"I wished," he says, "to have some measure of the power of the
individual man compared with the weight he was to carry, and the work
he was expected to do. I was not so young as not to know that since I
had undertaken a profession, I had better endeavor to understand it."
And he adds, "It must always be kept in mind that the power of the
greatest armies depends upon what the individual soldier is capable of
doing and bearing." It is but another way of saying, "A chain is no
stronger than its weakest link," or, as we put it today, "It depends
upon the man behind the gun." Thus Wellington early discovered and put
into practise that indefinable something we call "morale."
As lieutenant colonel of the Thirty-Third Foot, he took up his work in
earnest, with the result that in a few months it was officially
declared to be the best drilled regiment in Ireland.
But the young commander was not content with this. He did not want to
remain at home as a mere "drill sergeant" when affairs were so active
abroad. Due partly to the outbreak of the French Revolution, all
Europe seethed with war. France was in revolt against the world, and
all the neighboring powers were pitted against her. England had
maintained a strict neutrality at first, but when Belgium was overrun,
felt compelled to intervene, just as in the similar great war of
aggression begun by Germany in our own time.
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