when he knew the Army to be ready for immediate action.

As already pointed out, it is to the spread of Clausewitz's ideas that
the present state of more or less immediate readiness for war of all
European Armies is due, and since the organisation of these forces is
uniform this "more or less" of readiness exists in precise proportion to
the sense of duty which animates the several Armies. Where the spirit of
duty and self-sacrifice is low the troops are unready and inefficient;
where, as in Prussia, these qualities, by the training of a whole
century, have become instinctive, troops really are ready to the last
button, and might be poured down upon any one of her neighbours with
such rapidity that the very first collision must suffice to ensure
ultimate success--a success by no means certain if the enemy, whoever he
may be, is allowed breathing-time in which to set his house in order.

An example will make this clearer. In 1887 Germany was on the very verge
of War with France and Russia. At that moment her superior efficiency,
the consequence of this inborn sense of duty--surely one of the highest
qualities of humanity--was so great that it is more than probable that
less than six weeks would have sufficed to bring the French to their
knees. Indeed, after the first fortnight it would have been possible
to begin transferring troops from the Rhine to the Niemen; and the same
case may arise again. But if France and Russia had been allowed even
ten days' warning the German plan would have been completely defeated.
France alone might then have claimed all the efforts that Germany could
have put forth to defeat her.

Yet there are politicians in England so grossly ignorant of the German
reading of the Napoleonic lessons that they expect that Nation to
sacrifice the enormous advantage they have prepared by a whole century