On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (8)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
r if nature.
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
r : —It , * men would learn to march quite as easily BVn % asr ^ TeU without " the touch" as with it . SI ^ should also be an interval of two paces between Th rcompanyr The captain would inarch at the eaC SdThe senior lieutenant at the left of the ceme nt an " coyered by a sergeant . In the centre of Sch company should ^ a corporal with a pike , to S £ h should be attached a very srnall flag with some Snctive mark as . rallying point , The sergeants A Junior officers would form a supernumerary rank the rear , superintend and keep every man to his rk A battalion manoeuvring by itself should ^ rform all its movements in two Kne $ t the second r or reserve , about thirty yards in rear Of the dvanced line ; and no distinction should be made hPtween front and rear rank , which would obviate the ahsurdity of countermarching . All attacks should he made in line , columns should be formed only for marching or in a narrow valley , defile , or street .
, Let us return for a moment to the threatof annihilation with which the exposition of our " go-ahead " system is frequently met . " From every musket four or five , from every artillery gun two or three shots can be firedMn a minute . " It may be so ; the more the merrier ; for I do most positively assert , that the faster the artillery and musketry fire the better it will be for their assailants . The artillery must be calm and collected to make good practice , and they must have time to cause any large execution . It is the inefficiency of modern infantry , it is the spiritless nature of modern tactics , that gives time for the carnage of modern campaigns . Quick fighting would take from artillery half its power to destroy , and all its power to decide a battle . .
But it maybe objected that human nature will nullity all p lans of combat founded on the advance of swordsmen through a storm of missiles from all the terrible appliances of modern war ; and that , even if not annihilated , the bravest would stagger , recoil , and fall into confusion . True it is , that in sp ite of all tactical theories , human nature will assert itself ; but in the present case , human nature and experience are decidedly in favour of our system . Modern tacticians have formed their theories as if men could be-made to act as machines , warranted to work by word of command , and have placed their reliance on the perfection of drill : and manoeuvre ; but in the battle-field the soldier ceases to be a machine , and every natural instinct and passion sways him .
Nothing can be so trying to the courage and nerve of the bravest men as a long stationary exposure to danger without any reasonable prospect of a termination , but with ample leisure and opportunity to mark , and to keep before their eyes the constant succession of mutilation , wounds , and death . Human patience , fortitude , and endurance of toil , have their limits . Soldiers positively lose courage by ceasing to advance , by every moment that they remain stationary , and by every cartridge that they expend in an exchange of fire .
But men gain a fierce and buoyant courage while advancing , and they have not time to observe and contemplate the casualties in their own ranks ; the fleeting glance that they obtain in passing of a comrade ' s fall increases their generous anger , and impresses them still more with the necessity of pressing on , and bringing the affair to a rapid termination , of which they have a distinct and intelligible prospect before them . They know what they want , they know that every step in advance diminishes the time that they will have to endure the fire , and that their turn will soon begin .
It is useless for any one to maintain that brave men will not face any fire , however terrific . Brave men will do anything if they have confidence in their weapons , and are only allowed to advance . British soldiers , with muskets and bayonets , and pouches full of cartridges , have advanced on many occasions in despite of the most terrific shower of missiles , and although : a collision with bayonets never actually occurred , and the advance invariably resolved itself sooner or later into a recommencement of the stationary exchange of missiles until the least resolute side thought it time to retire , still it has often
enough been proved that the most terrific fire * 8 insufficient , during the short space of time required to traverBe its range , to disorganize by its destructive power a determined force of assailants . Gunpowder uoea its work slowly ; accurate shots with small aims or artillery require great care and deliberation , and the rapid , crowded fire of a line , can never be accurate M all ; und tho greater the force of artillery , and the Heavier their calibre , the more difficult will it be to withdra w thorn from the field . When a close combat , m -iTv artillery is useless , is inevitable , the greater wm bd tho confusion and panic , the more signal and conspicuou s tho discomfiture , E . V .
Untitled Article
It is interesting to note the effect upon the various sections represented by Reviews , which any one strongly distinctive work creates . Take Carlyle ' s Life of Sterling as an example . The Quarterly and Edinburgh—the guardians of literary taste , and representatives of English Literature—elude the difficulty , and leave CarLyle untouched ; they
will not countenance , and are afraid to attack him . The younger Reviews . are bolder . The reason simply is , that they are the organs of parties having convictions , not of cliques . Nothing makes a writer so courageous as a conviction . In matters of dilettantism , of taste , of respectability , he may be afraid of committing himself —( that bugbear of the weak !) - —but convictions are resolute .
Carlyle ' s book , therefore , has been criticised by all the Reviews having convictions—often in anger at its heterodoxy—but mostly with reasonable admiration of its excellence . We were sorry to read the article in the British Quarterly , which is not only angry , but weak and ungenerous . How could the brawny , candid Robert Vaughan , have allowed such an article to appear with his
sanction ? - ^ -he , of all men the most gallant and daring in his candour ; he , whom one can fight with as Trojan fougbtwith Greek—to allow such an accusation as that Carlyle ' s book originated in " a very vulgar failing , the failing of vanity !" Will it be believed that Carlyxe is accused of the sin of this Life of Sterling ( an unpleasant thorn in the side of orthodoxy ) , because Archdeacon Hare ' s Memoir only mentions him twice ?
