Adjutant-General to the Forces since 1897. Born 1838; educated at Marlborough; Barrister, 1874; entered the Navy, 1852; served with the Naval Brigade in the Crimea, 1854-5; joined the 13th Light Dragoons, 1858; served with 17th Lancers in India, 1858; in the Ashanti, Kaffir, Zulu, and Transvaal Wars, 1879-81; commanded at Chatham, 1882-3; raised the Egyptian Army, 1883; and served with the Nile Expedition in 1894-5, since which time he has held the command of the Eastern (1886-8) and Aldershot (1889-93) Divisions.] [Sidenote: Necessity of reorganisation.] Nor are these small things, nor has their importance passed away. Far greater conflicts may lie before us in the near future, and we may have to encounter, not undisciplined peasants, but armies amply supplied with cavalry and artillery--armies which can attack as well as defend. The future safety of the Empire depends upon our so organising and constituting our military system that we shall never again be taken by surprise, and never again be found inferior in the field. Our Army, our generals, had become the slaves of routine, as a wise foreign officer wrote. They had failed to understand what the Boers had fully grasped--the need of high intelligence as well as brute courage in the fighting man, and the immense potentialities of modern weapons. It is not the least unsatisfactory reflection that the fighting men whom we recruited at the eleventh hour for war from the ranks of our Colonists, proved themselves as good as our professional soldiers. That this should be so illustrated the inefficiency of our military training. For in what other profession could thousands of tyros hope to vie with the experts? [Illustration: [_Copyright 1900 by Underwood & Underwood._ SIR R. H. KNOX, K.C.B. Permanent Under-Secretary of State since 1897. Born 1836; entered the War Office, 1856; Accountant-General to War Office, 1882-97.] [Sidenote: [DEC. 1899.] "War is an affair of the immortal soul," it has been said. It is the final test of the greatness of a nation. The Power which cannot hold its own upon the field of battle has deserved humiliation, and has been "weighed in the balance and found wanting." It is character which gives victory in war; and the whole purpose of life is to create and refine character. Character is required in the soldier to carry him through the dangers of the battlefield and the hardships of campaigning; in the nation to enable it to face temporary reverses with courage, and to accept the loss of those near and dear with resignation; and in the statesman to enable him to resist injudicious clamour for economy, and to make sure that the preparations for war are adequate and complete. The statesman must foresee and lead; if he does neither he is unfit for his post of trust. [Illustration: BIG GUNS IN PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE.