cit._ chap.

viii.] Whatever may have been the cause of this decision it ruined the Turkish campaign.

Adherence to the defensive spells defeat now, as it has always done.

Defeat comes more slowly now that quick-firing rifles quadruple the power of the defence; but all the same it must come if the assailant has enough men to throw on that point and then at other points.

Or, to use technical terms, while modern inventions alter tactics, that is, the dispositions of troops on the field of battle--a fact which the Russians seemed to ignore at Plevna--they do not change the fundamental principles of strategy.