MARSHAL VON MOLTKE.
WE know of few things more singular in the occurrences of the day than the slight attention which the virtual -termination of Marshal von Moltke's official career has excited in Europe. He has not resigned, it is true ; but he is eighty- one, and the Count von Waldersee has this week been gazetted to two positions—those of Quartermaster-General and Adlatus to the Chief of the Staff—in which he is avowedly intended to ; perform the Marshal's usual functions, and at no distant period to step into his place. That is an appointment which would never have been made, if the great soldier had still felt 'himself equal to active service; and the public acknowledgment that he is not equal, may hereafter prove to be an event of ' European importance. Great as Germany undoubtedly is, and powerful as her military organisation may be, they • must both have owed something at least of their 'efficiency to the small group of men who, in a European • 'crisis, found themselves at liberty to use as they pleased the carefully prepared machine. Unless all history is a myth, the defeat of Austria and the conquest of France were effected by a Committee of four or five men, among whom the King was the arbiter and ultimate referee, the Crown Prince the critic, Count von Bismarck the brain, General von Boon the hand, and General Moltke the sword, the weapon which when armies were in collision secured victory. All Count von Bismarck's astuteness, all General von Boon's success in the organisation, discipline, and mobilisation of his battalions, would have been useless if in the hour of actual combat, Prussia had not possessed a strategist who could use the vast machine to effective purpose ; who could so place the brigades that they could win, and winning, could make victory definitive. It is that capacity which makes the difference between the good army which con- - quers and the good army which retreats, and that capacity, if military history is worth anything, is the rarest of all, and can no more be produced by training or experience than *the eloquence which moves nations, or the poetry which makes -ordinary words live in the hearts of men for ever. The 'conqueror's genius may be as evil as you will, but it is genius, and not capacity, and may, therefore, be irreplaceable. The single faculty of the Emperor of Germany differentiating him from other Kings, the faculty for finding instruments— recollect, he picked out a soldier of fortune in the Turkish Service, an ordinary officer, and a minor diplomatist of violent temper, and in spite of the whole people and of much doubt in the Army, kept them at the top till they made Germany, and criticism was silent—is so exceptional and has so seldom failed (the only dubious case is the Arnim one, where the King possibly failed to see the want of the power of self-effacement) that if he himself, while in full health, chose Count von Waldersee, we should think that the best guarantee for the new chieftain's qualities. Still, he may not have in him the "zigzag lightning in the brain" which makes out of good soldiers conquerors, may not be another Von Moltke ; and if he is not, the active power of Germany, the power in the last resort of crushing armed opposition, has dieinetly diminished by the notice in the last German gazette. Soult may command the same troops, and have all Napoleon's instructions, but when the battle is set, Soult is not Napoleon. No doubt, Marshal von Moltke had advan- tages which neither Soult nor any other Commander-in-Chief not a reigning Sovereign has in modern times ever had. He was unhampered. Behind and above Marlborough stood the Allied Governments, who perpetually rejected his plans ; above Turenne were Louvois and Louis XIV. ; above Wellington was the British Government, which would never send him what he wanted, and twice superseded him in Spain ; above the Arch- duke Charles, the only great soldier of his House, was the Aulic Council ; above Benedek stood the Emperor Francis Joseph, the most unlucky fighter in Europe ; but Moltke stood un- hampered, because, while implicitly trusted by his King, his orders were to the Army and the world those of the King himself, who, merely by riding by his side, by signing orders in his tent, gave him for his purpose all the power Prussia had to give. That was a rare posi- tion, but it no more diminishes the Marshal's individu- ality and genius, than the recognised possession of abso- lute power diminished that of Frederick the Great or of Napoleon.
There is another specialty of Marshal von Moltke which Count von Waldersee may not enjoy, and that is a capacity of self-effacement almost without parallel. No man who has per- formed achievements like the Marshal's has ever consented to occupy quite his position, to receive such poor and slow rewards —his very baton was delayed by an etiquette—to make him- self so little visible to the world. He is a Marshal, with a very moderate fortune and a great place in history, and that is all. He has played no part in politics, and though his few speeches —and especially the one containing his prophecy that the cycle of war would not end for fifty years—have excited grave attention, his opinions are less known, even in Germany, than those of far inferior men. The outside world knows no- thing of them, is not aware whether he is Tory or Liberal, patriot or cynic, soldier-statesman, or only General ; all it knows is, that if the Hohenzollerns decide to crush a State, the most powerful brain in the world for that purpose will indicate and carry out the needful opera- tions. That Marshal von Moltke, though born a Dane, and once in the Turkish Service, is no mercenary, the world has recognised fully, as by instinct ; but what is he, he himself outside of his work ? To all appearance, and we think the appearance is true, he is an artist in war, makes war as great artists, or builders, or engineers paint pictures, or raise churches, or cut tunnels, finding in the perfection of his own art and the completion of his own designs out of his own brain full solace and content. So absorbed has he been in his art and its completeness that he has not, to all appearance, cared for fame ; that he has never, so far as the world knows either dreaded or opposed a rival; and that in all the elaborate histories of his wars which have been prepared by his Staff, and which, we are told, are marvellous for the uncoloured light they throw on his military operations, his own name scarcely occurs.
That is his modesty, say his admirers, and it is true ; but there must be something more. No man lives and does great things without seeking some satisfaction to his own inner self, and with Marshal von Moltke, who is indifferent to wealth and required persuasion to accept rank, who has led a nation to the top of the world and stood aside to let another rule it— and rule it, he, with his cold, clear brain, must often have thought, very badly—must have found that satisfaction in the work itself, in winning the mighty game of chess which he has played with living kings and viziers—our word " queen " is only a courteous blunder—and pawns who can die on the board or in the hospital behind. It is a unique position in history—the single approximate one being that of Belisarius, as history, not legend, paints him—and one can conceive of few greater or less probable intellectual gratifica- tions than an autobiography which revealed to the world what manner of man was concealed in this iron figure which for fourteen years strode over the world in silence, crushing down all foes of the Hohenzollern, and then silently mounted upon its pedestal again. Was there ever on earth before a Commander-in-Chief before who had never signed a pro- clamation?
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