Edward Settle 89; the -preter- led the country ib.seq.; ditions to Rocky change last pros Stock Ex of Canada the foot e's propo ct, 1868," esirability mpany by an immediate payment in cash, 97; our imperial lums in England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, INDIA,-Public Works in: want of roads, 119; ap- Irish Church Measure, 300; Lord Salisbury on the MAN, Early History of; see Early. Man's Chief End,--What is it? 100; Mr. Arnold on LANDOR, Walter Savage,-Forster's biography of, come ?" "whither do we tend ?" 118, 119. 60; his "History of Christianity," and Dr. New- REVOLUTIONS in the Queen's English; see English Robinson, Henry Crabb,- Diary and Correspon- Royal engineers, The: recent diffusion of the knowl- and engineers, ib.;-is it a just one? 4; I Russian Literature; see Turguenief. TURGUENIEF'S Novels: literature in Russia, THE NORTH BRITISH REVIEW. NO. XCIX. FOR MARCH, 1869. ART. I-1. The Royal Engineer. By SIR | FRANCIS B. HEAD. 8vo. London, 1869. 2. Professional Papers of the Royal Engineers. London. Ir the art of war has made no marked progress of late years among those of us who are soldiers by profession, it is certain that a considerable knowledge of military matters has recently been diffused through our community at large. Armies their organization and their evolutions-are subjects which, little more than a dozen years ago, were surrounded with a halo of mystery penetrable by none but men bearing arms. Few of those who held Her Majesty's commission ventured to express an opinion on such matters. The only literature in which they were noticed consisted of one or two periodicals whose circulation was limited to mess-rooms and military clubs. Sebastopol had fallen most of us had mastered this little formidable vocabulary by no more difficult process than the perusal of our morning papers. But this state of things has disappeared. Along with the troops who undertook the invasion of the Crimea, there were a few Englishmen in no way trained in the avocations of fighting, but who not the less managed to furnish our newspapers with descriptions of every phase of that expedition; and this they did in terms so accurate and so graphic as to lead their readers to the conclusion that, after all, military affairs might prove capable of being understood by any man of ordinary education and intelligence. And while this sort of knowledge was being spread over England, there arose on all sides an increased interest in things military, which, under the influence of the Volunteer movement, eventually took a permanent place in our feelings. Even the technical phraseology of warfare came by degrees to be appreciated by men who hitherto had shrunk from approaching what seemed to them an insurmountable obstacle to researches in this field. Its terms were soon discovered to be neither numerous nor hard of comprehension. Long before VOL. L. N-1 Our soldiers, their equipments and their manoeuvres, are now topics of daily talk, and are made subject to as free a criticism as any other matter which our journalists think fit to select for censure or approval. In each modern campaign reporters for the Press accompany the combatants. The Special Correspondent is now an essential member of each well-constituted journalistio staff, and is held in readiness to be despatched on a very short notice to any theatre of war which may offer an opportu nity for his pen. The importance of his duties has come to be recognized even by those who long looked upon him as a mischievous interloper in camps. officer meets with more attention than is now lavished on this news-writer by every prudent man of the force to which he is accredited. From the confidential documents of the chief of the staff to a seat at the mess-table of any regiment or battery that may be present-everything is pressed ardently on his acceptance. No general The influence he is capable of exerting on the highest dignitaries of the army is great, so great at times as to lead to inconvenience, and even to acts of doubtful justice. His widely-published dicta coming fresh from a field of battle are apt to produce on the minds of his readers an effect not to be effaced by the more accurate despatch in which the commander of an expedition may tardily proceed to point out the proper recipients for the rewards of victory. More than one Victoria Cross has been virtually awarded by a special correspondent, who contrived to describe in glowing terms acts of an individual which possibly remained unperceived by his regimental brethren. Nor has the power of the newspaper been less surely established over the military authorities in England. That curiouslynamed corporation of army officials, the Horse Guards, has at length thrown open its long-closed doors. one long record of devotion, bravery, and blunders on the part of our commanders, almost every step taken in it involving a violation of the recognised principles of warfare-an invasion undertaken without information being obtained as to the country to be entered; the results of a battle thrown away for want of a reconnoissance to verify the defenceless state of the north side of Sebastopol; an English army made to file for a couple of days across an enemy's position; and, last crowning crime of war, a siege carried on against a place which was left entirely free from investment, and consequently open to constant reinforcements. Yielding to the modern craving for pub- Nor did the Indian Mutiny furnish many licity, our army authorities have laid bare instances of brilliant generalship. Itself every source of information to the researches a creature of Our defective military of the reporter. "What says the Times?" organization, it brought to light a singular has come to be a question asked each morn- want of perception on the part of many offiing in Whitehall with as much solicitude as cers as to the means best adapted to meet a banker of twenty years ago used to display the end in view. The cumbrous columns, in demanding of the confidential clerk who their deliberate movements, and the general ushered him into his business-room, "How system of strategy which characterized Lord are the Funds ?" Clyde's operations in Oude, might be admiKnowledge begets inquiry. As English-rably suited for European warfare, but men have gone on increasing their acquaintance with their