Had Leader not felt obliged to resign, it is more than probable that with, for instance, so enthusiastic a lieutenant as Bru-de-Wold, the highly creditable system subsequently developed by the latter would have fully matured. But, whatever _may_ have happened in his time, cannot be allowed to obscure well-deserved distinction and prevent the bestowal of that meed of praise the Colony owes to the man who, if he did not actually initiate, took infinite pains, in season and out of season, assisted by an efficient and willing staff, to further the scheme, until it actually assumed the solidarity it did and that capacity for simultaneous and harmonious movement which are the leading characteristics of every sound system of defence. Natal, therefore, owes her gratitude to Col. Bru-de-Wold as to one who, keenly alive to her best interests, in the face of much political and other discouragement, resolutely held to the course he had embarked on, until the long-entertained idea had been fairly realized. Without him, it is conceivable, the Colony might have become so involved during the Rebellion as to have been unable to suppress it without appealing for help to the Mother Country, when the command of the whole of the operations would have passed automatically from her own hands to those of the Imperial Government. That is to say, a Colony which, but a dozen or so years previously, had deliberately resolved to take on the burden of responsible government and all attendant risks, would have been so far incapable of exercising control and utilizing her own resources as, at the first sign of trouble in connection with purely internal affairs, to seek the aid of external authority to set them in order. Had any such assistance been invoked and rendered, Natal must inevitably have forfeited, especially in the eyes of the Natives, much of the prestige she had so long enjoyed and which she was determined, if possible, to maintain. But let no one suppose these remarks to be made in any ungenerous spirit or unmindfully of that bond of sympathy and warm attachment that will for ever endure between the Motherland and her sons in Natal. It is impossible to gauge the degree to which Natal is indebted to the "old block" of which she is but a chip; her social system, laws, education, and institutions were, for the most part, "made in England," so, too, were many of the better features of the military system of which she is so justly proud. She is not oblivious of the instruction and encouragement her officers have received from innumerable representatives of His Majesty's army, in South Africa and at home, or of the keen interest that has constantly been shown in the general development of her forces. [Illustration: COLONEL H.T. BRU-DE-WOLD, C.M.G., D.S.O., Commandant of Militia. MAJOR-GENERAL SIR JOHN G. DARTNELL, K.C.B., C.M.G. COLONL G. LEUCHARS, C.M.G., D.S.O. SIR ABE BAILEY, K.C.M.G.] COMPOSITION AND STRENGTH OF THE MILITIA.