Show BRIT AINS 6REA TEST LIVING SOLDIERS 7 I 3 BY CHARLES LOWE 1L A > r 1 y > I IX i J THE TWO ROYAL DUKES t I Notso much perhaps on account of c their services in the field abroad as for the services which they have rendered to the aim at home two members of our royal family are certainly entitled to rank among ourreprescntatlvo Soldiers Sol-diers of the Qucehone the Duko of Cambridge who Is the Queens first cousin the other the Duke of Con naught who Is her Majestys third son In the persons of these two royal dukes the old school and the new school of the I lur nrmy are well represented J t1 TIRH THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE > Ctm His Koyal Highness Field Iarshal is George Duke of Cambridge Is the c grandson of George III his father having udj hav-ing been that monarchs seventh Hon fl I The Duke was born at Hanover In 1S19 nil so that he Is now In his eightieth year I he At the early age of IS he became a 1 tid Colonel In the British army and served I lite at various of our outlying garrisons L liplahd Gibraltar and the Ionian Islands His favorite arm was tho mounted one and In 1S52 he was made J ispcctorgencral of cavalry post vhlch he held till 1851 when he wont out to the Crimea In command of the very fine first division composed of the I Guards and the Highland brigade He had previously l crossed to Paris with Lord Ragjan to confer with Napoleon the Little as to the conduct of the war At thla lime he was only 35 and had the reputation of being a good and diligent dili-gent soldier zealous and devoted to duly He was sagacious wrote Jvlnglake and was more alive than most other men of our land service to passing and coming events He had a good military eye He was a great respecter re-specter of the public voice In England lie had no dread of Innovations and I the beard that clothed his frank manly ii face was the symbol of his adhesion to t a then new revolt against custom He 1 was much loved for he was of a genial I h temper and his rank was so well h helped out by his hereditary faculty of I remembering those with whom he once a conversed that far from chilling his Intercourse with other men Jt enabled him to give a happy effect to the kindness kind-ness of his nature But after all what a General him to do Is to try to overcome over-come the enemy by exposing his soldiery sol-diery to all needful risks It la I well for him to be 1 able to pass through the bloodiest hours of battle with something some-thing of a ruthless Joy Tho Duke of Cambridge was wanting in this kind of n truculence and however careless of his own life he was liable to be cruelly wrung with the weight of a command p which charged him with the lives of hi other men He was of an anxious temperament tem-perament Far from straining after occasions L oc-casions for acting on his own Judgment rt he would have liked if he could to receive c5 re-ceive a aeries of precise orders which ild would serve to guide him In every successive suc-cessive change I L I e Of Balaclava the Duke was a mere p ppcctator while both at the Alma and iii Inkerman he went Into action with his i the guards and bore himself with all tho I personal courage of his royal race I which Is undeniable The Guelphs may often have been deficient In qualities of flC the head but rarely In those of the heart Perhaps their race was best Id typified by George II the last English the monarch who ever went forth at the a haul of his lighting men to do strenuous strenu-ous battle with the alien and who as I r drawn for us by Thackeray fought 1 like a Trojan drawing his sword before t be-fore the whole French army at Dettln ti Jell and daring It to come on Bravery iid never goes out of fashion wrote the tile author of the Four Georges and tho jhl fashion way handsomely kept up In the tip Crimea by our hate cormnanderlnchlef E j Zl At tho same time his behavior as a tls leader In the Crimea gave rise to much eat controversy at the time for the reasons nc hinted at by Klnglnlco and never afterward I nb af-terward l had he an opportunity of serving at serv-ing his country on a stricken field But he managed to nerve It very substantially 5ic sub-stantially as a uldler for all that Af ilc tr Inkerman his health gave way and r he WitH Invalided home At the close of tho war he succeeded to Viscount Har al < huge as commandcrlucmof and hiM appointment on the whole was very fll popular not only because he was a at loyal duke but also because he was fiC i1i counted to be a very sensible soldier hf Six years later he was raised to the 11ihi rank of Field Marshal and