18 FEBRUARY 1899, Page 25

The Conduct of Wesr, by Lieutenant-General Von der Goltz, translated

by Major G. F. Leverson (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co., 10s. 6d.), is a volume in the " Virolseley Series," appearing under the editorship of Captain Walter H. James. The author briefly discusses the chief strategical and tactical operations of war, illustrating them from the past campaigns of the present century. Some of the figures are very remarkable. We are all familiar with the frightful losses incurred by Napoleon in his retreat from Russia, but it surprises us to be told that he arrived at Moscow with ninety-five thousand only out of the four hundred and forty-two thousand with whom he set out. In 1878 the Russians brought barely one hundred thousand out of four hundred and sixty thousand to Constantinople, and half of these, it was said, were sick. Even the Germans arrived in 1870 at Paris with less than half of the force which crossed the frontier. " The portion that fights the battles," says General Von def. Goltz, " amounts to only a comparatively small fraction of the total strength."