1814. The matériel remains the same, or has in some respects, particularly in the howitzers, been improved; but what energy, what devotion, can, under the present system, animate this inert matter? The only attempt which could fairly promise any beneficial result would be to hark-back upon old times, a measure directly the reverse of that which would be resorted to in seeking improvement in any other art or métier. But this resort must fail, for though the officers (the springs and sinews to animate the matter) remain, they are, alas, for the most part, withered and grown old, or such an excess of superannuation is visible, as must paralyze the renascent efforts of the few. On this subject, see a work published some years since, entitled "Remarks on the promotion of the officers of artillery, and on the application of that arm in the field." MENTOR would advise, as a panacea for the deep-seated and long standing disease of the artillery, which has existed independent of the aggravating causes arising from the change in its organization, the purchase of commissions and the removal of superannuated officers. A long, intimate, and attentive observation of the machinery of the corps would lead to the belief that the most threatening symptoms would be palliated, and the difficulties soon removed, if the artillery were withdrawn from the control of the Ordnance Office, and placed under the direction of the Horse-guards. No rivalry would then exist, the jealousies which operate so materially to the prejudice of the artillery would vanish. The Commander-in-Chief, for his own sake, as well as for the interest of the country and the reputation of the army, would adopt measures which are within his grasp, that the efficiency of an arm so important may be preserved. The corps of engineers, being so constantly employed on works connecting them with the Ordnance, might continue subject to that Board; but it is difficult to imagine a reason why the artillery should be denied that wholesome control and that fostering care which the Commander-in-Chief of the army can alone afford; that they employ vast quantities of stores, the particular charge of the Board of Ordnance, can be no sufficient reason; the responsibility of the artillery officer would be the same, although placed under the Commander-in-Chief. An army, to be efficient, must consist of the three arms, each in a corresponding state of discipline, and in proportionate numbers; identity of management and unity of interests should pervade; it is inseparable from perfection. The ever-to-be-lamented Duke of York, and the highly gifted Duke of Wellington, acting in the spirit which can alone render the artillery efficient, afforded great facilities for the removal of officers of artillery to other branches of the service, and if the offers which were made to the artillery officers on the augmentation of the army in 1825 were not more generally accepted, it can only be attributed to the comparative backwardness of their rank, which would have deeply told on joining other regiments, and to the novelty of the proposal. Of the many advantages which the country would derive from the union of the artillery to the administration at the Horse-guards, relief from the expense of two Military Colleges, when one would more effectually attain the object for which they are designed, may be named. Cadets selected for the artillery service, after completing their studies at Sandhurst, may be sent, previous to receiving their commissions, to Woolwich, to be instructed under the superintendence of an officer in the practical and peculiar parts of their intended profession; they might go through what is commonly termed a repository and laboratory course; in the one, the use of all engines employed by the artillery, the application of mechanical powers to the necessities and difficulties of artillery, and the construction of batteries and bridges, are professed to be taught; in the other, the mode of preparing and making up the several fire works and ammunition used in the service. Cadets leaving the Military College for the engineers, may complete their education at Chatham, and on the military survey of Great Britain. The course of instruction at Sandhurst is well designed, but perhaps practical mechanics, chemistry, mineralogy and geology, may with advantage be introduced as another step from which a cadet may select the number entitling him to a commission, and this may be made essential, as well as the second, or perhaps still higher step in mathematics, to the acquirement of commissions in the artillery and engineers. As to the practical use of guns and mortars, so little time is necessary to devote to this exercise, when a cadet is once drilled as a soldier, that all the cadets at the College may be beneficially required to attend to it, and for this purpose an officer of artillery should be attached to the establishment; a non-commissioned officer can scarcely be expected to blend the necessary science with practical instruction, when it is considered that the exercise of artillery may for the most part be referred to the laws of mechanics; and its practice at a target to some of the most refined and elaborate researches of the best mathematicians of the day. Again, recurring to the existing state of the artillery as affecting the question of the general efficiency of the army, it must be admitted that the horse artillery is the only part which can be deemed efficient. This corps, too, is not what it was; the disease, which is endemic in the artillery, has here made great ravages; it may, however, still bring into the field EIGHTEEN guns!!! The field artillery is actually incapable of turning out a single battery at all on a footing with those of olden times: the organization is defective, the system inefficient, and neither does or can work satisfactorily. As to expansion, according to the present efficiency of the artillery, it certainly possesses that property; for as the fiat of a superior, and expediency arising from an extravagant economy, is made to supersede the necessity of good riding, driving, and