was in turn th among other things made Colonel or i the royal artillery and royal engineers tP Savonteenth Lancers Death or dory e Boys Scots Guards and Grenadier i Guards dii The Duke held his high and responsible l lht responsi-ble position for nearly forty years and the his tenure of olltc coincided with the introduction of those military reforms L which Imd now made tho British army what It Is I Between the British army in at the time It went to the Crimea anal t an-al tho time It wont to Khartoum there WQe an Immense dlifcrcnc and tho ciuuzes which mud this difference aCe pJnhl were all Introduced under If not rhaps alt initiated by the Duko of farabciiigr Lord Wosolu Is reaping l ti Iinert which wna own in the time o or hi p > r dicefior nt the Ilorso Guards iocK t r < hom the xvar nflles Improved baf tf I fli nt of the irmv bv rforwinlr InS Itself and creating a general staff by abolishing the purchase of commissions commis-sions and raising the standard of educational edu-cational status of our officers But more radical In their nature than any other reforms was the Introduction of short service and the territorial system of regiments with linked battalions and the creation of an army reserve Under the Duke the British soldier had come to be better paid fed armed housed and treated generally than he had ever been before while the British officer had also made great progress In every respect rising to quite as high a scientific scien-tific level In his calling as his comrades of Prussia ofIn In the face of these results it Is absurd ab-surd to pretend as some of the Dukes critical detractors did that he remained re-mained an obstinate representative of the bow uml arrow school of soldierIng soldier-Ing his motto ever having been as ho himself once said that reforms arc desirable when necessary It Is i perhaps per-haps possible that II B H may have boon sometimes rather slow to recognize I recog-nize the necessity and the consequent I desirability of army reforms but surely I sure-ly It was better that the reformation of such a machine should have been proceeded I pro-ceeded with slowly If surely than with II I I the risky haste of rampant Innovators Instead of sneering at the Duke as the champion of an obsolete bow and arrow ar-row school of warfare it might have perhaps been more appropriate of his i critics describe him as a representative I representa-tive of the gaiterbutton school I Essentially a man of detail he was I ever rather slow perhaps to embrace general Ideas Both in mind and character I char-acter the Duke of Cambridge always 1 I bore a striking resemblance to the old German Emperor to whom his grandson grand-son absurdly decreed the title Great If William I was great at all he was only great In small things He never had the eye of the true commander the I born leader of men and was ever content con-tent to let Moltke plan and carry out II all his campaigns But the grand old Kaiser had his own shining merits He was punctilious chivalrous painstaking I painsta-king straightforward tenacious of his purpose true loyal Just and these are also the very virtues which ever distinguished distin-guished our late commanderInchlef Moreover he was never guilty of favoritism fa-voritism or nepotism and If he had his cantankerous critics outside the army he ever enjoyed the warmest attachment I attach-ment of those under his command As a man it would be impossible perhaps per-haps to point to a finer type of the bluff hearty honest may I also without I with-out fear of les majesto add swearing Englishman than the Duke of Cambridge Cam-bridge whose honest rugged features and stalwart frame seem to give him a better title to the designation of Farmer George than his royal ancestor an-cestor thus fondly called What would public life as reflected In Its public dinners din-ners have been for the last forty years without our hearty sturdy shamde I testing commandcrlnchiefV His apccches have always been a singularly I good reflex of the manbeing instinct with honesty plainness and commonsense common-sense If never perhaps dashed with brljllancy But the average < < Briton prefers sound sense to oratorical shIne It Is I not at all improbable that the Duke would have made even a better constitutional king than a commander Inchef seeing that as Kingluke remarked re-marked he has ever been singularly sensitive and deferential to public opinion opin-ion and doubtless It was owing to this very quality of mind that he decided to retire from ofllce after a most honorable honor-able and useful record of service at the