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-natural military nonius . I 3 ut to induce the greatest possible number ot officers to devote themselves to their profession , we must rigidly adhere to the rule of advancing the best , the real soldiers ; wherever we can find them , confining those to regimental duty who are fit for nothing higher . _ Amonw the military books recently published here is this of Lieutenant-Colonel ¦ GJrahanr's . It is very elementary , and far better fitted to enlighten the youthful student and to aid him in his studies than to serve the higher purposes to which we have referred . It can never become a text-book ; but it would be useful to the young soldier and wight be read with profit by all regimental officers , and there are many who know nothing whatever of their profession beyond the walls of the barrack and the exerciseeground . It
would serve , also , to indicate to more ambitious men the sources of knowledge and suggest modes of study . The author shows an extensive acquaintance -with his- subject , but , unfortunately , the plan of his work does not enable him to bring out with the greatest force the changes that have taken place in tactics , in strategy , in the equipment of the soldier , the size of armies , the invention of new arms , and the changes in the earth consequent upon civilization . He has not given us a regular biography of war , which would have been an extremely interesting work , but a series of fragmentary notes upon great captains and their campaigns . Perhaps this defect arose i ' roin the desh-e of the author to crowd too much information into too small a space , to grasp the history of war in one volume . It would have been fur better to have written a series of careful
studies upon the operations of the six or eight great generals who have lived since the days of Hannibal . Colonel Graham has chosen a different course , aud his work suffers in consequence . But we repeat , for quite beginners , the book is not without its uses . It contains amass of facts , and . all it wants is order . A Chronology of Military Events placed at the end of the work will be found convenient for reference . There has been ,- and is , a sharp and chronic controversy upon the question whether troops formed in . column or in line are most effective . We are told by a . distinguished Prussian officer that "la superior ite du feu de l'infanterie anglaise n ' etait qti'une execution pratique mieux raisonnee . ;"
and that had its advantages been so obvious Is ey and Marmont would surely have borrowed them . But this is begging the question . The fire of our infantry in the Peninsula was so deadly in two lines , because the troops could stand and fire , and receive the shock of battle , in two lines , just as coolly as other nations could attack in column . The line two deep may be good for us and bad for other nations , unless imbued with the spirit of our system . The controversy of line versus column is really good for nothing , except to bring out the excellences of both modes of fighting ; and no good general would be guided by any absolute rule favouring the one or the other . The Duke drew up the Guards four deep at Waterloo . He was not a bigot in military matters . Colonel Graham says : —
It -was the opinion of the Duke himself , as related by Joniini , that the mode of attack of the French in columns , more or less deep , -was very dangerous against a firm line of infantry , armed witli good firelocks , feeling confidence in their ovrn fire , and well supported "by artillery and cavalry ; bat , in the course of the conversation in which this opinion was given , there is a striking proof that the Duke ' s mind was free from any prejudice on the subject . In reply to the question , whether he had not formed a portion of his infantry in column at "Waterloo ; his answer was , " that he liatl done so because they were composed of soldiers of whom he was not so sure as he was of his British , troops . " On being then asked whether that was not a proof that a line of columns appeared to him more solid than long lines deployed , his answer was : " Certainly they are good also ; but that depends always on localities and the spiiit of the troops . It is impossible , to act in the same manner under all circumstances . " The advantage of the formation in column or line is still a question for the judgment of the general to decide when the critical moment arrives , and in that state-it will probably remain until its consideration becomes influenced bv some new element .
A . new element has come in—the Enfield rifle—but it decidedly favours the line , and adds tenfold to the dangers of the column . What its effect will be upon tactics is a question that has not yet received a solution , and unhappily it can only receive a . practical one . "Whether the new rifle will make any serious change in tactics or not is as sharply contested a question as that raging about line and column . What part will cavalry playany part ? Can artillery be used at all , unless they are made to range as far and as accurately as the rille' ? To this we may answer that two 18-pounders , and not the Enfield riflemen , silenced the fire of the guns at Inkcrinan ; that tlic llussian guns were not silenced on tlic Tehemuya ; and that in Havelock ' s battles he did not silence guns with his riflemen , he took them
with the bayonet . Except in the first action , and to a great extent even in the first , it was the bayonet that won every battle . Jomini admits that the rifle will exercise a certain influence upon tactical details , but that in grand operations the old principles will again triumph . He does not think , it will keep armies from fighting as some suppose . But neither Jomini nor any one else doubts that the Enfield rifle is destined to work some change . Paixhans id of opinion that artillery will disappear before the new arm , and that it will change the system of war . Colonel Graham has not discussed u subject so well worthy the attention of all military men . it is certainly not overlooked by the " illustrious pers onage" whose questionings gave rise to the expression of Jomini ' s opinion .
