to take possession of the strong fortress of Náú at the extreme angle of the river where it bends from a westernly to a northernly course, and where the road also from Kokand and Khojend strikes off to Bokhara. This fortress, considered of great strategic importance, was surrendered without striking a blow, and the Russians then pursued their march upon Khojend, which they reached on the 17th of May. Khojend, after Kokand and Tashkend, is the most considerable place in Turkestan. It was found to be surrounded by a double, line of very high and thick walls, of which the circuit was about seven miles; but the garrison and artillery defences were not in any proportion to this extent; there were indeed but thirteen guns of small calibre mounted on the walls, and as the Bokharian garrison had been withdrawn after the Amir's defeat and had not yet been replaced by troops from Kokand, the townspeople prepared to man the defences as they best might. A week was consumed in reconnaissance and skirmishing, and in discussing proposals of capitulation, which however fell through, and at the expiration of that time, on May 21st, the Russians took the place by escalade. The resistance seems to have been considerable, for 2500 dead bodies are said to have been counted about the point where the assault took place, and the Russians confess on their own side to a loss of 133 in killed and wounded. What may be the effect of this very brilliant success in Central Asia generally we are not prepared to say, but it is rumoured that the Amir is now really humbled, and will be glad to submit to any conditions that may be imposed on him, as the price of preserving his independence.* There is no doubt much truth in the following remark, which we extract from the official report in the 'Invalide Russe : '-'Quant à la conquête de la Boukharie, separée de nos possessions par steppe, dépourvue d'eau de Kizil-kum, quelque facile qu'elle put être dans l'état actuel des affaires dans l'Asie Centrale, non seulement elle ne saurait être le but de nos opérations mais encore elle serait positivement inutile;' but the situation will be essentially altered, as far as communications are concerned, when Khiva has been already annexed, and when Russian la * The last intelligence received from the seat of war reports that the Russian officers had been released from confinement immediately after the capture of Khojend, and had returned to head-quarters unscathed. Peace is also said to have been concluded between Russia and Bokhara; the most important concession which has been wrung from the Uzbegs being a free right of navigating the Oxus, and of establishing posts upon the banks of the river. The reported occupation of Samarcand and evacuation of Tashkend are so entirely at variance with each other that they are probably both untrue. Russian garrisons will, we are satisfied, continue to be maintained both at Tashkend and at Khojend; but any further active measures are alone to be looked for at present upon the Oxus. colonies colonies and garrisons are scattered along the entire line of the Jaxartes. Then and not till then do we expect a serious attack upon Bokhara. In the mean time the capital city of Kokand will assuredly soon follow the fate of Khojend, being either peaceably surrendered by Bokhara as the price of her own immunity from attack, or being captured by another brilliant passage of arms, in retaliation for alleged encroachments on the recently acquired Russian territory of Khojend.* Our view of the Russo-Indian question, as presented to the public in the 'Quarterly Review' for October, 1865, is in no way altered by the occurrences of the last year. Although a war with Bokhara has occurred sooner than we expected, its consequences have not been of any great political moment. Many a long year must yet elapse before the Russian Empire by a gradual accretion of territory can become conterminous with British India; and in the mean time it should be our earnest endeavour so to set our house in order as to meet the crisis when it does come, without flinching or misgiving. We must expect before long to see a Russian embassy permanently established in Bokhara. We must expect to hear of Russian agents at Cabul, at Candahar, and at Herat. We must expect to find amongst our northern feudatories an augmented restlessness and impatience of control, the natural effect of the intrusion of a rival European power into the circle of our Indian relations. We must expect to find our commerce with Central Asia impeded by the restrictions and protective duties of our Russian competitors; but we certainly need not apprehend any actual, or immediate danger, from the military or political pressure of our rival. If we could, indeed, make the people of India feel that their interests were identical with our own, and that an invader from the north would be a scourge rather than a deliverance to the country, then we might safely hold out the hand to Russia and welcome her to the Indus; but under present circumstances, and pending the establishment of such a state of mutual confidence between the Government of India and its subjects, let us not sacrifice substantial interests to a mere sentimental feeling of philanthropy. Let Russia pursue her policy of aggrandisement-or, as her admirers term it, of civilization and commercial activity-in Central Asia. She will meet with *When the Amir of Bokhara occupied Kokand in the autumn of last year, he restored his father-in-law, Khodayar Khan, the champion of the Kirghiz faction, as opposed to the Kipchaks, to power; and it is understood to be a part of the recent arrangement between the Amir and the Russian Government, that this chief, who belongs to the royal family, and has on previous occasions occupied the 'musnud,' should continue to administer the capital and its adjoining territory, 'pending good behaviour,' and almost as a Russian feudatory. some some successes and some reverses. Let us have neither part nor parcel in her proceedings, but reserve an entire liberty of action in reference to our future conduct.* England has already gone through the first or aggressive phase in her Eastern policy. She is now strictly conservative, and intent on the improvement of what she already possesses; but we think we may say that she is also fully alive to the gravity of the Eastern question in all its bearings, and that she would not hesitate again to take up arms, if her rights or interests were seriously menaced, either in Turkey, or in Egypt, or in Central Asia. ART. VII.-1. A Treatise on Drill and Manœuvres of Cavalry, combined with Horse-Artillery. By Major-General Michael Smith, C.B., commanding the Poonah Division of the Bombay Army, late of the 15th Hussars and 3rd Dragoon Guards. London, 1865. 6 By 2. Modern Warfare, as influenced by Modern Artillery. Colonel MacDougall, author of The Theory of War' and 'The Campaigns of Hannibal.' London, 1864. 3. On Modern Armies. By Marshal Marmont, Duc de Raguse. Translated by Captain Tendy, F.G.I., F.L.S., &c., Director of the Practical Military College. London, 1865. 