grooming in a driver, or target practice in a gunner, it may also render unnecessary the condition and training of horses, and the happy ensemble which has hitherto been deemed essential to perfection in a machine composed of so many complicated parts as a battery of artillery; but can such an artillery, by the rapidity of its movements and the ubiquity of its fire, make up for the want of a numerous cavalry? Could it support and give confidence to the newly raised regiments of militia, and of other less regular forces, if suddenly called to the field. This duty hitherto has not happily been the lot of the British artillery, but the 300,000 infantry, the 65,000 cavalry, and the 1200 field guns of the French, with their recent establishment for steam-vessels on the Loire, certainly would indicate the necessity of preparation without the taunt of M. Mauguin in the Chamber of Deputies, adverted to in the recent Number of the Journal. On steam-boats and their armament it was intended to offer some observations, but the length to which the preceding remarks have extended, at present forbids our entering on the subject; we may recur to it hereafter. Σ. ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE BRITISH ARTILLERY. NO. II. IN my last Essay on the Organization of the British Artillery, I proposed that each company should become an independent corps, containing within itself all that is necessary to its discipline and efficiency. I consider this to be the organization which results naturally from its service, which is the simplest, the cheapest, and the most applicable to all its varieties of duty. There are some principles which, as it appears to me, should always be strictly attended to in the formation of all military bodies. First, each regiment, or integral part of an army, must be under the uniform command of one man, interested in its good appearance, efficiency, and success, who must be responsible for his charge, and removable when not found equal to his duty. Secondly, its size should not be too great to admit of his personal inspection and superintendence, under all the circumstances of its ordinary situation, so as that he may be thoroughly acquainted with every officer, and generally with the men. Thirdly, promotion should be confined, as much as the interests of the service will permit, within each regiment, so that those who share equally in the perils of any duty, should also share equally in the advantages resulting therefrom. Fourthly, this promotion should be at such a rate as to prevent men arriving at commands requiring much energy and exertion, only when they are in mind and body too much debilitated for either. In conformity with the first principle, I make each company of artillery an independent corps, with its captain as its commanding officer. The second principle seems equally to require the same system of organization. The third principle can scarcely be uniformly acted upon but under this system. The fourth principle seems to require one of two methods of pensioning off superannuated officers: either that of making them a permanent charge on the pension-list of the country, or of furnishing them with the means of retirement from the private purses of those who succeed them. This last method could only be introduced gradually, as no officer, having entered the service on the principle of promotion by seniority, could be reasonably called upon to purchase in order to prevent a junior passing over his head. In the first instance, and until the corps be filled by officers who have entered on the principle of purchase, the money of those who buy commissions must be thrown into a common purse, to aid in pensioning off those whose retirement should be required by the service. In a subject so speculative as that of the proposed new organization of the artillery, an attempt to trace some of its probable consequences may be allowable. In the first place, the greatest possible emulation, and the highest state of military appearance and discipline, may be expected to result from it. Each company, distinguished by its number in large characters on the ornaments of its chako and appointments, would become known for its excellence in some or many respects; or, otherwise, as the case might be. The actions also in which it had figured might be commemorated, and their names be borne upon the appointments of the officers. A high character, once obtained by a company, would, as in the case of the crack regiments of infantry, be not easily lost, and care would be taken to maintain that character by the selection of officers to command it. Its instruction also, as well as its appearance and discipline, would be advanced by the anxiety excited in companies to rival each other in the estimation of those officers entrusted with the various branches of instruction. In the second place, every defect would be more obvious, its cause more immediately discerned, and more easy of cure. In the third, an equipment for active service would become much more simple and ready. The artillery part of each company being always in a state of the highest completeness and perfection, it would only remain to the practical and peculiar parts of their intended profession; they might go through what is commonly termed a repository and laboratory course; in the one, the use of all engines employed by the artillery, the application of mechanical powers to the necessities and difficulties of artillery, and the construction of batteries and bridges, are professed to be taught; in the other, the mode of preparing and making up the several fire works and ammunition used in the service. Cadets leaving the Military College for the engineers, may complete their education at Chatham, and on the military survey of Great Britain. The course of instruction at Sandhurst is well designed, but perhaps practical mechanics, chemistry, mineralogy and geology, may with advantage be introduced as another step from which a cadet may select the number entitling him to a commission, and this may be made essential, as well as the second, or perhaps still higher step in mathematics, to