day, week after week, and month after month, sir, I feel it a fundamental hardship, and a drawling monotonous sort of duty at bottom; and I always feel desirous to yield my seat, for more active duty, to any gentleman who has a taste for depositions, questions, answers, and defence. Lieutenant Scott observes I am not lawyer enough even to know the technical terms, which I suppose are equally as essential as the black gown and wig to the serjeant at law. However, to make the matter short, I will give an extract of a letter I lately received from a brother officer, who has been obliged to pitch his tent as a member of a General Court-Martial, which has been sitting since December last. "Should you be again induced to enter into the labyrinths of military law for information, come here; your labour will be at an end; here we have a foreigner, a Frenchman, a man who never has resided in places where the English language is generally spoken; but who, by the aid of a good ear and tolerable memory, has scraped together as much English as enables him to persuade people he knows much more. This gentleman acts as Assistant-DeputyJudge-Advocate in our General Courts-Martial: you will ask, how is he gifted, to render him competent to fill such a situation? As I have before observed, he speaks garbled English, writes Frenchified English, and his natural vanity makes him much over-rate his comprehension of our language; it ends in his committing innumerable blunders, which would be infinitely diverting on any other occasion this, my honest fellow, needs no comment." Lieutenant Scott is correct in pointing out the general order for officers to obtain a competent knowledge of military law; but I am to ask from what publication, by authority, is he to obtain that competent knowledge-and if such a book was pointed out, in what manner is a subaltern officer to carry that book with him? In respect to the observation relative to finding a prisoner guilty in part, I presume Lieutenant Scott has not given that subject his mature consideration. I conceive, that after finding a prisoner guilty of a crime, it rests with the court to award punishment according to the extent of guilt. Is a man guilty or not of an assault, who rebukes another and does not seriously hurt him? As I did not originally throw down the gauntlet, but simply sought for information, I trust Lieutenant Scott will do me the honor to excuse my now taking leave of the subject; I quietly withdraw myself, feeling, at the same time, every possible respect for his abilities, and grateful for the honor of his information. A BRITISH Officer. Sir, ADJUTANTS OF MILITIA. IT appears very extraordinary that an Adjutant of Militia, to whom it has been thought proper to give the brevet rank of Captain after five years' service as an officer, should not be allowed to take rank from the date of that brevet commission; but be considered as junior to all the Captains of Companies, of whatever standing in the regiment; and also to every Captain who may be appointed at any future period. It may, perhaps, be advanced that an unqualified officer cannot, with propriety, be placed in command over gentlemen of property, who voluntarily come forward to serve their country. This reasoning I allow would have been just and reasonable, as long as gentlemen of property came forward to take the command of companies of the militia; gentlemen properly qualified according to the regulations in conformity to the original spirit of the militia forces: but as it is a well-known and established fact, that not one half of the Captains of Companies now serving in the British militia, possess the requisite qualifications; and I presume, without greater abilities, knowledge of their profession, or length of service than the Adjutants, what just claims can officers so circumstanced have to command them? An Adjutant must be a man well versed in every branch of the military profession; exemplary in his conduct as an officer and a gentleman; attentive, persevering, and zealous in the performance of the various and many duties entrusted to him; and an officer in whom the greatest possible confidence can be placed by the Commander of the Corps.-The Adjutant is, in reality, looked to for the discipline and good appearance of his regiment. He must have served a length of time in order to acquire the knowledge, &c. which are requisite for his situation. Under the above circumstances, what just cause can exist for preventing this officer from taking rank from the date of his brevet commission, and for placing him under the command of men, junior to him in length of service, inferior to him in the knowledge of the military profession, and no better entitled to rank in point of property? The pay of a Captain being at least 4s. per day, (including contingencies, &c. &c.) better than that of an adjutant; it would, of éourse, induce every Adjutant of militia to relinquish his situation for a company, were it not for the advantage of his Staff-pay being continued to him in the event of the militia being disembodied : for exclusive of the difference of emolument, the trouble attached to the Adjutant's situation, and the constant attendance at quarters, may be added the expense of providing himself with a horse and horse appointments, the wear and tear of these appointments, and his chance of losses in horse-flesh: none of which the Captains have to provide. Surgeons of militia corps take rank as Captains from the date of their appointments as Surgeons, without reference to pecuniary qualifications: why is not the same privilege extended to Adjutants? I have, on a former occasion, mentioned the hardships under which the Adjutants labour in finding a clerk at their own expense; and I might have added to the list of Paymaster, Surgeon, and QuarterMaster, for whom clerks are found by the public, that every Captain of a Company has also his Pay-Serjeant, who receives 2s. 6d. per week. MILES VETERANUS. OFFICERS WHO HAVE BECOME MUTILATED IN THE SERVICE OF SPAIN. Sir, Colchester, May 4, 1813. IN addition to what I observed in my last letter respecting rewards being afforded to officers who have been distinguished and mutilated in the cause of Spain, I would suggest to the Regency of that country the revival of an Order of Knighthood instituted in 1332, by Alphonso, the Twelfth King of Castille, the Military Order of the Scarf, which they might put into two classes, first and second, and confer that honourable mark of distinction according to merit, not interest, for if it is in any degree biassed by the latter, it will sink into that insignificance which other Orders have done. A. M. CHARACTER OF THE FRENCH TROOPS. BY CAPT. T. H. COOPER. THE French soldiers are quick, and attack with incredible rapidity; they retreat with the same rapidity, return to the charge with no less impetuosity, and as quickly retire again.