4. A Military _View of the recent Campaigns in Virginia and Maryland. By Captain C. E. Chesney, R.E., Professor of Military History, Sandhurst College. With Maps. London. 5. A Practical Course of Military Surveying, including the Principles of Topographical Drawing. By Captain Tendy, F.G.I., F.L.S., &c., Director of the Practical Military College at Sunbury. London, 1864. 6. The Operations of War Explained and Illustrated. By Edward Bruce Hamley, Colonel in the Army, Lieutenant-Colonel of * We cannot close this article without raising our protest against the alarmist writers of the Indian press, and the sustained virulence with which they have attacked the non-intervention policy of Sir John Lawrence. This tone is not only unfair to the strong-minded statesman who now administers our Indian empire, and whose foreign policy, the result of much deliberation and of a wide experience, has been hitherto eminently successful, but it is also injudicious in itself, since it stimulates agitation in the Native press, and thus helps to unsettle the Native mind, and moreover encourages Russia to advance, by magnifying the danger of that advance to India, and overstating the indifference to it of the British Government. We entirely approve of Sir John Lawrence's observance of a strict neutrality in the late Cabul revolution; and we are moreover satisfied that if, under altered circumstances, and in the possible event of the Eastern question being reopened in Europe, it should be found necessary to adopt more active measures in Asia, our present Governor-General will be found to be fully equal to the emergency. Artillery, Artillery, Knight of the Legion of Honour and of the Medjidie, formerly Professor of Military History, Strategy, and Tactics at the Staff College, Member of the Council of Military Education. Edinburgh and London, 1866. WE WE are not among the number of those who profess to believe that by studying the theory of his profession every subaltern officer may render himself fit, if he be so disposed, to command an army in the field and conduct a campaign to a successful issue. To command an army in the field and conduct a campaign to a successful issue, something more than average ability, even if it be improved by study, is required. A true genius for war, like a true genius for painting, is one of Nature's rarest and richest gifts. It comes to few, as is shown by the comparatively narrow space which the list of really great commanders fills on the page of history. But it does not therefore follow that gentlemen who adopt arms as a profession are justified in assuming that, so far as their intellectual faculties are concerned, they may lead a life of absolute idleness, yet fulfil the conditions of their calling. The greatest general that ever lived could have done nothing with his army, however numerous and effective, unless he had been aided in its management by subordinates who knew what they were about; and men who know what they are about in subordinate situations are those and only those who, by some process or another, have studied the art to the practice of which they are called. For war is a great art, as well in detail as in the concrete. It is just as much the subject of fixed laws as any other art, and cannot be mastered, either wholly or partially, except by such as give themselves the trouble to ascertain what these laws require. The recruit who submits to the rudiments of his drill is, indeed, learning something, though he know it not, of the rules of applied mechanics; and the corporal who trains him teaches these rules, himself being ignorant of the fact; but it is not exactly so as we look higher. The manoeuvring of a company, of a battalion, of a brigade, of a division, the movements of a great army and its disposition in order of battle,—all the operations connected with these things depend just as much upon mathematical calculation as the building of a Great Eastern 'and her management in a gale of wind. The art of war, like every other art, has thus its principles, which can neither be violated nor ignored, under any circumstances, with impunity; and its laws, which because they are based upon principle may, when an emergency arises, be set at nought, just as in other arts genius from time to time overrides all rule, and thereby better establishes the principles on which the rules are founded. It has long been thrown in our teeth by foreign writers on military subjects that, as a people, we are either ignorant of these truths or indifferent to their importance. An army of lions commanded by asses' was the not very flattering description given, both by friends and foes, of the British army which took part in the Crimean campaign. And M. Brialmont himself, the least prejudiced, perhaps, of all our critics, passes judgment upon us with equal severity, only in terms more urbane and assigning a reason for it. A cette époque,' he remarks, speaking of the Duke's first entrance into the army, 'on avait l'habitude d'engager au service les jeunes gens dont l'ésprit était lent ou tarde, parce qu'on s'imaginait que le carrière des armes exigeait moins d'activité intellectuelle que la magistrature, la politique, le bureau, les finances, l'administration, et l'église.' Now, to a certain extent, we admit that M. Brialmont is right, and the admission naturally leads to an acknowledgment that our friends in Paris and St. Petersburg, in speaking of the Crimean War as they did, told a disagreeable truth in the most disagreeable way possible. But neither M. Brialmont nor other Continental writers quite do us justice. We never profess― for four hundred years and more we have not professed-to be in their sense of the term a military nation. We were the last people in Europe to tolerate the existence among us of standing armies. These came in with Oliver Cromwell so late as the close of the great Civil War, and the part which they played in the general administration of affairs was scarcely such as to make our forefathers fall in love with the institution. But when a whole people set their faces against an institution which they regard as dangerous to civil liberty, it would be ridiculous to expect from them any special zeal in fostering the qualities which contribute to make it effective. At the same time our critics should not altogether forget that though trusting more to our navy than our army for defence against aggression, and absolutely and entirely recovered from the ambition of foreign conquest, we have seldom taken part in a Continental war without giving both friends and foes sound reason to remember us. We played no mean part in Europe when Queen Anne filled the throne, as the best of Louis XIV.'s commanders could testify. The battle of Fontenoy was no discreditable affair, at all events, to the English troops engaged in it; and if we lost America through the blundering of one set of generals, we gained a great Indian empire by the valour and ability of others. Nor is this all. Experience has shown that, in whatever military virtues besides we may be deficient, our bitterest detractors cannot with truth accuse us of being cowed |