the acquirement of commissions in the artillery and engineers. As to the practical use of guns and mortars, so little time is necessary to devote to this exercise, when a cadet is once drilled as a soldier, that all the cadets at the College may be beneficially required to attend to it, and for this purpose an officer of artillery should be attached to the establishment; a non-commissioned officer can scarcely be expected to blend the necessary science with practical instruction, when it is considered that the exercise of artillery may for the most part be referred to the laws of mechanics; and its practice at a target to some of the most refined and elaborate researches of the best mathematicians of the day. Again, recurring to the existing state of the artillery as affecting the question of the general efficiency of the army, it must be admitted that the horse artillery is the only part which can be deemed efficient. This corps, too, is not what it was; the disease, which is endemic in the artillery, has here made great ravages; it may, however, still bring into the field EIGHTEEN guns!!! The field artillery is actually incapable of turning out a single battery at all on a footing with those of olden times: the organization is defective, the system inefficient, and neither does or can work satisfactorily. As to expansion, according to the present efficiency of the artillery, it certainly possesses that property; for as the fiat of a superior, and expediency arising from an extravagant economy, is made to supersede the necessity of good riding, driving, and grooming in a driver, or target practice in a gunner, it may also render unnecessary the condition and training of horses, and the happy ensemble which has hitherto been deemed essential to perfection in a machine composed of so many complicated parts as a battery of artillery; but can such an artillery, by the rapidity of its movements and the ubiquity of its fire, make up for the want of a numerous cavalry? Could it support and give confidence to the newly raised regiments of militia, and of other less regular forces, if suddenly called to the field. This duty hitherto has not happily been the lot of the British artillery, but the 300,000 infantry, the 65,000 cavalry, a the 1200 field guns of the French, with their recent establishme steam-vessels on the Loire, certainly would indicate the preparation without the taunt of M. Mauguin in Deputies, adverted to in the recent Number of +1 On steam-boats and their armament it wa observations, but the length to which the pr ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE BRITISH ARTILLERY. NO. II. IN my last Essay on the Organization of the British Artillery, I proposed that each company should become an independent corps, containing within itself all that is necessary to its discipline and efficiency. I consider this to be the organization which results naturally from its service, which is the simplest, the cheapest, and the most applicable to all its varieties of duty. There are some principles which, as it appears to me, should always be strictly attended to in the formation of all military bodies. First, each regiment, or integral part of an army, must be under the uniform command of one man, interested in its good appearance, efficiency, and success, who must be responsible for his charge, and removable when not found equal to his duty. Secondly, its size should not be too great to admit of his personal inspection and superintendence, under all the circumstances of its ordinary situation, so as that he may be thoroughly acquainted with every officer, and generally with the men. Thirdly, promotion should be confined, as much as the interests of the service will permit, within each regiment, so that those who share equally in the perils of any duty, should also share equally in the advantages resulting therefrom. Fourthly, this promotion should be at such a rate as to prevent men arriving at commands requiring much energy and exertion, only when they are in mind and body too much debilitated for either. In conformity with the first principle, I make each company of artillery an independent corps, with its captain as its commanding officer. The second principle seems equally to require the same system of organization. The third principle can scarcely be uniformly acted upon but under this system. The fourth principle seems to require one of two methods of pensioning off superannuated officers: either that of making them a permanent charge on the pension-list of the country, or of furnishing them with the means of retirement from the private purses of those who succeed them. This last method could only be introduced gradually, as no officer, having entered the service on the principle of promotion by seniority, could be reasonably called upon to purchase in order to prevent a junior passing over his head. In the first instance, and until the corps be filled by officers who have entered on the principle of purchase, the money of those who buy commissions must be thrown into a common purse, to aid in pensioning off those whose retirement should be required by the service. In a subject so speculative as that of the proposed new organization of the artillery, an attempt to trace some of its probable consequences may be allowable. In the first place, the greatest possible emulation, and the highest state of military appearance and discipline, may be expected to result from it. Each company, distinguished by its number in large characters on the ornaments of its chako and appointments, would become known for its excellence in some or many respects; or, otherwise, as the case might be. The actions also in which it had figured might be commemorated, and their names be borne upon the appointments of the officers. A high character, once obtained by a infant in the case of the crack regiments of d be taken to maintain that characd it. Its instruction also, as well advanced by the anxiety excited timation of those officers entrusted pre obvious, its cause more would become much more company being always in a a, it would only remain to |