Horse Guards H R H THE DUKE OF CON NAUGHT It Is more than probable that our next commndcrInchlcf will be the Duke of Connaught the third Don of the Queen whom his parents devoted to the service of the nation In the army Just as his elder brother the Duke of Edinburgh had been given to our first line of defense the navy After the Prince of Wales the most popular r of the royal princes was undoubtedly the Queens soldierson who even If he had not been a prince would have won general popularity us the perfection of an English gentlemam Prince Arthur a name he acquired from his godfather the Duke of Wellington the most English of all our princes there being nothing whatever in his accent or appearance ap-pearance suggestive of a German origin ori-gin And not only Is the Prince a perfect per-fect English gentleman he is also a brilliant English soldier I of the hearty winning type of Henry V as he appeared ap-peared to his men on the eve of Agln court when with cheerful semblance and sweet majesty he went the round of his camp Walking from watch to watch from tont to tent Bids thorn goofl morrow with a modest amlle And calls them brothers friends and countrymen Only that royal Harry never had the elaborate military training which was enjoyed by our royal Arthur The academy ut Woolwich which he entered en-tered In 18J > 6 in his sixteenth year a Lieutenants training in the royal engineers en-gineers and the royal artillery and a Captaincy in the rifle brigade on his 21at birthday followed three years later by CapTAnVcy to lM Seventh Husaar a spoil ofcuVKlry brigademajor work at Aldershot and of duty as A A G t at Gibraltar succored by the com vand of a Battalion of the rlllo brigade In Ireland to which brigade he was in his 30th year appointed ColonelInchlef with the rank of MajorGeneral such In brief Is I the professional record of the Duke up to 18SO by which time he was generally regarded as one of the most painstaking and efficient officers In the service not a mere titular soldier sol-dier but one who by his marriage with Princess Louise of Prussia had proved a worthy soninlaw of Prince Frederick Charles the Ked Prince who had mainly contributed to the vie tory of Konlggralz and who had been the valiant captor of Meiz If the Duke had been less of a true soldier he never would have been so anxious for active service in the fleld exposing himself as a son of the Queen to all the hardships and dangers of the tented field equally with the humblest soldier At last he managed to gratify bin ambition in this respect and nothing noth-ing delighted the nation more than to see the Duke giving up the command of his Infantry brigade at Aldershot and assuming the command of the brigade bri-gade of guards which formed part of the perfect little army placed at the disposal of Sir Garnet Wolseley to suppress sup-press the rebellion of ArabI Pasha In Egypt He went through the campaign with the greatest credit and was pres ont at the actions of Mahshuta and TclelKebir From the Queens Journal of her life In the Highlands we learn with what Intense anxiety her Majesty was filled for the fate of her soldierson who Is said to have been always her favorite oneIf filial predilection of any kind Is possible with such a model mother My thoughts she wrote on the eve of TelelKeblr were entirely fixed on Egypt and the coming battle My nerves i e p ft 1 e 4T j k L1 c 1 3CLCJ t Lat < L-at I Vk4 4 r A c a I 41 1 Jv27 4f hf In M j a f I 1 c I av fr L > YJQ8 fffitesJy > fnMZrf KSS I fr 27 I Ii IL V mm 4 IIIv szi2 4 9 r 1 Jf I I I I I > Wrf i r t C Cr f CQJ CJTTCA f T JT 71 NAuiL 1 l > rJT 1 were strained to such a pitch by the I Intensity of my anxiety and suspense that they seemed to feel as though they were all alive Next day however I came the following most welcome and gratifying telegram from Sir Garnet Wolseley TelelKeblr From Wolse ley to the Queen Balmoral Attacked I Arabls position at 5 this morning Ills strongly intrenched position was most I bravely and gallantly stormed by the Guards and line while cavalry and horse artillery worked round their left flank As a matter of positive fact the Guards who were in reserve at some considerable distance behind the line I had no hand in storming Arabls in trenchmenls and the wellknown picture pic-ture of Mr Caton Woodvllle on the subject conveyed the truth of the situation situa-tion much better than Wolseleys cour tierlike dispatch which was of a piece I with his other politicianlike dispatch the Irish question was agitating the I country at the time announcing that the Royal Irish regiment