England’s best generals mostly have been old men, or men well advance in life, the chief exceptions being found among her kings and princes.[D] The Englishmen who have exhibited the greatest genius for war, in what may be called their country’s modern history, are Oliver Cromwell, Marlborough, and Wellington.  Cromwell was in his forty-fourth year when he received the baptism of fire at Edgehill, as a captain; and he was in his fifty-third year when he fought, as lord-general, his last battle, at Worcester, which closed a campaign, as well as an active military career, that had been conducted with great energy.  It was as a military man that he subsequently ruled the British islands, and to the day of his death there was no abatement in ability.  Marlborough had a good military education, served under Turenne when he was but twenty-two, and attracted his commander’s admiration; but he never had an independent command until he was forty, when he led an expedition to Ireland, and captured Cork and Kinsale.  He was fifty-two when he assumed command of the armies of the Grand Alliance against Louis XIV., and in his fifty-fifth year when he won the Battle of Blenheim.  At fifty-six he gained the victory of Ramillies, and at fifty-eight that of Oudenarde.  His last great battle, Malplaquet, was fought when he was in his sixtieth year; and after that the French never durst meet him in the field.  He never knew what defeat meant, from experience, and was the most successful even of those commanders who have never failed.  He left his command at sixty-two, with no one to dispute his title of the first of living soldiers; and with him victory left the Alliance.  Subsequently he was employed by George I., and to his measures the defeat of the rebels of 1715 was due, he having predicted that they would be overthrown precisely where they were overthrown.  The story that he survived his mental powers is without foundation, and he continued to perform his official duties to the last, the King having refused to accept his proffered resignation.  Wellington had a thorough military training, received his first commission at eighteen, and was a lieutenant-colonel in his twenty-fifth year.  After showing that he was a good soldier in 1794-5, against the French, he went to India, where he distinguished himself in subordinate campaigns, and was made a major-general in 1802.  Assaye, the first battle in which he commanded, was won when he was in his thirty-fifth year.  He had just entered on his fortieth year when he took command of that force with which he first defeated the French in Portugal.  He was in his forty-seventh year when he fought at Waterloo.  If he cannot be classed with old generals, neither can he be placed in the list of youthful soldiers; and so little confidence had he in his military talents, that at twenty-six he petitioned to be transferred to the civil service.  His powers were developed by events and time.  Some of his Peninsular lieutenants