Very different - isjjhe North British . The writer has no more sympathy with Carlyle ' s opinions than the critic in the British Quarterly , but his tone is elevated , his rebukes are dignified , his admiration for Carlyle ' s genius frank and genuine . The whole subject mooted in his article is of great interest , viz ., the relation of Christianity to literature ; and we may recur to it on some more convenient occasion ; noting , meanwhile , that the true
cause of the dissidencies and discrepancies between Christianity and literature lies in the narrowness of the spiritual basis of the former . If it were coextensive with human nature , and not in antagonism to a great part of it , all our literature would be superfluous ; we should not then need Lay Priests to preach to us as supplementary , and sometimes antagonistic , to the Clerical Priests . This , however , is too wide a subject to be encompassed in a passing sentence . Let us call attention to the opening article of the North British Review—a paper on the hacknied subject of Milton , on which the writer contrives to say much that is valuable , and to produce a masterly essay . Nothing is easier to write than an essay on Milton ; it is like writing a sonnet to the Moon—all youngsters attempt it , but only a few masters succeed .
To recur for a moment to the Life of Sterling . The critic in the Prospective Review takes up new ground . After refuting the subterfuges by which some have tried to make out that Sterling died " a Christian , " the critic undertakes to defend Sterling ' s reputation as a Poet against his two biographers and friends who have treated him so roughly , not to say contemptuously , in the matter of his poetry .
Untitled Article
Fraser * s Magazinc-r-a \ w&ya the most attractive— - opens this month with an able and " telling " paper on " Disraeli as Leader and Legislator "—perhaps the most effeotive plaidoyer that has been written on this subject . Kingblky continues his Hypatia , and Mr . Cyrus Redding is trivial upon Turner . The article on " Modern History at Cambridge" is admirable ; and we were pleased to see the writer so boldly and successfully arguing against Sir Jambs Stbphbn ' b notion of " Providence in
History . " Here is a passage which might have appeared in our own controversy with Sir James : — " We s « y , then , that the doctrine of a particular providence cannot be made to harmonize with a system of political any more than With a system of physical science . Would Neptune have ever been disovered if Pirovidence' had been dragged in to account for the perturbations of Uranus ? V
Untitled Article
Louis Napoleon is terribly alive to the insecurity of his position , and , therefore , does he so persecute the press . He has , however , this week gone too far . The Bulletin Frangais- —a French periodical printed by the refugees at Brussels—has been seized by him in Belgium ; nay , he has laid violent hands upon fifteen hundred copies that were shipped for England ( i . e ., he has confiscated English property ) , and has so exasperated the Belgians that one of the newspapers declares it will print the Bulletin Francais in its own columns , and prints number five as a sample !
How can he or any man suppose a government will last when its existence is incompatible with the publication of simple facts ? Let our readers get the pamphlet by Louis Blanc , called L'Empire moins VEmpereur , and see the vivid picture of Napoleon ' s insecurity . Well does Louis Blanc exclaim , in his graphic style , " I pity the shopkeepers who fancy that commerce has everything to gain from these Saturnalia of Violence ; I pity
those manufacturers who do not see that the reign of industry finishes when the reign of the sabre begins . " After drawing a picture of the folly of attempting to revive the Empire , Louis Blanc thus perorates : — "It is despotism and no glory ; grand seigneurs covered with gold lace , _ and no soldiers covered with scars ; courtiers placed over our heads , and no world under our feet ; a great name , and no great man ; the Empire , and no Emperor !"
Untitled Article
THE CAPE AND THE KAFIRS . TheCapeand the Kafirs ; or , Notes of Five Fears'Residence in South Africa . By Alfred W . Cole . Beiitley . At all times this would be an acceptable volume , at the present time it is something more : its amusing pages will not only gratify the numerous readers of light literature , but its information will attract the attention of politicians and " serious" readers . Mr . Cole was shipwrecked , thrown on the Cape , and stayed there five years , rambling about in an erratic unsettled manner , with his eyes open , and no theory to nourish with " facts . " Young ,
adventurous , high-spirited and clever , the Cape to him was a pleasant experience of life . He has been five years away from the Cape , and now recurs to his journals and memory for such notes as may interest the English public . There is the smartness of the litterateur visible in these pages ; visible in excellences as in faults . The practised writer knows how to dispose his subject , what points to bring into salient relief , and what to pass over as ineffective ; and this , with the vivacity sparkling through the pages , make topics , in themselves of no great moment , very readable ; but there
is an art above that—the art of concealing art—and Mr . Cole , instead of concealing , displays his artifice . Sometimes this search after effect passes wholly beyond it , as in the account of the shipwreck , which , because it is not told with an air of conviction— -because we see the author trying to be effective—because , instead of fixing our thoughts upon the scene , he suffers them to recur to himself—is , on the whole , the tamest shipwreck narrative we ever read . There is another serious
disadvantage in this style of writing . It avoids the sin of ( Fulness , but it has a tendency to pass into fiction , and lose the solid reliability of a plain narrative ; no sooner does a man show that be is " dressing up passages for effect , " than wo readers , knowing the licentious laxity of vanity and its temptations , always feel an uncomfortable suspicion that the whole of the book may be " dressed up . " To a frank fiction we give ourselves without demur ; but when Truth wears the trappings of fiction , we invariable suspect her .
Mr . Cole can write so well , and describe with so much vivacity , that it is a pity he should have thought bo much of effect . A few pa /? eB of level prose would have made his volume really more agreeable . In future , we should recommend him not to dread dullness ; that is not the natural proclivity of his mind , and he has little danger to
Untitled Article
Ikaok ! Peaou !—You migh t as w ell pull down vn § ln P P ar&t » on for tho assizes , as destroy your Uoeta and arsenals in quest of international arbitration —Westminster Review , No . 111 . Old Customs . —Old customs are as the blossoms ami * iV * e o ( ° nation ' B We . and when they wither 26 V * death and change are at tho roots . —
R If Nature.
r if nature .
Untitled Article
Critics are notttie legislators , but the judges and police cf literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them—Edinburgh Review .
Untitled Article
Feb . 7 , 1852 . ] Z % * SU E **** 133
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 7, 1852, page 133, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1921/page/17/
-