by the fire of the guns ; the battle was lost . that the
' From these instances it will be seen general we want is a man whose vigilance never sleeps ; whose rapid judgment never fails ; whose coolness never forsakes him ; whose actions never halt between resolve and doubt ; who is daring to rashness , yet discreet to disobedience ; who fears no amount of responsibility ; and whose personal valour carries him at the head of his men into the thick of the fray , when once he has given the signal for a charge . He should know when to bound forward , when to withdraw his troops ; he should know when to be satisfied , and when to
set no limits to the sweep of his conquering sword . Such a man , at the head of 10 , 000 English iorse , would be a pledge of victory in every field . The true secret of success is the personal leading , the personal influence of the commander , everywhere among his troops , as well in the barrack and the bivouac , as on the field of battle . Is it possible that we can get such a leader as this by taking the pick of the Court , the friend of the Minister , or the dilettante Peer ? The thing is impossible . Cavalry generals are born , not made ; opportunity develops their powers : and we should look rather in the stable and the barrack , rather anywhere jthan where we do look—in the peerage—for the man we want .
252 ___ ¦ The Leader. , [Battopay ,
252 ___ ¦ THE LEADER . , [ Battopay ,
Railway Enterprise In Hungary. Not Many ...
RAILWAY ENTERPRISE IN HUNGARY . Not many years ago we were told of an Hungarian nobleman who was visiting Paris , and who intended to come on to London , but he was prevented by a doubt whether he could pay for his lodging . He wanted that which is common enough in this country , money ; although his household would probablyhave enabled him , impromptu , tofurnish a very respectable company of soldiers , or his stables to mount a troop of horse . For the country to which he belonged is rich in all that constitutes the raw elements of
wealth . It is fertile in the highest degree , few countries so much so . .. It abounds in corn and wine . It has the natural riches of raw countries—those rough and ready treasures which give the settler the means of providing suddenly for the wants of life , while he develops the larger sources of
wealth . It has immense tracts of pasture land , forest land , and virgin soil . With about 7 , 350 , 000 acres of arable land , 960 , 000 of garden , 1 , 365 , 000 vineyards , it . has 11 , 570 , 000 meadows , and 1 , 275 , 000 ponds , and 13 , 410 , 000 forests : 26 , 250 , 000 acres of forest , meadow , and morass , to about 9 , 750 , 000 cultivated land !
Hungary is rich in other things . One of the " dead" languages is there indigenous and living . " Boots" at the inn , asked what is the " schnaps " that he recommends , replies to the traveller , " Schnap 8 , domine , res cst masnme necessaria mnne mam ' , * ' Need wo wonder that the nobleman finds a difficulty in paying his way , where his native land is scarcely advanced beyond Canada in cultivation , and the inn servant commends a dram as " a most necessary thing every morning " —in Latin ? It seems to connect the
condition of the far West with something in the midst of the Middle Ages or beyond them . No wonder that in 1826 the nobles only began
to surrender those feudal rights which belonged to our old times ; no wonder tha t even in 1848 they had got no further in thei * history than we had two centuries earlier—or rather the wonder is that they had got so far . ' Great way has been made in these five years . Austria has decreed railways , and what is more , has made those enterprises not only State projects , but State pledges in the hands of European capitalists . . The Government of Austria , in pursuit of material wealth , has embarked in the same boat with its sub- '
jects , particularly in Hungary and Bohemia . The network of Austria presents on the map two great lines which cross each other diagonally at Vienna , forming a species of cross . One of these passes north-east and southwest ifrom Russian Poland to the Adriatic ; the other from north-west to south-east , through Bohemia to the extremities of Hungary . The northern railway , or the line of Ferdinand , rises from the Saxon
Bailway between Dresden and Niedergrund , with which it connects Prague ; it has branches connecting Moravia and Olmutz , where it joins lines that connect it with Prussia , Poland , and Russia . From Triebitz th e principal line goes by Briinn to Vienna . The gross receipts of this part of the Austrian railways have risen within the last few years net
to 7 , 000 , 000 / . sterling ; the _ proceeds returning an ample profit oh the capital of 8 , 000 , 000 / . Bohemia and Bavaria have a population of 6 , 260 , 000 inhabitants ; they have an internal commerce with Austria amounting in the aggregate of exports and imports to 4 , 600 , 000 /; but a part of their traffic is only commencing with the development of the mineral resources of the district and of
Hungary . _ It" is in Hungary that the grand prospects of the enterprise begin to develop themselves . There are railways -which , connect Vienna witbTPesth , and will be continued even to Belgrade . The trade of Hungary with Austria amounts to about 12 , 000 , 000 ? . per annum ; and from the nature of the country , and the condition in which it is , we must understand that the existing trade is only an earnest of that which will soon travel by the railway . At present Austria is
traversed by means of the natural streams , the Danube ' being " thVcliief , with its debduchement in the Black Sea ; a few canals , principally improvements of winding rivers ; and a very few main roads . The means of transit are as slow , as expensive , and as costly as the travelling of the fifteenth century . The immense villages are separated by large spaces that are deserts to the sight of the traveller . During the period of labour , the men set out in caravans to establish themselves on the
lots confided to their culture . They are lodged in a species of barrack , leaving only the women , children , and aged in the village , and returning when the } " can on the Saturday night to pass the Sunday at home . It is a country which possesses the riches that we have already described ; which , notwithstanding its isolated position in the middle ot Europe , has struggled to produce a trade ot the dimensions that we have particularised ; and that is now placed by means of the railway in direct communication through A lenna with Germany , Holland , Belgium , 1 ranee , andwe England .
, may say , . There is another trado existing only in its infancy—the trade between Austria and the Turkish possessions by land , which already rises to an amount of 3 , 200 , 000 / ., besides a transit of 1 , 600 , 000 / . . The State has taken tho initiative in establishing these railways , but m point oi fact the development of the commercial pars of the scheme may be said to bo handed over to a commercial Company , called tho " Austrian
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1855, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17031855/page/12/
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