The last of the great generals of the Franco-Prussian War,
Field-Marshal Count von Blumenthal, died on Friday week. The son of a Prussian Captain who died of wounds received in the battle of Dennewitz in 1813, Von Blumenthal did not obtain command of a regiment till he was fifty, but made his mark as Chief of the Staff under the "Red Prince" in the war against Denmark in 1864. In the wars of 1866 and 1870 he was the brilliant Chief of the Staff of the Crown Prince's army, winning undying renown at Koniggritz, Weissenburg, Worth, and Sedan. Two facts in the career of this famous soldier, traced with great skill in Monday's Times, specially commend themselves to the atten- tion of those interested in British Army reform. As a sub- altern he had the good fortune to serve in a regiment which had the tradition that its officers should be men of education and talent, and that they should practise "plain living and high thinking." The second fact is that, though he looked more like a professor than a soldier, he was no pedantic believer in the sovereign efficacy of drill and parades, but upheld the doctrine that military training should be directed to securing the practical efficiency of the individual soldier.
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