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LETTERS ON INDIA . Letters on India . By Edward Sullivan . ' Siiunders uiiu Otloy . Tine best of men who write on Indian subjects do injustice to themselves by the triumphant facility of their stylo and the rhetorical disdain with which they sweep away difliculties and contradictions , burster , the masterly author of JSsseejfs on Decision of Churuclcr , set a very pernicious example by Ins method oi dealing with the stupendous mytlus of India . Of the Bralnnmieal system ho had only to any that it was a mass of ravin- " folly with twenty-six heavens , a bird named Goyrulass , a herd of " divine elephants , iron , silver , and golden cities , and a unit followed by sixty-throe cyphers representing a period in the life of Brahma . Now it is true that the sacred books of the Brahmins and ISuddhiata abound in grotesque concenfcions , but the hnglwh public never learned anything of India from these
fluent generalizations of satire . We do not characterize' Mr . Sullivan ' s volume as one deserving to rank only in a similar category ; hut it is a wordy , flippant , presurajHuous "book , in which the writer throws down his opinions as challenges , and appears more anxious to wrangle with the reader than to inform him . We : could have spared all Mr . Sullivan's controversy had he chosen to present us with a compact summary of his actual knowledge of India , free from expatiation on Lord Ellenb orou ^ h . or comparison between the Sepoy mutineers imd the general scouiidrclism of ancient and ' modern times . To be a traveller does not inevitably ' qualify a man to discuss the politics of every country he visits , and not to have been a traveller , if less an advantage than Mill believed it to be , implies at all events no absolute disability . We are somewhat tired of being told by gentlemen who have seen the elephant at home and sat hi palm shadows that we are
all ignorant , rash , and ' astray , Mr . Sullivan , however , has his own views on Indian matters , and the-apology for his arrogance is that he desires to enforce them with all practicable emphasis , to which end he gathers illustrations from - ancient and modern history , and discourses at large on military , political , social , administrative , judicial , financial , and religious topics , varying his letters by compiled passages , which , we must say , form the most valuable portion of the work . For example , Mr . Sullivan discusses the actual position of the British-horn population in India , numbering in 1857 not nioTe than fifty thousand persons , soldiers included , with " about seventeen hundred ladies and their relatives , and nearly seven thousand little brown babies , all of whom share the profits of the Indian service ; " but he adds a complaint to the effect that the English do not spend the money of India in the country itself . That , however , is one of the conditions inseparable from conquest , for if , as Mr . Sullivan admits , India can never be colonized from
Europe , it must be held by the representatives of a race returning periodically to enjoy at home the ' -vealth acquired in the East . The numbers and salaries of the Indian services are stated as eight hundred , averaging 1000 / . sterling a year , and five thousand eight hundred upon the military establishment ; , averaging 480 / . ; in fact , with the Bombay marine and the Church , " we have a sum considerably over four and a half millions divided among ? t the two services , which would give an average salary of 650 / . to nearly seven thousand people . " This does not include the pay and allowances of the Governor-General , the Governors of Presidencies , chief justices , judges , uncovenanted civil servants—many receiving iirom 10 O 0 / . to- ' 1500 / .-a year—the Commander-in-Chief , the members of his staff , or the fifteen hundred Queen's officers attached to Queen ' s regiments and receiving double pay . A good deal of this sort of information is to be found in the volume ^ , but as a contribution to the general debate we cannot attach much importance to Mr . Sullivan's Epistles Particular .
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. LATTER-DAY POETRY . A iiE . vr of volumes of verse on our table invites pur critical attention , i ^ only by its ominous bulk . Sorting- ' these i ^ r oductions into some sort' o ' arrangement , avc find that they divide themselves into a kind of nationalities ; and the first two that we take up come from Ireland . The ikUFounder , and Other Poems , and Underijlimpses , ami Other 1 ocjj / s , are the work of Mr . D . Florence Mao Carthy ,. Mill . J . A ., author of "'Dramas from the Spanish of Calderon , " &c . ; and are issued from the house of the late David Bogue . A strong Irish personality pervades them all ; you may hear the brogue in their modulation . Indeed , they are so Hibernian in feeling—so local in their colouring and their allusions—that probably none but an Irishman can thoroughly enjoy them . We cannot endorse the hHi
praise bestowed by the late Earl of Belfast , who thought the author fitted to play a part in "his country's destiny ; " but we have derived pleasure from some of Mr . j \ lac Carthy ' s songs . Like most of his countrymen , he has a lyrical faculty ; and , although some of his measures are rather obvious and conventional , others are very sweet , and all of them ¦ may be said to " sing themselves . " If the poet has the common Irish faults of . excessive languor and superabundance of imagery ( not always well chosen or new ) , Jie has also the Irish gifts of grace and sportive fancy , of tendernessof feeling and richness of language . He greatly needs compression ; but in that want he is not peculiar . Two stanzas from a poem culled "Summer Longings" will show Mr . ¦ Mac Carthy ' s capacity of weaving melody out of words : — Ah ! my heart is pained with throbbing , Throbbing- for tlif . May—Throbbing for the sua-siile billows , Or the water-wooing willows ; v AY he r « in laughing mid in sobbing ( Hide thu streams away : — Ah ! my hear ! , 1113- lioart is throbbing , Throbbing i ' or the May . "Waiting siul , dejected , weary , ' "Waiting fur tlic Mny — Spring goes by with w : ist . eil warnings , Moonlit uvoningH , sunbright morning *; Summer comes , yd , dark and dreary Life still ebbs away : — . Man i , i ever weary , vouvy , Waiting for tho Way 1 Another Irish gentleman is Mr . Nicholas « T . Gannon , who publishes TIki ( f JJuiiMfliue of flie Lakes , and Oilier J ' oetn . s . ( London : JLSoswortJi and Harrison . Dublin : M'Uluahun and Gill . ) Hero again the local or national feeling is strong ; but we have not observed iii Mr . ti-unncm the same claims to general attention as those possessed by Mr . Mae Carthy . lYom Irelimil to Wales . Mr . T . . 3 . do Powy . s , author of f > rir / , favours us with a small , but closely printed , piunnhlel , of . A * v « . v . ( John Chapman . ) Iho verses are ( illed with h myritical , religious . spirit , and touched with n fouling of melancholy . Tlmy are Hoiuetimes okseure , but exhibit power , emotion , and pieturesqucuesri , A volume entitled The Poems if Francis Miu / calim , edited by his Son ( Longman and Co . ) , proscuLs ua with u lamentable instance of the induoro
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450 THE IjEAD EE . [ No . 424 Ma . y _ 8 , J 1 S 58 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 8, 1858, page 450, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2241/page/18/
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