By far the best bit of Russian military news this
week is that Major-General Skobeleff has not only been promoted to be Lieu- tenant-General, but has been put in command of a division round Plevna, a command which, it is said, in spite of an attack of fever which has taken him to Bucharest for treatment, he intends at once to assume. This is equivalent to a frank admission by the authorities that the loss of the redoubts which his gallantry had gained was due to the negligence of others, and it betokens, we may hope, the consciousness that abler Generals are needed, and that some pains will be taken to find them. More, however, is wanted. The officer, whoever he may be, who was responsible for withholding the reinforcements required by General Skobeleff, should be cashiered at once ; and, as we have else- where argued, a better commander-in-chief is urgently needed. The Daily News' correspondent speaks of General Skobeleff as one of the few Russian officers who has genuinely studied the literature of his profession, who has, for instance, mastered the great military lessons of the American war, and who was entirely opposed to the costly sacrifices of life made before Plevna, though when that method of attack had been resolved upon, he was one of the few to throw into the attack the energy and fire requisite to ensure success. That is the kind of man wanted to replace the thin, official fussiness of Grand Dukes.
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