had been the first to storm the lines of Arabian I honor which should have been ascribed to the Highland brigade But though tho Guards had strictly I speaking never been In action at Tel elKeblr they were certainly under fire some casualties having occurred In their ranks and It was not at all necessary neces-sary for Sir Garnet to strain a point of accuracy in order to show that their royal commander had borne himself according to the testimony of all In his brigade with a courage and coolness cool-ness worthy of his mothers cousin who at the head of his brigade of I Guards had so stoutly assailed the Russians on the slopes of Alma and Inkerman Not less favorable than the high opin ion of his nerve and courage which his fellowofficers and men had formed of the Duke In Egypt was the Impression made on all his subordinates during his ensuing term of seven years service In India llrst as commander of the Mee rut division in the Bengal presidency and then of the Bombay army Sol diering of this kind under the burning sun of India Is of an extremely trYing kind but the Duke cheerfully submitted to all the hardships of his ofllce and returned home with the proud con sciousness that as he had been the flrst of his family to expatriate himself for such a long period in tho military vice of his country so he had also ser con trIbuted In no small dngrce by his pres ence In our Eastern empire to strencth I en and pOpularize the rule of his moth er the EmpressQueen I After taking a wellearned rest on re turning home he was appointed to sun i ceed Sir Evelyn Wood In the AlderShot command with the rank of Lieutenant Generalan appointment which ns only natural Was raised a great outer among certain malcontent and nialt nant critics who thought that the army was being ruined by favoritism In high places and all the rest of it But despising all this anonymous crltf casm the Duke settled to his work with a wholesouled devotion and by the end of his flee years tenure of otlice he had wnmg even from some of those who IM had formerly been his severest critics the admission that he had made a iC good Usa ° c his opportunities and ten the Aldcra ° t command even more efficient In some respects than when he took It over Like the Duke ° c Cambridge he had I among other their things acquired a great name for nhsolutc farness as well as for nrr bllltty combined with dignity I courtesy cleameKs and penetration of mind lIla handling of the Northern r army during thc SJQ grand maneuvers of Q 1S9S on Salisbury pUxUi was admitted by all Impartial critics to be admirable and I who was Present can at least I ouch for the fact that S SIr Revere Bullcr who I commanded the SOIl bnrn army admitted at the close of more than one field day that he had simply been made a garden ass or bv his I royal opponent Beyond question the I Duke had reputedly outmaneuvered I the present commander of the army of South Africa at the colossalscaled Krlegssplel In Wilts and conclusively shown that In addition to having nuts I I I tercd all the details of his profession he had also developed a high degree of what the Germans call tho Feldherr belie Bllck or genius for strategy and I I tactics entitling him to rank with com I I mandcrs of tho flrst order Little wonder that when the Duke I j waived his right to the ducal crown of j I his German uncle the Emperor felt very mortified at thc loss of such a brilliant addition to the commanding i Generals of the German army But Germanys loss was Englands gain The Dule of Edlnburg forfeited all the popularity he ever possessed In this f country when ho deliberately preferred the poslUon of a petty German poten I tate to that I of a powerful Admiral In the British fleet On the other hand his brother the Duke of Connaught more than doubled the universal esteem I in which he was held when In spite of all temptation To belong to foreign nations I He remained an Englishman I j I resigning his right of succession to the I ducal throne of SaxeCoburgGotha in I favor of his nephew of Albany and preferring his chance of succeeding to I the command of the British army to the j certainty of his succeeding to a minor If wealthaccompanied German crown I When next it Is I a question of appointing appoint-ing our commanderInchlef this patriotic pa-triotic act of selfsacrifice on the part of the Duke of Connaught will be remembered re-membered In connection with his still I more solid claims to a post which it would delight the British people to see occupied on thc ground of personal I merit alone by a member of the royal family I The End |