-They retain during their retreat the greatest composure, and are not disheartened when they lose ground. The death of their officers produces no confusion among them. When the Commanding Officer falls, the next to him assumes the command, and so on in succession. The inferior officers are almost all qualified to command. The French soldier is accustomed to live in a requisitionary country, sometimes as a prince, and sometimes as a sans culotte. To make him perform his duty well, uniformity in living is not required. A strong esprit de corps* prevails among the French troops. In the beginning of the Revolution their bond of union was Republican fanaticism, and at the conclusion of it, la grande nation. Their infantry of the line cannot be compared with the Russians; their cavalry is very inferior to the Hungarians; and their artillery, once the best in Europe, is far from being equal to the Austrians: but their light infantry, or their tirailleurs, and their new tactics, confound all the principles of war which have prevailed since the time of Frederick the Great. Austria has scarcely any light infantry. Russia has about 20,000. In the French armies, nearly one-third of the infantry are tirailleurs. These take their post before the troops of the line, separate into different bodies, unite again and attack, and after being ten times repulsed, will attack again. In a broken, intersected country, these tirailleurs prepare the way to the French for that victory which the infantry of the line complete. The incredible quickness of the French renders this corps the best of its kind in Europe. All the principles of the new French tactics are calculated for an intersected, broken country, as the old tactics were for large plains. The object of the former is to waste the enemy by incessant skirmishes, when he has the folly to repulse the light-heeled Frenchmen with his whole force. These small flying bodies suffer themselves to be driven back the whole day, and towards evening a fresh body appears and decides the contest. A battle with the French may begin at sun-rise, but it will not be terminated before the evening. The French may be beat the whole day, but at night they will be victors. Every General who does not spare his strength till the evening, must, in the end, be defeated by the French. In consequence of the quickness and composure of the French soldiers, they do not readily think of capitulating; and they are able, in a peculiar manner, to extricate themselves from great dangers. We have seen instances where a thousand French soldiers have contended the whole day with a This French term is now generally used among all military men in Europe. It can hardly be translated into English, but it may not improperly be defined, a laudable spirit of ambition, which produces a peculiar attachment to any particular corps, company, or service. much stronger body, and disappeared at night like a vapour. This is done in the following manner: the corps, when hard pressed, divides itself into two or three bodies, and while one occupies the enemy in an advantageous position, the other remains quiet at some distance. As soon as the first is driven back, they all run with incredible yelocity, and in tolerable good order, to the place where the other is at rest. The second knows pretty exactly how long the first was able to make a stand, and rushes with the same impetuosity on the enemy, who find themselves suddenly checked by fresh troops, who must also be repulsed. In the meantime the first body take some rest, and thus they continue to act the whole day, with considerable loss of men, indeed, but when night puts an end to the battle, the corps, at any rate, has not been beaten, and next morning to follow it is useless. Moreau was pursued for some days in Switzerland by the Russians; but they were never able to come up with him in his flight. Towards evening he had taken a strong position, and next morning he had disappeared. But this activity must not be confounded with durable strength. The French are the lightest, not the strongest soldiers. The medical establishment of the French army is excellent, and their officers, in general, exceedingly good. MILITARY ESSAYS. THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. BY A FIELD-OFFICER. A COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF should be allowed to form his own Staff: as he is responsible for all the operations of the army, it seems but reasonable that he should be permitted to select those officers who are to assist him, otherwise he is liable to have his conduct arraigned for the fault or incapacity of others. As his success must in a great measure depend upon the choice he makes, it may be supposed that he would select those who have merit, in preference to those who are recommended by interest. The General who is appointed to the command of an army should be as perfectly versed in the speculative theory as in the practical part of the art of war, which can alone enable him to discover the most eligible means for the execution of the plan proposed. To great natural and acquired talents should be united soundness of judgment, and a strength of mind that nothing can affect; a quick, yet cool, imagination, fertile in resources, and capable of perceiving every thing at a glance; with a disposition equally dignified, firm, and gentle. Though he establishes the most perfect subordination throughout the army, yet he neither allows it to be exacted with tyranny |