The _second_, that every act and duty appertaining to the military establishment should be transacted by none other than men subject to military order, control, and responsibility; and liable to be put in motion or brought to account for delay or neglect in a military manner. These two principles lead to the consideration of what would be an efficient military organization; and here we have a host of formidable enemies, _ignorance_, _a disorderly mass_; _indolence_ and _idleness_, hanging on the flanks; the _steady habits_ of _old prejudice_ ever alarmed for its patronage or its place; all immediately exclaim, would there not be great confusion produced by abrogating some duties and introducing others. We shall not skirmish with this motley and unmilitary groupe; we shall come to the point. In considering the subject, it will be found that the present war department in fact corresponds with what is called the general staff in other countries; the president representing the commander in chief, the secretary at war chief of the staff. From this fact it will be perceived, that whatever improvements might take place in the system, it would at first consist only of defining and distributing the duties and details of service by the war department. After defining and arranging the various heads of service, they should of course be classed according to analogy or the dependency of one kind upon another; so that there would be several heads, under each of which the inferior branches of duty might be distributed. At the head of one of the superior branches should be placed a responsible officer, who would have the superintendance of all the duties, and the direction and control of all those placed in the execution of the subordinate branches; this officer to be responsible to the executive directly in peace; and when the arrangements became necessarily distinct in the field, to become responsible to the commanding officer in the field. These heads of branches should be the efficient staff of the military institution, it is through the perfection of the organization of the staff, and the rigid responsibility for the due execution and for seeing all under them duly performed, that modern tactics is in an eminent degree indebted for its preeminency and its triumphs. Precision, promptitude, and provident foresight, are their invariable laws, and upon these being perfect depends all the success of modern military science; but it must be taken in connexion also with the disciplinary principles which go into action, where the same provident foresight, the same precision, and the same celerity of motion ensure success to all that is undertaken against any force, however numerous and brave, destitute of a system equally provident and combined in its operations.