army, so have they ventured to investigate many matters connected with it which long appeared hard of comprehension. In other countries they saw warfare cultivated as a science. The success of Sadowa and its preceding combats was secured, as they learned, by a system of tactics and strategy conducted by one man, on a principle as certain, and as regularly organized, as that which a skilful chess-player brings to bear on each movement he makes on the board. Throughout continental Europe, as well as America, the men selected to command armies appeared thoroughly conversant with the theory and practice of war. It mattered not that the training had been obtained in any individual regiment or department. If the officer were capable he at once found opportunities of command. seemed somewhat misjudged applications of art when brought to bear on opponents so bad at fighting and so good at flying as the mutineers on all occasions showed themselves to be. Turning to England, our observers saw an entirely different policy pursued. Here they found prevalent the grand, simple idea of soldiering such as it existed in the flint period; a calm conviction of the incontestable superiority of the British army, which required no further aid from art than such as is imagined to be developed on a field of battle by the inspiration of that ignis fatuus of our country which goes by the name of common sense. Nor did the results of this rudimentary apparatus for wielding the warlike resources of the nation bear a critical examination. The Crimean campaign appeared to be Indeed, of the many officers who held important commands throughout that campaign, few but Lord Strathnairn and Lord Napier had the military discernment to recognise its circumstances to be of a nature in which strict tactics might well be set aside in favour of a bold course of action improvised for the occasion. Our wars in New Zealand disclosed equally unsatisfactory examples of military skill. There again our generals appear to have been unable to grasp a proper conception of the special character of the combats on which they had to enter. There, too, operations such as are intended for troops acting in an open country, against an enemy equipped after a European model, were unwisely carried out against bands of brave but undisciplined savages lurking in the bush. In short, without venturing to fatigue our readers by reminding them of the haphazard sort of tactics displayed by our generals in modern campaigns, we may safely say that results in each instance have not been such as to imbue Englishmen with a high esti mate of their military commanders. The first really successful expedition undertaken by a British army for many a day was that directed against Abyssinia. Of fighting, it is true, there was but little. But on that score we have little cause to It was the perfect organization and ad- The man who planned and conducted this expedition was clearly above the ordinary calibre of British generals. Who was he? what were his antecedents? were questions asked by many. tenure of this office that the release of the Abyssinian captives was resolved upon. Bombay was the point evidently best suited as a starting-point for this purpose. Again it happened that the command of this undertaking did not fall to be decided by the army authorities in Whitehall. And again it chanced that the choice of those charged with the selection fell on Napier. Seeing how singularly successful he had proved himself as a general, men now began to ask how it came about that the country was prevented from availing itself of the services of the corps to which he belonged. What was its history, what might be its shortcomings in the eyes of our army officials? Was it possible that some subtle insular idiosyncracy did in reality render the English artilleryman and engineer different from their fellows in other armies of the world? Napoleon was an artillery officer; General Lee, the commander of the army of the Confederate States of America, is an engineer; so is Marshal Niel, so is Vaillant, so was Cavaignac. To those who had already formed doubts po In India, too, it was clear that both corps had shown capabilities of command. Sir George Pollock, who retrieved the disasters of Afghanistan, is an artilleryman; and Lord Napier, as we have already seen, is a good general although an engineer. How came it that the higher capacities of these Ordnance officers should be incapable of development outside the tropics? The sition they held in the British army proper appeared to be this-that artillerymen do well enough to dash up and unlimber in face of an enemy's column, and so manage to break its formation as to enable the cavalry to be brought up to finish the work it had cost the lives of a good many gunners and drivers to begin. Engineers, too, were all very well in their way; very serviceable in riding ahead of the columns, and thus picking up intelligence at the expense of inconvenient warnings from an enemy's outpickets. Occasionally, too, they were useful in pointing out to a puzzled general the conformation of a battle-ground, and the disposition of troops it might require. And no doubt they came in opportunely when a man was wanted to lead a storming party through a breach, or show the way up the ladders at an escalade. Within limits of this kind artillerymen and engineers might be employed. But not beyond them. For the higher work of British warfare they were held to be unfitted. Any claim urged By reason, then, of this schismatic practice of the Eastern army, which may be designated the Great Ordnance Heresy, it chanced that Robert Napier, who had fought in the Punjaub campaigns, and who had been chief of the staff to Sir James Outram at Lucknow, came to command a brigade of the Central Indian Field Force in 1858; and as his work as a soldier was always well done, he afterwards commanded a division of the army employed in the last war with China, and there again with much success. In course of time a Commander-in-Chief was wanted for the army of Bombay. Sir Robert Napier was considered a man eminently qualified for the post, and as the choice did not rest with the Horse Guards he was appointed to it. It was during his on their behalf to exercise military commands was at once set at rest by the simple official procedure of reminding them that |